A single sliver of the sun sat on the horizon when she suddenly went silent. Dr. Naboru, two other doctors who had arrived early in the morning, and several nurses rushed to the door of the padded room to find her asleep on the floor. Their focus was on the girl for any signs that she might still be awake and violent and so it was not until they opened the door that they saw the rest of the room.
Great gouges had been left in the thick, heavy coverings of the walls. The cuts ran so deep that the padding itself spilled out in several places. Several similar slashes covered the floor. In sets of five, they could only have come from her fingernails. Long strands of hair littered the floor in clumps. Handfuls, he guessed, ripped from her head when no one was watching. When the strands were lifted to the light, though, they were not gold but silver.
Perhaps the strength of lunacy could explain how she had managed to tear apart padding that had lasted against dozens of patients, but nothing could explain the burns found on the inside of the door.
She was carried back to her room and more sedatives were administered, just in case. Then Dr. Naboru, as well as the other two doctors, pulled up the recordings from her temporary room for the night and watched.
Or they tried. While she had still flung herself uselessly around the room the footage remained clear. Suddenly, though, she had swung around to look up directly at the camera. The doctors were left baffled by her knowledge of the camera's location, hidden between tiles of padding in a dark room. The hands that had been clasped against her head, over her ears, came away with those confusing strands of hair. For one second they saw her eyes clearly. Then the camera stopped and flashed into darkness.
Those eyes…
Red, the officer's voice had echoed through Dr. Naboru's head. Blood red and burning.
The orderly who had been monitoring the cameras that night swore that the footage of her sudden outburst had continued the entire night. Never had she done anything but scream and beat the walls. The final glimpse of that fiery gaze had badly shaken the orderly. Still, he insisted she had never shown the violence that had destroyed the room and the camera had never stopped working.
