"Alright. This is our stop. C'mon Reagan, follow me."

A young female in a white doctor's coat stood by the exit, waiting for the only patient on board to follow her off the bus. She had curly dirty blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. With or without heels, the tanned woman was taller than her patient. Not saying the patient was short, but merely that she was tall. On the doctor's name tag, 'Ms. Tanner' was engraved signifying who she was. Her coat hid most of her attire, but the edges of a black skirt could be seen.

"Come on Davie. I promise you'll be okay." Her voice was soothing, motherly even. She reached out to Davie, that being the patient's name, and waited for him to trust her enough so they could get off the bus.

A male, in his early twenties stared out the window, sitting in the middle of the two person seat. 'If I sit too close to the window I could get hurt by glass. But if I sit on the edge, I may fall and get a concussion. It- It should be best to sit here.' He flinched at every speeding car, and cowered away from people walking past seeing him on the bus. And finally, the white bus came to a stop.
'Trenton State Hospital.' Davie read the sign of the building he was suppose to live in. It didn't look so bad with it's white furnished outer walls and the nice small garden sitting in front of the hospital decorated with yellows and oranges.

"But-"
"You're not going to get hurt dear. I promise you." Ms. Tanner spoke before he could start worrying and have another anxiety attack. It was hell getting him onto the bus, she tried to make it much less of a pain for the both of them. Davie hesitated, but swallowed the nervousness and got off the bus with the doctor.

"This is where you will be staying. You'll be treated and cared for by the best."

Davie tuned her out halfway as she showed him around. He mesmerized rooms, emergency exits, and the office. He was shown his room, a simple room with a bed and a tan desk, but afterward he was escorted out. Confused, he decided to pay a little more attention.
"As of now, everyone is relaxing in the Lounge Area. It's a schedule system to keep everything in order... Are you getting all this Davie?" She knew of his symptoms, but she was sure he wasn't slow and could retain information.

"Yes...Yes ma'am." He said quietly and followed her through a set of large double doors. Inside, patients were sitting around or doing small activities alone or by themselves. Doctors occasionally walked through, writing things on clipboards or talking to one of the patients. "Go on." Was all the doctor said before she let Davie go off by himself, free to do as he wanted. The blonde stood in his place for a few moments, studying everything. There was a Jenga puzzle off to the side, a tv with three couches, with two being used, a few scattered books, and other various things. 'I don't want to go where it's crowded. They could get upset and hurt me... I don't want to go by the window... That might break.'

After a few more scrambled and panicked thoughts he finally made the decision to take a seat on one of the couches farther from the others, only to observe everyone else and mind his own business.

'I never got to ask...why I was sent here? Why are there so many doctors? Am I sick?

“Iris?” a man voice asked softly when the door started to open to a gray room, a white sheet bed which a matching white desk that had been coloured on.

“Iris is sleeping.” Floretta the five year old personality that lived inside the twenty-one year old German girl. Her accent was still rather thick, but her English had improved a lot since she been put in the intuition two years ago by her older brother.

The doctor smiled at Floretta before holding his hand out for her. The girl stared at it with her icy blue eyes, before looking up at the doctor’s face. “But bunny wants to say here today.” She said referring to the well used stuff bunny who had an x patch over one eye and red thread holding on one of the ears.

The doctor lowered himself to eye level with Floretta since she sat on the ground with the bunny. “What if I promised you that colouring book again?” He said the young girls face lit up with joy.

“You promise?” She asked before the man nodded his hand before holding it out for Floretta to take. The girl took his hand and was lead into the ‘play room’ as she and all the personalities had learned to call it. The doctor let her hand go before leaving to get her things. The five year old looked around the room. Dull of colour, people all off doing these things. She looked down at the bunny again. “I know, but Dominick wants use to be safe. “ She whispered into the bunnies ear.

Floretta looked around for her one friend, and bite her lip when she didn’t see her. The doctor had reappeared with the book and five crayons for her. She smiled up at the doctor. The doctor smiled back before turning to leave. Floretta grabbed his shirt. “Where’s Tori?” She almost pout. The Tori was an older woman who Floretta had taken on as a mother figure. The doctor sighed before matching Floretta’s eye level.

