“ I wish I could say that there’s a good chance that this will help you, but then I would be lying to you. It probably won’t. You’re still a test subject, and we’re still a long way from finding a cure. Well lets put you under anyways.”

That’s all I remember about myself. That little speech that the crazy lady gave me before she seemed to push me into a deep pool of water as thick as honey, and I woke up here. It was a meadow in the middle of a forest that seemed to go for miles.

 “MONICA!”

 I heard a masculine voice yell in the distance, and decided to find it. I started walking in the direction of the voice until I found a pool of water. 

I looked at my reflection and found that I had short, jet black hair that shown in the mid-morning light, with a streak of blue that looked like lightning in front of my left ear. I saw my face and found my sharp nose and pale, angular face that matched the rest of my sharp body. My eyes were a clear grey like looking to the bottom of a river in a storm, and when they caught the light in just the right way , it looked as if someone had implanted huge diamonds into my face, shining brightly, greatly contrasting my dark hair. Lastly, I notices what I was wearing. A long sleeved, figure-fitting black shirt ( though I didn’t have much of a figure to fit ); thick, khaki colored cargo pants that tapered just above my ankles; and brown boots that barely caressed the bottom of my pants, and had shoelaces the color same blue as the streak in my hair. 

I realized how long I had been standing there when I heard the voice call out again. 

“MONICA!”

It sounded closer than it had before, which encouraged me to keep combing through the forest. After a few minutes, I begin to think I’m going in circles. Everything looked akin. I heard a loud rustling coming from my right, and suddenly, a twig snaps in the same area, and I whip my head around to be met face-to-face with a tall, bulky boy. I immediately began to edgy, because this boy looked as if he could easily take down a bear.

 “ Oh no it’s okay, I don’t want to hurt anyone, I’m just trying to find my sister!” He said in a distressed tone. “ Oh, and by the way, I’m Manny.” 

“ Hey Manny…” I said cautiously, “I’m, well I don’t remember. But I’m assuming that Monica is your sister?”

“Yes! That’s right!” The childish boy in front of me exclaimed.

It was then that I took notice of his features for the first time. He had a muscular structure and sharp jawline. His soft, round, playful, cobalt blue eyes were placed a bit to close to his bit too wide nose and bit too boxy eyebrows. He had hair the color of burnt umber that almost kissed the tops of his eyebrows, and he also had a lightening streak in his hair in front of his left ear. His outfit was the same as mine, showing off his bulky bodice. 

“Can you help me find her?”

“Hm?” I responded obtusely, snapping back into reality. I hadn’t realized how long I must have been examining him. I assumed he was examining me all the same. I mean, we were complete strangers who just so happened to meet in the middle of a forest with the same outfit and random streak in our hair, one would think that you would be curious.

“Help me find Monica? I was telling you about her. She’s a little bit shorter than you, same boring brown hair like mine, and  dark blue eyes like mine,”

 he explained deliberately, like he was talking to a young child, while slowly gesturing to his hair and eyes. How insulting that we just met and he already thinks so lowly of me.

“Um, yeah, sure. I mean it’s better than wandering around the forest alone, not knowing what’s out there, so why not?” Relief flooded his features, and we began to search. 

We spent maybe 10 minutes calling out, praying that our yelling didn’t attract exactly what we didn’t want it to, until another three people ran out of the thick trees in front of me all matching me and Manny, blue streak and all. The first person that I saw clearly after the adrenaline that rushed into my system and turned the corners of my vision black faded, was a girl like the one Manny had described. Manny immediately rushed to her to fast for me to register what he was doing until it seemed as if he was crushing her small frame. I let the siblings have there reunion as I examined the other two people, both boys. 

The first, clearly older than the second, had short, almost bleach blonde hair and eyes a flowing river, questioning your every move, all framed in a full, tan face.. The second, maybe three or four years old, was being held by the first boy and still had a good amount of baby fat on his freckle stained face. I could see the large indentations on either side of his mouth as he smiled at me, and his tea green eyes, much like those of the boy holding him- curious and excited by this new adventure, squinted towards me, his little hands trying to shield the sun from his eyes. His curly auburn hair fell down to the nape of his neck and couldn’t quite cover his large ears.

