Page 31 of No Way Back
“Woah, woah!”
It’s someone with a badge, so I release quickly, but it’s her who throws her hands up in defense. “That’s my bad. I should have known better than to surprise someone who just went through…that.” Her eyes glance toward the building.
With a deep breath, I exhale loudly in an attempt to relax. “Sorry,” I say, shaking my head.
“I’m Detective Hoss. I just need a quick statement so we don’t have to call you down to the station later. You think you can do that?” She’s a younger cop, maybe my age, if not a couple years my senior.
I nod slowly.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Hoss takes out her pen, her pad already in hand.
“My fiancée and I came for the tour. When the power went out, everything got crazy.” Flashes of the night pass through my mind. “The cells opened, and that’s when all the killing began. We tried to hide, but no matter where we went, they kept chasing us. I threw her into solitary confinement to keep her safe.”
Her face turns pale.
“What?”
“N-nothing.” She looks back down at his pad and continues writing.
“Why did you do that? Why did you look at me like that?” I don’t know why, but my heart races again, terror filling my veins.
“The new solitary confinement cells are upstairs. The prison doesn’t use the ones in the basement anymore.” She’s not looking at me when she says it.
She’s not giving me the answers I want. “What does that mean?”
“The warden stopped using the basement solitary cells because of the haunted rumors. Too many inmates were being sent to the looney bin after a night in there.” Hoss looks up from her pad, giving me the most unconvincing smile. “I-I’m sure it’s just theatrics for the event.”
“I just want to take her home. Tonight has been...” I don’t finish; I just shake my head.
She glances toward the prison exit, as if she might come out any moment. “I’ll need her statement before we can let her go—”
“Sorry, Hoss, you’re not getting a statement out of that one.” The guard who helped before is at my side again. “Orders from the medical director to send her to Sunny Valley Sanatorium.”
I whip my head toward him. “What?”
“No need for concern, Mr. Harkins.” An older woman’s voice comes from behind.
I turn to face a gray-haired woman in a pale blue suit and a paisley tie. “Doctor,” I correct her.
She disregards the honorary I spent nearly a decade working toward. She knows right here, right now,she’sthe one whose say matters. “Your fiancée was in a great deal of distress, not uncommon for someone who experienced such a…traumatic event.” She adjusts her glasses at the top of her nose, choosing the next words carefully. “My team had to subdue and medicate her in order to remove your fiancée from the prison, and because of my team’s unfortunate but necessary involvement, procedure does demand her transfer into a psychiatric care facility. For evaluation only.”
I’m struggling to process her words; all I can hear is the heavy pulsing of my blood between my ears.
“It’s only a hold, of course. No need to panic.” She gives a nervous laugh, like she senses I’m on the verge of losing it. “Forty-eight hours for evaluation. Once she’s calmed down, they’ll be able to release her.”
My stomach sinks.
There’s no part of me that believes in the American health system, no part of me that trusts once she‘s taken inside that place, they’ll just willingly let her go.
“Mr. Harkins?” The medical director calls my name, waiting for some sort of response.
That’s when three men in white coats wheel a gurney out of the prison. I run, but two guards hold me by the arms, pulling me back. “That’s my fiancée!” I shout.
I can only hear her muffled screaming, an agony that cuts my soul in half while they push her into view. I throw an elbow behind me, breaking away on one side and attempting to shake the other cop off me. I’m only able to get a quick glance before they lift her into the rear of the transport van. She lays on her back, her arms crossed over her chest in an X, dozens of leatherstraps securing her to the bed. There’s a muzzle over her mouth with only her eyes exposed, burning into mine. When she turns her head, it’s those same eyes that take the other half of my soul with her.
I’m hit from behind, knocked onto my knees when I feel a heavy body cole over me. “Stay down!” the cop screams in my ear, no shred of empathy left.
Shock courses through me, an ongoing current that feels never-ending as it runs from my back all the way down to my toes. It’s like hundreds of hammers pounding along every muscle in my body, contracting uncontrollably from the electricity. It feels like a lifetime before the taser is turned off, before I can breathe again.
