Mental (Slow updates)

Chapter 3

For the second time that day, Katrina woke up in unfamiliar surroundings. 'Great, once again I have no idea where I am,' Katrina thought, slightly annoyed with herself. This time her memory returned as soon as she called upon it. Her mind filled in the blanks, 'Obviously I'm in the hospital but where are my parents and everyone else? Shit, am I in quarantine? Am I going to die?" Of course her mind went to the most disastrous possibility. She scolded herself for being dramatic. She turned to her right taking in the monitor that looked like it was keeping an eye on her vitals, before turning to her left and seeing an Iv full of some unidentified cloudy liquid. Her eyes followed the tube from the Iv until it connected into a needle that was inserted into her arm. She felt sick, she hated needles, especially when they were inserted into her. More than anything else she wanted to rip out the needle, but she did not dare. She began to sit herself up using the arm that was needle free, when the doctor from the ambulance came into the room. Seeing she was awake and trying to sit up, he gently pushed her back down onto the bed before grabbing a control hanging from beside her bed and pressing a button causing the bed to sit Katrina up. She glared at the doctor with accusing eyes, "You injected me with something, in the ambulance, you can't..."
"It was a sedative, it put you to sleep, so that it was easier to move you and complete our tests. I know you don't like needles." The doctor interjected, Katrina looked down as he said the last part. "Anyway, you've only been asleep for an hour," the doctor smiled at her, and despite herself, Katrina smiled back. The doctor seemed to calm her, she knew she was safe and the doctor was just doing his job. After checking everything was as it should be, the doctor turned to leave. As he reached the door he turned, "by the way, your parents are here. You and I will be meeting them in my office in half an hour to discuss what happened. Do you want them to see before then?"  Katrina thought about it, she had a feeling her parents will grill her as soon as they saw her and she did not feel up to that, so she shook her head. The doctor smiled, "Okay, I'll tell them you are still asleep," and walked out the room, leaving Katrina to her thoughts. 

After twenty five minutes alone with her thoughts and her phone, a nurse entered. Katrina acknowledged his entry by glancing at him. Her head whipped back to him when she thought she saw a boy her own age with bloodshot eyes, but she was mistaken. The nurse was in his early 40s, and was a picture of perfect health. The nurse smiled at her and disconnected the monitor and her Iv. He then motioned for Katrina to get up, warily she slid off the bed, self-conscious at the fact she was not in her own clothes. The nurse then led her out of the room into a doctors office.

As Katrina entered the office she felt a strange feeling that she had been in the room before, but she brushed the feeling off telling herself all doctors offices look similar. She kept her eyes lowered as she sat on the seat between her parents, fearing to meet her parents concerned and frightened eyes, until the doctor cleared his throat. Raising her eyes to look at the doctor she suddenly had an image flash in front of her eyes and Katrina was glad she was sitting down for the shock turned her legs into jelly. In her vision she had just seen the doctor grinning malicious while looking down at a  little boy with black hair and tear stains down his face strapped to a steel table. The doctor had then plunged a needle into the boy's left arm that caused the boy to release a scream of pure agony as the doctor began to laugh. Katrina shivered and a gaping black hole of dread seemed to consume her chest. She felt sick and no longer wanted to be anywhere near the doctor.

The doctor saw Katrina go pale and paused, studying the fascinating girl in front of him. He was certain something the girl had seen had distressed her, and asked if she was alright. Although he was slightly worried on how she would take the news he was about to give her, before smiling to himself about how fascinating a subject she would be.

