Dr. Porter entered the room looking quite concerned. He heard the gist of the last part outside the office because she had raised her voice to a screech. In his pocket he brought a syringe of Thorazime and also some Valium. “Ms Patterson, as I told you before the substance lasts for three months. You’ve just gotten to the second month. After the third month, we can—”
“I swear I’ll go crazy!” She paced frantically like a caged animal. “You don’t know how it is. You don’t know.” Finally she sat down or rather fell back on the couch near Dr. Porter, who slowly sat down beside her as not to startle her back to hysterics. She seemed worn and tired. There were dark circles under her eyes, her hair was all over her head, and her clothes were wrinkled and dirty. She really did look as if she were going to lose what little sanity she was holding on to.
“Ms Patterson, my name is Dr. Harrison Porter. I invented the birth control, I swear to you it won’t cause any pain.”
“I’m hallucinating. I’ve never hallucinated in my life. Even after everything. I’ve never dreamed so much in my life as I’m doing now and it’s just one specific dream, it just changes slightly and gets longer. I can’t explain it.” She buried her face in her bloody palms and rocked back and forth. Those images began to fly through her mind again. The tingles began to flutter through her belly. No! No!!
“I insist you take these.” Dr. Porter moved closer holding two Valium in his hand.
She slowly looked up at the doctor. When he entered she didn’t pay any attention to him. He was just another white coat then, but now, she was looking into eyes that were familiar. She knew this man from . . .
Skye slapped the pills across the floor and shot to her feet. “I DON’T NEED ANYTHING, BUT PEACE OF MIND AND I WON’T GET IT UNTIL YOU GET THIS POISON OUT OF MY SYSTEM!!”
“Ms Patterson!” Dr. Himes called when she swung her arm again and knocked the lamp off the table near the couch.
She turned to verbally lash out at him, then suddenly felt a sharp pain in her buttocks. In the next instant she was surrounded by blackness.
Harry caught her just as she fell back and sighed in relief. She was light, but as old as he was, she was still a load. Dr. Himes assisted him in getting her back to the couch.
The nurse came in. “Is everything alright, Doctors?” she asked concerned.
“Yes,” Dr. Himes assured her ushering her out the room. “Ms Patterson is under a lot of mental strain. Can you send the resident for my next appointments? I want to attend to her personally and go into conference with Dr. Porter and Dr. Carter.”
“Yes Doctor.” The nurse left.
Dr. Himes locked the doors and pressed mute on his phone to not be disturbed. While he did this, Dr. Porter took her temperature and blood pressure, which were normal. “How is she?” Dr. Himes asked apprehensive as he watched Dr. Porter clean the blood from Skye’s hands and face with a wet wipe.
“She really needs the sleep. These dreams are bothering her. Why don’t you prescribe her a low dosage of Valium? It shouldn’t hurt us and it will calm her better when she is facing reality. It must be difficult to accept what is happening to her when she’s never experienced it before. We shouldn’t have tried it so soon with her.”
Dr. Carter entered the room using his keys. He’d heard the last part of Dr. Porter’s statement.
“She’s perfect. Fats and I would not have it any differently. The nurse informed me of everything. How is she?”
“Emotionally and physically distraught. I don’t think this was a good idea considering her past. She is-”
“Enough!” Dr. Carter snapped. “Your medical knowledge on the female psychological state has much to be refuted, Doctor. We really don’t want to hear you ramble about what detriment we are putting this young lady through. The Valium should be enough to curb the hysterics. Send her home with a prescription to hold her until it’s time for her next shot, then we can administer another dose while she’s under the influence, giving her a continuous refill on the valium.”
“It’ll make her into a drug addict!” Dr. Porter protested. “She will become a manic depressive.”
“It is the only way to keep her under control. We cannot have these outbursts. The longer we keep her calm the longer we can use her to get more money for the studies. It’s all in the name of science.”
“Have you forgotten that this is a human being? We can’t control her like a robot.”
“That was the whole idea, Harry, or have you forgotten?” He didn’t wait for Dr. Porter to respond, but pointed out another fact of their dilemma. “I haven’t forgotten a thing and I surely haven’t forgotten we received a large amount of money to produce your drug from Fats. If you’re thinking about not going ahead with this you will be sorry. Or are you ready to die?”
Dr. Himes looked slightly past both of the doctors to the couch to see Skye slowly coming out of it.
“I think we need to discuss this outside the office and deal with her now,” Dr. Himes suggested calmly.
“There’s nothing to discuss. We have done too much and wasted enough time on her as I’ve said many times before. She will be fine and if not, there are now hundreds of other women I will have very soon which can do what she does successfully. If I have to I will use all of them to my advantage.” Dr. Carter slammed out the room.
“His financial advantage,” Dr. Porter sneered under his breath.
Dr. Himes went over to the couch to check on her. She seemed still unconscious, although he would swear a few minutes ago she was coming to.
Dr. Porter asked concerned, “Will she be alright?”
“A slight headache and soreness where we stuck her will be her case. Don’t worry. The prescription should do just fine with the hallucinations. Let’s allow her rest,” he insisted.
