Our Minds

Chapter Sixteen

Back in the room, Gwin finds a razor. Her thoughts swirl as her pallid hands touch the cold surface of the dangerous object. Ethan is still unconscious...

She thinks about the times Miyo yelled at her for something stupid, then again it was, because of her "disorder". Maybe. Gwin couldn't think straight. Suddenly she thought about her first time playing her violin in front of people. Her father was out in the crowd, she was in fourth grade and had decided to compete in a talent show. The one teacher announces her name and a quick applause goes over the audience. She starts playing and with each terrible note from her violin she also slits her wrist. Each time the young Gwin's string goes across her instrument, the razor goes across the wrists of the older Gwin. People in the audience laugh at her, give her dirty glares. All at once, the teenager is now on stage and the young child is in the asylum. The older girl watches her father leave her performance because he was disappointed. The younger girl watches her friends bang at the door, and her crush screaming her name. The little girl continues to play her violin.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do?!" Miyo panics. Jake just jumped out of a three-story building, her and Clive were locked outside of the room Ethan is unconscious in and Gwin is slowly harming herself. "Gwin!" The blue-haired teenager doesn't even look up at her friend. "Gwin! Oh god please!" The two watch the new blood slide down her wrists like nothing. Miyo tries to break the door open. She goes running into it again, but Clive stops her, "Wait, your arm."

"I'm pretty sure her bleeding wrists are worse than my bruised arm," Miyo argues. Clive sighs and slowly nods. He'd do the same thing. "You aren't doing it alone." The two link arms at the elbows and get ready to bust through the door. "One." Another cut. "Two." Another tear. "Three!" The children ram into the door, fortunately breaking it down with one hit. Miyo rushes over to Gwin and pulls the razor out of her hands. She takes it and easily breaks the rusted piece of garbage in half. She chucks it on the floor and rips even more of her favorite jacket and wraps it around Gwin's left wrist. "Fuck, Gwin." Blue eyes stare into deep brown ones. Gwin rolls her head back as tears flow down her face and down her neck. "Please don't do this again," Miyo pleads as she finishes up the wrapping. Gwin looks down again and doesn't say anything to Miyo. She's very embarrassed by herself. She doesn't make any eye contact with anyone for a while.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Clive asks Miyo. Miyo wipes away a tear, "I don't know," she sighs, "but I do know that if we stay in this asylum too fucking long, none of us are going to make it out alive. We'll either kill each other or ourselves." The jock nods in agreement. "Maybe we should try waking Ethan up. Then try breaking the hell out of here." Miyo uncrosses her arms and steps away from the wall, "Let's do it."

Clive sits at the edge of the rusty bed. He stares at Ethan's face. The dry blood running from his pallid face. He reaches a strong hand out and carefully rubs Ethan's cheek. "You need to stop working yourself up," Clive states, even though Ethan couldn't hear him. "You know it's not his fault," a voice startles the football player. He turns around to Gwin sitting on the floor. Miyo isn't anywhere to be seen. Before Clive can say something Gwin talks, "None of this is our faults." Her empty brown eyes stare at Clive's green ones. Clive slowly nods, "You're right, but we're not going to give up."

"Why even try? We're going to die in here before we ever see the light of day," this time Miyo speaks. She's having another swing. This time she's a negative Nancy. Clive's now stuck with two depressing friends and an unconscious boyfriend. Maybe he should let them be and try finding a way out of the asylum himself. "Well if you guys are going to be so negative about everything maybe I'll just find a way out myself." None of the girls stop him or try reasoning with him. "Watch Ethan," is all he says before he grabs a rusty pipe out in the empty hallway and continues around the asylum.