It has been two months since he was placed in the institute claimed to help him. All he got out of it were sleepless nights from the pills claiming to cure his sleepiness. The psychiatrist he saw every now and then would say he was depressed and needed to make friends and that was how to cure him. Yuuma wasn't depressed.
Even as a young child he had never related to depression and never associated with it. He could say he was a bit empathetic and maybe a little psychopathic, but he definitely did not say he was depressed.
Today was Wednesday. It was the day he would typically have to interact with the patients of the institute all with problems Yuuma didn't care to think much on. He sat on an uncomfortable stool hair drifting cooly from the open window, eyes half-lidded and seemingly serene with his surroundings. The curtain every now and then would flap making excessive noise that only looked to be a lullaby to the drifting Yuuma.
"You're here early," a woman around the age of thirty plopped down on the middle stool in a cheerful mood. She was one of the nurses who directed the group. She casually flipped through documents on her clipboard humming softly. Yuuma gave her a lazy once over and went back to floating off.
[Wake up quickly! Ami has a scratch on her knee and is crying!]
Yuuma felt the familiar fluffy voice anxiously cry in his mind and his face scrunched up.
'An allusion, ignore it.'.
Yuuma felt the familiar fluffy voice cry into his mind and his face slightly scrunched up with a frown.
'An allusion, ignore it'
Once again the voice cried desperately that Ena got a cold and today was Mako's birthday. Mako is now 13, Ena is 10, and Ami is 16. In that world, it just so happens that ten years have passed. Well, he isn't for sure about the circumstances. All he knows is the little voice that sometimes cries for him to wake up, yet doesn't seem to know he is listening. Yuuma's tried to talk to it but it's like talking to a brick wall.
A slight windy chill had Yuuma's droopy eyes lift and slightly block his face from the cold with the back of his hand. Yuuma didn't know if he was for sure insane hearing a voice but he knew he had heard the voice before. It was the sound the book made as it entered his body with the beautiful voice stating with passion "dragons aren't cold or lizard-like, in fact, they're fluffy and warm but very sleepy," quote from a previous day had surfaced Yuuma's mind.
He couldn't help but clench his fingers together feeling a well-known pain beat from the area he gripped. This wasn't a dream so why did the voice continuously beg him to wake up? He wished to know but before he could continue on his train of thought the room filled with several shoes, people crowding into the room and taking their respective stools. The nurse clapped waking Yuuma further from his head.
"So is everybody ready? I have a game today, everyone take a card!" Cards spread on the tip of her fingertips with a range of colors. Some showed their distaste for the game and others quietly went up and took one. Yuuma happens to be the last one up, the card he chose was purple and when he flipped it both ways on the back was a small black circle. He plopped back down with sagging shoulders ready to nap again when the nurse's booming voice penetrated his rest. "Yuuma you'll have to participate too, this is a group activity, no dozing!" Some people laughed around the circle but Yuuma didn't care for her words or the laughs.
"Okay, I need everyone to stand and find the person who has the same shape on their card! Some of you have an image while others only have a shape. The Shape for the solid blocks of colors is in the middle while the person with the image has it in the corner. Once you find them give a reason why you might dislike or enjoy what's on the image. After that switch your card with someone else!" After the nurse got done explaining she turned to the radio below her and played some soft tunes.
Yuuma deliberately moved very slowly and only walked a few steps away from his stool. The stool was calling him to be rested on, so he didn't stray from his resting place. Luckily the person who had the circle shape was a very lively thirteen year old and he made sure to check everyone's card with heavy glances. He wasn't far from Yuuma so he found him easily, he held a dark red card and when Yuuma looked at the image he suddenly remembered a certain moment in the fantasy world.
It was a wooden toy duck much like the ones Mako played with. Yuuma's eyes shined with some curiosity but not much noticed by the hyper boy in front of him. "I don't like to play with wooden toys anymore but I enjoyed them when I was little!" The boy excitedly tuned in then looked at Yuuma expectantly. Yuuma furrowed his brows lightly and thought of what he should say, "yeah...I like the design." The boy smiled satisfied with the answer and tapped on the person next to them who was done with their partner and disappeared into the crowd.
Someone just so happened to tap his shoulder and switch out their card and Yuuma took it and gave them his. Yuuma looked at the triangle in the corner of the blue card and stood still. The image was displayed was a glass of milk. It reminded Yuuma of the butler Kenji, and at the moment a thirty-year-old guy saw his card and shot towards him.
"Hm I don't like the taste of milk," his answer was swift and fast wanting to get the game over with, and then glared at Yuuma as if provoking him to answer faster. Instead, Yuuma drooped his card to the side and asked, "what's your name?"
The man's face hardened and looked to be agitated, "who cares what my name is, play the game!"
Yuuma didn't question him any further and answered quickly, "I like the taste of milk." Then it was on to the next person. He met a sixteen year old girl who timidly showed her card which contained a picture book reminding him of Ami who he once read to. Another card was that of snowflakes and a grieving father who constantly spoke of his loss of his children and described the snowflakes as another winter where he didn't get to see his dead son.
It felt very nostalgic seeing these images but it was too coincidental. Why had all of them connected to his time in the other world? The people he met didn't look much like the ones he met there but they were around the same ages all connecting some way with the image even the man who didn't like the milk, reminded him of Kenji.
The last card he had gotten was a square and the owner was a young man around his supposed current age in the other world. He smiled and showed the card to Yuuma who was wide awake at this point. The card was a black flower bud not yet bloomed but appeared to be close to blooming.
He knew this one, this was Sadao.
"I enjoy this image because I used to give one of my friends flowers but he had bad allergies to the pollen and would sneeze a lot. Hehe, I was mean back then...what about you?"
"I have a strong hate for black flowers specifically," Yuuma cursed out in a mutter.
Just then the music died down and the nurse clapped twice saying circle time was over and to go to their rooms. Yuuma didn't miss out on the opportunity to leave and quickly left feeling complicated in his heart.
Tonight when he closed his eyes he expected the voice to cry for him to wake up just like it had every night but this time the words had changed.
[Wake up, we're all waiting for you! You've rested too long you must be very hungry!]
Yuuma suddenly clutched his stomach, out of nowhere hunger lingered in his gut and his lips tightened. He opened his eyes feeling they were very heavy and limbs slightly stiff. He looked down from the pillow his head rested on and felt it was laborious to even do such simple things as moving and looking. He wasn't like this when he had fallen asleep, what could have happened?
Yuuma blinked slowly and unclenched his unusually pale hand on his belly feeling an odd crinkle in his palm. A pink candy wrapping appeared and he immediately knew it was strawberry candy. he had eaten many of them in the mansion...
He squinted his eyes and looked to the ceiling not recognizing the design.