Reality

Kenya!! There's a beam of bright light approaching me fast, I can feel my heart punching through my chest. The girl calling my name doesn't look familiar. She's reaching in my direction. My body doesn't budge, however my mind is racing. I cannot move no matter how hard I try. The wailing of my alarm sends a shock wave through me and at that moment I wake up so fast and fall over off the bed, sheet and blanket entangled in my leg. My hands are clammy from sweating. It takes me a few minutes to realize I was only dreaming. My mother burst into the door, face distorted from panic and worry from the preconceived horrors that filled her mind when she heard the sound of me falling out of bed. "Kenya!" she clutched tightly to her chest. The sound of her yelling my name sent flashes of my dream before my eyes causing me to stumble backward and survey the room. My mother grabbed my arm and held me up. "Honey are you ok?" The heightened panic in her voice made the room spin around and around. "Baby?! do we need to go to the hospital?" I could hear my mother's voice, but my body was weak, I felt limp and helpless and before I could say or do anything my eyes grew heavy and the room became dark.

"Kenya, sweetheart?" I hear from the back of my mind. There's a light being flashed in my eyes. I follow it until my vision clears up. The nurse is recording my vitals, and preparing my I.V. "You gave yo mama quite a scare, gave us all a lil scare." She smiled sweetly at me, revealing a small gap between her teeth. She wasn't any taller than 5'3, her skin was the color of iced coffee. If I had to guess, I'd say she was in her mid to late 20's. "The doctor will be right with you, but if you need me for ANYTHING, you press that button riiight here, ok." She instructed as she pointed to a red button with an image of a nurse embed on it. "Thank you." I said to her, my voice sounded hard and scratchy. I laid my head back onto the pillow the nurse had pressed between my upper back and head. With a loud exhale, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to rest.

Kenya!! Help me! Please. The girl is in a hospital gown. Tears cover her face as she tries to reach for me. This time, I run in her direction. "Who are you?" I call out as I run as fast as I can toward her, only as I get closer she zooms further away from me. I look around and everything is blurred. I look ahead to what's in front of me and see number 323. There's a piercing scream that forces me to cover my ears, it gets louder and louder causing me to fall to my knees. A hand grabs my shoulder, I look back and scream, the scare immediately wakes me. "It's alright honey, it's just me, the nurse said as she shushed me and fluffed my pillow. "You havin' weird dreams or nightmares?" I looked at her, head slightly cocked in confusion. "what's the difference?" Before continuing she double checked to make sure the door was shut. My auntie used to have night terrors, where she would experience nightmares that felt like real attacks, she'd wake with bruises and welts all over in certain places. That's what I mean by weird. I shook my head "no" "It's not like that," I tell her what I remember about the reoccurring dreams and she puts on a face that lets me know, she's picking through her mind to see if she has a story reference that may have an answer for me. There's a moment of silence before she finally says; "I got it! maybe they're...

*knock knock knock* Miss Morgan? The doctor unintentionally interrupted, and the nurse, took her leave, but first she instructed the doctor that my vitals have stabilized since my arrival, my blood pressure was high when she first came in but after re-checking it has come down to normal. She bid me farewell as she was not only leaving the room, but also clocking out for the day. The doctor was an old white man, his grey hair slightly ruffled. His eyes were the color of a bright blue sky and his skin had age and adventure on it. He listened to my heart and lungs and asked a series of questions, like; how's school, how's home, any areas of extreme stress, you know the usual. Noting my answers, he too bid me goodnight and instructed I get as much rest tonight to better ensure stabilized vitals and a greater chance of being discharged.

Door number 323, sounds of panic and screams are coming from the other side of the door. I can hear my heart beat thumping loudly in my ears, but my curiosity leads me to open the door. There are doctors trying to restrain a patient, a young girl maybe about 15. She's screaming and trying to fight the nurses who have now began to grab her legs and place them into straps, tying them to the hospital bed. In the midst of her struggle she noticed me. Her eyes were dark brown, hair dark and drenched with sweat. Her cheeks were flushed with red, her skin, pale. She snatched her hand from them and into my direction.

Kenya! Help me! Please! The nurses didn't seem to notice me and continued to strap her in. I looked around for clues as to where I may be. A hospital of some kind. A nurse walks by me unbothered by my presence, carrying a file of the patient's. "Emilia Rose" is the name written on the folder. In the lower right corner, the hospital's insignia and logo stamped; Connected Saints Hospice and Hospital. For some reason it dawned on me in this moment that I don't have my phone, my mom hasn't come to visit, or call. I can feel my chest ache with worry.

