Chen woke up from the horrendous sounds coming from the room beside him. His neighbor screamed and punched the wall simultaneously, all of the commotion didn't seem to stop. He quickly learned to adapt to his new environment and came to accept things would only get worse from here.
Chen, who was finally dried up and wrapped in a white suit, buried his face in his hands. The sensation on his skin was damp and raw; the sleeves on his top began to stick against his arms and the excess water from his hair trickled down his neck.
In other words, Chen felt very uncomfortable.
Thinking about what he might've done to be placed in some kind of asylum was tiring. He didn't recall drinking—Chen never drank—or leaving his house since the last time he bought groceries, which was Saturday. The only guests coming into his house in the past week were the pizza delivery guy and his older brother.
So why him? Of all people, why was Chen thrown into the back of a van with a man who claimed he could teleport? Why was he shipped off to a mental asylum that seemed so far away from the city?
It didn't help that there were orange and yellow pills piling up against the wall—the kinds you get over the counter. The ones that you can easily lead you to an overdose.
Chen came to a conclusion that this was all a big misunderstanding; that maybe his friends or his brother would eventually notice he was missing and bail him out.
Chen almost jumped when the screaming and banging stopped, and saw Kai—Mr. Teleportation—tapping on the small glass pane. His face was bruised and his hair seemed several hues lighter than their previous encounter.
Deep inside, Chen felt sorry for the guy. He said he was captured and escaped once before, and Chen was foolish enough to actually believe him. Was what he had said actually true? Chen believed it, but he began to doubt it now. Though he didn't blame him.Kai must've been through a lot.
There's so many things about a person that time can change instantly.
"Can you hear me?" Kai asked, but couldn't be heard due to the glass that separated the two. Luckily, reading lips was another thing Chen had learned to do.
He shook his head and shrugged. Seeing this, Kai stepped back and motioned for Chen to step out of the way. Moments later, a balled fist flew threw the window, and shards of glass scattered across the room.
"Was that really necessary?" Chen eyed Kai's bruised knuckles.
"Doesn't matter," Kai dusted his hands. "That never worked before, but we can hear each other now, right?"
Chen was hesitant. He knew sooner or later, someone wouldn't like the idea of a broken glass pane... and eventually, Chen might suffer for something that he didn't do.
"Listen, Chen," Kai picked at the leftover glass in the frame. "I know you're scared... you think this is some kind of asylum or something, right?"
Chen slowly nodded, chills ran down his arms. Kai somehow always knew what was on his mind.
"And you think I'm crazy, too, huh?" Kai pointed at himself, and Chen stayed still. He didn't like how Kai kept doing this... or how he was just really good at guessing.
"It's fine," Kai sighed and groomed his hair back. "I think I'm crazy too,"
"You're not..." Chen began, but trailed off once he remembered the electric cuffs on Kai's arms. They were there for a reason.
"Don't bother," Kai took a deep breath in and sighed.
"Why did you break the glass?" Chen stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Is this your plan to bail out? Did you even come up with an escape plan?"
"No, I just..."
"Then I'm not interested," Chen said harshly. "I mean..." seeing the surprised look on Kai's face made his heart pound fast. "I'm sorry, but I want to get out as much as the next guy."
Kai nodded. "I hate it here, I don't blame you." Sympathy started to brew in Chen's stomach. If anything, he couldn't complain; Kai had been here longer than he, and if Chen was already sick of it, then how must've Kai felt?
"There was another guy," Kai began. "When I was here before—he was all bloody and even cried. He got dragged out multiple times, but then one day, he disappeared."
Chen's heart sank. Whenever he began to get used to the place, something always snook up from behind and surprised him.
"You're fine," Kai waved it off. "At least more so than me." He laughed and looked down at his hands. "Look at me, making a mess everywhere I go..."
Chen laughed nervously. He didn't know what scared him more... this whole situation or Kai.
"Are there others here?" Chen looked around, as if he didn't already know there were no other windows or doors in the room.
"Probably," Kai shrugged. "I heard something... I don't know if it was an hour, two hours ago, but when I went into the testing room earlier, I remember some nurses talking about one of us."
"One of us?" Chen repeated.
"Not... us." Kai pointed to Chen and then at himself. "They weren't talking about me or you, they were talking about another patient, another prisoner, I don't know what to call ourselves."
"Patients... prisoners..." Chen repeated quietly to himself.
"Test subjects, more or less," Kai offered. "They do some nasty stuff in the testing room... I heard yelling once in there."
"Why do you think they are doing all of this?" Chen began to feel dizzy with all the questions he had piling up in his brain.
"Dunno," Kai rubbed his hands together. "We're just a part of their huge science experiment or whatever. It's not my fault I can do certain things. Hey, did you ever figure out what you can do yet?"
Kai's voice quickly became background noise to Chen's busy mind. He just wanted answers to all the questions he had. The best thing he could receive was to escape all of this and forget it ever happened; to go back to his normal life.
And that's when Chen finally realized he wasn't in a mental asylum.
It suddenly all began to make sense; the tests, the white suits, the white walls that were hard and cold. If Chen were really in an asylum, these walls would be spongey, offering up at least a small taste of hospitality. Of comfort. He would know the doctors and nurses that would come in and help him, if that were really his purpose for being here.
But no. Chen never saw anyone other than Kai. His own reflection was out of the picture. Whoever was performing tests was unknown to him. There were always people wearing red visors and white masks to cover up their faces, while Chen's seemed to be exposed to the whole facility.
This wasn't a mental asylum, he was in a place much worse.
He was in a lab.
e)(o
