Broken Wings

I stepped into my room and scowled. The walls were black with random paint splatters all over them and I hated it. I went over to my bag that I still hadn’t unpacked and pulled out three large, orange bottles filled to the brim with tablets. I loathed using these pills, but they were the only way I could get to sleep, not to mention they were prescribed for me. I rummaged around and grabbed a tank top and a pair of shorts. I quickly changed into them and I collapsed on my bed. It felt weird to lie on a bed like this. It was soft and my body felt completely supported, everywhere it mattered. It smelled clean and very faintly of lemon, as opposed to the dirt and mothball smell I was used to. The pillows cushioned my head completely and held my head at a position that wasn’t too high, and wasn’t too low; in other words, it was perfect.

I moved onto my side, grabbed the bottles of pills and unscrewed the caps. I let the prescribed tablets fall onto my open palm and rolled them around for a bit. I didn’t want to take them because it was so difficult to wake up from them, after waking up from them I was basically another one of those patients; even though the Doctor said it kept me from being like them. I sighed and closed the lid and tossed the pills back. I opened my mouth and dry-swallowed all three of them before flopping back on my bed. I felt the familiar feeling of wanting to throw up, but I clenched my mouth shut to keep it down. My eyelids started feeling like they were 100 kilogram weights and they slid down as my heart beat and breathing slowed. Everything in the room faded out and I felt my stream of consciousness slip away.

Mikey’s P.O.V.

“Mikey, can you wake up Max for me? Her room is the first one on the left, across from mine,” Frank said, from the kitchen where he was cooking bacon and pancakes.
I yawned and nodded as I groggily shuffled to Max’s room. I went up the stairs and went to the door opposite Frank’s. I knocked gently a couple of times and waited. I didn’t hear any movement from inside and stifling another yawn I knocked again.
“Max! Frank’s cooking breakfast and he wants you up for it. Don’t ask me why, he just does,” I called through the door.
There was still no sound of movement so I prayed that she wouldn’t murder me and I opened the door and walked in.

I saw a pile of scrunched up posters in the middle of her otherwise tidy room and wondered why they were there. I noticed a bag by the foot of her bed and noticed it was packed with clothes. I then leant over her side and gently placed my hand on her shoulder.
“Max?” I asked softly.
Her eyelids didn’t even flutter as she lay there, as still and silent as death.
“Max, it’s time to wake up. Frank’s cooking breakfast,” I said, shaking her gently.
Her body flopped heavily in my hands and I frowned. Normal people didn’t flop that heavily. I looked down and then my eyes widened. Her chest wasn’t moving!
“Shit!” I exclaimed.
All sleepiness disappeared from my body and I frantically pressed two fingers to her neck. I moved them around her neck, frantically feeling for a pulse. I felt panic rise in my throat and body as I couldn’t find one. I pulled my hands away and gripped at my hair. I had no idea what the fuck to do.
“FRANK!” my mouth shrieked of its’ own accord, “FRANK! FRANK! FRANK!”
My hands reached out to Max’s frame and I shook her carefully.
“MAX! MAX! Wake up!” I yelled.
I heard a clatter from downstairs and two sets of footsteps clambering up the stairs.
“MAX!” I yelled.
I lay her down and slapped her face and it rolled to the side and fell onto the pillow.
“MAX, YOU BITCH!” I yelled as tears started to cloud my vision.
“Mikey!” Frank exclaimed, as he and Gerard burst into Max’s room.
I whirled around and he seemed shocked by my shaken expression.
“She doesn’t have a pulse!”

Frank and Gerard’s faces paled and Frank rushed to her side.
“Maxie, Maxie…sweetheart, wake up. Please Maxie…” Frank begged her, gently tapping her face.
Gerard moved over to her and looked at her before frowning. He grabbed her wrist and then rolled his eyes.
“You’re a fuckin’ idiot, Mikes. She has a fuckin’ pulse you just couldn’t fuckin’ find it!” Gerard snapped.
I sighed in relief and I sagged against her.
“But why isn’t she waking up?!” Frank demanded, cradling Max’s head.
“She’s taken something, obviously,” Gerard said, analysing her face.
As if on cue something orange caught my eye.
I walked over to her bedside table and pulled out three orange bottles filled with tablets and held them up.
“Fuck.”

“What the fuck are they?!” Frank asked.
I turned to the label.
“Flurazepam, Temazepam and Zopiclone,” I read.
“What the fuck?! Those three taken together can fucking kill someone! What the fuck is she doing taking those?!” Gerard growled.
“What are they?” Frank asked, confused.
“Sleeping drugs, Zopiclone is the worst of them! It’s a fucking tranquiliser! And after prolonged use you get addicted to it!” Gerard burst out in anger.
I stared in horror at the tablets before me and dropped them back on the table.
“Wake her up right now,” Gerard growled.
Frank and I looked at each other and I chewed on my lip.
He gently shook her, for fear of suffocating her.
“Max, Max, please Maxie, wake up,” Frank pleaded.
A soft groan could be heard from her lips and I saw her eye lids flutter.

Maxine’s P.O.V.

I faintly heard my brother calling out to me and I fought to reach out to him. The dark sludge of sleep held me close and I was so very tempted to let them take me, but I could hear the desperation in Frank’s voice.
“Maxie…Maxie, wake up…” Frank’s voice called to me.
I groaned and forced my eyes to open. Light pierced my eyes and I groaned, closing them again. I felt numb and heavy. I felt as if my bones, muscles and skin all weighed like three hundred kilos.
“Max…we need you to wake up,” I heard Mikey’s voice call out to me.
I liked his voice, it was gentle and soothing.
“Nice voice,” I muttered to him.
I heard him chuckle along with Frank and I forced my eyes to open again.

