Falling Into Oblivion

Chapter Fourteen

This song made me think of Kaelem and Cassie's relationship.

THE STRONG SMELL of Javex wafts through my nostrils, filling my lungs and waking me from a cool, dilapidated linoleum tiled floor. I've got a ferocious taste of something metallic in my mouth and a weak pain in my throat. I cough into my arm to ease the subtle discomfort, only making it worse. Heat shoots through my veins and all I can hear is the loud pulse of my heart drowning everything out. Leaving a lingering and annoying ringing sound in my ears, aggravating my throbbing migraine.

Where am I?

I look down at my clothes.

What am I wearing? This isn't my clothes. I'm in a white uniform, sitting in a tiny room, enclosed by white walls.

It's underwhelming the amount things in this room that I can count them all on one hand: One twin size bed. One pillow, no pillowcase. A standard, baby sized blanket and a small magnet board, with news paper clippings. But what catches me by surprise are the articles on the board. They all mean something to me. Things that I don't want people to know, I know about. For one, there's a clipping on Erin Mills obituary. Why would I keep something like that for everyone to see, right in the open? In order for me to save something like that, it would have to mean something meaningful to me.

I look to the left to see a picture of a log cabin. Not of THE cabin. However, it has a lot of the same details....The same ugly brown, painted lower half. The top, painted in a bright green.

I bring my hand up to my face and cup my mouth in horror. Tears building up on the brim of my waterline.

In a panic, I dart to the door and twist the silver door knob. I thrust it harder when it doesn't unlock or open. But I'm stuck. I'm trapped. There's no other way out. "Help!" I cry out, banging on the metal door as I peek through the small rectangular window. The door leads out to a long dark corridor where people are walking around in uniforms but their different than mine. Their garments are blue with a white tacky label badge on their right shoulders and what seems like a key card dangling around their necks.

The pressure I feel against my chest begins to ease when I spot a man whose attention I've got. He shakes his head as he watches me through the glass and thankfully makes his way in my direction.

"Cassandra, you've got to calm down." His voice is muffled as he approaches, shouting from the other side of the door.

Cassandra? How does he know my name?

"Back away from the door so I can come in." His eyes are sympathetic and kind.

I swallow, feeling every single movement my esophagus produces. The lump in my throat not wanting to fall back down in its proper place. I nod and take a step back. He swipes the key-card to the right of the door and a noisy sound like the sound of a dryer timer going off, resonates in the building. My eyes frantically move along this strangers, every move. I watch as he opens the door, shutting it slowly behind him.

The man raises his palms. "Please." He gestures for me to take a seat on the four inch of padding that is supposedly a bed. "Sit." He says softly.

My body breaking into sweat. "Who are you and where am I?" I ask in a panic.

"You're in Oxford's Water. A psychiatric hospital." He smiles a tiny smile.

"I'm in a mental asylum?" I correct.

"We don't like to use that word in here. We like to think of this place as a safe haven for the mind to heal." He smiles but it drops when I don't share the same enthusiasm. "And my names Kay." He reaches for his label, gesturing to his printed name in bold letters.