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"Hi there."

Her eyes opened; pupils constricting to pistol pellets.

The white sterile walls around Kate made her feel as though she was in heaven. This is what she had been told heaven was like, anyway- pure, bright, endless perfect. Though Kate had always found the idea of perfection discomforting. Like the lightness she felt at present. Something was missing. She felt around- checking herself. Kate must've been in heaven, for her mask and oxygen tank were no-where to be seen.

In fact, nothing inhabited the room around her except the borderline anaemic man, who stood beside a bolted door and a blue light, flashing from the top left corner of the ceiling.

"Ahh. You're awake," said the man, taking a step forward in the only part of him that wasn't a sterile white- his stained shoes. The man wore a friendly expression. Kate guessed he was in his late twenties. Though his slender frailty made him look older. 

"Where am I?" Kate asked, taking in a long unsteady breath that caused her lungs to burn in sharp spasms. She winced.

It was at that moment when it dawned on Kate- she should've been dead. She remembered falling from that tree in the forest. She remembered her oxygen tank shattering into sharp pieces before she took her last breath.

"You're safe. That's all that matters for now." He put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly and she yelped and jerked forwards from the pressure of his palm. When the man took away his hand, her back fell against the cold metal chair. "Oh yes. Seems you took a nasty fall. Luckily we found you in time. I've sterilised your wounds. They'll heal fairly quickly."

"Who are you?" Even in her dazed state, Kate remained suspicious. 

"Just a doctor. The real question is who are you? Or who is it that you think you are? You shouldn't have been in that forest. Or your friends."

"What happened to the forest? What happened to Jasmine? Flynn? Tom?" Kate's eyes darted around the room uncontrollably, as fear took control of her brain.

"The forest was destroyed. For your own safety. You were greedy and stupid, going in search for a place like that."

Anger rose up from Kate like boiling water to mingle with her already acidic fear. She wanted to get up away from the man but the shackles encasing her wrists prevented her from even clenching her fists.

Kate yanked at the small circular prisons in disgust. That man had killed her only chance at salvation and he expected her to just sit there and listen to his rambling!

"Where-are-my-friends?" she spat. The anger invaded her senses further- tainting Kate's voice and making it even harder for her to communicate. She craved the idea of punching the man. But all she could do was talk to him.

"They are just fine," he said with a careful kindness that only fueled Kate's rage further. "There is a price to pay for trespassing though. Our societal laws were set out for a reason you know," he went on.

"What price? Let me go. Now!" Kate said, trying not to cry. She pulled at the metal reptiles coiled around her wrists but they bit into her skin even harder.

"Well, let me explain this to you. This is a temporarily oxygenated room- one of 50 here. We want you to be able to breathe without a tank or the use of an external atmosphere of oxygen," the doctor explained, crouching down so that he was Kate's height. "This is how we're going to help you."

The chains stopped rattling. Kate was pre-occupied with the idea of being without an oxygen tank forever. Of being free. She had always longed to live like her ancestors. Finally she could have what she'd always wanted. "And my friends? Will they get this too?" asked Kate.

"They already have. Look there!"

The doctor pointed to the white wall to the left of Kate and it's surface turned clear, like the clearing of the sky- except there was no blue. Only white from the walls, and a figure writhing in pain on a chair similar to Kate's, in the centre of the room. Their black hair hid their face. But Kate recognised them instantly. Though she was merely a shell, a shaking ghost of girl. Jasmine.

"What did you do to her? You're hurting her. Stop!" Kate pleaded as the girl in the room beside her lifted her head, revealing a skull-like face, pallid and purple in colour. The bruises that scarred her, Kate presumed,  were from the falling forest.

Then the wall turned thick and white once again.

"There are a few side effects I admit... But overall it seems to have worked pretty well," he said, moving her chair so that she faced the opposite wall.

This time she could see Tom - who leapt up from his seat and ran towards Kate, eyes glowing a maddening bright green. 

"Stop it!" she pleaded.  He bashed into the wall between them and screamed, desperately trying to kick it down. It was as if Tom was in a silent horror movie. Kate could hear nothing he was saying, but wished she could tell him where the monsters were. "STOP IT!" she groaned, trembling like a baby born too early into the world.

"What's wrong with you?!" Tears ran from Kate's face in an attempt to escape. This isn't what I wanted when I went to that forest, she thought. This isn't what was supposed to happen.

The man turned off the wall . Kate's mind raced, as the fairy-tale of the forest soon turned into a living nightmare.

"You're right, I digress. It's your turn now," he said gently and pulled out a pointed needle from the inside of his pocket.

"No!" she screamed. "Don't touch me." She tried to pull away from him but her hands were too tightly tied to the chair.

"It won't hurt a bit." She tried again to move away from him. In a short skilful movement the doctor grabbed her face and twisted her head to the side, so that she was forced to stare at the blue flashing light in the ceiling corner.

"See that?' he said sharply, his disposition suddenly transforming into something darker. "When it turns red in approximately..." he paused to check his watch "Two minutes. You will be dead if you don't let me fix you. Never to see your friends or family again. They will never see you again. Never. The light will turn red and this room will no longer be oxygenated. So stop being selfish and let us make you normal again." Kate fought him ever still, gripped by fear. "Try to understand that you can trust me, I'm a doctor."

"I don't need to be cured." Kate closed her eyes and shook her head violently, like the movement would wake her up from this nightmare.

"Come on... Kate." Caught by surprise, she stopped pulling away. How did he know her name?

"That's it," he assured her as he secured the grip of his hand on her neck and pierced her skin with the hot needle. As the dark poison travelled through her veins, she could feel a change inside of her. It was like her very blood was being forced outwards to be replaced by this toxic tar. It jutted from her neck to her barely beating heart, travelling thickly down her arms.

Kate rocked back and forth. She wanted to be sick. To turn herself inside out. Anything to rid herself of the unwelcome parasite in her body. But the world was dimming. As her eyelids flitted and her head lolled, she stayed awake long enough to see the poison snake down her right arm- leaving a black scar on her forearm in the shape of a pine tree.

After that her vision became a kaleidoscope of colour, full of bright greens, rich purples and sunflower yellows. All of which should've been a wondrous sight. A dream. If only she had not been in that forest at the wrong time. If only she had remained a child.  

The doctor began to chuckle. "The fox is in the forest..." said he, as though there were others in the room with him.

Hi guys. Hope you like my story so far. I'd love you to comment your thoughts and vote if you like! Thanks- hippywitch