Chapter Text
tyler looked around the room, the damp that had collected along the walls giving off a smell that caused him to force down the sick feeling threatening to spew from him. it was 8 o’clock, maybe, he couldn’t quite keep track of the time in this place. either way he knew they’d be here soon, he shifted in his straightjacket uncomfortably.
“NO NO- PLEASE-”
tyler squeezed his eyes shut as he heard a smash erupt from the room next to his, followed by a cackle louder than the scream of pain that was resonating off the walls. every single fucking day, it was the same continuous loop. he heard soft crying, then a door opening, then the real racket started, it was never ending. josh, that was the person’s name, he recalled the name rolling off one of the doctor’s tongues in a venomous way one night when the racket was particularly loud.
“joshua, hold still now.”
a crack, then another scream of pain. this continued for another 24 agonising minutes, tyler counting each grueling second.
now it was his turn.
he heard a door slam, a few locks rattle then footsteps walking over until they stopped right outside his door. he shuffled back as far as he could until his back hit the wall, already starting to shake heavily as the locks became undone and the door swung open with a threatening force.
“hm, not even a hello?”
tyler kept his gaze to the wall, his lip starting to tremble as he heard high heels clacking towards him then suddenly a finger was hooking under his chin and forcing him to look up. he felt his stomach constrict as a pair of icy blue eyes surveyed him, a grin following soon after.
“so, it’s 8’o clock, you know what that means.” the woman giggled, plucking a syringe from her pocket and trailing it down tyler’s cheek. tyler jerked away and went wide eyed, realising that was definitely the wrong thing to do as evident by the woman’s furrowed brows. before he could even register what was happening he was being dragged up by his hair and thrown onto the bed by the wall, he let out a strangled cry as a manicured hand wrapped around his throat and he felt a sting swell in his lower rib.
“oh, wrong place. sorry.” the woman gave him a sly smile, fluttering her eyelashes before pulling the syringe out and jamming it right back into his chest. tyler jolted as he felt his heart start to heave, his body shaking as the woman repeatedly “hit the wrong place” and continued to leave pin points all over his torso.
“S-STOP, STOP!!” tyler jerked his leg up in an attempt to get the woman off him but it was useless, she relished in his weakness. one final jab to his neck and the woman finally pressed the end of the syringe down, injecting whatever liquid was in it into his bloodstream. the air left tyler’s lungs and he wheezed as he felt the grip on his neck uncoil, the woman’s eyes flickering to his for a split second.
“good boy.” she cooed, pinching tyler’s cheek just a little too hard before stepping back, crossing her arms as she watched him curl into himself and burst into heavy sobs that caused his whole body to shake convulsively.
“so over-dramatic, you’re even worse than joshua.” the woman scoffed as she smoothed the creases in her leather skirt, flashing him one last roll of her eyes before walking out. tyler silently thanked whatever god existed that she didn’t decide to stay longer, to torture him longer. she slammed the door shut behind her and the sound of locks rattling echoed in tyler’s ears, at that point he realised she didn’t even bother to take the syringe out of his neck.
5am.
an alarm-like buzzing sounded throughout the hallways, tyler snapped his head up to see the door open slowly. he steeled himself before getting up, realising they must’ve removed his straightjacket while he was in slumber. he shakily walked towards the door and peered out, seeing a few patients from the other rooms do the same. it was breakfast time, meaning they just let every single patient out without supervision to fight over whatever mess they called ‘food’ that was in the lunch hall. tyler tugged anxiously at his sleeve as he walked down the hallway, peering into josh’s room on the way by and stopping in his tracks when he saw a figure lying curled up on the floor facing the wall.
“j-josh?” tyler stood at the doorframe, his voice soft. the boy perked up at the sound of tyler’s voice and rolled over, his faded red locks falling over his bloodied face. he looked at tyler like an animal that was weary of a hunter, he looked...broken, to be honest.
“it’s breakfast, they’ll be mad if you stay in your room.” tyler looked to the floor, his fingernails digging into the doorframe from habit.
