In all the confusion she was forgotten. The alarms were ringing, and there was a herd of people, all wearing the same clean crisp white uniform, rushing into her room. Her room mate was hurt, there was blood, that was all she knew. Even her own pale blue clothing had blood on it. Her room mate must have hurt herself ; she recalled seeing a crudely made blade discarded on the floor before the herd of people pushed her from the room.

It was late night, so the halls of the building were empty and quiet, aside from the loud and constant buzzing of the alarm and the noises from her room. Not knowing what else to do, the girl started walking, wandering through the halls. The were lined with thick doors with small windows at the top. The occasional one she passed had a curious face pressed against it. She ignored them. The walls were white, but it wasn’t even the pure white one might expect—it was pale and creamy, like the walls were dirty and if it weren’t for the strong stench of cleaner, one might assume they were. She wandered on, turning down different hallways she had never seen before. It was strange, living here for nearly a year now and there still being places she had never seen. She was surprised she hadn’t run into anyone yet, someone to tell her where she should be. The alarm was still buzzing but the girl had pretty much tuned it out. She found herself on a large hallway lined with windows, after passing through a door she was sure was supposed to be locked. Maybe, she thought, if I keep wandering around like this I might actually find the way out. She smiled and laughed softly to herself at this thought. It was her first true thought of escape since coming here. She knew it was close to impossible. Though the Lakehaven Mental Institute was not known for being a ‘pricey’ establishment, it was not lax on security. It was where a lot of the mental patients from the nearby prison were sent.

The girl stopped and pressed her face against one of the windows. It was night, so she couldn’t see far, only another part of the building, lit up, and a small field which ended at a fence. The fence was tall, but there was no barbed wire atop it. Beyond that, all that could be seen were the tops of trees of the woods that surrounded the building. She took a step back, recalling being driven up here nearly a year ago, and thinking how pretty all the trees were. She frowned as she was finding it difficult to remember. It was like trying to hold water in her bare hands. She’d scoop at the memory and for a spit second held the complete picture in her hands before slowly it started to slip through her fingers until she was only left with a few water droplets clinging to her hands. She remember the drive, who was driving, and why, were lost. She wasn’t even sure how long she’d been here, but it didn’t feel too long so she figured it hadn’t been a year yet. Besides, she hadn’t had a birthday yet, had she? She considered her reflection in the window. A small girl of maybe twelve?

The girl stared down her reflection. Somewhere she remembered being twelve, but the body reflected had been on this earth longer than that. There was no mirror in her room, and the windows had bars over them, wire inside them and were far up on the wall. Was this her? She moved her hand up to touch the strange face. The reflection did the same and so the girl figured it was. She wasn’t twelve, but still had a small look to her. Or maybe it was just the effect of the lose fitting uniform she wore. Made of a rough material and a pale blue, the large pants and t-shirt hung awkwardly on her body. She was taller than she remembered. And he body looked more mature; she moved her hands slowly over breasts she didn’t remember having. How old was she? She turned her attention from the strange body to the face. She was glad that she could still see her former self in its features. Her hair was still a rich brown, though longer than she had remembered. It hung limp and uneven around her face and shoulders. Her eyes were still the odd shade of blue gray she remembered and the small wide shape. But she couldn’t ignore the mature features of the face she recalled as childish. She titled her head to the side, and chewed on her lip for a moment before smiling, deciding that this new, older version of herself was pretty. She pressed her hands to the glass; her smiling widening when the reflection did the same.

“Hey, you there!” a man’s voice called out. The girl showed no reaction to the voice. The man belonging to the voice was not a doctor, or attending, only a janitor, and he didn’t know what to do when he saw that a patient had wandered out into the main hallway. He knew the door to the patient ward was supposed to be locked. He heard the buzzing of the alarm but had been told by a passing doctor that everything was okay. But now this. He abandoned the cart of cleaning supplies and quickly rushed to the girl. She didn’t look dangerous, but he knew that this placed housed some pretty messed up people.

