Episode 3

After the clean up team had cleared up the bio hazard of an office it finally looked like something a person could actually work in. It seemed much better even, the desk and all the furniture had been replaced. The place almost looked brand new, but there was a little stench of stale blood and some other thing I couldn't put my finger on coming from the vents. My first task of the day, was a patient who I would describe as badly disfigured mentally. He thought he was a 7 year old girl Which was… weird 'cause he's like 10 times that age but when you work in an asylum or a psychiatric hospital everyday is freakin weird. IO once had a patient who had PTSD and in turn was schizophrenic. He was convinced he could see his dead mother following him around. Apparently she blamed him for the car crash they where in that led to her demise and two of his limbs being fractured. Sometimes you would catch him banging his head on the wall screaming "I didn't kill you, I didn't know, it wasn't my fault, I'm sorry"

So we had to chain his hands to his bed so he wouldn't kill himself. He was in recovery when I got fired because my new boss who is practically a spoiled brat Fired me on the spot because I didn't get her coffee right and I was 'five minutes late to work' I'm a specialist I clock in an hour after everyone else I was almost an hour early! Now I tried explaining this to her but she insisted that I was being arrogant and ridiculous and needed to leave the premises immediately. That job paid so well, just my luck that after that it was like she left me some sort of horrible review at a meeting of hospital owners or something because after that any other psychiatric hospital establishment refused to take me in, the ones that answered why said I'm highly mentally unstable, that the last person that hired me told them I was unpunctual, clocking in almost an hour late and I was unreliable and arrogant. The only mental illness I have been diagnosed of is bipolar disorder of which has a relatively far interval of switching in the first place but I still take my medications regularly such that in recent days I haven't had much switching at all.

 Since then,I was forced to do lesser and lesser jobs until I found this place and applied. I feel I'm definitely too overqualified to be a nurse, but it's a start. I was done doi9ng checks and giving my current patient his drugs when my subordinate called me, snapping me out of my thought process.

"Su, could you help me out over here?"

"uhh, Sure, I'll be right out"

I could never figure out why they seemed to have a lot of children at the hospital, I never pictured the place one built for kids who have mental issues and every so once in a while I'd here screams which I winced at almost every time. None of the kids made proper eye-contact but they all seemed to flock around me a lot. I've always had it good with children but this time felt like there was an underlying traumatic response behind it but then again, this is a place for people like that to be so that is okay I suppose.but there was something quite off about them. "I'm sorry but the kids seem so inclined to you an-"I couldn't pinpoint it…"No no no it-it's fine I was just rounding up here anyway"

Now that I think about it the adults had it too. And I know deep down that something is off I'm sure.

"oh thanks so much" or maybe , maybe I'm just being paranoid.

The woman who called me needed help with a boy named Nico. He looked about 7 seemed tired and panting like he'd been running, is head darting around at every noise while his body jerked up in response. 'Looks like PTSD' I thought quietly. The moment his green eyes met mine they were practically screaming for help, he was dead quiet, that is, until I mentioned him taking his medicine. He snapped.before then I was almost convinced he was a mute.

"No! NO, Go away!"

"Nico you need to take your medicine" the other nurse chimed in.

"No! No I want to see Robbie!"

"who's robbie?" I asked.

"she was his childhood friend that died during a fight between gangs"

" that's not true You killed Robbie! The drugs killed Ro-" he suddenly went silent like he saw something behind me that frightened the name off his lips. I turned around. Nothing. Just the other nurse picking the tablets- supplements- they called them.

The boy swallowed hard, his cries left, with only a whimper in their place.

"what?" the nurse asked looking confused.

After calming the boy down, I was a bit uneasy, the weight of what he just said dawning on me "You killed Robbie!" What was that all about? That could be the cause of PTSD It only took me a few minutes to notice the fresh blood stains on his clothes and fresh cuts and bruises all over his body, some looking older than others. Infected. The other nurse said he constantly practiced self harm which would explain the bruises. But judging by his sudden quiet demeanor it's either he has a severe mental disorder or there's something not quite right about miss Emily.

***

The next few days I moved with caution, suddenly aware of everything around me. I noticed some of the kids seemed to disappear for a few hours at a time and the concept that some come back and don't made the fact that on the occasion the were pronounced dead I was neither allowed to near the corpse nor was I given the autopsy report any less eerie than it was. ["220919?"] I was only ever told that they died. ["220919 report to cafeteria"] nothing… ["M-misssu?"] Nico?… Nothing more.

["miss su please get up"] N-nico? [Please miss Su I will be punished if you don't go now"]

"Nico?"

"Yes?"

I woke up with a jolt. This isn't my room, who's Nico, what's that smell? Oh, wait-

"Miss Su please let's hurry or I'll be punished"

"Oh…right" I say getting up, still foggy from another nightmarish dream, No- memory more like, haunting my sleep. They've been becoming more recently.

Three blows to the door remind me I need to get down stairs. "220919 get out of the room now!"

I groaned. That was the voice that woke me up.

 It's been 2 days since I got here. The boy I saw the morning I ended up here- who I later recognized as Nico- led me through the elevator as I followed him closely. Not wanting to get lost in this literal maze. I have since wondered how they managed to hide this massive building from the public as the trees across the water barely cover it. That is, until I found out The Asylum practically owns the government. And that was one of the things that shattered and completely annihilated my plan to escape and report to police. I also found out that 'Asylum' is the name of the asylum which just got me asking, like "who the hell came up with that?"

 When we got to the cafeteria the floor embedded in the rock of the island the Medieval like structure was situated upon, all the other kids where already eating. A few of them I recognized as the kids that disappeared from the little show back on the mainland I thought to be a real mental institution. Even though my gut had always said otherwise. Some kids spared me a few glances, others where too focused on what they where eating or taking about to even bother noticing someone walk by. From the time I stood on the edge of the fifth floor, (and I say edge because there aren't any railings, just a few close to the pillars but that's It) till now I realize the majority of the population here are under 24. They all refer to Mr mikado as mikado when he's not around, and unfortunately, given the circumstance I am referred to as mikado's whore by the older kids, and just Miss Su by the younger. I don't even have the time to worry about that one because when I'm not drowning in the pain of whatever new substance is pumped into my blood stream, plagued by nightmares-memories- or just eating I'm being tortured by Mikado. Being assaulted is better way to put it.

"You are contributing to the big dream miss su"

"This will further our plans with project NEXTGEN" what a load of crap.