Status: active
Thick Blood
The Health Department
Sometimes I cut myself to see if I bleed, the pain is nonexistent and I wonder if I’m really alive. I start to believe none of this is real and everything is just a dream, I’ll wake up to the sweet smell of waffles coming from the kitchen where my mother would be and just realize it was all just a nightmare. But I know in the back of my head this isn’t a dream, and I won’t wake up or see my mother again.
I feel empty, completely hollow and alone even though I have May. She held my hand when we got out of the dirty train, I could tell she was afraid and if wasn’t because of where we were I would’ve shaken it off and told her to get a grip. But I was afraid too and just to feel the warmth of her hand seized my terror. I had to be strong for May and for myself, otherwise we would’ve been dead a long time ago. I looked at May’s fingers and they were so limp and skinny as was her arm. Even though she had always been thin today she looked smaller and paler but she was still so beautiful. So delicate I was afraid to touch her and her fall apart at my feet, her now light auburn knotted hair reached her waist and her freckles distinguished her small nose.
I couldn’t help but watch her with envy at times, how her hand always trembled when she was nervous and how she hummed old tunes to herself to go to sleep. She was a child in a 19 year olds body. Sometimes I’d forget how her face looked when she was angry but when I looked in the mirror I was reminded. May wore the rain boots dad had given her for Christmas two years ago; he had brought them already in a weary state. The yellow color was fading out turning it into an off white and the tulips imprinted on them were already almost faded but the memory of them remained, she wore them so much you would think those were her only shoes. I always mentioned how ugly they were and how big they looked on her and in return she taunted my sweater.
When we entered the health building a man about my height with very dark eyes greeted us and suggested for us to follow him to begin our examination. He led us to a room where we were to take off all our clothes and throw them in a bin. We did as we were told, removing our shoes along with our clothes and placing them in separate bins.
“Leave all your belongings here and enter the showers” The man said while pointing to a door besides us which led into a large shower room in which two other people dressed in the same attire were waiting. The difference was these were women also covered from head to toe except for their eyes,
“Please stand against the wall” One of them said. May and I walked over and stood against the cold brick, the women turned on the showers and began to rinse us. They protruded a bar of soap from their pockets and washed our bodies, the soap burned against our skin and I could hear May begging for her to stop. After they were finished with our bodies and had rinsed the soap out, they began to wash our hair and I could see the black hair dye from my scalp cascade around me. I was a bit grateful because we hadn’t had a proper shower since the train departed two days ago.
The women turned off the showers after rinsing our hair repeatedly and asked us to follow them, it was cold and I was shivering as we entered another room with a huge ceiling window which allowed the sunlight to beam right at us. There the women towel dried our hair and our faces but did not dry our bodies.
“You must stay stand here and dry with the sun, you must not sit” they said in unison and exited the room.
I looked over at May and her eyes were wide with terror, her whole body was shivering and she could barely stand due to her knees buckling.
“Faw-Faw-Fawn, I’m so cold” she whispered, I began to look around the room for any type of clothing to dry ourselves but the small room was empty and the only thing around us were chairs and couches to sit on. Why would they ask us to stand yet place so much furniture around us, were they teasing us because this was not funny.
A few minutes later a man came in holding some articles of clothing, he stared us down from head to toe and handed us white synthetic bathrobes which we quickly put on, the robe put my body at ease and I could tell May was feeling the same because she hugged herself tight.
“Follow me” he spoke softly, just above a whisper but his tone was stern.
We came to a stop in front of a big iron door. The man who was leading us opened it with much force and asked us to enter. The room was also white and quite big; it looked just like the hospitals were mom used to work. Three women were prepping tools on top of a silver platter which was laid in the middle of two small beds. We were told to take off our robes and lie down; following their orders I quickly took off the clothing piece and walked to the bed on the left and lied down. It wasn’t comfortable but I was in no position to argue. I turned my head to look at me and met her eyes, who were staring at mine with concern and fear,
“Don’t be scared” I mouthed and she closed her eyes tight, probably holding her tears back.
