Layla's eyes shot open and she gasped in a breath of air, consciousness returning to her very suddenly. She lifted her hands to her head, massaging her temples and trying to ease the pain of the massive headache that had just came rushing to her.
Layla looked around. She was not in the cafeteria anymore. No shit.
She sat in at a small metal table in the middle of a small room. In front of her a mirror and a door. Layla looked down and saw that she was in a surprisingly long pair of handcuffs which were secured to the table. Now she was really confused.
"Hello?" Layla called out cautiously. This was... strange to the least. There was nobody in the room but Layla still felt as though she was being watched, and if she was handcuffed that could mean that the mirror was actually a two way mirror.
Just as this thought crossed her mind the door opened and a woman walked in the room with a file in hand. She closed the door and sat across from Layla, giving her a warm smile.
"Hi, Layla?" the woman asked. Layla nodded which seemed to make the woman happy. "Hi, I'm Doctor Harding, but you can call me Hayley. How are you today?" Layla stared at the woman, even more confused than she had been.
"Um, I don't know. I guess I'm alright." Hayley opened the file and started writing. "Um, where am I?"
"Oh don't worry, you're in good hands," Hayley said. "So it says here that you had some sort of panic attack at your school, is that right?" Layla nodded a bit more hesitantly. "Ok then, would you mind telling me a bit about that?" Hayley asked looking up at Layla.
"Well um... I don't know. It was so loud..."
"What was so loud?"
"Well... I guess it was like everyone just started yelling all at once."
"Ah yes, voices. We get that here a lot. Please keep going." Wait, what did she mean by that?
"I'm sorry, what do you mean by here? Where are we?"
"All in good time Layla. Now what were these voices saying to you? Did they want you to do anything for them?"
"Do anything? I don't..."
"Yes, most of the time when people start hearing voices they're telling them to do things that normal people wouldn't dream of. Ever heard of Son of Sam? He swore that his neighbors dog told him to murder people."
"I'm not going to kill anyone!"
"Of course you aren't, and I'm not saying you will. I just want to get to the roots of what caused the panic attack and where the voices came from. In order to do that I need to ask you some questions. That's alright isn't it?" Layla was hesitant but nodded.
"Excellent! Now, have the voices asked for anything like tell somebody something, take an certain object... kill someone possibly?"
"What? No nothing like that! They were just all talking at once and wouldn't shut up."
"Well with all that commotion how can you be sure they didn't ask you to kill someone?" Hayley said, her eyes becoming wide with excitement.
Why did she keep going back to the idea of killing people?
"I... I guess not," Layla said.
"Thank you for answering. I apologize if these questions seem a bit weird but it's standard procedure here," Hayley said jotting something down. She pulled out a paper from the file in front of her, skimming over it. "Now what happened in the actual cafeteria when this happened? This file on the incident says that authorities arrived to find tables flipped, chairs thrown, windows broken, yadda yadda yadda. The point here is that the place was in complete disarray. Did you do this?"
"I... I don't... remember..." That day had been complete chaos. Layla remembered getting glimpses of objects being thrown around but she had no idea what had happened.
"Well, in any case Layla I don't think it's safe for you to leave this place," Hayley said quickly. "It sounds like you don't know what those voices are telling you and that could be quite dangerous for you as well as others, not to mention the fact that you don't remember potentially destroying a school cafeteria. Don't worry though, we can help you." Hayley turned to the two way mirror and motioned to someone on the other side to come in. In walked two men in nurse's uniforms who unlocked Layla's cuffs.
"Come with us please Layla," Hayley said sweetly. "We'll show you where you're staying."
Hayley walked out of the room and the male nurses motioned for Layla to follow. Cautiously she followed Hayley and the male nurses followed them out. They walked to the end of a hallway and through another set of doors.
Walking through the doors, they found themselves in a large room. All around were couches full of people watching television. Next to the couches were various plants and at nearly every wall there were doors that lead to... somewhere. These walls were decorated with lovely portraits and landscape paintings, adding layers of color to the room. Across from the doors they had just come through was a wall of glass that led to what appeared to be a balcony with the most breathtaking view of a mountain range. It was beautiful.
Layla didn't have time to admire the scenery outside however as Hayley and her two helpers led her down another hallway containing various doors. They walked to the end of the hall and Hayley unlocked one of the doors, opening it for Layla and motioning her inside.
The interior of the room was quite luxurious. A large bed that appeared to be very comfortable and a couch and chair of satin sat across from a fireplace. Right next to the bed was a window that offered a view of the mountains Layla had seen earlier.
"Do you like it?" Hayley asked. Layla took it all in and nodded, a slight grin crossing her face. "It's yours," Hayley said. Layla spun around, her grin now replaced with a look of confusion.
"Wait what?" Hayley laughed.
"It's yours dear! This is your room in this beautiful place! We'll let you settle in and then I'll explain more about what exactly is going on. Sound good?" Layla nodded. "Good! I'll be back when you're settled," Hayley said, turning to leave. Just as she was about to close the door she turned back to Layla, a big smile on her face.
"Oh, and welcome to Scorchwood!"