I opened my eyes, slowly this time not to cause a scene. I survey the room of the hospital room. I quickly unhook myself from the I.V tube. My legs are like noodles when I stand. I stumble onto my food tray table, I use it to assist me toward the window. Out of it, I see that it's dark out, there's buildings close by. It's too dark to make out any signs. I move about the rest of the room and in the bedside table I see a pamphlet that reads: Connected Saints Hospice and Hospital. I felt the hairs all over my body stick up, I nearly lost my balance. I rolled with the food tray and got back on the bed, the feeling in my legs now back. I pressed the nurse bell multiple times. "Is everything okay ma'am?" A lady came on the intercom of the remote. "I'd like to call my mom?" I questioned. There was a silence that made me become uneasy. I want to call my mom. I repeated. "I'll be right in." I realized I was not longer attached to the I.V, I quickly reinserted its placement only this time I poked a tiny hole in it with my Barbie pin I keep placed in my hair. The nurse came in with a slight smile and asked again what I needed. She scanned the I.V and my arm to see any changes. She looked up at me and awaited my answer; Some water and a phone to call my mom, I don't know what happened to mine." I said in as calm a manner as I possibly could. "You can use my phone", she looked around the room, then leaned closer to me. "We're not really allowed phones in here so don't tell on me kay?" She was in her early 20's, she looked fresh out of high school. I called my mother's number and in my head I begged she answered. Hello, this is Regina Morgan.. My entire being settled at the sound of my mother's voice. Tears immediately came to the surface of my eyes and cannon balled to my lap. "Mom" I managed through sobs. Kenya? baby what's wrong? "I want to come home, I don't want to be here, where have you been? Did you come in to see me?" She explained how I've only been here not even a night yet and the few times she came, I was asleep. She promised she would be in first thing in the morning. I wiped my tears and handed the nurse back her phone. She chewed her gum intensely. "I don't like hospitals either really, I mean I'm only here for the summer then back to the dorms I go." "Why can't you have phones here?" I asked curiously. She shrugged and rolled her eyes, "some stupid ancient policy, back when this hospital was more like an insane asylum." My heart dropped into my solar plexus. A lump swelled in my throat. "How do you know that?" A silly question but it was the only thing that came out. She looked at me like I was a curious girl scout instead of a high school student. She swatted her hand to signal me to move my legs over. She looked me in my eyes and said, it's late and I shouldn't be telling you "tall tales" and "ghost stories." "I can handle it." I counter confidently. She pushes her blonde hair behind her ears and clears her throat. "okay so in the early 1900's or whatever, this very hospital was still a hospital only for the "insane" she made quotations with her fingers. Insane kids that is. The doctors and nurses were experimenting with various treatment to "cure" crazy kids, only their mistakes caused a lot of kids their life. My mouth dropped open as my dream flashed before my eyes. The nurse continued, the reason why it closed down is because the hospital had a habit of using orphans and kids in the foster system for these experimental treatments, well one day a little girl named Emilia Rose went missing. To this day, nobody knows if she ran away, or was kidnapped, or anything, but her body was found outside of this very hospital in the water by the docks. Doctors and nurses both denied anything involving her. It got shut down not long after that, too many 'accidents' started to happen to the nurses it was claimed to be haunted by Emilia. Demolitionists tore it down and a few years later. Decedents of the original owners decided to do something for the community and rebuild with it new intentions and new staff." She looked at the ground almost saddened by whatever just crossed her mind. "Has it changed?" I asked, she perked up a bit, "well it's not an asylum anymore." She smiled back at me and stood up, "come on, you said you could handle a little story." "I can, is it true, the story?" She looked at the door in a worried manner. She scoffed, "I got too wrapped up in telling the story, they're probably out looking for me. Remember you did NOT use my phone." She waved and sped out the door. I leaned back in the hospital bed, and stared at the ceiling thinking about the coincidence of my dream. I've been having dreams about a patient I never met, but she was a patient here years ago. I took it all in, took a long breath and wondered what it all meant. As I drifted to sleep I thought about Emilia and this hospital, was it her trying to tell me something about the hospital? Darkness slowly filled the room as my eyes grew heavier and heavier, until finally closed.