Starter for @soviet-ghost-story
The young woman's room was small but cozy. The walls were a sheer grey color, the floor a thin layer of fake parquet covering the concrete, but she could still feel its coldness when she walked barefoot. The left wall used to be covered by drawings, but the guards would tear them from the walls and that made her very sad.. And angry. They were nothing special, just a Skull colored in red. It was pretty, it changed from the usual drawings, right?
The girl went by the name Erica Holstein and she used to have serious issues before her incarceration. The doctors said that's what she needed and they knew better, they were health workers and Erica wanted to be healthy. They helped through her nightmares and filled the void in her mind she couldn't fill herself. She couldn't remember much of her past life but they had helped her so much it was starting to slowly get back to her.
She had a routine of her own in addition of the one set by the workers of the facility. 6 am she would wake up, get dressed with clothes bought for her (they were always a little large but it didn't really matter). She would make her bed and go to the self-service restaurant where she and all the other residents shared meals every day. Three mornings each weeks, she had blood analysis before breakfast. After that, she would go to 'class' where she learned how to speak English correctly and how to behave in the society. Each one of the residents had a job at the facility to prepare them for the outside world.
Nobody knew exactly how long they had been there but they were told they'd be out soon enough. There were armed guards everywhere but they were there for their safety. She was told she was a very special girl and every special girls had to be protected, that's why she always had someone armed following her everywhere she went. That used to make her feel uncomfortable but it had become a routine.
When she was done with her chores and reeducational activities, she'd pace around the garden at the very end of the yard in search of red flowers. The girl was obsessed with red but she didn't know why. Whenever she'd see someone wearing red she would grin happily like a little girl who found candies. She heard the doctors say that it triggered something in her but she couldn't put her finger on it...
Today was a good day, she came back to her room from a check up and the doctors were proud! She remembered her life perfectly and made big progresses in class. No angry outbursts or delusional moments whatsoever. The machine they used for her nightmares ( little sticky patches connected by wires to a computer, painful but effective) was starting to show results and she'd sleep so much better now. They told her she'd be out of there soon, but they still had to run some tests. Each test was a painful one but they were for her own good.
Sitting on her bed, she held a sketchbook on her lap and checked the time on the clock on the opposite wall. It was still early, dinner wouldn't be ready and she wanted to take a some fresh air because she had spent the whole day indoors. Erica made her way through the hallway but abruptly stopped. Screams erupted from the Test Room and it made the hair at the back of her neck rise. She knew perfectly well what they were doing in there, that's what they did when she misbehaved.
