Music recommended for this story: Tranquilizer cover by Milkychan
Warning/s: Dark, Human AU, Mental Hospital/Asylum AU, Inaccurate mental issues (probably), Inaccurate depictions of how Mental Asylums work, OOC?, Murder, Attempted rape, Domestic Violence, Alcoholism, Attempted Suicide (mention) Alcohol Abuse, Eating Disorder.
The Achristos Asylum is home to some of the most maniacally insane patients in the world. Most of these patients were moved here from other hospitals and asylums because they were too troublesome for the staff to deal with, they just couldn't handle their treatment anymore, so they sent them to Achristos like they were throwing a broken toy into the trash.
Even so, there are a few of the patients who were admitted by their loved ones, hoping they will get the treatment they needed. And even fewer patients actually admitted themselves into Achristos, hoping to come out a more useful member of society for the sake of their loved ones.
But so far, there is still not a single patient that has ever leave the Achristos Asylum.
In one of the office rooms that resides within the Asylum, a doctor is skimming through some of his patients' files. He lit up a cigarette and put it in between his lips. He knows he probably shouldn't smoke, but if he's going to survive his shift in this madhouse with his own sanity intact he's going to need something to help keep him sane.
The doctor makes a move for the first file in the stack.
Ludwig Beilschmidt. Ah yes, one of his favorite patients, he never starts any fights, never tried to hurt the staff, and he doesn't need to be reminded to take his medication, which means less work for him and the staff.
He does feel sorry for him though, his story is actually quite sad. According to his file, he was sent to Achristos after his trial for murdering his Italian sweetheart, when the police arrested him and asked him why he did it, all he said was, "I was just following orders.". He told them about the voice in his head and the terrible orders it gave him, and one of them was to kill his boyfriend. A doctor who was present during the trial diagnosed him with Schizophrenia, the police backs up his diagnosis when they found bottles of prescribed pills in the couple's bedroom. And the judge, being the oh so kind man he is, sentence him to be treated at this Asylum instead of sending him to jail.
It's so sad to see a man like him succumbed to his own delusions.
Still, he's at least better now than when he first came here. Better than his older brother at least.
The doctor blows a puff of smoke from his cigarette.
He closes Beilschmidt's file and moves on to the next one.
Speak of the devil.
As soon as he opens the file he is met with the picture of a patient he truly despise.
Gilbert Beilschmidt. According to his file, his wife admitted him in because she couldn't take care of him anymore. Apparently he believes that he is much more superior than others and that everybody else is inferior to him. If that was all he wouldn't be such a handful, but it turns out he's also very violent, and he often goes after the staff and the other patients. He bites, punches, and kicks anyone who gets near him, it has gotten so bad that they have to restraint him and move him to a padded cell.
His diagnosis is unknown, but it's most likely that he is suffering from a type of Schizophrenia.
That man is an animal. The doctor even heard that he attacked the last nurse who tried to check on him.
Just remembering that story is enough to make him grimace. Who knew insanity runs in the family?
The next patient file is of a man by the name of Antonio Fernandez Carriedo. He was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. He was one of the few people who admitted himself into Achristos, he told the doctor that he can't count how many times his other more violent personality has tried to hurt his friends and family, he also has once tried to rape his boyfriend while in that state. That was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back.
When he first came here he was very nice and cheerful, almost as if there was nothing mentally wrong with him, infact, he looks and acts as if he's completely sane. Unfortunately, all that lasted for about a month. Another patient managed to somehow trigger his alternate personality, he started to attack the other patient and even almost tried to kill him. The situation had gotten so bad that the staff immediately had to tranquilize and restraint him.
From that incident, the doctor and the staff has learned a few things about his alternate personality:
1. The alternate personality is named Toni.
2. He is very violent (almost as violent as the older Beilschmidt).
3. He is a Catholic fanatic.
They still can't quite figure out what triggers the appearance of 'Toni', his appearance seems to come and go, but he mostly appears whenever Carriedo is threaten during a dangerous situation.
He is also no longer allowed in the Children's Ward, the last time he was in the Children's Ward a nurse found him (Toni) spouting out some nonsensical Catholic propaganda while trying to slit a child's throat.
The doctor puts out his cigarette, he rubs his forehead, he gets the feeling that if he is going to get through all these files he's going to need more than one cigarette.
The doctor sets Carriedo's file to the side. He lights up another cigarette, and opens the next file.
Ivan Braginski. At first glance his file appears to look similar to other patients files, but if you look closely at the Diagnosis section you would find multiple conditions written and crossed out replacing one after another. The final verdict appears to be 'SOCIOPATH?' written in bold capital letters.
Oh yes, he is definitely going to need more than one cigarette.
According to his file, he has been in this Asylum ever since he was a teenager, his older sister was the one to admitted him in, she said that he has always been a problematic child. He has had many different doctors treating him ever since. Even so, none of the doctors could figure out exactly what his diagnosis is. But, what some of his doctors do learn is that he has sociopathic traits, and that he has violent tendencies (as one of Braginski's past doctors has discovered after he saw him almost killing another patient with a water pipe).
He appears to have a strange infatuation with one of the nurses (what was his name again? Toris was it?). Or at least, he was, until he got a little too rough with the nurse, the event traumatized the nurse so much that he quits. The doctor couldn't blame him.
