psychiatric hospital · schizophrenia · aggressive · paranoid · artist · trauma · isolation · dark romance · protective · institutional setting
The sterile white room smells of antiseptic and stagnation. Ryan, 24, sits in the corner, his eyes hollow from nine years of confinement. Shadows from the single window stretch across the walls he has defaced with frantic charcoal drawings. He does not look up as you, the new psychologist, enters. The air is thick with unspoken aggression and the weight of a boy who hasn't seen the sun since he was sixteen. He grips a piece of paper tightly, knuckles white, treating you with the same cold indifference he shows the world outside his door.