Breaking Their Hold

When you see them coming in form.
And they say they do what's best for you.

“James, Melissa, dinner is ready in the common area.” A woman with sharp features and thinning, mouse brown hair tied in a tight bun at the nape of her neck said as she stuck her head into the room, looking at the two suspiciously. Melissa rolled her eyes and James just flipped her off, before they went back to doing what they’d been doing before the woman had interrupted them; writing.

“I’m not hungry, Nurse Phillips,” Melissa said, not taking her eyes off of the notepad in front of her. James nodded, signifying the same thing.

“I’m not hungry, either.”

“If you don’t come willingly, Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Baker, I will have no other option than to have the two of you restrained and fed forcefully.” The nurse told them. James sighed, before looking up at the woman, a glare in his unique blue eyes.

“It’s not enough that Melissa and I are not allowed to be around each other except for Saturdays, but now you’re resorting to threats?” He asked. “We’re not hungry; we don’t care. Leave us alone.”

“Jimmy, don’t—“ Melissa muttered quietly, putting her small hand on his arm to calm him down. It didn’t work; he still glared at the nurse angrily.

“What did you call him?” Nurse Phillips asked, her eyes narrowing into slits on her gaunt face. All color drained from Melissa’s face when she realized that she’d said James’ nickname out loud. It was against the rules; she would get into serious trouble for it. James saw her fear, and moved in front of her protectively.

“I—I didn’t—I mean—“ Melissa started as the nurse crossed the cold, white room towards them. She pushed Jimmy aside, and yanked at Melissa’s frail arm.

“Come with me, Ms. Baker,” She said stiffly, dragging Melissa out of the room. She stopped at the doorway, and turned to face Jimmy. “As for you, Mr. Sullivan, I’m sure the Doctor would like to know about your most recent of offenses.”

“I’m not afraid of you, bitch,” Jimmy scowled at her. His eyes softened when he saw Melissa’s own terrified ones. He knew the punishment she was facing, and it hurt him to know that he couldn’t protect her from it. No one could; at this point, even her own parents couldn’t do anything to stop them from hurting her.

Nurse Phillips didn’t say anything, and as Melissa was yanked out of the room, she turned and gave Jimmy one last fleeting look, tears filling her beautiful green eyes.

“I love you,” She whispered, knowing that the nurse would hear her and report it as well, but not caring.

Jimmy didn’t have time to reply, just nodded, tears filling his eyes as she was taken away from him yet again.

-x-

“You are aware of your transgressions, are you not, Ms. Baker?” The Doctor, a large, frightening man with shocking white hair and cold, calculating blue eyes peered down at her over his large wooden desk as they sat in his office. Melissa refused to meet his gaze; she kept her eyes fixed on the black shoes on her feet. The shoes had been given by the hospital; she’d had no choice in them, like everything else.

“No, Doctor Harding,” She replied, keeping her voice quiet, as was expected of her. “There’s nothing wrong with saying you love someone.”

“We’ll get to that in a little while, Ms. Baker,” The doctor told her. “But you broke a major rule this afternoon while spending time with Mr. Sullivan. Do you remember what you did?”

“It wasn’t wrong of me, Sir.” Melissa said, her voice barely a whisper. “To me, he is Jimmy. I don’t know James Sullivan. I know Jimmy Sullivan, Sir.”

“James Sullivan is his birth name, Ms. Baker; just the same as yours is Melissa Baker. It is the only thing that is constant in your life, your name. You know the punishment for calling someone a nickname, do you not?”

“Very well indeed, Sir.” Melissa bit back.

“And yet you still insisted upon breaking one of the main rules of Haverly Hospital? What have you to say in defense of yourself, Ms. Baker?”

“I have no defense.” Melissa told him, still looking at the floor, her voice still resigned to a whisper. She wished she was strong like Jimmy; he’d be talking back, cussing the Doctor out. She was too afraid to do anything. “I know the rules, and I broke them. And I’ll continue to do so, Sir, because I don’t think you’re right.”

“Of course you don’t, Melissa,” The doctor said, his tone of voice different. Melissa’s eyes narrowed; something had changed with their conversation in a matter of seconds, and she didn’t like it. “And that is why, as of today, you will no longer be permitted to see your ‘friend,’ James Sullivan.”

“Sir, that’s not quite fair,” Melissa said, her head shooting up. “Jimmy…I mean, James….He did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong!”

“Now, now, Ms. Baker. Settle yourself down. I don’t want to have to sedate you, and I’m sure you wouldn’t like that to happen again, would you?” The doctor asked her. Melissa’s head went back down; the Doctor had used her one greatest fear against her.

“No, Sir.”

