Teenage Bones

The Castle of Glass

I couldn't wait for the door to move away, but once it did, it was kind of disappointing, although there were more doors equally spaced apart all over the corridor. The hallway was long and tiled in a clinical way both directions. There was a room next to mine which I guess to be as the control room for my silent sliding door and I notice keypads next to each door. Mr Clarke's hands were still firm on my shoulders and he was hot on my heels, I know I could make a run for it but I know his solution is to put a bullet in me. He steers me left and we walk for five minutes to turn into another hallway, and at the end was a two-way push door. We walked up to it, stopped, he circled one arm around my shoulders and another to push the door open into a large hall that was tiled an off white. There are plastic benches up and down the hall and at the end is soldiers delivering trays of the same food to everyone. There are about two-hundred people, ages between seven to twenty, arranged in age. I can spot two double push door, one opposite me and the other I walked through. There are two armed militaries who guard the door I entered through and another two by the other two doors opposite me. Mr Clarke guides me to a seat at the end of a long clean table full of people my age. I am next to food that smells... somewhat edible. Everyone that is eating is wearing grey and sitting next to their own personal guards, like Mr Clarke is for me. He sits me down at the end of the table with one seat difference between the girl next to me. Her guard is whispering to her what I catch to be as 'eat your food and then maybe I can get you a new book' or 'just some more and I'll see if I can get come music downloaded' and other encouraging empty promises. Mr Clarke arrived with a stainless steel tray which had red bell peppers that were stuffed with rice and vegetables, a plastic knife and fork, and a stainless steel cup of water. He placed it all in front of me and took the seat between me and the other girl with her face covered by her long black hair. He blocked my view of her and gestures to eat the food he fetched for me which was the most human and colourful looking thing I had seen in this place. I take the knife and fork from the tray and begin to cut up my food into small slices.

Mr Clarke scratched his chin, "after this I will take you to your room and there I will administer your Faetus IV bag. I'll show you what you have privileges to and how everything works and then you can ask away or some shit. I will probably keep an eye on you for a while so you don't fuck anything up and then I will change your dressings on your arm and then everyone's happy, and that's the end of today." When I still hadn't taken my first bite, he nudged me.

"Esmé, eat the damn food." He said it in a hushed whisper that was firm and threatening. It was an order said in a way that made me fast to comply and stuff it all in my mouth without further complaint. Once in my mouth, I almost could've smacked myself. It was good nobody, (including myself) couldn't hear my overstuffed mouth because of the loud demands of wardens telling their prisoners to eat and offering false rewards. I wish Mr Clarke was like that, promising me things to give me the hope I really needed about now. The way Mr Clarke's eyes study the way I managed to cram the whole cut-up pepper with the stuffing in my mouth all at once, he was amused. I can never be sure though, he never lets on too much emotion.

"Drink the fucking water, Esmé!" Mr Clarke ridiculed. Obviously, he didn't like being here more time than he had to be. I reach over and take the freezing stainless steel in my hands, it looked like I was trying to warm it. I bring the water close to my lips and smell it, all that I can smell is an unsettling metallic scent. And then it happened, a girl who looked twelve with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes and some sort of flashing green collar, screamed. She was a blur of grey as she fell from her seat, her screams ripping a hole through the sense of over security that the clean, threatening soldiers give. In a flash, my cup fell to the floor but it was like no one noticed except Mr Clarke, who swore softly under his breath. The girl's bones begin to shatter and break and set themselves in a new position. Her screams didn't stop and I didn't know if I could just sit here and watch and listen to her on the floor, screaming in a high pitch scream. Some of them weren't screams, they were shrieks between growls. It was disturbing. Her skin started to peel and her face started to mould into a dog's, fingertips were soon claws and skin became a pelt. Every gun was directed at her, even her guard, who was not shocked by her change and ripped clothes, had his gun out. The wolf in her place didn't pounce or even stand, she was just clawing at the floor in pain and there were ripples in her skin like water. A bright blue light was emitted from her and she fell limp and her tail stopped spasming, it took me a while to realise that she was electrocuted by the collar that was beeping a deep red. It was hard to tell if the red was from the collar or if it was from the amount of blood on her snowy grey coat and snout. Her guard just slung her unconscious body upon his shoulders and is walking out through the double doors. I still had the disgusting thud of her head hitting the muscles of his back in my head as if it were on a constant repeat. She left thick tension around the room, no more general voice but hushed whispers. Fingers are waved in front of my face and a metal cup in flung not-so-gently onto the table in front of me, the wet sound of slushing led me to correctly believe Mr Clarke got me a new cup of water. Snatching it from his hands, I gulp the whole thing down my gullet and gently put the abused cup on the table again.