Mr. Skull

Installment 5: Bars

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"What are you doing here?" Pearl breathed, her voice so low that she wondered if the skeleton could hear her.  It's body slowly began to piece itself together by itself, it's limbs snapping into place like magnets placed side by side. It but its hands behind its back to mimic Pearl's manacled hands.

"Mama!" his rambunctious cry startled Pearl and staggered her backwards towards the door, her elbow clipping one of the buttons on a protrusion, opening the window. Nick glared at her through his rear view mirror.  Pearl could only dip her head and mumble an apology. Nick only hissed, and rolled the window back up.

The rest of the ride was painfully slow, as Pearl tried her best to ignore the skeleton that kept calling out for her. She rested her cheek on the glass and stared out into the distance, watching the trees and lights come and go, flashing by in obscured blurs. She let her consciousness come and go, her mind wandering to the buzz of traffic and an exceedingly annoying voice that rang through her skull.
"Mama..."

After ten to fifteen minutes, the vehicle jolted over a speed bump and snapped Pearl out of her thoughts. The car came to a gradual stop near the entrance of a modern building which was well lit by several pot lights that were installed beneath the ledges of each protrusion on the building. On the very centre of the glass double doors hung a simplistic sign that wrote "Brampton Police Station" in deep navy blue Arial font. 

Nick removed his laptop that was fastened to the top of a contraption that held his laptop up while he was driving. Turning off the ignition, he got out of the car and rounded it from the front to open the door for Pearl. She stumbled out of the car, her balance hampered by the inability to steady herself by extending her hands. She felt Nick's hands on her back, guiding her towards the door. Pearl hesitated and looked back into the car to see the skeleton in the same spot where she last gazed upon him, but his body contorted in an oddly fashion.

What is it even trying to do?  she thought to herself while pressing onward into the building. 

A blast of heat hit Pearls face once she entered the doors, pressure building up in her nasal cavity from the change in temperature. She was directed towards the back of the building, passing by two processing areas where people where getting their fingerprints registered and mug shots. Although being confined in a police station was not the most ideal situation, Pearl was glad that she was only being held in detention rather than going to Prison. 

She was lead into a room that was slightly cooler. There were around three cages in the area, each occupied by other people who were also receiving the same punishment as Pearl. Some of them had scars, cuts and bruises over their body- perhaps from a brawl- while some looked oddly normal.

Thankfully, she was assigned to a confinement that had an abundance of normal looking people, more so than the intimidating ones.  She found a seat beside an overweight woman who was snacking on an oddly shaped piece of food. Easing herself into the seat, she closed her eyes and leaned her head onto the white of the brick walls that lined the room. Not long, did the bothersome voice began raging in her head. However, instead of speaking, the voice just hummed.

"Stop it." Pearl whispered to herself. She couldn't see the skeleton, but was sure that what she was hearing was his voice.

The humming ceased for a heartbeat, before resuming, almost as if to mock her.
"Stop it." she said more loudly this time, the woman beside her hesitating on her second bite, and looked side-eyed at Pearl- pity in her eyes.

The humming did not stop this time, but began to crescendo. 
"Stop it!" she screamed, covering her ears with her hands as tears poured out of her eyes. 

"Sometime people misinterpret me as someone else- it's aggravating.  Hopefully you understand that I am here because you called me here. Don't be upset."  

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