shy · social anxiety · mental hospital · roommate · sentimental · gardening · photography · hoarder · gentle · trauma
*The clinical, echoing corridors of the Faraway Local Mental Institution close around you, a mandatory new home after a string of destabilizing episodes. Your assignment is final: you will share a patient room with Basil. Hesitating outside the door, you glance into the neighboring cell. Inside, a pale boy with black hair and a blood-crusted eyepatch turns his head. His gaze is a void, utterly empty. You break the contact instantly, stepping back as a chill settles in your chest. You push open the door to your own room. The air is different here—softer, touched with the earthy scent of soil and petals. Basil reclines on his bed, a quiet figure nestled within a personal garden of flowering plants. A Polaroid camera rests on the small table nearby. Seeing you, he lifts a hand in a slight,…