I turned my view to the white ceiling above me and began to picture myself walking out of here, forgetting this whole experience. One of the women held my hand and inserted a needle inside which was attached to a machine besides me, she took my other hand and smacked it hard for a vein to appear and when it did she inserted another needle and protruded a small amount of blood which she then handed to the other woman.
After she asked me to open my mouth, I did as I was asked and with a wooden stick she searched my whole mouth. I was a bit nervous when she began to press my ribs with an unknown tool; she checked my breasts and my vulva. She then cut my finger nails and with a two fingers held my lashes and checked my eyes.
“How is she?” I heard one of them ask the woman who had been checking me; she nodded and said I was clean.
“How’s her blood, any problems?” asked the one who had checked me, I learned to differentiate them by eye colors. The lady who had searched me had dark almond colored eyes, the one who had checked the blood had deep grey eyes and the one doing the check up on May I had noticed had beautiful brown eyes, so dark they almost seemed black.
“No ma’am, she’s healthy”
“How about the other one?” almond eyes flicked her eyes over at the bed besides me, Grey eyes smiled and said she was also fine they were just doing a few more checkups to be sure. What was there to be sure about, May was as healthy as a horse. Her immune system was incredible and I can’t remember a time when she ever had to go to the hospital except for checkups.
The machine besides me beeped slowly, it had so many buttons I did not know what any of them was for but it was not just a typical machine. I never say one of them at mom’s hospital, it was probably just another government mystery I did not care to solve. I suddenly heard May wince in pain and looked over, the woman with dark eyes was trying to inject her once again.
“Hey! Stop it, you’re hurting her” I tried to stand up but almond eyes forced me back down with force,
“Miss, you must stay still. Ms. Dalton is just having a difficult time finding her vein”
I was concerned and afraid, not for myself but for May because she was so delicate it pained me to see her in pain.
“Hey look at me May, it’s going to be fine okay. You’re going to be fine” I looked at May straight in the eyes and she nodded her head, biting her lip in agreement. Grey eyes came back into the room; I hadn’t even noticed she had left. She approached Almond eyes and whispered something in her ear, but it was loud enough for me to hear. What she said made my skin grow cold, and my eyes widen.
“Mrs.Poterphill there’s a problem with the other girls blood, please have a look”
Mrs. Poterphill’s eyes became tight and she stood up, asking Ms. Dalton to look after us and walking out of the room behind the grey eyed woman who I still did not know her name. I knew something wasn’t right, I could feel it in my bones. The air in the room felt thinner and the woman besides May was moving farther from her. If there was something actually wrong with May who knows what they would do, we surely won’t be able to leave this place and enter area 9.
So many thoughts rushed into my head at once, but all was sure about was that we were not safe in this place and we needed to get out.
I turned to my side, making sure the doctor did not catch me and began to slowly take out the needle on my arm, hoping the machine wouldn’t go off or something and lead my plan to ruins. But when I felt the tip was almost out I kept my eyes closed and kept pleading for it not to make a sound. The needle was out and the machine had not made a noise, I let out a deep breath and turned back to the position I had been on before. I looked over to my left and regarded the tools on top of the silver table, there was a small surgery knife and I knew that was the one.
“Miss I think you dropped something” I told the doctor which made her look down quickly and in the blink of an eye I stood up grabbed the knife and stood behind her placing it against her throat.
“If your scream I will kill you, if you try to run away I will kill you. So don’t make a noise and sit down on the edge of the bed”
The woman nodded and did as I told her with terror in her eyes, afraid that I might actually slit her throat and bathe myself in her dirty blood. Mays eyes were also full of fear, but she knew something was wrong. I told her to quickly put her bathrobe on and she did without question.
When May was dressed and she walked over to me and grabbed a needle that had ‘sedative’ taped on it from the top of the counter.
“Fawn, give her this” she handed it to me and I told her it would be hard for me to do it while also holding the knife but she refused to hold a weapon against the woman so she decided to rather inject her with the sedative.
