Chapter Text
"Honey dear,…." Your mother trailed off. "Can't you tell that mama loves you?" She turned to you, a knife in hand, and had a sick smile on her face.
“WAIT-” You woke up sweaty and shaking, it was just a shitty dream. A dream you hadn’t had in a while. You peered through the window, the sky was still dark, realizing you may be late to work. You grab your phone.
"5:47?! Holy shit!"
You jumped out of bed, a bit too fast so you almost tripped. Gonna be late, gonna be late, gonna be late, you thought to yourself. You raided your closet for a decent shirt and a good pair of jeans. After then you ran all over your room trying to find the long white coat they require all employees to wear. When you finally found it your 5:50 alarm went off.
"Crap." You muttered as you began to throw your clothes on. You didn't think you had time to put your shoes on. Grabbing your keys and a jacket from the floor you bolted through the hall and out your apartment.
You started up your car, why were you up so early? Well you have a new patient that you're meeting for the first time and you want to read everything the hospital has on him before you meet him yourself. The second reason is that the damned hospital is an hour away from where you live.
TIME SKIP YOU'RE AT THE HOSPITAL
"Good morning Nancy," you smiled at the woman sitting behind the check-in desk. "Late again?" She smirked knowing this wasn't the first and won't be the last time that you'd be late. "The director has been waiting for you" Nancy said as tied her chocolate hair back and began typing." "SHE WHAT!" you turned to Nancy, shocked.
"Well it's 6:57, and you're late….and you have a new patient…." Before you could open your mouth she spoke again "GO DUMBASS I SAID SHE'S WAITING!" Normal people would've thought you were being scolded, but you could tell she just didn't want you to get fired.
You grabbed your pass and dashed to the elevator, once you got inside you harassed the second floor button. As soon as it did reach the second floor you ran to the director's office. You lightly knocked on the door hoping you wouldn't get a response, " come on in Mr. (L/n)" you heard her say. You stepped inside slowly shutting the door, as you began to make your way forward, your eyes wandered to things sitting on her desk.
Director Walker, you were reading the nameplate that sat on her desk, it was sitting in front of her latte. Walker sighed as she looked at you, "listen are you sure you wanna try and treat HIM?" She looked disturbed...more than usual to be honest. But you understood why, your new patient was different from the other ones. He killed 2 of his doctors already and he caused 3 others to give up on him. You were the replacement of somebody who quit.
"Yeah i'm sure," you smiled at the director. She then passed you a binder and a DVD. "Talk to him today and watch those later so tomorrow you KNOW what you are dealing with. You took them, knowing you had to get to your first appointment, you left in a hurry….completely oblivious to the hell you'd end up in much later.
Time skip your going to meet up with HIM.
You paced in front of the door to yet another white room, the clock ticking loudly in your head. Was this a good idea? Would he kill me on the first day? Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap…..you opened the door terrified.
To you surprise you weren’t greeted with a glared, or another psychotic grin. He sat behind one of those white foldable tables, the kind you normally would see at fairs of carnivals. He had long black hair, he was kinda pale too, but you walked up to the table ignoring the fact that he had his hands cuffed behind his back. “So…..are you the new doctor?” he asked, raising his head, he looked tired…you realized you were staring too much “y-yeah i am but you can call me (y/n)” you gave him a smile, but he gave a reasonable response. “Im wasn’t put here to be your friend so fuck off alright.” he was visibly bothered by your offer.
You took a seat on your side of the table and set down the binder down next to you. “Well what’s your name? I haven’t gone through your files yet so i'm not aware of what it is.” You looked at him wondering if he’d be willing to tell y- “Cassius Styx….” he words were barely a whisper. You lit up a bit, he actually said it, you thought to yourself. “Well, Cassius….how old are you?” he didn’t turn his head but his eyes moved elsewhere.
“They said I'm 24….” he looked back at you.
“They?” you wanted to know what he meant hoping it wouldn’t trigger anything.
“The other doctors.” he said this with a blank face, maybe he wanted to see you react to the mention of the other doctors. “Does that bother you doc….?” he seemed to have noticed you flinched when the other doctors were spoken of. “Do you think i’ll kill you? Does that make you afraid?” You looked at him, you had to stop him from seeing your fear. “No….i'm not afraid.” you smiled at him and it must have bothered him yet again.
