Jin and I finally arrived to the room that I'm sharing with Lisa and I was already feeling at ease. We stopped in front of the door and Jin took out his keys to our room and opened it for me. I walk in and Lisa is on the bed writing in a cute, light blue notebook. She looks up at me and smiles with delight, a smile that practically lit up the room, and runs to hug me and I almost fall in the process.
"Glad you made it back! I got a notebook for you. I didn't know what color you like so I picked out a yellow one. I hope it's OK!"
"Yes, I'm fine now"
Jin suddenly interrupts me and says something to me, while he's still standing in the doorway.
"Just a few pointers, one, when any patient have an appointment to see their psychologist or doctor, me or any of the guards have to escort each patient to their doctors, two, each patient are also escorted to all mandatory workshops, meal breaks and any outdoor activities. Everyone all together have to take breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same hour. No one is allowed to leave the cafeteria until everyone is finished. But other than that, this place is decent so there should be no worries." He gives me a warm smile and a wink and I instantly felt relieved and my worries were slowly fading.
"One more thing I forgot to mention, you can leave anytime to watch TV in the lobby but it's a first come first served. TV is opened from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. If any patient is caught fighting over the TV, it will result in disciplinary action and no one gets to watch TV. Everyone must stay in their rooms until the disciplinary action is cleared. Curfew is 10:00pm Monday thru Friday, the weekend are your free days to do anything you'd like such as visitations"
It was all overwhelming that I could barely take in all of the information but I wanted to follow all directions in order to have a speedy recovery.
"Alright, it's almost time for curfew so get ready to go to bed. When the time hits 10:00 pm, everyone must be in their rooms. If there's any emergency after curfew there's a buzzer on the left corner of each patients door."
I stand there nodding my head and caressing my arms, unsure of how I will survive being in this place. All I can think of is how I wish I can go back to the days when I didn't have to worry about curfew, medications, and rules. But this is something that I have to do.
"Alright, once I leave the doors will be locked. You two have a goodnight" He smiles and closes the door and I hear a click afterwards. I walked to my bed and sat there for a moment. Lisa walks to me and sits down next to me and puts an arm around y shoulder.
"You're pajamas are in the dresser so you can get dressed." She points at the dresser in front of me. Her face suddenly changes into a worried one.
"It could be worse. But here we are, we're in safe place. At least there's food, water, and a clean place to sleep and shower. If you need anything, let me know, OK?"
"Thank you Lisa, if it weren't for you I wouldn't be here right now. I don't know but you have an aura that calms me down. I hope that whatever memories that's trying to come out will give me some types of closer so I can move on." I sigh deeply and get up from the bed and pick out the pajamas from the dresser. I head to the bathroom, took a shower, brushed my teeth, put on my pajamas. I come out of the bathroom, feeling light and fresh and couldn't wait to lay down on my comfortable bed. I got on the bed and pulled the thick blankets over me and I shiver with delight with how warm and cozy the bed is. Lisa turns off the lamp,next to her and lays down in her bed and face towards me.
"I really hope everything turns out OK for you on your first week here. It gets better, just have to adjust to a new environment. You'll be fine!" Lisa smiles
"Hmm I hope so. Lets see how tomorrow goes. Goodnight" My eyes close and I'm drifted into a deep sleep.
The Next Morning
The sound of the alarm goes off and it's 7:00 am in the morning. I rub my eyes and stretch out and let out a small yawn. I look out the window and it's already sunny, the sun stung my eyes and nearly blinded me until my eyes got used to it and the stinging went away. I look and see that Lisa was not on her bed and I hear the sound of the shower coming from the bathroom. I stared to remember that I had to be ready by 8:00 to be escorted for breakfast. I got up and started searching for something to wear. I picked out a pair of jeans and a light grey shirt, my undies and and bra and placed the on the chair. I started making my bed when I hear the bathroom door open and I turned to see Lisa already dressed.
"Good morning Y/N! Did you sleep well"
"Yes, I did thank you. Did you'"
"I sure did. I wish I could sleep longer but hey we have to wait until the weekend" She shrugs and laughs. 'You should take your shower before it hit 8:00!"
