Euthanasia center

The woman sighed as she cleared up the table of the euthanasia needle.

"Don't mind it."

Placing a hand on her shoulder, the woman's friend comforted her in a soft voice.

"Yeah, I know I shouldn't. It's just..."

The woman averted her eyes to the cold body on the bed. Up until a couple minutes ago, that body was an energetic boy who only had one person in his eye. His mother.

Said mother was now crying uncontrollably outside the euthanasia room. She had kept her tears to herself right up until her child had taken his last breath. Then seeing the last speck of light fade away from his eyes, she finally broke down.

The woman's friend shook her head at the common sight and left to attend to the mother. There were still many things for them to talk about. There was also the government compensation, but that could wait until the mother's tears had calmed down.

The woman sighed once more as her coworker gently scooped the boy's body out from the chair and carried it away. He would be put in a beautiful casket, and sent off buried in a bed of flowers. But no amount of beautification could hide the cold truth of his death.

The woman stood up and threw the needles into the sterilizer. She then exited the room and walked down the corridor.

A couple of years ago, she was assigned to this center. As a young nurse, choosing where she wanted to go was a pipe dream, so she accepted whatever offer came to her. And this was it.

On the first day of her job, she had been horrified, her blood turning cold, as she was told the scope of her job. Seeing her reaction, her mentor sighed and told her she would get used to it. She had to.

Flash forward a couple years and it was hard to say that her mentor was wrong. To her horror, year after year of doing this job has worn her sense of justice and her confidence that she would never treat these lives as just words on a piece of paper. Or a chore.

And so as per her most frequent routine, she took the 15 minute break after each patient to walk to the waiting room. Every day she tries to do this if she has time. So she could see and interact with these people who would soon come to her and meet their end.

It was painful, hurtful, and sometimes downright agonizing. But to her, it was better than being numb to all this.

She was also incredibly up to date on the anti-MDVA-prevention-act faction. Even if she was working in the very center they despised, she hoped that when push comes the shove she would be able to help them out as an insider. And to meet her goals she needed to be more humane.

The next victim who was waiting was a pretty young child. She had the stereotypical airy polite smile and hazy eyes. But other than that, like all the others, she looked perfectly normal.

Standing beside her was another coworker of hers. That coworker was explaining the terms and process leading up to the euthanasia room. Although all that child's rights as a proper human being had been forcefully snatched from her, her coworker still wanted to explain everything. At least before she went.

"About the compensation..."

The moment they started mentioning about the compensation, the child's eyes lit up for the slightest of seconds and she obviously was more focused on her coworker's words.

"So she has money issues..."

Mumbling under her breath, the woman shook her head in sadness. Most children who suffered from MDVA were those from lower-income families, from troubled families, or who had incredibly unfortunate lives. Which made everything worse.

After explaining, her coworker gave a small wave to the blank faced child and headed out of the room with a small frown.

Spotting the woman, the coworker headed over and passed her a couple of papers. They shook their head as they spoke.

"The child, Alex, was picked up from the streets by a very well-intentioned couple. They saw her and her younger brother huddling under a building for shelter in very dirty clothes, and brought them to the hospital for a medical check up after feeding them and giving them some clothes. Only for them to find this out."

Tearing her eyes away from her coworker, the woman quickly read through the papers she was handed.

Alex, 18 years old. Her family consists of Ellen (mother), Roger (father) and Oliver (little brother). Currently, the two parents are living separately. Oliver is 5 years old, and the two were found near the slums. Alex was diagnosed with Moral Deficiency with a tendency for Violent Actions (MDVA) by their local hospital, and was immediately sent here. Her parents refuse to acknowledge anything.

The more she read, the deeper her frown got. Until she couldn't stand reading anymore and flipped the papers over.

Checking the euthanasian date, the building code for this euthanasia center, as well as all the particulars were correct, the woman trudged back to her room.

