Sam was woken up by wild thrashing next to him, the sound of terror escaping Sy as his nightmare raged onward. Making quick order, he rolled over onto his side, catching Sy’s arms and calling his name. 

As his arms became pinned down, his cries increased to desperate pleas to just stop. “Sy, wake up. Come on, wake up.” There was no new response to this gentle demand. Sam watched as he became more frantic, attempting with apparent failing results to escape from whatever or whomever had him in this nightmare. Not knowing what else to do that wouldn’t scare him further, such as shaking him awake with a jolt (a mistake he wasn’t intending on making again), and instead pulled him close to him and hugged him tightly. Sy fought only slightly before Sam tightened his grip and called his name. “It’s okay. You’re home. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

Sam knew the moment that Sy was fully awake as his arms tightened around him, holding on like he was a lifeline keeping him from drowning. As he held him Sam felt the quiet, quaking sobs that tore through him. “I’m right here, baby. I’ve got you. You’re safe.” 

At this reassurance, Sam got a response. Like a wild animal seeking safety Sy began pushing his way closer to Sam, wrapping feet and legs and arms around him, fear apparent within the movement. “Sy, it’s okay. No one here is going to hurt you. Easy, baby, easy. It’s okay now. Sh. Sh. It’s okay.” But he didn’t try and push him away or lessen his grip. He simply held on until the fear started to abate. The longer they laid there the more Sy let loose his grip, until there was some space between them. Sam had been watching the nightmare play within Sy’s memory as tears fell silently from his eyes. He sighed. He hated that this beautiful soul in front of him had to go through this. “Sy?” Sy fixed his gaze on Sam’s face. As he wiped more tears from Sy’s cheek Sam said, “Talk to me.”

Sy focused then, his words penetrating through the fog of the dream. His face pinched as if in the most intense pain and he averted his eyes as if shamed. “Please talk to me.”

Sy closed his eyes as more tears seeped through his lids. “It hurts, Sammy. It hurts.”

Sam closed his eyes as his throat closed. “I know it does. I know. But you can’t keep it locked away inside you forever.”

Sy shook his head in denial. “Why can’t I?”

“Because you deserve better than to keep feeling like this. You deserve more than locking away that pain so it can never heal. You deserve to be able to let it go and work through the pain, instead of just hiding from it. Isn’t that what you always tell me?” Sam wiped Sy’s face once more as he nodded. “It’s no different with you, baby. I love you. No matter what you say or what happened, I will still love you. Let it go, Sy. Talk, cry, curse their names, but talk to me.” Sam paused until he had eye contact and Sy saw the fear and sadness for him in his eyes. He couldn’t stop the tears from falling. 

“It hurts, Sammy,” he repeated as he buried his face into Sam’s shoulder. Hiding.

“I know it does. I know. Trust me, Sy. Please trust me. I know you don’t want to continue in this kinda pain forever, do you?”

Sy shook his head. “No.”

“Well, then you gotta fight them, baby. Fight them.” Sam was almost begging. He hated seeing Sy like this. “Talk to me.”

“The dream…” Sy started in a lowered voice. “I was back there again. Back at the camp. When I got there I was so scared. The camp was in the middle of the desert, but it was still grassy in parts. Aside from the so-called counselors, there were ten of us. Four of us in the special unit…”

“Alright, everyone gather up right here in front,” the man that drove Sy called. They’d been standing around maybe ten minutes waiting for directions. There were two sets of cabins behind the speaker, and Sy noticed another cabin further in the distance. He wondered what that one was used for. 

Once everyone was gathered around the man kept speaking. He was a tall, menacing man with eyes of steel, intimidating even on his best day, standing at an overbearing height of six foot eight. Sy gathered behind the crowd, trying to go unnoticed. But he knew even as he tried to hide that there was no hiding from this man. They’d driven days to get here; wherever here was Sy didn’t know. 

“The boys will be in one cabin. Girls in another. Now, when I call your name, I want you to step forward. Sy. Casey. Adrian. Julie.” He waited until the four of them were standing up front before speaking again. “Now the rest of you, go get to your cabins. You’ll be introduced to your counselors.” With few spoken words from the group they disappeared behind their cabin doors. The four remaining stood silent, waiting for further direction. 

When he looked at them, he looked at them with disdain. As if he were a Roman soldier about to salt the earth of their kind. “The rest of you…follow me.” He turned and began walking toward the other set of cabins set a good distance away from the group. He did not stop to see if they followed. When they all got inside, they stood gathered in a small group, each standing close together as if there were safety in numbers against this beast of a man.

“This is where you four will stay for the duration of your time here. Each of your parents have signed a special form that allows me to treat your illnesses with a more… vigorous…method of treatment. And make no mistake, this disease that’s within you will have to be cured by whatever means possible. There are many ways in which we will attempt to purge you of these impure ways. Unless you are in this room, the common room, you will be in separate bedrooms. Boys, there.” He pointed to a closed door to his right. “And girls there.” He pointed to a door to his left, directly adjacent to the other. 

“Here you will be tested and punished for impure thoughts or actions. One way or another, when you leave here, you will no longer crave these disgusting depravities. You will not leave this building unless specifically told you can and with a counselor. You will not wander alone. These walls are your boundaries. Dinner will be served at seven o’clock sharp. Breakfast will be at seven a.m. and lunch at noon. All meals will be in the dinner hall, which is through that door behind you. Lights out is at ten p.m.. The fun starts tomorrow.” Without waiting to hear any questions, he turned and left the cabin, locking the door behind him.