“Well she wasn’t feeling very well today, so we let her sleep. Maybe she’ll be feeling better tomorrow. Now go have some fun.”

“Okay Doctor McClair.” She said still a little said before bouncing off to the underside of her usual table, her book open on the floor, the crayons laying beside her, the blue in her hand, as she hummed softly to herself, her feet up in the air, hitting the table leg softly.

Florretta was only about half way through her current picture, when she saw a pair of feet walk by. She peeked her head out to see a boy she had never seen before. She watched him for a minute smiling before noticing how scared he seemed. She closed her book and picked up her crayons before crawling out from under the table and walking up to the boy, her colouring book held out in front of her. “Wanna colour with me! It’ll make you feel better? Dom-dom always used to say ah, well in German it’s Machen Sie eine Welt der Farben und Magie und all die schlechten Dinge gehen weg. But I don’t remember what it means in English.“ She said starting to rumble to herself a little. When she finished speaking she smiled brightly at him, the bunny she had hanging from her elbow on her left arm.

Davie sat quietly. He counted his fingers, checking that all ten were still there. He counted the patients. There was roughly around twenty five that managed to be fit into the room. Everyone else was probably in their rooms or somewhere else he didn't know about. Then he counted the doctors. They all had clipboards, and they all were walking around looking at the patients. He didn't know why, and he didn't feel it was his place to ask.

A few patients walked passed him, some closer than others, and yet he was ignored by all of them. He'd scoot back in his seat as they glanced over at him, or he'd avert his gaze to some inanimate object that couldn't stare back. A doctor approached him with a friendly smile, noticing how scared the patient was. "Hello there. You must be one of our newest patients. I'm Doctor Conner, and what's your name?" Davie stared at the white haired male as he pushed his glasses up towards his face. He was really patient as Davie contemplated how he should answer.
'If I don't answer he'll get upset, but then I might say something wrong and he'll still be upset. He's not going to like me then...'

"I- ...I- um, Davie. Davie." He gave a mental sigh when he finally was able to say it.

"That's a nice name. Well, I just came over to tell you that you don't need to be scared here. Everyone is nice. And if you don't want to talk to them, you can always talk to us." He smiled and nodded, then went over to another patient.

Suddenly, a young woman holding a bear and a coloring book bounced her way toward him. He immediately flinched, braced for some sort of injury, but she stopped in her tracks. It took him a moment to realize what she said, her accent was pretty heavy. After another brief moment, he registered:
"Wanna color with me?"
No greetings, no formalities, just an offer to color. He didn't know how to react to such a situation. Was he supposed to introduce himself? Was he supposed to say hi? Did he even want to color? Actually, coloring didn't sound so bad, yet even though she offered, he was still unsure if he should accept it.

There was the possibilities, the endless choices over one simple gesture. All this time, he had never spoken a word. Davie only stared with wide eyes at the young woman, and then her doll. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Doctor Conner looking at them. The doctor smiled and gestured him to speak. Davie looked at the girl again and gave a nervous smile. "Um- sure." He scooted over so she could sit down. "O-Oh, thank you!" He quickly added trying to stay polite. It was a odd to talk to someone without having a formal introduction, so he decided to give his name too. "I'm... I'm Davie." He didn't ask for her name. It was enough that she actually approached him, and offered to color, everything beyond that was a lot.

Floretta stood there with the book out in front of her, in one hand the five colours they had given her and her stuffed bunny hanging from her same side. She pulled the colouring book back just a little as she started to talk about Dominick, her older brother who could no longer take care of her. But that didn’t stop her from smiling brightly at the boy before her. Floretta liked making new friends, even more so when they looked nice. Floretta was good at noticing people’s emotions and thus knowing if they were safe to talk to. In a place like that the numbers were limited. When he didn’t answer her at first, she titled her head to the side looking at him with her big bright icy blue eyes. For a five year old she was good with people, little did the boy know that she was really a twenty-one year old with a five year old personality currently in control.

