"My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of looking at things."-Henry Miller.

Chloe's POV:

I stood in the corner watching people fill inside the hall along with their respective nurse.

Melissa brought me here, more like dragged even after my rejection. I scan the crowd in search of a particular black head.

It is a huge hall that looks like a cafeteria with dozens of tables. The sizzling aura of food hits my nostrils and my stomach growls in response.

The hospital may look like a haunted mansion from the outside but the inner view is pretty impressive. The building is renovated adding a new look to it.

I sigh frustrated as I look down at my feet with one shoe missing.

I need to go find it but which way did I come from again?

Melissa dragged me through various dizzy corridors that went in different directions. I wasn't able to keep a track of the way we headed from.

I look around to find an empty table on my left and head towards it. It is further away from the rest of the tables.

I pull the chair back taking a seat exhausted by the events from earlier.

I lazily scan the patients who sat with their meals.

Some of them are able to eat the food on their own while others are fed by staff in charge of them. Few of them created a mess with the food, spilling it all over the place.

I chuckle lightly as I spot few kids giving some hard time to their nurse, who had to chase them with the tray of food.

Another growl escapes my empty stomach.

I sigh, getting up from the seat. Maybe I should go around asking my way outside and find Rachel.

"Make way for delicious food!"

I glance up to meet the same black eyes with two trays. She takes a seat quickly pushing a tray towards me.

"Eat up rookie." I look up surprised to find her already enjoying her feast. My mouth waters at the sight of the food but I hesitate.

I still have to find Rachel...

I shake my head, who am I kidding?

I pull the chair and take a seat.

The tray has one piece of bread along with curry and a few cucumbers. I dig in like a hungry tigress. The food here does not taste as good as the one served in the hospital but it still did wonders to my stomach.

"I swear I stood in the line before Mel yet she gets to have the lunch before me."

"I have my doubts. She probably bribed the cooks A."

I look up to find the Emma with her sister sit at the side of the table. Aiden takes a seat across me, glaring at Melissa.

Melissa shrugs at them, munching on her bread.

I tense at their arrival, guilt of attacking Aiden settles within me. I look down at plate, suddenly cautious of the people around me.

All four of them eat peacefully. Melissa and Emma talked once or twice but Aiden sat in complete silence. I notice his hair were wet, few drops of water fell from the side of his head.

The tension in the air is so thick for me. I could easily cut it with a knife. I shift uncomfortably on my seat.

It's now or never.

I take a deep breath, facing them. "I'm sorry for all the commotion I caused earlier."

They all turn their heads to me, except for Aiden. I guess I did piss him off.

I shudder at the thought but clear my throat. I need to make things clear with them.

"I thought I had another hallucination..the last time I did was in the hospital and-"

"Wait, hospital?" Melissa raises an eyebrow. This time Aiden looks up with an unreadable expression.

Corner of my lips lift up into a sad smile and I nod.

"That's where I was since two years but ended up having hallucinations and PTSD so, here I am."

A burden of guilt lifts up from my shoulders after apologizing.

"What?"

"Two years, it didn't make any sense?"

Emma and Aiden voice out their thoughts in unison.

I dip the freshly baked bread in the curry and stuff it in my mouth.

I sigh as I find them still string at me for answers."Long story guys." I wave a hand at them trying to dismiss it.

"I'm all ears."

"Bring it on."

I look at them in a dilemma if I should tell them my story. This is going to take some time. I place my precious unfinished bread back on the steel tray.

All of them eye me curiously and my heart starts to pound. It takes about solid ten minutes telling them everything. I decided to cut down the part of seeing weird dreams and flashbacks since I'm unaware of most of it myself.

It is only fair that I get to collect my memories first before talking about it to anyone.

"So that Inspector suggested me to shift here, not like I have anywhere else to go. Hence, here I am."

Melissa and Aiden hardly blink listening closely while Emma is left with her jaw slightly open.

I exhale in relief finishing the story and pouncing on my unfinished lunch. I frown deeply. It turned cold already.