“What are you doing out here?” the man asked, grabbing hold of her arm. The girl turned to him slowly. She stared at the man for a moment, taking in the sight of the slightly pudgy older man, before pointing to her reflection in window.

“Do I look like that? Really, I mean?” she asked. Her voice was soft and cracked slightly, probably from lack of use.

The janitor smiled, breathing a sigh of relief. This girl probably just wandered out in all the confusion, she wasn’t dangerous, she seemed confused by her own reflection. He nodded.

“Yeah, that’s what you look like,” he said and pulled the girl from the window. He was confident that the girl wasn’t a serious threat but he knew he needed to do something, and the bit of what appeared to be blood on her clothing worried him. It wasn’t much, but he didn’t know if it was hers or someone else’s. There weren’t many doctors here at this hour, and the few that were, were down dealing with whatever it was that caused the alarm to go off. It was still buzzing. He pulled the girl away and used one of his many keys to open the nearest door. It was one of the doctors’ break rooms and at this hour it was empty and the lights off. The girl wasn’t fighting back in the least as she was pulled into the room and the man sat her down on the couch. She decided she liked this man, even before he gave her a juice from the machine.

“You stay here, now, okay?”

The janitor was nervous about leaving the girl to go get a doctor, but he had left his radio back at the front of the hospital, and they needed to know a patient had wandered out this far. But the girl seemed preoccupied with the juice he had gotten for her, and as he studied her, sitting on the couch and sipping the juice as a child would, he was pretty sure she couldn’t do much harm. He did lock the door, though, just to be sure.

The girl was alone again, studying the new surroundings over the top of her bottle of juice. This was the doctors’ place. The girl wrinkled her nose. The doctors, the one in the big coats. She didn’t like them. Though they were better than the others, the ones that just wore the white outfits, but she still didn’t like the doctors. She sat still on the couch, the nice man’s words in her head. ‘Stay here.’ She drank her juice, enjoying the sweet and bitter taste. She couldn’t remember the last time she had tasted juice. It was either water or milk. And she really hated both. Finally, after finishing her juice and fidgeting around on the couch, she had to get up and move. She didn’t touch anything, and passed over the TV, and the computer, though was briefly intrigued by the coffee pot. But in the end it was the window that she was drawn too. This one was smaller than the one out in the hallway, but she could see by the latches that it could open. She pressed her face to the glass. She saw only grass and a road, long and curving, and the same fence the must encircle the whole building. The grass seemed so close; she was only on the ground floor.

Suddenly she grinned. It was a strange grin and when she caught sight of it in the window she wasn’t sure it was really hers. Her hands moved down to the latches on the window. They slid open with no problem. The alarm was already going off, so there was no trigger when the window was pushed open. The girl giggled, as her face was smacked with fresh air. She took a deep breath, wanting to take all of the air in the world into her lungs. There was a slight wind and it blew her hair around a bit. She leaned out, loving the feeling of the soft wind passing over her and rustling her normally limp hair.

She was so wrapped up in the feeling of the fresh air, that she almost didn’t catch the clicking of the door being unlocked. She heard it, though and turned around to watch as it was pushed open. A doctor stood in the doorway. Not just a doctor, the girl recognized his badge, it was different from the others, he was their leader. He had kind eyes, but the girl had never trusted them. He was tall, and looked only in his late 30s. The girl considered him standing in the doorway, his white coat, flapping slightly in the breeze that the open window let in. The girl froze, still leaning halfway out the window. She waited for the man to move. He gave a cautious smile before letting the door shut behind him.

“……what are you doing?” he asked, his voice soft, and kind. Like it was a casual conversation. He had used a name that the girl’s mind hadn’t registered.

