Death is Black and White

I catch up to Josh and Sam at the doors.

"Guys," I remind them, "I can't go through these doors. My bracelet will set off the alarm."

"Oh..." Sam says, pursing her lips. "Well how did you get out?"

"Through those doors." I point to where I came in. "Security's not very tight in the rehab center. It's easy to get out through those employee doors that we're supposed to be too stupid to find. But they're locked from the outside. I need one of those key-cards."

"Well what if we steal one?" Sam suggests with a sadistic gleam in her eyes. "We can knock out one of the therapists and steal their clothes, then we'll use her key card to sneak you in!"

I shake my head and Josh smacks his forehead with his palm. "How about we just check in," Josh says, "and pretend we're going to see my sister. Then we can let you in through the employee doors for the mental ward."

Sam kicks the snow. "I like my plan better."

"That'd work, but I'm sure the security around the mental patients will be a lot better. They don't give a damn if the rehab kids get out, it's not like they do anything but sit in the lounge and mope around. I don't think they've ever thought about leaving. Plus, the only reason I knew how to get out is because I spent the past three weeks planning my escape instead of talking to anyone," I add, ignoring Sam.

"Ha!" she taunts, right in Josh's face. "She likes my plan better, too!"

I laugh and shake my head. "Sam, we're not assaulting a nurse, no matter how badly you want to. Just make a detour to the rehab doors to sneak me in."

"Fine," she sighs. "See you in ten minutes."

They set off for the front desk and I retrace my steps, at first a little scared that Adam's waiting for me to give me more crap, but he's no where in sight when I reach the doors. Sam seems unphased by all this, all of a sudden. Leave it to her, though, to act like absolutely nothing is wrong after having a complete breakdown. And breaking up with her boyfriend. Who happens to be a jerkass.

Poor Sam. I'll have to spoil her if I live through all this, considering it's mostly my fault.

The door opens and I instinctively press up against the wall in case it's actually an employee, but Josh's head pokes out and I can't help but smile. We successfully walk very awkwardly to meet up with Sam at the end of the hallway, then decide we'd better let Adam's parents know what's going on.

"They're probably in my sister's room, still. It'll just be a minute, then we can go find that Samantha chick," Josh assures us.

"I filled him in on everything on the way over," Sam points out.

I nod. "Well what do you think we should do?"

"I think you should have done the obvious, by telling her to leave the hospital right away," Josh answers simply.

"I guess that does make sense," I say, embarrassed. I don't know why I didn't think of that, I guess I just panicked.

We make it to the back half of the hospital, the mental ward. I've never been here before, but Josh seems to know the place as if he himself built it. It doesn't look any different than the rehab ward, but there are a lot more security gaurds and less people walking the halls. I pull the sleeve of Sam's sweatshirt that I'm wearing to cover up my hospital bracelet. Luckily, it's a slow day, I guess, and no one asks any questions. We take the elevator to the second floor and turn a corner. The first thing we hear is some sort of arguement. We stay where we are and listen.

"You've turned into a little shit since Lydia got sent here, Adam," says a familiar voice that I recognize to be Adam's mom's.

"Mom, I don't care. I don't want him living with us anymore. He's too attached to that...that psycho."

That psycho. Is he talking about Josh's sister? Me? My head is spinning.

"Do not call people that, especially here," Adam's dad repremands.

"Well it's true!" Adam's voice gets louder with every word. "She's tearing apart my life, and she's not even here anymore! Sam's depressed, Josh is always worrying, all they do is talk about this stupid ghost and visiting Lydia. I swear she's doing it for attention! You honestly believe that she's cutting herself because a little ghost made her? The bitch practically got her mom arrested after nearly killing herself right in front of her friends!"

Oh. So he is talking about me.

"I've heard enough of this," Adam's mom says, sounding beyond pissed. "I don't care if you're my son, anyone who talks about their best friend like that is sick in the head. Maybe we should just leave you here."

"No!" he yells. "Why don't you just side with me?"

"Because you're not making any sense!" Adam's dad says calmly. "We're leaving, now. But first apologize to Josh's sister."

Adam laughs dryly. "Psh, which one? The antisocial one or the bitch? Because I don't--"

Sam and I have to hold Josh back, because he looks like he wants to kill Adam with his bare hands.

"Josh, stop!" I whisper. "He's an idiot, just ignore him."

We finally get him to calm down to the point where he only looks like he wants to kill Adam, not that he's going to. I peak around the corner, and Adam and his parents are gone.

