Committed

Dr.Jayden Sylas shuffles down the white tiled hallway and goes into her patients’ room. The room is a grey color with the same white cheap tile floor you see in a school or any other hospital. She sees her patient in the standard garb of the hospital. A grey shirt and pants with a badge on both shoulders and back that show his condition. She sits on a rolling stool and puts a warm smile on her face.

“How are you Danny?” She asks.
“Been better,” He says. Then turns and red burns cover his head and his right arm. Jayden gives Danny a look that a mother gives her child after he’s done something wrong.

“How did this happen?” she asks.

“Tried to leave,” He says quietly.
Jayden sighs, “We’ve already been through this you can’t leave. It’s too dangerous.” She rolls her eyes after having to have said this already at least two hundred times. “I’ll tell the nurse to bring some ointment for the burns and some pain medication,” She gets up and leaves the room before he can ask when he can leave again.

Walking into her office Jayden sits in the big leather chair at her desk. She pushes her red hair out of her face and looks at the computer. Pulling up Danny’s file she adds in the new information about his condition. She sees the big red letters with the severe warning sign next to where the term for his condition is placed, Vampirism. She pushes her chair back and rests her head on her hands, the frustration of the same question always lead to a head ache. Thoughts flood her brain. Why can’t he realize he is too dangerous of a risk to be let loose on society? It’s not for just the public’s safety it’s for him to, why can’t he see that? Why can’t they all see that, the shape shifters, Vampires, witches and all the others we are trying to keep them safe! They wouldn’t survive otherwise, they couldn’t without us. She whispers to herself, her head ache begins to worsen and she rubs her temples hoping to relieve some of the pressure. Finally she logs off the computer, lays on the brown sofa and tries to take a nap after the long day she has had.

Jayden slowly wakes, her eyelids flutter and she stretches her arms and her legs, giving a grunt when after a moment she snaps back like a rubber band. She lays on the couch feeling like jello with no desire to move. She glances over at the clock on the wall. “Ugh,” she sighs to herself as the red numbers on the clock say 4:30 am. She debates getting up when the sound of the alarm being raised makes the choice for her. The light on the wall similar to a fire alarm starts flashing. Jayden hears her boss over the intercom.

“Dr. Sylas report to my office immediately,” He says with a panicked stutter.
A chill runs up her spine something’s wrong her brain screams even her boss couldn’t keep his panic under control. She grabs her lab coat and keys and sprints down the hallway to her bosses’ office. She walks inside and sees her boss talking on the phone; sweat starts to appear on his face.
“I don’t care! Find him!” He slams the phone onto the receiver. He turns and sees Jayden and motions for her to sit in a chair by his desk. She sits and waits for him to tell her what is going on. “Danny’s not in his room and the caregivers responsible for him are in bad shape,” Her boss famous for his straight forward answers does not sugar coat anything.

“What do you mean? Where could he have gone?” Jayden asks

“We don’t know and it’s a huge security risk! Get out there and find him!” he says losing patience. His face turns more and more red. His eyes start to bulge and veins stick out on his neck as if daring Jayden to question and waste anymore time. She puts her hands up in an okay I surrender gesture.

“Okay. I’ll start looking,” She says. He throws her a radio.

“Be careful out there,” he says with a warning lacing through his words.


“Right,” Jayden says as she exits the office. Her mind spins over what she has just been told. Danny escaped. He wouldn’t hurt anybody. What of his caretakers? Her mind shoves every possible reason and situation through her brain and it looks grim. Jayden walks through the busy cafeteria where everything seems normal enough. The other patients are told that it was just a drill nothing to be worried about and to go back to whatever you were doing before the alarm. She spots a Nicole, a shifter and walks over to her. “Hey Nicole,” She says friendly.

“Hey doc,” She says back, smiling over her plate of raw steak. Jayden sits down at the table.

“Your good friends with Danny right?” asks Jayden after some small talk.

“Ya, I know Danny,” She stares suspiciously at Jayden, her eyes turning to slits as the shifter side starts to show. Nicole is a lioness and famous for her temper, Jayden quickly reminded herself.

“I was just curious if you knew where he is?” asks Jayden calmly.

“He’s gone again isn’t he?” Nicole says more of a statement then a question.

“No. I just wanted to ask him a couple questions, nothing too serious,” Jayden says evenly and silently asking herself sense when did lying become so easy?

“Really,” says Nicole sarcastically. A twisted smile appears on her face. “You know what doc there is one thing that I hate the most and you know what that is? It’s when somebody lies straight to my face!” Suddenly her face contorts and in the blink of an eye where once stood Nicole is a full grown lioness. Before Jayden has time to react Nicole has her trapped in a corner.

“Nicole,” Jayden plea’s with her. “Nicole you have to listen to me there isn’t a lot of time for Danny and you know that I only want to help him so he doesn’t get hurt.” Nicole’s emerald green cat eyes stare straight into Jayden’s green eyes. Suddenly Nicole changes back and looks at Jayden again.

“You better be telling me the truth,” She says threateningly. “He’s hiding in the basement tunnels waiting to leave.” She says turning back to her food.


