Sorry I couldn't be Better- Welcome to DWMA
I have researched each person's condition BTW, I haven't made these up.
So I went and saw the premiere of The Fault in Our Stars today (the premier in my city) so I was crying and then halfway through the film I thought about the death of a character from Naruto (who isn't Naruto but does start with an N) and started crying even harder.
Thanks phantomwish (special thanks for your support) to TheCrayCrayGirl (love the user name!) to videosrockyolo (hopefully this is long enough) to Mermain123 and silent infinity (thanks to you both for supporting this fic.)
Disclaimer: Oh how once upon a summers dream thou girl dreamed of Eating Souls alas the dream was fleeting…and false
Maka stared up at the building before her, shivering slightly at how quiet it was. All she could hear was the occasional car driving by in the background. No sounds seemed to be coming from the eerie hospital. It appeared to be devoid of life. She was used to silence having experienced that constantly at home but pairing the silence with a spooky building was enough to give anyone the creeps. She took a hesitant step forward before halting as the front doors slid open to reveal a dreadlocked man who started walking towards her. He seemed relaxed and his face was fixed in a neutral position. He wasn't what Maka had expected (than again, nothing was turning out how she had expected) and she wasn't sure what his role was in the hospital. Maybe he was a patient who thought he was a doctor. That wouldn't have surprised her.
"Hello," the man said once he was sure Maka could hear him from the distance he was away from her. "I'm Sid, one of the therapists here as well as a member of security. You must be Maka right?"
Maka nodded shyly, relieved to know his identity (a crazy patient wouldn't know her name) and stooped to pick up her bags which she'd dropped at her side upon seeing the door open. Her flower was inside her backpack, safely tucked away. The man was suddenly there next to her, picking her bags up before she could get a hand around them.
"I've heard you've just come from a medical hospital so we don't want you to do strenuous lifting." Sid explained as he carried the bags with ease. "We don't want you injured on your first day." This explanation as to why he'd taken her bags from her helped Maka to find her voice.
"They're not very heavy and I'm not weak." She tried to snap but it came out as a weak protest. Sid kept walking despite this and soon they were at the door, about to enter the tall white building. Sid stepped right through them the moment they slid open but Maka paused, reluctant to surrender herself to the hospital. She wanted to be free for just one more minute but Sid beckoned her so she took a breath and stepped over the threshold.
What hit her first was the fresh flowery smell that one associates with air fresheners. Slightly artificial but pleasant. It was cold inside the reception and Maka shivered, glancing over at the air-conditioner to notice it was set on the highest level. A nurse sat behind a desk, smiling slightly as she read whatever she had up on her computer screen. Her nose twitched occasionally, a characteristic you'd associate with a mouse.
"This is Mizune," Sid introduced Maka to the woman. "You won't see her much. This is just her day job and she never leaves this desk."
Maka's face remained blank as Mizune giggled in an annoyingly high pitch and waved coyly. This didn't faze the nurse/receptionist and she continued to laugh away at her screen. Sid shrugged helplessly and led Maka to an elevator.
"We have floors for age groups," Sid explained. "Bottom floor is for day patients. People who come in for day therapy sessions and aren't in a serious enough condition to be admitted."
"Why can't I do them?" Maka asked, interrupting the man. "I'm not sick."
"Sorry Maka. Doctor Stein diagnosed you and decided you needed to be admitted. He's the head doctor. I trust his judgement and we can't go back on it now." Sid didn't sound very apologetic as he said this. "Anyway first floor is three to seven year olds. We don't get many of them which is why there are quite a few age groups on that floor. Second floor is eight to ten. Again, less people but not as small a group as the three to seven year old group. Then third floor is ten to thirteen and the fourth floor where we are going is fourteen to sixteen. Floor five is seventeen to nineteen. Then people are moved to the adult hospital, our partner. Obviously, you'll stay on the fourth floor."
"Whatever," Maka mumbled, watching the little arrows on the elevator light up until the elevator slowed to a stop at floor four. There was a dinging sound and the doors opened. Maka was facing a light purple painted corridor with a few doors embedded in it. Standing there, right in front of the elevator was a friendly looking woman with an eye patch concealing one of her eyes. She smiled brightly at Maka who in return averted her gaze.
Sid and Maka stepped out of the elevator and the doors slid shut behind them, leaving Maka trapped between the walls and the two adults.
"This is Marie, Maka." Sid introduced the woman to the teen. "She's one of our therapists and she's going to be one of yours. You'll alternate between her and Azusa. They both believed you needed two therapists with two different approaches to treatment." Maka rolled her eyes at this.
"It's nice to meet you Maka." Marie beamed, bending down to Maka's levels so she could look her in the eyes. Maka stared determinedly over her shoulder, ignoring the subtle offering of friendship. Marie didn't even bat an eyelid; she just straightened up and gestured vaguely down the right corridor.
"Is her room that way?" Sid questioned.
"Yup," Marie's smiled never slipped. "She's on her own because Tsubaki was nervous about having a roommate and there was no way she was rooming with any of the boys."
Maka was relieved at this though she tried not the show it. Marie picked up on her relief though, smiling brightly at Maka.
