Asylum

Don't You Dare Break My Heart

    I fell asleep on the floor watching Asher. He just looked so peaceful. All my instincts told me he was mental, but I guess we all are.

    After saying that I loved him, I practiced using my voice again. At first it was simple things like repeating the alphabet, and then it was anything that poped into my head.

    At one point, I swear Asher woke up, but it turns out that his eyelids just fluttered and he gripped Emily closer. Then he started talking to Jackson. Something about his parents.

    But I knew I was tired and that I was going to pass out eventually, so I tried to stand. I made it about to a crouching positron before a hand on my shoulder stopped me. "Wait."

    A simple word, but it sent chills up my spine. I turned my head slightly, to see who was touching me. "Your name is Marann, right? I'm Tobi." His head jerked to the left, as if he could not control it.

    So the boy that Asher was talking to was named Tobi. I smiled and nodded, putting out my hand for him to shake. He removed his hand from my shoulder to grip mine. "Asher said you were mute, but you have a beautiful voice. Can we talk?"

    I looked nervously at Asher's sleeping figure before reluctantly nodding. "Are you real?" I croaked and flinched. Clearing my throat before asking again.

    But he only smiled sweetly. "I touched you, didn't I? And of I weren't, how could you and Ash both see me? Can you feel this?" He cupped my face in one hand and I leaned into it.

    "Am I crazy? They use the word 'insane'. Am I?" His eyes locked onto mine and I felt like I couldn't breath. He jerkily shook his head.

    I couldn't think of anything else to say. My eyes started to close and my head started to droop. Tobi helped me last in a corner and faces me towards him. I somehow managed to fall asleep without Emily. Instead, I drifted off cradled in Tobi's arms. "Shh... Don't tell Ash." The last thing I remember was the hair being brushed off my forehead and the light brush of lips across my skin.

    It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes before the doors banged open and we were led to the cafeteria for breakfast. I woke with Emily back in my arms, my head resting on her's. 

    I don't remember the walk to the first floor from the fourth. Only that Jeffrey and Ben wanted beside me. Breakfast was already waiting for us when we got there but no one was going to eat the soggy cereal provided.

    I was so tried that when Jeffrey tried to hold my hand, I didn't fight. Once they realized that we weren't going to eat, they brought us to the living room. It was raining outside but I'd still rather take my chances out there.

    I clutched Emily closer and shuffled to the fireplace. Most of the others were settling into their respective groups. Fighting for arn chairs or seata on the sofa.

                          FLASHBACK

    "Honey, come sit down in front of Daddy." I walked over smiling. I held the ted ribbon out in one hand, my new bear in the other. 

    "Brajd it Daddy?" He smiled. I sat with my back up against his legs. Could feel the tug of my hair being twisted together.

    "Get the fuck off of her!" I heard my mother yell as she barreled down the hallway. "Marann, baby, go to your room." 

    But I could barely hear her over the hands covering my ears. I tried to get up, but its like I was cemented to the floor.

    The yelling became too much, and it starydd o get physical. I removed my hands from my ears to hold the bear to my face.

    But even that couldn't block out the sound and sight of the knife entering my daddy's flesh. The smell of it filling the room like the death I knew it to be. The warmth of the sticky liquid as it splattered on my skin and cloths. The tilt of the couch as it dippd under my daddy's dead weight.

                         END FLASHBACK

    Yeah. Like I would sit on a couch or fight for a sofa. Instead, I settled in front of the fireplace. The oonly piece of warmth in the entire asylum.

    Someone came up behind me and sat beside me. I thought it only would have been Jeffrey, Ben, or even Sally. But I was graced with Natalie's presence. Turns out, she likes to stab things and draw gorey pictures. "Look what I drew you!" She said in her over zealous voice. "Friends!"

    The picture she handed me looked drawn in a rusty red marker that could well have been blood. Three people in incredible detail were standing around a grandfather clock. Well, two were standing. The third was being stabbed to death by the clock's kookoo bird of death who was weilding a knife. The two standing figures were girls that she explained were me and her. "The point is, his time was up. We get the pleasure of getting to watch this glorious sight!" 

    She skipped away, caring the picture with her.

                                            *****

That night as I got to the sink to wash my face and drink, I saw Asher standing beside me. He sort of smiled, sort of frowned. "I don't understand you. Jeffrey likes you. Ben likes you. Tobi likes you. All great guys. And who do you choose? No one. You could have anyone you want, and you want no one. Some of us aren't that lucky." 

    I was stunned for a second. Then they rushed us to our rooms, but I couldn't move. Finally, a guard threatened me with the chair and whippings, so I moved.

    I joined Asher in the room and the doors slammed shut. The locks all clicking at the same time sounded deafening and practiced.

    Asher claimed into his bunk and j sat next to him. He eyed me mysteriously and moved closer to the wall. I sucked in a breath before beginning, "I like you a lot. Don't you dare break my heart." 

    He didn't speak to me for a while.