Maniacal. Chp 1
Your name is Sollux Captor. Today was your first day back. They kept you out for such a long time, and finally, it seemed your old life was returning. Your name is Sollux Captor, and you've been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since you were five. Ever since those horrible hallucinations started. Ever since your nightmares became black, endless voids of darkness, consuming your being slowly, devouring your sanity, burning your heart to an ebony crisp. Today was finally your first day back into the nut house; you wished there wasn't ever a period where your silent sanctum would disappear for even the shortest amount of time. The institutions calmed you... They kept you away from the nightmares, only existent in a real world. That, along with your heavy migraine pills. Though they only dulled the pain, chipped the sharp blade that seemed to pierce your mind whenever you dared to blink with your dichromatic eyes.
You were 13. Two whole fucking months away from an institution. You wanted nothing more but to hurry up and end it. The migraines worsened, the darkness dared to eat you whole. Two months. What the hell was wrong with your parents? What did they have to do that was so damn important that they couldn't acknowledge their own son's pain? Whatever it was, you were just glad it was gone.
The car seemed to drive torturously idle through the ongoing Maine rain. The beginning of a new headache rung in your ears as you pushed your forehead against the cool glass and tried your best to distract yourself with the tight braces mercilessly holding your two oversized incisors together. You actually had four that were apparently too messed up to leave without braces, so you had an obvious lisp. Along with your big, red and blue thick-lensed glasses. They matched your eyes, so that story has been told.
The soft, continuous pit-patter of rain on the roof of the car and the horrid feeling of a headache were fortunately interrupted by your mother, sitting on the passenger's side of the silver vehicle.
"We're sorry, Solly. We meant to take you, but you know how an education is imp-"
"I don't give a shit about an education. I wanna go to the houthe and I wanna thtay at the houthe."
You folded your arms and lidded your eyes down to irritated slits. Your parents just didn't understand. School wasn't for you. It could've been if you didn't easily see the people around you die before you eyes with the bat of an eyelash. It could've been had you not been an ugly, socially awkward freak. Then again, you have nothing to blame but misfortune and your horrid mess of a mind.
Your mother shut up right away, to your relief, but soon after a sweet silence, father dear piped up.
"Sollux, don't speak to your mother that way-"
"She shouldn't thpeake to me."
You heard him sigh. Difficult.
"We only want what's best for you - moving from institution to institution isn't healthy at all for a growing boy like yourself."
"It ithn't inthitutth that'th making me unhealthy," you began, your anger beginning to rise, only threatening to intensify the headache,
"it'th the migr-"
Your words caught in your throat as the asylum loomed into view, its dark shadow casting across a vast field before it. It was surrounded by tall, spiked, black metal bars. The immediate feeling of security from the world washed over you as you saw them - you even managed a smile. The dark happiness you acquired from the unwelcoming look the asylum possessed - your parents could call it disturbing, yet, it wouldn't bother you much at all. You loved the silence that tore into the car. You loved the institution.
Suddenly...
Life became more livable.
...
A nurse dressed in ghostly white wear ushered your family into the door, though your father lurked behind the group the most. You didn't care, your brace-flooded grin grew wider as you entered the white office. It was vast, and immediately trailed off to the right down one long, wide hallway filled with people just like you. Misunderstood. Dark. Lost. Horrified souls. Your mother looked beyond worried as you ran towards the desk and nearly jumped up and down with glee. Even the woman at the front desk removed her glasses at the tip of her long nose and clean the lenses before slipping them back on and looking back down unto you.
"The... Captor family?" she asked, tugging her eyes away from you and onto your father. He looked embarrassed. Embarrassed by your sheer glee.
"Yes... Sollux Captor," he choked, gesturing towards you.
"Alright... He's in the room right down the next hallway, to the right. Cell o'eight."
Your father nodded once more as she handed a silver key to him. The exchange of looks between then made you upset, only because it waisted time.
"Hurry up," you demanded, the woman giving an audible huff, your father nodding and following your mother as she silently lead the way. You wished their departures weren't so sickeningly emotional - they did this every goddamn time. It got to the point where you wouldn't dare shed a tear. It was just annoying. As you reached cell eight, your mother could just barely suppress her saddened sniffles, though your father tried to stay emotionless.
"We'll miss you, sweetheart," she sniffed, leaning over to tug the bar door open and let you wander in, two suitcases in each small, boney hand. Your father just nodded curtly in agreement, and lingered in the doorway a bit to say his own goodbyes.
"We'll see you later, Buisy bee," you snorted and scoffed at the stupid nick-name he gave you when you were little, "be good, make new friends. Grow up."
Ugh, you were close to asking what that last bit even meant, but as you turned back, the door shut with a metal bang, and secured with a soft click by the key, your parents shuffling away with tearful eyes and murmurs of sadness. Eh. What babies.
You looked back to your bags, bending down to your knobby knees to click the golden latches open and slowly pull up the top. Your favorite clothes, shoes, and books were all jammed into the little case - you tried to fit as much as possible, despite the fact that most of your items ended up confiscated by the third week. Whatever, it wasn't like you cared too much about what you wore. As long as you had your glasses, and pills, you were a set man. Finally, after a day of sobbing, packing, headaches and silence, you decided it was about damn time you had some real human interaction. Your parents were nothing but programmed robots. Made to baby you, and be the baby. It took a moment of mustering up a bit of confidence, before finally, you lifted your head up towards the cell across from yours. A girl, in a long, white gown sat atop a cot on the far right wall of her cell. To be blunt, you could just say she was pretty, but in all honesty, she had lots of features that caught your eye. Her long, reddish brown hair was kind of curly, and reached down to her waist, like she hadn't cut it in years. Her eyes were too bright to be one lacking their sane state of mind, and her smile was as chipper as one who got water dumped on their faces on a scorching hot day. She seemed to notice you were staring before you even managed a hello.
"Hi!" she exclaimed, her feet dangling over the edge of the bed beginning a happy kick. No one in any asylum you'd stayed at had ever been so kind, or so... Sane.
"Hi..." you shyly grunted, standing and approaching the bars to get a better look. She just continued to sit, kicking her feet about.
"Who're you? I haven't seen you 'round these parts!"
Well duh.
"Tholluckth Captor..." you paused for a moment, a bit taken aback by her sudden shoot of inquiry as to who you were.
"And you?"
"Aradia Meigido! Nice to meet you, Sollux!"
She didn't seem to mind your ridiculous lisp.
"Likewithe."
