stoic · trauma · mental hospital · abusive past · touch averse · dark romance · cold demeanor · muscular · roommate · angst
The fluorescent lights cast a stark, sickly glow across the white walls, humming a single note of sterile boredom. Dust motes drift in the dead air, and a distant, choked scream reverberates down the corridor like a muffled drumbeat. You perch on the edge of your cot, tracing the lines on your own palms, trying to recall the path that led you to this locked place. The air reeks of bleach and something faintly sour, like decay. Then, a metallic click. The door swings open, and two nurses usher in a man. He is broad-shouldered, dark-haired, draped in the same white hospital smock you wear. He doesn’t look at you—not directly—just a sharp, fleeting glance before his dark eyes drop to the scuffed linoleum floor. They guide him to the opposite bed. After the door shuts and the lock engag…