"What an ass," Sam spits, and puts a hand on Josh's shoulder. "Don' listen to him. Let's just go see your sister really quick. We can call Adam's parents later."

Josh nods and we start walking in silence. I subconciously take his hand, and he doesn't pull it away. I smile.

We stop at door 238, and Josh knocks. We wait a second, hearing nothing but a couple of words. It sounds like someone's having a conversation. "I'll cut your ankles again," one voice whispers.

"I'm not coming out!" the other says, much higher pitch.

"You're a wimp. You deserve to bleed. Is it because off that asshole?"

"No," the high voice says weakly. "You don't understand. It's the lady in white. She's--"

Josh knocks again, harder this time, and the conversation stops. Apparently, though, I'm the only one that was listening to the conversation.

The voices are so familiar.

I'll cut your ankles again.

The antisocial one or the bitch?

The lady in white.

"Go the fuck away," says a prissy, yet venomous voice from behind the door.

Sam makes a face, but Josh just sighs and I look at him in disbelief. Of all people to be Josh's sister...

"Open the door, Lissi," Josh says. "I need to talk to you."

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

The door swings open and Lissi stands there with an agitated look on her face. She's wearing the regulatory hospital gown for the mental patients, and her puffy ankle is clearly visible. So that's how it happened, Lissi cut herself to punish Natalie. But how did she get in the lounge the day I first met her? She must be crazier than I thought. At first I just thought she was a gossipy, insensitive bitch, but now I can see she's much smarter than that. And more aggressive.

She sees Josh and her face lights up a little bit. She hugs him and pulls us into the room, then sits on her little bed. Her room is even smaller than mine, but definitely not less decorated. There have to be at least thirty Justin Beiber posters on the wall.

Lissi looks me up and down, then purses her lips. "Look at you, Lydia! You look like shit!"

I roll my eyes.

"Lissi!" Josh snaps.

She just laughs. "Chill, Josh," she giggles. "We're friends! Right, Lydia?"

"Uh," is all I can come up with. The last thing I said to her was something along the lines of 'you're a psycho bitch'.

"Wait, you know each other?" Josh asks in disbelief.

"We met in the lounge," Lissi says, picking at her nails. All the malice is gone from her voice, and she's back to her bitchy self. "You're the weird girl who writes on her arms with knives, right?"

"No, not really," I say.

"And you've met my sister, the freak," she adds.

"Wait," Sam interjects. "How many sisters do you have? What's going on?"

Lissi peers over at Sam. "Oh, you're cute. And what did you do, dip your hair in a vat of colorific?"

"What?" she sneers. This is not going well.

Lissi laughs before Josh can yell at her, as he's clearly extremely embarrassed. I feel so bad.

"Anyway," Lissi gets up from her bed and plays with Sam's hair. "My brother has two sisters, I guess. Apparently we have Multiple Personality Disorder or something. There's a fancier name for it, but I don't give a damn about it. I think it's bull. We're twins, but God just forgot to give us an extra body. Right, Josh?" She smiles at him.

He nods uncomfortably.

"I'm Lissi, and my sister's Natalie. She's a loser though, she always hides from people. I do all the talking, even when there's not ghosts around. She's so silly. She thinks she can see ghosts."

"What?" Sam asks.

"She's scared right now. She's always scared. Loser. Anyway, yeah, she keeps telling me about this little girl who's chasing Lydia-Scissorhands over there around, and how all the other ghosts are afraid of her, and now she's freaking out about some white lady. Or something."

It's easy to tell how much Lissi really cares, which is very little.

"White lady?" Sam and I ask simultaneously.

"Yeah, it's pretty trippy. I don't even think the little girl knows about the White Lady yet. It's kinda funny actually."

"Wait," Josh stops her. "What do you mean, she doesn't know?"

Lissi doesn't answer, she just stares off into space. She starts to smile slightly, then winces, then widens her eyes. "Oh, that's very soon," she remarks to no one in particular.

Josh grabs her shoulders and turns her to him. "What's soon? Did you see the future again?"

Sam turns to me and gives me a look that's beyond confusion, and I shrug.

We wait for an answer, but Lissi just stares at Josh. They stare at each other for a minute or two before she snaps to face my direction, and looks at me right in the eyes. "You can't save that nurse. But if you want to watch, she's in room 246, cutting some girl's hair. You've got about three minutes."