“I bring order, second chances, I bring the truth. I promise you, Danielle, nothing I show you will be fabricated. I just want to open your eyes and do you a favor. Now, I get that you want to change and you want to help or save people. I’m just trying to tell you that the best thing you can do for this world is cease to exist in it.” A beeping noise began to sound and Franklin looked at his watch, “It’s time.”
Franklin’s male bodyguard, who had been standing behind him, now stepped forward and handed him a box similar to the one Caro had used to sedate me.
“Flawed people are so extraordinary; within their flaws lay other flaws. Katia can walk the hallways of the minds of anyone, but this,” Franklin said, opening the box, “This is perhaps her most brilliant gift of all, her blood. Do you know what this does?”
“Something extraordinary?” I asked.
“Oh, you have no idea. Tell me, Danielle, what do you think is the most terrifying place on this planet?”
“Besides being in this hospital with you? I’m not really sure,” I said, becoming slightly uneasy.
“Oh, come on, think more abstract. Where is the place that you attempt to evade? Where is the last place you want to be, where you fight your most painstaking battles? Where is the place without refuge? Where is the place that seeks to destroy you, no matter how hard you try to be better? Where does you greatest enemy truly reside?”
As he asked these questions, fear began to pulse through me. I attempted to tell myself that it was impossible; I tried to quell the terror attempting to envelop me, to tell myself that I had nothing to fear in this place he spoke of. As these thoughts sifted in and out of my mind, I felt my hand begin to shake.
“Now, do you know what I speak of?” he asked, with a psychotic smile illuminating his face.
I nodded my head, “My mind.”
“Good,” he replied, as he placed his index finger to his temple. “This flaw will take you into the depths of your consciousness. You get to see all the chaos that lives within, all that you’re constantly fighting, constantly imprisoning. Even the happiest of people cannot handle facing their true self. Less than a handful of people have survived this test and most of them come back quite damaged. I’m not sure you can become any more damaged, but I also don’t see you lasting more than a matter of minutes in there. You see, it’s not that people aren’t good or strong enough; it’s that on the inside so many of us just have this innate desire to die. Andrew couldn’t resist.”
Caro’s head shot up at Franklin’s last statement, “It was you. I thought . . .”
“Thought what?” Franklin inquired, “You’re the truth discerner, what lie did you allow yourself to believe?”
Franklin’s bodyguard raised his gun to Caro.
“Nothing. . .” Caro said, standing down.
He pulled the syringe out and stepped toward me. Every molecule of my existence resisted.
“Wait, no, don’t do this,” I said, squirming in my chair, pulling at my restraints.
“Sit still, Danielle,” Franklin said, attempting to grab my arm. I jerked it as far as I could in its confinement. He leaned in closer and I drew my head back and slammed it forward, colliding with his.
“What the fuck!” he shouted and gripped his forehead, “Can I get some fucking help or are you just here for the show?”
Franklin’s bodyguard stepped forward and gripped me from behind, steadying my arms and shoulders.
“Carolina, get her wrist,” Franklin said. Caro stood motionless. Franklin jerked his head over at Carolina and screamed, “Carolina, get her right now or you’re next!”
She walked over and held my wrist down against the arm of the chair.
“Just - just let me go. I won’t cause you any trouble. I won’t help Law. I’ll just disappear, you won’t hear from me again,” I pleaded.
“I don’t believe you,” Franklin said, planting his knee on my forearm and checking the needle.
“Caro, please don’t let him do this. Please, please, I am begging you,” tears began to cascade down as I shattered all my integrity in hopes to be spared from this torture.
“Caro can’t help you,” Franklin said and pierced my skin with the needle, “The fear on your face is well placed, Danielle.”
I could feel the substance enter my blood stream. As it did, Caro gripped my hand tightly and mouthed the words ‘Be strong’.
Chapter Seventeen
The Darkest Place
I watched Franklin, Caro, Katia, Franklin’s guard, and the hospital become frozen in time. A dark gray hue swept through the room, casting shadows of dark ash over the entire environment. I looked down at my feet to see the ash of the room seemed to be gathering like sand beneath my feet and fell through the floor in a spiral fashion like an hourglass. The ashen figures fell straight to the ground in a puff of gray. Just as the soot began to create a haze in my vision, I felt the floor give way underneath me.
I felt my limbs become freed from the chains that bound me to reality. I fell through a tornado of cold darkness. Coarse sand whipped at my skin like pebbles of glass. I could feel it peeling layers of skin off as each grain ripped at my flesh. I closed my eyes and cried out in pain but no sound was audible through the deafening winds. I gasped for air and reached for anything to halt this free fall.
The winds began to slow and my arms were forced to my sides, as if some force was holding them in place. The noise died down until there was silence. I attempted to pry my eyes open, having no desire to face the catacombs of my mind.
As my eyelids opened, I saw light. I prayed that I had simply retreated to the resting place for
