Last Autumn...

The room smelt like formaldehyde and fear, a scent I had gotten so used to ever since I finally decided to seek help. The IV drip hooked into my arm gave me a sense of comfort in this sick building. My room here at "The Institute" (as I like to call it) was painted in an ill white, and lacked any motivation to make me want to get better. In fact, the only motivation I received in this room, was from my bed. I guess that's the attitude of a typical 16 year old girl, or maybe it's just me? Anyway, my bed was so uncomfortable; the mattress was foam, and the bed screeched a wretched noise whenever I lowered the rails to climb out. Other than that, I don't really care how long it takes me to get better, I'm too tired to get up on my own two feet and leave.

That was, until I saw a boy being escorted by a nurse out of the children's ward. His white hair caught my tired eyes as he passed my room. I watched him from my hospital bed, my door open so the children's desk can keep a painfully close eye on me. The boy looked around my age, so why was he coming from the children's ward? I saw a tag around his wrist, so I knew he wasn't a visitor. He wore a black jacket over the top of his gown. I'm assuming it's a hospital gown, otherwise he must be wearing, a dress...?

He turned around and looked me dead in the eyes with his glassy ones. Suddenly I felt a wave of heat drown my face. I looked away from him. I looked toward the window, oh what a nice day it must be outside today! Suddenly I found myself nervously laughing, what was coming over me? I looked back toward the door, I couldn't see the boy anymore... He must've moved on.

"Hey, are you alright?"

I jumped! The boy with the snow hair stood at the foot of my bed, leaning on the railing with a smug look on his face. "Why are you here?" His voice sounded so sweet... Am I hallucinating???

"I said, why are you here? Or are you missing a tongue?" He playfully laughed as he poked my foot to get my attention. He had an energy around him, not like the draining energy the other patients here had... His was, bubbly. His eyes looked different to everyone else's though, his eyes looked as if they were made of some sort of wet glass. Well, I guess the eyes are said to be the windows to one's soul after all.

"Autumn?"

And then I heard him call my name, wait... My name?! "H-how do you know my name???" The words just flooded from my mouth, I felt like I couldn't have made a better first impression. "It says on your records here that your name is Autumn. How come you don't have orange hair like the girl in the profile picture though? Why is your hair such an unnatural colour? Are you really Autumn?" This guy was asking too many questions.

"Argh!" I sat myself up in the bed with a violent push. I huffed a sigh. "Yes, my name is Autumn. And I dyed my hair blue black." "Hmmmmmm..." He just stared at me blankly, and I was waiting for more words to escape his mouth, but all he replied with was a simple, "Okay.".

He took my clipboard from the end of my bed that had all my medical information attached to it, and he came and sat down in the visitors chair beside my bed. After crossing one of his legs over the other, in a womanly fashion, he started flicking through my papers. "Miss Autumn Harrow?" I just shook my head and decided to play along. "Yes doctor?" "Hmmm, it appears your case is unknown." "I'm well aware Sir." Just as I thought we were getting into an actual conversation, the boy broke character. He stood up and dropped the clipboard down on the chair.

"My name is Shiro." He smiled, his white hair brightening my world. "Shiro? What type of name is that?" I snickered, looking away from his staggering gaze. "It's Japanese, but I'm not. Obviously." He laughed as he sat back down.

"So why are you here?" I asked as he made himself at home again in the visitors chair. "Me? I'm sick, like you." "Yeah, but what do you have? And why were you in the children's ward? They usually only put people our age in there if they've just had a break or some sort of other minor injury." He looked around the room, as if searching his mind for an answer. Then he smiled weirdly at me?

"I had a bug. A stomach bug." He smirked, his eyes gleaming that glassy look again. "Right..." I averted his gaze again. "But, what is it you have?" I kept trying to keep my eyes away from him, but he was like a magnet with that unusual hair colour. I couldn't take my eyes off him.

"They don't know what I've got, but I've been attached to this drip for the past two and half weeks..." the words struggled to make it past my lips as I started to think about my situation again. "Hmmm, sounds tough." His voice reeked of innocence, he had no idea what I was going through.

We sat there in silence, the machines doing the talking. I liked this, it felt nice to talk to someone who didn't give me that exhausted feeling, unlike the other patients. Soon, our little session of quiet ended when we lifted our eyes to see the nurses in the hallway rushing around calling out names.

"Where did he go?" "He's gone!" "He was right next to me two minutes ago! I swear!" And then I heard a bunch of names follow after. "Shiro!" His name being repeated by the nurses rushing around the hospital. The mysterious boy stood up immediately, rushed to the other side of my bed and crouched down. Hiding are we now?

I looked down at him with an evil grin. As if he could read my mind, he begged me not to raise alarm. "Shhhh shhh, please, don't tell them I'm here." "Why shouldn't I?" I hesitated... Thinking, why wouldn't he want to be checked out? He was getting checked out of the hospital though, right?...

"Please, please!" His glassy eyes sucked me right in... "Fine... But if they find you, I'm pretending I don't know you or didn't even know you were there."

"They're going to give me electric shock therapy..."