Mental

Chapter 3 - Level Cleared

It has been approximately thirty minutes and fifty-four…fifty-five…fifty-six…seconds since the moment they entered the room. Thirty-six minutes and three seconds if you include their entrance at the building, and exactly forty minutes if the facility is included.

Yes, it is quite…enthusiastic to some but for her, it I quite normal. She does it all the time; to ease boredom, to keep her occupied for the time being, to keep her track on time, or just to get rid of her insecurities and nervousness.

How can he do this to her? Abandoning her to talk and catch things up with his old friend; here she is, standing in the corner, observing bland events happen in front of her uneasy eyes.

She hates herself. Again. Seriously, looking again at the scene before her, she really want to dig herself a hole and hide inside and never again reveal herself to the world. Everything here is so perfect – the silent, welcoming atmosphere with old friends talking about how they are doing the times none were present is just like watching a movie where the protagonist is having one of the calming scenes where the audiences can be at ease, be relaxed for the lack of drama and tension. And because of that, you can only either be one of the characters or the audience – and she is neither.  She is nothing but just one of the extras – to simply increase the number of people in the background – which the audiences always disregard and deem unimportant – which she truly is.

If he didn’t just happened to be the closest person she could have for a friend then she wouldn’t have agreed to attend this…session. But being here now and everything, she wished to go back through time and tell Uncle Tom that she don’t want to. But what is done is done. Maybe she does deserve this punishment. She doesn’t deserve to be walking and existing in this world anyways, even to breathe the same air people inhale to live, to survive.

Okay…maybe she does need help. Or not.

Forcing her face to not to smile which is really hard, she ended up looking like an idiot with that distorted face. Sometimes, she thinks that maybe this body isn’t hers and her brain got switched with somebody else’s by some unknown accident. Or maybe she’s just stupid.

God, she should really stop degrading herself. Really.

Completely lost in her thoughts, she almost yelped in surprise after hearing an ear-splitting ring from a bell right beside her ears. Keyword, almost.

“Okay, everyone, since were all here I think it’s time to start our session.”  Mr. Johnson, Uncle Tom’s friend, announced the growing crowd.

Seriously, the man looked…well, suspicious.

Francine, what did Uncle Tom told you about judging people?

Yep, that is so Uncle Tom. Snorting, she tried to refocus her attention at the said person.

“…now please go to your partners and we will start our activity after few hours. Have fun, everyone!”

Great. She doesn’t even know who her partner is. Well, he said they were the same age. And looking around, everyone are separated by two’s –

“Oh, and Francine, follow me, I’ll introduce you to him,” – or she can ask Uncle Steve.

When did she start to be in first name basis with him? She has no idea either.

And now that the crowd dissipated, she finally had a better view of the room. It is big. Huge. Large. Spacious. Any word that goes with those. You can even play football here! Okay, actually, it looked like a children’s playroom; complete with videogames, shelves and a reading area, lots of mini sala [1] sets, mini refregirator with a mini kitchen complete with a sink and a microwave, in short – you can live here.