Overdose

14. The Executioner

Xander had stayed true to his word, and he hadn't made me punish anyone ever since I agreed to keep an eye on Yvonne. She had been busy making sure she wouldn't explode, and I didn't see her much. I knew she was still planning on escaping, but I didn't tend to stick around when they were talking about the plans. I didn't want them to think I was just going to be running around unlocking doors for them. If I got caught, I was going to get a much harsher consequence.

With Yvonne being busy working on escaping, I had more time to myself. Xander had been pretty quiet, staying in his office. It should have been a red flag for me, but not seeing him made me a little more fine than I already was. Not having to feel emotions constantly was a plus for me. I thought my life was going to change significantly, but it didn't. I didn't constantly have to pretend to be happy or sad or angry. I was just there. There wasn't much to be emotional about in the Facility anyway.

My visits to the roof were frequent until I was stopped on my way there. Heath, one of the boys who had been in The Facility longer than I had, stood in front of the door.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I heard people see you going through this door, and I needed to talk to you." He urged. "Do you have a moment?"

I sure as hell wasn't bringing him to the roof, so I decided to skip my roof time and walk with him to the rec room.

"What was so important that you had to infringe on my personal time?" I sat on one of the couches in the far corner. Heath hesitantly sat across from me.

"I wanted to talk to you about Yvonne." He leaned back cautiously.

"I don't know her."

"I'm being serious." Heath crossed his arms, trying to look intimidating. It wasn't working. "I want to know what Xander did to her."

"I'm not allowed to discuss patients with anyone."

"God, you really do sound like staff." Heath muttered. "If he did something to her to make her like us-"

"Us? I assume I'm not part of that."

"You're right. You're not like my group. We came here for a reason other than being Xander's bitch."

"Did you seriously just call me that?"

"I didn't say you specifically but if the staff outfit fits..." He let his voice trail off.

"Fine. You want to know what Xander did to Yvonne?" I asked.

"Yes."

"He injected her with a serum made from DNA of something called a Prodigial?" Heath's eyes widened. "Do you know something about that?"

"This is bad. I knew he was up to something when he put Isaac in the containment unit."

"Wait, do you know something more about those things in containment?"

"I must speak to Lazarus." Heath stood up quickly.

"Who the hell is Lazarus?" I asked, but he ignored me.

"This is bad. This is very bad."

"I feel like you're hearing my questions but you're not answering them." I stood up as well.

"Thank you for help." He turned and quickly walked in the other direction, out of the room. It always surprised me how the staff seemed to let Heath and his group just walk around wherever they wanted to go. They didn't have to go through training at all. In fact, they seemed to be treated better than the people who came after them.

I walked around, thinking about the conversation. My thoughts were interrupted when I saw Dr. Evelyn. She was walking down the hall talking to another doctor. The other doctor walked into a room, and I moved over to her.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked. She nodded.

"Of course, honey, what do you need?"

"I wanted to ask you about some of the other patients here. The ones who have been here for a while, like, when you started working here."

"Walk with me, hon."

We walked down the surprisingly quiet hall. "Heath had asked me about Yvonne. He said

that what Xander did was bad."

"Ah yes, his experiment on Yvonne. I was very against that. I'm sure that if The Master knew what Xander was doing, he wouldn't be so chipper about it." Dr. Evelyn shook her head. "Things were better before Xander took over."

"Took over?" I paused.

"Yes. The Master used to run this place, but unfortunately some family issues went down

and then...Well, now we're like this."

"Why haven't you guys just...gotten rid of Xander?"

"The Master trusts Xander. In his eyes, Xander can do no wrong. Even when Xander put his son through those terrible...what did Xander call them? Trials?"

"You know about Xander's son? Is he still alive? Where is he?"

Dr. Evelyn stopped walking. We were in a hall I had never been to. According to most of

the staff, it had been closed off long ago.

"None of us like being in this hallway." Dr. Evelyn said, breaking off the silence. "It reminds us too much of how we failed The Master. But still, I find myself in here, thinking about what went wrong, when in reality I know."

"Xander?"

She nodded, not saying anything. The hallway was long, and most of the lights were flickered out. But it was different. Instead of the bright off white that the halls in the Facility had, it was a very pale lavender. Couches that had succumbed to moth balls lined the hallway, and the paintings on the walls were covered in layers of dust. I looked inside one of the rooms. It was painted the same lavender color, and instead of the prison like beds, it had a comfortable twin bed instead. Of course, it didn't look as appealing as I'm sure it did when it was first put there. It was sunken in, and faded. It looked completely different than the rooms I was used to.

"What was here?" I asked. "What was this place like before Xander took over?"

"We should go." Dr. Evelyn pulled me out of the room. "Xander wants a staff meeting. He'll be very angry if he catches us in this part of the Facility. Let's go."

"Why aren't you like the rest of the staff?"
"What do you mean?"

"The people who listen to Xander, they're so evil. They've done terrible things. But you, you actually seem to care."

"Because what he's doing to you all is wrong. Now come on."