chapter 7

FLASHBACK...

Knock knock

"Coming!"

I opened the door and saw Sarah.

"Hey, come in" I said with a smile

"I can't, I'm in a hurry right now" Sarah said

"Oh… Do you need something then?" I asked a bit surprised at her response

"Mmm I need you to take a look at the house with me" Sarah said

"House? What house?"

"Thomas wanted to get a house for us before the wedding so we can just move in when we get back from our honeymoon"

"And since you said something bad might happen to us, I wanted you to check if it's the same house so…"

"Got it. But I can't go now, I'm just preparing lunch now so we have to wait till it's done" I tell her and She nods

"So, will you come in and sit while you wait or…?"

"Okay... Thank you" Sarah said and walked in

"You're welcome" I said, suprised at Sarah's distant behavior.

I closed the door and stared at the quiet Sarah for a while before asking

"Is everything okay Sarah?"

"Yeah why won't it be?"

"I dunno… you look sad and worried right now"

"I'm fine, it's just some stress with the wedding and the guest list" Sarah said

I laughed. "Guest list? Are you planning to invite every single person you know!?"

"you can say that…" She smirked making me smile too

"it's your wedding after all. Just give me a few minutes, the food will be ready soon. I'll go change now"

"Okay"

We've seen the house and it was definitely the same one I saw in my visions. But it seems that made Sarah more unhappy so I decided to be quiet and not remind her of the danger attached to the house on our ride home.

Screech!

"Sarah what's wrong?" I asked confused and scared

"I need to deliver something here, wait for me in the car" Sarah said

That was when I noticed she stopped close to a hospital. Before I could ask her about it, she had already left the car with a bang.

Almost an hour later and Sarah is still nowhere to be found.

What kind of delivery makes someone spend this much time in the hospital? Was my thought at that time. I decided I'd give her five more minutes before going in there to find her.

But before I could do that, I see Sarah and a few nurses come outside while talking with huge frowns.

"Was there something wrong with the package?" I thought to myself as I watched them argue under the sun.

The greatest regret I have right now is stepping out of the car. Maybe, just maybe I I hadn't, I won't be in this situation right now.

I stepped out of the car and they all stop talking. Like they were paused or something.

"Sarah is there a problem?" I had asked with the intention to help my sister, not knowing she had sold me to the psychiatric ward of the hospital.

I was the delivery…

"Yes there is. You" A nurse said with a devious smile

"What do you mean? Sarah what's going on?"

Sarah stared at me like I was stupid, like I'm supposed to know why she had to do what she did to me.

"I need you to rest here for now Rebecca. The wedding is in a few days and I don't want anything to go wrong before then" She said

"What exactly could go wrong now Sarah? And how exactly is my resting in the hospital going to prevent bad things from happening?"

"Can't you be less stupid? You're the one seeing visions and making people panic. Seriously, if I were Sarah you would be arrested along time ago" the same nurse that spoke before spoke

That nurse's name is Miranda —though I didn't know her name then, neither did I know that she had a personal vendetta with me

"Are you really listening to this lady?" I asked Sarah, but she couldn't be bothered talking to me, so she looked away.

"I am your cousin for Christ sake Sarah! I won't want to hurt you for no just reason" I said to her

"It's because you're not married right?" A nurse suddenly said

"What!?"

"Otherwise you won't have tried to stop your cousin from getting married. It's because you're jealous right?"

At this time Sarah was looking at me like she was expecting me to say yes

"That's absurd. I have never been jealous of Sarah's engagement with Thomas. And I've never said anything negative to her till I had those visions. She didn't even introduce him to me untill like, three weeks ago when the wedding preparations had long started without my knowledge. So tell me, can I be jealous in this kind of situation!? And I don't even know why I'm explaining this to you" I turned to Sarah

"Sarah, do you really believe what they are saying to you? Do you really think I'll be jealous enough to do something bad at your wedding? Is that really what you think of me?"

Sarah looked away guiltily which confirmed my thoughts. I felt so heartbroken that day. It felt like the only person I loved and trusted and shared everything with had left me at the ocean to drown. Like, it was all a one sided relationship and she was done pretending about it.

