I heard a collection of voices approaching and squinted my eyes to get a better view of who it could be. From beyond the light, I noticed four figures, two familiar, two unknown.
“Let’s go ahead and turn these off,” came Franklin’s voice, as the lights shut off, but bright purple circles remained in my vision. I heard a metal chair squeak against the linoleum as it was slid across the floor. Even in my already uncomfortable state, I couldn’t help but be annoyed by the sound. “Hey, Dani, how you feeling?”
I regained enough focus to see Franklin sitting across from me. He had on one of his expensive suits and his hair perfectly fashioned for a television appearance. Standing next to him was Caro. There was another man I recognized as one of his security guards from his house and a woman. The woman was foreign to me. She had pale skin, white hair. Though she stood on Franklin’s side, I felt a much softer energy from her.
“I feel like I’ve been kidnapped,” I said, mildly groggy.
“Do you know where you are?” Franklin asked.
“Looks like a hospital.”
“Well, look at that. You are correct. This is one of the old state hospitals. They’ve been shutting them down for years. I bought this one thinking it would be a great place to restore, but the energy in here is just terrible, so I figured it’d be better suited for doing business. I know how much you like hospitals. You should feel right at home here.”
“Right at home,” I said, sarcastically.
“Do you know why they started shutting down these facilities?”
“No.”
“Because no one cares about the mentally ill. No one wants to take care of them. No one wants their money going to house crazy people. You’re the unwanted. So they let them be homeless, let them commit crimes, let them not have access to medication. The jails and prisons will be their hospitals. Although it’s tragic, I must say I can’t tell you the difference between a jail and a hospital. Mentally flawed people don’t get better, there’s no cure for you. Most people would have you wiped off the face of this earth, so long as they didn’t have to deal with you. But not me, I took you in when you had nothing. I gave you a job; I gave you safety and protection. I did not judge you for who you were, I let you be who you were, and praised you for who you were. And how did you thank me, Danielle? By turning on me and then conspiring against me.”
“I turned on you? You literally gave orders for Caro to take me out. You set me up to go down for the assault on the District Attorney.”
“And why would I do that?” Franklin asked.
“Because you used me.”
“You think I don’t know what you were up to? Saying that you’re loyal to me but I keep seeing you hanging around that boy from Law’s crew. What’s his name?”
“Caleb,” Caro interjected.
“Yes, Caleb. And what do you know, that night he just happened to show up and save your ass. Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I haven’t been watching every step you’ve been making when you were here and since you left? Do you think those people are your friends? Do you honestly think they’ll come looking for you?”
“Yes.” He reached for my waist and ripped Law’s beeper from my waistband. He waved it in front of my face, tossed it to the ground, and proceeded to smash it repeatedly with his foot.
“They aren’t going to. They don’t care about you. They’ll get word of what you’ve done, and they won’t be surprised, they’ll be relieved.”
“What I’ve done?”
“Yes, of course. See, I don’t kill people. That’s messy. I don’t want a drop of that filth on this suit,” he said, wiping away invisible debris from his chest, “I break people, Danielle.”
“I hate to disappoint you, Franklin,” I said, raising my chin and grinning at him, “but I’ve been broken before, a million times over, but I’m still standing.” I cast a glance at Caro, who quickly averted her eyes.
Franklin grinned at me, “We’ll see. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging me to be the one to put a bullet in that brain of yours. I’m going to show you who you really are. You think your worst days are behind you? You think that you’ve changed and now you’re going to make the world a better place? You’re wrong. I’d like you to meet Katia.”
The pale girl with white hair stepped forward and bowed slightly, “Hello.”
I nodded in her direction.
“She was your replacement. She’s been with me a while, but I have only been recently informed of the depth of her skills. I must say, I love her flaw. I’ve never seen anything like it. The prophecy girl. She can look into your past as far back as conception and see all the way into your future to your death. She can uncover the worst day of your life, even if it hasn’t happened yet. Would you like to see yours?”
“I already know the worst day of my life.”
“You only think you know,” Franklin said. “Surely you can’t deny that you’re a plague to this word. You bring nothing but darkness, death, and destruction.”
“What do
