ESCAPE
Chapter Eight
After six months of imprisonment, Cal
approached Rose.
She was wearing a plain white dress with
short sleeves and slits on the sides. Her eyes were large orbs of hate, and her
blood red hair hung across her shoulders and brushed against her pale cheeks.
"Have you been a good little girl, my
sweet?" Cal smirked at her.
She was about to spit out a reply when Alice
dashed into the room. Out of breath, she spoke to the three guards standing at
the open doorway--Cal refused to be locked in a room with Rose. "Guards!
All of you! Hurry! There’s been an escape! You must come to the right field
immediately before the patient gets away!"
The first guard spoke to her. "Why are
we needed? We are on entirely different premises."
"You don’t understand. This patient is
highly dangerous to himself and others. There’s no time for me to explain. We
must hurry!"
The same guard spoke to Cal. "Do you
think you can watch her yourself? We shouldn’t be gone long. These escapes
never work."
"Of course. Go on," Cal told them,
never taking his cold stare from Rose.
*****
After two minutes of Cal making Rose feel as
inferior as possible, Alice rushed back into the room.
"Mr. Hockley?" Alice said.
Regrettably, Cal took his eyes off Rose and
faced Alice. "Yes?"
"You have a phone call. You can receive
it in the main office." She pointed.
"Tell whoever it is that I’ll talk to
them later."
"It was your business; it seemed very
important."
"You are not at liberty to tell me what
to do. Now, I told you that I didn’t want to take the call."
Alice shot Rose a frantic look. This wasn’t
going as planned. Catching Rose’s glum stare, she had an idea. Alice put her
hands over her face and made noises as if she were sobbing.
Cal was caught off guard. "Please don’t
cry."
"I-I can’t help it! It’s just that one
of the patients threw a punch at me, and then there was the escape, and now
this! I’ll have to go back on the phone, and they’ll yell at me for not getting
you, and--and..."
"Look. It’s okay. I’ll take the phone
call. Will you watch my wife?"
"Sure. No problem."
*****
The second Cal was out of sight, Rose and
Alice beamed at each other.
"I guess he has a weak side for girls
crying," Alice said to Rose.
"There’s no time to ponder the
psychological genesis of my husband. Come on. Let’s go!"
*****
With Alice leading the way, the two girls
traveled along the endless corridor. After Rose had seen enough gray walls and
bolted doors to last a lifetime, Alice unlocked a final one; they were outside.
And it really was a shame that Rose’s first
glimpse of outside the enclosed field was of a furious Cal spotting them and
running towards them.