Overdose

9. Yvonne Mcreary

Being in The Facility was torture. The white walls and being constantly watched reminded me of my time in a mental hospital. The only difference was that the people in the psych ward actually cared about me getting better. I didn't choose to be put in either the pysch ward or The Facility, but I definitely felt different in the ward. The Facility seemed to be a knock-off, almost like it wanted to be a psych ward but was missing a few key attributes. A fake safe place.

A few weeks after I had come to the Facility, I had been sitting with Damion and Lilith in the rec room. Lilith was talking about how she was talking to her friend, Nathaniel, when Damion cut her off. "What the hell?"

He seemed to be looking behind me, and then I guess Lilith saw it too because her eyes widened. "What's wrong?" I asked.

I turned around to see The Executioner walking towards us, but something about him was different. And then I noticed it. He was wearing black. Not white like the rest of us, but black. Black like what the doctors wore, black like what Xander wore. And the look on his face was so emotionless. He didn't look angry or anything. It was just a blank stare.

He came over and sat next to me. Damion glared at him, and Lilith didn't make eye contact. I cleared my throat.

"What's with the outfit?" Not the best conversation starter, I'll admit, but it was the only thing on my mind. Evan sighed.

"I got it from Xander yesterday. I talked to someone I hadn't seen in a long time the other day and I realized that I can't let the staff push me around anymore." His voice was monotone.

"So you became part of the staff? That sounds like a rational idea." Damion rolled his eyes.

"If you can't beat them, join 'em." Lilith said under her breath.

"I don't understand why you would make a decision like this." I said.

"Why do you guys care so much? I'm the exact same person I was a few days ago. I'm just wearing black now." Hearing this out of context, you'd have thought The Executioner had become emo.

"You weren't a good person a few days ago either." Damion scoffed.

"Come on, let's not let this ruin us." I spoke up. "We're friends in here. We're all each other has."

"He is not my friend. You know, I was really starting to think that you're not as bad as everyone says you are, but this just changes everything." Damion stood up. "Now, you're really as bad as the staff. At least you were ashamed before. And you, you haven't even been here long. So your opinion doesn't even matter. You think just because you haven't seen him do anything means that he's a good person? You know nothing." He walked away. Lilith shuffled her feet.

"Sorry, but I need to go." She got up. She stepped forward and turned back around, looking at The Executioner and I. "You know, Xander's son didn't allow his father to control him." She walked away from us.

It was just The Executioner and I sitting there. The silence was uncomfortable. Neither of us wanted to talk.

It was moments like these in the Facility that made me question Evan. How could someone who claimed to hate the staff just fall in line and join them? And how long would it be before he completely just goes off the deep end and becomes as sadistic and uncaring as the rest of the staff? How long would it be before we had another Xander on our hands?

"What you said, about friends...why are friends so important to you?"

"You know, before I came here, I had these two amazing friends."

"What were their names?"

"Kieran Templeton and Tristan Romano. They were amazing. Always by my side, even when it seemed like the entire world was against me." I smiled, thinking about them. How I missed them...and how guilty I felt. I left them. I left my mom. And they all thought I was dead, and there was no way I was going to be able to tell them that I wasn't.