“she b-broke my ankle.” josh whispered, his eyes darting around the room for a split second as if to make sure no one was listening. extreme paranoia, along with obsessive compulsive disorder, tyler read his files when he was first admitted into this hellhole. the boy used to have a twitch in his neck and a constant click in his tongue, but apparently the doctor’s beat that out of him...their definition of ‘curing’ a patient.
tyler walked cautiously into the room and kneeled down beside him, giving him a soft, yet weak smile as he helped him sit up. josh looked away and let his hair fall over his face again as tyler ever so gently pulled the bottom of his hospital issued pants up to inspect his ankle. he grimaced as he realised that yes, that fucking monster had broken it, a bone was protruding just the smallest bit, and blood was crusted on the pale expanse of skin.
“hm.” tyler bit his lip, glancing around the room in thought. josh looked at him in curiosity as the younger boy grabbed a pillow off the bed, taking the actual stuffing out and just keeping the pillow case. he used his teeth to rip one of the threads before gripping both ends of the case and ripping it before kneeling back down beside josh. josh let out a soft hiss of pain as tyler wrapped the DIY pillowcase bandage around his ankle, securing it tightly before standing back up.
“is that kinda better?” tyler scratched his head, josh nodded meekly and gave him a weak smile.
“t-thanks.”
tyler shrugged and helped the boy stand up, letting him use him as a crutch as they made their way out of the room and down to the lunch hall.
“s-so, how l-long have you been here?”
tyler looked up from where he was absentmindedly prodding at his food and cocked his head, looking up to the ceiling in thought before looking away at the sight of the blood splatters on it.
“uh, four years now.”
“o-oh..” josh’s eyes flickered down to the table, his finger tapping a pattern of two’s on the table. tyler heard him whisper a sequence of numbers under his breath and decided not to interrupt him, going back to staring at his….food, if it could even be called that. he’d heard rumours about the food actually just being the processed remnants of past patients, some part of him actually believed it to be true, the doctor’s were twisted enough to actually do that quite honestly.
“ninety one, ninety two..” josh’s tapping continued on the table, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “...one hundred. wait..” he trailed off, cursing under his breath as he realised he must’ve forgotten a number somewhere along the way. tyler glanced around the lunch hall, at the mess he’d managed to block out from his ears so far. a few patients were rocking back and forth, heads twitching and eyes wide, a few were being tormented by unseen forces, one was lying on the floor, completely still, tyler knew he was dead. he was used to it by now, the morbidness of it all withered away by the amount of times he’s seen it since he’s been here.
“ah, fuck! fuck!”
tyler snapped his head back around to see josh slam his fist on the table, effectively bumping his plate and sending it crashing to the floor. josh quickly went wide eyed and looked...embarrassed as he quickly looked away from tyler’s curious stare.
“fucked up the pattern..fucked it up.” he whispered under his breath, his finger starting to tap repeatedly on the table again, his neck twitching. tyler muttered a small ‘oh’ and went back to surveying the room, tensing up as he caught sight of a certain high heeled woman strut into the room.
“morning, lovelies!” she swooned, wiggling her fingers in a child-like hello. a scream erupted from the other side of the room and everyone turned to see one of the patients fall off their chair and scramble backwards, earning a chuckle from the woman.
“gosh, still not over it?” she rolled her eyes, walking over to one of the tables and sitting down. the two male doctors with her sat down too, tyler saw them as her ‘henchmen’, it entertained him even for a little while to think of them as those cliché stocky men you always saw in the movies.
josh instantly ceased his tapping and shot her a glare, his neck twitching once again as she winked at him.
“don’t look at her.” tyler muttered under his breath, scratching his head a little too vigorously. “she’ll just come over, she feeds on the bad attention.”
“tyler fucking joseph!” the woman suddenly stood up and strut over to their table, “wanna say that a bit louder, sweetie?” she gritted her teeth as she slammed her hands down, causing tyler to jolt and josh to seize up.
“fuck you.” tyler snapped, eyes widening as he realised what he said. suddenly he felt a hand grip his hair and slam his head down on the table, he let out a cry at the pain, squeezing his eyes shut as the woman held him there.
“now i hope to god that was blurry talking and not you, sweetcheeks.” she patronized, tyler felt that old, yet familiar flame flare up in his chest. blurry barely came around anymore, he’d somehow trained himself to control it because he knew it would just end up in more beatings and humiliation.
but, something in him - especially after seeing what happened to josh - flared up.
he felt his eyes roll back.
then..
he snapped.