My savior was beautiful, graceful and didn't come alone. She came in with a squad of people. She came in a holy light that filled every nook and cranny. Her backup brought holy water to put out the Hellfire.

The demons and filth of this place were about to be exposed and cleaned. She is God incarnate, dealing out his wrath, merciless on her mission; to purge the world of the evil and free the unfortunate souls of their damned fate.

That's right I said she.

Her name is Dr. Maria. She believes in getting personal with her patients, though we still have to call her Dr. Although she's was pretty, it wasn't in a supermodel way, she glowed in the right light.

That light happens to the brightest thing I have ever seen, but she's definitely more brains than beauty. Don't get me wrong, she is very nice and a real bug in Dr. Hayes' ass, and I must admit, it's quite nice to see the good doctor get a taste of his own medicine.

Since Dr. Maria has arrived, she has ordered everyone to not take any medicines until she prescribes them. She is working her way through all the patients; first, the children followed by the adults. She's going in alphabetically order. 

I have yet to meet her, but everyone is talking now that most of them are waking up from their functioning comas. I'm kind of nervous to meet her, she seems nice when I've seen her but I don't know.

What if she doesn't believe me?! Or worse, what if she thinks I am insane and keeps me here?! Fear starts to take over my brain, panic gets my heart racing, my hands start to shake. I have got to get a hold of myself, I can not have a mental breakdown in the middle of the Pit when I am trying to prove that I am not insane.

Breathe Theresa breathe... I suck in air, hold it for a few seconds and release it all slowly, trying my best to calm myself.

I will just deny everything! The fact that I can see the dead, like the person sitting at the table with me trying to talk to me, although about what I do not know. Trying to ignore him, I notice a change in the room.

The people around me start to tense and get scared, I look around trying to figure out what could make them act in such a way. Wouldn't you know, here comes Dr. Hayes and boy is he pissed.

He's all but has steam coming out of his ears, and he just stalks across the room to a patient that I have never really gotten too close to; I was warned not to. Then he just yokes the guy up and drags him out of the room with this really calm look on his face.

Not a sound is made, I think if a mouse farted right now it would scare everyone.

Everyone is unsure of what to do, no one is speaking, they are all just avoiding eye contact. After a while, a nurse comes in and starts calling names.

I'm not really paying attention, as I'm still kind of shocked that Dr. Hayes would act like that. I completely miss her saying my name because I am not really used to being called on.

When Lee grabs my arm, I totally freak and I may have hit him in the nose and caused his nose to bleed a bit. As soon as I realized it was him I put my hands down and didn't move a muscle, just apologized repeatedly, hoping it might make a difference.

I was then led to a room I have never been in before. It was filled with stacked boxes and a little shabby desk and an equally shitty chair. I was forced to sit down and the door was closed behind whoever brought me here.

The room smelled of old musk, and a hint of cleaning, The light was piss poor in here too.

I got the feeling this room is not used much, if at all until recently. I am totally freaked out at this point, I can barely breathe or see. This is a new and scary part of hell and I do not know what to expect.

I sit there for what seems like forever until I hear the door open. I don't even want to peek at who it is, and when they walk around into my view I am relieved a little, it's Dr. Maria. Doesn't stop me from being scared though, I mean I did just hit Lee in the face, which does not make a good first impression.

She sits down and looks at me with a small smile on her face, I relax a little more, at least she doesn't seem pissed.

"Hello, Miss. Baxter, may I ask you a few questions?" She looks at me dead on with no sense of judgment or anything other than pure intentions.

"Please call me Theresa, and of course you can." I tried my best to keep my voice steady and even, I don't want to come off as too nervous. She smiles a bit more warmly in return and reaches into her desk to grab a notebook and a pen. She then flips to a bookmarked page and settles into her seat.

"First let me start by saying you do not have to be afraid of me, I will not share anything you say nor will I ever mock you or hurt you with what you tell me. I am truly here to help you and everyone else here." She smiles reassuringly.

"Also, if you have any questions please feel free to ask them, this isn't going to work if it's a one-sided conversation. Sadly yours and every other patients' files are not updated very much, if at all. The only thing that gets added to them really is when they died. Which I shouldn't have to tell you, is very unethical, I do not even know how old you are." She rambled on for a minute and seemed to finally notice it. Her cheeks darkened with red and she cleared her throat. 

"I'm pretty much rewriting every patient's files. So to start, I would like to ask you to tell me who you are, how old you are, why you came here, and how long you have been here?" Trying to sound serious but not be pressing was how she came out to me. 

