Ending of the Beginning

The Meeting

For a long time I just sat there doing little things like braiding my hair to keep busy I finally got bored of waiting and went over to the door tripping over either my own feet or crap on the floor. Before I could lay a hand on the door or speak a word to the people on the other side the door opened letting me see the two guards looking at me with a blank expression; I stand there for a few seconds with a dumb look on my face.

“Your meeting with the instructor has been scheduled in for 11 o’clock we are your escorts for this morning.” The one with three scabbed over scratches on his face says, he looks vaguely familiar but I can’t place where I know him from.

“Ok well lead the way.” I said stepping out into the light; the sudden brightness brings a shiver over my body.

“This way Miss Severn.” The two say turning simultaneously and walking toward the door. I follow them without responding. I can feel my stomach jump to my throat when I realize I have no idea what I am going to say to the person who runs this whole thing. I focus on controlling my breathing and calming down before I get there and actually have to talk. We walk down the hallway for a very long time; I count every door we go by until we stop in front of two big swinging doors. Each guard goes to their own side of the door

“You can enter.” One of them barks but I don’t pay attention. I take a deep breath and push on the two heavy wood doors; walking in to the office and the first thing  I see is a huge wooden desk sitting on top of a furry carpet, I look up to expect a face to be looking back at me but I see the back of an equally big office chair.

“Come have a seat, Kuryen.” The voice behind the turned chair sounded stressed but even. I shuffle over towards the chairs oppisant to the desk the other person is on and sit down expecting the other person to turn around. “You wanted to see me?” he questions.

“Yes, so nice you got time to pencil me into your busy day.” I spit, I already don’t like the person sitting across from me.

“Now, now someone has a temper.” The voice chuckles.

“You haven’t seen the half of it.” I growl cracking my knuckles for effect.

“Oh but I think I have, you slit the throat of my leading major in defensive tactics without so much as breaking a sweat, your more of a threat then you believe Kuryen.” He chortles, his voice is raspy and weathered and immensely annoying. I shiver remembering the event that had led to me killing someone, there was a familiar stinging in my eyes that only happened when I was trying to hold back tears.

“You have no idea who I am or what I am capable of, your just some sicko who keeps thousands of people locked up for no apparent reason.” I hiss holding myself in the chair. I didn’t come in here with any idea of what I was going to say or do but my mouth seems to be doing a good job of coming up with what to say.

“You may think I have no logic for keeping you all locked up in here but I have a very logical reason for it actually.” He announced.

“Really, I would love to hear all about it, please elaborate on this wonderful fucking institute.” I boomed leaning back in my chair and crossing my legs.

“First off it isn’t an institute it’s a place for people who aren’t ready to live in society yet, when they are ready the will be placed there and free to live their own life. Second, we are what you would call a government run facility” He reasoned.

“What do you mean not ready to live in society yet? That makes no fucking sense! Because government run facility sounds so much god damn better. ” I protested. This guy is so confusing.

“I mean these people don’t know how to live without causing trouble, all they do is cause trouble, disobey the rules and make it hard for everyone. So instead of putting them in jail we decided to build this place, you have to admit it’s a lot better them jail would be.” He declared.

“How long has this place been here?” I ask a little bit calmer.

“Around 2 and a half years.” He said. Makes sense the sun flare took everything out around three and half almost four years ago now.

“Is there other places like it?” I inquire.

“Yes, about five more.” He replied. I sit and absorb all the information I have just been given, if this is a place for people who don’t like to behave…why is Salem in here is the first thought that comes into my mind. I brush it off and redirect my attention.

“Do you meet with patients often?” I ask curiosity taking over.

“No not really, but you your different Kuryen. We didn’t capture you, you tried to break in and you see we have never had that happen before. That’s why I wanted to talk to you, I want to know why you left your village and ran?” he questioned. I sat there trying to find the perfect thing to say but I pulled a blank every time, I opened my mouth but nothing came out the words were stuck in my throat like glue.

“I...I...I left because I wasn’t happy. I wanted to know what was over here that was such a big deal that we weren’t allowed over here. They tried to tell us it was radiation problems but I didn’t believe them. And I guess for good reason to because there is something over here.” I explain. It all comes out in a big rush and I am out of breath. He takes a minuet to consider my reasons then speaks again.

“Why did you bring the boy, I looked at his record he’s squeaky clean.” The voice remarked. The fact that the man still hasn’t turned around to face me yet is starting to really bug me, it’s like he’s trying to hide his face.

“That’s complicated, we were childhood friends that ended up in the same residential village and we just decided to do it together, we had a thing at the time, he had a thing I felt bad because his mom had just died and I couldn’t just push him away he needed me. I pretend for his sake…wait why am I telling you this!” I exclaim. I hadn’t meant to tell him all that I just started blabbing as usual. I give a heavy sigh and put my head on my hands. I sit there looking at the floor for a long time in silence until I hear a creak and a small chuckle.

“Why look so confused Kuryen?” He asks. I look up and see a slightly older man a little bit younger then my dad was, late thirties maybe older. He has gray blue eyes and dark brown hair, his skin is slightly weathered but still in good condition and from what I can see he is pretty tall I feel a faint recognition of his face but figure it’s a fluke.

“I’m not confused, my head really fucking hurts.” I say wincing in pain, the headache hit me like a tidal wave of pain; the headaches are nothing abnormal I have had them since I was 14 and sometimes I had to stay home from school they got so bad but this is a bad time to get one.

“Are you ok?” he muttered sounding actually worried about my well-being which made me question his intentions.

“Why do you care?” I ask grabbing each side of my head and scrunching my face up in pain.

“Can I not just be genuinely worried for someone?” he retorts.

“No one is ever genuinely worried about someone else unless they have good reason to be like they are related or they are good friends, and you are neither related to me or my good friend. Your just some man that wants something with me and I not sure what.” I manage to get out quickly between whimpers and gasps of pain.

“And what if I was related to you…Curry.” He breathed out my old nickname like he had called me it a million times before. There was only one person that ever called me by the Indian food curry and that was Uncle Dale. I think back to what the guard had called this man, Carver I think; Dale Carver, that had been Uncle Dales last name, he was my Dads younger brother and this man is about three years younger than my dad would be now but there’s no way that this man keeping me imprisoned was my sweet and caring Uncle Dale.

“Uncle Dale?” I ask squinting my eyes, this headache was starting to get really bad; I feel dizzy, nauseas and my head feels like a time bomb waiting to go off.

“Yes Curry it me, I have missed you so much.” He declares walking over and embracing me, I gasp at the sudden contact. The quick movement makes me very dizzy and suddenly the whole world goes black.