Remember

Chapter Two

The hint of a smile danced on the man's lips as he adjusted the clipboard he held in his hands. "Alright, Nora. You're done here for today-"

Nora moved to get up, content to go somewhere far better than here. Somewhere only she knew of. However, the man was not finished speaking.

"No mahjong today?"

Nora sighed. They always finished early, but they usually spent the rest of the assessment playing mahjong to take off the nerves that Nora usually had during their meetings. The doctor usually managed to squeeze out some more information to jot down in his notes, but Nora never let him get too far. A recollection of a dream here, a brief description of her feelings there. Ficus wasn't going to get to the deepest, darkest corners of her mind⁠—Nora would make sure of that. Despite the fact that she was in a mental hospital, Nora hoped that she could keep some things to herself, at least. The inside of her mind was the most privacy she could get here.

"I really need to redeem myself after last time's game, you know," he chuckled.

Usually, Nora would've agreed. Today, however, she wasn't really in the mood to play mahjong for a half-hour while the man sitting across from her continued to pester her with questions that she wasn't feeling up to answering. She sighed, feeling slightly guilty.

"I'll let you avenge yourself next time. I just need to spend some time alone right now."

He frowned. "Alright, you may leave, but you can't go there just yet." He grinned. "You spend too much time in there as it is anyways."

At Nora's confused expression, he continued.

"We usually finish our meetings a little later, do we not?"

"Yes, I would think so."

"Alright then."

He set down the clipboard on the table, facedown, so that Nora could not see the writing on it. Nora figured that it was probably a new prescription of medication or notes on her behavior, which was notably different from usual. After being asked the same questions every day, Nora was starting to run out of witty answers.

She didn't feel like chatting today.

The silence of the room told Nora that it was time to leave. Without looking back, she got up to make her way towards the door. The tile floor was cold, even with the socks Nora was wearing. Her footsteps were soundless as she made her way across the room, sending a chill colder than the air through her. Her fingers had just barely touched the brass handle when—

"No goodbye today?" The man's voice echoed across the bare walls of the room.

Still facing the door, Nora's mouth twitched into what she figured was a smile, but it went away as soon as it had appeared. She hated it when he made her smile. It was really going to hurt her reputation.

"Goodbye, Doctor Ficus."

"Goodbye, Nora."

Nora closed the door softly behind her, leaving her in a long corridor that split off to the right and to the left. Nora, of course, had walked these halls for years- she knew her way around here well. Following Ficus' instructions, she didn't take the hallway she usually did after their meetings and veered to the right. The hallway was silent aside from the buzzing lights above her. There were a few lights flickering that needed to be replaced. The walls were lined with questionable stains and odd writing in crayon, like "I worry" and "The fish are watching".

The hallway opened up into a large, painfully loud and busy room: the cafeteria. Here, breakfast was being served. The smells of quite possibly recooked leftovers emanated from behind the counters fronted by a meandering line of patients. The long streak of shuffling patients entertained themselves in various ways to keep away the bore of waiting. Some danced around themselves while others sat on the floor, tracing their fingers over the lines of the hardwood floors. Nora made her way over to the menu⁠—an old and stained dry erase board firmly secured to the wall. In blue marker were the foods for breakfast today, which were pretty underwhelming: scrambled eggs, toast, or cereal.