The lady in white

The journey

"Go where?" I asked my mother, to which she replied "you'll see". I got into the car, but mother was still upstairs. I went back up the long, spiral staircase and trodded back to my room. When I opened the door, I saw mother frantically running round, my travel bag in her hand. "Mother, what are you doing?" I asked, she came to a complete stop.

"Why aren't you in the car?!" She screamed at me, "why are you packing all of my stuff up?!" I cried back, drenched in tears. She didn't reply, she just carried on frantically packing and told me to get back in the car.

By this point I was confused, where were we going and why was mother only packing my stuff? If we were going on holiday, surely she'd need stuff of her own? Suddenly mother came racing down the stairs, carrying a suitcase in each hand. I didn't say a word to her as she got in the car and drove off, but my mind was reeling with questions.

We stopped, and mother told me to get out, "but I don't want to" I said "GET OUT!" She screamed. So I quickly escaped from the car and got my suitcases out of the boot. We had to walk for quite a while until we got to the mysterious place.

It was a large white building, although, it wasn't really white anymore, sort of a crusty brown colour. All around the building, there was a large fence, so I couldn't really see where the screams were coming from. It kind of looked like a hospital, and the screams were screams of pain. I asked my mother where we were "a place where you belong" she whispered, tears flooding her eyes. "Are you staying aswell?" I asked,
"no, this is just for you"
"for me?"
"Yes".
I took this opportunity to ask her "what is this place?" She just ignored me and hushed me through the entrance. on the wall next to the entrance, it said 'Mental hospital' I didn't know what that was, as I was only 7 at the time. I asked my mother once again "what is this place?" Finally she screamed "a place where I've wanted to send you for a long time!"

After mother signed me in, I thought "maybe I just have a checkup, maybe mother wants to find out why I have this nightmare every night, I hope that she won't leave me here with the nasty looking receptionist" who at this point was staring at me, with her piercing blue eyes. Glaring. I whispered "why is she staring at me?" "She's not" said mother, "but she is! Look!" I rubbed my eyes and realised that she wasn't staring at me anymore. 'I must be crazy!' I thought, once more, as I did most mornings after my nightmare. "am I crazy?" I said to my mother, "I don't know" she said, tears still dribbling down her, now pale, face.

"Violet Williams?" I heard a nurse call my name, I called my mother, tugging at her sleeve "only you" she kept saying over and over again. Eventually I left without her "goodbye my darling, don't forget me" mother cried, tears soaking her face. We entered a large room, everything was white, the walls, the beds, the floor (which was a crisp marble, but it had smears of blood on parts of it, I tried to avoid stepping on them) it was completely white apart from the curtains, which were a lime green colour. "Welcome to your new home" the nurse said, I suddenly heard another piercing scream, "did you hear that?" I asked the nurse, a little shaken up now, "hear what? The scream?" She answered. "what is this place?" I asked her, hoping she would give me an answer, she didn't.

She layed me down on a crisp, white bed, "best bed in here" the almost possessed nurse said, a slight croak in her voice "well thank you very much" I said softly. From this bed, I could see straight down the middle of the ward, beds on either side, the green curtains surrounding them, suddenly, a crowd of women and girls walked up the centre of the ward, wearing clean, white dresses, with frills and ruffles on the rims of the 'below knee' frocks. They had their heads bowed down, and they all had long, brown hair, almost touching the floor. "Who are those people?" I asked "oh, they're not people" she replied, I wondered what she meant by that.

The nurse ran a few tests on me and then left, she came back carrying my two suitcases, and my travel bag, which I didn't know i'd actually packed, the nurse told me to look inside the bag, I did, and I wish I hadn't. Inside the bag, resting on top of all my clothes and toys, was a note, I opened it and it said

'Violet, by this time I will have disappeared, in the hopes that you will get better soon, I have sent you here because I cannot cope with the constant thought of you being possessed or something, I will send things, but I will not visit you. Remember one thing darling, you have to go through a little pain to get through a lot of pain.
I love you, from Mother.'