Nurse Emily began to lead me into some unknown corridor of the rehab. She continued with her talks as she led me towards some uncertain fate. Several things were running through my mind. The main thing being why the hell I had decided to go under my real name. Sorta hard being an undercover journalist when you use your actual name. The other thought was if Sinclair already knew who I was, then would I meet the same fate as the person I had just seen on that phone recording? And surprisingly the thing worrying me the most was how I would react when I saw Constantine Sinclair. Whenever I saw his face on TV I wanted to introduce my fist into his pretty rich boy face.
“Right this way Mr. Williams,” Emily told me as we came up to the staff-only area of the rehab center. I watched as she used her ID and punched in a code before being able to enter the area. If I didn’t know about what this place does to patients this would’ve just been a precaution towards any patient that might be causing a problem. But now at least knowing a fraction of the truth about this place, any number of things could be hidden behind this imposing metal door. I followed Emily in as the door opened up. As opposed to the oppressive sterile nature of the rehab center, the staff-only room was almost like an airport members’ lounge.
“You guys sure do live in luxury.” I jabbed at Emily, thinking back to my plain sterile room and the overall sense of class division between the staff and the patients came more clear to me as I followed Emily further into the private area. The nurses had sleep stations that looked like something out of one of those rich people magazines or HGTV. Made me want to become a nurse and work here.
“Mr. Sinclair wants only the best for his staff and the patients as well of course. Due to frequent vomiting and the like from some patients, we have to keep your rooms quite simple by comparison. I do apologize for that.” I nodded and just kept following her as I looked around. “This area was damaged most by the fire so Mr. Sinclair made sure no expense was spared to rebuild it.” Emily continued to sing Sinclair’s praises and I continued to absent-mindedly nod along to whatever she was saying.
At long last, we arrived at an ornate door with the engraving of C.S. on it. Knocking with the back of her hand, Emily stepped back and waited a few seconds before nodding to me and allowing me to step forward and open the door. The office surprisingly was much more simple than I thought it would be. It contained a few bookshelves, a wooden table surrounded by couches, and in the back middle of the room a large wooden desk. Where the blond-haired occupant was currently intently writing something down.
“Take a seat, Mr. Williams.” Sinclair didn’t even bother looking up at me as he continued to write down whatever it was he was writing. I simply walked over to the desk and took a seat at one of the available chairs in front of his desk. The owner of Sombra was puffing like a chimney on a cigar as he continued to write, occasionally taking the cigar out of his mouth and tapping it on the ashtray next to him. Finally, after maybe three minutes of awkward silence with me doing my best to not fidget and betray how nervous I really was, Sinclair finally capped his fancy fountain pen and looked up at me.
“How do you do, Mr. Sinclair?” I asked him, offering him a smile. My eyes drifted over to his shadow, which appeared just normal. It matched his head and hair, everything. What Riley said had to have been true. It wasn’t like she had just photoshopped him eating someone. He had to be prepared for everything.
“According to your file here,” Sinclair said, ignoring my question completely. “You’re a veteran. Six tours of Iraq.” He closed a manilla folder next to him and looked at me with a quizzical expression. My guess was that he wanted a confirmation.
“That’s right, sir.” I nodded, puffing my chest out as my days in basic training came back all at once. “Private First Class Desmond Willaims at your service.” I even saluted him. My eyes still trained dead on him and his shadow. When Emily had mentioned that Sinclair was a veteran I was damn sure he was lying out of his ass. But something about seeing him here in front of me, and seeing the same look in his eyes. That was enough to tell me he had seen some kind of service.
“At ease, Private.” Sinclair chuckled with a small smile on his face. “We both aren’t in the army anymore.” He sighed and laid back in his chair. Smoking on the last remains of his cigar as he looked back at me. “How many days has it been since you’ve slept without a nightmare?” He asked me, getting a genuine sigh from me as I brought a hand up and rubbed my head.
“A long time, sir.” Truthfully I can’t remember the last time I had a real good night’s rest. Maybe it was the day before I was shipped out for my first tour of duty. Maybe it was the night of my High School graduation. But since then I haven’t had a solid eight hours of sleep in a very long time.
“I know the pull of alcohol. After my tour of duty, I used it as a way to escape. As a way to avoid the impending feeling of death. And of guilt for surviving when my men didn’t.” Sinclair’s voice was hollow and I could tell just how much pain he was carrying. His hand soon reached over to an ornate box and opened it. “Cigar, Mr. Williams?” He offered.
