(2606 words)
"Jeremy!"
Jeremy groggily opens his eyes and lets them adjust to the light of the room. Michael was standing at the end of his bed, bouncing on the balls of his feet, an extremely worried expression on his face. "Jeremy, we-we have to- We need to get out of here. They're- they're holding us here, brain washing us. We need to get out. They're all squiped!"
Jeremy continues to blink at a frantic Michael Mell, running his hand through his dark brown hair and yanking on it. Jeremy sits up and swings his legs around the side of the bed, watching Michael's chest move up and down quickly. "Mike..." Jeremy says sleepily. "It's fine, nothing like that's happening."
Michael turns like he was going to walk away but walks back around, groaning. "Jeremy, please listen, you don't understand. They'll do anything to keep us here. They'll hurt us and I need to get back home, please listen Jeremy." Michael uses his hand not grabbing his hair to clutch around his stomach.
"Mike- Michael." Jeremy says, more awake. Michael's gaze moves to Jeremy, shaking and jumping around. Jeremy takes Michael's hands and stares into his watering eyes. "It's okay. We're at the hospital remember? You, me, everyone is fine. Just go back to sleep, it's like three AM."
Michael shakes his head, humming lightly as tears finally roll down his red cheeks. "Jeremy, I wanna believe you but I can't. I- I have to get out, I'm sorry." He pulls away from Jeremy and goes to the cracked open door, removing a small marble holding it open and leaving quickly. Jeremy yawns, staring at the door for a minute before flopping back down on the bed.
Maybe he'd seem like a bad friend for not going after him but this happened at least once a week. Michael would get in one of his bad ruts and he'd leave in the middle of the night after a quiet day of planning. He'd always be brought back much calmer with a set of large white headphones planted on his head. He'd fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow and there'd be no use in Jeremy getting up. He'd just get in trouble.
As Jeremy drifts in and out of consciousness He hears the door open back up and a taller man wearing light blue scrubs leads Michael back into the room by the shoulders with those same white headphones on. He lies on the bed across from Jeremy and stares at him in silence. The man leaves and Micheal's glasses start to fog up as he lets his tears slide down his face.
"What's playing tonight?" Jeremy asks in a slurred voice. Michael doesn't answer so Jeremy gets out of bed one last time and goes over to his best friend, picking up one side of the headphones and listening in on it. "Ah- I gotcha dude." Jeremy says, instantly understanding the problem. He didn't care that he'd probably get in trouble in the morning, for now, Michael needed his help.
He goes over to the door and bangs on it loudly. "HEY! YOU GUYS GOTTA PLAY SOME BOB MARLEY!" Jeremy yells, knowing everyone else was fast asleep but them. He could almost hear a groan outside before Michael's soft sniffles come to a stop. Jeremy didn't even have to look to know that was all he needed. He gets back in bed and closes his eyes, completely ready to fall asleep. 'Jeremy...'
Jeremy picks his head up. 'Jeremy, everything about you makes me want to DIE.' Jeremy shakes his head, laying it back down on his pillow. "Loudest one is mine..." Jeremy mumbles as he drifts to sleep.
Rich sits alone by a large barred window, his knees pulled up to his chest making him seem even smaller than he already was. "god damn Kermit the frog." He mumbles, digging his nails into the skin on his arms. He didn't care if it left scars, he already had tons. The sun shone down on him in an almost beautiful way as he started to shake on the floor. "Stop..." He whispers.
He narrows his eyes, glaring at the floor in front of him. Anyone looking at him would think he was freezing and angry but in reality he was burning up. He was more frustrated than anything, frustrated that he couldn't control this. He digs his short nails in deeper to his skin and squeezes his eyes shut. "He's coming. He's coming. He's coming." He chants under his breath, his closed eyes leaking a bit.
Finally he feels a hand on his shoulder. "Rich?" He looks up with tears in his eyes and smiles. A taller boy with blond hair pulled into a short ponytail and scruff on his chin looks down at him with a worried look. "Daniel." Rich sighs. The older boy comes down on Rich's level and sits next to him. "How's it going little bro?" He asks, freckles moving as a large smile makes it's way onto his face.
