The Mind's Eye
Summery: While Ginny Weasley struggles to come to grips with what is real, will a figment of her imagination be the one to save her or be her doom?
Rating: PG13- R(in later chapters)
Disclaimers: I own nothing execpt Sunshine Pines. Credit J.K. Rowling for everything else.
The sun beamed through the windows at Sunshine Pines. Sunshine Pines Mental Home was a quiet, well reknowned facility just outside of London. With it's white, sterile walls, it seemed to be a fairly boring building in a fairly boring part of town. That was all about to change one Tuesday afternoon.
Ginevra Weasley woke up on schedule as usual. At 9am she had arts and crafts, one of the things she enjoyed the most. Art was lasting and enduring. For someone who's memory was a bit on the faulty side, these qualities held much appeal. She couldn't quite remember how she came to be at the hospital, or when in fact her arrival had happened. She knew from her doctors and aides that most of what she did remember could only be chalked up to delusions and tricks of the mind. "You're here in the hospital Ginny, you're safe.", was the common refrain after she had her nightmares. Ginny hated the nightmares, hated the way they brought back the images during the day. Everyone in the group discussions already looked at the 20 year old as if she had two heads. "Please..", she thought bitterly, "As if flying on brooms and giant snakes are any crazier than getting abducted by aliens or thinking that you're Elvis."
The images came out in her art. She had many papers filled with her mind's wanderings. It was safe to draw them, safer than vocalizing her fears that her sickness would never be cured. She tried every day to forget the delusions, fearing that she was hopelessly lost from the "real world". The medications only served to numb her mind, not making her forget but making her moods so even she couldn't feel anything towards the vivid images.
"There's a new orderly working today.", Kelly whispered to Ginny over breakfast. Kelly Curtis was Ginny's roommate and occasional friend. They bonded over gossip concerning the goings on of the hospital and it's inhabitants, both it's staff and patients. "Who?", said Ginny curiously. New staff were rare at Sunshine Pines, the staff never seemed to change and most of them had been there ever since she could remember. There was Dr. Graves, her personal therapist, a man in his early forties with piercing eyes and a calming demenor that made Ginny a bit uneasy. Then there were the nurses and orderlies, who were friendly enough, although pretty unremarkable. New staff was indeed a buzzworthy topic.
In the recreation room was where she finally saw him. He was talking to Nurse Reid and had his back to the room. It wasn't surprising that she noticed the new person after only a few moments. He was wearing the typical uniform in all white, but what stood out was his shock of almost white blond hair. When he turned around enough to allow a good look at his face, Ginny held back a gasp. He was extremely attractive, with that hair, that perfect nose and mouth. All this would have been merely good if not for the almost regal way he was holding himself. She heard one or two of the other girls quietly giggling to themselves at the handsome new orderly. She noticed his looks, yes, but there was something else. He was scanning the room and when his eyes finally rested on her, she thought she noticed a change in his bored expression. She didn't quite like the hard look he gave her, and quickly turned back to her painting. Noting that he finally was out of the room, she swept the final strokes over the canvas to finish for the day. Glancing at her work, one of the nurses smiled. For the first time in weeks, Ginevra hadn't drawn a broom or one of the ghouls that haunted her nightly imagination. "What a lovely painting, dear", the nurse said to her. Ginny smiled slightly at her and gazed at the canvas. A silver and green dragon in mid-flight against a grey sky.
In the next chapter: Who is the mysterious new orderly and why has his sudden appearance caused Ginny's nightmares to go into overdrive? She faces a terrible possibility as she questions her time in the hospital and all that she knew to be real.