“Now, I know this is hard for you to understand. And in your thoughts, you may have done nothing wrong. But a serious problem has arisen out of your time spent with James Sullivan. Maybe not on his part; maybe not on either of your part. It may simply be a product of boredom, or defiance of the system. But whatever has caused it to happen must simply cease to exist. Nicknames are a foul thing, Ms. Baker. They take away a person’s identity; it makes them someone else, someone who they are not. And your other transgression…Well, as for that, Ms. Baker, that is the more concerning of the two rules you have broken tonight. There is no such thing as ‘love,’ Ms. Baker. Yes, there is marriage. And yes, there is childbirth. But ‘love’ is a silly, romantic notion that is not relevant in the Government’s Plan.”

“The Government doesn’t realize that they are hurting people, Doctor Harding,” Melissa said cautiously, peering up at the doctor through her dark hair with her eyes, trying to read the Doctor’s face. He sighed, and reached under his desk, pushing a hidden button to summon Hospital Security, and Melissa knew what was coming next.

She was going to first be taken to Confinement Cell Number 661, her ‘bedroom.’ Then, she would be sedated.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this tonight, Melissa,” The Doctor sighed, pushing a hand through his shock of white hair. “I actually believed that having Mr. Sullivan and yourself spend time together may be a good way to therapeutically help the two of you. I’m sorry to have gotten you attached to each other.”

Tears began to form in Melissa’s face as two men dressed in black uniforms walked into the room. The Hospital Security were the only people in the Hospital that did not wear all white. They were only seen when a ‘patient’ was in trouble, and everyone steered clear of both the ‘patient’ and the Security. They grabbed both of Melissa’s arms, and she gave a fearful look to the Doctor, hoping that, for once, she’d see a look of kindness on his face.

“Take her to Confinement Cell 661, please. Then sedate her for the night; she’s had an emotional unbalance today.”

The two men only nodded, not saying a word; they were notorious for their intimidating silence. The Doctor went back to doing what he’d been doing before Melissa had been brought to him for punishment.

As the Security men led her down the long, bright white hallway, everyone avoided them, casting their eyes down to the floor, or at the wall as they scuttled away from them. It was a long walk to her Cell, and it was made even longer by the silence. Melissa could not stop the tears from forming in her eyes, nor the sobs from escaping her mouth. When they finally reached the cell, they left her alone in it briefly, locking the cold metal door. She knew that, within minutes, a Nurse would enter the room with a sedative-filled needle, with promises that she would feel better when it entered her veins.

But Melissa knew that they were wrong. Melissa knew that they lied.

-x-

When Melissa was taken away from Jimmy’s cell, he slammed his fist angrily into the white wall, not caring if he damaged his bones. He was in a hospital, he thought to himself. If he broke his knuckles, they’d be able to fix it.

“Goddamn stupid motherfuckers,” He cursed under his breath when he remembered Melissa’s fear-filled eyes as she’d been dragged away from him. He was afraid for her; afraid of what they were going to do to her. He knew her better than any of the doctors or nurses at Haverly Hospital assumed they did; he had known her before the Government had thrown them both, along with their friends and her brothers and sister, into the Hospital. She’d been one of his best friend’s younger sisters, and they’d grown up together.

When the Government had taken them away from their parents, he had assumed that she, like so many of the other girls taken away, would have gone to Burn Hills Hospital, six hours away from Haverly Hospital. Burn Hills was sanctioned specially for girls; the Government had sent most of them there. It had been where Melissa’s only sister had been sent.

But for reasons unknown to them, Melissa and several other girls had been kept behind, and stayed at Haverly. Jimmy hadn’t trusted the doctor’s reasons; nor had he trusted the Government. He’d known something was wrong when they had begun separating families, long before Jimmy himself had thought it would happen to anyone he knew, much less himself. The Government had specific regulations that they allegedly used to split up parents from their children, but no one knew what they were. The Government managed to avoid all questions, and had eventually gained control of every family in the country. Not many families were spared from what had become known as The Splitting. Jimmy himself had been taken for reasons that the government had cited as:

“Subject James Owen Sullivan has been in trouble with the law on several different occasions. On this basis, the Government has decided that parenting was not sufficient enough, and that Subject James Owen Sullivan has not been properly raised to recognize the seriousness of his actions on society. It is with this citation that the Government hereby denies all rights to the parents of Subject James Owen Sullivan to harbor him as a child of their upbringing.”

The day his parents had gotten the notification in the mail that he would be being taken away, Jimmy had met up with his friends, who had all received the same notifications. They were all being split up. They had devised a plan to run away and hide, like so many of the others, but had ultimately decided not to. Ramifications on the parents for runaway ‘fugitives of the law’ were serious; many of the parents of those runaways were prosecuted and sent to prison for treason.

Jimmy closed his eyes as he sat on the floor, thinking about Melissa. She was a fragile girl; she hadn’t used to be, but after she’d been ‘detained,’ as the Government called it, she had turned into someone Jimmy hardly recognized. She spoke only if spoken to, and didn’t defend herself, like her brothers and sister. He was afraid that, eventually, the system was going to break her if she didn’t break their hold on her.

He just hoped she had enough strength in herself to keep herself together until he could get her out of Haverly for good.