Personality Part 2

I sat there for days, not talking to anyone.

It felt strange. Food was always brought and put down, and I always ate it, but I didn't trust anyone. Soon enough a man came in the and sat down at my bed.

"My name is Dr. Randall. You haven't said a word to any of the staff." He seemed a little worried when he spoke. "We need to know if you're okay. Are you feeling depressed, suicidal? Can you even understand me?"

I nodded my head and he sighed with relief.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk. All in good time." With that, he walked away and left me in the room.

This padded room was always lit so it seemed like it was always day time. I never really did much, because most of what I did was eat and sleep. I guess the doctors determined that I was doing okay because the man came back.

"Hello, Mr. Galloway," he paused as though gauging my reaction, "You seemed a bit surprised when I said that. Did anyone tell you your name?"

I shook my head no.

"Ah, well, we have talked about it," the doctor said, "You've been very good, in our eyes at least so you can be allowed to walk the hospital grounds freely and eat with the other patients."

I gave no response in return and just laid back down on my bed. He left leaving the door open.

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After about an hour, I walked out of the room and went around the hospital. We seemed to be on city outskirts since I could see people going to work or coming home from work.

My perception of time was really messed up. I couldn't tell if it was morning or night.

Exploring even more, I came to find the gardens in the middle of the second story. It was a nice place but it wasn't for me. It had a little zen garden that looked very well kept, but some things were out of place.

A patient eyed me, like he was waiting for me to do something. I didn't and walked away to the cafeteria. I ate what appeared to be a dinner meal and it was much more filling than whatever they gave me in the padded room.

I didn't talk to anyone, and nobody talked to me. It was just the way I wanted it. After getting filled up, I walked back to my room and shut the door. I started to really take in the room, for the first time, since I was coming in and not born inside it.

It looked normal, like something you could see in the movies. I couldn't remember an example, though.

Something compelled me to begin removing the bed sheets. It must have been late fall or early spring because the comforter was fairly heavy. After disassembling my bed, I found some small blood specks on the mattress. I was disgusted since I was sleeping on this and they obviously didn't clean up as well.

What even happened?

Some real crazy guy must have tried to kill himself or something.

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The next day, I was brought in for a checkup. The accident I had been in to get me here, must have been something involving getting bitten because my arm was all wrapped up. Then, when it was taken off, it was heavily scabbed. "You should be fine in that area, just don't pick at it like a crow. I do have some questions involving mental stability, though." The doctor cleaned it up and dressed the wound again and looked at me, "This is just common procedure; you did take a good blow to the head. Each question will be yes or no, so nodding will be fine."

I nodded to indicate I was ready.

"Do you remember anything from before the accident?" shook my head. No.

"Do you have consistent memories from after the accident?" I nodded yes.

"That's good. No short term memory loss. Another question. Do you think that gardening is a good way to spend your time?" I shook my head no but somewhat hesitantly. The question was a little weird for a medical check up.

"I can see the confusion. Don't worry. The question has direct correlation to something actually based in medicine." I nodded again to indicate understanding.

"The final question is: Are you having any form of hallucinations since the accident." I shook my head again. No.

"Are you sure? Have you seen anything even a little off?" I nodded no again, this time much more firmly.

"Okay, I get it. Those were the questions. As far as I'm concerned, you're on your way to a full recovery."

I'm not exactly sure where I had gained this trick from, but I was able to read the notes he took down despite being upside down. It read, "Stance on Gardening means great progress has been made. First one so far."

I took it as a compliment and walked out. I got lunch and head back to my room, where I found things unusually vacant. The bed was stripped of bed sheets.

"We think you can live amongst the patients now, so we moved you to a hallway room. They have windows," Dr. Randall stated behind me.

I gestured for him to lead the way and made it to my new room. It was a bit more open than the padded room, and had a window like promised. I was fairly excited for the freedom.

It felt nice to be in a place where space actually made sense. At least, until it got all cramped.

