The first thing I’m aware of is the pounding of feet upon the ground. I jerk awake, the covers around me falling onto the floor. My heart beat is going exceptionally fast, and I’m sure that Dr. Salazar would scold me for not having control of my own heart beats.
My first real thought is on my pills. I need my pills. My throat feels constricted and dry, and I need my daily dosage. I can’t risk not having it because then I’ll go insane and I’ll never get out of the hospital. I get up, my bare feet hitting the cool, marble floor. Shivering, I put my white slippers on, and I hurry over to turn the lights on. I have an emergency pill in my drawer every night. When I’m away from the room, the nurses check the room and make sure I have one pill. If I haven’t been taking them, they don’t touch it. They’ll replace the pill if needed, and they always do so for me because I need them.
I stumble over to the brown drawer beside my bed and pull open the lowest drawer. My hands are shaking by the time they clasp over the purple pill. I put it towards my mouth, and I’m about to swallow it until I notice something amiss.
Cool air is flowing in from the window: the window that I closed before I went to bed. I stare, my need for the pill momentarily forgotten. My mouth is wide and my hand drops to my side, the pill still clenched in my hand. There is no way I could have opened it. I don’t sleepwalk and the doctors and nurses wouldn’t have opened it either. Most of them believe in respecting privacy, and there would be no benefit to either of us if the window was open.
As I crouch there pondering my thoughts, I hear an ear-piercing scream, and I wince, immediately jumping back onto the bed and grasping the storybook close to my body like a shield.
“No!” screams a high-pitched voice. It’s definitely one of the nurses. I want to hide and get away from her screaming, but I’m curious about what’s making all the ruckus. Instead, my arms loosen on the book, and I tilt my head to one side while listening to the noise.
“Who was taken?” growls a low voice that is no one from this hospital. I stiffen again and hug the book closer to me. “Tell us!”
Us. He said ‘us’. Who else is here and what’s going on?
“I don’t know! I don’t know!” the nurse screams. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“You do!” another voice says. It’s higher, like Ana’s voice but yet not Ana’s voice at the same time. She sounds much less cheerful and more commanding than anything. “Tell us and do something useful before you die.”
There are heavy gasps, and I know that someone, the nurse probably, is crying. “I… I don’t know… I swear…”
“We should just leave her,” a boy’s voice says. It’s higher than the man’s voice but still discernible for a boy at the same time. “She doesn’t know what we’re talking about anyway. We’re losing time.”
“Shut up, you,” snaps the man. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. She’s not innocent and she knows it. No one in this damn sector is innocent. They all know what they signed up for and they’re enjoying it for Seraphin’s sake!”
Suddenly, the alarms start screaming and wailing. The man outside lets out a curse, and a scream emits from the nurse before a loud bang silences her. The bulbs above my head are turned on and start flashing red. We were told of what to do if this ever happened. We are to leave our rooms and meet in the courtyard. The nurses will take it from there. We’ve never gone to that point, and the intruders are right outside my door.
I turn the door open anyway. I frown when the door complies. It should be locked. I had expected it to be locked. The book is hugged tightly around my arm, and my pill is still clenched in my hand. The knuckles are white from squeezing too hard, and I force them to relax. I might collapse the pill into itself if I squeeze too hard. When the door opens, I face a group of three people dressed in brown and a nurse slumped on the ground, red flowing from the wound on her head. I stare at her, dumbstruck, and then I face the intruders.
YOU ARE READING
Lies & Harmony Trilogy
Science FictionLeaving the hospital was something Seven Young has always daydreamed of; rejoining the society and eliminating her mental sickness. But the truth is, no patient has ever left the hospital, or have memories of the world beyond the white walls. Wantin...
