Altered Futures

Chapter 13 - Walls

Monday, January 9 --- 4:47p.m.

"Your bed is over here," explained Nafratearie, leading her to a bed.

Raina snuck a glance and noticed Naf limping once again, but didn't say anything this time. What if she actually was trying to help her like she said? At least she wasn't hurting her. That was a start.

"Thanks," muttered Raina, surprised she was being nice to Naf, but brushed it off.

"Sure. Go ahead and get in. Thank you for being so nice."

Raina felt a small glimmer of happiness at the thanks, but quickly tried to hide it. She didn't want Naf to know she was starting to be able to tolerate her. That would be like admitting defeat and accepting her circumstances. She had barely even been here that long. The girl climbed on top of the bed, the pillow feeling soft beneath her head.

"Are you going to try anything while I am in bed, like hurting me or moving me somewhere else?"

"No, I would never. No one here will do anything of the sort. These two girls will make sure of that," gestured Nafratearie towards Alondra and Violet.

Alondra set Nafratearie's purse down on the floor, knowing the people there well enough to know none of them would dare try to steal it and walked towards Naf. When she got there, she bent down by the edge of the bed alongside Naf.

"Hey beautiful Raina. I'm Alondra," she said.

"Doesn't she just treat you like crap and use you to help herself?"

At this question, Alondra let out a quiet laugh, so as not to draw a lot of attention to herself.

"No, I volunteer here. She's never used me or anyone else here to build herself up in any way. If anything, usually it's us that has to take care of her. She spends so much time taking care of others she often neglects to take care of herself."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Why do you think I'm not?" asked Alondra, genuinely curious to hear Raina's answer.

"No one can be that nice," she replied coldly, staring at the ceiling before she pulled back the blanket and crawled into bed. "This blanket feels heavy."

"It's supposed to. It's a weighted blanket. It should help you sleep better," Naf told her.

Laying down and covering herself up with the blanket, the extra weight was noticeable instantly.

"This is weird."

"Yes, it does feel odd at first, but after a while, you'll get used to it."

Nafratearie pulled the blanket up to Raina's chin and adjusted it so it fit snugly around her.

"Raina," said a soft voice. "That's my name, in case you were wondering."

"It's as beautiful of a name as you are. My name is Nafratearie, but you can call me Naf."

Raina's heart softened at the compliment. There was no way someone so evil would have told her that.

"You have a pretty nice name too."

In that moment, Raina could not believe she had said that. Why was she complementing a person she didn't know? Her brain must be really tired. For some odd reason though, she didn't find herself regretting the action.

"Thanks," Nafratearie said.

"Why are you doing all this?" yawned out Raina, stretching out her arms.

"Because I am one of the good guys. I want to help people like you until someone else can help them or until they can help themselves. Everyone here has their own story of how they got here, but they all had trouble in life, so I try to help them the best that I can."