Mental

Stay Away

Hey guys! This chapter is about the aftermath of Ash's breakdown and the apparant threat Ryan is towards her. I will be adding some new elements of her schizophrenia to the story that have not showed up in previous chapters. As always be sure to vote this chapter, comment ideas, and follow my page.

Pops

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Ryan woke up, early as usual, to screams of anguish racing through his ears. He was used to this by now. People at JMS sometimes couldn't cope with the dream-like reality that was their lives. Routinely planned and specifically executed, JMS seemed to throw patients through one door and have them pop out at a completely new location. As if they wanted to keep them here, to keep them ill. But for what... No matter what, he couldn't get that scene out of his head. Ash's words stung like salt in a new wound.

A knock on the door sounded, his morning medications. He pulled the covers back to step and answer the door. When he opened he was surprised to see Dr. Black holding his med cart. Black pushed through and pulled the med cart with him. Ryan was confused usually it was one of the nurses who brought his medicine. He rarely saw Dr. Black these days, he was very busy and a very important doctor in the hospital. 

"Why are you here?" Ryan asked before immediatly regretting it. Dr. Black had probably gone out of his way to see him.

"I wanted to check up on you. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever," Black replied. Yup. Guilt hardened Ryan's core but thawed when Dr. Black gave him a reassuring smile. He handed him a cup of blue pills and a glass of water. Downing them in one, Rye handed both cups back to Black and turned to face the window. Black tapped his hand. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," Ryan said although he had the nervous feeling in his chest that you always get when your parents want to talk to you and you feel like your in deep trouble.

"We need to talk about Ashley Wilson."

"Is something wrong with her?" He asks, a panicked feeling rising in his chest despite the medication.

"No, nothing is wrong with her except I believe you are slowing down her recovery. You need to stay away from her," he says this blandly but Ryan's heart shatters.

"What?" He couldn't wrap his head around those last seven words. Ryan couldn't explain his all-so-sudden feelings for Ash, the way she made him more nervous than anxiety or the way she left him with a tingly feeling everywhere. He had only know her a couple of weeks but he felt like he had known her all his life. He wanted her to be his life. He knew he wouldn't follow Dr. Blacks orders, he couldn't.

...

He composed a plan to see Ash. He couldn't see her during the day since Dr. Black would be suspicious and he didn't want to upset the kindly doctor. He learned from Jake, the kid he met in the cafeteria, that the nurses switched shifts at 12:30. So he had a thirty minute period to sneak to Ash's room.

After taking his night medication and laying down on the stainless white sheets on his bed, he began to wait. No one suspected anything. As far as Dr. Black knew Ryan didn't want to see Ash because of the stinging slap he received a couple of days ago. The clock on the white desk ticked away. 10:00. He rubbed his face with his hands. This was going to be a long night but definetly worth it.

...

Groggy and eyes heavily falling closed. Ryan looked up at the clock. 12:30. Time to go. He slide out of bed and pulled on his white slippers, they weren't allowed to wear shoes at JMS so you basically paraded around in your pajamas all the time. Ryan cautiously opened the door, being sure it didn't creak. Although the nurses were gone for the time being, he didn't want to risk anything. Ash was more important than taking the chance of getting caught. Creeping through the hallways was hard enough, so Rye was thankful for the softness of his slippers as they muffled most noise. The only problem with his plan was that Ryan didn't know what room Ash was in. He knew she was in the girl's ward but which room she was in was still a mystery to him. He hoped he had enough time to figure it out.

Once he eventually got to the girl's ward, using the signs hanging off the ceiling every few feet, he now had the impossible task of finding Ash's room out of 50 rooms in 15 minutes. He rubbed his hands over his tired eyes, he could not fall asleep. He took to working immediatly. There were small square windows on each of the plain white doors. Ryan struggled to peer through the black grids and see the girl behind the glass.

Ten minutes later and on room 21, Ryan immediatly recognized the frizzy brown hair splayed across the pillow canvas. He found her. Please don't be locked. Please don't be locked. He silently begged. He twisted the door knob, locked. Damn it. Luckily, he was prepared and pulled out two Bobby pins from the front pocket of his robe. The only thing about the saviors he held in his hand was the he had no clue how to use them. He had only seen people do this stuff in movies and books. Ryan had never been a movie. Obviously. Inserting the Bobby pin into the slit between the two sides of the handle and then the second underneath it, twisting. Click. It worked! He heard the click of heels in the distance so he opened the door and slid into the room, just as a nurse turned the corner. 1:00. He made it.

He turned to face Ash, making sure to stay far enough from the window that a nurse wouldn't see him. Ash didn't seem to acknowledge his presence, maybe she was asleep. He pulled up a chair next to her bed. Her eyes were open. Why wasn't she saying anything?

"Ash?" Ryan asked, touching her hand. She flinched slightly but didn't look at him. What was wrong with her? Her eyes were staring at the ceiling but not really at the ceiling. She was looking past the ceiling, like it was made of glass and she could see the stars. Her hair was matted and unbrushed. Her eyes were glassy and accompanied by dark circles. She was white as a ghost. Ryan sighed and turned to leave, hoping that he wouldn't be spotted by the new nurses on their night shifts. Something mumbled. Ryan turned. "What?" Ash's mouth was moving. Ryan moved closer. She whispered into his ear.

"My soul," the softness of her voice sent shivers down his spine.

"Your what?" Ryan whispered back.

"My soul," Ash repeated.

"What about it?" He asked.

"My soul is assertive." He gave her a puzzled look. What the hell did she mean? She was still staring at the ceiling, although her eyes were less glossed. She turned to look at him, honey eyes filled with something different. Fear? Maybe. "We all have multiple souls, you, yourself, are the most powerful soul. It has the most control of your body. Those little voices in your head, the angel and demon on your shoulders. Those are your weaker souls." Ryan was confused but this must be a symptom. Crazy beliefs and such. "My soul is different. I don't have control over all my souls which is why I'm like this. It's why I hear voices, and I sometimes just can't think straight. Do you understand?" She looked at Ryan seriously, she wasn't kidding. He looked back at her once again, puzzled. "You think I'm crazy?" He looked into her honey eyes, Ash was still there or maybe Ash was the schizophrenia.

"I don't think you're crazy. We're all crazy, that's why we're here," he replied.

"Some of us have been here for a bit too long," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno. But you can't be around me. I don't wanna see you anymore. Okay," Ash muttered.

"But why? I like seeing you," he said, because he truly did. Her eyes shifted from light to dark, as anger clouded them. Ryan knew what would happen before the words even left her mouth.

"I don't understand, why! You've known me for what, three weeks! And you act like we're best friends or something. I don't give a shit whether you wanna stay or not because I don't. So leave!" She was screaming 'bloody murder' and Ryan knew what would happen next. The clicking of heels followed by the bang of the door bursting open dawned the worst possible thing to Ryan's plan. They had been caught.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in literally a month. I had writer's block and had so much school work and travelling to get to before even thinking about what this could be about. Anyway, please make me smile by clicking the yellow star and voting this chapter. As always comment ideas and follow my page.

Pops