Two

The mean nurse came into Whisper's room with a tray of food. By the looks of it, it was slop again. They didn't feed patients like Whisper much of anything else: it was why she was skin and bones. The nurse placed the tray on a table and turned to the patient. "Eat, and I will return for your daily shower."

Normally, Whisper would argue about showers and hygiene, but today she was excited for it. She stood up and walked over to the table, immediately scrunching her nose at the sight of the grayish blob glaring up at her. Beside it was a glass of water. Not wanting to get her spirits down, she took the spoon and began eating.

The nurse left once seeing the first spoonful entering her mouth. The girl glanced at the door closing before sighing in part happiness and part despair. She liked Zane. She wasn't sure about his friend, but Zane seemed like a nice person and the first one who'd come to see her willingly. He was the only one who didn't seem disgusted or pitiful about the way she lived. If anything, and if he was telling the truth, he was wanting to spend more time with her. The last person who had tried that was sent to another facility for harassing Whisper even though she was only making jokes.

Whisper thought about the handsome Zane. He was tall, almost seven feet tall if her estimation was correct, caramel skin, dark brown hair, a sharp jaw and muscular body. He seemed kind and decent enough, but looked like he could kill her with a flick of the wrist. His scent was even more alluring for her: rain and male. Whisper hadn't realized how sensitive her nose was until he came in, but was glad for the distracting scent.

Zane had also wanted to know more about her than anyone else in the world. Even the hospital didn't ask about her family. They only asked the important questions like if she was in pain and how many hallucinations she's had in the past week or so. The voice in her head, or as she liked to think of it, her wolf always told her distantly that once these hallucinations stop, then she could come out and Whisper could escape. But ever since she was sixteen when her wolf first made an appearance, the hallucinations only got worse.

What Whisper hadn't told Zane was that she did remember her family, but didn't want to remember them. They weren't the nicest people, never treated her right, always had something against Whisper. Her family got into a fight with one another and Whisper was in her room when she heard it take place. She told Zane the truth when she said it wasn't her fault for what happened. It wasn't her fault they broke through her bedroom door. It wasn't her fault she screamed out of fear for what the three hulking figures might do. It wasn't her fault for ending up in the hospital then a year later ending up here.

It wasn't her fault!

"It's not my fault," she whispered to herself as she took a drink from the glass.

Since she woke up after the incident, she'd been having hallucinations. They started out mild and when she was asleep, then turned severe and that was when she started hurting others and herself. It was when she hurt her mother when she was sent here… She had apologized to everyone, but they didn't care for her words. No one ever cared.

'Zane cared,' she thought. He didn't seem like the kind of person to judge another based on the problems she's having. But she couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him just in case he didn't believe her. She couldn't tell him in case he left for good. It would have been too painful to hear him say he was never coming back.

'Trust Zane,' she heard her wolf say softly in the back of her mind. 'He's not like people here. He is like you. He is of our kind.'

"My kind are crazy," Whisper murmured.

'You're not crazy, Whisper. It'll get better. I promise. Zane will help.'

Whisper could have laughed at her wolf's words. Zane help her? He wasn't a doctor, nor was he a specialist in psychology. 'How could Zane help?'

'He knows you're not crazy. He has a wolf of his own.'

"I want to see you."

'Soon. When you get out of here and away from these people, I will show myself and begin your true development.'

Whisper didn't know what that meant, but she didn't care. Anything was better than this place.

The nurse returned and held out a stick, pointing out the door. "You know where to go."

'The stick!'

Whisper hated the stick. Anyone who worked here used it if a patient got out of line. She had seen an old man be beat with a stick much like the one the nurse held now. The perfect white tiles and walls were colored in red for a few days, but the man was never seen again. It was so horrifying to see, Whisper had a hallucination and ended up in a jail cell for the next week until they were sure she wasn't going to "break down" again. Worst part was, the chains they wrapped around her wrists and ankles burned.

