I hear an unfamiliar voice call me awake from my sleep. I sit up almost immediately and look over at where it was coming from. I see it’s just the on call nurse.

     “Jacky, it’s time to wake up,” she says with a cold voice and a fake smile. I nod and rub my eyes. I look to my right where the window was. I take a deep breath in and stretch a bit. I peel the bed sheets off my bare legs and put my feet on the ground. It takes a lot to lift myself off of the bed. I shuffle to the cupboard on my side of the room. I look over towards my roommate. Her back was facing me, she was still trying to sleep for a little bit longer. I take out a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt with a band on it. I still wasn’t ready to show the damage I’ve done to myself. I hold the edges of the sleeves of my shirt in my palms and I make my way to the bathroom. I pick up my tooth brush and lazily glaze the tooth paste over it. I begin to brush my teeth when I hear a scream coming from right outside my room. Tooth brush in hand I rush out to see what was happening. There was a girl on the floor and she was screaming. A male and female nurse were trying to calm her down but she was fighting back. She kept screaming as if she was dying. I’ve never seen her around before so I didn’t know why she was in Hell Hotel. I glance over to my best friend Axelle who lives across the hall and one door to the right from me. She shrugs and was just as shocked as I was. I look down the hall and see the boys’ wing and a majority of them seem to be out of their rooms, trying to look at what was going on. The head of the ward comes out and starts yelling,

     “Get back to your rooms!” no one moved. She raises her voice even more. “Now!” we do as we’re told and return to our rooms. The screaming from the new girl is still going as I finish brushing my teeth. I step out of the bathroom and see that my roommate has finally gotten up. Probably because of the screaming, I think to myself. The screaming stops as I slip on my shoes. I walk out of my room and the new girl was gone. I make my way to the common room where most of us sit down around a TV or a radio. I see Tyler on the couch and I walk over to him.

     “Sup Ty,” I say to him, giving him a head nod. Tyler’s in here because sliced his throat to try and kill himself. It’s healed over really well but he still wears a scarf. He didn’t wear one today though. We cup our hands and snap our fingers off the middle finger.

     “Like a villain man. How you doin’ today Jack O Lantern?” he says. I nod and chuckle.

     “I’m chill fam, just kinda confused about what happened this morning,”

     “What happened?” he asks.

     “You didn’t hear the screaming?” I respond. He shakes his head. I keep forgetting that he could sleep through the beginning of the apocalypse.

     “Well there’s a freshy and she was screaming really loud. 2 dishes had to hold her down, and the Ant got hella cheesed when everyone came out of their rooms to see what was going on,” he bites his bottom lip to take in the information. Dishes is what we called nurses. The head of the ward was called the Ant. After a pause he nods.

     “Well she probably realised that she was checked into Hell Hotel and wanted out, like the rest of us,” I nod. We were in St. Andrews hospital here in California, but we all called it Hell Hotel. We picks up the remote from the chair in front of us. No one was paying attention to the TV. He changes the channel to Nickelodeon. Our maintenance man Brad hooked us up with free cable from the Ant’s office. What a sweet guy. Spongebob was on and we watched in silence until Axelle sat next to me.

     “Hey love,” she says as she gives me a kiss on the cheek. Axelle was in here for anorexia and alcoholism.

     “Hey boo,” I respond. She gives Ty a kiss on the cheek.

     “What’s up Ax?” he asks.

     “We got a freshy,” she responds.

     “So I’ve heard,” he says. She itches her hollow cheek.

     “What’re we watching?” she asks us.

     “Spongebob” Ty and I say at the same time. She nods and rests her head on my shoulder. She only started recovering properly a couple weeks ago and she was tired all the time. I didn’t mind much. She needs this. She was there for me when I first came in, so it’s my turn.

     “Yo!” calls out Arlo as he makes his way to us. Ty lifts up his arm as if to say hi. Arlo squeezes between Ty and me. Arlo got checked into Hell Hotel about the same time as me. He’s in here for bipolar disorder and he sometimes screams in his sleep.