She was fast asleep after the shot; I placed the knife on the bed and undressed the doctor. Then I put on her whole outfit and grabbed the knife once again, placing it on the pocket of the white pants.
“We need to get out of here or they will kill you and me both, do you understand?”
I feel empty, completely hollow and alone even though I have May. She held my hand when we got out of the dirty train, I could tell she was afraid and if wasn’t because of where we were I would’ve shaken it off and told her to get a grip. But I was afraid too and just to feel the warmth of her hand seized my terror. I had to be strong for May and for myself, otherwise we would’ve been dead a long time ago. I looked at May’s fingers and they were so limp and skinny as was her arm. Even though she had always been thin today she looked smaller and paler but she was still so beautiful. So delicate I was afraid to touch her and her fall apart at my feet, her now light auburn knotted hair reached her waist and her freckles distinguished her small nose.
I couldn’t help but watch her with envy at times, how her hand always trembled when she was nervous and how she hummed old tunes to herself to go to sleep. She was a child in a 19 year olds body. Sometimes I’d forget how her face looked when she was angry but when I looked in the mirror I was reminded. May wore the rain boots dad had given her for Christmas two years ago; he had brought them already in a weary state. The yellow color was fading out turning it into an off white and the tulips imprinted on them were already almost faded but the memory of them remained, she wore them so much you would think those were her only shoes. I always mentioned how ugly they were and how big they looked on her and in return she taunted my sweater.
When we entered the health building a man about my height with very dark eyes greeted us and suggested for us to follow him to begin our examination. He led us to a room where we were to take off all our clothes and throw them in a bin. We did as we were told, removing our shoes along with our clothes and placing them in separate bins.
“Leave all your belongings here and enter the showers” The man said while pointing to a door besides us which led into a large shower room in which two other people dressed in the same attire were waiting. The difference was these were women also covered from head to toe except for their eyes,
“Please stand against the wall” One of them said. May and I walked over and stood against the cold brick, the women turned on the showers and began to rinse us. They protruded a bar of soap from their pockets and washed our bodies, the soap burned against our skin and I could hear May begging for her to stop. After they were finished with our bodies and had rinsed the soap out, they began to wash our hair and I could see the black hair dye from my scalp cascade around me. I was a bit grateful because we hadn’t had a proper shower since the train departed two days ago.
The women turned off the showers after rinsing our hair repeatedly and asked us to follow them, it was cold and I was shivering as we entered another room with a huge ceiling window which allowed the sunlight to beam right at us. There the women towel dried our hair and our faces but did not dry our bodies.
“You must stay stand here and dry with the sun, you must not sit” they said in unison and exited the room.
I looked over at May and her eyes were wide with terror, her whole body was shivering and she could barely stand due to her knees buckling.
“Faw-Faw-Fawn, I’m so cold” she whispered, I began to look around the room for any type of clothing to dry ourselves but the small room was empty and the only thing around us were chairs and couches to sit on. Why would they ask us to stand yet place so much furniture around us, were they teasing us because this was not funny.
A few minutes later a man came in holding some articles of clothing, he stared us down from head to toe and handed us white synthetic bathrobes which we quickly put on, the robe put my body at ease and I could tell May was feeling the same because she hugged herself tight.
“Follow me” he spoke softly, just above a whisper but his tone was stern.
We came to a stop in front of a big iron door. The man who was leading us opened it with much force and asked us to enter. The room was also white and quite big; it looked just like the hospitals were mom used to work. Three women were prepping tools on top of a silver platter which was laid in the middle of two small beds. We were told to take off our robes and lie down; following their orders I quickly took off the clothing piece and walked to the bed on the left and lied down. It wasn’t comfortable but I was in no position to argue. I turned my head to look at me and met her eyes, who were staring at mine with concern and fear,
“Don’t be scared” I mouthed and she closed her eyes tight, probably holding her tears back.
I turned my view to the white ceiling above me and began to picture myself walking out of here, forgetting this whole experience. One of the women held my hand and inserted a needle inside which was attached to a machine besides me, she took my other hand and smacked it hard for a vein to appear and when it did she inserted another needle and protruded a small amount of blood which she then handed to the other woman.
