“But—” Torri began.
But suddenly the dream shredded into nothing and Vic disappeared. In the big Kindred’s place was Mike O’Toole’s bearded, grinning face.
“Told you, you’d be sorry, bitch!” he hissed, clapping a hand over her mouth so Torri couldn’t scream. “Now I’m gonna teach you a lesson but good!”
Eighteen
Things were happening too fast. Just a minute ago, she’d been in the middle of a dream, engaged in an earnest conversation with Vic and now she was flat on her back in bed with the big orderly bending over her and a clammy hand clapped over her mouth.
Let me go! Leave me alone! Torri tried to scream, but it just came out as a muffled Mmph mm mmph sound behind his hand. She began to fight and thrash but O’Toole grabbed both her wrists in his other hand, pinning them together over her head.
“You got her?” a voice asked from the other side of the dim room.
“Hell yes, I got her. Now do it—do what we talked about or no more nose candy for you!” O’ Toole snapped.
Torri’s body went rigid with fear. Who else was in the room and what were they going to do to her?
She got her answer soon enough when Tanya bent over her.
“Told you you’d be sorry, bitch!” she hissed, in an echo of O’Tool’s threat. Then she bit the inside of her own forearm savagely, until dark rivulets of blood ran down to her elbow. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, Tanya looked across the bed at O’Toole. “Okay—I’m ready!”
“Make it quick,” he snarled and lifted his hand from Torri’s mouth.
Before she could scream, Tanya was rubbing her bloody forearm across Torri’s lips, making her spit and sputter with disgust.
“Hey, what—?” But she didn’t get to finish the question before Tanya started screaming.
“She bit me! She bit me! Oh my God, she bit me!”
“What’s all this? What’s going on?” The night-shift head nurse was suddenly in the doorway flipping on the light switch.
“She bit me! I just came in here to get something I left when we was roommates and she bit me—see?”
Tanya waved her bloody forearm in the head nurse’s face and pointed at Torri, whose mouth was smeared with incriminating scarlet.
“I’m afraid it’s true,” O’Toole, who was still holding her down, said before Torri could say anything herself. “I was walking past and saw it happen. Torri just attacked her for no reason!”
The head nurse gave him a narrow look. “You’re sure that’s what happened?”
“No!” Torri gasped, trying to explain. “I never—”
“She’s lying! She bit me!” Tanya blared, drowning her out. She began to wail loudly—so loudly that Torri could barely hear herself think over her squalling.
“I think we need to file an incident report,” the head nurse said, raising her voice to be heard over the racket Tanya was making.
“This one needs to be put in restraints.” O’Toole nodded at Torri, who was still trying to protest. “She’s havin’ some kind of episode—she might hurt other patients too.”
“No—I never bit her! I didn’t—she bit herself!” Torri shouted.
“Now why would she bite herself?” O’Toole gave her an incredulous look and then looked up at the head nurse. “You hearing this? Why, she’s got Tanya’s blood all over her mouth and she’s tryin’ to say she didn’t do it!”
The head nurse shook her head as she looked down at Torri.
“And she was doing so much better. Well, it just goes to show you never can tell.” She sighed and looked at O’Toole. “I’ll send someone with the restraints. After you lock her down, you’ll need to fill out an incident report form and the paperwork for the restraints. Tanya, stop that screaming and come with me so I can treat your arm,” she snapped.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Tanya nodded her head, suddenly meek as a lamb. She shot Torri a triumphant look as she trotted out of the room after the head nurse.
“You’ll never get away with this!” Torri said, glaring up at O’Toole, her heart racing. “I’ll tell Dr. Burrows everything I’ve seen you doing! I’ll tell him what you’re doing now!”
O’Toole barked an ugly laugh.
“Who do you think told me to stage this little one-act play we got goin’ here, darlin’?”
“What?” Torri felt some of her anger change to abject fear. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.
The big orderly gave her a triumphant sneer.
“You ain’t never gettin’ out of here, bitch! Not when you’re bitin’ other patients and actin’ crazier than a shit-house rat. You’re gonna stay right here where Dr. Burrows can keep an eye on you forever.”
At that point, another orderly came in with the thick leather restraints and they began strapping Torri to the bed.
“Help me!” Torri begged the other orderly, who was holding down her arms and legs as O’Toole buckled the restraints in place around her wrists and ankles. “Help me—I didn’t do anything! I’m being framed!”
“Yeah, right.” The other orderly, a scrawny man by the name of Sam, with a scraggly goatee looked bored with her pleas. “I know, I know—you’re not really crazy—they just made you look crazy, right?”
“That’s right!” Torri struggled against the thick, padded leather restraints. “Let me go—please!”
“Now, now, darlin’—can’t have you getting up and hurtin’ any more of the other patients.” O’Toole’s eyes sparkled with malicious glee. “Thanks for the help, Sam,” he added, speaking to the other orderly. “I’ll finish up here. Let Kathy know I’ll be in to fill out that incident report form and the paperwork for these restraints in a minute.”
“Sure.” The other orderly shrugged and left, leaving Torri alone with O’ Toole.
“Now you’re all ready for my next visit, darlin’,” he murmured, and leaned down to kiss Torri on the forehead—a wet, cold kiss that smelled like cigarette butts.
“Get away from me!” Torri tried to squirm away from him, but the thick leather restraints around her wrists and ankles held her fast, spread-eagle to the four corners of her bed.
“I’ll leave you alone—for now. But I’ll be back later, when things quiet down a little. Then we’ll have a little date.” O’Toole grinned at her nastily. “I think you know what that means, darlin’. Oh, and don’t worry about your big friend interfering,” he added. “I made sure his door was locked, and you know we always lock the door between the men’s and women’s areas at night. So that’s two locked doors keeping him away, which means even if you scream for him, he’s not coming. In fact, nobody is coming. It’s just gonna be you and me allllll alone together.”
“If you touch me—” Torri began.
“Oh, I’ll do more than touch you, bitch.” The big orderly leered at her. “When I’m done with you, you’re gonna be to sore to walk for a week.”