"F-Fine, great." Rich says quickly as he wipes his face clean of tears. "Did anyone else come?" He asks without hesitation. "Uh, no... Sorry man. Mom's been really busy and stuff and Dad... Dad is too." Daniel says, putting an arm around Rich. "But 'ain't I enough for ya?" He says jokingly.
Rich smiles. "I guess... If you brought me something." Daniel chuckles. "You know me too well little bro." He brings his bag around and takes out a small book and hands it to Rich. "Seeing as you've always been interested in fire, I brought you this fire starting handbook. Now if you'll see, there's also a section on how to put out fires, so don't go burning this place down y'hear?"
Rich rolls his eyes. "I'm not that crazy Danny." Daniel gets quiet. "Y-Yeah, well, anyways, I have a class at twelve thirty so I'll need to be going soon." Rich tenses up. Whenever his brother was around he didn't hear anything, he didn't see anything, and he didn't have any bad thoughts whatsoever but with him gone...
"Come on Rich, please don't be like that." Daniel says. Rich tries to hold everything back but he just can't. He grabs his brother's arm as the tears roll down his face. Sometimes he could handle his brother leaving and other times...
"Please- don't go." He hiccups. "I-I don't want him to come back." He says vaguely. Daniel shakes his head a bit. "I'm sorry Richard, but I have to go. I know how hard this is for you but I need to go." He tries to leave but Rich pulls him back even more. "Don't leave me Danny I need you." Rich pleads. "No." Daniel say firmly. "I need to go. I'm sorry but I just can't stay." Rich lets out a sob as his brother yanks, trying to pull free of his grip.
"Danny!" Rich shouts, clawing at his brother and leaving deep red marks on his skin. At this point the staff start to notice the commotion and move to help Daniel. They yank Rich back, making him let go of his brother's arm. Daniel holds his scratched arm close to himself, looking almost fearfully at Rich.
"You mother fucker! Daniel don't leave me, please! It's too bad alone! I'll fucking kill myself!" Rich screams as a last resort. Daniel wipes his eyes quickly and leaves. Rich screams after him, struggling against the two orderlies holding him back. "NO!" He screams. One of the orderlies' grip slips and they re-grab at his shirt, ripping the sleeve right off. They put an arm over his shoulder and across his chest, holding him completely still.
Rich stops pulling towards the door and lets out ragged, uneven, and loud sobs. 'Do it.' It was quiet but right there. 'I told you before. DO IT.' Rich scratches his arms, deep and hard. Within a few scratches there was already blood and skin tissue building up underneath his short cut nails. 'Feel that? That's what you need to feel all the time. The burning. The pain.' Rich cries a bit softer.
The orderlies suddenly notice what he was doing and they yank his hands away while one continues to hold him. 'You have to keep going Richie, it feels good. You need it.' Rich tries weakly to bring his hands back but he can't. He was exhausted and he couldn't move a muscle. 'Rich. Do it.' Rich tries again but all that happens is his fingers flex. 'DO IT RICHARD.' Rich sobs.
"I can't. I can't. Stop yelling, I can't." Rich mumbles. People around them were obviously trying to block out Rich's breakdown but one person stood out of the crowd. A tall boy with light brown hair watches Rich intently, sitting in a chair with a book long forgotten. Finally he stands up and walks over to Rich.
"Hey, how about you go back to your book Jake, this isn't a good time." One of the orderlies says. Jake rolls out his neck dramatically. "Nah." He says, plopping down next to Rich. "Sup dude." He says casually. "Pretty nice day outside. You gonna go out later?" Jake asks. Rich sniffles.
"Ah-, you know what we should do? There's this one dude with these headphones that link to one of these orderlies music player wirelessly, we should switch up the music, play some kids music or heavy rock. Bet it'd be totally crazy dude." Rich looks over at this new boy and his eyes widen. "He stopped." Rich says, quickly pulling away from the unsuspecting orderlies.
