My room is….at least livable, River thought. She was wearing a pink strait jacket. She asked the staff that made her wear the strait jacket as to why there's only one color in this asylum. He replied that it was what the founder/warden wanted. And also, that pink was supposed to calm the inmates down. It was a psychological thing, he said. The amount of pink in this place was already starting to get on her nerves. It was beginning to get offensive to those who loved any other color than pink. What if there was an inmate that has a phobia for anything pink? River heard of enough stories to know that there is literally a phobia for everything. There's even a phobia for words though she didn't know what that was called.
At least everything in her room wasn't pink. The walls had purple sections on it, including the floor. Pink and purple do complement on each other, River thought. Like that beautiful sunset she saw once when she was a kid. She saw it only once with her family. It was either she doesn't really go outside or that the weather in Port Hope, Ontario was always horrible. The weather was always too hot, too cold, too windy, too stormy, too cloudy, too much anything, rarely something good and beautiful that creates a perfect sunset.
River loved to see a perfect sunset. The last time she saw one was also the time when her parents told her that something was terribly wrong with her. She couldn't remember what happened that day. But she knew someone who did remember, and it was not her parents. It was all a blur, really. And she knew she wasn't in control that time that it happened. Her thoughts lingered as she sat down on her pink bed, trying to look for a window for her to see what the weather was. Just once, she would love to see that perfect sunset. That perfect purple-pink combo. She didn't know what time it is, she couldn't move at all with the strait jacket, so she just slept.
She dreamed about that day. When her parents called her a monster and that an evil spirit, or the devil himself, had taken control of their once dear daughter. In that dream, she was standing next to a bloodied father. She noticed that her hands were also bloodied and looked to see that the rest of her family had already looked at her as if she was a murderer. She looks at her side to see a mirror. What she found staring back at her made her think that maybe she was the devil after all. It had glowing red eyes, long hair instead of short, and was all black. It even smiled right back at her.
"WAKE UP!"
River woke up to the sound of the P.A system on the ceiling. The woman on the other line was yelling at her to wake up and get outside in an orderly fashion. River had also noticed a security camera right at the corner of the wall. She wasn't sure if the asylum was allowed to spy on their patients/inmates by putting a security camera inside the room. Because someone has got to be watching her from the other side. River hoped it wasn't some perverted freak.
"WAKE UP INMATE FE5403," the woman blasted her voice on the PA system again. "You got yourself a visitor. Try anything stupid and the guards will have a fun time zapping you up."
"Yeah, like I can do anything in this damn pink strait jacket you idiot!" she yelled even though she knew the woman won't be able to hear her.
River saw that the door to her room slid open revealing a girl with pink hair wearing a white jacket approaching her accompanied by two guards. She was young, maybe even the same age as her. Yet, she was being accompanied by guards. She was even holding a clipboard. What struck odd the most about her was that she had such an expressionless face. It's as if she was angry but not angry. River couldn't explain it.
"So, you must be the one that keeps referring to herself as River Midnight," the girl said. "You and I both know that it's not your actual name."
"What are you supposed to be, a psychiatrist?" River asked. "You're...not over the age of 20 that's for sure."
"Perhaps you don't know who I am yet."
"Perhaps I don't care."
The girl with pink hair remained expressionless. It freaked River out a bit. River took a look at her eyes and had just noticed that it was also pink. The robot girl had pink eyes, pink hair, and even pink sneakers.
"My name is Rose Pink, daughter of the warden Amadeus Pink, currently the youngest licensed psychiatrist in the world. I am eighteen years old."
River was kind of jealous of her. Rose had achieved that much in her life at eighteen years old. When River was eighteen years old, she was sent to a horrible looking pink asylum talking to a psychiatrist the same age as her.
"You have injured a security personnel the other day."
"Sorry, I might have hit him too hard on the balls."
"Which personality am I talking to?" Rose asked. River seemed shocked at the question.
"It's still River."
"How many others are there?" she asked, as she wrote something on her clipboard.
"Just me and her."
"You have mentioned that her name is Midnight the other day. Your other personality mentioned it to another inmate."
River didn't remember anything that time when she supposedly freed herself and proceeded to beat the guard to a pulp, injuring other security personnel as well. Of course, it wasn't her, she thought. It was Midnight.
"Do you not remember that happening, River?" Rose asked. "It's normal. It means you have Dissociative Identity Disorder. But of course, you already know that."
"Can I go free now? This strait jacket is making me hug myself to death," River complained.
"Not until you are deemed safe to wander around," said Rose as she took out a syringe from her pocket. It was filled with some sort of blue liquid.
"You are not going to stick that into me," River demanded. "What the hell is that?"
"This serum that I have developed temporarily reduces the possibility of your other personality to be active during the remainder of the day." Rose injects the syringe into River's neck. The pain wasn't as bad as she thought it was.
"The jacket will be removed now," said Rose. "Although, there will be side effects to the serum that I just gave you such as headaches, dizziness, loss of balance, among other things."
"Thanks, I guess."
"We'll be keeping in touch soon," Rose said as she turns and walks out of the room. The guards removed River's strait jacket, finally giving her arms some freedom.