The Pharmacy (UNEDITED)

Chapter Nineteen

Danique

I stared out of the little cracks in the closet with my mouth wide open and eyes barely processing what I had just seen.

Igne sat in her dark little corner with a heaving chest and a body shivering, "It was me. I was talking."

Steiner's attention was immediately hooked by her outburst. Gun in hand, he walked over to her and loomed over her like a telephone pole as she quivered in her place. She drove herself further into the wall, as if she was a kitten looking up at a black wolf.

"That's cute. Who were you speaking to? Maybe you're a schizo now? Or are you just covering for him?" He waved the pistol as he spoke, kneeling until he made full eye contact with Igne, who looked like her soul had left her body as a pale vessel.

"I-I... I was just--"

"I couldn't care less," he snapped at her, yanking her by her silver necklace. "You will keep your mouth shut."

He let her go suddenly, making her crash back into the wall and curl in her corner out of fear. He stood in the middle of the room and eyeballed everyone.

"From now on, you can all kiss your lives goodbye should you try to break our rules. And Ezra," he turned to him, "You're walking on a thin, thin rope."

Igne sat in her corner, curled against the cold darkness of the wall as everyone else looked down at their laps or somewhere else. Ezra was biting his lip, clenching his hands so hard on his armrests that his nails were nearly digging into their wood. I could see Renate out of the corner of my eye, watching the floor with her eyebrows furrowed against each other, taking small glances over to Igne, who looked lifeless in that corner of hers. She glanced up at me for a moment with an expression that made me want to burst out of the closet and strangle that officer in his place. But I couldn't.

Steiner tugged at Ezra's straps and painfully jerked them off his limbs, making the boy's face contort into a twisted grimace. Ezra rubbed at his wrists until he looked up, seeing the officer who was staring down at him with washes of white light glowing upon his golden hair. His victim slowly took his hands away from each other, and, while being stared down by his oppressor, went back to his spot and leaned forward. Steiner made a crooked smile, and locked Ezra's chain once again. Everyone was still looking down as he strode to the door, and finally left the room.

I stood in the closet for a few moments to make sure that Steiner had actually left. I didn't want to be the next victim, and I felt the blood in my veins crawling through my body as I was on completely high alert, as if an undertone of my fight or flight response was quietly triggering. It was like I had gone a few generations back through the human evolutionary chart, and was waiting to creep away from my most feared predator. My swallowing, breathing, heartbeat-- they were so loud in my ears, vibrating through my bones and muscles as I heard them echo through my head in shaking pulses one after another. Soon, when I was sure I was safe, I slowly opened the door and almost fell out of the closet. I stretched my limbs far out and heard them crack from how long I had spent in that awfully cramped space. I turned my head to see Renate watching me with a depressed, sorrowful expression on her face. Ezra had his back pressed against the wall, making silent huffs as he pursed his lips against each other. Igne had sat a bit farther from the corner, looking shamefully down at the ground.

"Now, do you understand?" Tears streamed down her bruised face, making streaks in the grime on it. "Do you understand our lives?"

Renate looked back at her, opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. Ezra shut his eyes tight, shaking his head. He caressed his own wrists, making pained hisses where the straps and kept him on the chair.

Renate sighed and managed a frail smile, "We'll survive."

Ezra quickly started watching her from the corner of his eye, his iris prominent and blazing in fiery emerald green tones that contrasted totally with his tan skin. "Of course you say that."

"What?" Renate whipped over to look at him, her short blonde hair bouncing on her shoulders as she stared at Ezra. "What do you mean by that?"

He shook his head and went back to depressively staring at his lap. Renate was getting quickly restless, a product of the energetic personality she was showing to me.

"What is it, Ezra?! Tell me!"

"If we get out of here, your future is guaranteed. Look at you, an Aryan. Some of us will either die here or outside. If our skin is colored, we will be tortured. If our ancestors are different, we will be punished. If we believe in our family's faith, the religions we were raised to believe in and follow, we will be shown the truth of no mercy, as we were shown centuries ago! That is the truth. We were robbed of the chance to prove ourselves, to live this pit of hell while we still could. Now, all we know is that we were born winners of the genetic lottery."

Renate was horrified. Ezra eyed her with hardened features and an unaffected composure.

"Ezra," Igne whispered to him as she laid her hand on his shoulder. He harshly turned to her, obviously angered and furious, but he abruptly stopped when he saw her tired features. His expression softened into a saddened one rather than a fierce one. He quietly reached up to his neck and pulled a chain from beneath his shirt. A large, silver charm emerged. A Star of David.

"It's not fair," he whispered to no one, one of his hot, salty tears making its way around and across the nooks and crannies of the symbol of his faith. "It's not."

All I could do was watch with a heart twisting with stress and worries.