Katrina's heart suddenly stopped as an icy chill ran through her veins. The doctor had asked her if she was alright to which she had meekly nodded, and then he'd smiled to himself, the exact same malicious smile she had seen in her vision. She glanced at her parents to see if they had seen the doctors evil grin, but all she saw was her parents concerned eyes trained on her.
"Well, if she is okay, we will continue," the doctor began, causing the watchful eyes of her parents to leave her alone. Katrina breathed a sigh of relief once her parents' attention was no longer on her.
"As I had begun to say your daughter has an extremely rare condition called Neurologicdecadium. Judging from your vacant expressions you've never heard of it, which is quite common. We don't like to publicly talk about it as it is so rare and unable to be prevented. Anyway, the problem occurs in the brain. For some reason, that we are yet to explain, the brain starts to slowly shut itself down and begins to rot. This causes the patient to become extremely unpredictable and insane before the brain finally shuts down completely. As you may have guessed it is a fatal condition and there is yet no known cure." The doctor looked sympathetically at Katrina's parents. "I'm so sorry."
Katrina just sat there staring at the doctor like he had completely lost his mind. She was not, no, could not be going insane and she definitely was not dying. The doctor must be wrong, he had to be. After a minute of stunned silence, her father spoke up, "how long does she have?"
"Because of her age I would suspect three weeks at the absolute most. Tell me has she been experiencing dizzy spells, fainting spells, or screaming in the nighttime?"
Her father looked at her mother before they both glanced at Katrina. He hesitated, and his wife spoke up, "she sometimes screams in the night supposedly because of scary movies she watches, and sometimes I see her squeeze her eyes shut and look queasy, which looks like she's having a dizzy spell, and obviously her fainting is what brought us here."
The doctor quickly smiled to himself, again Katrina's parents were oblivious, however Katrina was not. She glared at the doctor and was almost certain that something else was going on here.
The doctor composed himself again before answering, " then it's worse than I feared. Your daughter will most likely lose her mind completely within the next week and a half, and will almost certainly be dead by this time in two weeks."
Katrina's mother burst into tears and began sobbing on her husband's shoulder. Katrina's father held his wife as tears slowly trickled down his cheeks. "What do you suggest we do?" Katrina's father weakly asked the doctor.
"We have a facility that studies this particular condition, and looks after the patients affected by it. It is too dangerous to have these patients with others, due to their unpredictable nature, so I'm afraid you will be unable to see your daughter. But do not worry, she will not be in any pain and will be kept safe until she passes on..."
"So you're saying I'll die alone, in a facility away from all the people I love? No way, if I'm to die I want to be surrounded by those who care about me." Katrina suddenly blurted out.
"Katrina!" Her father hissed, before sadly saying, "it's for the best."
Once again the doctor smiled, but this time no one saw it. The doctor cleared his throat, "am I to assume you have agreed to your daughter being moved to our facility?"
Katrina's parents looked at each other before nodding their heads as new tears flowed. Katrina sat there with her mouth open in absolute shock as tears began to roll down her face.
The doctor rose from his chair. " I'll give you three some time to say your goodbyes. I'm so very sorry Mr and Mrs Williams. But don't worry, Katrina will be in good hands." Although the way the doctor said it, seemed to Katrina like he meant the exact opposite, that the "hands" she would be in were anything but good.

This sent Katrina over the edge. She swore bloody murder at the doctor and accused him of lying. When he smirked at her, she lunged at him, but was pulled back by two orderlies who had appeared from seemingly nowhere. Her parents rose and hugged her and whispered they loved her. Katrina, despite her anger told them she loved them too as tears ran down her face.
After a moment her parents separated from her as the doctor said, "my god, you're lucky you came when you did, your daughter has already started going mental."

At the doctors statement Katrina's rage boiled up again and she once again lunged at the doctor screaming, "I'll show you who's mental," only to be held firmly by the orderlies.
The doctor walked right up to her and in his deep voice gently said, "don't worry you're in safe hands, Katrina," however menace crept into his voice as he said her name and she involuntarily shivered. The doctor then nodded to the orderly on Katrina's left. The orderly forced Katrina's arm to extend and held it out as the doctor grabbed a needle from his pocket. Katrina jerked trying to free her arm, terrified of the needle and the doctor, but the orderly was too strong. The needle broke her skin and the doctor pushed down the syringe forcing the chemical concoction into her bloodstream. Within a few seconds Katrina's vision blurred before her eyes closed and she slumped into the two orderlies. Katrina's parents continued to weep as they watched the orderlies carry their daughter out of the office and away from them forever.

The doctor excused himself to follow the orderlies saying a swift goodbye to both parents and assured them their daughter was in safe hands. As the doctor left the room he smiled to himself, he knew the girl was going to be an interesting and rebellious subject, what fun it would be to see how long it takes her to break. He caught up to the orderlies. "Take her straight to the transport van, and get her to the institute, asap. I'll follow you in my own vehicle, once I telephone the director. Make sure she stays sedated, she must not wake until all the "precautions" are taken care of," the doctor ordered. He then stroked the side of the unconscious girl's face muttering, "what an interesting addition you'll make. You are almost, if not more, interesting than the boy, Zero." Swiftly the doctor turned and headed back to his office to make a telephone call, while the orderlies quietly hurried to the transport van dragging Katrina between them.