Chapter 3

Chapter 3

      It wasn’t until she had made it back to the locker room, when she remembered what Miranda had said before she started doing blood work. Miranda’s threat didn’t mean anything to her now. Everyone already knew about her disease not only that, they were okay with it. It was the first time that Claire did not fear what others would think, because they knew, and they embraced it! So when she went into the locker room, after eating her delicious rabbit, she saw Miranda. Instead of shying away from her like she normally would’ve done, she walked by her and gave her a pleasant smile. After Claire made it to her locker, she noticed that Miranda had followed her to her locker. “What was that?” she snarled.

“What was what?” Claire said.

“That smile. Did you forget what I told you this morning? I own you now! If you even grin in my direction again, I will make your life here a living hell, just like I did in college!”

Claire took a deep breath and braced herself for what would happen after she said what she was about to say. “Go ahead, I don’t care anymore. I’m not going to let you bully me anymore. Say what you want, tell everyone, I don’t care.”

Claire walked away and didn’t look back. Claire had a feeling that Miranda was still gawking at her but she could not care less. She kept walking, not knowing where she was going, but she had never felt as strong as she had at that moment.

      Towards the end of the day Claire had heard that Miranda had been asked to resign. Claire went to Dr. Crane to ask what had happened.

“She had tried to out you, she was furious. She accused you of trying to bite off her hand. She said that you were furious with her because she had threatened to expose you, and instead of asking her to back off, you tried to take a bite out of her.” Dr. Crane said after Claire had asked what happened.

“I cannot believe that she would lie like that! I would never do that! Sure, I am not Miranda Hallster’s biggest fan, but I would never try to eat her.”

“I know, and so did everyone she came to about. She told your resident first, he then took her to the board of directors, and she told all of them the same thing I just told you.” After a pause he admitted. “I’m on the board of directors Claire. After she said what she did I immediately defended you. I told her that your disease was only specific to animal flesh, not human flesh. I said that there was no way that you would ever attack a person. The head of the board wanted to fire her for insubordination but I was able to convince Miranda to resign. If she hadn’t it would have looked horrible on her resume, and it would have made her look like a terrible person.”

“Why would you do that for me?” Claire couldn’t comprehend why he could go to those lengths to protect her, why he would go to the hospital that Claire had gotten her internship at to tell them about her disease. Why he would go to the lengths he did to create her feeding room? What was the real reason he was here? Why they needed her.

“I was protecting you Claire. You are more important than you know. I can’t tell you why, but you need to be here. It was not only because of your experience, and knowledge, that you got your internship here Claire. There is an underlying reason for you being here. For the things we have done to keep you here.”

He sounded so matter of fact. He was telling her that her being here was planned. If she hadn’t gone to medical school would she still be here, would they have found some way to get her here. She couldn’t breathe, her heart was in her stomach, and it was beating throughout her entire body, she felt nauseous.

“What are you saying? Why do I need to be here?” Those were the only words she could bring herself to ask.

“I told you Claire, I can’t discuss that with you, not yet. I will in due time, but for now, you need to get back to work.”

      Claire was beyond confused; she was at a loss for words. But, she did as she was told and got back to work. For the rest of the day Claire did nothing but complex stitches in the ER. While she was working, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Dr. Crane was saying. His words were playing on repeat in Claire’s head. What was he talking about, why couldn’t he tell her? Where they planning on doing something to her? Where all those animals there meals for her? Or were they trying to fatten her up? So many thoughts were running through her brain so fast she couldn’t’ keep up. There were an awful lot of animals in there…and so many big ones. Maybe they were trying to fatten her up, but why? What purpose could they have for a fat girl with Carnivisouritis haemoglobis.  She had to do some more research on her disease. It had to be something about her ailment, which was what Dr. Crane specialized in. She would start researching before the day was done. That was when Claire had realized that the position she was in was worse than feeling disgusted by every person she knew. She wanted to know why they needed her. She needed to know why.