“No, no thank you, sir. Not much of a smoker.” I told him truthfully. That shit had always made my stomach sick and my nose and throat burn. But he nodded with understanding and proceeded to pick one out for himself. “If you don’t mind my asking, sir. Where did you serve?” I asked as he cut the end of his cigar off.
It took him a moment. As if he was thinking about it before placing the cigar in his mouth and searching his pockets for what I assumed was a lighter to light up his cigar. “Afghanistan.” He finally said after finding a box of matches in one of his pockets. “Was pushing in on an enemy position when a mortar round took out my entire platoon. I got away without a scratch. Though, you can guess what that did to me mentally.” He struck his match and held it up to his face for a moment.
In that moment of him striking his match, I could’ve sworn that his shadow peered back at me with bright white eyes and a white grinning mouth before it quickly returned to normal. Sinclair was unbothered by what seemed to be behind him and simply lit his cigar to life after a few puffs from it. He blew the smoke out onto his match and put it in the ashtray.
“I’m sorry to hear of that, sir,” I told him after giving him a few moments to enjoy his cigar. And me a few moments to process what I believed to have seen behind him. “Is this the reason you wanted to see me?” I wanted to know if he had any inclination of who I really was. Sinclair stared at me for a good while before he blew out a puff of smoke towards me like he was some dragon ready to eat his defenseless meal.
“I make it a habit of meeting fellow veterans. And making sure that they get the best of care here at Sombra.” He told me with a smile, this one however I could tell immediately was fake. The same one he put on for his TV commercials. I nodded back at the blond dragon and stood since I assumed that our conversation was done. As I stood up I noticed the portrait he had of himself right behind him. That caught me off guard, mostly by the fact that it looked quite old.
“Notice my portrait, eh?” He asked, looking behind himself and blowing a puff of smoke over to it. “A little vanity project I wanted.” He chuckled and looked back at me, standing up and walking over to show me out of his office. “I understand that you’ve only just arrived. I look forward to seeing the progress you make, Pvt Willaims.” He patted me on the back and led me to his office door, the door opened up and I turned to shake his hand.
And as I did so I watched as his shadow peeled itself off the wall and closed the door in my face. With that horrible act just done to me, I was primed to try and go back inside before a large burly hand grabbed my wrist. Before I could register who was grabbing at me I was jabbed in the neck by a needle and lost all sensation in my legs. I got a good look at the ceiling as I collapsed to the floor on my back.
“Oh, by the way, Pvt Williams.” Sinclair’s voice appeared again, stepping out of his office and looking down at me. His shadow crawled across the ceiling and stared down at me with a wide gaping hole in its face that I assumed was a sort of mouth for whatever this creature was. “If you plan on spying and exposing my establishment. You really should consider using a fake name.” Sinclair shook his head at me and blew smoke down in my face. Soon I was lifted up and made to meet Sinclair face to face. His shadow crawled down the walls and took its position next to his blond owner.
“Guess I wasn’t thinking straight.” I spat out. Wanting to spit on his face but finding it impossible to really do much but talk and move my eyes back and forth. Sinclair nodded and blew another puff of smoke into my face. Causing me to cough uncontrollably. “You lying piece of shit. You don’t help people you just use them like cattle.” I hissed, wishing so badly that I could wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze the life out of him.
“As if anyone really cares about worthless junkies. Tell me something, son.” He took another drag from his cigar as he started to walk around me and examine me like I was a nice cut of beef. “Did you start investigating me out of the goodness of your heart? Worry for the missing junkies? Or were you just chasing the mystery of who I am?” He asked returning to my field of vision and allowing some smoke to escape from his nose.
“Of course, I cared about the addicts!” I shouted at him, believing in my heart that I really was doing this for the addicts that he was killing. But the more I started to think of it the more in my mind it began to make sense that it took more than just missing addicts to start this investigation.
“I’m sure you do.” He mockingly told me, blowing more smoke at me and causing more coughs and sputters from me. “Take him to his room. And make sure that he takes his meds correctly. I do not want another situation like the last time. Understand me?” He pointed to someone outside of my limited cone of vision.
