Insanes

Chapter 12

I woke up sweating and breathing rapidly. I blinked hard to try to make my eyes adjust to the dark room. I groaned. After rubbing my eyes, I looked over at Thorn. Or at least the shadowy figure on the bed beside me. I sighed. It was just another nightmare.

Tonight, it was different. My nightmare was new. It consisted of

loud, screaming voices in the darkness and occasionally a face or two that I didn't recognize. My dream self told them to stop, but they got louder and louder. Then, all at once, they stopped and I saw my dad. I walked up to him slowly and he smiled at me. But when he spoke, it wasn't his voice. He said "I'm here, Ana. I'm always watching." Then, his face started melting. It conformed into a familiat face. That of Mr. Oliver. I started screaming and then I woke up like I did.

I slowed my breathing down and threw the covers off of me. What the actual hell? Why was my nightmare different this time? And what did he mean "I'm always watching?" My head started spinning and I laid back down. I could still hear the faint screams. Trying to go back to sleep isn't an option. I looked out the tiny window in the wall behind me and saw the sun just starting to rise. I wonder what's gonna happen today, I thought sarcastically. Everyone knows what happens on your first day back. You get put into classes based on your diagnosis. I'm the worst out of our group of four, so they might split us up. I pray they don't split Thorn and me up.

I know that so far, it seems as if I'm the only one hearing the Whispers and having nightmares. Everybody in our group does, I just get the worst of it. Thorn is next in line, he hears them almost twice a week. Dustin, three times a month, and Scarlet, once a month. I get them every other day. Which sucks.

I saw Thorn slowly open his eyes and looked at me. He yawned and said,

"Goodmorning beautiful." Just like he always did. I smiled at him and got all warm and happy. He proceeded to get up from his bed and sit next to me on mine with his arm around me and my head on his shoulder. We both sighed and I asked him,

"What's gonna happen to us?"

He kissed my forehead and said, "I don't know, but I am not letting them take you from me. Not again."

Just then we heard footsteps down the hall, and then Mr. Oliver busted down our door, holding a pile of clothes.

"Goodmorning sunshines!" There's that stupid smile again. Ugh. "It's time to get dressed. You all remember our dress code, yes? Wouldn't want anyone sticking out from the rest." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying "the uniforms wouldn't fix that, dumbass. Nothing would." But mother taught me to be nice. So in my mind I pretended to beat the living shit outta him. I smiled at the thought and Thorn looked at me weird. Mr. Oliver put the clothes down on everyone's beds and then left. I saw the shoes he left me and threw them under my bed and grabbed my black converse. No way in hell I'm wearing those ugly, uncomfortable shoes. Everyone got dressed and Scarlet and I helped the guys tie their ties, because for whatever reason, they still don't know how to. Once we were all dressed, we waited a minute or two for Oliver to come back. Once he did, we followed him into the main commons room. There were a bunch of other kids there who looked just like us. They looked so innocent, I wanted to cry for them.

We all sat in rows of chairs silently and waited for Mr. Oliver to show up. When he did, he had a clipboard and started calling people by names. He led them into seperate rooms and we heard words being exchanged between him, the doctors, and the poor little kids about to be diagnosed. After a little while, we heard winces and cries and then it was silent. Simultaneously, they all came out of the rooms and sat back down in their chairs, looking fear-stricken. Their faces were pale and they were fidgeting. I felt so bad for these kids, I wanted to hug them. Their ages probably ranged from 9 to 15. Mr. Oliver came back in and called the next set of names.

"Anastasia."

My heart dropped. I don't want to go. I looked at Thorn and he squeezed my hand. I got up and went into the room he showed me. I sat on the stool and watched the doctor type on his computer. I saw a picture of me from my senior yearbook. How they got that, I don't want to know. The doctor turned around and wrote some things on her clipboard before looking up at me and smiling.

"Hello Ana. Is it alright if I call you that?" I nodded. "Good. So Ana, since the last time you visited, have your issues been getting worse or better?"

I pondered for a moment.

"Much worse."

She took note of that on her clipboard and then said, "How's Ella?"

"She's good."

"Is she having visions like you?"

"Not that I know of."

"She could be hiding things from you."

I straightened up. "You leave her alone." She pursed her lips and wrote more down on her clipboard. I glared at her. She looked up at me with some sort of determination in her eyes. I questioned it. I already don't trust her.

"Alright, so just lay down here and I'm just gonna do a couple quick scans. Just relax."

Yeah because it's so easy to do that in a place like this full of people like you.

I laid down and relaxed just a little. I felt the table move and saw something rotate from under it over my body and then back down under the table. Then it reversed. I heard faint beeping and clicking noises and panicked a little. I closed my eyes and wished for it to stop. The beeps make my head hurt. I heard the whirring stop and I sat up. The doctor scribbled down more notes and said I could leave. Huh, much simpler than last time. But the second I stepped out of that room, I fainted and saw nothing but darkness. I tried coming back but I couldn't, so I let go.