The Apodictic Cure

"Jessica stayed home sick today, so I'll be your nurse." Of course they'd picked a man.They're probably doing it for part of your treatment. V sounded sick, as she did when Brielle took her medication. For the first week and a half she'd been spitting the pills back out and hiding them under her mattress. They'd found them one day ago, so today Mason, the substitute nurse, made sure she'd swallowed them. She showed him her empty mouth and waited for him to leave. When he didn't Brielle went into the corner of her room to curl up, facing him. "Brielle, I'm not going to hurt you." She scoffed, pulling her knees closer to her chest. Mason took one step closer to her but Brielle screamed.

"Don't touch us!" A wicked smile extended on her lips. "Get off me!" With one of her hands she dug her fingernails into her other arms. It didn't do much, but it did look like someone had grabbed her. She forced herself to start crying and continued to scream. Mason's hands were up in a defensive position, his grey eyes shining with confusion. He tried to sooth her but her shrieks just got worse. Another nurse barged in and removed Mason from the room. She returned in a panic.

"Brielle, calm down- hush." She touched Brielle's arm in hopes of conforting her, "It's okay, he's gone. It's okay!"

Brielle just continued to scream. The nurse ran back into the hallway, her platinum curls bobbing while she trotter and retrieved a sedative. When Brielle saw the needle she stopped screaming, but the tears kept coming. "Please, don't. Take that away from us, I don't want to see it. I don't need it." But she was beginning to panic. Her chest heaved, breath coming short, and continuously getting caught in her throat. She sputtered, snot dripping thickly from her nostrils and swimming in her tears. Don't let her give that to us, Brielle. If we take that I'll be gone, like last time, and you'll be alone to drown in your nightmares and loneliness. "I can't be alone."

"I wont leave you alone, Sweetie." Her voice was high pitched and nasally. Not at all soothing, as she was trying to be.

Brielle jumped to her feet and pushed past the nurse to slam her head into the window. The glass shattered carving shallow scars into her forehead. They stung with the cool breeze that now blew in. She bent down and grasped a shard of glass, holding it in front of herself like a weapon.

"Brielle, prove to me that you don't need this, and I'll put it away." Right then, all Brielle wanted was to get out of there. The window is open, you idiot, go! If you're lucky, you'll get seriously hurt... Maybe even die. We'd rather be dead than be here, right? "Think about Miel! What's she going to do when she finds out?"

Brielle's eyes widened in worry, her lips twitched to the side and she loosened her grip on the glass. Miel doesn't care about us! You need to get out of here any way you can! Think about us, not her! Brielle dropped the shard, making V groan with annoyance. In turn the nurse pocketed the syringe. "Thank you." Her chest visibly heaved with each breath.

__

Brielle focused on Dr. Jonson's foot tapping in sync with the tick of the clock. The beats were nearly identical, and oddly hypnotizing. She shook her head in hopes to remove the weights from her eyelids, still they stayed.

"Did Nurse Mason really touch you?" Her face was impassive, most likely because she knew the answer to the moronic question she'd just asked.

Brielle just stared.

"Brielle, if he did, then you need to tell us so we can do something about it." She scrawled something onto her clipboard.

"Why should I admit when you didn't believe me the first time?" Dr. Jonson's eyes widened a bit and a small smile showed through them. She seemed satisfied.

"Go on."

Shut up.

"You know what I think? I think you're sad. I think you come here every day to give yourself a bit of satisfaction that you just can't seem to find at home." Dr. Jonson shifted in her seat, the only sign she'd given of feeling uncomfortable. That's all she needed, though. "You've got your own problems- you became a doctor so you could help others with what you could never help yourself. This place is perfect for you, too, isn't it? Because it reassures you that you're not that bad."

"Would it help if I told you you're right?" Her eyes shone with sympathy, but not caring.

"No, it wouldn't. I already know I'm right." Her voice, for the first time in years, sounded confident. Maybe even a little smug.

"And back to Mason?" The woman didn't even look up from her clipboard. She doesn't care. This is just a job to her.

Brielle sighed, slumping back into the grey leather seat she'd claimed on her first visit. "You and I both know perfectly well that he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was being the good little circus creature you all have conformed to be."

"Then why did you set him up?"

She shrugged. "Because, I don't want men near me. I hate them, and you all know it. Yet you keep sending men my way- with needles at that." She paused to suck in a fresh breath. "Another thing: I don't like needles."

The pair sat in silence for another ten minutes, Brielle almost fell asleep to the clock, again.

"I'd like you to help me with another patient." Dr. Jonson had spoken up just as Brielle's new substitute nurse came in.

"What makes you think that I'd be willing?" A shrill laugh erupted from her mouth, but it came from V.

"Because I want you to help me and Dr. Kress with Miel."