by Rue Volley
“I am Lord Barrington,” he said as he closed his eyes.
“Good,” Sophia whispered to him.
“Do you wish to have your memory taken?” she asked him.
He kept his eyes closed as he focused on Rue’s face.
Her smile, her laughter… her mouth on his.
“Joshua!” Sophia yelled to him.
Josh opened his eyes and looked at her.
“I do,” he said.
Sophia stabbed him with the blade and swung around as she pushed him into the mirror. Josh cried out as he slammed against it and it slowly started to engulf him. He struggled and tried to pull from it, but it had him held in place. Sophia leaned up and smiled at him.
“See you in three days, my Lord,” she whispered.
Josh cried out as the metal crept into his mouth and he was pulled inside. The waving slowed and then came to a stop. Everyone stared at the mirror as they watched Josh on the other side, pounding on the mirror. He cried out, but they could not hear him. Sophia turned to the crowd and raised her hands.
“In three days Lord Barrington will emerge from the mirror and a new era of peace and tranquillity will begin here in Valon!” she yelled out.
Everyone cheered as Josh pounded on the mirror and screamed. Two guards dropped a red velvet curtain over the large mirror and Josh disappeared from their sight.
***
I woke up in the same white room. White, white… everywhere. I rolled over and Brooke stood there with a chart in her hand. I sighed and closed my eyes.
“Hi, Brooke,” I muttered.
She dropped the clipboard and it made a loud noise in the room.
I opened my eyes and looked at her.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
She nodded and picked the clipboard up quickly and scribbled something down on it.
I watched her as she glanced at me.
“You look like you saw a ghost,” I muttered as I rolled towards the window and watched the blue sky.
“You remembered my name,” she said.
I rolled back over and looked at her. I pushed myself up and stared at her.
“I did, didn’t I?” I asked her.
“Yes, what else do you remember?” she asked me.
I really thought about that for a moment.
“Well, I remember you… my doctor, and some boy who fed me pills,” I said as I looked at my hands.
“Do you know what your name is?” she asked me.
I saw the wristband, but I didn’t want to read it. Maybe today is the day that I start to climb back to me. I looked at her as I placed my hand over the band on my wrist and smiled.
“My name is Rue,” I said.
Brooke set the clipboard down and walked out of the room. I really expected for her to be all “whoo-hoo” and instead she left, like it was a bad movie. I cleared my throat and stood up. I walked to the window and looked out into the garden. It was covered in snow from yesterday. Oh my god… it snowed yesterday, I remember that too. Holy crap.
I turned when the door opened and my doctor walked in, looking all pretty and calm. I walked to the edge of my bed and sat down. I am awake, right? Holly looked at the chart and then at me.
“So… tell me, Rue, where are you?” she said as she grinned.
“Ummm, Rolling River Asylum,” I said to her.
“And why did you come here?” she asked me.
“I guess I lost my memory after some kind of accident or something,” I said.
I really tried to remember everything I could, but it was causing a slow moving headache to well up in my brain.
“Do you remember the accident?” she asked me.
I closed my eyes and nothing… well, fire… I see sparks of fire.
“I remember fire,” I said to her.
She scribbled something down and I waited.
Does this mean that I get to leave now?
She started to walk to the door.
“Hey, I get to home now, right?” I asked her.
She turned back and grinned at me.
“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she said. I stood up and looked at her.
“I am remembering things,” I said a little too excited.
“Yes… you remember yesterday but not the last two years,” she said.
“Way to kill the party,” I said as I sat down on the bed.
“Now you need to stay positive, Rue. This is such a great step… a baby step, but a step nonetheless,” she said.
She started to open the door up.
“Do I have any family?” I asked her.
She continued to walk out, no answer. It really irritated me. I walked to the door and heard the lock click. She locked me in. That is ridiculous. I grabbed the handle and pulled on it. Yep, she’d locked it. I couldn’t imagine why they thought that I was a threat… couldn’t imagine what I had done to warrant it to begin with.
I could hear something rolling down the hallway and I stepped back when I thought it stopped outside my door. I heard the door unlock and my intern buddy from the previous day stepped in and looked at me. He had a bed in the hallway behind him. I tilted my head at him and he smiled.
“Rue… I have come to take you for a ride,” he said.
I took one more step back from him.
“A ride where?” I said.
Another boy stepped into my room and I looked at him too.
The intern held his hands out in front of him and continued to smile at me.
“This is something we do every day together. You get on the bed and we go and visit the doctor,” he said to me.
How freakin’ vague an explanation.
“What is your name?” I asked him.
He stopped walking towards me and looked at the boy behind him, and then he looked back at me.
“It’s Elliot,” he said.
“Okay, Elliot, I will make you a deal… You tell me the truth and I will pop up on that bed and you can roll me wherever you need too,” I said to him as I moved behind my bed.
“The truth about what?” he asked me.
“About where you are taking me,” I said.
“I was instructed to bring you to the doctor,” he said.
I rolled my hands in front of me.
“Gonna have to be a little more specific,” I said.
“You are headed to electro therapy,” he said.