When he finally spoke she jumped up and down a little, her hands coming together to clap as she lost two of the crayons. “On no!” She said before placing the crayons from her hand on the couch, the book in his lap as she clung to her bunny and got on the floor to reach under the couch for the two run always. As she did so she bumped a little into the boy’s leg before sitting up and smiling. “Got them!” She said before getting up without brushing herself off and picked up the other crayon’s before sitting down beside him with a bit of a bounce. “What colour do you want?” She said holding out her hands for him. “They don’t always have a lot of colours for me, today is different!” she said with excitement in her voice.

When he thanked her she gave him the colour he wanted before placing all but the green one in her lap along with her bunny who seemed to be overlooking the two colouring. When he said his name she smiled up at him with a little blush. “Floretta, maybe later you’ll get to meet Iris. She’s my best friend.” Floretta said as she sung her feet a little, despite it catching on the floor each time because she wasn’t a real five year old. And without a second thought her mind went back to the real task at hand. “Should we finish this picture first or should we do one together or maybe even we could each have a page. It could be like, umm,” she paused trying to remember the word in English before she sighed a little. “ It’s wettbewerb in German. Umm, I think it starts with a c. . . it’s were two people fight to be better. One gets first place and the other gets second!“ She finished before kissing the top of the bunny’s head.“Maybe even Bunny will place.“ She said picking up the purple crayon and putting it in the bunny’s hand.

The lady seemed extremely happy, and without a care in the world. She, unlike Davie, was okay with meeting new people. He would shrivel up into his own thoughts all alone and just hope not to bother anyone. He also hoped no one scared him, or hurt him. That definitely wasn't the case at that moment though. He didn't run away. He had actually agreed to talk to someone. He had actually agreed to color with someone...! He- He-! His breathing quickened and he panicked when he realized he couldn't breathe. In the process of him not being able to breathe, his stomach started to hurt as well.

The girl had started staying something, but it went over his head. He felt the light bump against his leg and it only added to his panic. It all happened in the matter of seconds, or a minute, he wasn't counting. Seeing her stand up again and smile oddly enough made him sigh in a small relief. She was rather calming for some reason... The worry on his face relaxed a little when she spoke of colors and not having many. "Oh- um, sorry. Can I have the blue one?" He wondered why the green one was set to the side, but decided not to question it.

He was given options to choose from. Even though it was as simple as coloring, he felt the rise of panic in his chest again. "You choose. I don't- I'd rather not." He quickly shook his head and looked down at the pages. If he tried to decide, he would panic. If he panicked, more bad things would happen. That was what he tried to avoid. "I think you mean competitions...but I don't really like competitions." He looked down at the bunny, and then at the coloring pages. "But you can pick whichever you want. I don't really mind." His gaze went up to the patients, only to make sure nothing was out of order. When he realized things were still calm, he put his attention back to the coloring book.

Off to the side, doctors were writing what they observed from the patients. Two were examining the interactions of the new patient and Iris. One noticed the panic attack Davie had, but was stopped by the other examiner. "Wait." He said as the woman gave a confused look. She watched and noticed he calmed. When he did, she gave a small sigh in relief and continued her writing.

“Sure” She beamed before carefully pulling it out of her hand and passing it to him. “Blue is good for boys. If they’d given me pink I would have used that, but red is nice, but. . .” She paused trying to place why she didn’t like it before shaking her head. “Dom-dom liked green so I’ll use green.” She said before sitting down beside him once again rambling. Dom-dom was the nick-name for her older brother or Iris’. Floretta being so wrapped up in the idea of colouring with someone, even with Tori gone she wanted to have fun. It could be very boring there without Iris around.