“Of course Mr. Sinclair.” Emily’s voice called out, coming into the corner of my eyes and turning to me and the orderlies who were holding me up. Soon I was manhandled into a wheelchair and cuffed to it quicker than a pit crew at NASCAR could replace a tire. “Sorry for the tight leashes, Desmond. We have precautions after the incident so we really need to keep the troublesome ones from causing us too much trouble.” Emily sighed making sure my wrist restraints were so tight that I thought my hands were about to be cut off.
“Make sure my 2:30 appointment is one track. This new dealer out of Chicago has great promise to me.” Sinclair told Nurse Emily as he turned around to enter his office. His shadow looked at me and offered a smile and various strange gurgling noises as it slithered back into the office after Sinclair. The door softly closed behind him.
“Okay, Mr. Williams. Now how about we get you to your bed and start you on your medication.” Emily patted me on the head as the orderlies started to wheel me out of the staff-only area. A million things were going in my mind as I struggled to see how fast my whole plan had fallen apart. All from the stupid mistake of giving my real name. Grace was really going to give it to me if I ever got out of here alive. The feeling in my body began to return just as we arrived at my room. I was untied from the wheelchair and manhandled into bed where I was tied to the bedposts by my wrists and ankles. Never was much for kinky shit like this, and even less in a place like this.
“You two can go now, we should be okay,” Emily told the two orderlies. They nodded and walked out of the room leaving the two of us alone. Nurse Emily reached into her pockets and pulled out a needle and vial of some sort of clear fluid. “Y’know I only became Head Nurse very recently. My predecessor, Nurse Taylor. Oh, what a horrible woman.” She shivered, walking over to me and tapping my arm to get my vein to appear.
“Seems you take after her.” I jabbed at her, feeling betrayed by her even though I should’ve expected this kind of loyalty from people willing to work for Sinclair. Nurse Emily looked at me like I had just called her the c-word or something.
“I am nothing like her! She was a horrible bitch who was unnecessarily mean to our patients! Can you believe that?” Finally finding a vein in my arm she jabbed me with whatever was in there and pushed down on the plunger. “I for one would much rather remain calm cool and courteous to our lovely patients.” She pulled the needle out and dabbed me with a cotton swab and even put a fucking bandaid on my arm.
“Somehow I think that’s even worse,” I told her, which got only a shrug as a response. Whatever she had given me worked almost immediately as I became drowsy and my eyelids weighed over a hundred pounds as I drifted off into sleep as I saw Nurse Emily remove some more vials from her pockets.
“Hey, you still conscious in there?” Someone asked me. A sudden sensation of someone knocking on my forehead pulled me back to reality sometime later. I shot up quickly only to find that I was still tied down and just simply fell back into my bed. Looking around, the darkness of my room showed that it was dark outside and was most likely the middle of the night.
“What time is it?” I asked my voice sounding so hoarse I thought that I was about to die of thirst.
“Late. Maybe 1 in the morning. The voice told me as my restraints were suddenly untied. “Common big man, can you stand up or what? How many drugs did that bitch pump you full of?” As my body began to wake up and function I finally figured out that it was Nurse Riley who was helping me at that moment.
“She knocked me out pretty good,” I said as I tried to sit up. And only really succeeded in falling off my bed and landing flat on my face. The only noise I could really make was a long dull groan. This felt like the worst hangover I’d ever had but maxed to a thousand.
“Some undercover journalist you are.” Riley knelt down and tried to pull me up off the floor. Grunting and finally getting me to stand on my two feet. My head and body were spinning and it was almost impossible to take a few steps forward without me about to fall upon my face with a thud. “Only here for a few hours and you’re already on Sinclair’s shit list. Gotta say that’s a new record.” She got a chuckle from me as I finally just fell back into my bed unable to move.
“Yeah, really shouldn’t have used my real name. Shoulda used an undercover name but I wasn’t thinking straight.” I mumbled, trying again with all my strength to sit back up. Riley helped me out but soon covered my mouth as the sounds of someone walking down the hallway came up. After they moved on she removed her hand and sighed, rubbing her face with her hands.
“Alright, this is bad. I was planning on quitting today and running away. But now I gotta help you.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a capped needle with more liquid in it. Seeing my apprehension she put the cap in her mouth and pulled out the needle. “Relax. It’s something that will help you wake up. Some adrenaline never hurt anybody.” She told me, before I could really protest I was jabbed in the leg by her and let out a surprised shout. I quickly covered my mouth but Riley didn’t seem bothered.
