Chosen

Tiger

Later that day, I'm brought a platter of food and force fed it by Jasper. It's not like I don't want a hot guy shoving food into my mouth, i't just that the food here was DISGUSTING. I guess that they tried to hide the sedatives in my food by mixing it in, but It had a very grainy texture.

An hour later I'm awoken from my peaceful dreaming and find myself facing my parents. There are guards on either side of them, men wearing brown coats with wolves tatooed onto their neck. They're armed with machine guns, and are looking at me with hate in their eyes.

I avert my gaze back to my parents. My mom has tears streaming down her face and my dad is talking to the guards.

"You have one minute." One man says. His voice is deep and gravely. But his face is handsome, kind even if he hadn't been holding a machine gun trained on me. My mom runs to my side. She looks me up and down, and her gaze stops at my wrists, where my restraints have rubbed it raw.

"Oh sweetness." She says, eyes brimming with tears again. "I don't know what's gonna happen to you, but I'm so sorry." She starts to sob. I've never seen her get this upset. Usually she's the calm and collective one. "I'm so sorry." She keeps repeating that.

"Ma'am? I'm sorry, but I need you to leave now." The handsome guard says, gently grabbing my mom's shoulder. She looks up, panic stricken.

"No. I'm not leaving my baby." She says, her voice shaking. Her eyes hold determination, but fear.

He grabs a little tighter." Ma'am. If it was up to me, I'd let you have more time with her." He glances at me. "But I'm not the commander here. i don't give the orders."

"That's right, Brett, you don't, but I do." Every eye follows the voice. My face hardens with dislike as I face Sapphire, standing there in a crisp jacket. He eyes skimming everyone until they land on Brett and my mom. She smiles.

"You must by Scarlet's parents." She walks over and holds out her hand. "I'm Sapphire. Co founder of this program. My mom looks at her hand and shakes it.

"I'm Meredith." She says. "And this is Carl." She points at my dad. They shake hands and then it's like I'm not even here, chained to a vertical table. I'm invisible... again.

Sapphire looks at me. She smiles, but her face only shows hale and evil. Man, I am really starting to hate this woman. "So I understand you came to find out what our intended plans for Scarlet's... therapy is going to be." Apparently I'm the only one that heard the nonexistent air quotes that she said therapy with.

"BS." I say and Sapphire's face hardens, her smile faltering. "I think you meant to say torture." I expect my mother to turn on Sapphire, and apparently Sapphire expects it to. But to everyone's surprise she just laughs.

"Now Now dear. there's no need to be rash. I know you're missing home and all, but this really is a nice facility. And the people here are wonderful. Really."

I stare back at my mother, to shocked at first to say anything but then I regain my composure, look my mom in the face and say, "Well that was a change of heart, Meredith" My mom gasps.

"Scarlet?! I don't know what's come over you, but it's got to stop, and I think that this place will help you with what you're going through." She stands, fixing her makeup.

I start to shriek. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH YOU SON OF A B..." I stop because I feel a prick in my thigh. A sudden warmth fogs my brain but I make out. "itch"

I can see the smile on Brett's face as I drift off into the "wonderful" world of unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well, that went well." I say as I see Scarlet passed out in her chair. Sapphire turns to Carl and I.

"Well, shall we?" She asks, motioning us to the door. "I think you and Scarlet are really going to enjoy our facility here. We call it the Tiger Facility. It's reserved for the patients that need more therapy than others. We thought this would be the best place to put her." She says guiding us past the rooms where other patients were playing cards or bored games.

I smile at Carl. We really did make the right decision to call Scarlet. But he doesn't return the smile. Instead, he just runs his hand over his stubbly chin, as if deep in thought.

We come up to an elevator and Sapphire stops. "This leads to where the parents of our patients live if they wish. Would you like to see?" I nod and am excited. We could live here!! With the pool, gourmet restaurants and we'd be able to check on Scaret's therapy whenever we want!!

Sapphire opens the door and inserts a key into a key-hole. "now, if you choose to live here, you'd get a key. That key will take you to your room and your room alone." She waves hers in the air. "Let me look and see which rooms are available. She brings out a devise and types something into it. Then her face breaks into a smile. "You're in luck. The Bengal suite just opened up. I'll take you there now."

The Bengal suite was nice. It was like a penthouse at the Huntley Hotel. I step into the room and I take off my shoes. I didn't want to get the carpet dirty. I take a small tour of the room, looking into the master bedroom and master bath. I step out of the hallway and notice an old looking door at the end of the hall. It looks to out of place in the modern, fancy penthouse.

"What's in this room?" I ask Sapphire. She comes up to me and unlocks the door. I step inside.

"This is the room for the parent's child once therapy is over. If you're a permanent customer and resident, then we want our patients close to us so we can monitor their recovery." She says leading me into the room. It's empty except for bed. A door leads into a nice bathroom and walk - in closet. It's nice. I would want it if I were Scarlet.

"Thank you for the tour." I say as we head back to the front door where Carl is standing, browsing through his phone. "Carl, dear, come on lets go."

He gives me an annoyed glance and steps into the elevator. I feel like I've been slapped. What's up with him? I think as I step in after him.

"Now, because of your circumstance, with Scarlet as the patient who will need the most therapy, I offer you this room for free to stay as long as you want." I'm overcome with happiness, and i almost respond with a definite yes, but seeing Carl's expression, I decide to answer differently.

"Um. Thanks for the offer, and we'll defiantly look into it. Right Carl?" I look at him, challenging him to say no.

"Yeah sure, whatever." Is all he says, and then his attention is back on his phone. She wishes us well and I cast a glance back at the Tiger facility, and I find Scarlet's room. The curtains are closed and I can't see in. And with that, we leave the facility and head back home.