“Laci, you’ve got a call.”

  She looked up from her claustrophobic surroundings out the glass door, dazed. Once the tranquilizers had worn off, she was wired. She had paced around for the last three hours, trying to find a way to escape or entertain herself. Unfortunately, she found neither, only some tacky vandalism done by the previous guest that read “The Visions Never Lie”. She hoped the call was from her parents, trying to get her out of this place.

  “Well, are you going to take it? Come over here.” The impatient officer tapped her hoof and held out a webbed halter.

  “What’s that for?” Laci asked, staring at the odd choice of equipment. She’d only ever seen them on the “Young and Stalled Up” show her mother watched at night.

  “It’s for you. To wear while I take you to the phone, so you don’t try anything.” The dun mare looked unamused.

  Laci recoiled. “I am not wearing that just to walk down the hall to take a phone call. I haven’t lost my mind,” she asserted. She flattened her ears and gave the officer a nasty look.

  “Well, I guess the phone call isn’t that important to you then.” The officer started to turn away.

  “Wait! Fine, I’ll wear it, I’ll wear it.” She’d look as insane as she had to if it meant she could find a way out of here.

  The officer snapped it onto her head, bending her ears back roughly to put it on. Laci startled when she tugged on the lead to guide her down the hall. The phone booth was somehow even smaller and grimier than her accommodations, and she was disgusted by its disrepair. There was gum stuck all over the floor, desk, and stool, crumpled tissues sitting in a pile in the corner, and additional vandalism scrawled on the table with permanent marker. She sat slowly, trying to avoid getting gum stuck to her tail, and picked up the phone.

  “Hello?” she said shakily.

  “Hey, Laci. It’s Marshall. We met on the bus, remember?” a gentle voice responded.

  Laci was appalled. Of all the people who would call her here, the Rosewood stallion who watched her fall down the stairs was the first? “Why did you call me?” she asked, dumbfounded.

  “I couldn’t avoid it any longer. Laci, you did me a favor this morning. What is a mare like you doing in Services?”

  Laci paused. Well, he was going to find out what she’d done one way or another. If this stallion really cared, he would take her for who she really was. “A rabbit tried to ride me, so I attacked him,” she said. She expected to hear the click of him hanging up, but for some reason he stayed.

  “Why on earth would you do that? I don’t mean to sound like a stalker, but I saw your socials. You’re a star show jumper, aren’t you?”

  “I can’t take it anymore. This whole riding thing. I tried it. Six separate times, each worse than the last. There’s something terribly wrong with me, Marshall. I’ll never be a show horse, and I’m done backing down to those who tell me I have to be.”

  “What do your parents think of all this?”

  “I wish I knew, Marshall. You were the first to call me, not them.”

  “Well, I’m happy I did, then. I wouldn’t want you to feel lonely.”

  “Why would that matter to you?”

  “Because I care about you, Laci, in case it isn’t obvious enough. When I met you this morning, everything changed. I was distracted all afternoon. I’ve never felt that way about a mare before.”

  She had to stop and take in those words for a moment. Marshall liked her back? What was she even supposed to do with that information?

  “I appreciate you too, Marshall, but you’ve got to be realistic. Do your parents even know about me?”

  “Of course not. They would never understand.”

  “Exactly, which is why this would never work.”

  “Laci, calm down. We’ll figure something out.”

  “Calm down? Marshall, my shoulder still hurts from falling down the stairs, a stallion I just met called me, and to top it off I’m incarcerated. I don’t have time to romance you. If you care so much, find a way to get me out of here.” She flicked her ears and leaned back in the chair, putting a hoof to her aching head. This stallion was really starting to get on her nerves with all his nonsense suggestions.

  “You’ve got to get your parents to bail you out. Then we’ll have all the time in the world.”

  “What will I do? I can’t go back to school. I’ll get someone killed.”

  “My salary can take care of both of us.”

  “That’s not fair to you! Besides, my parents will never allow that.”

  “Just get out of there, meet with me, and we’ll talk about it. Would you like that?”

  “I suppose.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Then we’ll do it. Eight PM tomorrow by the willow tree in West Norfolk Park.”

  “What if I don’t make it out by then?”

  “I’ll go home and call you. I don’t mind waiting. Laci, you are definitely worth my time.”

  “Well, that settles it. I’ll see you then, hopefully.”

  “Perfect.”

  The phone went silent. Laci hung it up and rested her head in her hooves, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

  “Are you done talking to your boyfriend?” the dun mare asked indifferently.

  Laci gagged. “He is not my boyfriend.”

  “No one sits here and talks to someone they don’t care about for that long. Be honest with yourself,” the dun mare snorted.

  Laci switched her tail, irritated. Who did this mare think she was, throwing a halter on her head and parading into her private life like an investigator? She got up and walked back to her prison.

  She didn’t sleep at all that night. The only thing she could make herself do was pace her stall incessantly, until her hooves were worn short and there was a circular pattern etched into the linoleum. By the time the sun rose, her legs were sore, and she found herself unable to think straight.

  “Laci, your parents are here to see you.”

  The dun mare was back, holding the halter up once again. Laci rushed over to the door, pining for escape. Her ears flickered in anticipation as they walked down the hall, barely able to contain herself after the long stretch of confinement. The dun mare parked her in front of the door of the visitation room, and a bulky black draft horse strutted out.

