Chapter 1 : Are You Trying To Die?
Three years had gone by quickly.
Inside the psychiatric ward of Kansas Psychiatric Hospital, an assistant nurse walked down the hallway while deeply frowning. She kicked aside a group of patients huddled together, playing a strange game of stacking on top of each other.
As they scattered with distorted screams, a woman at the very bottom was revealed. She was curled up and motionless.
Her messy hair covered most of her face, and her eyes looked empty as she listened to the nurse’s harsh voice.
“2150, you’ve got visitors from home. Get up and clean yourself up.”
Home… Was she talking about the family that had thrown her into this place and left her here for three years? They weren’t her family anymore.
Seeing that the woman was still lying there like a dead corpse, the assistant nurse lost her patience. She grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up. “Are you trying to die? Can’t you hear me?”
Allison Rogers clutched her head with both hands as the nurse roughly dragged her by the collar to the bathroom. The nurse turned on the high-pressure shower, spraying Allison as she crouched in the corner, treating her no better than an animal in a cage.
Twenty minutes later, Allison was brought to the visitation room.
“Mr. Nigel, 2150 is here to see you.”
Allison’s empty eyes slowly moved to the man sitting on the couch. He had his hands clasped together, elbows resting on his knees, and a deep frown that showed annoyance and heavy emotions. This was her second older brother, Nigel Rogers.
When Allison was born, her parents fought. After giving birth, her mother stormed out of the house and never came back. Her father searched for her but never found her, and he passed away when Allison was thirteen. After that, Toby Rogers and Nigel took care of the family. Back then, they swore that as long as they were around, no one would ever bully her.
Now, seeing that familiar face again, Allison felt a sharp pain in her chest, but her eyes turned cold.
The pain was real, but so was the resentment. Nigel no longer cared about her. He was the one who had sent her to this psychiatric hospital.
Nigel looked at her, too. On his way here, he had imagined that after three years apart, she would have realized her mistakes and would run into his arms, asking for forgiveness. But she didn’t. She just stood there with a cold expression.
He had come full of joy, thinking he could finally take his sister home, but she didn’t even greet him.
Nigel wanted to stand up and hug her, but he hesitated and uttered in an annoyed tone instead. “Sherrie misses you. She begged me to bring you home. From today on, you can leave the psychiatric hospital.”
When he finally got a reaction from Allison, his tone had changed. “But there’s a condition. Once you’re home, you can’t make things difficult for Sherrie.”
Allison’s expression darkened. Did they really think that if she didn’t cause trouble for Sherrie Morgan, everything at home would return to normal?
Sherrie was the main reason she ended up in this psychiatric hospital in the first place.
Five years ago, the police brought back her mother, who had been missing for fifteen years, along with Sherrie, a girl one year younger than Allison. That was when Allison learned her mother had been kidnapped by human traffickers and taken to the mountains, where she was forced to give birth to Sherrie. In other words, Sherrie was her half-sister.
The family reunion deeply moved Toby and Nigel. They accepted Sherrie without any resentment and treated her like their own sister. At first, Allison also treated Sherrie with sincerity, wanting to make up for the years they had lost. But Sherrie kept scheming behind her back, constantly framing her. To avoid upsetting her brothers and making her mother uncomfortable, Allison endured it all in silence.
Then three years ago, a fire broke out. Sherrie insisted on rushing in to save her. When Nigel arrived, he took the gas mask from Allison’s face and put it on Sherrie instead.
Nigel carried Sherrie out of the fire without a second thought, leaving the nearly unconscious Allison behind.
Later, Sherrie mocked her, saying she had gone into the fire on purpose to see who Nigel would save. The Rogers family only needed one daughter, and the one who wasn’t loved was unnecessary.
Allison exposed Sherrie in front of everyone, but Sherrie threw herself into Nigel’s arms and cried. Everyone rushed to comfort Sherrie, calling Allison cruel and ungrateful. In the end, Sherrie stabbed herself while holding Allison’s hand. When the family saw Allison holding the knife, they assumed she had lost her mind and sent her to the psychiatric hospital.
Nigel’s anger flared up when he saw Allison’s bitter face. He came here to help her, to take her home, yet she was still acting ungrateful and distant.
Didn’t she want to leave?
“Are you trying to stay in the psychiatric hospital and enjoy the good life there?” he quickly ranted at her.
Allison was stunned and screamed silently inside her head. Did he have any idea what it was like there? It was full of madmen and crazy people whom neither the law nor common decency could control. They could rip my clothes, poke my face with the back of a spoon, and they loved playing human stacking. A pile of them would crush me under the weight of their bodies, squeezing my chest and hips, suffocating me into darkness. Even if a crazy person killed me, they wouldn’t be punished!
Nigel didn’t know any of this because he hadn’t visited her in three years. He probably thought she was just living comfortably there. She knew Nigel too well, and he always thought she was lying, that she was crazy. No matter how much she explained, even if she showed him the scars, he wouldn’t believe her. He’d still think she was pretending.
The nurses at the psychiatric hospital would never admit that they let the patients bully her. Allison had tried to prove it to Nigel many times. Complaining to people who were already biased was just pointless.
Seeing Allison still acting indifferent, Nigel felt even more annoyed. “Looks like your madness isn’t cured yet. Are you planning to take revenge on Sherrie when you get home?”
He wanted her to admit her mistakes, but her cold attitude only made him feel suffocated. In a burst of anger, he kicked the tea kettle near him, sending it sliding toward her. Sparks flew out, and Allison quickly stepped back, fear flashing across her face as she hid her hands behind her.
“If you dare grab the charcoal, I’ll believe you’re cured and let you leave this place,” Nigel suddenly tried to test her.