Piercing white lights began clogging Jane's vision immensely, her breathing hitching into short gasps as her eyes tried focusing on where she was. Within a few seconds, she felt a pair of unfamiliar hands hold her down, their own body now crushing into hers.
"Let me go, let me go!" Jane screamed the last word so loudly it burned in her throat.
The strangers breath was so achingly warm on the back of her neck as her head was pressed down against a pillow that was considered to be as paper thin as the walls enclosed around her.
Janes eyes widened in alarm as she felt her cries being muffled by the pillow. She fought back as hard as her body would let her, her legs swaying effortlessly to buck the body off her, she even tried hurling her body in all different directions but the strangers grip didn't seem to move.
Not even in the slightest bit.
Janes ears picked up the sounds of hushed murmurs, almost as if they were being whispered directly into her ears. There was a click of high heels suddenly, Jane quickly turned her head to the side as she was met with a view of a young woman appearing in all white.
She was blonde, looked around her early thirties, with alluring green eyes that sent an awful chill against the bridge of Jane's spine. She looked normal, but Jane could see through normalcy and knew that this was all a simple game to them.
Jane understood that this woman could have had her neck snapped within moments if she requested it, with only the wave of her hand.
The woman gave Jane a slow, cold, calculating look as she watched Jane's pitiful attempts at fighting back against the tight hold weighing her down.
The woman was dressed in a knee-length white lab coat, her fingers suddenly adjusting her cross that layed bare against her white collar shirt. She thought her sight was playing tricks on her, irony filled her veins as she knew no higher power could save her now.
No, not this time.
This time it felt different to her, almost foreign.
Something else seemed to catch Jane's eye along the way, it was her file that was tucked against the woman's side. To others, it looked long and endless but to Jane everything that layed lurking within those words were false. She was being framed that she knew, but what she wanted to understand was why.
What did they want with a girl like her? She was as normal as any other girl her age. Normal was the one word that described Jane Ives within a second, that's all she was and would ever be.
Normal.
"Looks like we have a screamer," The woman's voice trailed off, "But don't you worry, this place will change that in no time." Her southern accent was thick and heavy, Jane wouldn't of pictured it on her. This woman's presence was a balm to her nerves as she watched her scramble over and drop to her knees so now the two woman where both at eye-level.
"Aren't you a pretty little thing." The woman blinked and looked at Jane in utter fascination before she whispered slowly, "No wonder he wants you."
Everything around Jane seemed to come to a stand still, her pulse was quickening frantically as she watched the woman's face turn upright with a dreadfully chilling smile before she reached over and untucked her file from her inner arm.
Her green eyes were scanning over the words effortlessly, as though she didn't seem the slightest bit fazed as to what appeared in front of her.
Without taking her eyes off of Jane's file, she laughed without humour before adding, "Welcome to Wayward, I'm Miss Wilkes. I'm one of the leading psychiatrists here but unfortunately I wasn't assigned your case," She then brushed her wild blonde hair back from her face before she scowled at Jane. "As you can see, that didn't stop me from coming here. Your file is quite impressive I must say but from what my eyes are seeing, I highly doubt you were responsible for any of this. After all, how could such a small girl do the most wicked things I've ever read. It just doesn't make sense."
That's because I wasn't supposed to be here, Jane wanted to shout.
You've got the wrong girl.
Miss Wilkes statement caught her off guard, so Jane remained quiet and finally stone still. Jane stared at her, letting all the anger and frustration surge through her. "Why are you doing this to me?" Jane finally asked, her voice croaky.
Miss Wilkes paused for a moment, almost as if she was considering to answer patient 011's question, that was until the stranger that had Jane bound by her wrists finally spoke up. "We should go, Clarice. We've already been here for far too long now, you know he'll loose it if he see's us with the girl."
Clarice.
Clarice.
Clarice.
At her name, every muscle in Jane's body locked up and her eyes diverted back to the psychiatrist. Yet, she hadn't seemed to take notice of what the unknown man suggested but instead peered closer to the patient if that was even remotely possible.
Clarice then roughly grabbed Jane by one of her bound wrists, running a thumb along the edge of the sensitive skin underneath. It was throbbing harshly under her tight grip, almost as if the skin had been pricked and burned. Jane couldn't remember a single thing, almost as everything before she awoke never existed. She could only distinguish three things about herself so far;
Her name was Jane Ives.
She was twenty three years of age.
She wasn't supposed to be here, at Wayward Sanatorium for the mentally unstable. It was a psychiatric ward for the criminally insane, only the most severe cases seemed fit for this place.
Jane Ives wasn't one of those cases.
Miss Wilkes let out a wolffish grin before turning her wrist over ever so slowly. Harsh ink was now printed against Jane's pale skin, it contained only three numbers. Confused and dazed, she read it over and over again.
011
"You see," Miss Wilkes said in a strangled voice, her face whitening as if the words seemed to rip at her throat. "You've seemed to catch his eye. Don't leave him disappointed though, Papa wouldn't like that."
Jane murmured, "Who is Papa?" The sound of her own voice seemed unreal at this point.
She decided to play along with Miss Wilkes, afraid that if she didn't she would immensely regret not doing so. Clarice seemed to choke back her giggle, it sounded almost childlike but it scared Jane to the bone.