Whisper walked down the hallway and took a left a few feet down. Passing a few doors, she took another left, then a right where she entered a bathroom. The nurse walked in with her, holding the stick menacingly while Whisper undressed and got into one of the shower stalls. Her curly black hair fell upon her face as she reached for the handle to turn the water on.

Like pins and needles, the water spurted out of the spout, pricking her skin painfully and getting her wet. Her back arched and she hissed at the pain there from the multiple bruises and cuts. 'When we're out of here, I'll heal you completely,' Whisper's wolf murmured.

"Why do it at all?"

Thwak!

"Stop talking to yourself!" the nurse growled as soon as the stick came down on Whisper's calves. "Hurry up!"

Tears stung her eyes, but she did as she was told.

Later on, once she was back in her room and huddled under the blankets on her bed, she cried longingly for release. She longed to see the sunshine, to hear the birds sing, to be a normal person. Whisper longed to be free, but she was bound for life here, she knew. Yet, none of what has happened was her fault…

'What are you going to paint?' Her wolf was pacing back and forth in her mind, but still did not show herself to Whisper.

"Thoughts, feelings, just something to let my emotions go. Maybe it'll help with my problem?"

'This place does need some color!' Whisper giggled at her wolf's comment, agreeing completely. 'Will you show them to Zane?'

"Maybe."

'You know you'll have to find a way to hide them, right?'

More tears came to Whisper's green eyes. "How can I hide them? You can't hide anything in here. Not even in the mattress."

'I don't know, but the nurses here won't allow color.'

With that comment, Whisper couldn't help but fall silent. She knew her wolf was right, but if she didn't let her emotions out somehow, then her hallucinations were only going to get worse. She didn't want them to get worse. She wanted to be someone free of mental problems, someone free of an abusive hospital.

(Hallucination)

It was dark… Nighttime had fallen outside her window and Whisper could see nothing but what the moonlight provided. Her room was a small space, consisting only of a bed, closet, desk and chair, and a chest. On the wall were a clock, some photos, and the mount of some kind of horned animal. She wasn't sure.

Shifting in her bed, she saw light coming from underneath her bedroom door, orange and flickering. She heard hushed hissing, as if someone was angry and was trying not to lose control, but it was fruitless. The hissing became snarls that turned into roars of words she did not like one bit. There were two men from what she could discern and something breaking.

"I will not do such a thing!" one low and rusty sounding male shouted.

"If you won't, I will. If I do, you'll regret it!" growled another male, this one more smooth and melodic, even when angry.

The first voice must have slammed his fist on a table or something. "I will not kill an innocent woman and have other packs on my tail. It's not something we should risk!"

"We can't keep her locked up! We can't keep her confined in the basement for the little brat to find!"

"Then let her go!"

"So she can go home and bring her pack to kill us, I don't think so!" There was a pause and a loud sigh. "There is no way I'm exposing this pack to the likes of them."

"Well if we keep her here, then someone will surely hear her or find her, like the little brat you like to torture!"

There was a harsh laugh and the scrape of something on the ground. "I like to play with her, not torture. Since her mother is out of commission, there is no one to tell me to stop."

Whisper listened to their conversation with curiosity and fear. She knew who they spoke of towards the end. She knew the melodic voice was correct. Her mother was deathly ill and had sent Whisper to this man for care. Instead of care, she got beat. Others knew, but no one dared to speak up about it, leaving Whisper to fend for herself.

Footsteps sounded and then a shadow appeared from beneath her door, blocking out the light. Whisper began to tremble as the door opened and she saw the two figures. Their eyes glinted maliciously before all three heard a knock. The two men left, and more fighting started up about the same subject.

Whisper wondered who they had in the basement, and when a basement was built. Ever since she could remember, there was dirt under the floorboards.

She didn't have long to think, for she heard punching begin and men groaning in pain. Pulling the blankets up to her chin, the tiny girl watched the door as shadows appeared and disappeared beneath it. It lasted for a few minutes before her door was smashed inwards and a man was on top of it. The other two stepped inside the room and glared at the man before they set their sights on her…

(End of hallucination)