The Depths of the Ocean (2) - 70

A/N: The following few chapters are inspired by the real life story of someone. I've forgotten their name, but yeah, credit to you nameless person who experienced loss in the worst way possible.

It had been a few days since I had been placed in this mental asylum, and guess what? I fit right in.

Being somebody having trouble with his emotions, instead of being put in the more dangerous section with the psychopaths and schizophrenics, I had been placed in the mellower section with people that just suffered from extreme depression and the likes.

After all, although I only felt the faintest of emotions, it wasn't like I was a manipulator or someone that would do anything for their cause...

It was just that the doctors found that I was extremely susceptible to strong commands, and that I would carry them out immediately if possible.

Of course, this was an area of concern for them due to various possibilities if I was exploited out in the real world, so they had started trying to rehabilitate me.

I mean, I knew this fact myself, and even I couldn't rehabilitate myself, so I doubted that whatever they did could work, but like, it didn't hurt to try.

So, I just stayed locked up in my room, out of my own volition of course, as the doors in my section of the hospital were only locked at night anyways.

That was, until we had this "group bonding" activity that we needed to do as patients in the asylum.

"Patient 38, Micheal, please partner up with Patient 37, Rua."

Hearing my name being called, I walked over to the patient that had a 37 on her shirt and stood by her, not really knowing what to do when meeting someone for the first time.

Oh yeah, that had been another one of the diagnosed conditions that I had, being retarded in terms of social intelligence.

"Uhm..."

"Hi! My name is Rua, and I'll be your partner! Please take care of me."

Watching as she bowed her head down, I immediately noticed that something was off, but didn't say anything.

"My name is Micheal. Please take care of me."

Reciprocating her greeting, we then fell into a silence again, but, for some reason, it was barely uncomfortable at all.

'Ah, it was an act. That's why it felt fake.'

After all, there was no way that anybody in this building could be that happy.

But, I wouldn't pry. It was her problem, and I would only get myself involved if she shared it with me out of her own volition.

I was trying to become a "normal" person after all, and so I was pretty sure that empathizing and being there for someone during their lowest times was something that "normal" people did, right?

"So... what are we doing?" I asked her, actually a little bit curious about this game we were about to play.

"I heard from my nurse that it was a scavenger hunt!"

Looking at me with literal glitter in her eyes, she squealed like a child.

'Normal? No, definitely not normal.'

To be honest, it was a little hard, trying to figure out what a "normal" person would do when I was surrounded by so many abnormal people, but I would figure it out eventually, or at least, I hoped so.

As I was thinking about what was "normal" and "abnormal", we were all led outside into the fence-offed courtyard that was there to help bring us closer to nature, that was actually bigger than two football fields combined.

"Please line up in an orderly fashion to receive your first clue!" Shouted an overly cheerful nurse, grabbing our attentions.

"Do you want to do it? Or do you want me to do it?"

Hearing this, I just shrugged and got into the line, answering her question wordlessly.

"Here you go, Micheal."

The tone of the nurse's voice was slightly suspicious, but I kept that in the back of my mind for now, because the prize for the scavenger hunt was something that was highly coveted in this institution.

'Cosmic brownies... must, get, cosmic, brownies...'

Running back to Rua, I showed her the first clue that we had.

"The farthest tree from the point you are standing at."

And then, I took off, pulling Rua behind me, as I knew exactly where that was.

Sure enough, as I ran the opposite direction of most of the others, I was only met with laughs, but I didn't mind them and continued towards my target.

After all, this scavenger hunt was basically already in the bag for me, as, with my skills, none could best me.

"Ano... Watashitachiha machigatta hōkō ni susunde imasu ka?" She asked, looking extremely worried whilst taking glances at the other competitors.

"Tada watashi o shinjite."

"I'll trust you then!" She said, switching back to english.

Reassuring her with a smile, I watched as her expression changed back to a beaming one, as I ran through the ward that we were kept in and into the smaller courtyard on the other side of the building.

Usually, this courtyard was only reserved for the patients with "slightly" worse conditions, and so the others had probably never been in it, but I knew about it because of my senses and how they mapped everything around me through the vibrations that traveled along the walls.

"And lookie here, the first clue.

Grabbing the parchment that had been tied to a tree slightly close to the fence keeping us in, as there would never be a tree close enough to the fence for us to climb over the fence using it, I ripped off the string and read it.

"A place of destitution."