A/N:

**Thank you BeckyTheDinosaur for this amazing cover!!**

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No one dares to move.

Marcus strides dangerously into the room. "Care to explain what's going on here?" he questions with an authoritative tone that sends shivers down my spine. My eyes trail off to the now seemly fascinating floor as I prefer to look anywhere but at Marcus. His presence alone sends my heart rate to dangerously high levels.

"Sir I-" Steven begins as his mind begins to warp some or other tall tale, but it's clear that Marcus has other plans.

"Not you. Her," he says.

While staring down at the array of dust specs scattered all over, I wait for Peggy to speak up. Yet a deafening silence takes over and curiosity lingers as to why Peggy cannot seem to form words. Against my better judgment, I decided to look up. Maybe a visual representation will put the confusion in an understanding perspective. Which it shockingly does. I look up only to meet three pairs of eyes haunting my vision.

I stare back half befuddled, half frightened. My eyes begin to search for the softest pupils and they latch onto Peggy's. Her eyes have a certain kindness to them which conveys a calmness over me. That calmness drastically abandons me as a voice forces my focus to shift.

"Today still," Marcus blatantly fractures the silence that sounded far more soothing than his imperious tone. 

"I... Umm..." I clear my throat as my voice comes out as a whisper and take a moment to think of a response. "It's all Steven's fault!" I blurt out against my will, yet I cannot say that I regret doing so.

"Sir it's-"

"Speak when spoken to," Marcus dangerously interjects.

He then shifts his attention back onto me, "Do elaborate your accusation."

Don't just stand there staring at the man like he's possessed. Answer him!... Jess yells and for once I actually decide to listen to her. "H-he umm... He s-said that..." I find myself stuttering. Actually stuttering like an illiterate fool.

I close my eyes and take a quick breath of some or other form of fresh air before opening my eyes to speak again. "Steven locked me in a room for three days, but before he did, he threw me to the ground and told me that it was Peggy's choice as to when I leave that room. I hated her for thinking that she left me there. Three days with no food or water. Three days of suffering!" my voice escalates due to anger and I stop speaking for a brief moment so that I don't end up yelling.

"Actually no..." I speak up again as a certain realization comes to mind. "I've been suffering for the past week. Each and every single day, for a week and it all leads to Steven." I whip my head in his direction as I spew his name. "He's constantly abusing me. Both physically and mentally and I've had enough." My eyes never leave Steven's. He stares back at me with hateful anger lingering in his features.

I feel a trickle of some sort gliding down my cheek and it doesn't take rocket science to know that I shed a tear, because of a tormented heart. I catch a glimpse of Peggy's face, only to see sad eyes staring back. Her thoughts are in hopeless turmoil. I can tell that she's battling emotions dying to burst out, to be free.

My head whips back towards Marcus. "I want it to stop. I know that I don't have the right to make demands, but if you want me to start 'cooperating', as you seem to call it, then it has to stop." A few more tears trickle down my face and I try to suppress any others that dare to commit the same crime.

"Let's get three things clear right now," Marcus begins. "Firstly; Peggy is your nurse, not your friend. Her only job is to fix up your physical state. Nothing more and nothing less."

Well no shit. We knew that already... Jess exclaims.

"Secondly; it's not our priority to provide anything to you. Not even your basic human needs. We could treat you the way victims are supposed to be treated. So in other words, in case you're too fucking stupid to get the picture, be grateful you have privileges. Or risk losing them completely."

Umm. Okay, you aggro beast. Calm down. Jess seems to be more alive than ever before in my head right now.

"Thirdly; you're correct. You don't get to make demands. Whatever happens to you, happens to you. Deal with it, get over it. This is no vacation. It's time to get that in your head. Got it?"

Sorry, bro. No can do. This place is packed as is. There's no space to store your endless bullshit. Jess announces. She's awfully vocal today. I open my mouth to voice Jess's opinion since I fully agree with her, but there's a small part of me telling me that I'll regret it. So instead, I do the most illogical thing ever. I nod my head in agreement while looking down in shame.

"Hey, Steven I... Don't have anything important to say right now." Frank enters the room looking for Steven but leaves as quickly as he entered as soon as he sees the four of us standing in my room.

"Frank!" Marcus yells out.

One would naturally assume Frank to have sprinted away. That he was long gone and couldn't hear a thing being said, but his head pops back so quickly into the room as soon as his name leaves Marcus's mouth. 

"Yes sir?" he asks while fixing a permanent position in the doorway.

"Take this girl, get her file, you can figure out the rest for yourself of what needs to happen. I need to have a word with these two," Marcus says with a calm tone.

Too calm.

"Yes, sir."