“Gosh that sounds great,” I said.
The boy behind him stepped up and tapped him on the arm.
“Why the hell are you telling her anything...? Just get her on the bed so we don’t get in trouble.”
I looked at him and crinkled my eyebrows at him.
The other boy lunged at me and I ran to the right as he flipped over my bed.
I looked at Elliot and he shook his head.
“You need to settle down, Rue,” he said to me.
That statement echoed in my ears. It felt like ‘déjà vu’.
I tilted my head and bit my lip. I bit it too hard and I reached up to my mouth and wiped blood from my lip. Elliot took that opportunity to tackle me and we fell to the floor. I tried to pull my arms from his grip, but I felt a jab in my arm and looked down as the boy who came in with him had a needle in my skin. Whatever was in it felt warm as it crept up my arm.
I hit him and he rolled to the side. I kicked Elliot in the ‘you knows’ and he grunted as he rolled off of me. I tried to stand up and everything started to look all funhouse to me. I stumbled backward and hit the wall. I wanted to push forward, so I shook my head and started to walk towards the door. My head started to cloud and my feet felt like they were stuck in the mud. I had to grab onto the doorjamb to steady myself. I stumbled forward and grabbed the bed. I looked to the right and saw someone with blonde hair, pretty girl. She looked so familiar it caused me to lose track of the mission I was on.
I felt someone hit me from behind and I struggled as I was lifted onto the bed and restraints were attached to both of my wrists. I tried t
o focus on the girl in the hallway, but she waved like water. I looked up at Elliot as he grinned at me and leaned into my ear.
“You are a very naughty girl,” he whispered.
I cried out and tried to free my hands but the restraints were too tight. The other boy grabbed my legs and put restraints on my ankles. I tried to kick, but with every moment I lost power. Whatever nastiness he pumped into me was definitely doing its job. I took a breath as I watched lights start to move over me. We are headed for whatever therapy I was scheduled for. I closed my eyes and told myself to wake up… just wake up, Rue.
I was rolled into a large white room, big freakin’ surprise. The bed stopped and Elliot and his minion left me there alone. I tried to pull on the restraints again but it was a lost venture. I laid there for a moment and wondered why it was taking so long for anyone to come in. I turned my head and tried to look around the room. I saw a few futuristic looking machines along the walls. All wires and dials.
I heard a door open and slow footsteps coming my way. What a nightmare. Things still looked beyond blurry and I didn’t even know if I opened my mouth if anything would come out. Nothing sounding sane I thought. The walking stopped and I tried to strain my neck to get a glimpse of anyone. The suspense was killing me so I opened my mouth, only to hear my voice sounding foreign to my ears.
“Who… who is there?” I asked my anonymous visitor.
I heard a humming start up and I tried to look back.
“Why am I here?” I yelled out.
Something was shoved in my mouth.
Okay… time to panic… for real.
I felt two cold metal discs placed on my temples and a very pretty girl leaned into my face. She smiled and I thought I saw pointed teeth in her mouth. My eyes went super wide at the sight of that. It had to be the drugs... had to be the drugs… had to be. Nobody had pointed teeth… no way.
The machine started to hum louder and then it happened. I felt a jolt run through me that arched my back off of the bed. I was glad that I had something in my mouth because I would have broken my teeth when my jaw clamped down. The jolt stopped and my body dropped to the bed. The pretty girl leaned over me and smiled.
“Who are you?” she asked me.
I blinked my eyes and shook my head at her.
Again the jolt pulsed through my body. My back arched and I gritted my teeth. It didn’t hurt really; it just felt like a warm wave of adrenaline pulsing through me. White flashes pulsed behind my eyes this time. I shook my head and spit out the piece of whatever was in my mouth. The jolt stopped and I dropped to the bed. She leaned over me again and looked at my face.
“Who are you?” she asked me.
I shook my head and spit in her face. She grinned as she wiped it away.
I took a deep breath and waited as everything started to swirl in the room. I felt a vibration in my fingertips and looked down at my hand as another jolt hit me. This one was so intense I swear I could hear my muscles tearing in my body. Once again it didn’t hurt… it felt familiar, believe it or not.
I cried out and broke my restraint on my right wrist and then my left. I sat straight up and pulled the cold metal from my temples. I felt someone grab my arms and pull me back down to the bed. The pretty girl with freaky teeth jumped up on me and held my arms down. I looked up to see a very pretty boy at the helm of the machine. The girl leaned into my face and smiled.
“Who are you?” she asked me.
I stared at her and grinned.
“I am Rue Volley, you crazy bitch...! Get off of me!” I screamed at her.
She grinned and looked up at the boy.
“Tell me what you are,” she said to me.
I titled my head at her.
“Well, it seems that I am some insane girl who is being tortured in this crazy place!” I yelled at her.
She looked at the boy again and jumped off of me. I sat up quickly and they were gone from the room. I quickly undid my restraints on my ankles and jumped down from the bed. My legs felt like rubber, I had to hang onto the bed so I wouldn’t fall down.
