Mental (Slow updates)

Chapter 4

Images flickered inside Katrina's mind as she slowly dragged herself back to consciousness. One eye opened slightly, as she turned her head to look at the alarm clock sitting on her bedside table. Still half asleep, it took Katrina a moment to realise there was no alarm clock. She sat up quickly, only to be greeted by pain and nausea. Groaning, her eyes scoured the unfamiliar surroundings.

The room was a harsh white and smelt like a clean hospital room. All that was inside the room was a toilet with a tiny hand basin beside it and the bed Katrina was currently on. The walls seemed to bulge in a way that suggested they were padded like asylum cells. There were no windows aside from the tiny eye-level grate on the door therefore the only source of light were the long fluorescent tubes attached to the ceiling. Aside from having no windows, the room also had no light switches and the silver doorknob had no lock.

Katrina's stomach lurched as she realised what she had thought was a just nightmare was real. She replays the last moments she remembers, the doctor's malicious smile as he plunged the needle into her arm, the world blurring before fading to black. Her mind filled in the blanks, she had been drugged and brought here. However, where here was eluded her.
Katrina moved, forcing new blossoms of pain in her neck, right arm, and left ankle. Instinctively her hand moved behind her head to the tender point at the base of her neck. Her fingers brushed against a lump and what felt like stitches. She drew her hand away and gingerly lifted her right arm. Sitting in the crook of her arm was a cotton ball taped to her arm. Just above the cotton ball a blue dot of light faintly shone from within her arm. Bile rose in her throat. Tossing the sheet on top of her off, she looked at the inside of her left ankle. It was a fiery inflamed red and tattooed upon it were the numbers 036 printed in thick black ink. The tattoo was the last straw. Ignoring the sharp pains, Katrina leaped out of the bed, ran over to the toilet and threw up the very little in her stomach.
After a few minutes the nausea passed. Katrina flushed the toilet and then rose from the cool, tiled floor. She shuffled over to the basin and splashed her face with the water. Feeling slightly better, she noticed the pain she had felt earlier had faded to a dull throb.
Suddenly the silence in the room was broken by a soft tapping at the door. Curious, Katrina shuffled over to the door. Tentatively, she put her hand on the doorknob and turned it. To her surprise, the door swung open. Standing on the other side was a slightly shorter girl, with shoulder length black hair and friendly brown eyes studying Katrina.
"Hi. My name's Lissa, what's yours?" The girl said, smiling.
Katrina looked at the girl as if she had come from another planet. Lissa frowned.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I know you're probably scared and confused, and this place..." She hesitated, "is not ideal. I just thought you might need a friend."
Katrina numbly nodded her head. "My name's Katrina, Katrina Williams. Where am... I mean where are we?" Katrina replied.
"I'm not entirely sure. We call it the Gilded Cage, but no one knows where we exactly are," explained Lissa.
"We?" Katrina questioned.
"The other kids here. You didn't think it was just us two," Lissa laughed. "Oh, I almost forgot, go put these on. They'll be a bit more comfortable than your gown." She held out a pile of black material.

Katrina looked down and for the first time noticed grey hospital gown she was wearing. Suddenly embarrassed, she took the bundle of material, muttered a quick thank you and hastily shut the door. Walking back over to the bed, she placed the clothes down. She grabbed the pants and slid them on under the gown. Unnervingly the pants were the perfect size. Next she lifted the top up and held it out in front of her to examine it. There was nothing special about the shirt itself. It was a plain black t-shirt with an emblem on the lefthand side. The emblem was unlike any other emblem Katrina had ever seen. It was a red shield with a white nine pointed star in the centre. Along the top of the shield were the words 'Ad bonum hominis' in gold elegant script. Below the shield were the numbers 036 printed in white. Katrina's breath hitched and she stared down at the tattoo on her ankle. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought about being reduced to a number.
"Katrina, are you okay?" Called Lissa from behind the door.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Katrina replied brightening at the sound of her own name. Quickly she threw the gown off and pulled the shirt over her head. Unsurprisingly the top fit like a glove. She reopened the door and stepped outside.
The corridor Katrina found herself in seemed to go on for miles in each direction with steel doors at regular intervals. On each of the doors was a number. Katrina turned around and saw the number on her door was 036.
Lissa patiently waited while Katrina took in her surroundings before speaking. "I was just like you when I got here six months ago, it all seemed so different and overwhelming. But you kinda get used to it. The other kids are great we're like one big family. Come on, I'll introduce you." Lissa grabbed Katrina's hand and led her down the corridor.
"Hold on," Katrina started, "aren't all the patients here losing their minds, like I supposedly am?"
Lissa's grip tightened along with her jaw.
"No. Everyone here is completely sane, including you. They only tell you that story to get your parents to send you here," Lissa responded darkly. "Then a few days after you arrive here they tell your parents you're..." A single tear fell from Lissa's eye and her breath hitched, "that you've died from the disease," she finished quietly.
"In your case, I think they've already said you've died. It's been two days since they brought you in. I'm so sorry." Lissa looked up at Katrina as she spoke.
"Two days. I've been unconscious for two days. Why? And why tell my parents I'm dead, I'm alive and not even sick? Why don't they send me home?" Katrina asked, trying to piece everything together.
"I don't know why they don't send us home, but I guess they tell our parents that we are dead so that they can do whatever they want to us," Lissa shivered, "they own us."
Katrina swallowed hard.
"As for why you've been unconscious for two days I would suggest they were studying you as well as adding the regular features." Lissa pointed to Katrina's ankle and then to her arm where the blue light glowed.
"So everyone here was unconscious for the first two days they were here?" Katrina asked.
"No," Lissa replied quietly, "you're the first. But that's probably because of your age, everyone arrives here when they're 14, except for Mitch and Ash who were younger."
Katrina stayed silent, trying to process all the new information.