A Half Truth

Treatment

They interrogated her with some strange questions, and she responded with equally strange explanations.

Olivia ignored them because she was not related to her and did not want to judge them.

"Prepared the shock treatment," One of the doctors ordered a nurse, and she immediately obeyed. Olivia's eyes widened when the doctor's words registered in her head. Two ward boys in white uniforms came forward and dragged the woman out of the corridors as she screamed various words.

A doctor walked towards the room, trailing behind them. They shut the door tightly, and a small red light on the top of the door turned on.

A doctor wearing a white coat and thin golden spectacle gestured for Olivia to take the woman's seat from earlier and she followed his instruction.

He asked her some random questions, and she responded calmly. The doctor did not raise any suspicions in her mind. He was holding a writing pad in his hand and checking something over it that was out of her knowledge.

"Mrs. Foster, you will be in charge of her from now on. Take her to the cell No. 13C and make sure she takes her medicine and food on time, and we will notify the police station if we see any improvement in her," he ordered a nurse standing nearby and, in a wink, a motherly figure approaching her.

"Sure, Doctor!" she replied, looking at Olivia sympathetically. She was an elderly woman with a medium build, a round face full of wrinkles, and a warm smile on her lips.

She wore a white dress, and her paper-salt hair told the story of her experience.

The doctor was in the middle of her inspection when she noticed the woman from earlier exiting the room. Two ward boys were dragging her half-dead body down the corridor, holding her forearm.

The scene that unfolded in front of Olivia shocked her to the core. They took the woman to one of the cell rooms behind the metal bar door, which was secured with a fingerprint lock.

They left her in the room and stepped out, after which a nurse locked the cell's metal door with a key from her pocket.

"Come, child," Mrs. Foster invited sweetly, lightly pocking Olivia's arm with her hand to get her attention. She dragged her into a room behind the metal bar door.

Mrs. Foster took out a key from her pocket, opened the cell door, and invited Olivia inside. The room was completely white. Everything was white.

A simple single bed was attached to the wall near the window, and a table and chair were placed next to it.

Mrs Foster handed her a pair of hospital clothes and instructed her to change while pointing to the door with her index finger.

Olivia obeyed silently and handed her the clothes she had worn before. Mrs. Foster exited the room and locked the door.

She was alone in a white room, despite the fact that the bathroom was also white, the room felt more creepy than it. The paint, tiles, sink, bed sheets, marble, ceiling, and furniture were all white. Olivia sat on the bed, burying her head in her keen, unsure what to do next.

She sat there until Mrs. Foster entered the room a few hours later, carrying a plate. She stayed beside Olivia until she finished her meal. Then she handed her some medicine and gestured her to take it all at once.

Both of them did not exchange a single word for the entire time; Olivia was lost and numb, and Mrs Foster was most likely perplexed by her behaviour.

Olivia hesitated at first, but eventually swallowed the medicine. Mrs. Foster gave her a warm smile before leaving the room and locking the door.

As soon as Mrs Foster stepped out, Olivia dashed to the restroom and fingered her throat until she vomited all of the medicine and food. The light in the room soon went out, leaving it completely dark.

Ouch...! Ouch...!

After colliding with the chair and table, she found her bed and crawled under the cover. She had no idea what the future held for her, but she needed to leave as soon as possible if she wanted to keep her sanity.

It had been a week since she was in the white room cell. Mrs Foster visited her three times a day to deliver her food and medicine, and she puked them up. She had not eaten a proper meal in a week and was exhausted and sick from a lack of nutrients.

"Today is examination day, and doctors are waiting for you in the corridor, child," Mrs. Foster opened the door and stepped inside, making an announcement. This was the first sentence she had shared with her in the entire week. Olivia nodded and approved; she was here to get her out of the cell.

When they arrived in the corridor, she noticed the same doctor who had examined her when she first arrived, posing on a chair waiting for her. He invited her to sit, and she did as he said. He asked her the same questions he had asked her a week before, and her responses were identical.

"Prepare the shock treatment," he instructed the nurse standing beside him. A smirk spread across his lips as he looked at her as if she were a fool.

The ward boys stepped forward, instilling fear in her bones. They grabbed her tightly and began dragging her towards a room filled with some sort of electric machine. A chair was placed in the center of the room.

They fastened her hand and foot tightly to the cushioned chair using leather strips attached to the chair with Valco tape.

"Leave me, doctor. I am fine. I am fine...I am not a drug addict, and I do not have any mental issues," she screamed until her throat hurt, but the doctor did not seem to care.

"I know, Ms. Hart, you are fine, and you do not even take your medicine properly, which is why your responses are as concise as the day you arrived. If you have take the medicine, you will lose half of your memory as of now-"

"-But do not worry, this shock treatment helps us a lot," he whispered in a low voice, keeping the conversation between the two of them. He looked at her coldly and pinched her jaw, forcing her mouth open so he could stuff a cotton cloth inside.

Then they placed some sort of equipment over her head. Within a few seconds, she was in excruciating pain. A jolt of pain went from her head to her feet. She wanted to scream aloud. But the cloth in her mouth muffled her screams.

She nipped the cloth with her teeth and rolled her eyes whenever the pain hit her. Her hands were curled into fists, and she tried her hardest to bear everything, but the pain was beyond her capacity.

After a while, her head and body became numb. The pain returned repeatedly, leaving her mind blank.

They finally stopped after half an hour, and she was exhausted; she did not even have the energy to scream. They dragged her to the cell, where Mrs. Foster assisted her in getting under the cover, before leaving her alone in the darkness.

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