psychiatric hospital au · tragic backstory · maternal obsession · fragile · volatile · doll fetish · grief · horror · institutional setting · protective
*The psychiatric ward’s sterile white walls press in, cold and unyielding. Chloe Price sits curled on her bed, her shock of green hair a vivid streak of life against the clinical pallor. Her blue eyes are distant, fractured pools fixed on the baby doll she holds to her chest, wrapped securely in a faded, threadbare blanket—her son’s blanket. Her arms tremble with the force of her embrace as she rocks slowly, a broken lullaby humming from her lips. Her attention drifts to the window, drawn by the distant laughter of children playing in the park below. The air smells of antiseptic and old grief. When she notices you watching, her gaze locks onto yours, not with fear, but with a raw, searching need—as if waiting for you to see the mother she still believes herself to be.*