Cotter Woods

Part 28

Hello. My name is Summer, Summer Daves. Today I woke up in a bed that wasn't my own. It's white, just like the rest of the room. When I woke up, I was greeted by a nice lady who came to my door. She told me to take some pills and then to go out into the Social Room. I followed her, even though I don't remember how I got there. All I remembered was some people in the woods, and a little bit of yesterday. I remember my parents driving me to a hospital. A man told me to close my eyes and count down from ten. He put a gas mask over my mouth and nose, then everything went black. Now I'm here, walking down a hallway with rooms identical to the one I woke up in. The woman led me to a giant room, full of people. They all had on white, like me. I looked around and smiled at everyone. They were all laughing, happy, they were all having fun.

"Here, Summer. Why don't you sit there?" The woman pointed to an empty table across the giant room. "I'll come get you in about twenty minutes, okay?" I nodded at her and walked to the table. It was the same shade of white as just about everything in the place. The only different color I could see was four people wearing black, standing around the room. They looked like guards. I sat down at the table and fiddled my thumbs. I didn't know anyone so I figured I would just sit alone until that woman came back. I was looking down at my feet until a hand landed on the table I was sitting at. I looked up and saw a middle-aged woman looking at me. The more I looked at her the more familiar she seemed. But, I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Summer..." She said, sitting down. I smiled at her, since she knew my name. "How did you... what happened?" She asked me.

Suddenly everything went black, except for this womans face. Emily. The name Emily ran through my mind. Then, everything came at once. I remembered meeting her in the abandoned place and her telling me to find her friends! I remembered my friends and I going into the woods! I remembered Cotter and how awful she was! I remembered the terrible decision I had to make to get out! And now everything fit together. My parents sent me here because they didn't believe what I had told them! I was in the asylum! The asylum reopened and I was put in it!

"Emily!" I said back to her. "Emily Whites! I remember now!"

"Summer, are your friends still out there, too?" She asked slowly.

I nodded. "What can we do? How do we get them back? What do we do, Emily?"

"We can't do anything. You were my only hope and now you've ended up just like me. We can't do anything." Her eyes filled with sorrow as she realized history had repeated itself.
Now, instead of five people in the woods, there were eleven.

"We can figure something out, Emily!" I tried to say, guilt rushed through me.
Emily shook her head at me, unable to look into my eyes. She got up from the table and walked away crying. Then, I was alone. Sitting in a room that I now remember I used to call The Ballroom. The room that, not long ago, my friends and I came in and danced, laughed, and had fun in. The same brave friends who went on an adventure to find people that went missing years ago, though it was guaranteed to be dangerous. My friends. My friends that I left in Cotter Woods.

END OF BOOK ONE