NUMB

Day Forty-Seven (pt. 3) - Elyse

I wake up in an unfamiliar room. There are no clocks or windows, just blank walls and a door on the wall across from where I am lying. The walls and floor are both the same dull shade of grey, the bed is a darker shade of the same color. My clothes have been replaced with a clean uniform and my wounds have been treated. One of my hands is wrapped in bandages. My feet are bare.

When I try to sit up, my head pulses, washing a wave of dizziness over me. A lump forms in my throat and I swallow it down. Despite the sick feeling that hits me, I force myself into a sitting position. That is as far as I get. Cuffs with leather padding are strapped around my wrists and are secured to the bed by a solid chain. I test my reach and find I can only stretch my arms out as far as my knees before the chain is pulled tight.

They must have brought us to the sixth floor.

I scan the room again. It is smaller than my bedroom, the bed nearly touches the walls on either end of it, and the ceiling is low. If I stood, it is safe to assume that I would be able to reach up and touch it. Not a room then, a cell. I am being held in a cell on the sixth floor.

Flashes of memory burst behind my eyes.

My fight with Krysta.

The fire inside of me that would not be put out.

Jet.

Jet! I hurt him. My chest tightens at the thought of my teeth sinking into his skin. For a moment, I can taste the blood on my tongue. My shoulders hunch and I fold my body, bringing my knees up to my chest.

I wonder what happened with him, if he was able to complete his side of the plan. If I am here, I can only assume that Krysta is in a room similar to mine. Where Jet is though, is anyone's guess.

The wall is cool when I press my head against it. The cuffs on my wrists suddenly feel heavy, weigh my arms down. I sit like this for a while, until there is a sound outside of the room. Something heavy slides with a metallic clang and is followed by a click that echoes in the small room. Then the door to the cell swings open.

Two Wardens step into the room, followed by a scrawny man with pale skin, even paler hair, and scars covering his hands. He is dressed in a suit and a white lab coat. He covers the short distance from the door to the bed. With all of us in here, the room seems even smaller. The man pulls a key from his pants pocket and reaches for the cuffs on my wrist. He slides the key into a thin space in one of the cuffs and they beep, release the latch keeping them shut.

Once the cuffs are removed from my wrists, the Wardens step forward. The scrawny man steps back. I cooperate, but the Wardens still handle me roughly. One grips my bicep so tightly it is sure to leave a bruise. They bring me out of the room, the cell, and into the hallway. The hallway is narrow, the three of us can walk side by side but it is a tight fit. The scrawny man walks in front of us.

"Where are you taking me?" I ask.

Nobody says a word.

"Is Krysta, the other girl, being held here as well? Is she hurt?"

Again, nobody answers me.

It is clear that I will not be able to get any answers from these three, so I keep my questions to myself for now. The hallway widens after we go through a door that has no handles and must be opened by a keycard, which the scrawny man swipes across a box positioned on the wall. My sneakers squeak on the tile underneath my feet. Everything in the hallway is bright and white with blue accents. The lights make my eye twinge, my vision go fuzzy for a moment.

There are a lot of Wardens up here, like Jet had said there would be. People I have never seen before go about their business behind walls of glass. They wear civilian clothes underneath blue lab coats. Most of them are older, but I spot a few who look to be around Jet's age.

We stop in front of another door. This one has handles, but requires someone's eyes to be scanned for entry. The scrawny man leans down and holds very still as a red light flashes across his face. A light above the door turns green and the door opens with a click.

I am taken into another hallway.

There are doors lining this one, spaced evenly apart and staggered on opposite walls. These doors are white, blending with the walls, and have small square windows that have mesh wires crisscrossed between the panes. I try to peek inside one of the windows as we walk past a door, but the Wardens jostle me into looking forward again.

The scrawny man stops in front of a door and reads off of a piece of paper I hadn't noticed in his hand. "Elyse, Level Three, assigned to Room 48B." His voice is pinched, but deeper than his appearance lets on. "Put her in. She is allowed two meals a day and is to be escorted to and from the facilities every three hours."

"Acknowledged," one of the Wardens says.

The scrawny man opens the door to my new room and the Wardens shove me through the doorway. I stumble into the room as the door is shut behind me.

This room is much like the one I was just in, only bigger. There are still no windows and the only furnishings are a bed which is bolted to the floor and a clock that is really just an image of numbers projected on the walls—much like the ones in the bedrooms. A blinking red light pulls my attention to the corner of the ceiling. There is a small, round camera positioned there, it's mechanical eye shifting and fixating on me.

It follows me as I move around the room, the blinking red light never faltering.