“I like the air out here, it’s nice,” the girl replied, getting antsy. She had to move. Move where? Go back to her bed? This man could take her there…couldn’t he. No… that wasn’t where she needed to move. She glanced back outside, she had to be out there. No, she resisted her own idea, she couldn’t go out there, that was against the rules. But it was so nice out there… But the rules. While she was caught up in the argument with her mind, the man was moving closer. She heard a heavy footstep and whipped back around. The man froze where he was, but for the girl, at least part of the girl that was too close. He needed to back up, seriously, she couldn’t have him this close right now. He was a doctor, she hated doctors. Still, there was a fear of the man, and the girl wasn’t quite sure where it came from.

“You should come back in,” he said, gently, but the girl saw him inch closer.

“I don’t want to,” she said, but pulled her head back in. She glanced back at the doctor, who was still inching closer and closer, still with the same smile on his face, as though he was trying to comfort her…. Or trick her.

There was a blur of movement, the girl wasn’t sure what all had happened, but suddenly she was running and she knew that all that was important at this moment was running. She glance behind her, as the hospital moved further and further away; the doctor was leaning out the window, holding his nose--- was it bleeding? And yelling.

The words were lost to the girl’s ears. Her bare feet moving quickly across the well manicured lawn. It wasn’t long until she hit the fence; without a second thought she was climbing it, ignoring the brittle metal biting into her bare feet. She hoisted herself over, scraping her leg as she did so. She didn’t really climb down the outside, but really fell, using the fence to help slow her down. She didn’t really register the pain of the scraps and cuts. She knew she had to run. The buzzing of the alarm somehow was louder now that she was further away from the hospital. She had trouble running at first, her bare feet now being assaulted by sticks and rocks and all the matter of the ground. She was slowed to a near walking pace when she heard the voices.

“She can’t go far.”

“We are in serious shit if she gets out.”

“I know, I know, we’ll find her.”

The girl suddenly decided that pain to her feet was worth it. She ran. She knew she didn’t want to get caught. That was bad. She’d be in trouble then. She rushed through the woods, no idea, really of where she was going. The trees were becoming dark blurs as she rushed by. She had to keep going, keep running. Had to. Had to… But her mind was whirling. It was going nearly as fast as her feet, trying to sort though the events of the night. Everything had been so calm, but opening that window. By opening that window she let it out. The girl tripped and screamed, nearly falling head first into a water filled trench . She caught herself, barely, but she knew the scream would make the voices come faster. She looked at the trench, it was more like a stream, wide but it didn’t look too deep. She saw, that a bit beyond the trench the path looked cleared. She considered her current path, thick with trees and under brush and it didn’t take her long to reach the decision. She took a deep breath and jumped into the water, glad that it was as shallow as she had guessed it to be, only coming up to the middle of her leg. She fought the water and climbed up the other side before taking off again. She was thankful that the air wasn’t cold, actually it was warm. Summer, she thought, looking at the greenery of the trees as she rushed past.

It was fall when she came here. She remembered the looking at the trees from a small car window, admiring the many colors. But she also remembered another summer and another fall. They were vague memories. But the fact it was summer threw her internal clock off quite a bit. She thought it was winter. The hospital was tightly sealed, and it was close to impossible to tell what was going on in the outside world. She slowed as it finally dawned on her that she had been in that place much longer than she had thought. She recalled her reflection. It was hard to picture herself as that person. She still saw a small, child, no older than thirteen. But time was faster than she thought. She slowed to a stop, mind to weighed down to run any more. The woods here were thin, and the ground softer, something her bruised and bleeding feet were thankful for. She leaned against a tree, finally letting the pace of her run catch up with her. She had no idea where she was going to go to now. The vague idea of family crossed her mind, but she had no idea who they were, or where there were, even if she had any. She was close to cursing herself for this wild escape plan when the wind passed over her; it was a strong breeze that tossed her hair around, madly and made her clothes wrap themselves tightly against her. She laughed; the warm breeze making her hair tickle her face. It felt so good. She closed her eyes and opened her arms, as if to embrace the wind its self. Whether or not this was the true reason she had chosen to jump from that window didn’t matter. It sure was a reward. The horrid doctors and the dirty clean white walls of that place were gone; she had escaped their evil clutch.