XXXIII. ECHO HOUSE

                                    

                                          
SIX DAYS BEFORE
"Finally, you're awake."
Blinking slowly, Harper's brown eyes adjusted to the light, her head not making any attempt of lifting from the pillow it rested on. Across the room she appeared to be in, a girl around her age sat on a bed, her legs crossed and a small smile on her face. She recognised the girl from somewhere, she knew that, but she had no idea where from. 
Harper sat up, wiping her mouth as she looked around. The room she was in was extremely minimalistic- in a painful way, too. Everything was coordinated cream and white, although there wasn't even much in the room. Just two beds, a joint desk, and two lamps. Standing up, she glanced out the window and knew where she was immediately. 
"Who changed me?" She demanded to know when she realised she was no longer in her pyjamas but in some grey jogging bottoms and a long-sleeved maroon shirt. 
The strange girl raised her eyebrows, "really? You just woke up in a mental asylum and the first thing you ask is who changed you?"
"It's not my first time here," Harper gritted her teeth at the thought before calming down at the girl's surprised expression, "I'm sorry. My name's Harper. You are?"
A proud smile crossed the other brunette girl's face, "I know who you are. I'm Malia."
Malia watched as Harper's eyes widened almost comically. This was the teenage girl that had been a coyote in the woods for years after her family had died in a tragic accident. 
"Malia?" She repeated softly, "oh gosh. I'm so sorry about what happened to you-"
"I'm sorry about what happened to you too," Malia cut her off, not missing the strange look on Harper's face, "don't tell me you don't remember? I was the coyote that comforted you while you were crying in the woods about a year ago."
"I knew it was you," she whispered, "nobody believed me."
Malia scoffed, shaking her head, "to be fair, I wouldn't believe you either."
Harper chuckled back a little before reality began to sink in. She was at Eichen House with little to no memory of how she got there. The last thing she remembered was answering the door and being drugged by some strange man, but that was it. She thought she would be here because of her dad, but she hadn't woken up in the supernatural unit as Harry had. 
"You're confused..." The other brown eyed girl realised, "did you not emit yourself here?"
The Empath shook her head, "no, no... I was kidnapped. I have no clue what I'm doing here."
"Jesus," Malia raised a brow, "well, you should stick with me while you are here. Nobody messes with me since I punched Brunski in the face last week. Trust me, everybody else here is completely insane."
Harper hummed, "it is a mental asylum."
Malia chuckled dryly, "you have no idea..."
...
Malia was right when she had said Harper had no idea. Everybody walking around were like time ticking bombs, waiting to explode at any second. A lot of people here believed they were Virgin Mary, or even Jesus Christ himself. Others were just mad in their own ways. People would whisper to themselves or stare at Harper with wide eyes when she walked past. It made her skin crawl and her heart hammer.