After she asked me to open my mouth, I did as I was asked and with a wooden stick she searched my whole mouth. I was a bit nervous when she began to press my ribs with an unknown tool; she checked my breasts and my vulva. She then cut my finger nails and with a two fingers held my lashes and checked my eyes.
“How is she?” I heard one of them ask the woman who had been checking me; she nodded and said I was clean.
“How’s her blood, any problems?” asked the one who had checked me, I learned to differentiate them by eye colors. The lady who had searched me had dark almond colored eyes, the one who had checked the blood had deep grey eyes and the one doing the check up on May I had noticed had beautiful brown eyes, so dark they almost seemed black.
“No ma’am, she’s healthy”
“How about the other one?” almond eyes flicked her eyes over at the bed besides me, Grey eyes smiled and said she was also fine they were just doing a few more checkups to be sure. What was there to be sure about, May was as healthy as a horse. Her immune system was incredible and I can’t remember a time when she ever had to go to the hospital except for checkups.
The machine besides me beeped slowly, it had so many buttons I did not know what any of them was for but it was not just a typical machine. I never say one of them at mom’s hospital, it was probably just another government mystery I did not care to solve. I suddenly heard May wince in pain and looked over, the woman with dark eyes was trying to inject her once again.
“Hey! Stop it, you’re hurting her” I tried to stand up but almond eyes forced me back down with force,
“Miss, you must stay still. Ms. Dalton is just having a difficult time finding her vein”
I was concerned and afraid, not for myself but for May because she was so delicate it pained me to see her in pain.
“Hey look at me May, it’s going to be fine okay. You’re going to be fine” I looked at May straight in the eyes and she nodded her head, biting her lip in agreement. Grey eyes came back into the room; I hadn’t even noticed she had left. She approached Almond eyes and whispered something in her ear, but it was loud enough for me to hear. What she said made my skin grow cold, and my eyes widen.
“Mrs.Poterphill there’s a problem with the other girls blood, please have a look”
Mrs. Poterphill’s eyes became tight and she stood up, asking Ms. Dalton to look after us and walking out of the room behind the grey eyed woman who I still did not know her name. I knew something wasn’t right, I could feel it in my bones. The air in the room felt thinner and the woman besides May was moving farther from her. If there was something actually wrong with May who knows what they would do, we surely won’t be able to leave this place and enter area 9.
So many thoughts rushed into my head at once, but all was sure about was that we were not safe in this place and we needed to get out.
I turned to my side, making sure the doctor did not catch me and began to slowly take out the needle on my arm, hoping the machine wouldn’t go off or something and lead my plan to ruins. But when I felt the tip was almost out I kept my eyes closed and kept pleading for it not to make a sound. The needle was out and the machine had not made a noise, I let out a deep breath and turned back to the position I had been on before. I looked over to my left and regarded the tools on top of the silver table, there was a small surgery knife and I knew that was the one.
“Miss I think you dropped something” I told the doctor which made her look down quickly and in the blink of an eye I stood up grabbed the knife and stood behind her placing it against her throat.
“If your scream I will kill you, if you try to run away I will kill you. So don’t make a noise and sit down on the edge of the bed”
The woman nodded and did as I told her with terror in her eyes, afraid that I might actually slit her throat and bathe myself in her dirty blood. Mays eyes were also full of fear, but she knew something was wrong. I told her to quickly put her bathrobe on and she did without question.
When May was dressed and she walked over to me and grabbed a needle that had ‘sedative’ taped on it from the top of the counter.
“Fawn, give her this” she handed it to me and I told her it would be hard for me to do it while also holding the knife but she refused to hold a weapon against the woman so she decided to rather inject her with the sedative.
She was fast asleep after the shot; I placed the knife on the bed and undressed the doctor. Then I put on her whole outfit and grabbed the knife once again, placing it on the pocket of the white pants.
“We need to get out of here or they will kill you and me both, do you understand?”