“Thank you,” Jayden says. She turns and starts heading for the basement. She walks down the cold cement steps. The only lights are the few hanging at intervals. Carefully picking her way through the tunnels, her eyes quickly adjust to the dark and her ears ring from the silence. She turns her radio off so she can be silent. After a while of walking she sees a figure in her path. She pulls out her phone for extra light and shines it near the figure. Instantly she realizes its one of the maintenance people. She checks him and sees he has been beaten similarly to the other caretakers. She turns on her radio. “Hey, this is Jayden I found someone hurt in the basement. He needs help, over!” She says into her radio.

“We will send assistance over there,” Her boss’s voice sounds over the radio.

“I’m gonna keep going,” Jayden quickly adds in and turns off the radio again.
She quietly moves down the tunnel, her guard up and her ears straining for any sound. As she turns a corner she sees one of the emergency hatches open. Hesitantly she steps up to it the cold cement walls that have burn spots on them. She hears an almost unnoticeable cry. She quickly turns around and sees Danny huddled up in the tunnel.
“Danny,” she says calmly Danny startled to see her tries to move away from her and his face contorts in pain as he tries to move. Burns cover every visible part of him.

“Ah!” He is barely able to utter.

“Danny!” concern fills her voice. She grabs her radio. “Hello this is Jay-,” Danny smacks the radio out of her hands before she can finish the message.

“No! No they can’t find me!” Desperation spills from him.

“Danny you need help. We need to get you back to the medical area you're in bad shape,” Jayden says hoping to be able to reason with him.

“No I can’t… I can’t keep living here like a lab rat… I can’t keep being treated like a monster or a freak!” Pain radiates off his words.

“Danny we… we are trying to help you… all the stuff that we are doing is for your benefit you couldn’t survive out there in the real world,” Jayden slowly quiets as her own words sink in, looking away not able to look Danny in his red desperate eyes.

“Really all this is for our benefit,” Danny says with sarcasm dripping off every word. “I was fine before you and this god awful hospital took me from my family! Really this is a matter of public safety! I had a normal life, a normal human wife, a son. We were fine I never attacked anyone never was a threat. Nobody even knew what I was until your boss’s agents came and took a blood test!” outrage seemed to fuel Danny as he shook with anger, forgetting about his injuries. “Don't think I don't know what is going on! Why all the blood tests, all the experimenting its not to find a cure but to figure out how to make everyone stronger, faster, immortal. Anything possible for the right price from our genes!” Danny almost screamed. Anger radiated from him, his fists clenched and his eyes bulged. “That’s why I can’t stay here; I won’t be a tool for someone else.

“Danny? Do you have any idea how crazy you sound right now? Maybe the burns are making you think like that? Come on we need to get you help”, she says. Danny gives an exhausted laugh seeming to give up.

“You know what doc? You are just another one of their puppets. You do what you're told and you believe what they want you too. Never questioning what or why,” Danny sighs his eyes loosing hope.

“Danny that’s not true and if you keep saying stuff like this people will think you are more lost than they already think you are. I mean you hurt people Danny, Those caretakers and the maintenance workers, Don’t you see that’s exactly why you can’t be let out until you are cured?” Danny looks at her and his eyes scream betrayal.

“You really think I hurt those people doc?”

“What am I supposed to think?” she says calmly. Danny doesn’t look at her, just stares off into to the wall. After a few moments he looks back at Jayden.

“Doc what if I were to tell you that I didn’t hurt those people and I’m being set up?” he says evenly, staring into her eyes like he is looking into her soul.

“Who would set you up Danny?” Jayden asks.

“I think you already know who I’m talking about, you just don’t want to say it,” he says accusingly.

“I …,” in the blink of an eye loud noises erupt through the tunnels. Personnel from the hospital tackle Danny and try to get control of him.

“Wait! What are you doing? Stop it! He wasn’t a threat to me!” Jayden screams at them but is quickly pulled away from the scene as someone grabs her from behind.
She is pulled quickly down the tunnel and led out of the basement all the while hearing Danny’s screams.

“No! No! Let me go! Doc help me!” Danny screams in vain.


“Danny!” Jayden screams back “please don’t fight them they are just trying to help you.” Jayden silently prays he listened to her. The sounds of personnel trying to restrain Danny sound through the tunnel. Jayden is then led from the basement into her boss’s office; the bright light blinds her as she is taken from the dark basement. “Graves what is going on?” Jayden yells at her boss.

“You need to calm down doctor,” Her boss says with a threat. Jayden stands quietly frustration radiating from her. “You and I both know Danny has been a menace and he needed to be stopped quickly before someone else got hurt also he is hurt correct? He needs medical attention otherwise his other side will take over and I didn’t want it to get uglier than it already has. Now you can wait here until we get a call from medical saying how his condition is,” her boss sits in the chair not even waiting for her too answer. Jayden swallowing her pride and the desperate need to borderline strangle her boss for talking to her like a child and for questioning her judgment. Also she needed to know if Danny was alright, she sits in the chair. She can’t help the death glare that she can feel form on her face. She sits in silence as Graves works on his computer. After fifteen minutes the phone rings and she thanks god only fifteen minutes because she was about to go crazy. Graves reaches for the phone and answers it.

