Sci Fi & Fantasy / 12 Days Till Sunset, ch. II
12 Days Till Sunset
II: Unbalanced
The world around her was dark.
Jane sat up in her bed, drenched in sweat. She looked about her room for something to do. She could not sleep, she could not dream of that night again…
Her eyelids were heavy with exhaustion, her face slick with moisture. How dare someone commit such a crime? She would find him and hunt him down. I will make his life Hell.
The ringing in her ears hadn’t stopped for days now. The doctors had said that it would only last a week; she was simply in shock. It’s not all that simple, she wanted to tell them. They didn’t understand.
Jane got out of bed and went to her kitchen, picking up the phone. What number could she dial? Who would want to help her?
“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.
“I… I need help. The doctors here in Falland, they’re no good. They don’t understand. They tell me it’ll all get better but they don’t understand.”
“Excuse me Miss, but what is your emergency?” the operator asked with agitation in her voice.
“You need to help me. You need to make them understand.” Jane felt her voice beginning to crack. No one would ever help her.
“Are you bleeding? Are you hurt?” the operator continued, attempting to be patient.
“I’m hurting inside, so much. I need someone. The ringing in my ears – it never stops. I don’t sleep. I can’t focus. I’m losing my job!” Jane screamed the last sentence. Her job was the most important part of her life now, the only stable part, but she was about to lose it. The men and women at the Falland Tribune had noticed her dramatic change in her mental state. She behaved erratically now, but she had reason to. She was saddened by the fact that she knew she couldn’t make them understand.
“I’m sending someone over to your location right now, Ma’am.” The operator hung up.
Jane stared at the phone, puzzled. Who was she sending that could possible make things different?
She went to the living room and turned on the television. Every station was unappealing. “Boring, boring, boring,” she said as she flipped through the options.
At last she landed on a showing of Sesame Street, transfixed by the bright red character of Elmo on her TV screen. Sesame Street on at four in the morning? It didn’t make sense to her; no kids were awake at this time. It was like the TV station had thought of her. Jane smiled.
A loud knock at the door startled her. “Ahhh…” Jane covered her ears in pain. She got up and opened the door, staring into the faces of three police officers.
“We’re going to need you to come with us, Miss Roberts.” The tallest one addressed her.
“Where?” Jane asked, confused. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“We know that.” The officers pulled her forward and snapped the handcuffs onto her wrists. “We’re just doing this for your safety.”
Jane followed them out of her apartment complex and sat in the back of the police vehicle, trying to make sense of where she might be going.
They drove for what seemed like hours, through the misty and damp streets of Falland. Jane occupied herself with looking out the window but panicked when she noticed they were driving from the relatively peaceful part of the city to downtown, where criminals ran rampant.
“You’re not taking me to jail!” she screeched at the officers.
“No, we’re not. Just sit tight,” one of them spoke to her.
Her blonde hair was frizzed from a recent lack of showering and her clothes were torn from her constant tossing and turning during sleep.
Through the back window she saw crude buildings covered in graffiti. There were men and women wearing masks fastened out of whatever materials they could find, roaming the streets. Prostitutes stood on every corner, beckoning to the cop car. Cardboard boxes served as the makeshift homes for Falland’s least fortunate. They crawled on the ground, pitiful creatures. Some had open wounds and others shook with the effects of drugs.
Jane had never seen anything so filthy in her life. Falland was a nice city at times, but the downtown was horrid. They passed the city prison, tall and menacing in its medieval design.
Only when she saw it looming in the distance did she put the pieces together. Standing atop a hill, it overlooked the rest of the city. It was the largest building in Falland, plain white with few windows. A large, iron fence surrounded it on every side.
Falland City Hospital was worse than prison. The length of a person’s stay was far too long. It was overcrowded and unsanitary, full of the monsters and scum of the city streets.
Jane could not imagine a worse fate. In her handcuffs, she didn’t have much freedom. She banged on the window with her fists, tears pouring from her eyes.
“You’re not taking me here! I don’t belong here!”
The officers ignored her. All around her, she felt as if the walls were closing in. There was no more hope for her. She would be thrown into one of the cells of the Hospital – deemed too “crazy” for normal life. No one would give her a second glance anymore. She was simply another one of them.
She would never be allowed another job after a trip to the Hospital. She had been editor of the Falland Tribune for just one month. Jane thought she would have fared better than this.
They pulled up to the gate and the officers spoke to the man in the security pod. They described Jane and showed the guard their badges, and they were on their way through the gates.
“No… no…” Jane muttered from her seat. Tall and haunting trees loomed all around her. The sturdy white building was like a fortress in the distance.
“You can’t take me here!” she screamed at the officers.
They exchanged looks at one another. “It’s too late for that, Miss Roberts,” one of them ventured.
“Do you know who I am?” Jane asked incredulously.
“Sure we know,” the same officer continued. “Your fate is just as bad as the past editors of the Falland paper.” The officers laughed.
“We’re sorry, really,” another one spoke. “There just seems to be a trend amongst you writers. I don’t know what it is.”
“You aren’t sorry!” Jane spat. “You’ll never be sorry.”
She stared outside the window as the car came to a stop.
“Here we are.” The officers got out and gingerly removed Jane from the back of the car. A doctor was waiting outside the large doors of the facility, ready to help with transporting Jane.
Jane stared at him maliciously. “I’m not like these people.”
The officers exchanged a brief word with the doctor, who put a neon wristband on Jane. “787,” it read. She was just a number now.
“We’ll take you to your room now, Jane.” The doctor nodded to the officers, who took their leave. A nurse appeared to help handle Jane.
Jane turned and looked at the officers as they departed. The rage boiled inside her. “I don’t belong here!” she shouted after them. “You know it! I DON’T BELONG HERE!”
The sun was rising behind the hill, but that did not in the least bit make Jane Roberts feel any warmer.
- April Fischer, 2008
You need to log in to urbis or create an urbis account to review this writing.
Reviews
Sort Reviews by Newest | Oldest | Highest Quality | Lowest Quality | Newest Comments |
I obviously need to read the first chapter. But otherwise your writing style and ability is incredible, way above me! At the part where your describing what she sees when she looks out the window you say “Falland’s least fortunate,” If I am correct, which I am not always, wouldn’t “less” be better than “least?” I am just throwing that out there.
I hope you keep writing.
-Bobby
- add/view comments (0)
Showing 1 - 1 of 1
Review item
Add to faves
GENERAL
REVIEW QUEUE
Ratings & Rankings
