The Typical Insanity

i j u s t w a n t t h e t r u t h

They've left me alone in my dark padded room; they forgot to switch on the lights. They always forget to switch the lights on but they never forget to lock my jacket.

I've been here for three days now but I can barely remember anything from the past 48 hours because of all the sedatives they give me. Each time I wake up, they tell it's because I act so violent and try to convince them that I don't belong in here. They chuckle. They chuckle at me but then they stop chuckling at me. I don't know why exactly but when I wake up in the straitjacket, they all stay away from me and the nurse who chuckled at me can't chuckle anymore because of the bandages on her neck and cheek.

They're all nurses. All of them. They won't let me leave the room, but they said that if I promise not to scratch anyone anymore I can start going to the recreational room during the day. I don't want to go to the recreational room. I just want to go home. I want to go back to Clem and Nadia, I want my bland job back and I want my jaded sanity back.

But a bloody recreational room will do for now.

They let me out of the padded room at exactly 10:50. I remember because it was the first time in days that I'd seen sunlight. I felt like those vintage vampires who would hiss exaggeratedly when exposed to sunlight, I wish I had a cape just to finish off the look. But then again, I wouldn't able to hold the cape what with my extra tight straitjacket. They said that they won't take it off until they're sure I won't hurt any other patients. I told them that I wouldn't do anything of that sort. They didn't believe me.

The recreational room was more like a hall, six barred windows on each side and an empty stage on the farthest end. Tables and chairs were scattered all across, most occupied by patients playing board games or staring blankly into a nearby TV. A girl from a group on the left noticed the orderlies push me in and grew a wide smile while waving me over.

"Yo, 'Moe! Over here, c'mon!"

"My name's not Moe." But they probably didn't hear me.

I walked over to her and sat down on a seat she'd pulled towards me.

"So?"

I didn't know what she was talking about so I just frowned.

"Dude, tell us about the incident with Big Martha! Jimmy told me that you bit her ear off! If that's true I swear to God-"

The girl continues to drone on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. The group didn't even seem like a group up close, more like a mix and match of people with nowhere else to go. But one face looked particularly familiar, I knew exactly who she was, I'd recognise that teal eyeshadow anywhere.

"Clem?"

She knows I'm talking to her but she looks confused.

"Um, I'm sorry, come again Nemo?"

But it didn't sound like her; this one had an Australian accent. I wonder how she landed here, wherever here is.

"Sorry, I just thought you looked like someone I knew."

"Well sorry to disappoint, jerk, I'm just plain 'ol Nikkie, huh?! But you're just too insensitive and small minded to be okay with that, aren't you?!"

Wait, what just happened there? Clem-but-not-Clem gets up off her seat and runs off, with a scowl and hot tears on her face. The girl from earlier nudges my side.

"Dude, why the hell would you do that?"

"I didn't do anything! I just, I don't know, I just-"