I Need a Hero

I shifted in my seat for the twentieth time in a single minute. Or at least what I thought was a minute. The woman had led me to a room, shoved me in, and simply left. It had white walls, white ceiling, and white floor tiles. A metal chair with arm rests sat in the dead center where my butt had decided to occupy. At first I had walked in circles, but my legs ended up getting tired so I sat. It felt like it’s been hours, but I knew it had to have been only ten minutes or so.

“Hello Ms. Summers.” My head snapped up to see another doctor walking in. He looked about forty-something with short, brown hair and black eyes. I involuntarily shivered as they locked with mine. He reminded me of the pedophile you hear about on the news that lives in your neighborhood and get shocked. Then you get disgusted when you realize that he had watched your kids once or twice. Then you get so angry you want to kill him. Well, those are my reactions. He shocked me, disgusted me, and then made me want to kill him because I was stuck in this room for therapy. I hate therapy.

“Who are you?” I demanded, a glaring trained on him. He seemed unfazed. This was probably normal reactions from his patients. Can’t say I blame them.

“My name is Doctor Stiles. Do you know why you’re here?” he asked without looking up from the clipboard he was flipping through and skimming the pages of. I huffed, crossing my arms.

“Is that everyone’s favorite question here?” I muttered under my breath. “Obviously, no, I don’t know why I’m here. Why don’t you fill me in?”

“I do not appreciate sarcasm Brenda,” Dr. Stiles informed.

“I would prefer you to call me Ms. Summers. Brenda is for friends,” I corrected.

“I would like you to think of me as a friend.”

“My friends don’t wear doctor get ups and try to force me into therapy.” He sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Ms. Summers, while you are here I suggest to make me and Mr. Knight your best friends. It will be easier on you and us.” I scoffed, looking away from him. “Do you want to know why you are here?”

“Why not?”

“You are here because you are a pyromaniac and have a fascination with blood.” I sighed, staring at the ceiling. “Did you know this?”

“Well, duh. I’m the one who likes fire and blood, how would I not know?” His eyes narrowed and he dug into one of his lab coat’s pockets. Out of it he produced a walkie-talkie. He pressed a button and, with his eyes trained on me, said, “Ron, bring in the supplies for Ms. Summers.”

“Got it.”

“What supplies?” I asked, my tone on the edge of hysteria. He said nothing as the door opened to reveal a male nurse and Ron. I scrambled out of my seat and tried to run to one of the opposite corners of the room. That wasn’t happening. They both grabbed an arm and dragged me back to the chair. Dr. Stiles produced a few leather restraints from the bucket Ron had carried in.

“This is for your own good,” Dr. Stiles spoke as he wrapped one around each wrist, leg, and my upper torso. I thrashed my head around and tried to make the chair fall over. The male nurse held it in place, his face emotionless. “That is all I need Ron.”

“Yes sir.” With that Ron left, the door sounding like the shutting of a coffin to my ears. Dr. Stiles reached into the bucket again, hiding the instrument behind his back. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but I did see very shiny metal. My eyes grew wide as he placed the bucket underneath the right arm rest that my arm was stuck to, inner forearm up.

“What are you doing?” I demanded as he moved nerve wrackingly close.

“We are here to get you over your strange fascinations. We’re starting with blood.” It was then he pulled out the device I easily recognized; a scalpel.

“No, no, no!” I screamed, beginning to thrash again. I tried to kick or punch him, but the restraints were too tight.

“But Brenda, you already did it to yourself. Remember? You cut your finger tips two months ago.”

“You are fucking insane!” I screamed as he placed it on my forearm.

“No Brenda, I am perfectly sane. You are what we are fixing. You‘ll be sane too.” A blood curling scream escaped me as he applied the pressure to making blood spill out of the cut.



- Jessica’s P.O.V. -

“Is it just a competition to see who can get into a straight jacket the fastest?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest. Not only was Matt sitting in front of me with a straight jacket on, Brian was right next to him in the same ‘accessory’.

“How’d ya know? It’s a top three spot. I’m at least in the numbers,” Brian replied with a smirk. I smacked him upside the head which caused him to pout. “So abusive to the cripple.”

“I don’t think being in a straight jacket makes you crippled,” Zacky piped, scratching his head in thought.

“It makes you handicapped,” Jimmy corrected.

“Jimmy should know. He’s mentally handicapped,” I remarked.

“No, he’s actually mentally empty,” Johnny chuckled at his own joke.

“Coming from the schizo,” Jimmy taunted. Johnny glared and leaned back against the tree he sat under. Of course it was leafless and practically dead, but that was fall in Bridgeview. It’s name was no joke. Pass the chain link fence surrounding the courtyard was only dead trees and a huge bridge in the distance. Rumor is that it’s haunted and leads to where an old Indian burial ground was. But everything seems to be where an Indian burial ground was nowadays.

“So where’s this girl you guys said ‘I would absolutely love’?” Johnny mocked. I looked around, but the blond head of hair was nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t know. She should be-”

“Oh my God,” Zacky murmured, looking sympathetically towards the building. Our heads automatically snapped over to the backdoor of Bridgeview. Out staggered Brenda, Nick holding her up by her shoulders. She looked like hell. Her eyes were wide, her chin trembling, and her clothes, along with hair, were a mess. The thing that caught my attention the most was the white gauze wrapped around her right forearm. Nick spotted us and jutted his chin up, asking ‘do you want her?’

