Ink Me Insane (Book One)

One

Tap, tap, tap. The repeated noise shattered the darkness of her memories jerking her to the present. Her eyes fluttered before rolling over to settle on the pen persistently rattling against the desk. It was bright pink with a spring and feathers on top that reminded one of a kindergartner back when they were excited about school. Her gaze slowly flowed up the pen to the long elegant bright pink nailed hand covered in a neat, prim black blazer and finally to the woman tapping. She had mouse brown hair in a tight bun and was giving her an impatient glare over the rim of her glasses.  "Rene, I have been trying to get your attention for the past 10 minutes," the woman primed.

"Sorry, Miss Rachel," Rene muttered while stifling a yawn.

Miss Rachel let out an exasperated sigh before shoving her pen's feathers in Rene's face. "Do you see that on the wall?" Rene rolled her eyes not needing to look to know the woman pointed at her, proudly framed in gold, diplomas. Despite those diplomas proving she was a doctor in psychiatry, she insisted they call her Miss Rachel because it made her 'more approachable'. "That says that I am a doctor that can professionally help you. However in order for me to do that, you need to get your act together Rene. You and I have been meeting for 5 years now and still you refuse to open up to me. How do you expect to rejoin society after you turn twenty-one?" Miss Rachel sniped out.

"I don't." Rene leaned forward and sighed, "Look you and I both know that after this asylum I will just be heading to another one for crazy adults."

Miss Rachel tutted and began to rebut, "Rene this is not an asylum..."

Rene continued plowing her way through determined to finish. "What would you prefer then, loony bin, mental hospital, nuthouse or maybe my new favorite cuckoo's nest?" Rene inquired with a sneer before leaning back to teeter in her chair with her hands behind her head, "Call it whatever you want doesn't change what it is."

Miss Rachel grounded her teeth together while white-knuckling her pen until with a sharp crack it snapped. Through gritted teeth she managed to mutter, "That's enough for today Rene. Please send in the next person."

Rene got up with a sly smirk plastered on her face silently goading Miss Rachel as she sauntered out the door, right into the next head case.

Rene lashed out. "What the Hell is wrong with you!"

"Sorry," the boy laughed, "Just so excited to be shrinked for the first time you know."

Rene raised an eyebrow at him. He had dark brown eyes that bordered on black as they intensely gazed down at her. He had cropped, spiky red hair and well-toned muscles pressed against his black t-shirt, Rene fought off a creeping blush before her emotional wall slammed back into place.

"Whatever," Rene muttered shoving her way past him.

She dared not glance back as she felt the presence of the required security creep up behind and overshadow her. She quickly walked out of the room into the dark hall full of flickering lights and endless doors like a nightmare from the Twilight Zone. People pressed against the door windows, screaming, pounding, desperate in an attempt to escape, to be free. The hall went black in an instant as power surged towards one room and the muffled gargling yell of a youth haunted the building. She froze, five years, five years and the screams still got to her. "Keep moving." The guard dug his bat into her back.

She gulped before dragging her feet through the large double doors where she became bombarded with sound and light. Rene winced against the light as she grabbed a plastic tray and joined the shuffling line for dinner. The cafeteria, a pool of crazies crammed together for forced interaction. Rene couldn't help but smirk at that, maybe Miss Rachel was right, the asylum is really like a school. The asylum had the typical high school patterns, horrible tasting food that made you want to barf, cliques established to "put people in their place", and of course the imposing force of authority everywhere you look. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but one gets the general idea.