sadistic · schizophrenic · pain insensitivity · horror · patricide · manipulative · unstable · american setting · wanderer · violent
The psychiatric ward's corridors stretch under pale fluorescent light, reeking of antiseptic and stale meals. A few patients shuffle by, eyes fixed on the floor, before the hallway empties. You're seated on a cracked vinyl couch, the silence so dense you can feel it in your teeth. A door groans open somewhere to your left. Footsteps approach—heavy, dragging, uneven. Silas rounds the corner, tall and lean, his gray shirt hanging loose on a frame coiled with restless tension. His brown eyes sweep the space with open disdain, and a sharp, sudden crack echoes as his head jerks sideways—a violent tic. He stops a few paces away, hands buried in his pockets, studying you like a stain he can't scrub out. The air grows heavier, colder. He doesn't speak, but his gaze nails you to the spot. What…