Am I, Or the Others Crazy?

Chapter Four - Evan Cruz,

“All she wanted to do is go to her room, why couldn’t you have just let her?” I said standing up, watching Nurse Kelly and the band of thugs that called themselves security guards walk back down the hall towards the rest of us. Les and Sage kept yelling in protest, making as much noise as possible. I saw Alex watch what was happening with a scared look on his face. He pulled his knees to his chest waiting until Jessica came out of her room. Two of the security guards walked over to Sage and Less, putting a hand on their shoulder, causing them to quiet down.

I kept on standing, fuming with my arms crossed. I couldn’t believe how ruthless these people could be.

Nurse Kelly walked over to me, forcefully pushing me back down onto my chair. I reluctantly slumped down, glaring up at her smug face. She looked around at all of us, sighing, as she adjusted the white nurse hat that lay on her fading brown hair.

“I have no idea what has gotten into you all today, but I am stressing that I will not tolerate such behavior.”

She said, particularly looking in Sage and Les’s direction. I kept glaring at her, watching her sit back down on the wooden chair. Her assistant handed Nurse Kelly her notebook so she could get on with the morning group. I wanted to say something, but more importantly I wanted to go over and see if Eva was ok.

“Now, back to our previous discussion, self-control. Does anyone have any comments on this?”

She looked around the room, her hawk eyes eyeing all of us. We all stayed dead silent, not wanting to participate in anything Nurse Kelly had to say. She sighed, thinking about who she was going to call on, forcing them to answer her question.

I looked around the circle, watching her do the same as well. It was silent, except for the occasional cough or shifted in their old creaky chair.

Nurse Kelly set her eyes on Kalen, who was looking around at something that no one else could ever see, or want to see. She slowly crossed her arms, eyes dead set on Kalen. The new girl, whose name I still didn’t know, saw Nurse Kelly looking at him. She gently shoved Kalen, trying to shake him out of his daze. His eyes slowly moved to meet Nurse Kelly’s, bottom left eye muscle slightly twitched. 

“Mr. Bell, will you please start today’s group. Just because you have been absent the last few days doesn’t mean you can tune everything out.”

She leaned back a bit, waiting for her response. Kalen kept his eyes locked with hers. A strand of his long dark brown hair fell from behind his ear and into his eyes. I heard Les snicker from the other side of the circle though Nurse Kelly didn’t let up from her mock staring contest with Kalen. He said nothing, sat stiff as a statue.

“I asked you a question.” Her voice was raspy, and I had always hated it. Today was one of those days I wish I did not have to hear it at all. Though to be honest that was every day.

Kalen squinted his eyes, determined to piss her off as much as he could. He simply stayed quiet, lips pursed and jaw clenched.

Nurse Kelly reluctantly sighed, tired of trying to force something that we all knew wouldn’t happen. I looked at the clock above Nurse Kelly’s head. 9:45. How the hell did the time go by so fast?

 I saw one of the newest nurses nervously walk over to Nurse Kelly, whispering about someone on the phone. Nurse Kelly closed her notebook, obviously annoyed with how things were going.

Les and Sage got up immediately, knocking over there chairs not planning on picking them up. I simply slumped down in my chair, looking down the girl’s hallway. Nurse Kelly was gone by now, called away into the nurses’ station to attend to whatever business on the phone. I was very glad she wasn’t pestering us any longer.

We’ve all accepted that we were all going to spend a significant amount of time in the hell-hole that is St. Mary’s, but Nurse Kelly didn’t make our time here any easier. Though it was 2002, this particular hospital was almost a flashback from the ones running in the 60’s. Shock therapy, longer sentences, even lobotomy. It was a known fact that once you were admitted here, you weren’t getting out for a long time, or not at all.

I’ve been here for over 3 years, my family stopped visiting 2 years ago, friends even less. I didn’t really care though, these people, though as demented as they were, became a fucked up surrogate family.

I looked over at Kalen and the new girl, both zoning out again.

“Good job sticking it to Nurse Kelly.” I said grinning at Kalen.

“Fuck off.” he spat out, though he wasn’t looking at me and I knew he wasn’t actually talking to me. I just nodded, getting up. Chloe got up as well, quickly skipping down the hallway towards the solitary confinement room. I followed, trying to keep up with her pace.

“Eva...” Chloe whispered into the small barred window outside the heavy metal door. I squished next to her, us both trying to see inside the tiny window at Eva. She was laying on the floor in the fetal position, seemingly passed out. Her cheeks were stained with tears. I clenched my fists, angry that they get away with hurting us all.

“Hey! Get away from that door!” it was one of the burly security guards. His deep voice emanated throughout the hall. I felt Chloe’s hand grab my arm and pull me away from the door reluctantly.

They won’t get away with this forever. They just won’t.