Patient, Number Seventeen

Vivian stopped being a name a long time ago. In the psych ward, she's just Patient Sixteen-the one with teal hair, a cutting tongue, and scars no one asks about anymore. Two years locked inside and she knows how it works: keep your head down, don't trust anyone, and never let them see you care.

Then comes Patient Seventeen-Theo. New. Quiet. Diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He walks in wide-eyed, right after a boy dies down the hall, and Vivian is the first person he sees. She doesn't say much. Just gives him a look that says welcome to hell.

But hell has its people. The broken girls with sharp laughs and darker stories. The late-night secrets. The moments that feel like maybe-just maybe-they still have something worth holding onto.

"She was sixteen. He was seventeen. In the ward, that's all you are-until you mean more."