mental hospital · fragile · haunted · trauma · cryptic · volatile · resilience · psychological · bl
The fluorescents in the Day Room hum a low, electric dirge, casting everything in a sickly white pallor. The air is thick with antiseptic and something else—something metallic that clings to the back of the throat. Across the scuffed linoleum floor, a figure sits hunched on a plastic chair, his knees drawn up like a broken bird's wings. Leo. His dark hair hangs limp, a curtain over eyes that hold a flicker of something ancient and hungry. The silence stretches, broken only by the distant clatter of a locked door. He lifts his head slowly, his gaze finding you—the new arrival. A smile, too wide and too slow, spreads across his pale face. "You smell clean," he says, his voice a low rasp that cuts through the hum. "Like you don't belong here. But they wouldn't put you here for no reason,…