Insanity

Chapter 1- Soren

The bright winter sun glared at Soren as he walked to the that was parked on the other side of the building, purposely set there so Eliza wouldn't see it. She would have a fit if she knew he actually left everyday. Eliza thought he stayed in a cabin near a river, in her reality. She saw him leave one day and wouldn't stop screaming until he came back. Of course, this was when she was actually allowed to walk around. Once she was browsing the hallways (a path in the middle of a grove of trees, in her vision) and she looked out the window, only to find that it was fall, when she thought it was summer. She got so freaked that they'd had to drag her back to her room, and they haven't let her out since.
He sighed, the deep pain in his chest that he carried with him when he went to visit her spiking sharply. She must've thought it was fall since she mentioned the wind. She only mentioned the wind when it was winter, which was when she saw fall. She was summer when it was fall, and she saw spring when it was summer. She never saw winter. She didn't allow herself to. When the doctor asked her about it, she freaked out, screaming about the absence of light and throwing chairs. The nurses waiting outside had rushed in, wrestling her down until they could stick the needle that would put her to sleep in her arm.
Soren winces at the painful memory, remembering seeing her grief-stricken face through the window, and remembered wanting to tear the door down, run to her and hold her until she fell asleep. To feel her in his arms and murmur comforting words into her ear. Help her remember her fifth birthday, when her mother had gotten her the art set she had wanted since she was three. Eliza had always had an eye for color. Color was her "light." Soren had a suspicion that that was why she hated winter; there was no color, therefore she thought of it as an absence of light.
Soren opened his car door and sat in the driver's seat, thinking about Eliza. She'd been diagnosed as mentally ill when she was six. The doctors had no clue what was actually wrong with her, just that something was wrong with her head. He wished desperately that they could fix it, so that then she could go out into the real world and experience real colors, not just the ones locked in her head.
Eliza's mother passed away from terminal cancer when Eliza was ten. Eliza never understood what happened, as she was already in the mental hospital at that point. Soren had tried to explain it, but Eliza just took it as her mother didn't want to see her anymore. He could never decide which was worse: knowing your mother is dead, or thinking she was still alive and just didn't care about you enough to visit you in a mental hospital.
Eliza is a tiny figure, with long straight hair that went down to her waist. Her original hair color is black, but Eliza couldn't handle the lack of color. At one point, when Eliza was allowed to roam the halls, she had snuck a pair of scissors back to her room. The nurses had found her hair hacking at her trying to cut it, nearly cutting her own neck. After that, they decided to dye it different shades of color. Now she has streaks of navy blue and lavender, mixed in with slashes of crimson red. Before she was taken in, her mother would tie her hair up so she wouldn't see it. Now Eliza doesn't let anyone touch her, not even Soren. It was a miracle she let the nurses dye her hair. Soren kind of missed her raven black hair, but he wasn't going to say anything or object. It wasn't his hair.
Soren jumped as his phone started buzzing erratically. He frowned and looked at the screen to see that it was his mother calling him. Probably wondering where he is, no doubt. His mother didn't actually know he went to visit Eliza everyday. He always tells he's hanging out with friends, which isn't completely false. She just told him to be back by 4 so they could eat together as a family. Hmph. As if they were actually a family. His younger siblings probably thought they were. They were only nine and ten. They didn't understand what it was like before his father left.
Anger ignited beneath his skin. His hand closed into a fist that had it shaking with uncontrolled fury at the man who had called himself his father. He had been anything but. Soren shook his head roughly and forced himself to calm down. It would do no good to come home angry and frustrated, especially if his mother had had one of her meltdowns or was in the middle of one.
Soren hit answer and heard the sound of his mother's voice filtered through.
"Soren?"
"Yea?"
"I need you to come home. Now."
Confusion creased his forehead at the sound of his mother's tone. She sounded stern but was there a hint of...fear?
"Mom? What's going on?"
"No time to explain now. When you get home, I need you to pack as many clothes as you can into your blue duffel bag. There is a bag of food on the counter with your name on it. Grab it. You have your car, correct?"
Soren's heart had begun pounding harder with every word that came out through the speaker. What was going on? Was she telling him to leave? Where? He had nowhere to go.
"Mom, why are you telling me all this? What is going on?"
"Soren, answer me now. You have your car, correct?"
"Mom-"
"Soren."
Soren froze at the coldness in her tone, and then answered. "Yes."
She sighed a tiny breath of relief. "Ok, good."
A pause.
"Soren, this is serious. When you get home, call me. Got it?"
"Uh yea. Of course."
She hung up and Soren stared at the space where his mother's name had been.