When we were brought to Time Out, I did not like it. We drove in Mama’s car for a long time with the two bad men. They did not talk like Andre and Pedro, so I did not know what was happening. I did not get good sleep during the night, and I fell asleep in the car as we kept driving for what seemed like days. When I woke up, we had parked somewhere dark. Carlos was waking up next to me. The men handed us off to a very tired-looking aunty. Her name was Marge, and she was supposed to be in charge of us from now on.

  I wanted to ask her why she looked so tired, but she said that if we made too much noise, we would not get to eat. I did not know what time it was because it just seemed to always be dark, but I was so super hungry that I did not make a peep. She said that the place we were was called Time Out. It was just a boring building with gray walls. Even the windows were boarded up so that we could not see outside.

  There were a couple of older kids talking quietly in the corner when we walked in, following Marge. They kept looking at me and Carlos as we walked slowly behind Marge as she led us to a room down a long hallway. It had a bright red door that reminded me of Mama’s favorite flower: red roses.

  Marge pushed both Carlos and me into the room, then closed the door behind us. There was a skinny man with big, thick glasses working on a computer in the room. There was also a big doctor's bed in the middle of the room, but it did not look safe because this bed had lots of buckles and straps on it. I did not want to get anywhere near that bed. It looked even scarier than a normal doctor’s bed, and I could still remember how many shots I got last time I had been to the Doctor. It was bunches and bunches, Grandma said they would not hurt as bad after the first one, but they kept hurting worse and worse after each shot.

  When we came into the room, the skinny man looked up.

  “Oh, who do we have here. Looks like I am going to have a few new patients. You can both call me Doc.” He smiled at us both in an extra happy way. It made me feel confused. I did not normally see grown-ups smile like that. Most of the time, they had less big smiles even when I knew they were happy, like when I gave mom one of my drawings from school.

  “I did not know that we would be getting some new friends today. I guess I need to do my first checkup on you two. Let me get that tape off you. After all, how am I supposed to check you when you are looking like sad birds?”

  He took out a little metal tool from the drawer next to him, and walked behind Carlso and cut the tape off. It looked like the tool was extra sharp because it cut through the tape like what my grandma always said, “a hot knife through butter.” He turned to me to start cutting the tape away from my arms. I felt a bit of a sting along my left arm as the sharp tool slid down. It hurt a little bit, but when my arms were finally loose, my right one just dangled from my shoulder. I tried to grab it with my left arm, and there was blood covering my arm and running down towards my hand.

  “Whoopsie, looks like I slipped a bit and gave you a little bitty boo-boo. Well, I should fix that up for you; we can't have you dirtying up my floors before your first treatment.”

  After I saw all the blood covering my arm, my arm started hurting way worse, and I started crying. I did not know why it didn't hurt worse when it happened. I had the biggest cut I had ever gotten running down my arm. The Doc quickly put a super big bandaid over the cut, but by the time he had fixed it, his hands were covered in my blood.

  His smile was even bigger when he looked at his hands, then he started licking the blood off his fingers. Mama and Grandma always said blood was dirty and that you needed to clean it up right away. What Doc was doing seemed dirty and bad. When he saw the grossed out look both my brother and I were giving him, he seemed to smile even more. We could see my blood on his teeth as he smiled.

  “Well, I know I will be looking forward to your first treatment. I hope that it comes soon. Now lets get the rest of you looked at.”

  I did not want the Doc to touch me again; he was dirty and scary. I tried to get away from him by hiding behind Carlos. Carlos put his fist up like he was ready to fight, but it did not matter; Doc was too quick. The first punch Carlos throw he grabbed his arm and used it to spin Carlos around until he was held tight with Doc’s arm around his neck, and the sharp tool back in his other hand pointed at Carlos’s eye.

  “Now we can’t be having that. You are my precious patients, would hate to have to hurt you. I am supposed to heal you after all.”

  I had never seen Carlos seem so helpless. His face was scared. He could not keep his eyes off the tool that was an inch from his eye. Carlos started crying, and I started crying, seeing how scared my brother was.

  “Enough of that, I just need to make sure you listen to me when I tell you to do things. After all, I am here to make sure you stay alive.”

  I ran over to Carlos and gave him a one-armed hug once Doc had put away the scary shap tool. Doc noticed I wasn't using my right arm and came over to me.

  “Oh, this is no good, we have to make sure you are at the tip top of health. It looks like you have a dislocated shoulder. I can get that right as rain in no time at all.”

  He layed my down on the bed with all the straps, but both Carlos and I were scared of Doc to say anything about not wanting to be on the bed. He grabbed my wrist and started pulling and then moving it back and forth, then he lifted it up slowly until I heard a pop, and a sharp pain. My arm stopped hurting so much. I could also move it again, but it did not feel good to move it around.

  “Well, that was not so bad. Now it is time for you to get out of here. I have another appointment, and I hate to keep my patients waiting.”

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  He opened the door and waved for us to leave. As we walked out the door, we saw a kid being dragged down the hallway by a big man, struggling to get away. He was shouting down the hallway.

  “I don’t want a treatment. Why do I have so many? Stick has not had any. Why are you taking me again? Let me go. I don’t want to do it.”

  His cries and screams got muffled by the door when it closed behind us. I grabbed Carlos’s hand as we walked together down the long hallway. We walked slowly back to the gray, dark room. When we came out, more kids in the room were looking down the hallway we had just come out of, afraid. I did not want to go down the hallway to see Doc ever again. I knew why they were afraid; the man was not just bad, he was wrong.

