Hearing Their Cries

Chapter 6

          Liam's POV

        I sat alone in my office, pondering whether or not I should follow her. I knew it was dangerous for her to be going to her cell alone, but there were usually guards around and I knew she needed her space. The last question I asked had pushed her too far, had made her think I only wanted to know the interesting things about her, but none of that was true. The one thing that I had kept from Cassidy since I had met her was my feelings for her. I had known Cassidy since we were litttle kids, but she didn't know me. We went to elementary school, and then middle school, and even highschool together. But I am three years older than Cassidy, and I have a four year degree in psychology. I technically hold a job as a psych tech, but the hospital is short staffed and gives me more power than my degree does. I had graduated at 18 with a two year degree from a college program, so it only took two more years before I had a degree and a job here. Cassidy was fifteen when I graduated, and finishing her freshman year. Pathetic, I had a crush on a freshman as a senior. But I always had. From the minute that I saw her when I was ten and she was only seven, I got butterflies around her. She never knew that I even existed in school though.

        Cassidy and I were in two completely different social groups. She was in the group of drama nerds and band geeks while I was on the varsity football team and ran track in the breaks between football seasons. I would watch her sometimes, on the stage as a background role, once as the lead, and I would admire how brave she was. Anyone can out on a helmet and smash into other players on a field, or run around a track faster than other people, but acting takes talent. There are so many people that would be mortified to get on the stage in front of so many people and perform, but Cassidy always seemed so fearless. Her voice never waivered as she recited shakespeare or pronounced her undying love for another character on stage. Her small frame stood firm as she played a witch in a play about the salem witch trials. She had played Audrey in the school's production of Little Shop of Horrors, and her voice shone above all the rest. I remembered her as the one girl that was so unbelievably brave, yet I would never work up the courage to talk to her.

        When I started working at the institution, I was twenty and she was seventeen when she was admitted. It hasn't even been a whole year since either of us set foot in this building, but once again, we lived in two different worlds. I was sorting through files, looking for something my boss had sent me to find, when I saw her name. I saw the name of the girl that I had once thought to be invincible. I shouldn't have done it, but I went through it. I found she had only been here for a week at the time, and she was in the section I was being transfered to. I was honestly terrified. I would have to see her in a more weakened state, rather than on a stage like I had admired her so many times before, and it scared me.

I remember the first night that I talked to her. It was the first night in the section and I was on night duty. I basically had to make sure noone tried to escape or have a mental breakdown. I was sitting across from cell 215 and she was in cell 220. I was simply reading and trying to keep myself awake. I was almost hoping that she would wake up, so I could talk to her sooner rather than later. Within a few minutes of waiting, I got my wish. Her screams echoed through the hall, startling me and waking other patients. As I ran to the cell that the yells were coming from, I saw her, afraid and shaking under her covers. She had pushed herself into the corner and brought her knees up to her chest. Tears stained her cheeks as they fell from her eyes. It was almost too much for me. I wanted to help her so badly and I knew that she wasn't the girl that I knew when I graduated. She had changed beyond belief and I worried that she would be afraid of me like I had once been of her.

That was the night I told her. She explained her dream and told me about the cries. She told me she could hear people that needed help and she begged me to believe her. I did. I told her all about me, and that I could hear all of the things she did too. I realized that I had a connection to this girl, and I had for so long, but I had never know that I did. I never knew that she went through all of it too, the screaming and the pain of others echoing through your mind was enough to drive a person mad. But I knew all too well that putting them in a place like Clear Waters. I had sen what this place had done to people. I had seen the most normal and sane people, placed here by a loved one not wanting to deal with them any longer, driven mad and permanantly ruined from the things that happen here.

        There is alot that heppens at the institute that people don't know about. Sure, there are alot of things that have since been updated, but some of the things that happen here would make you think this was an institution from the 50's. The employees have to keep quiet or we'll lose our jobs, and most of the patients are never released from here anyway. If they are, they have to be transfered to a different hospital for more intensive care, and they're too insane for anybody to believe them anyway. I've tried so hard to find a different place to work, to get out of here, but there is nowhere that will hire a twenty year old with almost no experience. For the time being, I'm stuck at clear waters. Now that Cassidy is here, I would never leave anyways. I have to protect her from the horrors of this place.

        Alot of people think that this is one of the most modernized hospitals in the country, which it is in most aspects, but the basement looks like something out of a mental hospital in a horror film. The warden has told the media the basement is unoccupied until there is need for expansion. But it is far from that. In the basement is where the patients are punished for lashing out or trying to escape or attacking the guards. It's filled with whips and chains hanging on the walls, still coated in dry blood from the last lashing on someone. Then there's the S.C chambers. S.C meaning solitary confinement. Little rooms line one wall, barely big enough to fit a person and pitch black. There's no toilet, only a hole in the ground and a tiny slot for the guards to slip food trays into, if they're lucky enough to get fed. The worst form of punishment a patient could get would be electric shock. Yes, that still exists, and no, it is not legal to use as punishment. It can go wrong, horribly wrong, and it has. But there is no way to stop it from happening.

        So now you see why I have to be with Cassidy. If she goes mad, she could lash out and they coud hurt her. I couldn't live with myself if that happened. I had to protect her as much as I could. clear Waters could destroy a person, and Cassidy was too perfect for me to watch her mind turn dark like I had with so many others. Even though I wanted so badly to follow her when she left my office, I couldn't hurt her more than I already had. I couldn't push her too far like I had with Jessica. I couldn't lose another person that I loved.

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        Gaaaaaaah! I tried, but I know this chapter kinda sucks... I've had school and I was camping this weekend and I have homework from taking all advanced classes and such, so it's been pretty hectic. I wanted to give a little more background with Liam, but not too much so I did this. I'll try to update more but I can't make any promises.

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