Spectral Desires

Welcome to Echo Ridge

This wasn't at all how Alexander pictured the week after his 19th birthday going, sitting in a psych ward, chained to a bed with multiple warning labels on his door and nothing in sight but a hard bed and threadbare pillow. With white walls, oh how he hated them. But then again, he hadn't pictured his parents who adored him and them in turn dying horrifically and then having to identify the bodies.

He heard the door open and recognized Nurse #3. Her real name was probably something generically mundane like Becky or Sarah and he hated her all the more because of it. The first had been forbidden from interacting with him after he verbally abused Nurse #1 enough for her to scream at him and run away in tears. #2 had gotten in his face and he had actually bitten her arm when she went to slap him. Real winning staff right there.

He glared at #3 who rolled her eyes at the expression. "You have visitors today Alexander. Your medication." She tried to give it to him but he spat in her face. She shot him a disgusted look and exited the room with a shrug, not bothering to clean up his mess. 'If he didn't want to get better that was entirely on him. What a waste, she thought to herself. He was so gorgeous but so damn nasty.'

"Knock knock, can we come in sport?" A wizened kindly voice spoke while Alexander listlessly chewed his bottom lip. He wondered which one of the voices this was now but didn't bother responding. 

Ever since Alexander was a young boy, he'd heard and seen things others hadn't. His parents, god rest their souls, had become very concerned when he'd tell them things his great grandparents or a long dead aunt or cousin had done or said to him, all harmless but all entirely too creepy. 

"How could he have known about Cynthia? She died before we even were married!" His father whispered to his mother one day when he was supposed to be sleeping. 

"Kids pick up on things and Alex is very precocious." His mother's concerned yet slightly frantic voice carried in the kitchen. "Besides it wasn't like what he said was true right?" It was obvious she didn't want the answer.

His father shook his head and swore. "That's why it bothers me so damn much, Lillian, because that is exactly something Aunt Cynthia would have said! And did to me numerous times as a young boy. I'd all but forgotten her quirks until he said something though. 'Get your paws off the candy or you'll rot out all your teeth and then some.' "

"We should talk to someone." Lillian said. Adrian, her husband nodded and hugged her.

Not long after, Alexander was diagnosed with auditory and visual hallucinations, not quite multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia but something in the same class. The psychiatrist was even a bit stumped. "And you both can confirm no trauma has affected him? Nothing at all? No childhood friend dying or anything?"

"For the hundredth time, nothing like that! If anything, little Alex would rather talk to his imaginary friends than befriend actual people." His father added irritated.

"Except us of course! And family, he's always so good with us, but he's distrusting of strangers even his peers."

"I will prescribe his these medications that should eliminate his hallucinations but keep a close eye on him. Most people I give these to are well into their 20s-30s. It's just so unusual for him to develop this at such a young age with no probable cause-"

His father took the bottle, his patience completely used up. "Come on Alexander, let's go get some ice cream." He smiled and led his son by the hand who had been talking to apparently nothing in the corner avidly. "Oh Ulysses, you shouldn't say things like that." He giggled.

His mother took his other hand and nodded to the psychiatrist as the trio left.

Alexander had done well on the medications and sure enough unless he missed a dose he stopped seeing any of the strange people or hearing voices. Though he still did best around his family, he'd made a close friend, albiet an on online only one. Her name was Hailey, a punky black haired girl with pink streaks in her hair. She didn't really get what he did for work but she was always down to listen and joke around with him, oddly enough she even lived in his grandparents' town. She was a full blown lesbian as she referred to herself proudly, so Alexander relished the lessened pressured than many male and female friendships. Aside from Hailey, he'd gone on a few dates at his parents' insistence but none had really gone further than a quickie. Alexander was a loner by nature and he chose his family's company first and foremost, that was just how things were.