INSANE

【2】

A shrill, echoing scream jolted me awake suddenly. It was the sound of a man's scream in agony. As if somebody were hurting him.

I blinked multiple times, trying to push the heavy feeling of sleep away.

The room around me came into view. The bright, shiny ray of sun shining through the window on the right side of the room made me squint. Oddly, instead of blinds there was a thick row of black, shiny bars over the window. Almost as if it were some kind of jail.

Screams of different kinds echoed outside, alone with the sounds of people dropping things and talking among themselves.

Where am I? I asked myself, suddenly feeling dizzy.

The walls of the room were a material I never saw in real life before; they were made out of yellow padding.

Gasping and heart racing, I pulled myself up off the hard bed that was giving me a backache, only to be pulled right back down. In fact, I couldn't get myself up.

I struggled to lift my arms up only to realize that I was tied down. Tied down in a room I didn't recognize.

My wrists were painfully strapped down to the bed I was lying on, along with my waist and my ankles. In fact, I wasn't even wearing normal clothes anymore.

Draped over my body was a short-sleeved white gown. On my wrists under the restraints were white bandages.

Where am I? I thought once again, the room beginning to spin. The screams from outside the room got louder.

The entrance door to the room I was in was completely made out of metal; the only window being on the tippy top, which had metal bars along it.

"No," I whispered to myself. Where are my parents? Where am I? All the questions didn't have answers, but the biggest question was, how did I get here?

Suddenly, the sound of the metal door being fiddled with made me jump, cutting off my thoughts. I tried to regulate my breathing but it was extra hard because I was tied up, unable to move anything except for my head.

The metal door slid open into the wall revealing a woman dressed in a black dress with a white apron. She had an old fashioned style white hat and nurse uniform on, along with old fashioned styled hair.

"Katie?" she inquired in a calm voice. "I see you're awake. How are you doing?"

I struggled to speak because I was so nervous. But I had to suck up to whoever this lady was in order to escape whatever this place was. "W-Who are you?" I asked in a small voice, trying not to stutter. Still, my voice was thick with clear anxiety. "Where am I?"

The lady let out a sigh. Judging by her expression, though, it seemed like she dealt with this everyday. Dealt with seeing people tied down everyday. "I'm Nurse Elizabeth." she tried to smile at me. "Those questions are normal, Katie. Let's not think about that right now. Are you hungry?"

I didn't answer as the fear took over my body once again. Hungry? How could I be hungry? Just by looking at the room around me, it was pretty clear I was in some type of hospital.

"Where am I?" I repeated in a whisper.

Nurse Elizabeth kept a straight face as she turned around and walked into the hallway. A few seconds later she came back wheeling in a strange type of wheelchair that I only saw in books or on the Internet.

It was a wheel chair without any cushion, large metal wheels, and complete with the same restraints that I had around me.

"Let's get you to the cafeteria, Katie," the nurse smiled a forced smile. She slid the heavy metal door shut again behind her and locked it with some kind of key she was holding. Then she wheeled the wheelchair next to the bed. "If you act up though, Katie, I'll have to use this." she slowly pulled out a large needle from her pocket, bigger than I'd ever seen before. And she wasn't wearing gloves like all the doctors I've seen wear.

I heaved in heavy breaths, nodding. Do whatever she tells you until you understand what's going on, I told myself slowly.

The nurse slipped the needle back into her pocket and slowly undid the restraints that were holding me on the hard bed, one by one. By the time she got to my ankles, I was still lying down, scared to do something wrong.

"Sit up," Nurse Elizabeth instructed. I did what she told me and I was soon sitting in the wheelchair, being strapped down all over again, but this time in an upright position.

How am I supposed to eat like this? I thought worriedly. If I eat now, I'm sure I'll get sick because of my nerves.

She walked over to the metal door and unlocked it once more, sliding the loud, heavy door open. The same screams from before echoed through the hallway the door lead out to, louder this time, sending chills down my spine. Then, without a word, the nurse walked over to in back of the wheelchair and jerked it to the side, pushing it a little too rough. With every time the wheels spun, the whole wheel chair squeaked.

The hallway extended a long way, and the tile floor under us was dirty. Nurses that were only women dressed a lot like Elizabeth hurried down down the hallway back and forth, each time giving me a cautious glance.

It was only when we passed the number of my room that a sickening feeling struck me in the chest.

The room number read: 1123.

And then, I remembered everything.