“Who are you?” He asked in that sweet little boy voice that only the most ornery of kids were blessed with.

“Well, I cant really remember. Who are you two?” I wondered, trying to keep my voice from shaking from the ever-growing fear and anxiety from not knowing anything about myself.

“YOU DON’T KNOW HWO YOU ARE? IT’S IN YOUR FRONT POCKET! Honestly lady, you didn’t think to check your pockets? Well, I’m Phoenix, isn’t that just the best name you’ve ever heard?” I was right, he did seem like he would be ornery.

“Well, lets see what my name is then. It’s Tessa!” I shouted. I had hoped that knowing my name would have helped with the ongoing feeling of insanity that kept creeping up on me, but, if anything, it just made it worse.

“And what’s your name?” I interrogated the boy holding Phoenix who had been watching our interaction with a smile, not able to keep the small tremors out of my voice.

“Ebony,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“Nice to meet you Ebony.”

It was then that Manny and Monica decided to join us and we all gave quick introductions before agreeing to try to climb some trees to get a better look at what was around us. Phoenix found it very exciting, until he spotted something. He immediately clutched my leg tightly, drawing my attention to two other groups of people. People with red streaks in their hair, and people with green streaks.

The red-heads seemed to know where we were, and once they spotted us in the trees, I knew that we needed to run. Fast. So we did. For 3 weeks, occasionally camping out with the green-heads who seemed friendly enough, though I was always wary of them. Throughout those weeks, my growing sense of insanity grew even more, until it was all I could do to stop myself from ripping my hair out by the handful and shouting a few choice words to anyone who so much as looked my way.

Until one day, when we came across a door. Just a door, no walls attached to it. I even walked around to be sure, there was nothing around it. I opened the door to be met with only white light coming from inside, and I stepped through.

I was suddenly very aware of the presence of that lady again, the one who sent me to that forest. Now I remembered. She was my “special doctor”. 

“Brooklyn there is no Phoenix, there is no Ebony, no Manny, and no Monica. You need to stop making up these fantasies or we’ll have to stop letting you get visitors!” She stressed.

“But, they’re not fantasies. They’re real, just as real as you and me. I swear I could feel the sunlight and the branches that whipped my face as I ran, and could hear the trees whispering my name!” I exclaimed suddenly furious as I began to reach for the lady, wanting to slap her across the face for not believing me. But I couldn’t. I was tied to the bed that I was sitting on the edge of, unable to move the few yards required to successfully hurt my “friend”.

“Now, we can’t have any of that can we know Brooklyn,” she said in the same patronizing tone that Manny had used when he asked me to look for Monica with him. Like I was just an inconvenience in her day, and if she got done with me, the rest of her day would be a piece of cake. I suddenly had to blink back the tears on the verge of spilling from my face.

The lady then proceeded to place a new clean, thin, white, linen hospital gown, before clicking her loud heels out of my room, locking it with a code that didn’t know. That I didn’t know. That I didn’t know. That I didn’t know. I heard the sound of her heels slowly fading as she walked down the hallway- no she was flying- no she couldn’t be then I wouldn’t hear the heels- she’s walking on the ceiling-the halls are filled with people there’s too many people-it’s so lonely all alone in this white room. She walked down the hallway filled with pristine white walls, and doors that led to no one. No the lady said other people like me were there. That must be who was always screaming and banging things around down the hall. No its me that does that.

“BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.BEEP. CLICK.” The door to my unit locked. Forever locked. Forever locked. Forever locked. I’ll never escape. Never escape, never escape, never escape. She locked the door to my unit, the mint wand. No not the mint wand. Ment-Ment Wand. NO, STUPID. ITS NOT THAT! I yelled in my head, or was it aloud? I didn’t know. I threw my chair at the wall. 

“OH!” I audibly gasped. Mental ward. What queer sounding words to put together…