I started to stumble towards the door and then I heard voices coming down the hall. I slid down against the wall and waited. If they were coming back I had to have something to defend myself from them. I scooted over, behind the machine, and grabbed the metal electrodes swinging from it. The door opened and I held my breath as the two boys stepped into the room.
“Where the hell is she?” I heard one boy say.
I peeked and saw Elliot standing there scanning the room.
“Oh this is so not good, dude,” he said.
The boy walked towards the bed and lifted the restraints; he dropped them and looked back at Elliot.
“There is no way that she could have broken out of these,” he said.
I took a breath and Elliot held up his hand and looked at the boy.
He pointed to the machine and held his hand up to him.
“Rue?” he said.
I gripped the electrodes in my hands and tried to control my breathing.
He started to walk towards the machine and I felt my heart speeding up in my chest.
“Rue, listen, I am not here to hurt you… I want to help you, I do,” he said.
I closed my eyes and tried to believe him. He had a very calming voice. I wished it was a normal situation, in some normal place. Wherever or whatever that is. He stopped right in front of the machine and I could see his shoes. I stared at them for a minute, they were actually pretty cool. He reached towards the machine and started to turn it. I scooted with it; I was sure he heard me. I stood up quickly, with the electrodes in my hands and held them out in front of me. He looked at me and grinned.
“Now listen, put those down and I will walk you back to your room and get you some food. You are hungry, right?” he asked me.
I felt the electrodes pulsating in my hands. The freaky boy/girl tag team who had tried to torture me had left the machine on. I clicked the metal together and a white spark snapped from them. Elliot stepped back and looked at his partner.
“Dude… go get the tranq,” he said to him.
I watched the boy run from the room and then my eyes darted back to Elliot
“I just want to leave,” I said to him.
He stood his ground and shook his head at me.
“You need our help; you are not well,” he said.
I laughed at him, or maybe at the situation I was in… I am not sure.
“I don’t need your help. I am positive that I could feed myself… dress myself and all around function on my own,” I said to him.
He looked at me, like he had never heard me speak.
“No… you are here for a reason.”
“Really...? Well, I just had some freaky chick with pointed teeth sticking these on my head,” I said as I held up the electrodes and they snapped white light at each other.
He watched it and held his hand up.
“This can be so easy, Rue. Just put them down and I will not tranq you. I will walk you to your room and it’s all over.”
“Tranq, as in put me down like some animal?” I said to him. “Sorry… I don’t believe you.”
The white light on the electrodes started to snap again and it crawled towards my hands. I let it; it seemed to want to come to me. I got stuck staring at it for a moment and Elliot took it as an opportunity to lunge at me. I jammed both electrodes into his chest and he groaned, as he stood there completely frozen. It started to smell like something was burning and I dropped them to the floor as he fell too. He rolled on his side and started to cuss. I jumped over him and got stopped at the door as his partner ran in. I stepped back and looked at Elliot on the floor.
His friend looked at him and laughed.
“Dude… I swear to god, she kicks your ass every day...! I am starting to think that you are either a pussy or you have a thing for her.”
“Screw you,” Elliot muttered.
I stepped over him and he barely touched my ankle.<
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I kicked at him and caught him in the mouth.
“Oh god,” he yelled out as he grabbed his mouth.
“I’m sorry… that was an accident,” I said to him as I kept an eye on the real threat in the room. I stared at the intern and grinned.
“What is your name?” I asked him.
He pulled out the needle. It looked like some horror film.
I stared at it and looked back at his face.
“No really… I’m Rue, who are you?” I asked him.
He shook his head at me.
“Okay, I’ll play. I am Carver,” he said.
“Carver?” I asked him.
“Yea… Carver, what?” he asked me.
I guess the look on my face gave him the impression that I thought his name was weird.
“No… I’ve just never met a ‘Carver’,” I said to him.
He started to laugh at me.
“Well, now ya have, you crazy chick,” he said.
I didn’t really like that. I mean I was there in the asylum, but his lack of manners as to the state of my mind kinda pissed me off a little more than I expected it to.
“You suck, Carver,” I said. He laughed again.
“God, I swear… you act like you are normal sometimes. I guess that’s why you got Elliot all screwed up.”
I tilted my head and glanced at Elliot.
“Elliot, listen to me, I am sane. I know who I am. I won’t lie and say that I remember everything, but I know my name. I remember yesterday; I remember Brooke. I even remember those stupid pictures my doctor held up to my face. I do not belong here. I don’t,” I said, hoping that my pleas would be heard.
Elliot rolled on his back and started to push himself up.
He looked at me and then at Carver.
“Give me the tranq,” he said to him.
Carver shook his head again and stared him in the eye.
“Dude, you grab her, and I will jab it in her,” he said.
Elliot shook his head at him. “I got this,” he muttered.
Carver grunted as he laughed.
“Dude, if you feel like you have to save face here then have at it. I’m hungry, it’s passed lunchtime anyway.”
Carver handed the needle to Elliot and walked to the door.
He stopped and looked back at us.
“Don’t get all perverted and try to make out with her or somethin’.”