Nightmare In Rehab

chapter one (jaspers pov)

We never left our rooms in the middle of the night without permission. Not even for food or to use the bathroom. If we ever needed assistance we either stood out in the hall and patiently waited for a night monitor to spot us outside of our door, or went back to sleep forgetting whatever we had woken up for in the first place.

Sometimes I had a free pass to leave my dorm whenever I felt like it because after being here for so long, you gained a certain trust from the staff and an understanding between you and them.

But tonight, everyone was outside their room.

Dozens of bodies scattered around the main room of the rehab center, all trying to peek over each other's heads and catch a glimpse of the girl.

I could tell she wasn't an addict.

Her clothes were drenched in blood and she trembled like a kitten being bathed in numbingly cold water.

She curled herself into the corner, screaming at everyone who dared to approach her. Her voice was raspy and broken, like she had been yelling all night. The dark, tight curls on her head had been tossed all around like a salad, making them appear animalistic and wild. I couldn't make out much about her other than that. All of her skin was covered with the fabric from her dark blue jeans and grey hoodie.

On the opposite side of the room was the gurney she has catapulted herself off of only a few moments earlier, fresh blood still staining the new white sheets.

Most of the people who were brought in from were smuggled in during the day. And if they were admitted during the night, before allowing them into this facility they were heavily sedated to keep this exact thing from occurring. Nobody was even brave enough to try and sedate her.

We had never had someone this out of control admitted before. Plenty of us had been dragged in here against our will, shouting and kicking but this girl was far past the point of angry.

She was rabid.

Her ear piercing shrieks had woken up the entire building, luring curious residents out of their rooms to see what all the commotion was about.

A room of tired, anxious drug addicts and psychopaths was not a room that anyone in their right mind wanted to be in.

None of the current night staff was brave enough to get within arms reach of her, let alone grab her. Had Brenda been working tonight and hadn't called off for the week, this situation would have definitely deescalated by now. Brenda always knew what to do.

I knew what to do in this situation as well. I had gained so much experience over the years of my being a resident here that they might as well have hired me. But for some reason, I couldn't even keep my mind focused long enough on one idea to come up with a solution even relatively useful to this situation.

The part of my brain that kicked in whenever there was a serious problem and formed and immediate reaction stayed inactive, rendering me useless.

Her tremors must have visually passed onto me, because my muscles started to quake and seize as I watched her convulse in the corner. I was trying to keep myself from jerking hard enough to draw attention to myself. They would automatically assume I had been using again and I really wasn't up for spending a night in the box.

Someone please help her.

I begged and pleaded, not wanting to watch her anymore but unable to avert my eyes.