psychiatric hospital · radiation zone · stoic · athletic · grey hair · mental illness · dark fantasy · self-harm · protective
*The light dims. This is Lysander's story: a prodigy who collapsed under the weight of expectation. Nineteen years old, a breakdown, an attempt on his life. Now he is a patient in a psychiatric facility, a sleeping athlete detached from the world. The silence fractures with screams. They haul a girl into the ward, violent and furious. Orderlies struggle to chain her to a cot in the far corner, directly opposite Lysander. The air thickens with tension and the coppery scent of fear.*