Alive

Letter

TW: Self-harm implications, cursing

Parents/Carers of Mr V Blair,

As you are hopefully aware, your son was recently assessed psychologically by Doctor P Inuits on 01/11/87. These assessments are marked out of 100.

Typically, most people begin the assessment with 100 points, and they are deducted for things such as not maintaining eye contact, inability to speak properly, shaking, and other general symptoms of insanity or complications of.

A score of below 50 usually indicates that the assessed person would be best hospitalised, however this is not determined by score alone; it is passed on to a team of specialist doctors who will make the decision taking many factors into account.

During your child's inital assessment, he/she scored 48 out of 100.

After thorough consulation, it has been decided that it would be in both you and your son/daughter's best interests for him/her to be hospitalised. Due to the Lunacy Act of 1845, this detention cannot be taken to court or aregued against by any single person other than a member of the consulting Doctors team.

Your son/daughter should be driven to our take other transportation to Westbreau Mental Insitution by 12:00pm on 08/11/87. If this request is not fulfilled, he/she will be detained from your home address.

Your son/daughter should bring nothing more than a hand-luggage bag of essentials and no more than three personal items, as well as any paperwork from previous Doctors appointments or hospitalisations. The stay will be for a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 30 days, dependendant on the level of required treatment.

Thank you, and we wish you all the best in this difficult time for your family. Should you require any further assistance, phone calls can be made to our helpline on 01234 56789.

Mr G Tondene
Head of Westbreau Mental Institution

Virgil's POV:

I let the peice of paper fall to my bedroom floor, running a hand through my hair and breathing out. I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn't expecting it, but I'm still upset. God, am I really that hopeless?

I should get out of here.
But my window is still locked from the whole 'sneaking off to London' thing a few weeks ago.

I turn to look at my door and think that maybe I can sneak past my parents. What's the worst that can happen? I'm already fucked.

I've got two days to prepare to go, if I do at all, that is. Part of me wants to run away again, but I'm starting to feel like there's a point where I should stop running from everything.

Either way, I need to leave the house for a bit.
With nothing on me apart from my school uniform that I'm still wearing, I run down the stairs and in a direct straight line to the door, my hand sliding down the banister as I go.

"Virgil? Where are you going..?" My mother turns from her positition on the couch.
"Out."
I open the door and step onto the porch, hearing my father shout for me faintly through the door. The sky is a foggy gray, and mist has caused light amounts of water droplets to rest on the grass of our lawn. The air is thick and humid, but still creates a warm atmosphere.

I take off my blazer and hold it in my hands, letting my pale arms littered in scars be completely visable; something I've never done volunterily before, but I don't care all that much right now. I feel like my head is spinning, and just yelling at me to get away from my house. My parents have probably found the letter by now, and they know how much of a failure their son is, again.

Hearing my father's footsteps approaching the door that I'm stood infront of, I take off downt the concrete porch steps and the garden path, running down the street in the direction of Roman and Remus' house, the leveredge of me running blowing my hair back while I do so.

My blazer blows behind me as I hold it with one hand, getting extremely dissaproving and judgemental looks from the residents and tourists walking along the street.

I soon turn the corner onto their road, and stop for a moment. I need to think. I'm going to walk from here, I need to calm down and see this rationally. Focusing on the sound of my footsteps, I breathe in and out slowly. I really don't want to go back to a hospital.

This neighbourhood is a really nice one, and I almost feel out of place or dirty walking around here.

The outside of their house has a 1/4 height garden wall made of a deep red brick, that stays on the outside of the neatly mowed garden lawn with birdhouses.  I lean down and sit cross-legged on the garden wall, fiddling with my blazer in my hands, and then my shoelaces.

I would knock, but I didn't come here to go inside their house and inturrupt the Prescott household's afternoon, I just see this place as a location that my parents don't know the address of, and is safe. It's either that or Remy and Emile's, but I feel like that would be weird.

After about ten minutes, the front door opens.

Remus begins to head down the porch steps, but stops in seeing me. "Oh. Hey! I was just about to walk to your house, but here you are!"
He steps over the brick wall and then sits down on it next to me. Since getting home, he's undone the top two buttons of his school shirt and is no longer wearing his tie.

We don't talk for a good few minutes. The silence isn't awkward or uncomfortable. Just silence.

"So, d-did you pass?" I ask, finally.

He nods slowly. "Much to my father's dissapointment, which he expressed by telling me to go on a walk and 'get out of his hair', so I'm out of the house for a bit."
The boy looks back to his front door, frowning slightly, and continues.

"51. My score, that is. I, uh.. How about you?"

I bring my right leg up onto the wall and rest both my chin and arm on it.
"Promise y-you'll visit?"

"..Oh, yeah, of course, Vee." He says warmly while simoulatenously engulfing me in a hug.

The warmth of somebody who I know actually cares about me, despite how I'm viewed by society is really comforting. It feels like forever before we sepereate, and it's only because the front door opens. Leaning against the doorframe is Remus' dad.

"I saw you two out the window. Virgil, I've telephoned your father to let him know that you're here and he's on his way to pick you up."

Great. I'm sure we're going to have a really pleasant conversation in the car.

I sigh and slump against Remus' body. Maybe getting out of this town won't be too bad.

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