Page 9 of Madness

The razor splits my skin, and the perfect shade spills from the wound, but I don’t waste a drop this time - getting to work before the wound clots. I need to finish the caterpillar on the mushroom, but I can’t seem to get the shading right.

I have no clue how long I work.

Too lost in the work and my mind as I drag the razor across my skin again and dip my finger into the blood. I smear it across the not-so-pristine wall and blow on it to get it to dry faster, repeating the process until the shading is perfect on the caterpillar’s eye.

I wish I had blue to work with, but without access to art supplies, this is all I’m able to use. So, different shades of red litter my wall, and I smile at the picture that is flourishing.

The soft click of my lock tells me thatheis here and decided he needs me tonight rather than losing himself in his plants in the greenhouse at the back of the gardens of the institute.

“Hello, Atropa.”

Chapter Four

My first night here was awful.

The darkness was overwhelming, consuming every inch of the room once the lights went out, and I never thought how awful the sounds of some of the patients banging around in their rooms and their heart-wrenching wails would pierce through the walls, haunting me once I finally managed to close my eyes.

“They’re bonkers just like us! Bonkers. Bonkers. Bonkers,”Queeniesays.

“Mad… I’m utterly mad,” I begin, but the sharp knock at the door and the loud voice that booms through the wood startles me.

“You have to get up sometime,” Chesh appears above me, his large fluffy head apparating from thin air.

“But I do not wish to,” I whisper back, “What if this is all a dream, and I awake to be back at Alice’s house?”

“Her head is off, off, off!”Queenie says.

“You see, you are free,” Chesh says, his smile stretching over his face, almost reaching his eyes.

“Get up!” A guard slams his fist against my door, his voice a gruff command.

Chesh vanishes into thin air from above me, his large, slitted green eyes lingering for a heartbeat longer - the last to leave.

He’s always watching – lingering.

I decide to move. I do not want to risk the wrath of the guards since I do not know how they may react to me being late to breakfast on my first day here.

The warden warned me that they have rules I must follow and that I must follow them, or I shall find myself locked up in solitary.

I recite the rules out loud, counting a finger for each one to ensure I remember them.

“The rules are…” I uncurl my thumb, “Do not be disrespectful to the guards – they are there for our safety. Two…” I uncurl my index finger, “Therapy is mandatory for anyone who steps foot into Wonderland with Abe. Three,” I uncurl my middle finger, “Do not wander at night. There are monsters far bigger than I am that won’t hesitate to end me. Four… leave Hare alone.”

Four rules should be easy to follow even when I do not know who Hare is or who the monsters that roam the halls at night are that I need to avoid.

Though they are not real monsters…

“Are they not?”

“They are not. They are only human,” I whisper back to the male voice.

“But you are only human, and you are a monster, are you not?”

I shake my head. I want to start my first day with more than the voices in my head as company.

Maybe I could make some friends for the first time in my life.

I open the top drawer of the chest of drawers that make up my room and grab a pair of white boxers, a pair of black joggers, and a loose blue T-shirt.

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