Massive content warning for the chapter as a whole

JC slowly woke with a groan, he felt as his head was about to explode, gently clutching it, he tried ti rationalise why he had it before noticing the white sheets of the bed he was on

"what the?" he glanced around the room, seeing that the walls were lined with white padding, he got up and wandered the room, trying to figure out where he was, only turning as the door opened, his eyes widened when he saw who was entering,

"ah, JC, you're awake" they said, JC gawked at the male human who stood there, wearing a hospital uniform "hope you slept well, those meds we put you on last night might've done a number on you"

"i…..i think so" JC said, playing along for now "so much so, I don't even remember anything past this morning, where am I?"

"mm, those meds might've shorted out your long and short term memories" the man said, pondering for a moment "but I'm sure they'll return in time, but to answer your question, you're in the Cherryton Mental Hospital"

"m-mental hospital?"

"yes, you were admitted a year ago" the man replied "your carers were concerned when you started considering various characters you've been drawing as being real" JC blinked as he grabbed a file from beside the door and handing it to him, JC opened it and pulled out the sketches within, his eyes widened as he saw pictures of Haru, Legoshi, Louis, Juno and everyone else he had known,

"b….but…...th-they" JC stuttered a bit, unable to form proper words, he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get in touch with Jandamarra, but he couldn't hear a response, he sat on the bed, staring at the pictures, trying to rationalise everything, the doctor approached him,

"are you OK?"

"fine….just a bit of a shock"

"i see, take your time, then come to breakfast" he left the room, JC staring at them more, pulling out a full body picture of Juno, a tear gently splashing onto it, he wiped his eyes and headed out into the hall, he glanced down both ways, figuring out which way to go before choosing one at random.

Rounding a corner, he spotted a girl around his age, tending to a vase of flowers, he stared for a moment before approaching, she looked over at him,

"oh, hey there, haven't seen you around here before" she said, in a voice that sounded very familiar to him,

"yeah, I'll say the same, but probably for a different reason" JC replied, the girl giggling a bit

"so, what's you're name, I'm Haru" JC's eyes widened a bit, shaking his head as if he has misheared

"i-i'm sorry, what was you're name again?"

"Lara, I said that my name is Lara"

"oh, right, thought you said Haru for a moment, i-i'm JC"

"pleasure to meet you" Lara said, turning to water the flowers silently

"so…..what are you in for?" JC asked, she lowered her head a bit

"my family seems to think that I'm crazy, treating these flowers as my children" she said, gently holding one of the flowers

"if you're the only one to care for them, I can see why they'd think that" JC said "but then again, people do treat their pets as their children, so…..what's the difference?" Lara turned,

"right, I cannot understand why my family would accept one, but not the other" they looked up as a tallish security guard approached them

"Lara, is this guy bothering you?" he asked, the voice sounding as familiar as Lara's

"not at all, we just met here Legoshi, you don't need to worry about me" she said, JC stared blankly for a moment, not registering the rest of what they were saying, until he heard Lara's voice speaking to him again "are you OK JC? you're eyes seemed to go blank when Jonah approached us" JC panted, trying to process what was going on

"i-i think I need to talk to someone" he said, Jonah nodded gently

"i'll take you to Juno" JC's eyes widened again

"w-who?"

"Lauren, she's your psychiatrist, isn't she?"

"y-yeah, she-she is"

within moments, JC was escorted to the office, within was a beautiful women, he couldnt help but fall for her as he did with Juno,

"so JC" Lauren started off, looking at his files before grabbing a writing pad "what's been bothering you"

"i'm not sure, ever since this morning, I've been feeling as if everything is off, like nothing here is what it's meant to be"

"i see, care to elaborate"

"i woke up, dazed and confused, seeing that the room I was in was unfamiliar, then I meet with Lara, whom I somehow mistake her name as Haru, then her guard friend, Jonah, comes by and for some reason, I hear his name as Legoshi, and then, when he brought me here to you, I thought that he told me that your name is Juno, I don't understand what is happening anymore" Lauren silently wrote all of this onto the pad, before pulling out the drawings of Haru, Legoshi and Juno

"these are the ones you misheard our names as, right?" she asked

"yeah, i-i don't know why"

"it's OK JC, we'll work through this, now tell me, what's the last think you remember before you woke up?"

"the-the last thing I remember?" JC closed his eyes and thought back, suddenly remembering the rice cake gathering Legoshi had held so that he could get to know his neighbours, then remembering further back to the hot times with Juno, Sheila and Harmony, and finally remembering the sinister vibes that an unknown gazelle had let off, he told Lauren all of this, cutting out all of the sex, she sighed after a while

"just when we started seeing some improvement" she said, catching JC off guard,

"w-what do you mean?" he asked, afraid of the answer

"i'm afraid that you'll have to be lobotomised" she replied, looking a bit grim

"l-lobotomised?"

"yes, it's where part of your brain is extracted, if it works out, then you'll be normal, if not" she sighed solemnly, as if she's witnessed this before "then you'll practically be brain-dead, or worse"

JC stared blankly at her, shocked that one way or the other, his life will be over, no one said anything, not as he was escorted to the operating room, not as he was strapped down to the table, not even when they injected him with a numbing agent to null the pain, nothing was said, he looked at the spike that was about to slide up passed his eye, as it did, everything went dark, he knew nothing else, he stared around the endless void that surrounded him, knowing that it was all over, everything that he knew up to that point was meaningless.

The End

Before panicking, look at the upload date.