Emily cried out as several of the onlooking inmates screamed.
Carnegie watched Annie’s chest, then lowered her ear to her face, frowning, before starting up the chest pressure again.The dining hall was silent but for Carnegie’s panting breath as she pressed in that horrible rhythm.Tears streamed down Emily’s face.To her left, Gert and Lizzie looked aghast as Lizzie cradled a sobbing Peggy to her chest.
After what felt like an age, Matron Carnegie stopped, and sat back on her heels, swiping her brow.“She’s uh—” She sighed.She looked at Emily sadly.“She’s dead.I’m sorry.She’s dead.”
Everyone froze.
Emily’s sobs became louder as reality began to cut through the layers of shock.She continued to cradle Annie’s head in her hands, ran her thumbs over the soft hair at her temples.Tears dripped onto the floor and Annie’s forehead.Annie had endured so much in this hellhole, and she had come so far in her sense of self-worth and hope for her future since Emily first met her six months ago.After a long moment, she removed her hands and used them to pull the blue fabric back over Annie’s exposed chest, a small dignity at the end of a life that was mostly devoid of it.
They had been so close to getting Annie out of here.
So close.
…Too close.
A chill lowered down then, trickling from the tips of her ears to the soles of her feet, the creeping frost of realization.
“Stone did this,” she said aloud, looking up now at the crowd of distraught faces all turned toward her and Annie.But her eyes sought Matron White.“This was Stone.”
“Steady there, Radcliffe,” Matron White said, eyes blazing with warning.“You are clearly hysterical, you—”
“No,” Emily said, standing up on unsteady legs.“This was Stone!It must have been!”
“You are speaking nonsense,” White snapped.The room was deathly quiet.
“Annie told me, at the start of supper, that Stone had given her a new medication today, something she didn’t recognize!”She fought a wave of nausea at the thought that Annie had been alive and breathing and talking mere minutes ago.
“Dr.Stone is frequently altering the psychiatric inmates’ courses of medication.Inmate Little always had—”
“No!Stone gave her something bad, something that did this!”Emily gestured to Annie’s body and felt every eye in the room drawn there, too.
“That’s enough, Radcliffe!”Matron White said, taking a step toward Emily now.“This is your final warning!”She turned and said something to Matron Jansen, beside her, who darted away into the crowd.
But the rage and exhaustion and grief were driving Emily’s body and mind now.She was beyond caring who knew about her.
“I’m a journalist!”she screamed to the room at large.“I’m a journalist and I came here to see everything that’s been happening, how you’ve all been treated in this horrible place!”She looked around at the surrounding women.All eyes were on her now, some full of confusion, others excitement or disbelief.Matron White’s eyes were narrowed, but Emily didn’t care.
“Stone’s been infecting you all with VD!”she bellowed as loudly as she could, her voice filling the crowded space.There was a general outcry, and she heard Eliza moan.Her eyes sought June now, visible at the back of the room.Her mouth was twisted to the side, either in a sneer or appreciative smirk, Emily couldn’t tell.“That’s why you can’t figure out how you got it!And she’s getting paid to do it by a drug company!I have the proof!”she cried.
“That’s enough, Radcliffe!”White said, and she and Matron Grimeslunged toward Emily, who was still at the centre of this ring of witnesses, the eye of the storm.
“Get off me!”She struggled against White and the two other matrons who shoved her, face down, to the ground.She cried out as White pressed her knee into Emily’s spine and her fellows wrenched Emily’s arms around behind her back.
“Stop that!What are you doing?”Carnegie shouted.
Emily felt restraints being pulled tight around her wrists.One side of her face was pressed painfully into the gritty dining hall floor.The inmates were chattering now, the noise swelling.At least now they all knew.There were witnesses to Annie’s death, witnesses to her own abusive takedown, witnesses to her claims against Eris Stone.Awkwardly, she met eyes with several of the inmates now, imploring someone to help her.Thelma just sneered.
“These are the ravings of a madwoman!”Matron White shouted.“And they will be treated accordingly!Radcliffe is clearly insane!”With a dawning sense of horror, Emily realized it was a performance.A justification for what they were about to do.
“White, no!”Carnegie cried.
Matron Jansen was back.She handed a package of something to Matron White and Emily strained with her one available eye to see what it was.The sea of brown-clad women watched, and several began to exclaim and gasp as White leaned over Emily, whose panic crested.
“NO!”Emily screamed.“No!No!Get off me!Get off me!June!Eliza!Help!Please!”
But no help came.She should have known her “friends” couldn’t be real.Not in this place.Annie had been the only one.And now, because of Emily, she was dead.
The last thing Emily heard was one final protest from Matron Carnegie before the sting of a needle pierced her neck.
