Cinder was sitting quietly in her cell, her head down, hands on her lap. Her long blonde ringlets spiraled down about her, hiding her face from view. Upon just glancing in, one would think she was resting, but in reality, she was wide awake. Just not mentally present. In truth, her mind was far away, in a land of magic pumpkins and talking mice. Reliving the events that were the cause of her capture. Watching as her friends, the mice, sewed her a beautiful dress for the party, and the family's old dog became a magnificent white steed, capable of pulling the glittering carriage that had just been a pumpkin not a moment before.
The sounds of screaming shook her from her dreams and she stood, moving cautiously to the little bars set in her door. Silently, she watched as Wendy was dragged out, shrieking about Peter, with Red following not too far behind, wailing about the wolf. Cinder let out a deep sigh and went to sit on her cold little bench again, glancing about her cell. It was perfectly pristine. Her OCD took care of that. It was also a prison. She hated the Institue, and she had a feeling that they hated her.
The workers would make bets and gamble, the loser being the one who had to give Cinder her meds. Take Cinder on a walk around the grounds. Bring Cinder her meals. Though she was small, she was a pain in the ass. First of all, she hated any and all physical contact. Even hovering too close would cause her to twitch nervously. Second of all, even holding a tone she thought was aggressive, could send her into shock or a panic attack. Her daily walks her a pain because, as soon as she saw the sunlight, no matter how many times she was shocked by the electric fence, Cinder always bolted. And finally, they hated giving her her medication because she always fought it tooth and nail. Cinder was irritable, and aggressive, especially when they tried to dumb her down with pointless medication. She knew what she'd seen. She didn't need a bunch of nurses with needles telling her she was crazy. So, regardless of their approach, the workers knew that anyone who brought her her medicine, was leaving with bruises and scrapes.
Footsteps caused her to look up. A short, jerky motion caused by her various disorders. Outside the little window on her door, stood one of the doctors, and behind him were eight nurses. Eight? Why eight? I'm not that dangerous. She thought as she looked them over without making eyecontact.
Instinctively, she shrunk back into the corner of her cell, tucking her knees up to her chest to hide her face. "Don't look at me." She whined, shivering slightly. She could hear their soft footsteps as they filed into the room.
"It's okay Cinder, honey. We're not here to judge you." The head doctor said in a carefully soothing voice. "We're merely here to give you something to drink to make you feel better. Does that sound okay? Just a nonthreatening glass of water."
Cinder looked up, again without making eye-contact. In his hand was a glass of water, outstretched to her. Why had they sent a doctor equipped with eight nurses to give her a glass of water? She glanced at the nurses behind him, practically breathing in the tension in the room as they all watched her nervously shifting. Cinder wasn't the brightest, but how dumb did they think she was? Obviously this was a new trick. That water had her medication dissolved in it.
In a sudden burst of anger, she stood and slapped the water out of the doctor's hand with an angry shriek. "Do you think I'm stupid?!" She shrilled as the glass shattered and pieces hit the nurses. "I'm not stupid, and I'm not crazy! I don't need your dumb medication! It happened! It really did!" She started beating the doctor viciously with her fists. When he caught her small wrists in his hands, she jerked and twisted, while kicking wildly with her feet, biting, scratching. Anything she could. Suddenly, the nurses were on her, and they were hauling her writhing, shrieking form from her cell.
"The basement!" She heard the doctor yell and out the corner of her eye, watched him sit and plop his face into his hands.
When they'd reached the basement, they threw her into one of the padded rooms and she struggled to stand, reaching to door just after they'd closed it and pounding on it unrelentingly with her fists, crying and shrieking. "Please! Please! Someone! Just listen!"