I sat in the small corner of the hospital room, and pulled my legs closer to me. Another thudding sound from the closet across the room made me jump. The nurses told me the thudding was just from the kids in the room next to mine, but the boys who lived there before had been taken to a better hospital yesterday. There was another sound, a scratching that I had never heard before. I covered my ears and closed my eyes tight. I thought they were closed. I couldn’t tell if they were or if my eyes were wide open and that the pitch black was too thick to see through.
Even with my ears covered I could still hear the thuds. They seemed to be coming from all around me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream. I was too scared to breath. All I could do was cover my ears and hope it’d stop soon. Suddenly there was nothing. No sound just silence. The silence made me feel worse like as if something was now watching me or was close enough to me to cause me harm. I sat there in the silence till the bright orange from the sunrise slowly filled my room. I slowly stood up shakily keeping my back to the wall. My legs felt weak and hurt everywhere. There was a knock at the door and I hurriedly ran to my bed and pretended to sleep as a nurse walked in.
“Breakfast Conner.” She shook me gently and i slowly sat up yawning and rubbing my eyes.
“How’d you sleep?” she asked sliding a tray on to my lap. There was some kind of grey muck on the plate with an apple next to it. There was a white liquid that they tried to pass off as milk then a cup of water with my medication next to it. I shrugged in response and took a bite of the apple. The apples were the only thing here that seemed edible. The nurse took a few test and made sure I took my medicine.I watched her leave before getting up and changing out of my pajamas.
There wasn’t much to do around the hospital. Most of the other kids stayed in their rooms and kept to themselves, there were others that came out wearing these weird jackets. I walked to the T.V room and sat on the couch next to a kid who wore gloves and a patch over his eye. He had deep scars from his eyes to his chin. He grabbed my face and looked at me. I tensed but let him.
“Conner did u sleep at all last night?” he let go.
“No. Why do you have a bandage on your eye?” I whispered
“One of the gloves fell off.” He smiled. His name was Max, He was the first person I met here, with jet black hair and green eyes that seemed to always be red instead of white he claimed that he rather not see things. I always wondered why.
More kids slowly came into the room, there was a boy in one of the weird jackets. One of the boys had gashes in his back that were bleeding bad enough to bleed through the back of his shirt. Others had bruises. We were watching some show about the color Blue when a bunch of nurses came in grabbing a boy by his arms. The boy let out a scream that made it seem like he was in extreme pain.I leaned against Max to try to get myself away from the door. They left and we acted like it never happened.. Kids being dragged away for no reason was very common, so was the kids missing for a few day at a time. I had never been taken away but I was quiet and kept to myself. Max was the only one I talked to. He had gotten to the hospital a few weeks before me and told me it was best to keep quiet and do as they told you, also not to eat the food that didn’t look safe.
Me and Max sat watching the T.V now going over the color green. Max was pulling at his glove as he always did but he could never get them off. We sat in silence till the nurse called for lunch then we all walked back to our rooms. I think we had a lunch room but to many things happened when we were all together in one room to use it anymore. For lunch they brought us more sludge on bread this time. Again, I only ate the apple. It had a different taste, but i paid no attention to it. I was hungry, so it didn’t matter to me at that time. There was more medicine, But it was weird. We never take medicine during lunch. And they weren’t the regular medicine we’ve been taking. Our regular pills were blue and white, but these were blue and cloudy.
“Take your medicine Connor. I can’t leave till you do.” The nurse stepped closer.i heard from Max that if you didn’t take the medication they’d grab you and shove it down your throat until you had to swallow. I took it and the nurse told me to open my mouth and looked around making me move my tongue just to make sure i really took it.
“Good job Connor. Go use the bathroom before therapy.” i nodded and got up and went to the bathroom. They were dirty, i ran to a stall. I could feel the pill in my throat. I took off my shoes placing them under my knees so my pants wouldn’t get dirty. I slipped off my shirt hanging it over the stall. I gently pushed my fingers down my throat deeper and deeper until I started gagging. It took only a few seconds before the apples i had eaten and what was left of the pill to be out of my system. I quickly got dressed and flushed the toilet and started to wash my hands as a nurse walked in. I dried my hands and started to walk to the door, the nurse put his hand on my shoulder and walked me to the therapy room.
The therapist's name was Mr. Beck. He wore a light blue shirt tucked into his black dress pants. The room was only a little larger than the rooms we stayed in, and there was a desk on one side then a couch and chairs. There were shelves of toys on the wall to my right and drawings on the far wall behind his desk. He was a bigger man with white hair and a receding hairline. He also wore glasses that I don't think he used to see out of because they were always so low on his nose and he seemed to always look over them. I sat in a chair that made me feel small and like I was sinking through it. I quickly grabbed the arm rest to prevent myself from falling through. The nurse left the room but I knew he’d be waiting outside until I was done. I looked around the room trying to keep myself from looking at him. It wasn’t that Mr. Beck wasn’t nice i just came to realized when people told him the truth they seemed to be taken sooner, plus he always wrote in this small notebook and once you leave he slides it into a file he keeps in his desk. He was the only person who was able to get into the files besides the people who run the place.
“Connor how’d you sleep?” he smiled and I looked up for a moment.
“Fine.” I lied.
“Anything happen last night?”
“No.” Another lie.
For the next hour he asked me questions about my dreams and I answered every one with another lie. He wrote it down. He asked another question. I lied. He wrote it down. He sometimes flipped the page and looked up at me when I waited to answer.
“Connor, have you ever been to the garden?” He shut the book, closed his pen and smiled at me.
“Garden?” I looked at him confused. He stood up and motioned for me to do the same. He started to walk out the door and i followed. I walked behind Beck till a male nurse grabbed me by my shoulders and forced me to look at him.
“He’s fine. He’s going with me.” Beck gave the nurse a stern look and the nurse set me down. I got behind Beck as we walked on. We came to a door with a small electronic pad came up and Beck put his hand on top of it. I couldn't see, I felt an urge of curiosity shoot up through my body. The door clicked and slowly opened. it felt like it took an hour for the door to open, but when it did sunlight slowly came into the dark hall of the hospital. I stepped back, scared that if i stepped into the light i’d melt like the candles when the hospital has a blackout during a storm.
Beck looked at me and held the door open, i couldn’t remember the last time i had actually been outside. I was about to step into the light when a high pitched sound made me cover my ears and fall to my knees. It didn’t stop. Now instead of a sound it sounded there was a loud scream on top of it. I realized i was screaming when it felt like my lungs were on fire. I was on the ground now. I felt tears streaming down my eyes as the sound got worse. I remember seeing a beautiful tree with leaves a startling green with stunning blue flowers. That was the last image I remember seeing before I lost consciousness…