In around 10 minutes, that girl would be brought to her euthanasia room. And in another 10 minutes, she would leave. This time, as a body.

Crashing down into her chair, the woman turned her computer on and keyed in the girl's information. She typed slowly, as if this could lengthen the time that girl had.

At the corner of her screen, she received a message from the anti-MDVA-prevention-act faction she had joined. It was a small group chat, with only slightly more than 20 people. But these people were all workers from the various euthanasia centers scattered around the country. And they too were in the same faction as her.

"I just received some news that Andrew finally got his adoption papers approved!"

Clicking at the notification, she opened up her social media account.

"Finally! Hasn't it been more than a year since he submitted it?"

"More than a year? It's almost 2 years! And they only agreed to it because he constantly pressured them!"

The group was abuzz with messages celebrating one of the most vocal and prominent figures in their faction.

Andrew was a prodigal scientist, graduating from the most prestigious of schools, but with a heavily troubled family history. Especially his son. Andrew's love for his son was famous. Famous enough that the child was publicly known as his biggest weakness.

And that fact was enough for countless kidnapping and threatening events to occur to that boy. The peak, however, was when after a particularly close call with a kidnapper, Andrew had brought his son to the hospital to sign the child's death warrant. He was diagnosed with MDVA.

Of course Andrew tried his hardest to fight against this diagnosis, but the facts were all in front of him. And so he was helpless as he watched his only child pass away in front of his eyes.

After that, he became an incredibly powerful supporter against the MDVA-prevention-act. One of the most powerful, in fact.

"Latest news says that he was headed for your euthanasia center."

The group leader pinged the woman and she paused as she read that line.

Was it true? Was there finally going to be a day where someone doesn't leave this room as a cold body?

The woman's breath quickened as what seemed to be the most beautiful and fragile dream took place in front of her eyes. But that dream didn't last long.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door. The girl was here.

Whipping her head to face the door, she quickly turned off her computer screen.

"Come in!"

Putting on her kindest fake smile, she gestured for the girl to lie down in front of her.

Sneaking a glance at the clock, she had a maximum of 20 minutes to stall for Andrew to get here. If he gets here.

"Hello there, I'm Lilia. Alex, please lie down."

The girl obediently went up to the leaned full-body leaned back chair and crawled into it.

"Before we get to things, would it be alright if we talked. I want to know you better!"

Lilia pulled her chair closer to Alex and took one of Alex's hands in hers. She patted the smaller hand while looking into Alex's eyes.

"...Okay."

Quite unfeeling at the idea of approaching her death, Alex sat up a little more and turned her body to face Lilia.

"What do you want to know?"

Lilia felt Alex's hands. They were rough, obviously from years of housework. She felt similar hands once on her very old mother.

"Then Alex, do you have anyone who is dear to you?"

Lilia caressed Alex's hand, stimulating Alex in a way she hoped would distract Alex a little and slow down her responses.

"Someone who is dear to me? That would have to be my brother."

The moment the word brother came out of her mouth, Alex gave a soft smile full of love and warmth. A very sharp contrast to her usual blank face.

"Then can you tell me more about your brother?"

Alex heard Lilia's words and narrowed her eyes.

"Why do you want to know so much about my brother?"

Lilia stopped her caress and Alex tugged her hand free.

"Although we work in a euthanasia center, a lot of us want to be able to do good. There is a service that we provide, since we are partnered with a local orphanage, and we can send some children who are affected by our work there. Another option is that we can act as liaisons between the people who want to adopt and orphaned children. Pardon me for sticking my nose in, but in your papers it mentions you have a brother...."

Quickly coming up with a slightly believable explanation on the spot, she pointed to the papers on her desk that were faced down. Alex glanced at where she was pointed and widened her eyes.

"But those two currently have legal guardianship over the two of us. Even if they only give money. Can the center even do anything?"

Calmly analyzing Lilia's words, Alex stared at Lilia as Lilia froze and tried her best to explain this in a way that stalled the most time.