“Graves,” he says into the phone and after a few mumbled answers he says “Understood.” Jayden about to jump up out of her chair for an answer looks expectantly at Graves.

“Well?” she says eager for an answer.

“Danny’s gone,” he says.

“What! No! No, her voice pitches after each no. “How? Why?” she screams for answers.

“He was in bad shape Sylas you saw him yourself. The other specialists down in medical didn’t have time to fix him. He was dying while he was talking to you,” He finishes, not so much as a blink of difference to show on his face. Jayden feels empty and cold. Tears stain her cheeks, and her ears deafen as if they can’t take another word of the truth. “Sylas? Sylas he was just a patient we have hundreds here,” Graves keeps speaking but Jayden is dead to the noise. He can’t be just gone. “Speaking of patients you need to get out there and do your job!” Graves begins giving his tough life remarks when Jayden just heads out the door without the strength to fight back. She decides to run her rounds.

After hours of checking in with patients she finds herself in her office sitting in her chair staring at her computer screen, it still has Danny’s file on it. “He can’t have died. He can’t be gone!” she cries. “I have to see the papers.” she says desperately to herself. Jayden scrambles out of her chair and heads down to medical. She flashes her id to the security guard and tries to walk by when the guard stops her.

“Ma’am I’m sorry but you can’t go in there they are still running tests and such.”

“Please,” she pleas “I just want to say goodbye to Danny.” The guard stares at her a moment then steps out of her way.

“Well the doctors had to leave so I guess it’s fine if you go in there and say goodbye,” he says looking down as he can’t look her in the eye.

“Thank you,” Jayden says emotions spill from her.

“You got five minutes,” He says as if its means nothing. Jayden quickly walks through the doors. The room has a dead look to it. The steel plated walls and tiled floors give a cold feeling as she walks through the room. She sees Danny’s burned figure on a grey metal table. Tears start to flow again and she covers her mouth with her hand. Silently she steps forward till she stands next to the table. Feelings of guilt and disbelief fill her cold body. A sense of shame followed by her conscious screaming at her she has no right to be there, cause her to flinch.

“Danny I’m so sorry,” she whispers. She leans over and hugs him and gives him a kiss on his forehead. “I lost my brother,” she cries. Danny was the closest thing to family she had left and with him gone Jayden felt empty inside. Loss and anguish rush threw her body like a river. The cold chill of realization courses threw her as she realizes she truly is alone. She looks over and sees a stack of papers lying on the table next to Danny. She reaches over and reads them. A bone chilling feeling rushes over her body. “Oh god Danny was right.”

“I knew you would be here.” the all too familiar voice rings through Jayden’s ears. She spins around to see Graves standing in the doorway. “You just need to know everything don’t you,” he sneers. Jayden steps back, shock filling her eyes. “Didn’t anybody ever tell you need to know it alls end up in trouble?” Graves says with sarcasm. Jayden just stands there frozen in primal terror. “Well since you already read the papers I might as well come clean, yes your freak of friend there was right about everything. This entire hospital has been a business.” he says again with his emotionless voice.

“A business to find a cure.” Jayden even as she says it knows it’s a lie.

“Nope, it’s just as Danny said I wanted to find out why those freaks have the abilities they do. Jayden flinches at his crewed words. Actually this “Hospital” I had built was really at the beginning just supposed to be a prison for them until that is I saw the untapped profit that could be made. O the profit that could be made from genes that could make you immortal or really anything people would pay for from those freaks. I struck gold when I had built this facility when those things would get sent here. Jayden stays frozen as she can’t even believe what she is hearing. I could have scientists test on them all I wanted because of the order for them to be sent here and if any question came up about what I’m having being done research wise looking for a cure looks almost identical to what going on here. I also had Danny be framed for the attacks here since we almost have a break through and your friend here is the perfect test subject to get the immortal gene from and now he can’t spit on the name of this facility it’s a win, win for me,” he finishes his sentence and looks at her as if he had just talked about his weekend.

“This is insane! You're insane! This whole place is crazy!” Jayden screams at him.

“No I’m a smart businessman an entrepreneur if you will and sorry doc I can’t have you running around ruining all that I have worked for,” he says and a smirk appears on his face.

“What do you mean?” Jayden asks as she looks anywhere for an escape. Suddenly he lunges for her and grabs her arm. Jayden feels the prick of a needle in her arm. “What did you do!” Jayden looks wide eyed as a doe at graves.

“I protected my business couldn’t have you leave this place telling everyone what’s going on. So I gave you some of Danny’s infected blood. Hey at least you will be immortal,” he says with a laugh.

“I’m going to be a vampire! No!” She screams. Her mind keeps screaming at her “this can’t be happening! I can’t be a vampire! O my god Danny I’m sorry!” Before she has time to react the other doctors rush in a grab her. “No! Let me go!” one of the masked doctors quickly sedates her.

“Well doctors, say hello to our newest patient miss Jayden Sylas, condition vampirism.” he says with a smirk as Jayden gets taken away to be conditioned for being put into a room for her permanent stay.