"Fine. I'll stay away from you till the wedding is over, but you will have to explain to our parents why I'm no longer the bridesmaid. Let's go" I said

"You have to stay at the hospital. I have friends here that can take care of you" Sarah said and I stopped moving

"I don't like hospitals. You could ask Thomas to hire guards to watch me at home or place a million kilometers restraining order on me till the wedding is over, I don't care. Just don't ask me to stay at the hospital" I said to her but she shook her head

"Thomas can't know about this and I've already paid them to look after you. You'll be staying in the psychiatric ward for now"

She said those words like it was totally normal for a sane person to stay in a psychiatric ward for no reason. Like there is absolutely nothing wrong with her keeping her cousin in captivity because of her stupid fears.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that. If you want me to stay at the hospital, put me in a normal ward" I said to her

"A psychiatric ward is were people like you belong!" Miranda shouts

"Well I'm not the one with veins popping all over her for a matter that's none of my business! This is stupid, I'm going home"

Before I could get in the car, the other nurses that had been silent held my hands

"Let go! This was your plan all along right Sarah!? You tricked me to see the house with you so you could lock me up like a crazy person right!?" I shouted as I struggled with the three nurses that tried to hold me down

"I'm sorry sis but you left me no other choice! I'll come get you after the wedding before we leave for our honeymoon" Sarah says

"This is definitely not the person I've called my sister all this years" I thought to myself as tears flowed from the betrayal and anger I felt at that moment.

Another big mistake was, I didn't chanel that anger to break free. Maybe because I was too hurt and I didn't want to see Her at the moment, I let them drag me away into the hospital.

That was the last time I saw her…

Life was pretty comfortable for me at the hospital. I was places in a sperate ward and they informed their colleagues of my "special" situation. Some were not very suprised and allowed me stay.

The food was great, the atmosphere calm but soon I realized I had started to forget things. You see, Miranda decided she would bring me Vitamins everyday so others in the hospital won't think they were neglecting me. And I agreed..

Then one day, I had forgotten to go out for my physical therapy and Rose—one of the nurse present at my kidnap— was the one who came to find me.

"Thanks so much for reminding me, I can't believe I forgot when you just told me yesterday" I said to her, while she smiled and said nothing

I decided to take the hospital as a spa where I could get massages (physical therapy) and vitamins for my skin. I'm sure when I'm out of here, my parents would believe it if I told them I went on vacation during this time—even though they may feel angry and disappointed at me.

But I noticed my memory loss when I wanted to sign in and couldn't remember my own name. I could feel it at the tip of my tongue yet I couldn't write it on the paper

"Umm Rose, what's my name?" I asked, embarrassed

"Rebecca. Why?"

"I couldn't remember it for some reason... thank you" and she nodded

Then we got into the room and I pointed at an equipment that I wanted to try that day and she smiled and said "you've been doing that for three days now, you must really love it"

I was really confused at that statement because from my memory I had never been on a treadmill before and since it was the easiest, I opted for it.

"Really? But this is my first time seeing one up close. Besides doctor Anna asked me to do laps yesterday"

"No that was four days ago. Are you sure you're okay?" She come closer as she asks

"I want to say yes but that would be a lie right? I mean I couldn't write my own name without you reminding me of it"

She then took me to doctor Anna who ran some test and did a scan, before confirming I was really losing my memories. We went back and forth through what I could remember and realized it was Miranda who made my memory like this.

"Miranda! This is wrong! What will you tell her sister when she comes to pick her up!?" Doctor Anna shouted at the unremorseful Miranda

"She deserves it! She always poking her head into matters that don't concern her, so she should bear the consequences!"

"Did she ask you to do this?" I asked her skeptically. I had reached the conclusion already that If Sarah had anything to do with this, I would never speak to her again

"Of course not. Your sister is such a scared little girl, it took a lot for me to convince her to bring you here you know" She said like it was a blessing to be there

"That's good then… Miranda, please don't feed her those drugs anymore you've gotten enough revenge for your friend" Rose said

"Whatever.."

"Okay. Rebecca, don't worry too much about it. I'll try my best to find a medicine that can cure you okay?" Doctor Anna said

"Thank you so much…"

That same night, like feeding me drugs wasn't enough, Miranda set my room on fire then ran around screaming,

"There's a fire! There's a fire…"

Fortunately I wasn't in the room when it happened, unfortunately the fire spread to other rooms in the hospital causing a few deaths and injuries.

We all discovered Miranda was missing after the fire was put out and the police wanted to arrest the culprit that was unfortunately caught in camera.

Then they needed to rebuild the hospital so they transfered us to a different hospital in other place till reconstruction was over, but I refused to go back. I knew that the hospital was likely to release me because the wedding was over during the time renovations were going on, which means no longer had to stay inth e the hospital.

But I couldn't leave and face my parents and Sarah especially. Because who knows what sort of lies she had spread to everyone at home. So, I asked them to let me stay at the new hospital and that is where I've been for the past two years.

And I know what you're thinking,

"Why waste two years inside a hospital when you could just rent a house and start life afresh?"

Let's just say that my visions have become more frequent since I arrived here and I finally have people that respect and trust me wholeheartedly. Another reason is I can't remember a lot of things, so I'm getting treated while helping people.

I miss my parents a lot even though I don't remember to their faces or how to contact them—And I'm sure they are worried about me right now wherever they are, which is why I'm trying and pushing my limits so I can remember much faster and go back home safely.