Damned.

Sam stared at the all-white room still believing that she was in some kind of awful nightmare, that she couldn’t wake up from. She looked all around the room as she sat on a white couch, she figured this was some kind of “waiting” room there was another couch across from her, with a small coffee table in the middle filled with magazines, which Sam had already looked through.

She sighed as she stood up from the couch and made her way to the small-and only window in the room.

“I wish I had my art supplies,” she murmured staring at the forest just outside the fence.

“Samantha Banks?” She heard her name being called.

She turned around just to see a female nurse dressed all in white smiling at her.

“I have your uniform,” the nurse told Sam as she handed it over to her.

Sam stared at the red uniform, which consisted of pants, a t-shirt and some shoes that looked a lot like slippers.

“Where are my stuff?” Sam asked still staring at her uniform.

“They are already in your room, I’m going to show you around the facility and explain your schedule and then I’ll take you up to your room.” The nurse told Sam with a small smile, and then lead her out of the room.

Sam followed the nurse and tried to listen to everything she was saying, but it was hard to concentrate, her eyes wondered around looking at all the different faces, some looked angry, others looked sad, and others looked completely lost in their own thoughts, then she noticed everybody was wearing different colored uniforms, white, red, and two shades of blue.

“…and that’s where you’ll eat breakfast, lunch and dinner,” the nurse spoke as they continued walking, she told Sam about the common room, a place where the patients are able to watch movies, play some games or just read a book, Sam noticed the big windows and decided she was going to spend a lot of time in there.

Once the tour ended the nurse informed Sam about her group therapy with Dr. De Clercq, which would take place the next afternoon after lunch, she also informed Sam about her one on one session with Dr. Myers who specialized in anger management. Sam nodded with a small smile so the nurse would thing she had been listening the whole time.

The nurse returned the smile and wondered why Sam had been assigned a red uniform, she didn’t seem dangerous to her, she looked… normal, and calm.

“Do you have any questions?” The nurse asked Sam as she lead her to her bedroom that was located on the third floor.

“Why were people wearing different colored uniforms?”

The nurse turned to look at Sam and gave her a small smile, “there’s no need to worry about that,” she said as she opened the door, Sam stepped in and frowned, this was just like the waiting room, but instead the couches were replaced by twin sized bed, and a small dresser stood at the foot of each bed.

Sam walked over to the bed that had her belongings on it, she opened her bag and started looking through her things, and then she began to shake her head.

“Is there something wrong?” The nurse questioned.

Sam looked at the nurse furiously, “where are my paintbrushes!?” Sam screamed as she began throwing her belongings to the floor, hoping they were underneath everything.

“Unfortunately they are considered dangerous as well as your pencils, and pens, we have provided you with some soft crayons though.” The nurse said trying to produce a sincere smile.

“I paint with water colors!” Sam spoke through gritted teeth as she dug her fingernails into her palm, she began breathing hard and heavy as she felt her body tense up.

She glared at the nurse and then Sam’s fist made contact with the nurse’s nose, the nurse let out a scream of pain and covered her bloody nose, a few seconds later two male nurses appeared and took hold of Sam, who had began punching the white walls, and just like before they took out a syringe and sedated her, as soon as she became immobile, the nurses placed her on her bed.

One of the male nurses turned to look at the female nurse, “Je vous avais prévenu ” he told her as he shook his head and walked out of the room.

“She seemed sweet,” the female nurse whispered and followed him out the door.

The last nurse knelled next to Sam’s bed, “when you’re able to move again, you’ll need to change into your uniform, and I expect you to behave once your roommate arrives,” he told her and patted her arm before standing up and walking out making sure to lock the door.

It took thirty minutes for Sam to be able to move again, she sighed feeling bad about hitting the nurse, she hadn’t deserved it, after all it wasn’t her who made the rules about what was considered dangerous or not.

She stood up from her bed as she tied her red hair into a pony tail before changing into her uniform, and then took hold of her bag and began putting her stuff in it, there wasn’t really much to pick up, just a few reading books, her journal, her sketch book along with the crayons the nurse had talked about, some pictures, her favorite stuffed animal bear, some pajamas along with some undergarments, and her journal, which she thought was useless as seeing she didn’t even have a pencil to write with, then she stuffed the bag under her bed.

Sam sat at the edge of her bed and stared at the white wall, she was already starting to miss her family.