"Well some of the boys can be a bit overwhelming. Especially BlackStar." Marie explained. "And don't worry about how I knew you were relieved. Call it a therapist's intuition."
Maka scowled at her and snatched her bags from Sid abruptly, just wanting to be left alone in her room.
"Come on then." She snapped. Sid sighed and left the small group rather abruptly leaving Marie to show Maka to her room.
"That wasn't very nice Maka." Marie commented as they passed some doors labelled staff only, some without any labels and one door with the names 'Thunder' and 'Fire', each name outlined by their namesake.
"They're two of our residents," Marie explained, noticing yet again Maka's hidden interest. "They're actually younger, only 10 but they have selective mutism and the only other person they talk to apart from each other is one of our other floor residents, Kilik. In an attempt to aid with treatment, we moved them to this floor. If they show signs of improvement, they'll go down a level. Fire is also a boy but they refuse to stay in separate dorms."
Maka wasn't sure how to respond to this since she'd been trying to hide her curiosity so she just shrugged in reply and kept walking. Marie stopped suddenly but Maka kept walking, not realising she was continuing on by herself. She stopped after noticing the lack of footsteps and saw Marie standing a few metres back, amusement twinkling in her eyes. Maka looked at the door she'd stopped by which had the name Tsubaki plastered on it with a few flowers on stems spiralling out of the name. Obviously this wasn't her room. She could hear faint music coming from inside showing this 'Tsubaki' was in the room. That or she left her music playing all the time for some reason.
Maka clomped back to Marie who was standing by another door, this one blank holding out a key as if to say 'It's your room, you unlock it.' Maka took the key reluctantly and pushed it into the key hole after a moment's hesitation.
"Obviously we'll take the key so you can't lock the door. We need access to your room at all times since you…well because of your condition." Marie babbled as Maka pushed the door open to reveal a relatively small room though bigger than her room at home. There was an open wardrobe with a rack at the top with a few coat hangers. There were no doors for the wardrobe (probably to stop kids hiding in them) with a few draws at the bottom of it for folded clothes. There was a smallish bedside table residing next to a plain single bed and running a fairway above the bed was a floating shelf wide enough to hold a few various objects.
"So this is your home for now," Marie stepped into the room to stand beside Maka and plucked the key from her hand, tucking it away. "Make yourself comfortable. If you want to decorate the walls, let us know and you can print pictures off one of our computers. Though you might have brought your own things to stick up. A lot of people do that when they come here. You could even paint the walls but I get the feeling you don't want to stay here too long."
Maka shrugged, refusing to engage in conversation and set her bags on the bed, looking around the room for a hidden door or something leading to a private bathroom. She must have missed something. Where was she supposed to wash herself? Did they expect her to find another way to stay clean? Wet wipes? A wet sponge?
"We all share one big bathroom…well the girls and the boys are separate of course and you have a set time for when you can shower. We don't want any accidents happening without our knowledge." Marie applied her super special therapist powers again.
"Great," Maka said sarcastically. Marie laughed a little and headed for the door, turning to stand in the doorway.
"Well give you a schedule tomorrow though we don't follow them all the time but for now, just come down to lunch when the bell rings and we'll see where we go from there. Hopefully, Tsubaki might decide to show you if she's feeling up to it. If not, I'm sure someone can show you the way. We usually have some nurses walking around."
Maka shrugged again because she wasn't sure how to reply yet again and sat on the bed next to her bags, the mattress dipping slightly under her weight. She would unpack once Marie had left. She wasn't quite ready (okay she wasn't ready at all) to flash her personal belongings around in a strangers face.
The therapist lingered for a moment before flashing another smile and disappearing in a whirl of black and yellow silk. Maka listened to her footsteps fade and lay back on her bed, happy to be alone for the first time since entering DWMA. She didn't move for a bit but eventually she sat back up and unzipped her few bags. She had packed them herself at the hospital but now as she looked over the belongings, there were some certain items missing.
Her razors were gone along with metal jewelry and scarfs and ties. The glass vase her precious flower had rested in was replaced with a weird plastic one. Obviously they'd taken anything she could hurt herself with. Maka groaned and began to neatly unpack her belongings into the wardrobe. She refolded small skirts and neat tight sweaters that made up her idea of fashion. Once all her clothes and other objects such as a comb and hair ties were placed systematically in the wardrobe, she turned her attention to more personal objects.
Maka stopped suddenly as she looked into her bags. Why was she even bothering? She just needed to get out this place. She wanted to leave. She wanted to die. Then again, the quicker she convinced them she was better, the quicker she could get out of this horrible place and get back on with her goal. So all she had to do was convince them she was better. That shouldn't be too hard. It wasn't like they could read her mind. And if she played this correctly, she could be home in a week!
Maka set her daffodil on her bedside table once she'd decided to pretend to be getting better. She hadn't been able to find out who had given it to her but she was strangely connected to it…if one could be connected to a flower. Just as she was pulling out her next personal object, a framed photo of her on her fifteenth birthday, a loud bell rang and a shy face peered around her doorway, smiling slightly.
"H-hello,"
Please review. I hope it's long enough!