“Well let’s get start-” “I’m not answering anything that’s already in the binder.” He said, cutting you off. You sighed, slightly annoyed “well that’s alright, how about this...how has your day been?” He looked confused, he blinked a few times before responding “what?” “I asked how your day has been.” you were repeating yourself, he still didn’t seem to understand. “Did you enjoy your day or were you not happy about it? You could just give me a number like from one to ten.” Cassius looked like he was ready to say something, but he shut his mouth almost immediately after opening it. “Do you not know how you feel? If that’s how it is then i’ll help you understand.” So he doesn’t know how to feel huh….that must suck. You thought to yourself while waiting for an answer.
“I don’t need to know how i feel.” he didn’t seem to be joking, and you knew that. “Well if you don’t understand that how will you live when you're finally able to leave this place?” you tilt your head waiting on him. Cassius sighed, “when i leave this hellhole….” he leaned closer to the table, “i'm going to be exactly the same as i got here.” Cassius looked you in the eye seeming somewhat annoyed with you, he didn’t want to live like everyone else. “You’re upset, i can see it on your face.” You met his gaze as you both quietly exchanged words.
“I dunno what you mean doc…” when he spoke you could hear the rattling of the cuffs.“Calm down Cassius, I’m not trying to piss you off, I want to help.” Cassius flinched at the word help, he lowered his head but you could see him biting at his lip. You reached your right hand to get his hair out of the way, you wanted to be able to see him. You didn’t know why so you made the excuse that he should make eye contact when he’s around people. “Cassius...are you sure you don’t want to understand?” You pushed his hair back behind his left ear, “don’t you want to know why you're crying right now?”
Cassius didn’t move nor did he speak, he didn’t make a sound, and his breathing was steady even though there were visible tears falling from his face. Your phone suddenly began to vibrate in your pocket, you realized that time must be up and you have to get to your next appointment. “Hey, I have to go now, my next patient is waiting for me.” you brought your hand back away from him. “Then leave.” he was pretty blunt about it.
As you left the white room you turned your head, Cassius sat in his seat except his hands were in front of him, the chain connecting the cuffs was broken. When….when did he do this and how the fuck did he do it. You turned to the hall and shut the door behind you. He broke the cuffs, you thought he broke the fucking cuffs….you turned began to walk down the hall. As you made your way to the next appointment you realized you were in the 5th ward….you walked right past the 3rd ward like an idiot.
You ran back down the halls and through the 4th ward “HEY WATCH IT KID!” a group of doctors yelled at you “S-SORRY” you would’ve stopped to apologize if you felt that you had the time to do so but they were pissing you off anyways. You hated when they would call you “kid” it was just a bother, even if you are younger than most of them it makes you feel like shit. You’d say something back if it weren’t for the fact that they were technically your seniors and it could cost you your job.
Your next patient was 14 if she hadn’t been here she’d be in a middle school. You knocked on the door because of course she was still a girl, you refused to barge in without asking. “DOCTOR (L/N)!!!!!!!! HURRY AND GET IN HERE!!!!!!” She sounded excited, she's always happy when you're here for the appointment. You opened the door and you were welcomed with a hug “hmph! I thought you were skipping me today!” she puffed in frustration. “Don’t worry Alice, i won’t ever skip you.” you patted the little blonde’s head.
She let go of you and practically dragged you to the table. “Woah did you make these?” you were referring to the paper cranes she had scatter on the other side of the room near her bed. “Hmm? Oh- ummm yeah, it’s the only thing i can focus on and it's fun.” She seemed to have lived origami when you suggested it.
Alice took her seat “Sooooooooooo, what’s on the agenda for today?” she tapped her fingers on the table. “Well how’s your day been, for a start.” you were honestly hoping for a positive response especially after what happened with Cassius. “Wait what was the question?” she seemed pretty lost, but you couldn’t blame her. Alice has ADHD so her attention span is shit sometimes but you're alright with that.
“I said how was your day” you chuckled as you watched her face get red from embarrassment. “My day was AWESOME! In the courtyard I met this girl who’s around my age! She said her name was….it was….ummm crap i forgot, but like she was super nice and she did my hair too she said that i look like this girl from superhero show!”
Ah...there she goes again. Just like a little kid. “So what was this character's name?” Alice paused when you asked, you could almost imagine the smoke coming out of her head. “It was ummm Himi….uhh Himi...ko...HIMIKO TOGA!” “wait- from my hero???” hearing that name caught you off guard. “Yeah! She said i looked like that girl so she put my hair like this” Alice pointed to the two messy buns on her head.