“Wait a minute. Neil, why did you get into all of this? Be honest with me.”
“I am a doctor. Improving ways for stopping pregnancy was high on my list. Working with you came second.”
“But now?”
He turned to meet Dr. Porter face to face. “But now, I don’t think going about this way was right for the subjects. You are right; Dr. Carter is out for the money that we all will potentially earn. Let’s just get our money and get the hell out of here. Let him work out this mess.”
“What about the plans? The new subjects?”
“They are his plans and his subjects. Let’s leave them like that. Infecting these women —which is what we are doing—with that hallucinogenic birth control was wrong. You and I both know, because we almost saw the devastating effects here again today with Ms Patterson, but Dr. Carter can’t see past the nose on his face or his bank account. All he sees is the money. We made a big mistake letting him in on the project, but you and I both know if it had not been for his underground connections we wouldn’t have gotten the funding we needed for this whole thing.” He paused with a grievous tone in his voice. “Yet now we realize our science came at a price bigger than we could ever pay back. We should just get our money and get the hell out of here.”
“What about the patient’s upstairs? What about her?”
“There is nothing we can do. I’m getting my money and leaving. If you want to sympathize you go ahead, but I refuse to spend my last days locked up in some jail for the rest of my life. I’m going to be on the farthest beach away from here.”
Dr. Porter didn’t know what to think or what to do. They had dug their graves and now they must lie in them. “Let’s get her some rest and have the nurse check up on her in a few minutes.”
Dr. Himes agreed following him out closing the door behind them.
As soon as they left, Skye sat up ready to panic again. It had been difficult keeping her breathing steady while the doctors were in the room. When she came out of the blackness from the sound of loud angry voices, she forced herself to not move a muscle when she realized what the voices were saying.
Valium indeed! She would be a walking drug addict like the ones she
typed about all the time. Slowly getting up, she felt the soreness where the needle had stuck her, but got over the pain quickly knowing she didn’t have enough time to dawdle.
Gathering her things, she went out the office where it connected to a patient waiting room. She remembered this was the room she had been in initially when Dr. Himes had given her the first dose. Skye remembered the cabinet the drug had been in. Going over there now, she tried to open the small metal door, but it was locked. Looking through the other drawers, she couldn’t find a key, and then remembered he had pulled it out of his long white jacket.
Walking back into Dr. Himes office she looked on the back of the door. She knew he didn’t have his medical jacket on when she came in the room. As luck would have it, the doctor had not put it on when he had left the room. The keys were in there. Running back into the patient room, she quickly found the key and opened the cabinet.
Taking two of the multiple vials in there, she closed the cabinet back and replaced the keys back in the jacket. Sticking the vials in her purse she proceeded to an emergency exit that was right outside the patient waiting room door. The other way would lead to the nurse’s station. Before going through the emergency exit, she noticed an emergency stairway door near there and decided to enter that door instead.
Curiosities were gnawing on her mind like a hungry dog wanting a bone despite her gut screaming for her to get out of there. Dr. Porter had said upstairs were more patients like her. What did he mean by that? What she was or what was it she would become?
The second level wasn’t lit. Being noontime, the windows provided ample light down the long hallway and the floor was so quiet it was as if no one was up there. There was a long hall and about six doors on each side of the hallway. Looking through the first she saw a break room, but then she noticed the straps on the chairs and a cold chill went down her spine. Moving further down the hall she looked in the rooms. The first two were empty, but the third one she came to, a girl who looked like she was in her teens was lying on the bed. The patient looked unkempt and obviously screaming or shouting from the way her mouth moved, but the room was sound proof. The girl was strapped to the bed writhing as if she was in a lot of pain.
Going to the fourth door, the female in there looked in a more dejected state. The room was padded with no furnishings. The woman who looked to be about in the early thirties wore a straight jacket. She was rubbing the side of her face up against the walls. Skye saw other patches on the wall and marks all over her face of raw skin. There was a dazed look in her eyes as if she didn’t see anyone, but something.
Something put the weirdest smile on the female patient’s face. There was no reality in her eyes and Skye had the feeling there would never be for the rest of her life or as long as the doctor’s choose to keep her alive in misery. As she proceeded to the next rooms, each scenario worsened. Either the woman was spaced out or hysterically screaming and/or crying out their frustrated states of mind. The attention they were all in did not look like they were getting good medical care and when Skye looked at the charts next to the doors she found that each one had a number. It started at four and ended at fifteen. This made her wonder what happened to one through three. Either way, Skye had a feeling one of those first two empty rooms was for her if she took another dose of that stuff.
Dr. Carter had a list filled with women, she remembered. Women, who after checking their backgrounds, could disappear without a trace. Skye was one of them and this terrified her. She realized once they were done with test subjects, the doctors put them up in these rooms.
How long they kept you here or how long you lived after that was a mystery, but once the patients were gone, no one knew or cared.
Going back down the steps, she decided not to leave. Suspicion would be too great and she returned back on the couch in the doctor’s room without anyone seeing her. Sitting down in time as the other door opened, a nurse coming in carrying a glass of water and some pills.
