Maple Glen Mental Institution

Chapter Eight: Farewell

Somehow, I had fallen asleep. I woke up, still wearing the stupid restraints, lying on my back. The room was oddly dark, like a dark presence was filling the room. I was tired and wasn't in the mood of fighting. The camera was still fixed on me. The lenses whirred and shifted. I'm sure it was zooming in on me. Suddenly, I noticed that the room was getting foggier. Was there a fire? I didn't smell any smoke. I only smelled the minty scent of sedation medicine. I noticed that I was getting more and more sleepy too. Like I was falling into a trance or something. My eyelids drooped. My thoughts were slipping.

I fell into a peaceful sleep.

I snapped back to consciousness. I was still in bed. I sat up as someone knocked on the door. As I waddled toward it, I felt like all that recent insanity was gone. Like it was never there. Like I never broke my sister's and my traitor friend's bones. 

Twice for her, I guess. 

Then, I realized that the door was locked from outside, and I guess the person outside it realized it too, because the door unlocked automatically and opened. It was Randall, and she had a huge smile on her face. She was holding my folded up clothes from when I first got here.

"We did a blood draw while you slept the medicine off, and turns out, that craziness isn't there anymore!" She was staring at me, and I noticed that her eyes were a bit watery. We both knew the answer, but Randall pointed it out anyway.

"You're being discharged today." 

Randall whispered, getting sentimental. Was she going to cry because I was finally leaving? Probably because we've gotten so close, as friends, and I was leaving. Like when the girl and a guy meet, but then a few months later, the girl has to leave, and then she dumps him—Okay, not like that. Long story short, we were friends for a month (I've lost track of time a long time ago) or so and now I have to leave.

A little bit later, I left the third, second, and headed down to the first floor in clothes I hadn't worn in forever. Carlos waved goodbye, and so did the lady (Whose name I'll never know) from the troublemakers' floor, and headed into the first floor lobby. I had a dream that I had died here, and it seemed much more like an out-of-body experience than just a dream, and being a ghost or whatever I'll call them. I will forever know, from my 'dream', that Carlos might just have a crush on a patient. 

Heh, some secrets I learned in the dream, which could be possible but it's just a dream, is that patients died here. Pretty scary, right?

Anyway, I sat down in a chair near the double doors while Bryan told me to wait for my mom to come and pick me up. Randall left without saying a word. I'm thinking that she doesn't like farewells. Bryan had this look in his eyes like: I'm-so-glad-this-girl-isn't-insane-anymore look, which I'm really glad about.

Suddenly the doors open. Mom comes in, along with Lucy. Her cast is gone, but her arm looks like a rat. She smiles a smile I hadn't seen that spelled all this emotion. I stood up and walked toward Mom. Bryan nodded at me and gestured toward the door. I had my suitcase in my hand, delivered to me at the lobby on the second floor. 

It was fairly difficult to ride down the stairs. I nearly fell headfirst down. Lucy took my hand in hers and led me out of the institution. I realized that Mom didn't sign any discharge paperwork or anything. Guess she did before I left.

Mom's car was parallel parked beside the stairs. Just like the day she abandoned me. Lucy's hand still in mine, I turned to her. "Lucy, what month is it? I've lost complete track of time." She told me to wait after we're loaded in the car, so I did. As soon as I was buckled up in a car that smelled like bathroom refresher, I faced my sister again.

Before I could answer, Lucy sighed. 

"You've been in there for three months." Three months? Doesn't sound like a shocker, right? But, for me, it was, pardon the phrase, insane. 

"Three months?" I screeched. "I've been holed up in that tiny room, doing nothing, for three months?" Lucy flinched. I glanced at her. I think she was touched, or saddened by the fact that I haven't been anywhere for months. That's why there's so much—oh. I get now.

I missed Christmas!

I didn't even realize because Maple Glen never celebrated!