“Aren’t you worried someone will notice?” I asked her, as she pulled out her needle and quickly put it back in her pockets.
“Trust me, if you weren’t screaming they’d find it more suspicious.” As if on cue a series of screams erupted from the hallway. “Today is harvesting day,” Riley told me, looking at her wristwatch and uncontrollably tapping her leg. Soon the drowsiness was replaced by a feeling of extreme alertness.
“Harvesting day?” I asked with a bit of fear. If this place treated Sombra like cattle I could only imagine what a day like ‘harvesting day’ could mean. Riley nodded and quickly grabbed my hand as she dragged me outside and looked both ways in the hallway before shoving me into the room across the hall. “How is this supposed to help me?” I asked her, we went from one room to another.
“Just trust me. I’ve been here long enough to know how it works.” She definitely had that look in her eye that knew exactly what it was talking about. So I deferred to her judgment she did seem to know how to handle herself in this cursed place. “Stay here.” She told me as she quickly exited the room and began speaking with someone on the other side of the door.
“Where is Mr. Williams?” Nurse Emily’s voice came from the hall as she spoke to Riley I assumed. Where and how had she appeared from?
“I already took him down for harvesting, ma’am,” Riley told her. Seeming nonchalant and like she had just restocked the shelves where she worked. After a few moments of silence, I heard heels clicking away before Riley returned to the room I was hiding in. “Alright, she bought it for now. In the meantime, you need to see what harvesting is. Then I’ll get you out of here.”
“Why do I need to see harvesting?” I asked her, really just wanting to leave at this rate. This whole plan had gone up in smoke and I was way over my head with this one as it became abundantly clear. But Riley took my hand again and stared right into my soul.
“You need to know what they’re doing here.” She told me. Sending a chill up my spine. She had just shown me a man eating another human with a strange ghost-like shadow monster as his companion. What more could possibly be happening here?
“Alright,” I told her, exhaling and surrendering myself to the story that I so desperately wanted. “Where do I need to go?” I asked Riley before she pointed to a wardrobe that was in the corner of the room.
“Hide in there. I’m sure they’ll bring a patient in here. This room always gets used.” She looked around before poking her head out into the hallway. “Speak of the devil. Get in, quick!” She shouted, with a whisper before she herself escaped out into the hallway. Acting on her orders I quickly ran over to and climbed into the wardrobe. Finding it surprisingly spacious inside.
“I swear I’ve seen that girl somewhere before.” Sinclair’s voice suddenly appeared in the room. Looking out through the crack in the wardrobe I had left I saw that it was indeed Sinclair and his demonic shadow. Along with a new nurse I hadn’t seen before.
“Nurse Riley, sir?” The nurse asked, as she grunted and struggled to place a catatonic patient into the bed.
“Is that her name? Doesn’t sound familiar. But all you women seem to blend together after a while. You are as replaceable as the lead in my pencil.” He told her, and to my shock, the nurse nodded in full agreement as she finally got the patient on the table.
“What about her? Do you remember her?” Sinclair asked his shadow, turning to look at the monster who simply shrugged and again let out a gurgling sound that was almost like a laugh. Whatever he said seemed to piss Sinclair off who simply blew smoke in his shadow’s face.
“He’s ready for you, sir.” The nurse told the two. Sinclair looked over and nodded before turning to his shadow and squinted at him.
“Well? Do your job.” The blonde asshole told his shadow. Who quickly wrapped itself around the body and began to melt on it. Soon the patient began to thrash and to my horror, I saw that he was alive. And he began to scream. The shadow spread across the body almost like some horrible slime creature. The patient sat up and tried to pull the creature off of his skin. He fell to the floor and out of my field of vision.
Before suddenly jumping up just in time for me to see the last remains of the human disappear under the black sludge. The form returned to that of the shadow who quickly slithered over to Sinclair. The whole time I watched on in horror. I had just seen the shadow consume someone, but this seemed different.
“That should keep you in shape for a few days. Unless you require more?” Sinclair asked his shadow who began to shake his head before our eyes met. And that smile on his face grew wider as he slithered over to the wardrobe and quickly threw open the doors.
“Fuck.” Was all I could muster to say.