Faking Sanity

Reality & Insanity (Ch.2)

        My stomach churned, someone walked up behind me and tapped my shoulder. I stumbled away, shaking as I wondered if they really were there or not. 

       "Are you alright?" It was a short man with a broad structure, looking me in the eyes he stepped towards closer. My stomach wrenched, acid burning my throat as I collapsed. Choking up vomit I coughed and moaned on the sidewalk. Looking down with hazy vision I stared into my upchucked meal, feeling more sick looking at it. My feverish feeling intensified and I collapsed into my own vomit, struggling to breath as though someone, or something was sitting on me...no, more like something was squeezing my lungs from the inside. Gasping for breath I fell unconscious. Waking up, I looked around confused. I was sitting in the middle of a room.The walls are white, same as the floor. The floor is soft, cushioned, and there is a single door in the corner of the room. No windows, no people, no food or even a toilet. I heard a loud click as the large metal door slid open, two men in white coats and a female nurse stepped in. I tried to push myself to my feet using my hands when I realized that my arms were restrained in a white coat. I struggled against the fabric that pinned my arms around me. 

        "Doctor." The woman instructed. 

        "Yes, yes." The taller man said, pulling a clipboard that had been dangling loosely in his arm up to his glasses. "Sage, is it?" He looked over his clipboard at me, I nodded. "Seems you've really lost it, seeing things that aren't there and hearing voices, but don't worry we'll take good care of you here."

        "Am I...in...an asylum?" I asked, looking over the white walls.

       "Yes." The shorter man answered. "You were brought here violently twitching and screaming about ghosts or something." He yawned, seeming distracted or uninterested. 

         "There must be...some mistake......I'm just a normal kid..." My head throbbed and my heartbeat quickened.

         "It's not my fault you told everyone you saw a ghost." The tall man said, shrugging. "If only you'd kept your mouth shut..." His voice was playful, taunting me. Rage bubbled inside me as the three stood talking to me about my daily routine from now on. This isn't happening, it's all a dream. I squeezed my eyes shut, opening them to see myself standing in the field again, the girl in white with dark hair still facing away from me. 

        "You're right," She said, standing amidst the rosebuds, the single blossomed one twitching slightly at the sound of her voice as if drawn to her. "It's all a dream." She giggled softly. "Well, not quite..." She turned, her eyes covered by her hair, blood red lips smiling cruelly. "This is more of a nightmare......a never-ending nightmare." Although she was far from me, I could see the outline of her red lips against her pale skin and glistening white teeth. "Keep pretending your sane or they'll lock you up, just like me." And with that, a large gust of wind stirred the dust, I forced my eyes to stay open, but the mask of dust was too thick to see through. The thick dust choked me, filling my mouth with dirt and suffocating me. Coughing and sputtering I heard a beep as I opened my eyes. Jolting upright I choked, vomiting over the side of the bed. An IV tube disconnected from my arm as the acid burned my throat. Panting I looked around the hospital room. There was no one here but me, a heart monitor beeped rapidly with my panicked heart rate. It slowed as I leaned back into the pillows, feeling weak and dizzy. The door whipped open and a frantic nurse ran in, he rushed to my side. After reconnecting the IV tube he noticed the vomit on the other side of the bed. Smiling weakly he looked at me.

        "How are you feeling?" He asked, taking a paper towel and wiping throw-up off the railing of the bed. I looked around, my head pounding.

        "What...what happened?" I was still trying to collect what happened in reality and my dream. 

       "You collapsed from sickness, if I had to guess I'd say it's likely just a bad case of the Flu. You threw up and hit your head on the sidewalk." He pulled out a small radio clicking a button and speaking into it. "I need a janitor, the patient in room B-6 threw up in bed."