It didn't take much for the court to decide that Michael was criminally insane. His lawyer had to explain that 'criminally insane' was a label, and it just meant that he wasn't controlling his crime, his mental state was.
They didn't even let him say his proper goodbyes before they shipped him off the next day. He woke up to Calum, and then three hours later he was walking in the reception of the mental hospital. At least it was nice outside. Everything was green and alive and a couple of patients were outside with staff.
The inside, however, was completely the opposite. Everything was dull, and locked up, but he could hear yelling from the front desk. A nice lady dressed in what looked like nurse's clothes directed him down the hallway, and he was shaking so bad.
"I don't belong here." Michael told her, and she smiled a small smile.
She didn't believe him. She'd probably heard that line a thousand times before. "How are you?"
"I just want my boyfriend." he mumbled.
Her smile turned sympathetic. She asked him a few questions, like, would you like your parents to contact you? and do you have any dietary restrictions? She then told him the rules. (No caffeine. Keep tidy. Meals are at set times. Lights out 11PM. Two fifteen minute phone calls per day. Not allowed in the girls' dorms. Stuff like that.) She assigned him a room, telling him that his roommate was in a class.
After meeting a few other people, they gave him a schedule and some things he had to personalise his room (more like make it feel like less like a mental hospital even though you could still hear the screaming down the hall and some guy yelling 'I'LL FUCK YOU UP' and then hearing him slump to the floor because of sedatives).
He set a photo of him and Calum on the bedside table, and that was it. That was all he had apart from clothes with no drawstrings, no belts, no shoelaces, and nothing with violent images. He put on another set of clothes that were his and started to cry.
He wanted Calum back. He wanted freedom. He wasn't allowed to even go anywhere without his nurse. He swallowed, pressing the buzzer he was given and his nurse came in.
"Can I have that phone call now?"
She smiled, led him to the main room where some people sat, sedated and fazed out. It was still loud, though. A woman in the corner was screaming bloody murder, but she wasn't sedated because she wasn't threatening anybody. The phones were at the start of the girls' dormitory, and they smiled and flirted at him but he wasn't interested in anyone but his boyfriend. He called Calum up, punching in the numbers that he had memorised on the way over.
"Babe, it's been two hours, and I miss you already."
He could hear Calum's sad chuckle. "Hang in there, okay, Michael? Just think about what'll happen when you get out."
"I'll make-out with you for a while and I'll probably cry and then I'll love you more than I ever have. I'll cry again. I'll wake up and I won't feel like Mikey or MikeyMikey is going to take over me, and I'll be happy."