“You’re up? Good.” The nurse set the tray on the coffee table as she had a seat next to Skye. “The doctor asked me to check on you earlier, but I was so busy I couldn’t get around. Have you been up long?”
“No, I just sat up.” Skye looked out her peripheral vision and noticed she had not closed the door to the other room. Since the nurse back was to this door, Skye was a bit relieved and hoped she could keep the nurses attention until she could get out the room.
“The doctor insisted you take these to help you and here is your prescription to be taken twice a day. There are three refills and if you need some more, feel free to call the office and I will make sure you get whatever you need.” She handed Skye a bottle of Valium with thirty pills inside.
The nurse waited while Skye looked down at the pills she was just handed. Putting the capsule in her mouth slowly, she tucked the pill under her tongue then sipped the water throwing her head back and pretending to swallow.
“That’s a good girl.”
“I should be getting home.”
The nurse agreed. “Sure. Do you feel alright?”
She tried her best to sound grateful when she wanted to slap this woman and go into hysterics again. “I feel better. Thank you.” It took every ounce of her strength to keep in control of her own sensibilities.
“Fine. Would you like me to help you to your car or call you a cab?” The nurse went behind the door and grabbed Dr. Himes jacket.
Skye shook her head while putting on her jacket and hurriedly walked out the office, before the nurse noticed the open door to the other room. “I’m fine,” she said relieved as the nurse followed her out into the hallway. “Have a good day.”
Once in her car, Skye took a deep breath. For some reason she felt she was still being watched. There was a juice bottle with a smidgen of juice left. The Valium was starting to dissolve under her tongue and she needed to get the pill out right away without them seeing her spit it out. Picking up the bottle she pretended to drink the juice, but instead spit the Valium out into the liquid.
As she drove off, she knew she had to do something right away. This was too big for her to handle. The list she had stolen the other night was the list Dr. Carter was referring to with the women names. They were going to drug them and carry on more experiments.
The same ones they were doing on her without her even knowing.
* * *
Getting in the house, she decided to delve more deeply into researching the birth control they were using on her. She would go into her medical dictionary and find out exactly what could the birth control contained, then find the contact Dr. Welch knew who could do the tests on the sample she had taken.
Until she knew everything she would try to stay calm and keep her feelings under control. Her panic attacks weren’t getting that bad anymore, and if she just didn’t lose her mind, she would be almost normal.
Chapter 15
“You are wondering again,” Thomas noted. “It’s because of Melissa and Nicole isn’t it?” Before Thaddeus could answer Thomas apologized. “I know I should have told them they weren’t invited knowing it would make you this uncomfortable, but they are just as close as any of my other friends, Thad. Plus, she is your sister.”
“Unfortunately,” he said sarcastically. “I’ve finally figured out why they get along so well. Birds of a feather flock together. I wasn’t thinking about those two conniving women. I do have other things to think about.”
“Like who? You have been distracted this entire trip. Not as talkative as you usually are. Matter of fact, I’ve heard you talk more on the phone than you do to me of late. It’s as if you’re finding work to do instead of taking it easy.”
“I have? Well, my new employee has really taken my interest. I needed an excuse to keep her busy so I could... spend more time with her.”
“What kind of interest?” Thomas curiosity was piqued.
“She’s quiet, aloof... I don’t know, but when she looked at me . . .” Thaddeus was thinking of the day in the park
ing lot. “It was as if she looked right through me. It felt... strange.”
“Disheartened is what you mean. You are so use to women looking with interest, the first one to not show it gets your attention. Hell, I should have clued Nicole in on that one.”
Thaddeus chuckled knowing Thomas was pulling his leg. Thomas wanted Thaddeus married- happily married, and they both knew Nicole wanted to be that woman badly. She had asked Thomas several times how to go about getting Thaddeus, which was why she was getting close to Melissa. It would be possibly the only way to get in Thaddeus proximity through his own sister - unless she tried Trisha. But he had a feeling the stuck up broad wouldn’t lower herself to even speak to Trisha.
Thomas probed further quite interested in the young man’s feelings. “What is her name?”
“Skye. She’s really plain you could say.” He was only speaking of his experience in the parking lot because that first impression had been the defining moment of his experience with Skye. “But it’s confusing. I’ve only seen her a couple of times, but I have spoken with her on several occasions, and I find her very intriguing. Maybe it’s her mind, maybe I really need to get a life and I’m just grasping at air.” He shook his head trying to get Skye off his mind, but he had been trying to do that since he met her and this trick didn’t work either. Nothing seemed to appease his curiosity about the woman. “I don’t understand it, Thomas, but I do know she has caught my interest and it’s not just a simple matter.” Thaddeus knew he could trust his good friend and father figure with the case he was working on. “I’m also involved in something for the police department where I find myself lustfully attracted to the case. I can’t really go into details about it. I am close to being dumbfounded about who I really like.”
“It seems you like one for the mind and the other for the body,” Thomas surmised simply.
Dreams of Reality Page 12
