The Hospital

8. Twins

The bright yellow headlight fiddled with the raindrops as the downpour continued. 

The tyres hissed over the rain-washed road as those hands stayed still on the steering. She had turned the dim headlights on too, even though the road was completely vacant. 

Her other hand fidgeted over the radio to no avail. The time on the LED of that stereo kept digiting ahead but her mind was stuck in the past. Her conversation with Dr. Eskont and Sofia was still trying to mingle with her brain matter in her head.

She kept quiet. But her inner head voice did not. It was screaming in her ears. She was all alone in the car but from the inside, she was still standing on that reception table, trying her best to make Sofia elaborate her last said statement.

Her mind had kept shifting from zoning out for a moment to pay full attention to the dark wet road.

She gulped down her anxiety but was also being drowned in it at the same time. Her mother's endless phone calls went straight to the missed calls section. She was supposed to be home an hour ago but she had been driving like a snail the whole time.

'He said he wants to talk to you.' Sofia's voice played in her head again. It was the fifth time her mind made her listen to everything again.

'He asked me to tell you that you have to get to his room as soon as you step into the hospital tomorrow morning... What did you say to him to make him so angry?' Her words banged her head from all directions. It was just an hour ago when that strange incident happened.

A few humanly movements were captured by the headlights now. She got near to her house.

'I'm scared for you Nivedita. Not because he was angry—' her words kept getting scarier with every second. '—but because the last person he called in her room was Jane.' Her eyes spoke a million words that Nivedita could not even catch to decipher. She had held her hands while saying that statement. 

She needed to stop remembering the past. Her bad habits had always brought a hard time upon her. 

'Why would you say that, Sofia? Are you trying to hint at something? As if he—' She had pulled her hands away from her grip. That sole statement from Sofia made her lose her sanity for the whole ride back home.

A few locals strolled on the roadside in raincoats. Some with a few plastic bags in their captive. While some roamed with free hands. She was almost home now.

'No. Of course not. How can I even say something like that? I'm scared  because I think he might transfer you there too.'  Where? Where would he transfer her, she had thought.   

She was on the brink of having an anxiety rush when she saw the iron gates of her own house lightened up by the lamps over the fence. Although the house was only a day old, she had her family there. Her real home.

'To the Psychiatric Hospital. Jane was also transferred there. She used to work here in her early days but one day, something similar to this happened and the next day, she was gone to that hospital. I don't want another of my friend to go away.'  She smiled at her lovingly. A smile full of hope. But what hope even Nivedita did not know.

The conversation might have ended with a goodnight but it never reached a conclusion in Nivedita's mind.

This incident created insulation around her head like a helmet, that prevented anything else from entering her ears. 

I don't want to work in an asylum. I would never want to. It was now only her words against hers. The words that were never exchanged with someone in reality and were kept hidden inside her chest.