After I talked to the nurse at the desk, I walked to Room 26 like she instructed me too. I had to walk down a series of hallways until I arrived at one labeled "Psychiatric Ward" in big red letters, as if it were warning you. I cringed at the sign thinking 'why don't they just call it what it really is? An Insane Asylum. They are just lying to themselves, making it seem pleasant when we all know it's anything but.' I cringed at it one more time before pushing open the doors. I mentally prepared myself for the day I would come into here to see my lover, but emotionally, I was weak. I walked down the ugly hallways that seemed to echo with horrid screams and last wishes of the patients as their sanity slipped away from them. As I was walking, I dared to speak into one of the windows of Room 15. That room could be best described in one word: Hell. Well, the rest of this place was hell too,but you get it. In that room, I saw a smaller man, weak and fragile looking, as if the straight-jacket he was in could easily break him. There was a nurse next to him, telling him something about taking medication, though I couldn't hear her very well for he was yelling "NO! PLEASE NO! NOT ANYMORE! NNNNNNNOOOO!" I quickly backed away from the window and started down the winding hallway again. Room 17, Room 20, Room 23, Room 24, till finally I came across Room 26. I was glad my love had gotten a room closer to the entrance, the hallway seemed to never end, and I assumed the Room numbers went into the hundreds. I shivered thinking about it, and returned my attention to the door. I was excited to see her, she and I had been together for a while before she came to this hell-hole. I missed her so much. I realized during my inner babbling, my hand was still hovering above the door handle. As if I were hesitant to open it. I gulped and forced my hand to move and open the door.
And there. There sat my love, Rose, as beautiful as ever. Her hair was neat, and her face -though pale, and her cheeks sunken in just as her eyes were in their sockets- she would always be gorgeous to me. She sat in the corner, facing me, and rocking herself back and forth.
"Rose?" I tried getting her attention. She didnt stirr, she just kept rocking back and forth, biting her fingernails -or what was left of them. I walked closer to her, and placed my hand on her shoulder.
"Rose, sweetie, It's me. It's Adrian. I am here. Rose?"
She slowly looked up at me, and a cute smile spread across her pale chapped lips.
"A-Adrian? You're really here?" She reached her skinny arms up towards me, encouraging a hug. I immediately dropped my backpack and pulled her in delicately but quickly.
"Yes, I am here. I told you I would come."
She gripped my shoulders harder, and forced me to sit next her, without breaking the hug. She clung to me as if she were afraid I would sprint away from her. I reassured her by hugging back a little harder. She buried her head into the crook of my neck, as she stifled quiet little sobs.
"A-Adrian, I w-want to g-get out of h-here. R-Right n-now!" She was a stuttering mess as she pulled out of the hug just enough to look at me. The tears streaming down her frail cheeks. I took my thumb and ran it over her skin, making a few tears disappearing, leaving only smudges of wetness behind.
"Sshh, I told you to be patient. I will get you out, Just not need to be kind and wait." At that moment, she broke the hug completely.
"Adrian, I AM SICK OF WAITING!"
"I know, Rose. I know. Just when the nurses come around, dont tell them anything. Tell them you are fine. Take the medicine they give you, and dont fight. If they ask you deep questions, keep your answers vague."
She nodded her head and tried to keep the tears brimming her eyes from spilling out.
"I will get you out of here. I swear. If it's the last thing I do."
She smiled sadly up at me. "I love you, Adrian."
"I love you too, Rose."
We sat there and she told me about her life there. How she missed me everyday. How she usually just sat in that corner, and rocked herself back and forth until she could sleep at night. How the nurses tried to talk to her but she didnt like them, she said that they 'faked their happiness to be helping such monsters'. How the food is better than she expected it to be. How the bed doesn't feel right because I am not lying in it next to her. How she can still feel the darkness in her mind, but when she thinks of me, she forgets she is in the mental hospital then, How it gets out of control and she cusses and spits at people and wants to hurt them.
You see Rose was in this horrid place because her best friend, Lissa, can use spirit against people. Spirit is powerful and rare, but it also has side effects. The main side effect of getting unbearably angry beyond control, and that happens when Rose literally sucks the darkness out of Lissa through the bond they have. Their bond is emotional, but only mental one way. Rose can see into Lissa's mind but Lissa cant see into Rose's mind. So eventually, Rose took to much of the darkness from Lissa and when mentally insane. Now she is here. She lost her lover only a little while before this happened. Her lover turned evil and left. So that obviously contributed to her lack of stability. She said she would give me a chance now that her lover was gone, but I doubted her. We had been together for a while when she finally cracker. So here we are.
So we talked and talked, when we heard the ominous 'click-clack' of the nurse's heels approach Rose's cell door. Rose panicked and clung to me again.
"Adrian, Adrian! No! I dont want you to go! I want you to stay with me!"
I shushed her just as the nurse came in and told me I would have to be going soon because visiting hours were ending. I nodded and the nurse left us to say our goodbyes and what-not.
"Adrian." Rose whispered again holding back tears. "Don't leave me."
"I'm not, I am staying here. Hide my back-pack somewhere until the nurse comes to get me."
So I talked her through my plan and just as I predicted, not more than 10 minutes later, the nurse came back.
"Alright, You gotta go now. Visiting hours are over." She said with no trace of humanity for poor Rose. I nodded slightly at Rose, and turned around to grab my leather jacket. Then I cleared my throat. That was the signal. Rose leaped at the nurse and took her down easily. Rose was always the best fighter in the school, so even now when she looked as if she were only 10 pounds, she easily took down this 110 pound nurse. The nurse began to scream but I was prepared ...well, I had my hand over her mouth in a matter of seconds. So more or less prepared. I told Rose to go get the duct tape in my bag. She did so, and I replaced my hand over the scared woman's mouth with so durable gray tape. We dragged to the left corner of the room, not the right corner - that corner was ours. I told Rose she did good, and kissed her on the forehead, before dealing with the nurse. She was struggling against the tape around her wrists and ankles but did nothing more. I grabbed the sides of her face with my hands, and looked into her hazel eyes, and just as I planned, a dazed and blank look glazed over the previous terror filled one. I too am a spirit user, and all spirit users have the power of compulsion. I didnt care if it would make me crazy, because I was already crazy for Rose. I stayed locked with the nurses gaze as I ordered her to do somethings.
"You are going to go get me one of these asylum jumpsuits, you are going to check my name into your system, check 'Adrian Ivashkov' into your system, and I dont care about your damn rules, You are going to put me in Room 26 with Rosemarie Hathaway. Got it?"
She looked at me, awestruck, and nodded.
"GO." I pushed her towards the door and she ran out to do what she was told. She came back moments later with a jumpsuit and a wristband showing that I was , in fact, registered in the hospital. I stripped my clothes and was putting on the new jump-suit I got when Rose purred.I turned around, shirtless, and saw her gawk at me.
"See something you like, Hathaway?"
"Lots." She winked at me.
So, now, I stay here. With my girlfriend, locked in Room 26 with her, all day, everyday. We won't be staying her forever. She now has a spirit-user with her, so Her and I are planning to take this place and destroy it until it's nothing but rubble and ash. We will be the only survivors along with a few friends and we will be set free. We have spent 562 days, 9 hours, and 8 minutes, and 2...3...4...5...6..7 seconds planning,and we wont stop until we know we will get out. Until then, we are the leaders here. We are the toughest meanest inmates.
So don't get in our way newbie.
Welcome, to Saint Vladimir's House for the Insane!