The Pharmacy (UNEDITED)

Chapter Fifteen

Danique

. down the stairs.

. down the hatch.

. down more stairs.

. enter a creepy, bloodstained door.

. walk past the, now cleaned up, first room of the actual basement.

. get past the second door.

. discover another door behind it, labeled: POLIO PATIENTS - NON-INFECTIOUS.

. get past that door.

This room was not dark. It was big. Eerily big. And full of polio patients.

That day at church made me angry. I refuse to believe in my own damnation, refuse! Seeing Adele die may have hurt me, but it won't stop me. If I don't try to save the rest of these people, and I think I'm beginning to get why they're here, no one will. Especially not blue-eyed, blonde-haired SS officers from the streets. That day, I remembered myself. That church awoke something in me.

In this room, people lined the edges of the floors, their backs were on the wall. Their eyes were big, blue, brown, green-- all colors. So many of them were women, only about 2 or 3 were men... but they looked only nineteen, each of them. And it was obvious they were siblings. All of them, everyone in this room (which, by eyeballing, I could guess they amounted to 20, 24 people) was unbelievably skinny, and they all stared at me with wonder as if I was the only human they'd seen in centuries. I stared back at them with equal curiosity.

A small blonde girl had a glare in her eyes that blazed with anger, her brows furrowed, her breath heavy. Two taller women sat at each of her sides, looking at her with what seemed like worry and anxiety. The woman on her left actually looked down as the stout girl pulled out of her seat as far as her chain cuffs took her, and one of the boys across from her shook his head as to tell her to stop, but she didn't. Instead, she locked a fierce, fiery, piercing stare on me.

"Who are you," she snarled at me, as if the words were clogged in her throat. "What do you want?! If it's more experiments, we won't let you!"

The other people either giggled under their breaths while shaking their heads, winced from her sudden actions, or just sadly looked down at their knees and cuffed wrists, tuning her out.

I was too stunned to respond. Experiments? These people were lab rats? I couldn't believe I hadn't pieced it all before, it was so obvious! If I hadn't been so blinded by fear and sorrow, maybe it wouldn't have ended up like this, maybe these people wouldn't be locked down here for months on end!

"Answer me!" A snapping shout erupted from her chest, which almost sent me back into the door from surprise. All eyes sat on me now, all were waiting.

"I-I'm..." I debated saying my alias or my real name. "...Danique Kuyper. And I'm visiting from Holland, to study."

Her face softened for a moment, but quickly went back to the fury state. "If you're from Holland, what are you doing here?! How did you get down here to begin with? Are you here to study us?" She rambled on.

"No!" I exclaimed. "No, God, no! I'm here to study medicine, my parents sent me!"

They all watched with great intrigue, some of them whispering to each other, and others watching with their mouths agape. It was like I was in an adult kindergarten.

A quivering woman, looked about 19-20, sat in the corner and watched me for a second, then hesitantly crawled as far as she could to get a tiny bit closer, just as much as the chain stretched. Her body was covered in bruises, scarred, tired and skinny. Her eyes looked almost like they were bulging out of her skull.

"You're not connected to Johannes Steiner in any way, a-are you?" She looked as if she were about to cry. The blonde stout girl looked back at her with sudden remorse and empathy that she completely lacked when talking to me. She snapped back into her tough state as soon as her head flipped back, of course.

"Who?" I responded.

"Don't act dumb," shortie growled, "The man who killed Adéle! All for his precious little Fabian! We know you reported her body!"

What? The man who killed her? For his 'precious little Fabian'? How much did I not know?

Wait... him?

"Fabian who?" I blurted without thinking.

The girl looked at me as if I was an idiot. "Neumann. His nephew. You don't know him, do you?"

"I do, I do..." I muttered, feeling a migraine from the sheer confusion that was wracking me. "I have to deliver his medicine, and I visit him sometimes..."

Her expression turned from anger, to confusion, then softened into a curious image. "Then, how didn't you know about us? Why did you visit Adéle, and not us?"

"I didn't even know this place existed... they told me it was an ingredient storage," I quietly admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed at the fact.

Her eyes widened as she rapidly looked me over with her pale blue irises. "You're Monica!"