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I let her bring the wet towel up toher warmth as she leaned in closer She ss For a second, just one, her hand caainst mine, and it was almost more than I could take

I wasn’t at ho, desperate to keep everything inside me I couldn’t cry, not in front of her, or any of the other adults I wouldn’t give them the pleasure

"Are you still in pain?"

The only reason I opened my eyes was because she pulled theht in each I tried to throw my hands up to shield theainst the restraints was pointless

The wo her flowery fragrance with her The smell of antiseptic and peroxide flooded the air, and I knew exactly where I was

The sounds of Thurmond’s infir out in pain, boots clipping against the white tile floors, the creak of wheelchair wheels…I felt like I was standing above a tunnel withbeneathblue scrubs and a white coat With her pale skin and white-blond hair she all but disappeared into the thin curtain that had been pulled aroundand sest doctor I’d ever seen in Thurh admittedly I could count my trips to the Infirmary on one hand I went once for the sto Spectacular, and once for a sprained wrist Both tiroped by a pair of wrinkled hands than I had before I’d coht of an old perv wearing a cologne of alcohol and le about her

"My nabie I’ at the gold swan insignia on her coat pocket

She leaned in closer "We’re a big medical company that does research and sends doctors in to help care for you guys at the camps If it makes you feel more comfortable, you’re more than welcome to call me Cate and leave off the doctor business"

Sure I was I stared at the hand she extended towardin bie stuffed her hand back into the pocket of her lab coat, but not before letting it stray over the restraint securing uardrail

"Do you knohy you’re here, Ruby? Do you remember what happened?"

Before or after the Tower tried to fry my brain? But I couldn’t say it out loud When it came to the adults, it was better not to talk They had a way of hearing one thing and processing it as soive theht months since I’d last used my voice I wasn’t sure I even reuessed the question I was barely holding back at the tip of ht broke out in the Mess Hall It seeot…a bit out of hand"

That was an understateher powers called it--was used to settle us down, so to speak, while it did absolutely nothing to the whistle, the pitch tuned perfectly so only our freak brains could pick it up and process it

They turned it on for a whole host of reasons, so their ability, or to stamp out unruliness in one of the cabins But in both of those instances, they would have piped the noise directly into whatever building the kids were in If they used it across the ca it over the speakers for us all to hear, then things otten really out of hand They must have been worried that there was a spark that would have set the rest of us ablaze