Jane's heart leapt to her throat. When she looked at Miss Wilkes, all she saw swelling within her green eyes was complete darkness. Jane opened her mouth in attempts to ask again, yet a firm palm slapped over her lips harshly making her screech in shock.
Suddenly Clarice lowered her head to the base of Jane's ear, panic and sheer fright had tensed every muscle of her body that she once again, went limp in the guards fresh hold.
Jane squeezed her eyes shut furiously, holding in her breathe as Miss Wilkes blew out the next few words. "You don't belong here, soon he'll see that. I'll make sure of it."
The sounds of rushed footsteps invaded Jane's ears as she saw a pair of fresh hands pry Miss Wilkes off of her shaking body. Countless shouts were now bouncing off the greyish walls as she had merely enough time to wrap her petite arms across her knees, rocking herself back and forth on the cold tiles continuously in attempts to sooth her frantic heart beat. Jane watched in alarm as further men clad in all white entered the room.
Her chest pounded rapidly, her mind racing just as fast as her beating heart seemed to, she could only hold on to one coherent thought within this moment.
That if the numerous voices didn't stop speaking, she'd break down right then and there. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She screeched out so loudly that every sudden movement within the room came to a standstill.
Jane's unleashed tears had burned her vision as she slowly raised her head off of her knees. There he was, matching Miss Wilkes attire similarly. Instead of a cross laying at the nape of his neck, a tag was seemingly draping from his lab coat. Janes eyes darted back and forth as she scanned the letters incessantly that bore out his full name.
Mike Wheeler
He too kneeled where Miss Wilkes did moments before. Instead of sudden fear lurking within her mind, she felt a sense of contempt, her mind assuring her that this man wouldn't touch her so brutally like the others seemed too.
Jane felt herself becoming crazier by the second. Every mixed emotion she was feeling had become jumbled and intensified, all from a man she barely knew. She was so utterly desperate for someone to show her a kind touch, butterflies were fluttering in the pit of her stomach. Too astounded to fully comprehend if they were the good or bad kind, not with all the drugs that had been severely shoved down her throat the moment she arrived at Wayward.
To put things into perspective, Jane was a muddled wreck. Her once loose honeysuckle curls were a tangled mess on the tops of her head. Her auburn eyes were rimmed with red as she had cried relentlessly, leaving them now both itchy and dry. Her lips screamed chapped and flaky, no amounts of saliva could cover up the dryness of them.
She wouldn't be surprised if others thought worse of her, it was their fault for putting her here in the first place. Couldn't they see this had to be a misunderstanding? Or maybe she really was crazy and it was her mind playing tricks on her.
She couldn't tell the difference between what was reality and what was insanity anymore since being here.
The fibrant lights of the overcrowded room had made his face appear luminous and rather delicate. Up close, he was even more attractive then she imagined as she watched his dark curls spilling over the tops of his shoulders, leaving Jane feeling breathless at the mere sight of the locks. His eyes had been different though, cold and inhuman almost, if it wasn't for the fact that sympathy swirled within them for her she would've thought he was the spitting image of Miss Wilkes; breathtakingly beautiful but born to be evil to the core.
"Escort Miss Wilkes out of here," He insisted, his tone firm. As Janes eyes followed the uniformed men grasping for Clarice by her arms, she could still feel his penetrating gaze and the act alone made Janes cheeks flush with uncertainty.
What if she had been wrong, what if he was just as insane as Miss Wilkes and this was all apart of their plan; To trick and play her to be the fool they all thought she was.
Jane pressed her back against the foot of her rusty bed. Her knees shuffling ever so slowly and in turn Mike's eyebrows lifted in amusement before saying, "Don't be afraid, I haven't come to hurt you. I'm here to help."
Janes heart tries to crawl it's way into her throat, she really does want to believe him. Hell, she needs all the friends she could get at this point but suddenly all off her adrenaline comes rushing back, this time it wasn't just anxiety but anger as well.
The drugs must be wearing off, Jane thought.
He stares at her with something similar to surprise but also curiosity. As if she was a wild animal under his inspection, and maybe she was. Here she remained, stuck and probed in Wayward, if she didn't go insane sooner or later than maybe she was already to begin with. "Promise?" Jane whispered.
He studied her intently, giving her a sharp nod in response.
"No, you have to say it. Otherwise, how will I know that you mean what you say? That you aren't like the others."
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Jane instantly regretted her words the moment they slipped off her tongue. She was desperate, beginning to feel her mind whether away effortlessly as every second passed whilst she was stuck here. He made her feel somewhat normal, like she was still a human being, not just something to be poked and examined under a microscope.
The back of his neck flushed red.
"I give you my word, no one will hurt you while I'm here. I can promise you that."
Jane then shut her eyes in attempts to sooth her raging thoughts, her mind stretching beyond belief whether or not she should believe this man. And you know what?
She did.
AUTHORS NOTE:
That's it! How was that for a first chapter? I thought why the hell not so I'm giving this a go, I really need all the opinions I could get! So please, tell me what all you lovelies are thinking and feeling so far for where this story seems to be heading. The more comments/opinions the better!
L xx