Free Heller's Punishment by J.D. Nixon Page B

day, otherwise he’ll drive up here
personally to check on me. And trust me, you don’t want that to
happen, because he won’t be happy about it and he’ll bring along a
couple of huge men with him. How can I contact him without my
phone?”
    “No worries,
Tilly. You buzz me or another staff member. We’ll accompany you to
the manager’s office where you can phone under supervision. I’m
sorry it sounds so suspicious, but we have good cause, believe me.
We know your particular circumstances, but we have to be careful.
I’m so sorry. But Felicia has history.”
    I nodded. “As
long as I can ring my boss, I don’t mind if you’re listening in. It
won’t be private,” I said. “But I really do have to ring him to let
him know I’m okay every day. Do you understand?”
    “Not really. He
sounds intense,” he commented mildly, then pulled me closer to the
door by my arm as Felicia exited the bathroom and threw herself on
a bed, turning on the TV.
    “Listen up,
Tilly,” he whispered. “I don’t trust her and you shouldn’t either.
We’ve given her a second floor room on purpose, because she’s
already escaped from here twice. Be on your guard at all times. I
can’t stress that enough. If you need anything, use the room phone.
It goes straight to the office. I’m on duty every day for the next
week and my comrade Dave is on duty every night. We’re hardcore
care for the difficult patients, so nothing will get past us,
unless someone murders us. I hope it won’t come to that.” He
smiled.
    “Holy shit, me
too!” I said sincerely, eyes huge at the thought.
    He looked at me
again. “Oh Tilly, I’m just joking. God, you’re cute. My wife would
love you. It’s so rare to meet someone here that I’d like to invite
home for dinner to meet my family!” He smiled once more and was
about to leave when he paused, hand on the door. “Oh yeah, I almost
forgot.” He tapped a small glass-fronted box affixed to the wall.
“This is the emergency button. If you press this, we’ll come
running, and I do mean running. So only use it in a real
emergency.”
    He left the
room quietly, locking the door behind him. Oh man! I was a
prisoner in here with Felicia.
    I found the
clinic handbook conveniently situated in a plastic display folder,
chained to the bedside table that was bolted to the wall between
the two beds. I sat on my bed to read it. There was a big
introductory blurb on the purpose of the clinic, its philosophy and
mission statement that I perused carefully, and a detailed schedule
for clients. Dinner would be at six, it stated, breakfast at seven
and lunch at one. Lights out at ten, no excuses. Clients who were
confined to their rooms would be collected by one of the nurses and
taken to the dining area. I guess we were in that category.
    I turned to
Felicia, who was watching TV with a blank look on her face,
yawning. I noticed with revulsion that I tried to hide, she hadn’t
bothered to put on another pair of panties. She could at least
close her legs , I thought angrily. I didn’t need to see that again before dinner. She might be relaxed about that
sort of thing, but I wasn’t.
    “Felicia!” I
barked to get her attention. “Dinner’s at six.” It was now
five-thirty. She listlessly turned her eyes to me, gave me a
disinterested nod, then turned her attention back to the inane game
show on the TV, which had lots of screaming and whooping from the
audience.
    I went to my
pile of approved possessions and carefully stashed them back into
my bag. I was upset looking at the small stack of my things left
behind. Surely I wasn't defined by my material possessions? I thought to myself. I’d always wanted to be free of greed and
materialism, but I found that without my phone and my email, I felt
disconnected and slightly panicky. I really needed to talk to
Daniel, Niq and Heller on a regular basis.
     

Chapter 6
     
    “Why don’t you
take a shower before dinner?” I suggested to Felicia, thinking