Without asking any further questions, Frank's permanent location now becomes temporary as he marches over to me. He places his hand behind my back and gently shoves me forward. I decided against being stubborn and putting up a fight, so I simply walk on.

Once I reach the door, I turn my head ever so faintly to catch a glimpse of what's going on. All I see are Peggy's tear-stained cheeks, Steven's nonchalant demeanor, Marcus' authoritative posture and an abandoned tray of breakfast.

Without waiting for me to process the imagery before me, Frank slams the door shut. He shoves me again to begin walking and I allow it to happen.

We end up in one of the evaluation rooms, but not the one I'm used to. Frank leaves me in the room with the nurse that helped Peggy do whatever it is that she did to me.

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"Okay, that's that for today. I can't do much as only your nurse knows fully what and what not to do with you, but the basics have been dealt with," she says after five hours of various testing, scanning, and so forth.

It took five straight hours as she had two patients instead of one; the hitchhiker girl and me. Hitchhiker girl has changed in the week that she's been here. She's still scared and timid, but less depressing to look at. I couldn't stand seeing her in so much pain those few days back, but she looks better now.

Frank warned me before the time not to say anything so all the while being here, I never uttered a word. Besides wanting to know the hitchhiker's name, I never had a reason to talk, so it just made things easier. She too refrained from speaking.

The nurse opens the door and calls Frank. She whispers something in his ear, before allowing him to enter the room. What once was a grim expression, now blows out into a full-on grin. The nurse steps aside and Frank enters. "Come on girls. Time to get you two to your rooms," he says as he grabs our wrists and pulls us off of the bed both hitchhiker and I was sitting on.

"I'll be back soon to sort out that filing," Frank says to the nurse with a mischievous glint in his eyes. 

Filing? That's not the men's job. The nurses do that.

Ohhh. I mouth as the sky seems to clear up in my mind. Once we leave the evaluation room, the nurse closes the door and Frank practically flies us to our rooms.

I wonder what Marcus spoke to Peggy and Steven about... I hope Peggy's okay... I don't care what happens to Steven... He can di-... My thoughts get interrupted by a sudden stop in mobility. 

"Here you go," Frank says as he opens the door to hitchhikers room. She enters after saying goodnight and he closes the door after telling her to sleep well and that she was making excellent progress.

I wish Steven was this nice to me.

We continue walking a few doors down before arriving at my room. "Last but not least, here you go," he says as he opens my door and I step inside.

"Goodnight Viv.." Frank begins but forgets my name.

"Vivian."

"Ah yes, of course, goodnight Vivian."

"Umm goodnight Frank."

With that, he shuts the door. My first normal act of the day is to throw myself sprawled across my bed. The soft fabric welcomes me with open arms and I know it missed my presence. I lay here contemplating life. Asking all the questions I should have asked the minute I came out of my mother's womb.

"Why don't you eat something?" a voice speaks up and it sends my heart rate racing to witch mountain! I panic as I hastily sit up on my bed and begin to look around. 

Who the hell?

"No no no, we are not going through this again and I know you don't have memory loss." the voice speaks again. A rather familiar, yet unfamiliar voice. My brain suddenly collides with a bus as my memory of this morning rushes back to me.

"You!" I shrill as I stare at the camera.

"Why yes, yes it is," he responds.

"You gave me a damn fright!"

"How else do I start a conversation with you? A tap on the shoulder?" he asks sarcastically. 

"No need to be an ass about it. I forgot you were here. Such a freak." the last part comes out far louder than I intended it to. 

"Such a female." he retorts.

"So.. you're a man?"

"Did you just assume my gender?"

"I don't know, you tell me. Was I right?"

"It's the voice that gave it away isn't it?" he questions with amusement laced in his tone but tries to cover it up by sounding despondent. 

"I had my suspicions of the gender but preferred it being a female." which is not a lie. I'd be far more comfortable knowing a female was sitting behind those cameras.

Remember that time you took a shower and got naked like it was nothing? Jess decides to invade my mind with a terrible memory. That incident completely fled my memory cave and she brought it back. That means that... Oh no. Whoever it is I'm talking to right now saw me full on butt naked. Twice! I couldn't be more embarrassed.

What happened, happened. There's nothing you can do to change it. Deal with it and move on. I tell myself. Maybe listening to Marcus' instructions isn't such a bad thing after all. 

"Why are you deep in thought?" he asks, snapping me out of a dazed state. 

My brain scatters for a quick response. "I was wondering, what's your name?" I ask as I find myself having an intense desire to know.

"Sorry doll. That's classified."

I huff in annoyance.

"But you can call me... the Man in the Wall." He says, sounding rather arrogant.

Man in the Wall... I really don't like the sound of that.