ɪɴꜱᴀɴᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇ

A New Patient

First off, I just wanted to start by saying that I originally inetended Merrill's name to be pronounced "MER-RILL" but I now found out that it's commonly pronounced "MAIR-ILL" and you can pronounce it either way! After I heard this other pronunciation I couldn't decide which one I wanted to make official for this character, so you can pronounce it whatever way feels more natural or comfortable for ya! Buona Lettura! :)

I was at work, making sure every patient was secure in their rooms when I noticed a sleepless looking patient being taken to the experiment room. I never liked how the employees at the psychiatric hospitals treated the patients. Even my coworkers don't treat the patients right. I swear, I'm the only one that actually cares for these patients. It was towards the end of my shift and I was getting ready to go home in about an hour and a half. Just then, I saw two of the Psychiatric Pharmacists taking in a new patient. But there was something off about him. He didn't appear to be insane at all! He had dark brown hair, split with a middle piece that reached the mid area of his cheeks with a widow's peak, and a bit of dandruff! He also had Fair skin, and brown eyes with a slight touch of dark circles. He was wearing a white button up dress shirt, along with a red button up, light thread sweater over it, scruffy dark blue jeans, and scuffed up brown shoes. He looked like he had been crying and didn't put up a fight with the workers like most of the other patients usually do. "Here Mariella, you can handle him" one of my coworkers said while handing the patient to me. "Put him in a straight jacket and secure him in room 302, where he will stay the night" my other coworker said as they handed me a straight jacket and looked into the patient's eyes in disgust. I turned to the patient who still seemed to be exhausted and pessimistic. We are not allowed to talk to patients at all or interact with them in any way besides restraining them if needed. But I decided to break the rules as I had seen that this patient was different and clearly not in a psychotic state. Though I still remained cautious because not every patient has to look insane just to be insane. "Hey, are you ok?" I asked the patient, he looked up in surprise noticing that I was talking to him. "I was falsely accused..." he said as he stared off into the distance. At this point I couldn't tell if he was lying or telling the truth, but I believed him. I knew if I said anything they wouldn't believe me since I have no source of evidence. I looked back down at the straight jacket and got a knot in my stomach, what were they thinking? He doesn't need to be put in this! I through the jacket onto the ground. "I'm not going to put you in that" I said to him as I spat at the jacket, "you're not?" He asked while looking up at me, "no, I'm not." I said kicking it across the room. "I'm Mariella by the way!" I said to him "I'm Merrill! And you seem different from the other workers here." He said looking into my eyes, I unintentionally got very hot when he said that even though the air conditioning was on high in the building. "Yea, I guess I'm not as harsh as them" I replied stroking my arm up and down, "get some rest, and don't tell my coworkers we were talking!" I told him "don't worry, I won't!" he replied. I closed up his cell and then wen't home. I don't know what it was about him but he just seemed so down to earth, and it was obvious he was not at all psychotic.