Back to Reality: Niall's Cancer Battle sequel

Chapter Twenty: Daylight

Chapter Twenty: Daylight

After an entire week of being stuck in the cells throughout every day, wasting precious daylight by never being allowed to see it, something weird happens in the morning and there's an announcement given during breakfast. The patients are all told to pay attention towards the front of the room, even though there isn't a designated "front," and three people in charge step onto a bench to address us all. Bentley blocks my view with his giant body and I have to scoot over a little to see clearly. 

One of the men is recognizable to me. His pictures are hung through every hallway and he has the same devilish smirk on his face in each frame. Bejamin Gulligan. He runs the entire Bright Hill Mental Institute and doesn't take jokes lightly. On the third day I was here, a couple kids decided block the security cameras with random items and Gulligan caught them, revoking their common room privileges for an entire month. 

"Settle down everyone," Gulligan clears his throat, his voice low in the cafeteria. He has one of those voices that travel without a microphone, never giving someone a reason to not understand him. Even though the room was already at a hushed tone, the room quiets down even further. 

"What do you think this is about?" Bentley cranes his head back and mutters to me. 

"Dunno," I answer back. I haven't been here nearly long enough to understand the mechanics of everything going on. I've only seen the same four walls every single day. 

Gulligan is flocked by two other people. One of them is a woman who screams high class. Her glasses hang from a chain around her neck and rest between boobs that must be held up with an expensive bra. Her pursed purple lips give her the look of always tasting something sour. I wonder if she knows she looks like this or if she chooses to make the face all the time. The other is a security guard that is dressed differently than the other guards around the building. I have a feeling that he is Gulligan's personal bodyguard. I mean you can't be too safe when you're constantly around a bunch of psychotic teenagers. 

"When I took over Bright Hill, I had one goal in mind and that goal was to get all of you out of here as quick as possible. I want to help you get through your darkest times and I want you to always know that you can come to me for anything that you could need, even if you aren't checked into this place. However," Gulligan pauses as the crowd groans. We all knew there was something further than a bunch of compliments. "However, there has always got to be consequences. If you could get away with everything you ever do, you'd never learn a lesson." 

"What is this guy's point?" Bentley mutters without looking back at me for an answer. We both know there isn't one that I could provide.

Gulligan claps his hands together once before spreading his arms out at his sides. "As you all know, your privileges had all been taken away due to severe acts of rebellion." This brings out hushed uproar within the room as kids talk about the things they all must have done in this rebellion. 

"God, that was a good one," Bentley chuckles and I watch his giant shoulders shake. "You were there, right Schiz? When we had that giant food fight and a couple kids start attacking the staff with utensils." 

"Yeah I was there," I say. I had been there, but I didn't participate in any of the rebelling. I wasn't about to get in trouble the first day I had been checked in. Besides, I had no idea what was going on anyways.

"Settle down, settle down," Gulligan tries to say over the crowd but the hushed conversation has escalated to a bit of a scene as kids scream and laugh about their stories. I sit and watch around me, staring at everyone who's apparently taken part in the whole rebellion. 

Everyone except Scar. Again. 

She's sitting at the same table she always sits at, her back to Gulligan and his two acquaintances at his sides. There's nothing in front of her and yet she stares down at the table, her red hair partially blocking her face.