She took a moment to place her bunny in her lap, set her crayons up, before hearing her new friend’s whose name she’d already forgotten, breath come quickly. She looked at his chest, before letting her blue eyes slowly glance up at his face. She moved the crayon from her one hand to her other before slowly reaching up to touch his cheek. “Don’t worry the monsters won’t get us here. That’s what Dom-dom said.” She smiled at him before letting her hand slip from his cheek as she swung her feet more. It was then that they moved onto her struggle with the English word competitions. “Right, Comp-competitits, no competitions!” She finally got out with a grin. Before he explained that she could pick, so she took the book from his lap and started to turn the pages in debate before pointing at a picture of a puppy in a grassy field with a ball. “You like dogs? We can do this one? They have cats too, even some bunnies like Bunny. But they didn’t lose an eye.” She said drifting off on another ramble before placing the book back in his lap.

“You can start with the ball and I’ll started with, umm, the grass, grass is green.” She said with a small smile before pressing the crayon to the page the pressure of her colouring going through the thin book onto his leg. The two doctors, along with a few others became interested in how the two were reacting. Usually it took weeks to months for two patients to interact how Iris and Davie were. It may have been because of Floretta being the controller at the current time, but it was something highly interesting to watch. Even more interesting than watching the other patients mindlessly doing nothing in their free time.

'Don't worry, the monsters won't get us here.'

He flinched under her touch, but after a few moments relaxed. Floretta was nice- and she didn't try to hurt him. Since he finally decided to be comfortable around her, he decided (after thinking over and over) that he would talk to her again. At least, he would try to talk to her again. Then he just decided instead that he wouldn't shy away from her when she approached.

Listening to her try and say competition, made him laugh softly. "You're English is funny." He realized that might have been rude, so he quickly apologized. Soon, they were coloring. He didn't know how a random girl named Floretta managed to get him to not only speak, but color as well, but he didn't mind it... It was kind of scary. What made the doctors even more interested was the fact that Davie would still shy away from other patients that approached the two or were curious to see what they were coloring, and yet Floretta was still able to sit and they were able to color together. Maybe there was some hope for the two patients... Maybe.

"L-Look. We finished." Davis gave a satisfied smile seeing four whole pictures colored in. Instead of choosing between animals, they decided to just color them all. "They- They're really nice." He looked down at the pages before glancing at her. He didn't make eye contact for too long, but he did acknowledge her. "What... What now?" He looked around, seeing patients wandering, some like zombies, while others danced or played around.

To answer his question, a soft ring sounded and the doctors started spreading out to the patients, helping those who needed it. "It's time to go to your room." A few patients said, walking past the two still on the couch. Davie over heard this and then blinked. "Oh, I think I have to- to go to my room now." It sounded like a little safe haven.

Davie waited for the exit to clear out before he stood to leave. He didn't want to accidentally bump into someone while he was walking. "Um, bye Floretta." It was all he managed before he turned to walk hurriedly to his room. Davie was unsure if there would be some penalty to not going to his room, so he hurried. When he walked in, he looked around the small space and sat on the bed. It wasn't as soft as the one at home, but it wasn't too bad. "I...I want to go home." He frowned a little, wondering why he was sent to a hospital in the first place. He wasn't sick. The last doctor's appointment he had confirmed that he was pretty healthy. With a sigh, he laid on his side, hiding under the blanket.

"You're English is funny." He said making Floretta giggle a little.

“I know it’s funny. I used to live in Munich with Dom-dom. But when Iris turned seventeen we had to move here.” She said without much of a care like any child, well those who were outgoing. She didn’t even look up from her colouring as she talked to him. No fear lingering in her body, just happiness to spend time with a new friend.

As time went on the two kept talking and colouring, even to the point where Floretta used the bunny holding the crayon to colour in some parts as well. When they finished the last one Floretta smiled brightly up at him her eyes closed as she held the bunny on her lap. “Next time we should colour more!” She said before giggling and then looking down at the last picture they had finished. It was a bunny, Floretta had even added the x over its eye to make Bunny ‘feel better’. When he asked what now, Floretta glanced up before umming softly to herself for a moment. “How about I ask the doctor if you can keep a picture in your room!” She said before getting up the crayon’s falling to the floor as she ran over to one of the doctors who had been watching them.