“Why did they put me in this place?” she wondered out loud as her eyes watered. She knew the answer to that, it was her rage that brought her there, but it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t control it.

Two hours later the door to her room opened, Sam looked from the wall to the door, a girl with blond hair and wearing a red uniform entered followed by the same male nurse that had told Sam to behave.

“Samantha this is Dihana, your new roommate.”

“Diah,” she mumbled as she stared at the ground.

Sam didn’t reply back, instead she laid on her bed making sure her back was faced towards them, she stared at the white wall and sighed, she really didn’t want to be there. She wanted to be back in California, she missed the sandy beaches, and the weather, but most of all she missed the University.

The next morning Sam woke up and followed what would soon become her routine, she grabbed her second uniform and headed to the showers along with her roommate, Diah, who hadn’t said much, she just mumbled a lot of things that didn’t make sense.

After showering and eating breakfast she decided to head to the common room, she sat on the ground and stared out at the forest, as she drew with crayons, she had accepted that crayons were better than nothing at all.

After lunch, at exactly 1:00 pm, Sam began walking towards her group therapy session, she walked to room 1A, which was on the first floor, and noticed that the chairs were arranged in a circle. She took a deep breath and then exhaled and walked over to one of the chairs.

A man in his forty’s smiled at her, and she presumed it was Dr. De Clercq. She nodded and looked down at her hands as more patients began to occupy the chairs.

“Welcome to your group therapy, I am Dr. De Clercq” the man who Sam had guessed to be the Dr. stood up and smiled at everybody in the room, except nobody said anything.

“Okay,” Dr. Dr Clercq said as he clapped, “why don’t we all introduce ourselves, you don’t have to say anything but your name.”

The whole room stayed quiet, the Dr. sighed and looked to his right where a young man wearing a red uniform with dark long hair and pale skin sat, “why don’t we start with you and move counter clockwise.”

Sam’s head shot up straight, she wanted to make sure to memorize everybody’s name along with their faces.

“I’m Alec,” the young man spoke and crossed his arms.

“Michel,” a man in white said, Sam noticed how relaxed he looked, Sam figured it was because he knew he belonged in a place like this.

“Sophie,” the girl next to Sam with long dark hair spoke in a low voice as she stared at her light blue slippers.

“Samantha, but I go by Sam.” Sam spoke, and then looked at the girl sitting next to her, wearing a red uniform just like her.

“Hevana,” she whispered as she played with her hands.

“Diah,” Sam’s roommates murmured making sure to keep her head down.

“Zeke,” a young man spoke as he stared at the wall.

“Jakob,” the last person spoke with a small smile.

“Great, now everybody look around, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time with these people.”

Sam looked around and whispered everybody’s name just to make sure she would remember their names in the future.

The Doctor sat back down and began speaking, “I am here to help you overcome your sickness, and help you return back home, but in order for me to be able to help you, you need to cooperate with me and give me a hundred percent of your commitment.”

A few people rolled their eyes, they didn’t think they belonged in this place.

Twenty minutes later the doctor finally stopped talking, some people sighed in relief, they wanted to get out of here already.

“Does anybody have any questions so far?”

Everybody turned to look at each other but nobody raised their arm or said anything.

Sam sighed and raised her arm, “we all have different reasons for being in this hospital, correct?”

“Yes, every one of you has a different struggle.”

“Then how are you going to be able to help us, if we all suffer from something different, wouldn’t it make more sense to be with people who are just like us?”

“That’s a good question, but how can a person progress when they’re with those just like them? Take for example a person who suffers from self-esteem issues is put in a group therapy with others who suffer from the same thing, and suddenly her peers begin to get better, and that person isn’t, how do you think that person would feel?”

“Not very good.”

“Exactly, so that’s why group therapy isn’t divided by a specific sickness, rather a bunch of sicknesses, for each person to help one another.”

Sam nodded and looked down at her hand.

“But I don’t have a sickness, I shouldn’t be here,” Zeke spoke with a raised tone of voice.

“Who here believes they shouldn’t be here either?”

Zeke, Sophie, Hevana, Diah, and Alec all raised their hands,”

Dr. De Clercq nodded, “soon you will all realize you belong here,” he said with a small smile and stood up.

“You are all dismissed,” he spoke and walked out, everybody stayed seated for a couple of seconds before deciding to stand up and continue on with their day.