Asylum

The New Boy

    It was a good day by any standards. The guards let us play in the courtyard. I finally got that boy with the white hoodie and black pants with the knife to leave me alone. And I turned 15 yesterday.

    I was sitting BG the trees one the lip of a fountain that hadn't worked in who knew how long, when the gurds paraded a boy around the grounds. They were laughing and cutting up but the boy just looked sullen. 

    "Marann!" An extremely white man who always wore a black suit yelled. He led the boy over to where I sat and forced the boy to face me.  "This is your new roommate. It he tries to hurt you, just call one of us." With that, he walked away, leaving me with the stranger.

     I looked up at him. For the first time actually seeing him. I imedeatly I was captuelred by his emrald green gaze. I swear he smiled a little bit. His hair was do blond it was almost the color white of my dress. He was weating red shorts and a black tank top that showed his tattoos. His arm was covered with a sleeve of beautiful designs. He had so many peircings that I forced myself to drop his gaze, because he was now studying me.

    Then I caught sight of something that made me shiver, even in the mid summer heat. As he turned around and say down beside me on the lip of the fountain, I saw the tattoo. MY tattoo.

    It was on the base of his neck, just like mine. My mother promised that I was the only one with it because she did it free hand without looking at anything. A cross that had been separated in half. A little pointier than most, but the bows taperdd down into a prefect point.

    They were different colors; his was red mine black, but there was no denying the gact that they were the same. Without thinking, I reached out and touched it. Just a brief brush but he noticed.

    He looked t me funny and rubbed the back of his neck like I do when. I'm nervous or scared. I looked down in shame, my black and red hair creating a wall around my face. He gasped then, and I looked at him through a curtain of hair. "The same..." He muttered.

    "He called you Marann. Is that your name?" He asked and I nodded. "I'm Asher. And you dont look crazy to me. Why are you here?" 

    I could only look at the ground. I hadn't spoken in over a year and had forgotten the sound of my own voice. "Alright. I get it. No know likes to talk about whyh they were put in an insane asylum. How old are you?" His easy smile disappeared as I remained silent, eyes on the ground.

    He stood, losing his temper and kicking the fountain. "You know I was just trying to be nice, but you don't have to ignore me! We're in the same boat here, meaning you're no better than me and we're just as crazy!" He shouted. 'I'm not crazy.' I thought 'I watched my mother kill my fathers and stopped talking.'

    A little girl who told me her name was Sally came up to us holding her own bear whicm was just barely bigger than mine.

    Asher started saying something else, but he was shouting it. I felt a hot tear roll down my cheek, bjt wiped it away before he could see. Unfortunately, not fast enough for Sally not to see. "Stop it. You're scaring her... " she told him.

    "I'm just trying to get my point across. She keeps ignoring me when I ask her questions." He stated mater-of-factly.

    "She's mute. And she hated it when people yell. Especially at her." Sally explaoned., keeping her voice calm, but sturdy enough to make a point.

    'I'm not mute either.' I thought. ' j just witnessed my mother commit murder and she said she'd kill me if I told anybody.'

    "Oh." He said. " Well she could ja e mentioned that with her hands. " he said before storming off.

    Dir the rest of the hour, Sally and I played with our bears by the fountain. And lunch was okay, though when j tried tk occupy an empty corner, Jeffrey, the knife kid and his friend Ben, who's father tried to drown him, sat by my side. Jeffrey kept trying to hold my hand. A her kept watcjo g me from across the room with a look of hatred.

    For lunch they gave us bottle of water and soup. The soup was hot and yellow and more of a broth but edible. Ben was trying to put his head on my shoulder and I kept pushing it off.

    After lunch we were led back to the padded gym where this girl who had sewn up cheeks kept running repeatedly into the wall and falling over. Running, hitting, falling. Running, hitting, falling. That's all she did until they forced us back iinto the cafeteria for supper. I don't even want to mention it, it was so gross. 

    Finally, we were led back to the hall. The standard bathroom line, rinse, drink, get locked in rooms procedure began. It gkr pretty routine after while, so it was nothing. 

    Except it was. Asher had to share my room tonight. I stayed on the top bunk and he stayed in a corner so far away, you'd think he was scared of me.

    But he'll get used to it. After all, he's just the new boy.