I understood now why they asked if I saw hallucinations because right as the lights went out for bedtime, a whole pack of carnival freaks arrived.

While the dark made them look rather scary, it was easy to see past that. There were around 17, all packed in the room, with some standing on the walls or another's head. The biggest one was the most gnarled, with parts of the body missing.At the same time, he looked bloated and like he was about to burst.

It was all a bit strange and while the normal person might have found them menacing, I did not.

They all looked at me hungrily, eyeing my arm, which was only lightly wrapped now.

There was one that intrigued me. It's head was completely burnt, like the others, but he seemed to be the most complete. His hands, however, were long and stretched. They were almost like a rake but with claws instead. In a second, he actually jumped at me and tried to bite my arm.

I immediately dodged, almost like I knew it was going to happen, and punched it. I fell forward from the momentum and the thing fell back, hitting the ground with a thud.

"That really hurt! Why'd you do that?" It said.

"You...can talk?" My voice was extremely rough. It felt like it hadn't been used in ages.

"Well, of course." It said, "We all can you know. It's been a long time though. A bit too long."

"What do you mean? You all look like monsters to me."

"Everyone is too scared to talk to us. You are actually the first, I think." They all murmured in agreement.

"Why in the hell were you trying to attack me if you can talk? Just talk."

"It doesn't work like that. There are rules to this, you know."

"What rules? What are you talking about? Do you know about my past?" I frowned, trying to glean as much information off of them as possible. Information that the doctors refused to provide. "My accident? Did I do something dumb like summon a demon?"

They all looked around at each other. Slight whispering occurred in the background, which was a little surprising. "We all know everything about your past, but we can't tell you. If we did you would die. We can give you some advice though. If anyone asks you about anything strange, don't say anything about us. We don't exist. If you do, you won't be able to get out."

"Why, none of this makes sense. What aren't you telling me!?"

I woke up before it could speak again. It was morning and I had fallen asleep. It was just a dream, or so I thought until I realized that I could see a face and a hand in the furthest and darkest corner. It quite literally zipped up its mouth and disappeared. Now I was scared of the monsters because they knew about me and I didn't.

What the hell was happening in this hospital?

===============

I spent the rest of the first week getting to know the second floor which eventually made me realize that the freedom I had was stuck to one massive plane. It felt very self sustaining because of how much it was. Everything to stay happy.

I kept getting weird looks from time to time. I didn't really know why until someone whispered at me, "Hey, get over here."

I walked over and waited, a bit impatiently.

"Why aren't you in the garden?" He said, his brows furrowing. "You're making people feel a bit weird."

I looked at him very confused, and tried to speak back.

"What?" Was all I could muster before feeling a sharp pain in my throat that made me start coughing.

"Holy shit, you can talk? We all thought you went mute after you started screaming every which way. You've been walking around this entire place mute for around a year," the man paused, considering. " What's going on with you? Getting sane again?"

I was very, very confused now. I was here for a year? Maybe the amnesia was much worse than I thought. Why would I be in the garden? Maybe that's why it felt a bit familiar. Those strange looks made a bit more sense now. Everything else, however, was getting more and more confusing.

"Did, uh, do you see the monsters at night?" I was able to blurt out before another sharp pain to my vocal cord.

"Okay, so maybe going more insane," he shrugged. "Look man, I'm in here for suicidal depression. but you, you need some help. No. I don't see the monsters? Can you see them now?"

"Erm, no. Only when I dream. It's not that crazy. But they knew more than me."

"You seem to be having trouble talking, but I'll tell you this. The doctors are here to help you, so I would say get help. Dreams are part of the subconscious so these guys are the professionals."

I nodded in thanks because I couldn't handle the pain anymore. I had a choice to make now; tell the doctors about the monsters or keep my mouth shut like they wanted. I think I would wait a week since I could tell the doctors at any time.

The day went mostly "normal" after, that. With a lot of staring, probably because of that incident. "The mute can talk," they'd say. I worked through the day to get back to my room at lights out. This time I tried to stay up and see the monsters. It was easy enough. They popped in around 30 minutes after lights out.