“Hey do you think i could watch that sho-” you cut her off immediately. “Alice that show can be kinda violent so i don’t think that’s a good idea, sorry buddy.” You saw her smile fade a bit, “but i’ve been okay lately i reeeeeaaaallllllyyyyyy have been. There haven’t been any nightmares too and- and i promise i’ll be okay after.” she was begging you now, and if she wasn’t your patient you probably would’ve told her yes. You sighed causing her to stop rambling about all the reasons she should watch it. “Alice i know you want to watch this show but there are so many things that could bring you to a bad place and i don’t want that to happen. Please until i can say for sure that you're completely fine….i don't want you asking again.”
Alice sighed “oh fine” whenever she got mad at you she would pout and god was it the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen. “Oh by the way-” a terrible sound cut Alice off, it was the blaring warning system. “W-why’s it so damn loud!!!” Alice covered her ears in a hurry, you didn’t blame her, it felt like your head was being split apart.
God they’re ignoring the fact that many patients probably can’t stand this....wait….SHIT!!! You suddenly realized that one of your patients you had earlier today can’t deal with this. “Attention security report to the main foyer. Prisoner of the first ward is attempting escape.” The system kept repeating that message and soon enough you heard at least half the guards in this ward make their way to the first, but that wasn’t your concern right now. “Alice are you okay?!” you tried to yell over the siren. She must’ve heard you since she nodded to the point you’d expect her head to fly off.
“Good!” you hollered, “i'm gonna make sure Bailey is alright!” she nodded as a response as you ran through the doorway. Bailey is the name of a patient you had earlier today, he’s a pretty big guy but he would never hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it. He was in the first ward so you headed in the same direction as the security guards. Ugh crap, i can barely move. You thought to yourself as you were being trampled by the guards, but you kept moving because you wanted to make sure he was alright….but somehow it was easy for you to know that he wasn’t alright at all.
As you finally found yourself in the first ward you saw someone is the distance, of course he was attempting escape. He was close to the main foyer so they’ll probably change his room. You didn’t want to watch but you couldn’t help it, the guards were almost as scary as he was. You stared at Cassius as he was breaking the bones of guards while taking multiple hits at the same time. You turned to the direction and for a moment you made eye contact with Cassius. His blood colored eyes locked with yours coldly, and in that moment it was over.
Cassius hesitated when he saw you, even if it was for a second it created an opening for the guards. A female red headed guard slammed a stun rod against his back. You watched as he grit his teeth stifling his screams. The other guards took advantage of this as they did the same. You turned away ignoring the situation as much as you could.
You made your way into another white room, and your heart sunk. “Oh Bailey, no….” you slowly made your way towards the large jamaican man, hoping you wouldn’t scare him. Bailey was rocking himself on the cold white floor. You only lightly touched his shoulder but he flinched away not even looking to see who you were. “Bailey, it’s me...it’s (y/n)...do you remember?” you spoke quietly into his ear. “(y-y/n)? The doctor….?” you could barely hear him over the noise, but he raised his head a bit, only enough for him to take a peek at your face.
Bailey was a soldier in WWIII as surprising as it may be WWIII didn’t end up being a nuclear war, but it was still as horrifying as any other war. Poor Bailey had been in the middle of it and he could barely handle it so they placed him here as a result of that. He was still shaking and the commotion outside seemed to make it even worse. “Bailey you’re okay, you’re safe here.” you wanted him to listen but he shook his head. “It’s not safe, It’s not safe, It’s not safe, It’s not safe, It’s not safe, IT’S NOT SA-”
You hugged your patient causing him to stop for a moment. He soon began to cry and go on about how he blamed himself for all the horrible things that happened to the rest of his regiment. Even though you’ve already seen him in this state it still broke your heart to hear him. “Bailey that’s not true,” you whispered to him, “it was never your fault. You know it wasn’t your fault and no matter how you think about it nobody would ever blame you.” The big lug brought his arms up, he seemed to be deciding to believe your words, he placed his hands on your back like a child who wouldn’t let go of his toy.
Later you’ll have to talk to the director about the way the security system works, and how it could hurt the other patients who may be like Bailey. There were a lot of people with PTSD this bad and even worse so you wanted to keep them all safe. While you were holding onto Bailey you noticed that the noise had ceased. This place...it's so fucked up, you thought to yourself. Even you would hate having to live here…..you're lucky that you weren’t dumped here in the first place.