“Over here Nick!” I called, standing to my feet with Jimmy. We walked forward to meet the two half way across the court. My breathing hitched in my throat. Blood was caked on her shorts and some was splashed on her right leg. Jimmy gently took the place of Nick’s hands. Brenda jumped and began to tremble. “It’s okay Brenda. It’s just Jimmy,” I cooed as Nick gave a sympathetic look and walked off.

“There was so much. I, I couldn’t stop wanting to touch it. But he wouldn’t let me,” Brenda whispered, her eyes wide as we slowly made our way back to the group. My heart felt out for her. By the obvious signs it was clear they had tried to ‘get her over’ her blood fascination. I sat down with Jimmy next to me. She looked at Jimmy with weak eyes, almost looking like she was ready to cry. I caught on and nudge him in the ribs.

“She wants to sit on your lap,” I whispered.

“Oh!” He looked up to see Brenda looking at her feet, scuffing the toes of her boots into the dirt. “You can sit on my lap if you want to.” That was all it took to invite Brenda to curl up in his lap and clench the bottom of his shirt. Jimmy took his place as the ‘protective older brother’ and began to rub her back.

“Brenda, this is our friend Johnny. Johnny, this is my new roommate Brenda,” I introduced after I grasped her attention. She smiled weakly at him as she fought to keep her eyes open.

“What happened?” Johnny asked quietly. Brenda began to tremble again. Jimmy shushed her as the rest of the guys and I glared at him. “What?”

“Obviously she’s not up to talking! She just got out of it you dumb ass. Zacky, smack him in the head for me,” Matt ordered. Zacky obliged which caused Johnny to glare and clench his fist.

“Oh, go ahead. Make my day,” Zacky taunted with a cruel smile curling on his lip. Johnny huffed and crossed his arms, leaning back again. Johnny wouldn’t do anything that he knew would cause Zacky satisfaction or pleasure. There was nothing worse to Johnny then doing that.

“They-” We all turned our attention back to the younger teen in my brother’s lap. Her chin trembled before she took a deep breath to continue. “They tied to me down to a chair and cut into my forearm. The blood flooded into a bucket and I kept thrashing, trying to touch it. To make me stop he jabbed a finger into the cut. It hurt s-so much.”

“It’s okay Brenda. You’re with us now,” Jimmy cooed.

“I hate that fucking doctor. You know what he does for me? Has Ron act like he’s going to punch me and stop right before it makes contact with my skin. Asshole,” Zacky murmured.

“Why does he do that?” We turned to Brenda who was biting her lip ring. “Why does Ron help the doctors here? He acts like nothing bothers him.”

“I think it just doesn’t anymore,” Brian replied. “I heard a story that his sister went insane. She ended up here. He watched her wither away and just slowly die. Rumor is something in him just snapped. He hates everyone who could be called insane. He’s so numb to everything that he likes to know he’s helping destroy them off.”

“You know that sounds like bullshit,” I chirped.

“Hey, you never know. In a nutshell it sounds totally possible,” Brian pointed out with a shrug.

“Luckily we’re in a nutshell so it is possible,” Johnny said, trying to be funny.

“That’s not funny,” Brenda muttered. Johnny fell silent, sighing. “What’s Nick’s story?”

“Nick is actually the step-son of Mr. Knight.” Brenda looked at Matt with wide eyes. Her mouth was even agape. “Yeah, my thought too. He hates what goes on here, but he has to work here since he needs the pay. He’s never around the so called treatments because he can’t stand the thought of people in pain. He’ll be around after, trying to make you feel better even though he knows it’s almost impossible.”

“Nick’s nice,” Brenda mumbled. I leaned over one of Jimmy’s legs to look at her face that was tilted downwards. She was out like a light. I smiled, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“She’s down for the count,” I announced. The guys all smiled.

“Should we take her in now?” Brian asked.

“Well you can’t.” He stuck out his tongue at Johnny. “But yeah. I think free time is almost over anyways.” We all stood, Matt and Brian having to get help from Zacky. Johnny carefully took Brenda, carrying her bridal style.

“Damn. She must be tiny if fucking Johnny can pick her up,” Jimmy commented.

“Shut up,” Johnny muttered. We all walked pass the nurses who tried to not look at us. I guess you could count us as the troublemaker group. Mainly we’re just too loud for their tastes. We waited for Nick to get on the elevator with us and slide in his key before it would move.

“Is she okay?” Nick whispered.

“I think she’s just tired, but she’ll be alright.” He nodded to me as the door opened again. He walked down the hall to me and Brenda’s room first. When he opened the door we had to stand outside while Johnny placed Brenda under her blanket. He hesitated for a second before coming back outside. Once I gave the guys hugs, I bid Nick goodbye and walked inside. Nick shut the door and locked it before I heard their footsteps leave. I sighed, plopping down on my bed, laying on my stomach and looking at Brenda’s unconscious form.

“Welcome to hell kid.”