I get up and take my things to the bathroom, close and lock the door. I turn on the shower faucet and adjust the water to the right temperature. I undress and step into the shower, feeling the warm water running down my body. I grab the unopened boar of soap and lather it onto my body. It felt a the tension melting away and I'm transcended into a different world. I close my eyes, enjoying the wonderful feeling until the same man that appeared from yesterday, suddenly jumps in front of me and I jump and scream and almost slip in the shower. I try to open my eyes but the soapy water blinds me as I try to use the shower bar to keep balance. My heart is beating fast and fear starts to creep over me and I'm snapped out of it when Lisa knocks on the door.
"Hey! Are you OK!? I heard screaming!"
"I'm fine! I just got soap in my eyes that's all" I yell
"OK...just be careful"
I rinse of the rest of my body and turn off the shower, step out the shower and wrap myself with a thick towel. I opened the medicine cabinet and took out the toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant and close it when the same man appears in front of the mirror and says in in a chilling voice and a smirk.
"You can't escape from me Y/N. You are mine! Mine do you hear me" I jump back and hit the trash bin that was behind me and look at the mirror again and the man disappeared. I walk back to the sink and began quickly to brush my teeth, put on deodorant and lotion. I got dressed and leave the bathroom. Once I was out of the bathroom, Lisa is sitting on the bed and looks up at me with worry.
"Are you Ok? You look very pale"
"I'm fine, I'm just having a bit of a rough morning. I just need to eat that's all" I scratch my head
There was a knock on the door and Jimin and Jin open the door and steps in. Jimin looks short standing next to Jin, but his charming smile starts to warm my heart.
"Good morning ladies, please exit the room and wait until Jin locks the door than start walking" Jimin says in a soft tone
We both step out of the room and Jin locks the door and we begin walking to the stairway leading to the cafeteria downstairs. There were a whole bunch of patients, both male and female, walking to the cafeteria with guards, male and female, following behind, it almost felt like I was heading to boot camp,only there was laughter, people cracking jokes and people guessing what was the menu going to be like for this week. Lisa was still walking by me and I grab her arms as we walk to the cafeteria. We turn the corner and I'm faced with a giant clean and beautiful cafeteria filled with the smell of food, and an array of juices and water. Me and Lisa sit at the table in front of us and later on, two other people came and sat with us. One was a girl who had long dark hair with beautiful eyes and the other had short black hair, tomboyish looks. We waited until the cafeteria got quiet and Jin began to speak.
"In an orderly fashion, line up and grab a tray and pick out the food on the line. Please do not push, or shove one another. First two tables please line up!" He shouts and the first two tables gets up. While the rest of us are waiting, Lisa taps me on the shoulder.
"Everyone I'd like you to meet Y/N! She just moved in yesterday! This is Jennie and this is Amber!"
I shyly said my hellos to them and look down at my feet.
"Nice to meet you Y/N! I hope you're liking it here so far" Jennie says
"It's descent once you get the hang of everything. The food is always good but sometimes it gets kind of boring." Amber says while resting her head on her hands
"They've been here way before I have, but they'll be getting out soon since they're recovering really well. So in the meantime, you get to hang around with us from time to time."
I nod my head but still too shy to say anything else. Our tables are the next to get called on and we get up and stand on the line and grab out food. I took some eggs, a steamed potato, turkey bacon, whole wheat pancakes with organic maple syrup and a bottle of orange juice and sit at the table. The rest were seated afterwards. We started off quiet at first with small talk and then gradually started having full and meaningful conversations about music, art, and wising for a normal live after leaving this place. One hour has passed and another guard, named Jungkook, shouts and says to get ready for our first workshop, "How to Overcome Nightmares and Grief through Poetry". I was a bit nervous about my first mandatory workshop but luckily I had Lisa, Jennie and Amber with me to attend the workshop.
We all get up from out seats, toss out our trash and about 15 of us patients head to upstairs to the workshop while the other 15 head to the other workshop. We reach what looked like classroom, which was huge, it was filed with books and photos of poets and poems all across the room, colorful flowers were planted near the windows and the sun shined through the windows, creating an calm and tranquil atmosphere. I take a seat next to Lisa at a tall round table, where pens, pencils, notebooks and a huge book of about 50 different poems, lay in front of us. I anxiously wait until someone walks in wearing a casual but professional attire, and places his work tote on the desk, takes off his glasses and looks up and smiles at all of us.
"Good morning everyone. I hope you're all doing well this morning. We will continue off where we last left. But before we start, we have a new patient who just started with us." He motions his hand towards me
My face grew red with shock and embarrassment when I see the workshop instructor is my psychologist, Dr. Kim Namjoon....