"So you're telling you are a mysterious girl that popped out of nowhere that too on one of the most tragedy nights of all!?" Emma screeched in her shrill voice.

Some of the people in the hall turn to look at our table.

"You were in a freaking coma for two years. What the-" Melissa was cut off by Aiden.

"Don't you remember even a slightest thing? You say you have Amenou- Am..amne-"

"It's Amnesia." I correct him.

"Then how do you remember your name?"

I chew on the last bite, looking at their shocked features before cleaning my tray clean.

"I said what I said."

I look at them bored, glancing at Aiden, "Yes, I don't remember anything at all."

He furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

"The doctors who treated me, named me..." I mumble.

None of them comments anything for a while, the silence follows us is deafening.

"Woah there, you got some background story. I call it –'Chloe's tragedy'."

Melissa waves her hand making an imaginary banner of her words in the air.

"Or maybe we can call it –'The night of february'. "

Emma suggests. I shake my head at them. "Seriously now?"

I watch as the rest finish their lunch, waiting for one of them to accompany me back to Rachel and of course to find my one and only missing shoe.

"Mel! Eat that. You can't skip vegetables every time. Stop being such a kid." Aiden growls at her as she gets up with the tray, stuffing her vegetables on his plate. She rolls her eye as he keeps going on.

"Or I won't be healthy, bla bla bla."

She bends to his side giving him a quick peck. "Big bro, chillax. I had it before lunch anyways." She walks away leaving Aiden shaking his head.

Oh they're siblings.

Emma was still busy feeding her sister. I look at them as she kept nagging at her sibling not to hold the food in the mouth but to chew and swallow it.

"She obeys you easily." I mumble at them.

Aiden chuckles, getting up from his seat. "That's because Bella got Emma as her sister."

Emma smiles, blushing at his comment as he walks away. I frown at her reaction.

"See you are doing it again, is it some kind of disorder?"

She blinks at me before cracking up. "Really now? No, it isn't. It is a normal reaction duh."

My shoulders slouch as my mind goes to that weird guy I met earlier.

She wiggles her eyebrows."Xavier huh?" I nod at her.

"Oh-ho, let's talk about it later. Nothing to worry silly."

She gets up with Bella, their trays in her other hand. I follow her to the kitchen where we dispose of the plates in the sink. We head back towards the cafeteria and Melissa waves at us.

She is sitting on a table next to Aiden, who stood by her side, waiting for the three of us. I suddenly wonder what their back story could be but decided not to ask.

"Can anyone of you help me find Rachel?"

"Sure." Melissa slips from the table but Aiden pulls her back by her ponytail. She stumbles backwards hitting her back with the table. "Ouch, wha-"

"You are going to go and help others in laundry." Aiden hisses at her, walking to me and quickly pulls me away from the girls, exiting the hall.

None of us speaks a word, making the air around us awkward by each second.

"What's with the star thing you three got on the dress?" I stir up a conversation breaking the silence between us.

"Oh this, it's like a badge. We three are the monitors here, so we look after others, trying to help the staff here."

I raise an eyebrow. "Aren't you guys patients too?"

We take a turn towards a corner, walking side-by-side.

"Well we are but not the mentally disabled ones. We just got few psychological disorders that are almost nil after so many years. So in conclusion, Rachel allowed us to help around."

"Hey Chloe, wait up!"

Both of us turn around to find Rachel heading towards us.

Finally..

---

"This is your new room and we are your new cell mates." Aiden chirps, opening the door widely for me.

"Can't I have a separate room...this is a nightmare." I cry earning a smack on head from Emma.

"Weren't that bad."

My faith decided to put me up with the same people I met earlier. Emma, Bella, Melissa, Aiden and one more is Eric who I haven't yet met.

"Your bed is right next to mine." Emma points out my new side desk and bed.

I look around the room walking inside, aware of the eyes of my cell mates on me.