I saw Gerard, Frank and Mikey all looking at me and I slowly yawned. It was like everything was slow, my heart beat, my blood, my movements, reactions everything.
“What time?” I asked, I couldn’t manage anything else as my head lolled to the side.
“It’s nine, and you need to wake up now,” Mikey said gently.
I sighed and feebly pushed my covers away. I then slowly sat up and rested my weight back onto my trembling arms. My head fell forwards onto my chest, unable to be supported by my neck muscles yet.
“What time did I go to bed last night?” I asked, my breathing heavy from the energy I didn’t have that I’d used.
“About eleven or so I’d say, why?” Frank asked me.
I was silent as I tried to get my jumbled brain to work.
“So I was asleep for…ten hours?” I asked.
“Yeah, roughly,” Gerard said.
His voice was clipped and short and he sounded angry. I looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Please don’t be angry,” I whispered.
Gerard seemed unsettled by the pleading in my eyes and with the request and sighed, running his hand through his black hair.
“I just want to know why the fuck you’re taking these tablets,” he said.
“He gave them to me. He said it would be the only way to calm the nightmares and they would also keep me from being like the other patients,” I replied.
“Who’s ‘he’?” Gerard asked.
I bit my lip.

The door clanged and I heard keys jangle as they were shoved into the lock. The icy hand of fear gripped my heart and my made throat close up. I crawled back against the back of the bed and curled up, as far away as I could. The door opened with a screech and my heart raced as the guards walked in. On their person they carried cuffs, a cane and a set of keys.
“W-wh-what d’you want?” I called out, my voice cracking and pushing words together.
“You’re coming with us. Normal treatment isn’t working,” the closest guard said.
I trembled as tears welled up.
“No…no…don’t come near me! Don’t touch me!” I squealed, pressing myself against the wall, wishing I could just melt into it.
The guards walked over and grabbed at my arms. I screamed and kicked out at them, before trying to bite them. One of them, the one holding my right arm promptly smacked his fist into my face making it crash into the wall. I whimpered as pain caused white spots behind my eyes.
They wrenched me off the bed, and lifted me up so that my feet were scrambling across the ground. They dragged me across the floor and I tried to keep up. Once I caught my balance I started trotting in between the guards, trying to fight them off.
“No use fighting you stupid bitch,” the one on my left snarled.
“You guys could do with a lesson in manners at least!” I spat, admittedly, not one of my better comebacks.
Without hesitation one of the guards tripped me over so that I went flying towards the ground before the other wrenched my arm back up so hard I gasped and tears reflexively filled my eyes.
“There, I stopped you from falling. Polite enough for you?” the guard on my right spat.
I glared at him through my tears.
We stopped at a set of double doors. They were made of steel and looked heavy. There were small bars cross hatched over the window and they looked to be strong. The doors were pushed open and my eyes widened as the muscles in the guards arms tensed and popped out of their arms as they heaved against the doors. The doors groaned as they were pushed open and I was roughly thrown to the floor. I fell in a tangle of limbs and my head thumped painfully, forehead first on the floor.
“Hmm…who do we have here?” a suave voice asked.
I gulped and focused on untangling myself but a cane cracked down on my head, causing me to cry out in pain.
“LOOK AT ME WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU!” the same voice thundered.
I cowered back and looked up. I was met with a pair of cold, pitiless black eyes. Wait, were they even eyes? They looked like dark pits filled with rabid vipers. They were accentuated by the mess of dark hair which fell across his eyes, shadowing.
“I-I-I-I’m M-M-Maxine,” I stuttered.
His cold eyes raked over my body and I felt the room’s temperature drop by at least five degrees as one of his lips raised in a sneer, revealing sharp white teeth that looked like they could rip someone’s throat out.
“So you’re the one causing all the trouble. I’d like to see how well you do against my methods,” he said, the voice filled with contempt.
I gulped and trembled.
“H-How are y-your m-m-methods different?” I asked; I had never been more afraid of any sane person as I was then.
“I have God on my side. And he has spoken to me and approved my methods,” the man said.
I take back what I said before, this man was not sane.
“W-who are you?” I asked, my voice gaining more confidence.
He smirked, his eyes becoming colder and darker.
“I’m your Doctor,” he whispered, before cracking his cane back down on my head.


I trembled as I came back to reality. I’d come to learn that this guy was The Doctor. He oversaw everything in the facility and if anything got out of hand or took longer than a couple of months then he’d take things into his own hands.
“The Doctor,” I whispered.
“Who?” Gerard asked.
“Not The Doctor Who. Just The Doctor,” I said.
Gerard exchanged a look with Frank.
“Why don’t we just have breakfast first?” Mikey suggested.
I nodded numbly and went to stand up. My legs felt like they were made of noodles and I slithered to the floor. Mikey and Frank quickly grabbed a hold of me and held me up as I tried to stand.
“I’m okay guys…I’m okay,” I said tiredly.
Walking made me extremely tired after I just woke up from those pills.
“We’ll, we’ve got you so it’s all good, now time to make it down the stairs and to the kitchen,” Mikey said reassuringly.
“SHIT! I left the stove on!” Frank exclaimed, and instantly he and Gerard ran back down.
“And then there were two,” I yawned.
Mikey chuckled as I leaned against him.
“Here, I’ll carry you,” he said and before I could protest, he’d picked me up bridal style and was carrying me down to the kitchen.
“Thank you,” I breathed as I rested my head on his shoulder, my eyes closing again.
“No problem Max, we’re all here for you any time you need us.”