The four of them stood there, strangers in a strange land, lost, alone and terrified. No one said anything for a long time before one of the girls raised her hand with a tentative wave. “I’m Julie. I’m thirteen.” The girl looked around at the other three faces that stood before her. She was a slight girl. Short for thirteen, with dark green eyes and jet black hair. 

“I’m Sy,” Sy said next. “I’m seventeen.”

“Casey. Sixteen,” said the boy standing to the right and slightly in front of Sy.

“I’m Adrian. I’m seventeen.”

Silence fell upon them as they looked around and at each other, no one wanting to move to explore further. “I…I don’t want to be here,” Casey said in a strained whisper. 

“Me, either,” Julie answered. “I’ve never been away from home before. This place scares me.”

Adrian moved a bit closer to the girl and wrapped a sisterly arm around her. “Don’t worry, little one. We’ll get through this together, okay.” She smiled gently at her and the girl stepped further into her embrace, being reminded of her older sister that always stood up for her to their parents. “I guess we should go see our rooms or whatever.”

Sy glanced over at Casey and nodded. “Yeah. I guess if we’re going to be sequestered here, we may as well know our surroundings.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “My guess is we should be unpacked before he comes back.”

Sy looked at the clock face as well. It was 5:30 p.m. and Sy had a feeling that it would be this David Negal that brought their meals throughout the day. Casey followed behind Sy and they made their way into their bunk room. The rooms for both the girls and the boys were exactly the same.

 There were two beds lining the wall with an end table between them. Atop the table was a single lamp. The windows were covered with blinds to block the sun. The blankets on the beds were a gun metal gray, the sheets a crisp white. There were no decorations to brighten up the place. There were no pictures or posters with encouraging phrases on them. 

The common room was much the same. There was furniture that looked relatively new and rather comfortable. There was a rug on the floor that was a blended mixture of tans and browns. Lamps sat on end tables on either side of the couch and in-between the two chairs that faced it. 

There was no television anywhere in the cabin, nor was there a radio. As Sy looked around he noticed that there was no telephone. They were completely cut off from the outside world.

The door to the cabin unlocked at ten minutes to seven so the food could be brought in. The kids lined up out of the way. This was not something they had been instructed to do, but they all moved as one. No one said a word to anyone until the cooks left the cabin once the table was set. David Negal stood before the four of them, a towering menace that was to be feared. 

“Go eat. Then go to your bunk rooms. Lights go out automatically at ten. There will be placement lights in case you need to use the bathroom, you can see.” Without another word, he turned and left. Locking the door behind him. 

With a shared look they filed into the dining room and sat down; the boys on one side of the table, the girls on the other. They passed the plates that contained the food around to one another, as if they had been doing this same practice their whole lives. No one spoke as they ate, each too wrapped up in the strange place they were forced to go to by those that were supposed to love them.

They each thought about the people they left back home. The loved ones they missed. The resentment for the ones that sent them here. The feelings of betrayal and abandonment that had already affected their psyche, ran in confusing circles around each of their consciousness. 

They sat as one. They ate as one. They left the table as one. Each one silently agreed from the beginning that they were in this together, a single unit of four that stood against the real demons of the world. 

As one they stood when everyone had finished eating, leaving the dishes as per directed, knowing that the kitchen workers would come clear the table before lights out. As they gathered in the common area, Julie looked at the clock that hung on the wall. “I don’t want to be out here when they come in to clear the table. Strange men scare me.” At this last sentence she looked up to Adrian, stepping closer to her. Adrian wrapped a protective arm around her and smiled gently down at the girl. 

“Don’t worry. They won’t bother us.” The girl nodded and leaned her head into Adrian’s side. 

“I’m scared of this place,” she whispered, her voice cracking with fear and emotion. 

Sy walked up to her then, setting his hand along her back. “It’s okay to be scared, sweetie. I think it’s safe to say that we’re all scared of this place. But we’ll get through it. All of us. Together. Alright?”

The girl nodded and as Sy looked around, he noticed the other two nodding as well. Sy noted that Casey didn’t look so convinced. “Let’s go to our rooms. They’ll be here soon to clear the table.” With a gentle squeeze of her shoulder, Adrian guided Julie into their room. 

After their door shut, Sy looked at Casey, who was staring at his feet, and sighed. He didn’t know how, but he felt like he was going to have to be strong for this boy before him. Somehow. Setting his hand along Casey’s arm he said, “Come on,”

The next morning they awoke by an alarm that shrilly rang through the entirety of the cabin. Everyone jumped from their beds, their shouts drowned out by the piercing, eardrum shattering sound, covering their ears, their hearts racing. The sound went on far longer than necessary to wake everyone up, and by the time it cut off, none of them could hear anything for the next several minutes.

When everyone was dressed, they gathered in the center in the common area, standing huddled together against the man that would rule their lives for the foreseeable future. 

When he entered the cabin, Sy could feel the hatred roiling off of him in waves. He looked at all of them like they were lower than the scum of the earth, and he had no qualms about not hiding that feeling. He stared at them there for a moment, glaring down at them as if wishing his expression alone could strike them down dead. “Let’s get one thing perfectly clear right here and now. You are an abomination. You go against God and nature and you’re here to exercise out those filthy demons from your souls. Breakfast will be brought in within the hour. You will have thirty-five minutes to eat before we begin for the day.” Without further explanation as to what the day held, he turned and left the cabin.

Casey looked around the group once they were alone, fear prominent in his eyes for what unknown was to come. “What’s going to happen to us?”

No one could give him an answer.