Shrouded

Chapter 1 - A Life Detained, Tied to the Past

There's nothing left for people like her. No pain left to give, no happiness to wring out in an attempt to give them false hope. She didn't even have a real name. She simply went by "V". She stood up slowly from her bed in the psych ward and felt her feet hit the cold floor. Today was the day she was going to escape. She walked down the hall, getting her usual stares and comments. She cursed her body, her appearance. The fact she existed at all was something she hated.

Her nurse greeted her with false warmth and sat her down at her usual spot. She looked around, seeing a couple of new people. A boy with long, dark hair, his face was angular yet feminine, his eyes a striking hue like emeralds. He wore a mask on the bottom half of his face, a black surgical type. His body was long, he was skinny and pale. Beautiful, like a corpse.

He wore the same disposable scrubs as everyone else, his were black to show his age group, he would be around 21 to 24. Sitting beside him was a small girl with choppy brown hair, also looking to be new. She was much shorter than him, her feet didn't touch the ground from where she was sitting. She had pain and fear in her eyes.

Her hands were covered with small cuts and scratches, the remains of tears still reflecting light on her cheeks, her scrubs were pink. This showed that she was part of the 'below 14' group. Besides that girl, sat a young woman with blonde hair that reached her shoulders, it was slightly wavy and ended in mostly split ends. Her grey eyes were bloodshot, she looked sleep-deprived and faded out of her mind, with purple scrubs. This meant she was somewhere from 17 to 20. She looked like she could be beautiful when sober and rested. The Nurses entered the room, looking around at the new and old patients.

V's eyes were dead and glazed over. She was living physically, but there was no life in her movements. The tallest of the nurses spoke to the room in a falsely kind tone. Her watery hazel eyes with a thin row of eyelashes rimming their almond shape. Her false blonde hair was pulled into a tight ponytail at the top of her round head. Her lips were thin and her skin had splotches which V presumed to be liver spots. She clasped her hands before plastering a fake smile on her face. "Good morning everyone! If you notice we have a few new people here today, would you like to introduce yourselves?"

She looked to the new patients. She walked over to the small girl, who had begun crying. She placed a hand on her shoulder, causing the small girl to flinch. "M-my name is Dasha... Dasha Volkova..." Her voice was small and breaking. Like a thin sheet of glass. The Nurse stood up and looked at the boy. His eyes went a bit wide and she spoke quietly to him. "You wanna introduce yourself, Vanya?" He nodded his head, his dark hair falling into his face. "I am Vanya Rodchenko... A... Pleasure to meet you all."

His voice was strange, like his appearance. His tone was somewhat high-pitched but had a whispery growl to it. V wondered why he said it was a pleasure to meet them all. This place was hardly a pleasurable experience or location. She spoke in a voice of fallacies and false hope. "Good job, Vanya!" She patted his shoulder. Her eyes directed to the young woman before walking over to her. She spoke again, V was getting tired of her voice. "Hey, are you feeling better now? Do you wanna introduce yourself or would you like me to?" She spoke in return, her voice calm and soothing. "I'll do it... It's no problem."

She turned to cast her eyes at the rest of the patients, she fiddled with an end of her hair. "I'm Kira Preobrazhenskaya... As Rodchenko said, it's a pleasure to meet you all." V looked to the side, seeing a small cluster of people who were from the USA. They didn't understand much about Russia, V could see it from their behaviour. They didn't understand why there was so little decoration in the rooms, nothing to tie onto.

One girl raised her pudgy hand and spoke in an accent that sounded like an American mocking Japanese. She went by the name Mia. "When do we go to our rooms again? That guy's harassing me." She pointed her finger at Vanya. He had slipped into disassociation, his eyes staring at that girl without his knowledge. The nurse who led the introduction, whose breath smelled of eggs, spoke to the girl. "Vanya's harassing you? What's he doing? Do you need us to call security?"