Keep Your Head

CHAPTER 3: Hospital Paradise

It was clear now. The accident, what the nurse said, Devon understood everything in less than a minute after she stared into that mirror. It was as if someone popped the lid off of her head and poured every single detail of what happened that day into her brain, soaking it up until there was no more space left. Now that Devon had remembered everything, her headache was no longer there. As if it didn’t exist in the first place.
Mrs. Meadow propped the mirror up on the wall, her gaze still set upon Devon. “So, do you understand?”
Devon nodded. “Yeah, I kind of do.”
She sat up on the hospital bed that she was laying on and tried to get back on her feet, using the bed itself for support. The floor was icy cold, making Devon let out a small wince. It was bearable, though, and she was able to get back up. Mrs. Meadow looked surprised, yet excited, clapping her hands together with such joy. “Oh, congrats! You did it!” She cheered.
Devon blinked, an awkward grin slowly forming on her face. She thought that this was a thing that hospitals did, or, at least what this particular hospital did. Cheer your patients on just for standing up? It was definitely a weird thing to be cheering about, but in particular situations, it would make sense. The cheering made Devon happy in a weird way.

Devon looked down at her feet, noticing that she was barefoot. She should've noticed it before when her feet touched the cold floor, but she was so focused on her goal of standing up that she didn't realize that she wasn't wearing any shoes. She stared at her feet, then spun her head up to look at the nurse. “Where are my shoes? I remembered having them.”
Mrs. Meadow pointed at the doorway, which made Devon look in that direction. Her shoes weren't there. “Wha-”
“They're outside, hon.”
“Oh.” Devon nodded, her grip letting go of the bed so that she could walk. But she was still a bit too weak for walking, so all she did was sway from side to side so she could keep her balance.
It felt like her legs weren't even there, and she just noticed that as well. Mrs. Meadow noticed and quickly took her under her arm so that she wouldn’t fall over, making Devon use her as some sort of support. It took a couple of tries, but the two of them had finally reached the doorway. Mrs. Meadow moved her arm away from Devon so that she could walk by herself, which she successfully did.

Devon peeked out of the doorway, only to find herself in a white, pearly hallway. There were eyes of all colors and sizes lined up across the walls, and a door across from her that had a sign labeled “Patient Room”. Devon looked around again, only to find her red shoes propped up on the wall beside her. They looked broken and dirty, just like her own outfit. She picked those up and slipped them on. “So, what is this place?” Devon asked, stepping out of the room to enter the hallway. Mrs. Meadow was right behind her, her hands still clasped together. “Hospital Paradise. Just like the name states, this place is a small paradise for our patients.” She closed her eye. “You can stay here for as long as you like! We don’t mind.”

Devon nodded and looked to her right. There was another door, but it had construction tape over it. Devon didn’t question it, as she thought that the room behind it was currently being built. She looked to her left.
There was more of the hallway, which then led to an open room. It looked like some sort of a lobby from where she was standing. There was a counter and some sort of bear-looking thing behind it. She twisted her body around and started walking towards it, Mrs. Meadow following from behind.

The room, of course, was a lobby.
There were chairs along the walls, the floors were pink and white tiles, and the counter that she was headed towards. The person, or… thing, was, indeed, a bear. Just a person wearing a pink bear mask. The outfit that the person was wearing was a white and sky blue nurse outfit with a small, pink plus sign on the corner of it. She also noticed that there was long, black hair resting upon her shoulders.
“That’s Xia.” Mrs. Meadow came up from behind, making Devon flinch. “She was originally a human, like you, but unfortunately, she was, um…” She paused, hesitating to say the next sentence. “Murdered, in the real world. She was in a coma, like you, which left her in a vulnerable state, and someone took advantage of that.” Xia had quickly looked over at Devon and Meadow when she heard the word “murdered”, her bear mask looking in their direction. Devon gulped. Murdered? Could that happen to her too if she didn’t wake up in time? Would she become one of these creatures, too?
Devon shook her head. No. That wasn’t going to happen. She was going to wake up. She had to.

“Devon.”
Devon was quickly snapped out of her thoughts when Xia spoke. Her voice sounded oddly familiar. It was deep, yet soft at the same time.
Wait, wait.
How did this thing know her name?
Did Mrs. Meadow tell her or…?
Yes, that was probably the reason. “Don’t come to conclusions, Devon.”

Devon studied the room again, looking at the seats and benches resting in the depressingly empty lobby until she spotted something.
No, not something. Someone.
It was a girl, probably around her age, with short, gray hair and bandages covering her right eye. She was wearing a white T-shirt and short blue jeans. Was this the patient that Mrs. Meadow was talking about?

“Ah, Devon! I forgot about Q for a second.” Mrs. Meadow chuckled, making her way over to the lonely teenager sitting in the corner of the room.
The teenager, supposedly called Q, lifted her head to look at Meadows when she had stood beside her, slowly averting her eyes away from her to look at Devon who had followed Mrs. Meadow from behind.
“So, you're Devon?” Q muttered, eyeing her up and down as if studying her. “It's a pleasure to meet you.” Q reached her hand out for a handshake, which Devon immediately took. They held hands for a minute, shaking each other's hands until Devon pulled away, giving her a small smile. “It's… a pleasure to meet you too.”
Devon was oddly excited.
This was probably the first real human she's met since she's been here. At least she knows she's not the only one dealing with this.

The three all sat in silence, staring at each other until Mrs. Meadow clapped her hands cheerfully. “Oho! I see you guys are already becoming friends, that’s wonderful!” The two teenagers looked up at the nurse, both shrugging at her statement. They… weren’t friends yet, they just met. But if Mrs. Meadow saw them like that, then it was completely fine. For Devon, anyway. She didn’t know how Q felt about that.

After a few seconds, the silence returned once again. Devon was already starting to get used to it. They all just sat there, waiting for anyone or anything to make a single sound. Xia looked at the group, tilting their head.

“Mrs. Meadow, are you ready to show them the doors?”