Anything for a Scoop – Part 1
Delia looked up from her cell phone, smiling as the shapely figure slipped into the booth across from her. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to make it. I’m really glad you’re helping me with this.”
The other woman, Monique Stewart, paused as she situated her small duffle bag onto the bench next to her, and slowly lowered the large-sized shades she had been using to hide her face. She appeared worried about being spotted by someone from her place of work, the Edgewater Institute. She hadn’t exactly dressed casually, what with the long coat she wore on a fairly warm day given the fall season, but Delia could understand her reservations. “I uh…I almost didn’t,” she said, at last, blowing out a breath she had been holding. “I very nearly talked myself out of this. I still might; it’s good money you gave me, yeah, but it’s also a really well-paying kind of job, you know? A lot of big careers have been started at the Institute over the years.”
Delia nodded, having expected such a thing. It was a dangerous plan she had come up with to be sure, but there had been very few options to get the story she was after. As a reporter, and one of the biggest names on the scene with the scoop in Sentinel City, she considered it her duty to get all the dirt and let the people know exactly what was going on, especially about a shady mental facility. Given the recent upsurge in super-powered activity, and the oddly suppressed information about the Dollface incident a few months back, she felt it her civic duty to find out exactly what was going on.
There was something rotten inside the Edgewater Institute. Her gut told her it was more than just the typical ‘horror asylum’ rumors that spread around a place like that. She’d spoken to multiple sources on the inside who told her that it was far from your standard medical facility, and though details were sparse, a certain amount of fear evident from her sources, she knew that they used nonstandard treatments and restraints that had been described in ways that made them seem cruel, inhumane even. And they were treating the villain known as Dollface, but even the police reports seemed to have closed the case without much fanfare like they were shoving it under the rug. Supposedly she was still in a coma, and likely would be for the foreseeable future, but that just didn’t feel like the whole story to Delia. There had to be something else going on there.
She knew it for certain.
Not only were there strange rumors coming out about the Edgewater Institute’s practices, but a new batch of stories had recently begun to spread, stories of abductions, heavy restraints, and experimentation, but all vague and dream-like. So far Delia had been unable to uncover anything solid as far as evidence yet, but multiple sources, anonymous and otherwise, had come forward relating their tales of some kind of lab and a frightful woman dressed in black, skin-tight attire, and being forced to perform odd tests or forced into humiliating activities while in those restraints. If that didn’t sound like something a shady asylum would do, then nothing did.
Adding to all that was the facility’s director, one Jennifer Tempest. She had a reputation even without the shady rumors surrounding her hospital. The whole of the Tempest family was known throughout Sentinel City, well respected and influential, some members more than others, but that influence had come from the criminal underground. It typically went unspoken in Sentinel that the Tempests were old-country mafia, with origins straight out of Sicily, their original name being Tempesta. Of course, the family had long since become accustomed to denying such rumors and had learned to cover their tracks with a finesse that Delia had never seen before. People had gone missing who asked too many questions about their activities, and Delia was well aware of just how much danger she was potentially getting into.
Delia reached across the table and took Monique’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing. Just one night in there, and then I’m out, and nobody will know.”
“If you say so,” Monique replied, doubt filling her voice. “I worked hard to get that position; even as a nurse, you have to be good to meet Director Tempest’s approval. I just…I don’t know if I can really risk the job. I know you said it was just for one shift, but still…Jennifer Tempest doesn’t miss much. She runs a tight ship with all those supers in there, and she does it well. If I’m not doing what I’m supposed to because I’m not there, well…”
“You’re still going through orientation though, right?”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“I worked as a nurse for a few months when I was fresh out of school,” Delia said. It wasn’t exactly true; she had studied nursing in her first days at SCU but realized she didn’t have the passion for it she’d thought she had, so she found something that had fit her personality a lot better, and wound up in the journalism program. This wasn’t her first rodeo, either; she’d slipped into a couple of hospitals over the years to get information on a hot story, and had even won a few awards for her work. “I know the basics, and since they’re not likely to have you doing the advanced stuff right off, I should be fine blending in for a night. Did you manage to get everything we talked about?”
Monique looked at Delia uncertainly, doubt filling her eyes, but finally nodded. “Yeah…I’ve got you one of my uniforms, badge, and some notes I took yesterday during initial orientation. And I…I got the supervisor’s badge like you wanted; it should get you where you want to go. God I hope they don’t track that back to me…”
Delia kept her smile up to try to comfort Monique, and though she didn’t exactly have a lot of funding for this little operation, she reached into her own purse and pulled out an envelope, passing it across the table. “Here, a little extra for the risk you took. Enjoy a night on the town; I’ll meet you here at the same time tomorrow and give the stuff back, and nobody will be the wiser. You have my guarantee on that.”
Though she didn’t seem convinced, Monique finally nodded, sliding the envelope into her pocket. “Okay. I’ll be back here tomorrow then. Good luck,” she said, voice strained. She put her glasses back on and rose from the table. She took another look around, then hurried out of the diner.
Delia smiled after her and looked at the duffle bag Monique had left behind. The Edgewater Institute was known for its security, but nobody paid that much attention to the nursing staff. This would be like getting into any other hospital despite the rumors of enhanced security, and she would be out before anyone was the wiser. She and Monique looked similar enough that a casual observer could mistake them for the same person: same body type, curvy and pleasant to look at, similar facial structure, same shade to their dark skin, same eye color, and even their hair was about the same length, if in a different style, which wouldn’t be hard to change for a night. Delia could change her voice well enough to match Monique’s tone and inflections. And who would think it odd that a kid on her first nursing gig was a bit nervous and awkward just getting started at a place with that kind of reputation? Delia may have been a few years older, but not enough to matter, not unless someone took a particular interest in such differences.
Delia stood and tossed a twenty-dollar bill on the table to cover her lunch and a tip, snatched up the bag, feeling its weight, noting the peculiar shape of what she guessed were shoes inside. “Hmmm, feels like heels…” she mused, heading toward the exit and slinging the bag over her shoulder.
She had this. One night in the Edgewater Institute, and she would let the world know if they really were mistreating their patients, and would find out exactly what they were doing to Dollface. If there was any wrongdoing going on, she’d find it, or at least be the one to break the story and get more agencies involved to start a proper investigation. “Anything for a scoop,” she said with a grin, stepping into the warm fall air.
So, here we have a quick little setup for the next “short” story in my superhero setting, introducing a new character, investigative reporter Delia Emmerson, foremost among them. Some of you may also recognize the name of Jennifer Tempest as well; this is indeed JakTheRenegade’s character, and I’ve been given permission to do my own take on the Tempest family in this setting. Expect to see more of them soon(ish)!
Anyway, this was supposed to be a quick little story for Kinktober 2021, but it ballooned into something much longer than I intended (seems to happen a lot with me…). This is only part 1 of what turned out to be a story I could easily split into 8 parts, totaling 56 pages. Wow, lol. The plan here is to release the story in two parts each week, aiming for Wednesdays and Saturdays, leading up to the finale getting posted on Christmas day.
Kinktober Keywords
Cornered/Nurse
Psycho/Crying
Escape/Alien
Stealth/Armbinder
Asylum/Straitjacket
Would love to hear any feedback you might have! If you don’t mind, would you consider taking this little poll I’ve created? I would love to hear what you think! You can find it here!
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Until next time! Urban, out!
