Chapter thirty-seven: Playing along
"I'm your new doctor."
The prophet looked up to her new 'doctor'. This doctor was clean woman with a kind smile.
The prophet decided she hated this doctor. It was childish, but she hated most of the people that worked for her captors.
Mostly she hated how perfect the woman looked.
The prophet was only a small burnt up crisp of a creature in this place. Not the confident, fear-inducing anonymous being she liked to be. Her protection was gone. She only had one voice here, not the strong many voices the others heard.
One voice. Small and ugly, just like the thing it belonged to. She was a husk. Something that should've been dead, but instead was something worse than that.
The voices were beautiful. The husk was nothing.
"Where is the last doctor?" The husk hissed.
"He went on to work on other things," New doctor said, tone suggesting she was trying to reassure the husk. "My name is Gabriella Conway. Your official title is subject three, but is there something you'd prefer I call you?"
"I am the husk," The husk told the woman. "In this place, I am the husk."
Dr. Conway blinked. "...Husk? Well, if that's what you'd prefer, I suppose that's fine."
The husk understood now. She understood what they were doing, sending this doctor here. They were trying something new, thought that maybe if they made someone show pity to the ugly creature it might make it cooperate with them.
Perhaps the husk would play along. "What can this creature do for you, doctor?"
"I think a better question is what can I do for you? I am here to help you, not for you to help me."
"People always want things," The creature sniffed. "You are not so different. You are a doctor, you know people, so you should know this to be true."
"Do people usually come here asking things of you?" Conway asked, tilting her head.
"Do you like asking questions you already know the answers to, doctor?" The husk sneered.
"I know my own answers, but not your answers," Conway replied. "Two very different things."
"I see," The husk said. "And what if my answers do not lead you to what you want?"
"This is what I want," Conway said, smiling. "To me, the journey is more important than the destination. Do you understand?"
"I have my own version of understanding," The creature said. "But it is not yours, as you said."
Conway chuckled. "Using what I said just now to… okay, this will be good. Perhaps we can start to see our separate ways of understanding more clearly together. I am curious about you, and maybe you are curious of me? We could reach an agreement."
"An agreement," The husk muttered. "It is far too early for you to ask for an agreement, as it will be tomorrow and the days after that."
"It's a good thing we'll be spending so much time together, then."
The husk and the doctor stared at each other silently for a few moments.
This woman was lucky that the husk was bored.