Free Knell by Viola Grace Page A

and I shared them.”
    Norz smiled. “And the nurses have been calling in tips to the affected areas. You have saved ninety-six lives this year alone, but I have an offer for you where you can live and control the sight that you have been given out where no one will judge you or call you crazy.”
    Dot tilted her head. “How can I do that?”
    “We have specialists who can help you learn the skills to compartmentalize your mind. You can choose when to open your thoughts to the future and choose when to live in the here and now, but it isn’t something we can do here.”
    She turned her head to the painting. “I think I am getting an inkling of where you are suggesting. Will they let me go?”
    He smiled. “You were handed over to Farrow Home as a child. By the laws of your country, you were free to leave at any time after you reached your majority. You have never been declared insane; there is no barrier to your departure if you choose to join us.”
    She looked to Mrs. Kettle and the administrator nodded. Nurse Wicker was delighted and standing nearby.
    Dot looked at Norz and asked, “Will I go there right away?”
    He looked at the image and shook his head. “Your mind needs to be stronger before you go to Nixos. Like anything else, it needs to be strengthened through exercises carefully designed to help you move forward.”
    Dot got to her feet and stepped away for a moment, and she looked around her at the softly rolling hills and felt the silence of the place in her bones. It was a cruel juxtaposition to the screaming in her mind and she was tired of the contrast.
    She turned and walked back to him. “When can we leave?”
    He got to his feet. “Excellent. We can take you with us. If you pack your essentials and anything that you would like to keep with you.”
    Dot inclined her head slowly; it was all she could manage with her drug load. “I will meet you at the front gate in five minutes.”
    “I look forward to following your career, Ms. McKenna.”
    She laughed as she walked to the side entrance. “I look forward to having one, Recruiter Norz.”
    She heard a peculiar wheezing noise, and when she turned, he was laughing, his shark-like teeth exposed to her gaze.
    “You have a lovely smile. You shouldn’t hide it.”
    He stared at her in shock, and she laughed herself as she entered her home to collect her changes of clothing and her journal. Nothing else mattered.
    She signed out at the front desk and the staff lined up to hug her farewell. She even got a hug from Nurse Hickory. The woman had grown up with her mother and she delighted in telling her mother every incident and disaster that occurred in Dot’s life. She was convinced that Dot was possessed but was forbidden from harassing her if she wanted to keep her job.
    It was like hugging an icicle and Dot couldn’t back away fast enough.
    She made up for it with a solid hug from Nurse Wicker that warmed her soul. Nurse Wicker had friends and family in the local constabulary and fire departments. She called in the tips and made sure that they were taken seriously. If any lives had been saved, it had been Annabelle Wicker’s persistence in making sure folk listened that had done it. After the first four tips, she didn’t get resistance anymore.
    It had taught Dot that if you put the right information in the right hands, you could save lives and that was the reason she was leaving. If control could be gained and the events understood, she could make herself a tool for good.
    With Norz next to her, she sat in the car and watched as they pulled away from her home for the last twelve years. Dot idly wondered where she was going next.
     
    The medical scans were administered in an office building connected by a guarded tunnel to the Volunteer Centre.
    Horror filled the face of the med tech who was administering her full evaluation. “What happened?”
    She cleared her throat. “My uncle decided that I was possessed and he tried to beat the demons out.