"We observe the strictest rules of discipline here, Cindy. You've been put here for a good reason by your parents. You were caught getting drunk once too often."

Cindy McArthur kept her crying blue eyes lowered to the tiled floor of the reception room. It was a lie. It was all such a terrible mistake. She wasn't an alcohol abuser like her mother kept screaming over and over the night she'd found some peach brandy in her bureau drawer. Her girlfriend, Judy, had had some problems with liquor and she was only holding the bottle from her until she could get rid of it.

"Are there any questions, Cindy?"

Dr. Alicia Endicott was tapping her well-manicured nails against the polished oak desk, tilting her head to one side. Cindy realized she was expected to say something. But what could she do? The teenaged blonde thought she would break into wild tears if she were to open her mouth. Her parents had brought her here to the sanatorium after they had heard such good things from Judy's parents about the place. Yes, her best friend had been incarcerated here for nearly one month now. And her parents had decided she would follow. It was so unfair, so unjust! Even their doctor had felt her parents were going overboard in their decision to send her to Hannah Manor.

Her voice was trembling and low as the room began to swim in front of her eyes. Crossing her legs at the ankles, Cindy dug her fingernails into her palms, fighting for courage, for some confidence in this terrifying nightmare that had suddenly invaded her life. Alcohol. She was no user, no alcoholic. And yet for trying to help a friend, she had been shunted off to this horrid place!

Raising her eyes, she looked once more at Dr. Endicott. The woman was tall, in her mid-thirties, with a head of fine silver hair pulled tightly back across her skull into a tight pinned bun behind. Her eyes were a strange tawny color, reminding Cindy of a cat's. Those eyes, how they seemed to look right through her. Cindy shivered, pressing her nails more firmly into her damp palms. The sound of a buzzer made Cindy nearly jump from her skin.