Reverse Rehab

Chapter 2

My eyes fluttered open to bright surroundings. I groaned at the throbbing in my head and tried to roll over. I was met with cold bars on either side of my body.

I sat up groggy, confused, and very annoyed. I was in a small bed with metal on either side. Probably to keep me from falling out of it. I had an IV in my arm, pumping some strange clear liquid into my veins, and the entire room smelt like it had been doused with bleach.

I toed off the socks on my feet and slowly tried to make my way out of the bed. It creaked loudly, and I cringed hoping not to get caught moving around.I again tried to get up but an even louder noise rang through the silent room. I sighed and plopped back down, frustrated.

Can't do anything right can you. Stupid.

I heard a slight chuckle and whipped my head around.

A girl stood by another bed, leaning against it and smirking at me. Her scrubs hung off her, showing off her bony shoulder. An IV was attached to her arm as well, but a two bags hung from the pole. Tubes ran down into the needle from a clear bag and a red one. I cringed at the bandages on her wrists. "I haven't seen you around here." she raised her eyebrows and smiled with an open mouth, "panic attack? You have one hell of a scream, you're awful quiet now though. It's not like I'll bite you."

"We're sitting in a mental hospital and you think I'm worried about you biting me? Sorry to say its more so a fear of you turning out to be some psychopath who plans on murdering me."

"I'm not a psychopath, I'm a kleptomaniac, an anorexic, and I have some severe depression. No biggie. You know they won't hurt you? One of my best friends has skinned people alive and eaten them." My jaw dropped. She said it so casually, how did she just accept that?

"Your face is priceless. I'm kidding around. My name's Zoey by the way and I have no friends so don't worry about cannibalistic people getting near you because of me." wow, she smirked a lot.

"Annalise, and the thought of cannibalistic people in general being here kind of scares the shit out of me. I mean the stories I've heard have kind of turned me away from the idea of spending the rest of my teenage years in this hell hole."

"I can't say you're wrong when you call this place a hell hole. I've been here since I was twelve. I'm seventeen now. But I can promise you it isn't the people who have been put inside this place you need to be worrying about. The stories are probably lies anyway. Good to meet you by the way."

"You too, and just so no surprises come down the road, I'm a schizophrenic, anxiety ridden, agoraphobe who screams when she has panic attacks."

"Oh I know, I read your file while you were out. The security here isn't the best. You'd be surprised what we can get away with here considering we're all nuts, they should really watch us better."

You're nuts. She knows it, we know it, and you know it. No wonder your family hates you.

"Any chance I could get out this bright ass room. It's killing my eyes and giving me a headache." I flopped backwards on the uncomfortable mattress and squeezed my eyes shut.

"If you can pull off not looking suspicious or screaming at the top of your lungs for the next twenty or so minutes, I think we'll be able to pull it off. I can forge all of the nurses signatures by now."

"Then what are we waiting for? I could really go for a walk right about now."

"We could get some food? I won't eat much but it's better than having these tubes in me."

I surveyed the walls. They were just as plain and boring as everywhere else in this goddamned place.

"Depends on how much it tastes like the sludge they feed you in public schools." I sat back up and started getting out of the bed.

"The food is the one good thing about this place. I can assure it." She slowly took the tape off her arm after blocking the flow of the tubes and pulled the IV needle out. I crinkled up my nose. I hated needles.

"Do I have to take this thing out?" I grimaced at the thought of pulling the long sharp piece of metal out of my own arm.

"Do you think I would let you? Obviously not. I'm going to do it." my eyes widened, "Don't you trust me?"

"Usually trust happens over time.." I curled into myself with apprehension. I was probably the least trusting person you would ever meet much less one to easily let someone remove a needle from my arm after meeting 10 minutes beforehand.

"You just watched me take it out of my own arm..." she paused for a moment and held up her bandaged wrists, "Look, I was admitted for self harm. This place is supposed to be safe. But if you really want to hurt yourself you're going to. I hate this place and myself. So I take it out on myself. I hurt myself. I don't want to die though. If I can cut open my wrists and not kill myself I can take a needle out of your arm without rupturing an artery. Especially since I just did it to myself and have been for the past four years."

See. That's a real disorder. You're just a pitiful.

I nodded, shocked, and stuck my arm out to her. She gave me a small smile and gingerly took my arm. I looked away and squeezed my eyes shut but I could still feel the tugging of the metal piece sliding out of my skin. I wanted to throw up at the feeling.

I heard a small clink and then Zoey, "Come on, didn't you say you wanted food?"

I got up out of the small cot and steadied myself on my wobbly feet. I paused, my vision blurring around the edges for a moment before clearing up. I looked around at the room I was in and shivered as a cool breeze from the hallway hit my back. I moved my eyes down only to see a blue-gray gown hanging off my shoulders before moving my hand to my back only to find that it was wide open and to small to close without ripping. Great.

"Any chance you have anything I could change into?" I asked looking up at the frail girl.

"We can stop by your room and you can grab whatever they left for you?" She said. I simply nodded in response as I gnawed on the inside of my cheek.

My feet carried me through the halls no more than five feet behind the light brown haired girl who I had just met. We made small talk speaking about things from our favorite colors (Zoeys was hazel and mine was maroon), to our heritage (I was from Sweden and she from Italy).

We walked for awhile until we came to my room, Zoey stated that she'd wait in the hall for me. I stepped into the room and all the oxygen was sucked out of my lungs. This room was fucking tiny. They can't make me stay here.

My throat burned with a lack of oxygen and I backed out the door, Zoey looked at me with concern (probably because I hadn't changed clothes), and I began sprinting down the hall, needing to get away from the tiny jail cell. I ran a couple feet, my eyes blurred with tears and my breath coming in and out of my lungs sporadically, only to end up colliding with a tall yet insanely thin person. The two of us hit the ground, my body landing on top of his.

I fangirl over my own writing sometimes and its not cute at all