Niam One Shots

Institutionalized

It's easy to get in, but impossible to get out

_____________________________________________________________________________

It’s easy to get into this place. You just got to walk through the doors with a claim that you hear voices or see things that aren’t actually there. You’re labeled as mentally unstable and ushered right in.

I walked in because I physically couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t see the worth in living and that scared me. I went to get some professional help, so that’s how I ended up here.

But that was over a year ago. I felt better after two months of being here, yet I am still here.

It’s incredibly hard to get out of this place. Everything you do becomes a new symptom. Claim you’re better, you are delusional, Stop taking your medicine, and you become defiant. Get angry, bipolar. Can’t sleep? Insomnia. Upset? Depression. Won’t eat? Anorexia. The list just goes on and. It’s literally impossible to get out of this damn place.

My only saving grace is Liam. I met him the first day I got here and I have been hopelessly in love since. He never actually told me why he was here, though. He just told me it was too painful to talk about and I never pushed him into telling me.

We became fast friends and even faster lovers. Maybe a month after I got admitted we got together, secretly. Secretly because I can tell that the workers don’t want us to be together. Whenever they see us talking the workers look at us with sad or suspicious eyes, hell, even some of the patients give us weird looks. We figured they just don’t approve of two patients being together, which makes sense, so we have kept our love a secret.

But Liam has become my rock. If it wasn’t for him I would have truly gone mad and then I would have no chance of getting out. I feel like he is the only reason I am better, not this fucking place.

Liam and I are currently hanging out in the courtyard of the institute. We are sitting on a bench, my head is in his lap and his fingers are carding though my hair. We are staring into each other’s eyes with nothing but love and we really should put some distant between ourselves, but at the moment we just don’t care.

“Don’t you ever get tired of this place?” I asked randomly.

Liam just shrugged then smiled down at me. “As long as I am with you it doesn’t matter where I am.”

I smiled back at him then sighed. “I want out of here so badly. I mean both of us are better now, we should be able to leave, but we can’t. It’s almost like we are being held here against our will. It’s wrong for them to keep us here at this point.”