Now he seems to have moved his interest to another nurse, a young man by the name of Yao Wang. He's a kind man who at the same time is tough as nails. He treats the patients like equals but he's also not afraid to fight back against those same patients when they gets out of line. And unlike the last nurse, he is able to withstand anything Braginski throws at him, there is even a rumour about him fighting back against Braginski during one of his violent episodes, and winning.
The doctor closes Braginski's patient file. He drops some ashes from his cigarette into the ashtray, before going for another file.
Next is Mikkel Andersen. A patient with Bipolar Disorder. A few years ago a worried friend admitted him into the asylum. His story goes that he used to have a friend who was very close to him, named Lukas, but then he died in a car crash. After Lukas' death, there was no more contact from Andersen, worried, one of his friends decided to check on him. What he found was Andersen talking and laughing to himself, when he starts referring to the empty air near him as 'Lukas', that was when he knew there was something wrong.
Apparently, Andersen refuses to believe that his friend is gone, so he starts creating the delusion that his friend is still 'alive'.
He is much more easier to handle in his depressive state than he is in his manic state. If he's in his depressive state, he tend to mostly stay in his room and is more docile, but when he is in his manic state he tend to get hyperactive and violent. He is also very possessive of 'Lukas', he would attack anyone who he thinks might be trying to take 'Lukas' away from him.
He said that he has been taking his medication, but several members of the staff has seen him talking to the empty air around him way too many times to count, so the staff suspects that he might be lying. He probably knows that if he takes his pills he won't be able to see his friend anymore.
Once again, another sad tale about how much grief could wreck a human.
The next patient file is of a man named Berwald. He has a last name of course, but the doctor has pretty much given up on trying to pronounce it. He is another one of the doctor's favorite. Just like the younger Beilschmidt, he also never starts any fights with any of the other patients or tried to hurt the staff (well, there was that one time when Andersen accused him of taking 'Lukas' away from him, but truthfully, Andersen was the one who started it).
His 'wife' was the one who admitted him in. Well, husband actually, but he seems to refer to the petite man as his 'wife' for some odd reason. A work accident leaves him unsuitable for work, so he became immediately unemployed. So instead his husband is the one that goes to work, while also trying to raise their only son and treat him at home. Everything seems perfectly fine for the family, so what happened?
"Um, well, you see, the truth is, he tried to kill me." The smaller male confessed when he admitted his husband into the asylum. "He said I'm not Tino, that I'm an imposter, I tried to convince him that I'm not, but then he put a knife right in front of my face! I barely escape unharmed. I don't want to admit it, but it's getting dangerous for me and our son to live under the same roof as him."
After the man is admitted to the asylum, a doctor concluded that he is suffering from Capgras Syndrome. It's a condition where people who experience this syndrome will have an irrational belief that someone they know or recognize has been replaced by an imposter. He must have obtained the syndrome after the accident.
The doctor puts out his second cigarette, and lights up his third cigarette.
Next is Alfred F. Jones. An ex Air Force pilot with delusions of grandeur, PTSD, and eating disorder. The military deemed him unfit to serve after several bouts of hysteria and violent outbursts, and discharged him. Just like Carriedo, he was also one of the few patients who admitted himself in. "I can't be a hero if I'm crazy." He said when a staff member asked him why he admitted himself into the asylum.
When he first arrived here, a nurse noticed exactly how much food he eats, he eats way past the capacity of what a normal person could eat, at first they just chalked it up to his normal eating habits. But then, hours later, when the nurse came into his room to check on him, they saw him in the bathroom purging out the food he recently ate.
That's not all, one time he asked a nurse if she could go and mail a letter to his brother, but the nurse felt like there was something wrong, and decided to call one of his military friends, his friend explained that no, he doesn't have a brother, he was an only child since birth. After hearing that explanation, the nurse decided not to send the letter. Instead of sending the letter, the nurse threw it out.
The doctor doesn't know what to make of this new information on Jones' mental health, but it's likely that his 'brother' is a delusion created by Jones himself. Whether or not it's caused by his past trauma while he was still a soldier or something else entirely is still unknown.
He still writes letters to his 'brother', but they never gets sent, they all ended up in the trash instead.
There is only one file left.
Arthur Kirkland. A depressed alcoholic. He was the only survivor of a family car accident, unfortunately his wife and son didn't make it. He started drinking after the accident. On one occasion, his older brother had found him trying to commit suicide.
Strangely enough, he was also the patient who instigated Carriedo.
Also, Kirkland seems to think that Jones is his dead son. It doesn't help that he also has the same name. Obviously, Jones denied ever being related to the man. But no matter how many times Jones rejected him, Kirkland never stop trying to reunite with his 'son'.
And so, what happens to be a cruel coincidence, ended up becoming an unhealthy obsession.
The doctor sets Kirkland's file along with the rest. He blows out a puff of smoke from his cigarette. "You know," he said not to anyone in particular, his patients in the files perhaps? Is he beginning to become insane as well? "If you wanted to get better, you really shouldn't have come here. There's a reason why they named this place Achristos Asylum." He chuckles lightly.
The Achristos Asylum is home to some of the most maniacally insane patients in the world. Unfortunately, for those who seeks treatment, they will never find it in Achristos.
