Three Hearts Left Intact

Chapter 30: Friend In Me

Following behind the woman like a shadow Kaila couldn't help but get lost into her head. 'Auction?! What is she talking about?! Is this what these people are for?! To be sold off?! How can they do this to people?! This is sick?!'

"I'm Mary, by the way." The woman turned to look back at Kaila. "Hey are you alright?" She asked seeing how flushed Kaila looked.

Clearing her throat she struggled to find proper words. "Yeah...no...I'm fine. Don't worry about it," she coughed trying to ground herself, "I'm Ka..." she paused thinking whether this is a good choice or not to use her name. "I'm Kay." She settled for.

Mary held her hand out to Kaila, shaking it gently Mary began talking once again about nonsense while Kaila began to practice soothing breathing patterns. She needed to keep her cool. Finally when Mary stopped talking Kaila figured now would be as good a time as ever to final start getting answers.

Thinking back to what Mary had said earlier and what she had found from Lain's file that she had seen, Kaila got besides the older woman with her and asked, "so...I still don't fully understand how all these things work. And you seem like you've been here for a while now. Can you, um, explain it to me?"

"Understand what?" Mary questioned.

"Like...how this whole place works and everything."

"I thought the company gave rundowns before throwing you in for work."

"I guess I missed that lesson." Kaila warily smiled.

"Oh well I don't blame you even if you just forgot. It took me quite some time to fully understand it too. There's so much it can get quite confusing." Mary looked over to Kaila similarly to the way a grandmother would to her beloved grandchild.

"Well anyways so, to put it into simple terms. There are five different departments here. We belong to the fifth department, which I'm sure you know more about." She nudged Kaila's shoulder who shyly shook her head.

"Oh goodness child, it's a good thing you look pretty." Mary laughed joking with Kaila. "Alright so then I'll start from the very basics. We have department one, or D1 as we call it, where the Fendly's hold people until they get the money they were owed. Then there's department two, or D2 you'll get the short version, where they have people who actually have to work to pay their debts off. Then there's D3 where they get information out of people by all means nesessary." Mary stopped and shivered. "I hate that department. It's always cold there and the screams hurt my ears."

Kaila made a worried face feeling herself getting nervous and hurt for all the people who are suffering here in this one facility.

"Alright where was I...oh that's right. D4 is where they take people who are a threat to the company and well they basically torture them." She shrugged it off. "D4 is just D3...but worst." The way Mary described it made Kaila shiver in fear of her. How could an act so terrible be described so relaxed?

"Now finally D5, thats us, where we get people who the Fendly's think are special and worth something, and it is our job to get them in a healthy condition so they are ready to be sold to the highest bidder at annual auctions." She finished right as they got to the area they had met. "Now go on and grab Riley's clipboard, we'll be late if we don't hurry."

Feeling rushed Kaila was still trying to process everything Mary had just explained to her. She tried making sense of it all, but it all seemed impossible. Like one terrible nightmare that she knew she needed wake up from. She looked for the door with Riley's name but was surprised to see the clipboard that once sat in front of the room was now gone. "Um," she couldn't even think clearly enough anymore, all the shock still in her head was making things blurry.

"Oh, well I guess Nate did it after all. You lucked out. Come on, let's get going to the conference. I still have to present my data." Mary sweetly said.

While they walked through the halls, Mary was looking down at her clipboard running through things in her mind for the conference, meanwhile, Kaila was working out everything still. She had so many questions.

Not wanting to waste this precious time with Mary, she wanted to get as many answers as she could. "Mary, are there different stages? Like in each department?" Kaila asked flashing back to what she had read in Lain's file.

"Yes, five departments each with five stages. Similar to how the departments are set up, if a patient acts good they stay in stage one, or S1, and the worst there behavior is the higher their stage gets. Like Addie here," she pointed towards her sheet. "Addie is a D5-S2 patient."

"So she belongs to this department and has gotten into a...little...trouble?" Kaila attempted to interpret the information to make sure she had everything under control.

"Yes that's right, she had an instance where she slapped one of the other nurses trying to observe her, so we just have to keep a close eye on her is all. The higher their stage, the more security they need." Mary went back to her paperwork.

Kaila ran her hand through her hair still processing everything completely. 'This means Lain's a D4-S3, last I saw. If she's gotten herself into more trouble who knows what stage she's in.'

Letting her hand run back down her body, she hit her neck in the process remembering something one of the men she had came into contact earlier mentioned. "Uh...Mary? Can I ask you one more question?" She asked shifting her hair besides her neck.

"Of course, but make it quick."

"Don't these, patients," she cringed are the word, "have uh...t-tattoos on them?"

"That's right. What about them?"

"Um...like what do they do? Or uh I really don't know what to ask, I'm just curious."

"Alright well the tattoos are there for many reasons. One being to mark their a patient. Two to show what department they belong to. And three if one goes rogue a Hound can scan them and check to see their entire history log here at the facility."

"What exactly does a Hound do?" Her voice was shaking.

"You are a curious one I'll give you that Kay. Hounds roam these halls to make sure none of the patients escape."

"What...w-what will they do if they catch one?"

"Hm, you know I actually don't know that one. I've never seen what happens. Hounds will usually take rogues to their office and then who knows." Mary shrugged. "All I know is that some come back not daring to be defiant again. I would hate to cross paths with one of those guys." She scoffed.

"Some?" Kaila's muttered as her eyes filled with terror.

"What?" Mary stopped to look at Kaila.

"You said...some come back?"

"Oh yeah, some of the patients who go rogue come back. Others not so much. Who knows what happens to them?" She stated simply before reviewing her paperwork again.

Gulping down her horror, Mary led them to a set of doors. "Alright we're here Kay, assuming you don't know considering how many questions you just asked me. We have basic rules in the conference, since you have no patient to report on you stand against the wall with the other nurses who don't have patients, and just stay quiet and listen. We can talk afterwards." Mary told Kaila as she pushed open the set of double doors.

Holding the door for Kaila, she ushered the small girl in and quietly pointed to the wall in the back of the room. Making her way there Kaila watched as Mary sat at a table with twenty or so others, all whom she presumed were assigned the other doors, they each had clipboards in front of them. Using this time wisely, Kaila began reflecting everything Mary had told her. Putting together the different pieces of the puzzle in her mind.
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Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off