Floretta grabbed the woman’s hand and pulled dragging her over despite Floretta being just slightly taller than the woman she was dragging behind her. As she pulled the woman back she was explaining to the doctor how Davie needed to take the picture to his room so he wouldn’t forget. The doctor smiled at Floretta but you could tell she was a little worried about the idea of doing it. When she got back to the couch she took the book from Davie’s lap and held it out for the doctor to see showing her each picture. The doctor made sure to look over the images and praise the two of them for their great work. After a moment of thinking she smiled. “Alright I’ll let you both take one picture each. I’ll bring them to your room after we get everyone back to their rooms is that alright?” Floretta nodded happily.

“What one do you want?” She said well glancing back at Davie. Once he had picked the doctor noted and took the book after Floretta told her what one she wanted.

“Alright you two time to get back to your rooms. Floretta I’ll put this in the office and take you back alright?” She said the doctor not missing the fact that this was Floretta and not one of Iris’ other personalities. Floretta nodded and held her bunny before glancing back and seeing Davie leaving the room.

“Oh. . . bye.” She said a little sad that he had already left.

~~~

The next day, the picture was tapped up on the wall of Iris’ prison. She stared at it as she sat on her bed, her back pressed along the wall, her feet dangling off the end of the bed. Her bed was made, the bunny they let her keep sat on the end of the bed staring at the picture. She couldn’t remember much from yesterday. But that was nothing new. Before she blamed the coke she somehow got addicted to, but even after she got clean she couldn’t remember much. When they moved to America, they found where they were again and Dominick hide Iris in a mental hospital no longer able to keep running away from her mess with them. Cats shouldn’t be purple though, what kind of meds did they have her on and why was she colouring? Closing her eyes she hit her head softly on the wall before the rattle of keys could be heard outside her cell. Peeking open one of her icy blue eyes she waited for the clicks of the locks to follow and then the screaming of the door as it swung open into the hallway.

“I don’t want to go out today. Just give me my meals unless you’re going to let me call Dominick.” She said slightly annoyed, the doctor paused for a moment wondering which one he was talking to.

He sighed. “Iris?” He question knowing that when they tried to explain her problems to her, she shut down and Sin came out. No one liked dealing with Sin. “You know today is your chore day.”

“This is so stupid, you have enough people to clean the damn halls.” She said before pushing off to the end of her bed and walking towards the doctor. “What are you slave drivers wanting me to do today?” She said as the doctor took her to some rooms that were now empty, she was given a bucket of water, a mob and a scrub brushed. Iris sighed to herself when she was along, pocking her head out to see if anyone was in the hallway, some guy was who was currently talking to a doctor, she turned back into the room and stared at the walls. Blood spatters were her task to wash out. Most of the blood from the floor had been cleaned up. Iris had become used to it. She knew this hospital was up to something when they took in a homeless runway into their care.

Him sitting in his room quietly was all a blur considering he had woken up, not remembering when he went to sleep. Davie sat up quickly, dazed and confused until he remembered where he was. . . And where he wanted to be. He looked around the room, tucking his legs under him. What did he do now? Wait for someone? Go out the door? With more than one option, the male decided it was best to just wait inside the safety of his room. Who knew what could happen if he tried to leave.

The jingling of keys made him slide closer to the wall, and the doctor made it no different. "Remember me? I am Doctor Conner. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." He was going to continue, but decided to wait and see of Davie would reply.

'Dr. Conner? ... He is the one from yesterday. He was nice- unless he was lying! Oh, but what if he was only lying to he me to be comfortable around him! He could be a bad doctor! I might get-'

"Davie. It's alright." The doctor could easily read the slowly forming expressions on the male's face. He took a step forward, and then glanced over when he saw Davie looking at the picture on his wall. "Oh, I see one of the doctors put it up for you. It looks nice." He smiled when Davie visibly relaxed and stood. "Wonderful, now today is chore day. Everyone gets assigned a chore to do every other of the week. Don't worry, you won't have to clean everyday." Only getting a nod, he continued. "And from the schedule, you get an easy one. All you have to do is take a few folders from the main office, to an office in the back. "It's pretty easy, and I trust you. So I'm going to let you do it by yourself, alright? It's room E. When you go up to the office just say your name and your chore. They'll take care of you from their."

