Nostalgia Is The Only Thing Keeping You Sane.

Chapter 1: "Screw The Prologue"

You thought that today was the same as all the others. Same house, same clothes in your laundry basket, same furniture, same thoughts. 

Bland. Boring. Thoughts. 

'It's all boring.'  You thought to yourself, as you look outside your bedroom window, legs crossed and your hands between your thighs.  At least the view is never boring. You see those beautiful orangey-pink colors swirl with the original blue sky. The sprinkle of clouds moving along with that soft paint pallet. The short breeze of wind blowing though the leaves in the trees. It's not boring. Right? 

You turn away from your window, shutting the blinds while you do so. You get up from your bed, and walk to your closet, pulling out something more comfortable to wear to your temporary rest. Once you finish changing, you walk towards your foamy mattress, and jump into the "comfortable abyss" you call your blankets, bed-sheets, and pillows, slowly wrapping yourself among that same abyss. 

You feel your ability to keep your eyes open grow heavier and harder to do as you slowly drift into your dreamland. You keep your eyes shut for longer. Your mind soon starting to race. It's almost as if there was a projector inside your little brain, showcasing these awful, and overbearing ideas and thoughts. Your heart soon beats a bit faster, until you decide you're done sleeping like this. You wake up in an instant. Your body drenched in sweat. 

Your eyes may be open. but you can't see anything. After a few minutes of internal panic, your eyes adjust to your soon to be new home. You look around, only to find yourself somewhere way beyond your natural habitat. It's like putting a polar bear in Arizona. You aren't in your "comfortable abyss" anymore with the same boring items placed to your liking. You find yourself in a field almost, tall green grasses, the smell of mud and dirt filling the air that you are breathing, the sun rising and the sky becoming that familiar blue color you stare at for hours. 

You rush to stand up, brushing as much of the dirt of your clothes as possible. You feel a cool breeze blow against your skin, and through your hair. To preserve some warmth, you cross and huddle your arms together, tucking in your hands into your armpits. 

 Not even 10 minutes into this mystery world, and you start to hear whispers. If you were worried you weren't along, you certainly aren't now. You certainly aren't in a fever dream either. This feels too real to be one. But hey, who knows? That's how they work, right? Riiiight. For now, let's say your hallucinating, but again, we both know you're not. 

The voices grow louder. You chose to follow them. You walk and walk hearing the voices become more louder and prominent. They grow to be so loud it feels like you're at a school dance, and you're standing right in front of the speakers for the entire 2 hours you're there. 

But, it's your lucky day. The voices are put to a sudden end. You stop dead in your tracks when they do. You look around and you're introduced to this rustic, broken down building. It reminds you of the hospital in your town that your parents would bring you for doctors visits. 

Ironically,  the building is indeed, a medical facility. An abandoned mental institute hospital, named "Hope and Recover" - 'A place where you can be cured of all disease you have suffered from.'  Sure. Seems legit. The multi-millionaire question is however,  do you go inside? Yes. Yes you do. You take a deep breath and open the doors of this facility. From the looks of it, it's empty. No one's there...hopefully. There's hospital beds, stretchers, medicine just scattered onto the floor like a flower girl does at a wedding. The floors so dirty and dusty that you can't even tell what the original floor color was. You cough. Or you feel like coughing. 

It's not like you can tell at this point, or you really care about simple things. But what you can tell is that you're tired. But you can't go to sleep just yet. You chose to explore a bit. See what things you can find, if this journey goes longer than excepted. 

Everywhere is a mess. Spider webs, little critters along the floor running away to the sound of your footsteps echoing throughout the hallways. But you shouldn't really be worrying about that.  As you're walking, you discover a small padlocked chest. It was layered with thick dust,- as well as the rest of the building is- that you brushed of multiple times with the back of your hand. 

The chest itself without the dust covering it, was beautiful. So many small, noticeable details along the edges, the sides. The finish still shiny and smooth to the touch. A small padlock was in front of the opening.  Underneath the chest was a taped note. The note was a bit crumpled, but the wording was fortunately still there. It was numbers. A code. Four digits. 'It's probably for the chest.'  You thought  as you stood the chest back up to how it was before, holding the note in one hand, and your other hand entering the code. 

Beep Beep Beep

I guess it worked. Opening the top, you're presented with a watch set at 6:04 am, and a set of keys that look all the same.  You're a bit reluctant of just picking the watch up and tightening it around your wrist, as well as shoving a set of keys down your front pocket. But that doesn't stop you though, does it? Exactly.

You close the chest shut, and pat it like it's a fluffy dog that you saw at a dog park. You walk away from it, and leave the room it was once in. You now decide that it's time to rest. You'll need it despite it being 6 am still. You walk back into an echoing hallway, finding a decent looking hospital room. In the room, there was a bed flipped to it's side, a few demolished monitors, a bedside table with too many pills laying on top of it, and their bottles onto the floor. "Too many pills one person can take."  You say softly.

Using the strength and energy you have left for the day, you quietly life the bed back on it's kegs. You sigh deeply, picking up and brushing odd a hard pillow, and a few thin blankets. You get yourself comfortable. Or at least you get yourself to switch and turn every 5 seconds. Closing your eyes, you hope you'll finally wake up from this fever dream. What you'll discover is that "waking up" is gonna be awhile.