Underwater Tickles and Terror

The Greenwich Estate was a long time ago, and I still remember it as if it had happened yesterday.

I'd been working at the hospital for three years by then, but this was my first time working in the underwater ward. It was always on my to-do list; I'd seen the machines that kept the atmosphere inside stable, filters that filtered out the water...but until now, I never had a patient who actually needed me to go there.

I'd been told not to be intimidated by the patients. That they were just like any other ones we had. But honestly? If it weren't for the fact that I needed to pay my rent and keep myself fed, I would have quit after just one day.

It wasn't just their physical appearance. They were all thin, frail and pale. Even more than some of our patients in other wards who were bedridden for months or years on end. The thing about them being underwater was only part of why they were so skinny - most of it came from the fact that they didn't get much food from their families anymore. As far as I've heard, most of them don't talk to anyone anymore, so they can't even ask for what they need or want anymore. It's sad enough that they ended up here...but they're treated even worse while they're here.

The worst part has got to be how small the rooms are though - I mean, when did cells belong in hospitals? There aren't even any beds or anything - all of them are tied up against the walls with thick chains around their wrists and ankles, holding them in place with no way of moving an inch away from where they are now. They have plenty of room to move their arms and legs around, but nothing to use them on because of these chains, and whenever we need to do something with them like changing their clothes or feeding them, two nurses have to hold the chains down while another one does whatever we need to do with their patient.

I arrived at my shift early today (or what I thought was early). There was one other nurse there already, but he wasn't much older than me and seemed kind of scared too - he didn't even talk much when I asked him how his week went so far. We took our latex suits out of the cabinets and got ready for our shift; it felt weird wrapping myself in this stuff for going underwater when most people couldn't even go underwater if they wanted to, but oh well...at least I didn't have to stay in this thing long enough for it to dry and peel off like some people say happens sometimes.

We walked through the corridor together and he pointed at a door towards the end "That's your patient."

"Really?" I said as we approached it "Which one is he?" The door handle had a fancy gold plate on it with something engraved on it...but whoever did that work made some pretty big mistakes since half of what was supposed to be there wasn't legible anymore. "Can you read it? What does it say?"

"Uh...it says 'Richard.'" He said "But these letters are really messed up."

Shrugging my shoulders I opened the door anyway: Richard looked more awake than usual when we walked in - maybe he could see us better than most people? In any case, he looked more alert than I'm used to seeing him around here; both of us jumped back slightly when we saw each other standing there like that. He let out a muffled scream as he realized who we were holding him down for today - as soon as that happened though, his eyes lost all focus again and his head leaned back against the wall behind him like before, his eyes staying open wide but staring straight ahead into nothingness.

I went over towards him (well...as close as we could get without actually getting closer) while my coworker shut the door behind us - Richard twitched a little bit more than usual as he watched us approach him with our equipment but otherwise didn't react at all this time either. As soon as we stood next to him though...he started making these desperate noises again: muffled screams behind his gag along with deep breathing noises from trying too hard to get out those screams while also trying not to pass out from lack of oxygen because of being gagged at once like this all day long every day for weeks on end by now. It's funny...when you think about how many times you've had lunch at school or whatever before now and how much rich food you've eaten over your life...that's usually what gets people here into trouble: food is scarce outside so everyone tries their best not to waste any food ever again once someone catches them wasting it once...but you never realize how starved you can get until you haven't eaten anything yourself for days on end now either!