To be a new patient, the male was sure putting a lot of weight on his shoulders. He wasn't sure he could handle such a job. It sounded really serious. What if he dropped the folders and the papers scattered? Then he'd surely be done for. But for some reason, this doctor trusted him, so he had no choice but to do the chore. And like that, the doctor let him go and Davie was to do things by himself now. What a weird place... Of course, he didn't know that the doctors were trying to get Davie to be more independent and make choices of his own.

---

'All I have to do is say my name. And my chore. I know my name, I know my chore. My name and the chore. T-That's not so bad. I know it, I can't mess that up... But what if I do. I can't do it. Where's the doctor? I don't want to-'

It turned out, he was still walking as he was telling himself he wasn't going to do it.

"Yes dear? How may I help you?"

He froze, staring at the woman behind the counter. "I-I.." He tried, he really did. But he couldn't speak. He tugged on his sleeve and looked down. What was he supposed to say again? Why was he even here?

The lady watched calmly, having seen many small attacks before. She had already knew why Davie was there, but the plan was to see if he could say so by himself. "It's alright dear, here you go. Just remember to stay calm okay? At least you made it up here."

Davie nodded, slightly confused. Without a word, he held the stack of folders with both hands and walked to room E. He didn't bother looking at the brown folders, being way too focused on what was in front of him. He had to get through a hall that had people cleaning- or starting to clean. There was no other way around, so as he walked through he mumbled several apologies to several people even though he did nothing to harm them or their work.

Staring at the walls, a brush in her hand, she just frowned. She wasn’t getting anyways. She gave a soft breath out to blow a strand of her long blonde hair from her face. It simply lifted a little and fell back into the same spot. Sighing annoyingly she threw the brush into the bucket of water, the water rocking around the bucket and spilling onto the floor of the room she was cleaning. Looking at her hands, which were know wrinkled from the water she sighed yet again and started to dry them off on her pants. It wasn’t like she was allowed any of her own clothing anyways. Once her hands were dry she pushed her hair from her face and could feel the water pooling at her foot. She glanced down and could see how dirty it was, a mixture of dark gray with just a tint of pink from the blood.

“Guess I need to get new water.” She muttered to herself before grabbed the handle of the bucket and picked it up. It was heavy, for someone who was rather small and weak such as herself. But all the same she started to carry it from the room, peeking out the hallway to see three other people in the hallway, and one doctor sitting at the end of the hallway in a chair with a clipboard on his lap. It really looked like he was doing nothing, and Iris pretty sure that was just the case. They claimed to be making sure everyone was safe, and keeping an eye on their process, but Iris knew that was bullshit. Finally walking from the room she made her way down the hallway pass the office and into the closet, struggling a little to dump the water into the skin before placing the bucket in there and turning on the water, feeling for the warm. Once it was just where she wanted it, she started to hum to herself, it wasn’t long before she was sing softly, a song in German.

Even when the bucket was full, and she turned off the water she kept singing. Before Iris had been put in there, when her and Dominick were on the streets, she was a street performer, she would see for the people going along their everyday things. Some would give money, others would be pick-pocketed from Dominick who lingered in the crowds. Sure it was a bad thing to do, but when your living on the streets, you’ll do just about anything for money. Iris was just happen she never went down the path of prostitution, although she’d sometimes wake up the next morning with a hole load of cash but no memory of how she got it. Dominick would say he got it somehow. But Iris always knew he was lying.

She passed by the office the bucket swinging lower then her knees as she struggled to carry it. She song softly, the bucket water spilling a little over the edge leaving a trail of water, making one of the other patients glare at her. She ignored him and placed her bucket back in her room. Bending over, she reached into the bucket and pulled out the brush and walked up to the walls.

“Wo du bist, was du machst
Ich weiß es nicht
Ob du schläfst oder ob du wachst
Ich weiß es nicht “