Silence Falls

Natasha gazed out through the barred window of the room she shared with Alexis, Onika, and Demitria. It was after 6:30PM and they had all taken their pills and were already in their rooms, minus Otep.

After the altercation with that demented patient Jayda, Otep had blown two days chained to an industrial pipe in her room for any random male orderlies to grope on, or smack around when they cruised by. Naturally, this would gravely traumatize any woman in such a position, but not Otep. She’d already been through a similar plight before when her father used to pawn her out for money to corrupt older men. A few molesting hands and cracking blows were nothing compared to what happened to her back then.

The others were all lying quietly in their beds, the ordeal of this place slowly getting to their mental health...and not to mention being heavily medicated most of the time. Their blonde and banged up brainiac was leaning against their wall on the floor, mutely spacing out as well. Natasha was the only one standing, her hands curled around the cold bar as she leaned her forehead against it, longing for some harbinger of hope to show itself and tell her everything would be okay again one day...somehow. Some way.

Blue and green eyes suddenly burst to the forefront of her mind, making her jerk her head back from the ridged blackened bars, her wired brown eyes large as they gaped out the window.

Out in the distance was a watch tower that, out of nowhere, caught her attention. Rubbing her eyes to centralize them better against the drugs dimming her perception, Natasha couldn’t bring herself to recall ever viewing that mysterious tower out their window before until now. The longer she gawked at it, the more her mind kept exhibiting to her ephemeral images of Hermanni and his striking eyes.

Why was he on her mind so distinctly all of a sudden?

A few seconds of disorientation passed before the fantasy of him liquified away like a watercolor painting doused with water. It then abruptly dawned on her that that tower was where Hermanni was! She didn’t know how, but she could feel it in every ounce of her being that Hermanni was there. Her eyes changed to worry next because he wasn’t in the Male Ward like they concluded he was all this time.

No, he was in a tower faraway from the Psychiatric Hospital that she honestly wouldn’t be surprised to hear that nobody knew about. That seemed to be a recurring theme here in this town.

“I know where he is.” Natasha murmured aloud, oblivious if she was heard by the others. Her eyes were still fixed on that tower.

The others in the room glanced her way, having heard her speak but weren’t positive that what they had heard made any sense in their distorted minds.

“You know where who is?” Otep inquired, her voice sounding lethargic due to her medication.

“Hermanni.” Natasha told them.

All the girls immediately swam to the surface of their drugged induced trance and rose from their beds to huddle behind her. Otep and Alexis were the only ones that stayed seated, but were listening just as sharply to what Natasha had to say.

“You know where he is?” Demitria restated, wondering if Natasha somehow sighted him out the window...like maybe standing behind some trees or something to remain camouflaged from the men patrolling the Hospital grounds. She made grabby hands towards the shrouded beauty, perceiving her to be extremely close yet she couldn’t seem to touch her with her outstretched hands. The medication was already messing with their heads faster than they suspected it would.

“As in, he’s not in the boys ward with Bert and the others?” Onika asked, leaning against the wall beside Natasha to stay upright. Her body felt like it weighed a ton.

When Natasha didn’t answer any of their questions, Demitria and Onika dragged themselves to stare out the window on each side of her. As soon as their eyes connected to the watchtower, they felt this tug towards it from their mind and their bodies as memories of Hermanni materialized.

“He needs us.” Onika mumbled in a daze, her eyes glazing over with tears because she knew her words were somehow accurate.

Demitria and Natasha didn’t say a word back, because they too felt the desperation to be there wherever Hermanni was in order to redeem him from whatever peril he was about to face. It didn’t feel like they had a choice to come to his rescue. Their hearts were telling them they HAD to.

Otep examined them from across the room. She could see the stiffness of their bodies like they were suddenly cast under a spell, and instantly knew that it was Hermanni's doing. He was trying to reach them through the girls. What they were saying were HIS words. Otep wasn’t experiencing the spell that the three were undergoing, and surprisingly neither was Alexis, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care about Hermanni's well-being.

With her own eyes, Otep had witnessed just what Hermanni was capable of, and knew that he would stop at nothing to find them. It’s been days already and they haven’t seen or heard from him since their abduction, which was odd to her. Undoubtedly, that boy wasn’t human. He had powers that went beyond human abilities.

So why hadn’t he shown himself yet and decimated this entire hospital like the soldiers in the mall?

Something had to be keeping him from them, or maybe even someone. Could Hermanni have easily been jailed too or worse, killed?

Otep didn’t know if killing him was even possible just like how she also didn’t know if they were going to make it out of this hospital alive. There hadn’t been word from Bert which was also worrying her. Would he be able to make contact with them, or free them before long-term symptoms from these pills begin to take effect?

What if they permanently damage their brains?

What if they go clinically insane afterwards and it’s irreversible?

Would it be fair to not let the others know the truth about Hermanni while they still had a brain that could understand her?

These four young women care more about that boy than anyone else in their group so she supposed they deserve to know who he truly is...but just in case Otep elected to only tell them a little bit. They didn’t need to know everything.

Letting out a sigh, Otep closed her eyes and reported. “Hermanni is Subject V.”