  “I’ll take it from here, Officer Banks,” he said sternly.

  The dun mare handed him the lead and strolled off to other duties. Laci ducked into the room without hesitating. Her parents sat across from her, and her father had his arm wrapped firmly around her mother. She looked exhausted, her ears loose and drooping.

  “I need to go home,” Laci said, in a voice that felt too broken to be her own.

  “Oh, Laci. I wish you could,” her mother whispered.

  Laci’s ears snapped back. There was no way she could take another day here. Then they would know what insanity really looked like. “You have to get me out of here. I promise I’ll do better, I swear. Please.”

  Her mother could not even look at her.

  “Laci, we thought it best that you stay. I know it’s a big change for you, but there’s only so much we can do to help you at home. Maybe you’ll have a better chance here,” her father said.

  He looked up at Laci, and his face fell. She glanced around for what he was looking at, then put a hoof to her muzzle. It was soaked immediately. Blood was pouring out of her nose again.

  “Are you alright, sweetie?” her mother asked nervously.

  She pushed forward against the halter, the officer struggling to hold her back. “I am not staying here another minute. I can’t, I’ll only get worse. You have to help me,” she begged.

  “Laci, do we need to end your visit early? Sit back down,” the draft barked.

  Without thinking, she reared up and kicked out the fluorescent light dangling from the ceiling. It shattered, sending sparks flying all over the room. The officer pinned her to the wall, and she screamed horrifyingly, sending blood splattering onto his blaze. Her parents fled, closing the door behind them. The draft shoved her backwards into the hall, pulling hard on her halter to steady her. He dragged her back to her stall, kicking and shrieking. It took everything in her not to rip his throat out with her teeth. He didn’t bother trying to remove her halter, simply dumping her on the floor like she was worthless. He locked the door quickly, afraid. All sixteen hands of her stood and stared at him, whites of her eyes showing. She curled her neck psychotically.

  “You can’t leave her like that. She looks awful,” the dun mare observed.

  “What do you want me to do? Take her to Doctor Pontier for a bloody nose?” the black draft said.

  “Maybe you should. That’s a hell of a lot of blood.” She started walking closer, and Laci jumped back, terrified.

  Reluctantly, the draft reentered Laci’s stall. She winced as he grabbed her halter roughly. He walked her over to a dusty-smelling waiting room with red vinyl chairs that desperately needed updating.

  “Doctor Pontier? Any chance you can look at a mare with a bloody nose?” the draft called into the back room.

  Laci tucked her tail as she heard approaching hoofbeats. She was always nervous around doctors. To her surprise, a grey Shetland pony no taller than the height of her elbows appeared. He trotted over to look at her.

  “Of course I’ve got time. Come on back, she looks like she could use some help,” he said softly.

  Laci stood in the middle of the exam room, her muscles tense. Her skin shivered across her shoulders, trying to burn her boundless energy. The Shetland typed quickly on a little computer across the room.

  “I remember you, Laci. You can call me Doctor Greg. I patched up your shoulder yesterday. How have you been doing?” he asked.

  The draft spoke up. “She’s not very talkative. She just got a nosebleed all of the sudden. In the visitation room, of all places.”

  Doctor Greg seemed bothered by his answer. “Perhaps I should talk to her on my own. It can be hard to get an honest answer out of patients when there are guards standing right next to them.”

  “Are you sure? She’s assaulted a rabbit,” the officer warned. He looked at Greg, then at Laci. She looked like a giant next to him.

  “I know. I read her records. I’m sure you’ll save me if she decides to tear me to pieces,” he jested.

  The draft walked out slowly, and Doctor Greg shut the door behind him. He hurried over to Laci and started inspecting her legs for injury.

  “I’m just going to take a look at your hooves, since I didn’t get the chance last time I saw you,” he explained. He picked up her hooves carefully, noticing their strange wear pattern.

  “Do you have a habit of pacing in your stall?” he asked.

  She only nodded in response.

  “That’s alright. Everyone’s got vices. Maybe a pair of shoes will be in order,” he told her. He worked around her whole body rapidly, checking everything from her heartbeat to her topline muscles. Finally, he reached her muzzle. The bleeding from her nose had begun to slow. He carefully removed her stained halter.

  “Do you get nosebleeds often, especially when you’re stressed?” he asked.

  She nodded again.

  He looked into her nose with a pen light. She tossed her head nervously. “Easy. You’re alright,” he comforted. “You’re a hot horse. Down on the track, we used to call them bleeders.”

  “Hot horse?” she questioned.

  “It’s your breeding, Laci. You’ve got an adaptation in your lungs that makes your airway bleed before exercise. It’s a mutation that pops up sometimes in horses of your type. It’s thought to make your windpipe more resistant to air turbulence. In other words, you’re a well-oiled machine.” He wet a towel in the sink and put it to her muzzle.

  “So it’s normal?”

  “Exactly.”

  Once her muzzle was clean, he sent her back to the draft horse.

  “Come back anytime. Don’t worry, I don’t bite,” he said.

  She smiled slightly. At least there was one horse in this building that she could appreciate. She walked back out to her stall, refreshed, and managed to drift off while standing up.