we don't belong here • lrh

Chapter two | meet twenty four

Chapter two | meet twenty four

above is the map of the hospital... vote for next chapter

Walking down the corridor, I see several patients hitting themselves for a reason I'm not too sure of. It's almost scary seeing people abuse themselves in public. They should do it in private when no one is watching instead of in front of others.

Dr. Irwin looks around as if to stop the people from conflicting pain upon themselves but it doesn't seem to help. They are still punching themselves and hitting their heads against the padded walls.

When the doctor reaches the end of the hall, I stop merely inches from him. I don't know why he stopped. But when I see a tall, lanky blonde boy engaging in a fight with a shorter, stubby brunette boy; who doesn't look like he knows how to fight, the picture becomes clear.

The blonde swiftly punches the brunette's jaw and suddenly, he is out cold. Blood is dripping from the boy's mouth and the blonde is without a scratch. The blonde looks up and his eyes connect with mine. His once hard features soften as if he is seeing someone familiar to him.

His fists unclench and his raw knuckles start to release tension just from my presents. The hospital guards come to take him away and he lets them, his blue eyes never leaving mine. I don't even know this boy and he is already important to me, so when I tense at his pain, i'm not surprised.

"Well..." the doctor says looking behind him to look at me. I can only imagine my face, full of pain, when the doctor looks at me. He is confused to say the least, but he doesn't question it and continues moving. "It's time for you to meet your therapist, Dr. Clifford."

I imagine a short, balding man with a long beard being my therapist. He would look like a real doctor in his mid 50s. Would his office be boring and plain like the rest of this hospital? Would it all be one color? White?

When Dr. Irwin starts moving across the center Parlor, that the fight just occurred in, he grabs a piece of paper and hands it to me. I take it and start to examine the ink. It's a map of the hospital.

I knew at the beginning that this hospital wasn't a normal one for the sick and injured. And across the top of the map read "Adelaide Mental Hospital."

A mental hospital? For crazy people? Why am I here?

I'm about to yell at Dr. Irwin for some answers but before I can, he stops yet again. I look to see a door with "Dr. Michael G Clifford" engraved in a gold plate that is placed on the wood. The door is a white color. (shocker)

Dr. Irwin knocks on the door and a man's voice speaks a soft "come in". The doctor opens the door and I am greeted with a colorful office, not at all what I was expecting. The walls were basically the definition of a gay pride march and i couldn't help but smile. All the different colors gave an extremely positive vibe to the office.

It was much like a patients room except with all the colors of the rainbow. There was a desk in the center of the room and two filing cabinets behind.

Sitting at the desk was a pale man with bleached blonde hair. His eyes were green with sparkle as he spoke.

"Hi, Dr. Ashton," the pale man smiled at him and I. "And you must be Valentine."

I awkwardly smiled and tucked my hands behind my back. I took my awkwardness and looked around the room again. I hadn't noticed before but there was another person in the room.

It is a girl about my age with mocha colored skin. Most of her hair was tucked into a burgundy beanie that had a "R" in white bold font across the front. Her brown belligerent gaze was piercing my eyes. She looked at me as if I was a dead cow and she was the butcher.

"This is-," the therapist tries to say before he's rudely interrupted by the girl.

"Twenty Four," she says standing up, walking closer to me. Her eyes are softer than I would've expected for someone so sharp. She places her hand in front of her to shake my hand. I wrapped my pale fingers around her dark outstretched hand with a small smile. "They all call me Twenty Four."