"Well, in certain cases it is possible. It's not a part of the orphanage's duty, but if there is enough evidence against the parents of a child, the orphanage sometimes offers to be the middleman and help fight for the suspension of legal custody of the child."

Taking her sweet time to explain, Lilia kept glancing impatiently at the clock. Currently, more than 15 minutes have passed. She could not delay for long if she wanted to keep the fact that she was deliberately waiting for Andrew a secret. Majority of her coworkers leaned more towards her faction, but she couldn't say the same for her supervisors.

Running out of time, she stole a glance at the closed door and sighed in her heart.

Wrapping up the conversation, she stood up and slowly took the sterilized syringe from the sterilizer. She then took the bottle of euthanasia from the counter top.

"Then is there anything you want to request of me? I try my best to help as many people as I can here. It's the least I could do."

Alex raised an eyebrow at Lilia's words, before voluntarily stretching out her arm for the injection.

"A request? Then, if it's possible, I would like you to find the best home for my brother. He deserves it."

At the mention of the word brother, Alex's eyes brightened again.

"Don't worry, I will."

Smiling, Lilia slowly sat down. She was constantly focused on the door to the room.

Shifting for one second to the clock, she begged in her mind for time to stop. At least until Andrew got here.

Her euthanasia room was currently the only one active for MDVA patients, so Andrew should arrive very soon.

"Is there a problem?"

In front of her, Alex tilted her head slightly as she watched the euthanasia employee in front of her obviously stall for time.

"Problem?! No! Not at all! I'll make it quick and painless, so please be a little patient!"

Almost jumping from Alex's voice, Lilia slowly filled the syringe with the euthanasia fluid.

The door was still closed.

"Then, I'll start now."

The door was still closed.

Any minute now?

But the door showed no signs of movement. In fact, it was extremally quiet.

Was Andrew not coming?

Lilia paused for a second and could feel her polite smile slip a little. Looking at the time, any longer would definitely cause suspicions. Maybe he would come for the next child? Or maybe he didn't make it all the way into the euthanasia rooms and decided to adopt the child next on the list. Even though Alex was the last one for the day.

"Are you sure there are no problems"

Alex asked again as she noticed Lilia's movements stop.

"Yeah.... there's nothing you need to worry about."

Disappointed in her heart, Lilia gently touched Alex's arm and searched for the vein. After confirming its position, she rubbed the area around it clean with an alcohol swab and made sure that everything was in place.

"Then I'll really start now."

The needle was slowly approaching Alex's skin, and the closer it got the sadder Lilia felt. In the end, as the needle was about to break the skin, large thumps were heard outside the door.

They were obviously the sound of people running. Lilia paused and slightly withdrew the needle.

Was he here?

The loud thumps got closer and closer to the room, before a man slammed open the door and called for her to halt. In his hands were papers authorizing him to adopt a child suffering from MDVA from any center of his choice.

Behind Andrew, Lilia's coworker was smiling happily as Andrew approached the two of them. Lilia placed the full syringe on the table.

"I have come to adopt this child into my family."

Handing the papers to Lilia, she checked that everything was in order and that she could hand these papers up to her superiors as soon as possible. Once she was done checking over it, she saw the most touching scene she had ever seen in her life.

Andrew was bending over, embracing Alex who was on the chair. And the whole room could hear his voice of relief.

"I made it in time! Welcome, Alex."

Smiling at the scene, Lilia turned her head to the doorway to exchange glances with her coworker. The impossible had finally come true!

However, before she met eyes with her coworker, she noticed a young boy standing in the doorway.

He was small, possibly malnourished based on his skin color. But even though he was malnourished he was obviously well taken care of. He wasn't obviously dirty, and his skin looked soft and unblemished.

However, it wasn't the weird contrast that caught Lilia's attention. No. It was the wide eyes full of fear and horror of what tragedy they had just interrupted from happening.