The cream colored room is big enough to accommodate six people. There are few drawings around, hung up on the walls behind everyone's bed. A wall clock was also placed at the end of the room. Everyone has their side desk with their belongings scattered on them.

I walk up to my bed throwing my back pack over it and crashing into the soft covers. The bed bounces up as I land on it, face-first.

"At least comment something." Melissa yells, standing at the door with others waiting for my reply.

"I want to sleep." I mumble through the covers, lying on my stomach.

"Well you can't, until I show you around the asylum and also discuss our duties-" Aiden keeps on rambling.

I sigh and sit up, groaning mentally. My heart aches for some good sound sleep.

Let's get this over with all the formalities quickly, so I can rest at ease.

Rachel decided it's best if I hang out with people similar to me.

I see nothing similar to be frank.

They're noisier than the construction site.

Melissa won rock-paper-scissors from Aiden, so she is the one to give me a tour around the hospital.

My head starts spinning as I try to learn the different corridors. I think I should also be given a nurse for this purpose. But only those with mental disabilities have that benefit.

"It won't kill you if you slow down a little!"

"This is the cafeteria, which you already know."

Melissa gestures at the hall, ignoring me completely and dragging me swiftly into another random corridor before showing me more rooms.

"I'll throw up from all this dizziness..."

"But we still haven't finished the first floor, there are seven floors more left."

My eyes bulge out. "You're kidding me." I whine loudly.

This place is a freaking maze. I will most probably die before I even finish learning the map of all the rooms on the first floor.

She laughs looking at me before stopping in front of a wooden door.

Running around in these pants and gown is better than jeans.

Good thing, the black headed girl allowed me to change peacefully into my uniform before we started this long tour.

Like real long.

Her face turns serious, all her previous demeanor disappears.

"Listen Chloe, there are few rules you must not break here." I nod at her to continue.

"Never go above the second floor. Don't ask why unless you wish to face nightmares."

I look at her in confusion but nod again. "Is that it?"

She smiles, back to her normal self.

I will think about breaking the rules once I'm in mood...

"Yeah, other rules are just the basic ones." She pushes the wooden door that opens with a small creak.

My gaze lingers across the small room. It's like a kindergarten classroom with dozens of drawings on the walls, small items such as wall-hangings, charts, models placed on a huge colorful shelve. There are few tables and chairs with a medium size black board on a wall.

"Mel! Look what I drew." A tiny voice comes from one of the tables.

A small boy around eight years old comes running to us with a paper and a black crayon in his hand. Melissa crouches down to his level. He runs up to her and gives a tight hug.

"What is it?"

"I drew you." He grins making Mel laugh.

I glance over her shoulders, the paper had a small stick man with black hair next to a building, which I assume as asylum.

I snicker mentally seeing Melissa's stick man version.

"Mel, who is this?" He asks softly looking at me with his big grey eyes. I smile at him waving. "Hello."

Melissa stands up dusting her gown. "This is our new member, Chloe. She will be staying with us from now on and in the same room."

I had the urge to correct her that it's only for four months. The kid grins widely at the new information.

"Hello Chloe, my names Eric, good to meet you."

He must have similar psychological disorders as well.

I bend down towards him offering a handshake," Likewise Mr. Eric."

I look around the room, cocking my head towards Melissa. "Is this a classroom?"

"Yeah, Trinity and Rachel decided to keep a classroom for all the patients that suffer from psychological disorders. It is for the purpose of nourishing and developing our brains."

After hours of walking around the first floor and second floor, it was dinner time.

Everyone gathered in the hall. This time even Eric joined us in the dinner. My body was exhausted, learning all the corridors and forgetting them in an instant.

I was also told about my duties for tomorrow as the newest monitor.

Once it was time to sleep I rushed towards my new bedroom. I slowly walk to my bed and lay down. I didn't wait for everyone else to show up because I knew they will create enough disturbances that I will hardly be able to sleep.

I stretch my arms in mid-air, rolling to the side of the bed. I close my eyes before I was out like a light.

---