Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I look at the bathroom mirror one more time hating the way how my eyes looks tired and unalive as days goes by. Sighing, I turn around to exit the bathroom to go to the sanitarium cafeteria.
This is the first time that the doctors doctors had let me out again after my lash out on one of the nurses.
A guard opens the door to the cafeteria and I am glad that there are no signs of Aubrey, the nurse, there. I walk quickly towards my usual table, not really in the mood to eat. But then the nurse ushers me to stand up and get my food on the front line. I rolled my eyes doing so.
When I sit back on my spot, a girl with ash brown hair is already sitting across from it. I didn't mind though, but I could use some alone time for myself. Not that I don't have any alone time in the past eight years of my stay in here.
The canteen food is different today. Though the potatoes were still there but at least the dried beans and corns weren't served. Instead, for the first time in what seems like forever, a chicken is lying on my plate. I felt the urge to scream out of pure happiness. But I held it in. That would be totally crazy.
"I'm Annika," the girl with ash brown hair says, extending her hands over me. I cleared my throat staring at her for a split second and returned her gesture, "Scarlett."
She gives me a sweet smile showing off her sparkly white teeth. I feel conscious about my own but then I quickly shrugged it off. This girl must be new in here since I don't recognize her face. She takes a bite on her chicken without any knowledge that I am observing her. After a few minutes, I focused back on my own food.
"So how long have you been here?" she asks, "that is if you don't mind me asking."
I continue munching on my food and then I take a sip on my cold cup of water before looking back at her, "Eight years, you must be new in here?"
She nods, there's a slight hint of pained expression crossing over her features, "It's my third day in here."
I went back on eating my chicken. I want to ask her what happened for her to end up in here but maybe that would be a touchy subject. And in fact, I strongly believe that if people want to tell you something, they'll let you know and they'll tell you. So I didn't push myself on asking her the question, even though I am too curious about it.
The nurse who escorted me in here earlier is just a few feet away from us. The guard over the door recently switched places with the other guard. Mrs. Lynch, the canteen staff, hands one of the patients her plate of food. It is eerily noisy inside this cafeteria.
"I'm scared," the girl with the ash brown hair, I mean Annika suddenly voices out. I look at her a bit questioningly, "scared about what?"
She shakes her head as she mouths the word, "never mind."
"If you're pertaining about that man" I pointed at Mr. Woodley, who's staring at the canteen walls and slapping himself repeatedly. One of the nurses is trying to stop him from hurting himself. Another came, with a guard and they are trying to assist him out of the canteen. I assume the other nurse had already injected him with a tranquilizer since before he can do any harm, he lay down low as if he was dizzy, "don't worry. The nurses are here to protect our every actions. Just stay out of the way of the completely deranged individuals in here."
She chuckles a bit at the way I pertained to the other patients as crazy individuals. She continue eating her food and when she is done, she pushes it aside, placing her arms on the table and looking around the room.
"Why are you here?," she asks,"you seem normal unlike everybody"
"Well, there are different kinds of patients Annika," I say taking the last bite on my chicken and then taking a sip on my glass of water, "There are individuals, whom if you'd look at them, it would be obvious that they're crazy. Like they would talk to themselves alone, laugh at imaginary things and whatnot...
...some patients, well you could not see in them anything. They look fine, but there's something inside of them, something dangerous. That if they flip, you wouldn't know what they're capable of doing. And the others, are just plain psychotic. It's obvious in their features. The way they smile their mischievous grin. That's pretty much it."
"So which category are you in?" she asks, looking straight at me and then around the circle of patients inside the cafeteria.
"Where were you?" I returned her question. I am not in any way trying to freak her out. But I don't even know why I am here either. Maybe I did something horrible, maybe not. Maybe I can be out of control but I know deep down that I would never do such thing, such as killing. Maybe I'm just lost. If there's a lost soul lurking around in the shadows, then maybe I'm a lost soul trying to survive inside a human's body.
She flinches at the question, averting her gaze on me, "I killed somebody"
"Then why aren't you in jail?" I ask. I am not surprised if she ever did kill someone, because that's one of the reasons why someone would end up in a sanitarium.
"I skinned them," she admitted, with a few tears brimming on her eyes "the court thinks I'm crazy for doing so. And I didn't know why I did it either. I mean, they were my best friends"
I squirmed on my seat. She skinned them. That's really horrible. I don't know what to say, I just stared at her for a moment. Her voice is broken, she looks lost.
And then seconds later, she started laughing. Like full on laughing. That kind of laugh where you just wanna hide under a table and cover your ears until it stop. My heart pounded fast. She's scary. It's like an evil laugh I can't help myself but stand up from my seat but not before she got a hold of my hands.
"Do you wanna know how I did that?" her voice is piercing. It scared the living shit out of me. Her grip tightened. Why aren't there any nurses around here? She pulls me closer that her mouth is so painfully close to my ears, "I skinned them alive"
And then there's that laugh again, I tried pulling away but she was so strong I can't let my hands go. My heart is beating frantically, until a nurse stepped near us and pulled her arms away from me. But it was no use, because as soon as the nurse did that, Annika bit his arms.
I flinched at the sight as the male nurse winces in pain. The guard might have noticed (too late) and so he rushes on the scene. The other patients screamed, others laughed and it was so noisy I covered my ears with my hands, "Stop!" I cried.
The whole cafeteria is in riot now. Mrs. Lynch immediately went inside the stock room and few other more nurses came rushing inside. Two of them held Annika by her arms while Aubrey rushes to the male's nurse side and aided his arms. Another one injected Annika with a tranquilizer, fortunately, at the first attempt it worked.
The guard held her and led her out of the canteen. The other patients were escorted by their nurses too, and so was I.
I hold onto my arms, which Annika had grabbed earlier, still feeling the crazy sensation she left there. I am terrified. Too terrified that I can't even form a word when the nurse asked me if I was okay. She opens my room door and I've never been so happy to go inside and lay down on my bed. She's crazy. Annika is really crazy. What she did to her friends was horrible, and then I thought...
If that had been the reason why she'd been sent in here, then have I ever done something so terrible and close to what she had done?
✂------------------------------------------
So what do you think about this chapter?
let me know in the comments xx
Check out :
Goodbye Emiline ➡ on my profile Lost and Found ➡on my profile From Me To You ➡on my profile