  Eventually, both Carlos and I looked around the room. There was no color unless you counted the dirty clothes that some of the kids were wearing. There were 7 other kids in the room besides us, and they were all talking in groups, looking over at us. There were three metal tables, like the ones in the school cafeteria, and a bunch of wooden chairs around the room.

  As we were looking around, the oldest of the kids, who was looking at us and talking to the biggest group of 4 kids, walked over to us with a limp. He looked like he was three years older than Carlos. He had a big scar across his face, like someone had taken a knife and sliced down from his eye to his other cheek.

  “Hey, new kids, I am the boss of the kids around here. You'd better listen to what I say, or you will be sorry. Call me boss.”

  Carlos looked down at me while I hid slightly behind him as Boss was talking.

  “Ok, Boss. What are we supposed to do to get out of Time Out?”

  Boss laughed. “What do you mean, get out? There is no getting out unless they take you.”

  Carlos still wanted to know more. “When do they take you?”

  “I don’t know, some of the oldest kids get taken, but sometimes other kids get taken too. I think I am getting old enough that they might take me soon. I have been the boss for a while, so I think my chances of getting out of here are good. They are always watching, and they only take the best kids.”

  Carlos was not giving up on the idea of escape, though. “Maybe you just gave up too quickly on getting out of here on your own. I am never going to give up. The people who took us were evil. I am not going to stay here just waiting for them to take us somewhere else.”

  Boss rolled his eyes. “Every new kid thinks they are going to be the magic escape artist that no one before them was. You are not getting out of this fucking dungeon, and there is nothing that you can do about it. The sooner you give up and try to find your place here, the less pain you will have to endure.

  My brother was not going to give up that easy. “I am not afraid of pain. I am going to get out of here if it is the last thing I do.”

  Boss just ignored him after that. “All you need to know is that down that hallway is the Doc; you have already met him. He is not someone that you ever want to meet again.” He stopped with a serious look on his face, “No one wants to meet Doc.”

  I could understand that. Every time I remembered him licking my blood off his fingers, it made me so grossed out.

  As we continued to stay quite Boss just kept talking, “Through that door lies the visiting room. They have a screen and a camera setup so that you can see your mom.”

  I had to say something. I was just too excited that I was going to get to see Mama. “Carlos lets go right now. I want to talk to Mama. I want to make sure that she is ok. I really …”

  Boss interrupted me before I managed to drag my brother more than a few feet. “You don’t get to talk to your mom anytime you want, just when Marge says you can. Did Marge say you could?”

  I did not like having to wait. “No … ”

  After that Boss just ignored me again. “That door over there leads to the bathroom and showers. You are required to shower once a week, but they don’t stop you if you want to shower more than that. The door behind Marge’s desk we are not allowed anywhere near. That is where they bring the food in from, and on rare occasions, they will bring newbies like you. Finally, through that door is where we sleep.

  Boss wore a mean smile, as if he were excited to hurt someone. “You will soon learn that clothes are a vital commodity in trade. The ground is hard, and if you get enough clothes under you, it is easier to fall asleep. Now, as a tour guide and the boss of the kids, I will need you to pay up. I will be generous and only charge you a single piece of clothing each.”

  Boss held his hand out towards us like he expected us to take off our clothes and hand them to him right here.

  I hid behind Carlos again as Boss came towards us, his hand raised. I did not want to give him my clothes, but he was a bunch bigger than Carlos. Carlos was not scared because he was always brave. He even tried fighting the grown-ups who attacked us before, so I knew he was going to be able to protect me.

  My brother did not disappoint me. “We are not giving you anything, so back off. You did not tell us anything that we could not have figured out on our own. Go away.”

  I looked around to see if any other kids were going to help, and I noticed they were all missing some clothes. Some had no shirt, some were missing socks, and some were wearing only underwear. None of the kids was as old or as big as Boss, and they were all looking away as Boss came at us.

  Boss finally just grabbed Carlos by his shirt and pulled him forward so their faces were only inches from each other “No? That is not how things work around here. This is not a negotiation. I am the boss, and what I say is what goes. Now give me your fucking shirt before I have to get blood all over it.”

  After he finished talking, Carlos did not wait, and his fist slammed into the side of Boss’s head. After that, they started fighting for real, and I could not see what was happening. They were both rolling on the ground, and they were trying hard to punch and kick each other. Every fist thrown and every grunt shouted, I could tell that my brother was getting hurt more and more. I wanted to go help him, but I was afraid. I did not want to get hurt.

  Finally, Boss stood up with blood running down his face. He had Carlos’s shirt in his hand after he had ripped it off him in the fight.

  “You'd better know your place now. Don’t ever try that shit again, or it will be even worse for you next time.”

  He walked over to me and held out his hand. “Give me your jacket if you don’t want the same thing to happen to you.” I handed him my jacket, and he walked back to his group.

  I ran over to Carlos while he slowly tried to get up with his nose all crooked and the side of his face with long scratches all the way from his hair to his chin. I wasn't sure, but he was holding his eye, so he might have had a black eye, too. I helped him get to his feet, and he eventually was able to stand on his own.

  Carlos led me over to two empty chairs on the other side of the room from Boss. We sat down together and just hugged each other. I did not like this place called Time Out. I hate all the bad men for what they did to my family. I wanted to go home, I wanted my Mama, I wanted my Grandma.