The Institute

Chapter Seven- Picture of Nurse Linda

After my not-so-normal visit from my family, Nurse Linda took me to the cafeteria to get a snack. I decided to start my search for Sean. When we got to the cafeteria, I looked over at the seat that Sean and I normally sat at saw him sitting there. I rushed over and sat down next to him.

“What’s your hurry?” he asked, chewing his food. Now that I had actually found him, I didn’t know what to say. I looked down at the table.

“Well, you see…” I began. “I know…”

“Yeah? Spit it out,” Sean coaxed.

“I don’t know how to say this but you’re a ghost.” There, I had said it.

Sean’s mouth dropped open and the half-eaten food spilled out onto his plate.

“What?” He started laughing. “Okay, I knew you were crazy but I didn’t think were nuts!” He shook his head and started to turn back to his food.

“No, I’m serious,” I pleaded. “And I’m not actually crazy. I just see dead people.” Now that I had said that sentence out loud, I realized it did sound crazy.

“And how do you figure I’m dead?” Sean asked.

“Well, a couple reasons actually,” I said. “My brother thought that you were a ghost so I asked Dr. Shrueger about you and he told me that you went crazy and tried to kill your sister. They put you in here and then you died,” I explained.

Sean got a scared look in his eyes and he frowned.

“That’s impossible,” he whispered.

“It would explain why your parents never came to visit you,” I said, looking down.

“It’s not true. You’re lying!” Sean shouted, standing up.

“Sean, listen—”

“No, you listen! I don’t want to hear your crap. Just leave me alone.” Sean turned around and took off. I noticed none of the nurses even looked up as he blew by. So it was true.

--------------------

When Sean ran off, I just sat at my table not eating, not talking, just sitting. About half an hour later Nurse Linda walked over and asked if I was alright.

“Yes,” I lied.

“Well, okay. Are you ready to go then?” she asked.

“Do I have an appointment with Dr. Shrueger today?” I asked, ignoring her question.

“You do.”

We walked to his office in silence.

“Jeremy,” the doctor said as we walked in.

“What?”

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked, studying me.

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” I sighed and plopped into the chair.

“Are you,” he pressed.

“Yeah, whatever, I’m fine,” I mumbled.

The doctor just stared at me then wrote something on his clipboard.

“Okay, that’s it for today,” Dr. Shrueger said. He got up and started gathering papers together.

“What? That’s it? I was here for, like, five minutes. How can that be it?” I asked.

“Well, you’re making good progress and all I need to know for now is that you are doing okay.”

“So, then, I can go back to my room?”

“Actually, I have one more question. How do you know about Sean?” Dr. Shrueger put down his papers.

“I, well, I, uh…” I couldn’t tell him the truth. He had just told me I was making progress. Then again, it didn’t really matter since Josh was breaking me out.

“Yes?” the doctor asked again.

“I don’t know, I heard some kids talking about him,” I finally settled on.

“Really? Which kids?”

“I don’t know their names. I never even saw them really. I was in the bathroom and there were a couple of kids in the stalls talking about him. Can I go now?” I asked.

“Yes, you can. But if you happen to remember which kids you heard, let me know right away.”

“Sure,” I muttered.

Nurse Linda came in and dropped me off at my room. Lately, she had not been speaking to me much.

I sat in my room and did a little of my school work but mostly just stared at the wall. Then I decided to gather what little of my things together and get them ready to go tomorrow. Nine in the morning was right after breakfast and I didn’t have anything else to do until twelve when I ate lunch. I decided to try and take a nap so I wouldn’t have to sit around, worrying about tomorrow. I still couldn’t believe I was going to go through with it.

I slept two hours straight. I only had one dream but it was really strange and it creeped me out. In the dream, I woke up in the middle of the night to find my door unlocked. I left and walked down the hall to the cafeteria. While I was walking, I kept hearing this strange laughter coming from up ahead. I knew it was a bad idea to keep walking; that I should have just turned around and gone back to bed, but I kept walking anyway.

I turned the corner to find David, Lucy, Brady, and Dr. Shrueger sitting at the little table, playing cards. They all had blood coming from their noses and mouths.

I took a few steps back, letting my mouth drop open in shock. That’s when I noticed all of the other nurses and doctors standing against the far wall. No of them were moving, they were just standing like zombies.

I turned to start running in the other direction but I turned smack into Sean. His lips were turned up into a formidable grin.

“You were right, Jeremy,” he said. “I am dead. But so are all of them. You are going to join us now. Come join us…”

I woke up at that part, more than a little shaken by the disturbing dream. Looking back on it now, I tried to tell myself that the dream was a little stupid and I was just overreacting, but the strange feeling wouldn’t leave.

I was quiet during lunch, but no one seemed to notice. Lucy had enough energy to entertain the entire Great Falls staff, and probably all of the patients as well, so it was no large task to find a distraction. Even then, the after effects of the dream still lingered.

The rest of the day passed by fairly quickly. Nothing out of the ordinary. I went to bed early, trying to get some rest before my big day tomorrow. As if that would happen. I didn’t think I was going to get much sleep, but surprisingly, I dozed off as soon as my head hit the pillow.

****************************************************************************************************

I'm having a little trouble thinking this sounds even the tiniest bit believable:( Obviously it's not THAT believable because ghosts aren't real (areee theey??;p) but if it were to happen, could it happen? Yeah, that doesn't make that much sense, but it makes sense in my head:/

Please leave comment if you have any comments or suggestions:):)