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It was raining. The moisture from the air soaked through my clothes and my skin, the cold cutting through me like a knife, but my mind was drawn away from the chill. I was focused on the giant beast before me. I was armed with a large blade, a machete, and I was using it to slash at the monster to keep it at bay.
It's hundreds of teeth, sharp as razors, were bared in an annoyed grimace.
Where are you?! my mind screamed inside my head. I caught my reflection in the metal of my blade; my face was twisted up in fear and my eyes looked almost insane. My hair was plastered to my head with water and blood and my face was streaming with both rain and tears.
The monster began circling, obviously not scared of a young boy whose knees were knocking in terror. It bore down on me then, it's claws and teeth like blades thirsting for my blood.

My eyes filled with a bright red brilliance, blinding out anything else. After some time I realized that I was looking at the insides of my eyelids. I opened my eyes to a bright white room. I just stared at the buzzing florescent light above me, my mind completely blank. The nightmare was trying to burrow its way into the front of my mind but I pushed it back by staying focused on the light. When I finally felt as if I was in control of the fear, I began to sit up and inspect my surroundings.
I was halted from doing so by tight plastic cuffs at my wrists. I tried pulling and twisting my hands out of the restraints but all I succeeded in doing was making my wrists raw and red.
My feet were also bound by the same plastic cuffs around my ankles.
Panic began to bubble up and I could feel my heart begin to beat faster, my forehead start to bead with sweat, and a scream beginning to build up in my throat when a cool sensation ran through me. It shoved the panic back down deep and I continued to take in my surroundings.
The walls were a clean bleached white. The bare bed I laid on was the same starch white, as well as the basic shirt and pants I had on. I just then became aware of the steady, high-pitched beeping beside me. I turned my head to find a heart monitor as well as an IV filled with a thick, clear liquid.
I followed the wires from both machines with my eyes until they ran into the skin of my arm. I calmly determined that the cease of panic was caused by whatever medicine was in the IV bag. There must have been some connection between the monitor and the IV so that the medicine was allowed to flow into my bloodstream when my heart began pulsing above normal speeds.
I didn't understand what was going on and I wanted to get out of that place, but the numbing effect of the drug kept me immobile. After at least an hour of staring at the light, the white walls, my bare feet, the pulse of my heart on the monitor, I began to feel the numbness wearing off.
I pulled at the plastic cuffs on my wrists.
Tug, twist, pull.
Tug, twist, pull.
I continued with this pattern until my wrists were raw and bloodied, unable to stop. The red pulsed from my wrists and trickled onto the mattress until I started feeling lightheaded. Just as I was about to pass out the white door in the corner of the small room opened and in walked a tired-looking woman wearing pale green scrubs. Her face was full of lines and she had gray mixed into her light brown hair. She was frowning down at a clipboard in her hand until I released a quiet sigh, giving into the dizziness my blood-loss had led to.
She looked up from her clipboard, noticed the life draining from me, and rushed towards me with a panicked expression contorting her face.
She yelled for something, but I don't hear her, I only saw her mouth spread wide. Black spots clouded my vision and I released myself into the darkness, away from the clean white room.

When I woke up again I immediately felt the pain in my wrists. I looked down at them to see that they had been bandaged, although still in the binding cuffs.

"Well well, you had me worried sick sweetie," a calming voice said. I jumped as much as possible on the bed and quickly looked next to me and recognized the tired woman who walked in the room earlier.
Her expression changed from a mild smile to a sad one as she saw the fear in my eyes.

"Sweetheart, my name is Linda. Do you know where you are?" she asked me carefully.
When I shook my head she slowly told me in a practiced monotone, " You are in a place safe. For those who have had trouble functioning in the world with other people."
Then her expression softened and she whispered to me.
"You were in a regular hospital before, you were in the ICU. When you woke up they um... realized that you should be moved to a facility that could better care for your needs."
I just stared at her, my mind buzzing intensely.
So I'm in a crazy house huh? I don't feel crazy, but perhaps that's what all crazy people think...
I didn't know what was going on, all I could remember was that I had seen those monsters, someone was supposed to be there, but they weren't.
I started shaking my head furiously since I couldn't punch it. My head felt like it was going to explode.

Linda reached over to touch my arm lightly.
"Sweetie, please calm down. I can tell that you're scared, but if you just stay calm everything will be alright."
She was lying, a liar, my mind screamed at me.
The thoughts were trying to take hold of my body, wanting me to rip at the restraints and choke the life out of Linda.
At that thought I gasped, a loud, strangled sound.
Who would think that? Why would I think that?
"C-c-can I please l-l-l-leave? I n-n-need to leave," I stuttered over the words. I didn't want to stay here, in this bleached out hell of a place. I wasn't crazy, this place was MAKING me crazy. If I didn't get out of here I would go crazy.

"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" I start to hear myself screaming at Linda. Her eyes turn frightened as I continued to scream and tear my vocal chords. She ran to the door and called for somebody to help.
Someone in some sort of lab coat cane in, a syringe in his hand.
THEY'RE GOING TO KILL ME, my mind screeched to me.
"NOO! NONONONO!" I still scream at them, ripping at my restraints some more, reopening the wounds in my wrists. I felt the hot blood seep out of the white cloth and onto my flesh. Then a slight prick in the crease of my arm, pressure, then the light floods my eyes.
"Dying...." I heard myself whisper finally as the light overtook me yet again.

Blue synthesized light floods the haggard face of the young man, his fingers flying over the keys in front of him. The frantic clack clack clack the only noise in the small and cramped room. In his head however guitar riffs and loud singing fill his eardrums, occasional bleeps interrupting the music. Suddenly the blue lights are turned to red, ERROR messages popping up on all of the screens surrounding him. His brow furrows as his fingers type even more viciously across the plastic letters and numbers.

In about ten seconds the error messages dissipate, but the man's shoulders stay hunched, tense, as if waiting for something. The music in his ears has stopped since he canceled the headphones' functions.

"It couldn't be that easy..." he mumbles in a barely audible voice.
The lone door behind him crashes open, bullets spraying the room and the equipment in it. Sparks fly from the machines.
Three men in suits and dark shades step into the room but the man is gone. The door shuts. The room bursts into flames.