A/N: Haha yay, restarting a book is great! To be fair, I'd only published four chapters before anyway, but they weren't really doing it for me. So, here's a new and improved version.
If you read it before, you might notice some of the original first chapter is here, but a lot more of it is different.
It's still going to have all the same characters, I just had to sort out a few things. Plus, this chapter is much longer.
Enjoy!
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There was something about the way the violet splattered loudly across the painfully white tile that made Luke smile. He knew the nurses wouldn't be happy when they found the paint all over the floor again, but he couldn't help it. The white was so stifling, it made sense to try and drive it away. Around Luke, everything was white: the walls, the floor, the bedsheets, even the nurses' uniforms.
He stared at the splashes on the floor - one for each of the colours on the palette he'd been given. It made the tiles look so much better. Yet, the obnoxious sound of high heels clicking in the corridor outside warned him to stop staring at the floor and to quickly make it look as if he hadn't spent the past half an hour flinging paint around. He didn't want any trouble.
The door opened slowly with a squeak that he had memorised.
"Hello, Luke," the woman's voice was quiet, yet firm. "How are you feeling today?"
He shrugged casually, "I'm not feeling anything."
She beckoned him towards the door that she herself hadn't even bothered to walk through fully. Reluctantly, he removed the thin, white bedsheets which had been draped over his legs.
"Wait," she said, holding up a hand in case he hadn't heard her.
"What?"
"What is that mess over there?" Her tone was accusing, although she was used to walking into Luke's room to find paint everywhere.
"Paint," he said nonchalantly.
The woman sighed wearily and turned away. Luke followed her as she walked down the corridor, disturbing everyone in their rooms as she passed. The corridors were just like Luke's room: white. The ceilings were much higher and the walls were much closer together, but they were exactly the same shade. Even the shadows didn't seem to get rid of the white.
A few of the other patients were out, being led around by their nurses as if they were pets. Luke was so used to it by now that it didn't seem unusual. They all seemed as colourless as the walls, which was worrying, because weren't people supposed have at least a slight hint of colour? Maybe they did, and Luke was just seeing things. Everything was so colourless to him that he didn't even notice. He didn't even notice until he saw a brief flash of pink in a room on the right side of him.
He stopped walking and looked inside.
There, in a room he hadn't seen occupied for a while, was a girl and a nurse, standing by the bed. He tried to hear a little bit of the conversation but was interrupted.
"Luke, what are you doing?" The obnoxious heels lady had stopped and was standing in the middle of the corridor with her arms crossed. She wasn't impatient, just perhaps a little confused.
"Who's that?" He pointed through the doorway towards the pink haired girl and the other nurse.
"Probably a new patient," she replied after she'd taken a look, "But I'd rather be focusing on you as a patient, if you don't mind. So can we go to my office now, please?"
Emma's office was colourful, and Luke was thankful for that, even if it was where he had counselling. There was a large window on the wall opposite the door - in fact, the entire wall was just glass. Emma's desk was close to that wall, facing away from it. She had her desk there because, as she'd told Luke, she liked to have a lot of natural light while she worked. What Emma did when she wasn't being a counsellor and talking to her patients, Luke had no idea.
