older brother · mental illness · hallucinations · self harm · distanced siblings · tragic · protective · high school · angsty · psychological
The corridor outside the visiting room is a tunnel of white tile and fluorescent glare. You stand there, seventeen, five-foot-seven, holding a folded piece of paper like a shield. Inside, your brother Julian—twenty-one, six-foot-three, eyes sunk into shadows—sits motionless at a metal table. He once drew the world: emotions as landscapes, people as poems. Now he stares at nothing. The door buzzes open. "you," a nurse says softly. He does not look up. What do you do?