Work in Progress

Twenty white doors slammed shut at the stroke of ten. Forty pairs of manacles clicked tightly against eighty wrists and ankles. No sound other than the low humming of bulb filaments could be heard through all of V ward. The residents here were long past the screaming phase. Silence filled the empty spaces in every room on this floor of the Manor.

In room seventeen Sabrina Marmot clenched her fists into tight balls, digging jagged fingernails into fleshy palms. She pressed harder until she could feel a warm trickle of blood, an indication that she was still alive. Twelve inches above her face swung the pendant her mother had given her before running off with Hank. It was supposed to give her a sense of calm and contentment. Instead she swallowed hard to keep the bile of hatred contained in the pit of her stomach. After six days at Rhybook Manor her temperament had not improved. She was still too hostile.

Three minutes elapsed since the doors slammed shut. Only one hundred twenty seconds more until the needles came. Sabrina had read many books about women that could fight off substances designed to put the body to sleep. She figured if she concentrated hard enough, she too could overpower the drugs that would soon be coursing through her bloodstream. There had to be a way to fight back, especially since that was what “they” told her not to do.

Time was up. From the wall behind her head a thin robotic arm maneuvered a syringe full of clear liquid directly over her heart. Sabrina watched the arm lower a needle slowly towards her chest. If she moved, the needle would miss its mark, triggering four other needles full of strange liquids to randomly pierce her body, setting off alarms that would call in the nurse. She didn’t want a repeat of nurse Jim coming to her again, so she remained very still. The needle slid into her flesh with a pinch. A warm, tingly sensation began to overtake her body and she fought desperately with her mind to shut out the effects of the drug. Her eyes darted furiously around the room seeking for something, anything to focus on, but the only thing to see was the pendant, swaying back and forth.

Her body convulsed, pulling up hard against the strap around her middle. She hadn’t remembered being strapped like this before, and wondered how she had missed it. Her body slumped back to the table and she wondered what had changed. Suddenly her head was pushed to the side by one of the mechanical arms just as her stomach heaved. All of her dinner was expelled from her mouth and nose in a burning stream. Another mechanical arm swept the mess away from her face, scraping her nose and lips with hard nylon bristles. A jolt of electricity passed around her middle and her jaws clenched down hard. Another push to her head and the remaining contents of her stomach were released. A dark mist began to envelope her mind so she sucked in lungs full of air hoping the oxygen would clear the haze.

Sabrina could almost hear her ragged breath above the whir of the cleaning machines. Her chest heaved and she silently prayed for release from the shocks and drugs. She closed her eyes and tried calming her heart. The door slid open. Two sets of footsteps squeaked towards her bed.

“Ansel, what the heck is going on in here? I thought I told you to reconfigure that machine after dinner so this wouldn’t happen again!”

“I…well, I thought this was the machine I reconfigured.” The voice closed in on Sabrina’s left, almost at ear level. It was a wet voice, and she could almost feel the slippery words leave drops of spit on the side of her head. “I just don’t understand how I could have missed the room number again.”

“You’re getting sloppier every day. If our clients knew how often you screwed things up I would be in court for the rest of my natural life!” At the word natural he snorted and Ansel shivered as he shot a glace at the unnatural figure of the man towering over him.

“Well Jack, you’re not much help.” The words practically slopped out of his mouth and Sabrina imagined him wiping away a large glob of saliva with the back of his hand. “You walk around this place as if everyone and everything should bow at your feet.”

“They should.” Jack’s voice was cold. Ansel kept his distance from the doctor and continued to meddle with the machine above Sabrina’s head. She wondered if they could tell she was awake.