Obscurity

Chapter 69: One in Twelve

Alma

I come to when the nurses sit me on the bed.

"Now what?" I ask. It's unbelievable that I was just taken from my unit to this new one without explanation and now I'm being left in this room without any explanation again.

"You'll stay here until Chris sends for you." The taller of the muscle-bound buffoons says as they go to exit the room.

"When he sends for me?"

No response. They leave the room and lock the door behind them.

I sit on the bed and assess my surroundings. I surmise this unit is most likely identical to the one I was brought from. My original unit. I wonder why there are two wings to this floor. Why do they need to separate patients and run two wings simultaneously? Wouldn't it be more efficient to run one floor without closing off the wings and needing two staff?

There are no noises or sounds of living beings in or nearby this room. It's kind of unnerving. In my normal unit, there's always some sort of noise or sounds coming from the hall. There are sounds of living. Of people. Here, there's nothing. The only sound I note is the sound of the overhead light quietly humming.

It isn't long before I decide to just lay down and try to sleep away some of the time I'm going to be here. I rest my head on my pillow and close my eyes.

A click comes from the door. As it swings open I hear Chris's voice directing his nurses. The buffoons descend on me and yank me from the bed.

"She's going to twelve." Chris barks an order from behind us as they practically carry out of my room.

"Wait. What are you doing?" I ask frantically.

I'm quickly rushed to the room twelve. Chris doesn't respond. I try and pull out of the grasp of the two nurses, and it's no use. I'm being taken wherever they want to take me. I'm at their mercy.

Chris shuffles ahead of us and opens a door. The sign outside the door reads: Authorized Personnel Only. The sign hangs beside the number twelve. This must be room twelve.

He enters and flicks on a light. There's a table with restraints, and that's exactly where they direct me and make me sit.

All of the machines surrounding the table scare me. I don't know what they are, and I begin to shake.

"Straps, please?" Chris says to the nurses, and they oblige.

They make me lay back and begin restraining my arms and feet.

"Chris, stop this please!" I shout. Fear and panic betraying my tone.

"That's precisely what I'm doing." He says as he dismisses the nurses who just restrained me expertly.

After they leave the room, it's just Chris and me.

"What do you mean?" I sob.

He looks as though he's pleased with the nurses handiwork. He assesses my restraints and even reaches over and tightens the one on my right ankle.

"Your insubordination is disturbing, Alma." He rattles on.

I shake my head. Insubordination is hardly a reason to tie someone to a hospital table. I can't rationalize the situation. There's no excuse for this type of behavior. This type of punishment. This is what this is, punishment.

"I'm sorry. Please? Just let me go back to my unit. I won't say anything else against you or get in your way anymore. I swear it." I plead as tears roll down my cheeks past my ears into my wildly strewn hair.