     “What’s up?” I ask Arlo after he gets comfortable. He shakes his head.

     “Just saw the freshy that got checked into Hell Hotel,” he says. I feel Ax nod.

     “Yeah,” I say out loud. “Wonder what she’s in for,” I sigh out. Arlo stretches and begins to nod.

     “Same, yo,” he replies. As soon as he was done Mekonnen came towards us.

     “Awh damn, y’all took the whole couch,” he pouts. I laugh and pat my lap.

“You can sit here, dawg,” I say. He shakes his head and puts his hand out.

     “I would, but I’d crush you,” he says and chuckles. Ty parts his legs a little.

     “Hey Mac, you can sit on the floor in between my legs,” he suggests. He nods and takes his seat. We call him Mac because I’m the only one who can pronounce his name. Mac came in here for depression, just like me. He just didn’t cut himself up as badly as I did. After another episode of Spongebob a dish came to us.

     "Breakfast,” she says in a monotone voice. “And hurry,” she snaps. Sometimes I forget that I’m even in a mental ward. We make our way to the cafeteria and I notice the freshy out of the corner of my eye talking to one of the minions. That’s what we call doctors. She’s shaking a bit and she’s holding her elbow. She must’ve hit it when she was fighting the dishes. We find our table in the back of the cafeteria. Tyler, Mac, and I go to the line first. After we get our food, Ax and Arlo go up and get their food. When they return, Ax sits next to me and begins arranging her food. I look at her plate for a while. She got grapes, one egg, and one bacon strip. Progress, I think to myself. I put my hand on her knee.

     “It’s okay to eat Ax,” I say in a soft voice. She nods and hesitates before she puts a grape in her mouth. She takes a breath after she swallowed it and hesitated before she ate another. I nod to myself and pat her knee before I let go.

     “Y’all wanna take a quick swim before group?” Arlo asks.

     “I’m down,” Mac says. Ty nods in agreement.

     “We have group before you guys so we can’t go,” I say. Ax nods her head. She’s too focused on eating.

     “Oh yeah, s***,” says Arlo. He shrugs his shoulders as if to say “Oh well” and the proceeds to slurp the last of his cereal. Ty makes a face but takes another bite of his bacon.

     “Yo, I’m gonna go to the bathroom. You alright Ax?” she nods and I look over at Mac and he nods at me as if to say “don’t worry I got it”. I begin the long walk down the hall to the bathroom and on my way I see the freshy sitting down in front of the reception next to the phone. I slow down a little to see her. Once I get to her, I sit myself down in the chair next to her and put my foot on the chair.

     “Hey,” I say with a smile. She looks over at me with a shocked expression.

     "Hell- Hello,” she stammers out. She starts playing with her hands and sleeves. She has long dark hair that she wears natural. Her skin touched with melanin and her face as smooth as a calm ocean.

     “What’s your name?” I ask her. God, she’s beautiful, I think to myself.

     “Nina,” she responds.

     “That’s pretty. Where are you from?” I look at her and she has a certain depth to her dark eyes.

     “I’m half black, half Dominican. What about you?”

     “I’m Ethiopian, but I’ve been living in the states for a while now,” she gets a twinkle in her eye and turns to me.

     “Oh my God, that’s so cool!” she chirps. “Do you speak the language?”

     “Of course I do!” I say and laugh.

     “Oh my God, can you say ‘I’m 100% Ethiopian’?”

     “And metew percent Habesha negn,” I say through laughter. I couldn’t help it, she was being too cute. She giggles and covers her mouth. Her sleeve falls and it reveals an array of scars. She quickly hides them but I stop her. I roll up my sleeve and she gasps. “You’re not alone here, alright?” I say to her in a soft voice. Tears well up in her eyes and she nods.

     "Thanks,” she whispers and sniffles. I put my hand on her shoulder.

     “Hey, you know what?” I say as I stand up.

     “What?” she says as she wipes her eyes.

     “You should join me and my friends for breakfast,” she looks at me and smiles.

     “That’ll be really cool,” she responds. I smile back and we begin walking to the cafeteria.