To The End

21 Get Me Out Of My Mind

Still 6 Days

        There's that beeping again. My eyes flutter open. I'm strapped to the bed this time. Now it's Frank sitting next to me.

        I try to get the straps off. Frank shakes his head. "You won't be able to.... You know, when you freaked out, you were way stronger then it should be possible. It's... it's scary. I'm not gonna lie. But... What was that about? I know you were upset...  but that's not normal"

        "I'm psychotic, Frank. That's it–" I look up at him. His eyes widen a bit. "I thought you guys were leaving?" He shakes his head. "Mikey lied." My eyes widen. "He... He lied?" Frank nods, sympathy in his eyes. "I promise not to do anything ridiculous, Frank. Can you get these off?" He shakes his head. "No"

        Frank was still sitting next to me. His eyes are wide, curious. "What do you mean by 'I'm psychotic' ?"  I grab his hand, and trace the bones in it with my finger.

        "I mean I'm crazy. I'm a paranoid schizophrenic" his eyes widened even more. "It doesn't seem that way. You-" I interrupt him. "I talk to 'myself' all of the time, Frank. I know he's not real, but I have to talk to him, or he'll get angry at me"

        "Who will get angry?" His eyebrows were all scrunched together now. I just want to smooth them out so he doesn't look so worried.

        "Ryan" Frank mouthed 'oh' but doesn't actually say anything. I know he doesn't know what I'm talking about in the slightest bit. We sit there in awkward silence for what seemed like forever.

        "Kota?" ...  "Yes?" I look up to him. He pauses, hesitant, then he rushes his head forward and our lips collide.

I can't stop him. I'm tied to the bed. He continues on the kiss, me trying to get away. After a bit, I couldn't help but kiss him back.

        He pulled back, leaving me breathless and confused. "Oh. I see why..." He looked on the brink of tears. "Frank... What do you mean?" He just shakes his head and leaves.

        Mum passes Frank on his way out. "Frank, darling. What's wrong?" He ignores her, and continues walking. She shrugs and replaces him in the chair next to me.

        "That was quite the fright you have us, Dakota" her voice shakes, she fumbles with the buckles keeping me tied to the bed. "I'm sorry". She gets my hands untied. I rub my wrists.

        Mum shakes her head. "Don't be sorry. I'm sorry for blaming you all these years. But.... They didn't tell me why you're in here, or why you had your— episode."

        I explain the whole thing, for once, having someone who seemed to understand, or having her listen to me. She never listens to me without being as far as she can from me, or with someone else. I can finally find comfort in the person who I've missed so much.

——

        "Your physical health is fine, Ms. Summers. I'm not sure if you are stable enough to go out and walk around freely. I’ve got someone here you may want to talk to. " Dr. Smith walks in.

        I shake my head. "No! I'm fine. I just got upset.." He sits down next to me. "I can tell. But we need to talk about why you did it." I look around the room, the real doctor had left.

        "Did what, exactly?" He shoots me a look. "Oh, yeah..." I trail off, leaving it silent. "Go on?" "I just needed to stop the nightmares"  Dr. Smith  sighs. "Have they gotten worse since you last saw me?" I nod. "Especially the ones with Mi-" I choke on his name,  not able to finish the sentence.

        The silence lasted several minutes. "Doctor, why can't I be normal? Why can't I live like people should?" I sound like a child, asking these questions.

Dr. Smith tries to put a smile on his face, "People like you make the world beautiful"

——

        We talked for about an hour.  Right before we were going to depart, I ask "So... I'm not allowed to go with them, am I?" He shrugs. "You can do whatever you want. It's a free country. But for gods sake, be careful" the next thing he did was much more unexpected.

        He pulled me into a hug. Not just a normal hug, no. He hugged me so hard that I thought he was going to crush me. I enjoyed it though. Doctor Smith had become a sort of big brother to me.

   I stifle a few sniffles. "Bye, Doctor" he laughs, then looks back at my face, which now must be red and puffy.  "It's not like I'm never going to see you again" he smiles, reassuringly.