"You didn't tell the doctors. Good. That's a beginner's mistake." One of them crooned, though I could hear the echo of voices long after it had spoken.

"Alright, cut the shit," I said, "What do you know about me?"

"That was sort of a lie. We know how to make you better but not exactly much about you."

"Alright, make me better. How do I recover my memory?"

"We're gonna talk. That's it."

"What, that's it!? Talk? Bull."

The creature didn't hesitate at my words, instead just began talking. They all came forward, every single monster and began to talk, not all at once but very strangely. It was like one mind telling stories all together. They said things about books I've never read, places I've never seen, and people I never knew. It all felt so homely, but foreign. Like I knew it, but it was still something I never knew of.

I woke up the next morning filled with knowledge from the monsters. Turns out they were rather nice people once you got to know them. I went around not telling a soul what had happened. I was able to keep it a secret for the entire week.

===============

On the final day of the second week, I noticed something. Most of the monsters had disappeared. Only about 5 remained. It was the biggest of them all that remained. Massive bloated beings that became small and ravaged by time. Old and gray.

"Where did they all go?" I asked.

The oldest one replied. "They are beginning to merge. You wouldn't understand, you're still not ready."

"What do you mean not ready? I keep hearing that but I don't see an answer. 'It will kill me,' you keep saying but I don't believe you."

"I know what will happen if I do. I'm not going to kill you."

"Hmph. Fine."

I fell asleep without even listening to stories. When I woke up my doctor was waiting by my room. He was looking a little worried and came straight for me when I walked out.

"Did you lie to the infirmary doctor?" Dr. Randall asked. I shook my head no.

"I know you can talk, why try to keep the illusion up? We're here to help you, me especially. Someone said you see monsters. Is this true?"

"Yes it's true. Only in my dreams though. They're not hallucinations," I said as bluntly as possible.

"Okay... Well do they talk? It could be your mind talking to you. It could be healing. What you went through was traumatic, which is why it takes the form of monsters."

"They tell me stories. They tell me things I can only assume are from my past. I don't know where it comes from though."

"Your past, huh? You know, I think I know something that can help you. It's a new treatment. Follow me and we can do it now."

"Really, that soon? Do I have to prepare or anything?"

"Nope. It's very quick. It only takes 10 minutes."

He started to walk off and I followed him. He took out his phone and made some calls for people to get to "the room" and texted a bit. We got into a crowded elevator full of a good amount of people all going to the same place. We went down to the basement and everyone but the doctor and I ran to the room.

I started to feel a sense of fear. It was like nothing I've ever felt before. I felt fear when I saw the monsters. But this, this feels like I'm walking to death. Dr. Randall opened the door to a room with a lot of electrical equipment going to what looked like an electrical chair.

Was this shock therapy or something? Wasn't it a thing that didn't work in the slightest back in the 20th century?

The door locked behind me and I was grabbed. These men dragged me to the chair while I yelled in their faces to let me go.

I was strapped in and the bowl went over my head.

All the monsters' heads were burnt. Was this why? Many had raked hands. Gardening. My head began to shake. I was remembering. The monsters looked familiar because it's what I see when I look in the mirror. The largest monster appeared in the light in front of me.

"It hurts. Help me," I sputtered.

"I can't. They will keep you alive. It will only get worse though. We are trying to find out how to fix it. It's getting harder. We didn't remember the chair before you."

"I-I-I-I... Augh..." My brain froze.

"Quick for god's sake, start the machine! Something's wrong. This has never happened!" Dr. Venke's voice resounded. Wait., but... Dr. Randall,... He's Doctor Venke? No, wait, he's Dr. Rucci. No, that's me.

So many names. It's all mixed now.
The machine started up abruptly and the bowl over my head whirred. A bright light hit my eyes and I went blind.

And then...

I woke up in what looked like a padded room.