the others

Chapter 10 Whats real

When I woke up, whatever medicine they gave me was much higher because I could barely keep my eyes open. I could hear a man calling my name in the background, but I didn't know who it was. Then the man said,

"Hope. We had to put you on this medicine to calm you down. You were a threat to yourself and all of my staff."

After that, I heard nothing else until I felt a cold sensation on my face. I opened my eyes wide and nervously looked around. The first thing I saw was a clock and it was set to 9:52. Then that same voice from earlier spoke again. He said,

"Hi, I'm Doctor carter."

Doctor Carter was a more petite man with salt and pepper hair and a baby-like face. He whipped my face one more time with the damp rag. Then he sat down in front of me. He crossed his arms and said,

"I'm going to give you an hour to ask me anything starting now."

He flipped an hourglass over.

I had many questions and didn't know where to start, so I just asked,

"why can't I remember getting diagnosed with schizophrenia."

He took a deep breath and said,

"When you first got diagnosed, you were a more significant harm to others. Then you are now, and your mom said she would do anything to help you, so we told her about this new trail we just started. We could get you onto it if she signed off on it. So, she did the first few weeks. You were doing excellent. You improved a lot. Then everything changed dramatically. You started to hallucinate even worse than before. We didn't know why we thought you just needed more medicine. We didn't know what to do when that didn't work, so we just took you off the medication altogether. Still, we didn't realize taking you off the medicine would make you sick. You got so ill until you fell into a coma-like state, causing these hallucinates to become your new reality, and the first time we got you up, we were trying to keep you that way, but you kept slipping back into the coma. Then we got you up for about two hours, and that's when we noticed you were suffering from short-term memory loss, and this is the longest we had you up. So we're hoping it stays this way.

I gazed at him for a few seconds in shock. Then I whispered,

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

He took a deep breath, stood up, and walked out of the room. When he came back, he was rolling in a box tv. Then he turned it on and sat back down. It was me. I was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, talking to someone. Still, no one was there. I looked crazy, then the door to the room opened. Nadene walked in. She walked over to me and tried to touch my shoulder. I screamed when she did, then I stood up and attacked her. I attacked my own sister. That's why she was so afraid of me.

I looked at Doctor carter and cried for him to turn it off, then I screamed,

"I believe you."

He stood up and turned the tv off. I dropped my head and asked,

"How can I get rid of it?"

He slowly walked over to me and said,

"For right now, there is no cure for this illness. Still, some medication can help."

I could feel the tears begin to build up in my eyes. Then I said,

"what if I don't want to take this medicine? What will happen?"

His face went intense and heartless, then he said,

"you would turn back into the person you just watched on that video."

I broke, and I began to cry hysterically. Doctor carter didn't say anything else. He just left the room and let me cry, and I cried Until I fell asleep.

But when I began to wake up, I could feel someone standing over me, but everything was different when I opened my eyes. I wasn't in the hospital anymore. I was outside, in that graveyard, where I fainted. I looked up at the person standing in front of me. It was a woman. She was saying something but I couldn't hear anything. She reached her hand out to me and helped me up. Then she said,

"I saw you faint. Are you okay?"

I rubbed the back of my head and said,

"I think I might have hit my head."

Then when I took the sight of her face in, she looked familiar, and that's when it clicked in my head. I yelled,

" Your Scarlet, your scars and dan, mom, right, but you're dead."

She looked at me and said,

"That's what everyone thinks. They all think I'm dead, but I'm not."
Anger began to grow inside of me as I yelled,

"your kids needed you, and you just thought pretending you were dead was for the best."

she took a deep breath and said,

"it's not that simple. That's why I sent you here. I know you need my help, and I need yours too."

I screamed,

"What's not straightforward about faking your death?"

She pushed the hair out of her face and said,

"If the others knew I was still alive, they wouldn't have stopped coming after me until they found me. Like your mom, and If they had caught me, there was no way I could help other people get out of this mess."

Then she grabbed my hand and said,

"let me show you."

We ran to a small cottage out in the middle of nowhere. When we got inside, there were about 15 people of different genders, racist, and ages. She looked at me and said,

"If those people knew I was alive, I would not have been able to help these people."

I looked around at the people. They all seemed happy or at the most comfortable. She turned to me and said,

"Now, do you understand why I needed people to think I was dead?"

I didn't know if I understood it entirely. Still, I know what she was doing was helping people, and that's all that mattered.

I turned to her, but before I said anything, I made eye contact with one of the people she saved. It was that boy, that boy that saw me at my worst, the boy that watched me almost end my life. I tried to hide my face, but it was too late. He was already standing up and heading toward me, but everything went dark. It was weird. It was like I could hear the surrounding people, but I couldn't see anything until it went silent, and it stayed silent for a while like I was stuck in my own head.

But I finally woke up, and when I did, I was in a cold dark room, and I couldn't move. There were five people dressed in white coats standing around me. One of the people yelled,

"she's back,"

Which felt familiar, but I didn't know why. I tried to stay calm, but that didn't last because as soon as I looked towards the door, Dan was standing there, just staring at me. I screamed,

"How did you find me?"

He didn't say anything. I yelled,

"Dan, answer me now."

Then one of the people in white coats began to call my name and say,

" Hope there is no one over there. It's just your brain trying to mess with you."

But I ignored him. I cried,

"Dan, please just let them go, let them go for me."

He still said nothing. One of the people then kneeled down in front of me and said,

"Hope, it's me, Doctor carter. There is no one over there. Look,"

And when I looked back over there, he was gone. I looked at Doctor carter and cried,

"What's happening to me?"

He didn't say anything, he just stared at me, then he turned to the other doctors and told them to get out.