I am a little hesitant that's a hell of a can of worms she wants to open right at the gate, but I want to please her and be open if that's what it takes. I'm also confused as to why we aren't talking about what just happened. Maybe she is leading up to it. I will do my best to try to brave a bit of her probing.

"Well I...um, I arrived here when I was ten years old and I turned twenty-three today, so I've been here about thirteen years now. I was brought here because I had been pretending to see my dead grandfather and my family is very religious. They thought I was possessed by demons or something, and they pretty much didn't want me and have left me here this whole time." I had to think for a moment.

"Oh, and my name is Theresa Baxter, daughter of Mark and Lillian Baxter of Miner's Fork, Tennessee."

It all comes out in a rush with a vain hope she will move on to the next topic. Her eyebrow twitched, and I suddenly think I'm not going to get off that easily.

"You seem pretty at ease with this. I would think most would feel lost or at least abandoned but not you. Why is that?"

I clear my throat stalling for a moment more of time to come up with an acceptable explanation.

"Well, Dr. Hayes and I have spent a lot of time working on why I should feel nothing towards my family and accept the fact that it is my fault that I am in here. I was having a very hard time dealing with my grief from my grandfather's death, so much so that I refused to believe it. So I imagined him coming to my room and spending time with me. It's that simple." I state all of this very calmly, hoping this is the response she is hoping for.

"Well then, if that is the case you should have been released when you turned eighteen. Can you think of a reason why you were not released?" She leans in as if excepting me to have thirty reasons as to why I should stay.

"If you are asking if I think I need to stay here, then the answer is no; I do not. If you are asking me why I think I have been forced to stay here for the past five years, I believe it is because I know too much about the abuse and mistreatment that goes on here. I do not really think I have to tell you this, as I am sure many of the other patients have told you before me." I lost my nerves, I didn't want to go on, but I had to. Steeling my nerves I pressed on.

"Dr. Hayes is a sick man who has old views of making a person believe what he wants them to, and if you disagree you won't for very long. I think I am here because I refused to submit to him when I was younger because I did not want to believe it was my fault. So I fought him from the time I got here till I was about nineteen." Dr. Maria's face grew dark, for about a half second before she was able to recover her professional mask.

"Now I just want to get out and go live, so I will tell him whatever he wants to hear." I can not believe I just told her all that. I guess I show surprise on my face, and she smiles openly at that, happy that I confided in her more than I intended to.

Her face darkens a bit, "I know perfectly well what Dr. Hayes," as she said his name her face puckers as if just his name leaves a nasty taste her in the mouth. "— has done to his patients in the name of treatment. I also know it was not your fault you were brought here. What if I told you your parents overreacted to a child's mind way of mourning. I really do not see any reason to keep you here. Is there anyone you would like me to attempt to contact to help you once you are released?" Release? What is she saying? I am being let out? I gape at her as shock and hope flood through me.

"You're...you're...letting me out?" I sputter out eventually. I pray that my ears did not play a trick on me.

"Yes I am, who would you like me to contact?" Three people come to mind and a few questions.

"John Baxter, Matthew Baxter, and Casey Love, she was a patient here at one point. That might help you find her. How long until I am released? You are letting me even though I hurt Lee?" She has written everything I have said down on her papers. Her light eyebrows about disappear into her light brown hairline, she drops her pen and looks at me wide-eyed. Oops, guess she didn't know about that yet.

"What are you talking about Theresa?"

"When you sent the one nurse to come get me and a few other patients I had zoned out and Lee grabbed me to bring me here I guess. And I freaked out and accidentally hit him in the face making his nose bleed."

I started out speaking confident but as I continue, her face went from confused to pretty fucking scary in about point two seconds. So I barely whispered the rest of it and started fidgeting in my seat. Reminding myself of Stacy the other day in group.

"I did not send anyone to summon you or anyone else for that matter. Lee was the one who told me you were in here and that I needed to speak to you immediately. The only thing I can think of is that Dr. Hayes is gathering the patients he was the worst to and making sure they will not tell on him. I will call Lee and have him take you to a new room and guard you until I can release you. You will be free in two maybe three days and you will be safe until then. I will see you as often as I can. Now if you excuse me I must call my boss and let him know of the current events." She pulls out her cell phone as she stands and walks out the door. 

I'm free? I sit there dumbstruck. Is that hope I feel raising in me? Something I haven't felt in a long, long time. 

What??!!!! She's free? Check out the next chapter to see how she copes with her new life.

Vote, comment, share. Follow me for update notices.