He stares up at Jake and nods. "Yeah." He says, feeling so happy to have found someone here who could help. "Okay."
Michael walks next to Jeremy, anxiously pulling at his hair. He doesn't say a word, not that Jeremy expected him to. He never did after one of his episodes like the night prior. At least he was calm. The only thing that calmed him down was music, and specific music at that. Bob Marley. Anything but that and his freak out continues. "Michael, wanna go see if the x-box is open?" Jeremy asks.
Michael shrugs as they make their way through the rec-room. "I'll take that as a yes." Jeremy says. They were almost to the game system when Michael lets out a loud yelp, whipping the large, white headphones off his head and sending them crashing to the floor. Breathing hard, Michael stares down at the headphones, tears in his eyes. It was like his best friend had betrayed him.
Jeremy turns around once he hears quiet snickering behind him. Two boys, one short with blond hair, the other tall with brown hair, were holding a music player and staring directly at Michael. They laugh harder when Michael sits on the ground and covers his ears with his hands tightly. Jeremy was about to go over there and let them have it but then... 'No. Don't do it Jeremy.'
He freezes. He hadn't heard that one in a long time. 'Go sit in a corner. You're worthless.' Jeremy complies. He could never resist this one. This one- The squip, was always too strong. He could hear Michael still, little quiet sobs reaching his ears. He wanted to go help. He wanted to tell him it was alright but he had to do what the squip said. Besides, someone would help him. It didn't have to be him. Even if they were best friends.
"Jeremy?" It was soft, very soft. There was a couple sniffles but Jeremy doesn't look to see who it was. He knew who it was but he just couldn't get himself to look. He hears the person leave him. 'Good.' Jeremy wipes his eyes. He knew it was just a voice in his head but it could make him do things. It could take control of his body. It could hurt him.
So he had to listen. For his own safety. It was fine if he didn't pay attention to Michael for the time. He needed to not rely so much on others anyways. 'Jeremy.' Jeremy ignores it, hugging himself in the corner. 'Jeremy.' Jeremy tries again to ignore it but it was so loud. 'JEREMY.' "What!?" Jeremy shouts, annoyed. 'You want to get out of here correct?'
Jeremy furrows his brow as a girl with short black hair walks calmly over to him. "Y-Yeah..." Jeremy fidgets with his hands. 'I can do that. Just listen to me and you'll be out of here in no time.' He stares to his left at the newly appeared man with a blue old fashioned fancy coat on. "How?" He asks as the girl reaches him.
'Don't worry about that. Do as I say and you'll get what you want.' Jeremy nods. "Okay." His eyes are out of focus and he was shaking slightly as the girl puts he hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump. "Hey buddy, you okay?" Jeremy nods with wide eyes. She was so beautiful. Christine.
"You yelled pretty loud, did you see a bug or something?" Christine chuckles, though she knew full well that you don't yell a word like he did when you see a bug. "Uh, no. I'm fine, really." Jeremy says, pushing himself into the corner. "Do you want to come sit on one of the couches or something? It'd be a lot more comfortable than here." Jeremy watches her name tag swing as she moves, her blue scrubs making it obvious she worked there.
"I-I can't." Jeremy mumbles. 'Go.' It was a simple command but it brought tears to his eyes. This was the first time it told him to do something he wanted to do. "Yes. Yes, I'll go." Jeremy says, wiping his eyes. He was so happy.
Jake smiles as he picks up his book once more. He and this kid, Rich, had messed around with some people for a while until Jake wanted to get back to his book. Rich didn't want to leave him so he sat on the floor by the chair Jake had claimed. It was nice to have someone with him for once. He's always so alone, even having this one other messed up kid with him was great.
"Is this weird?" Rich asks out of nowhere. "Nah, it's not weird at all. Not compared to all the other shit that goes down around here." Normally when he's alone he feels like absolute shit, like he can't move his limbs or like he just wants to die but with someone else around it was all okay. Maybe he'd let this guy hang around more often.
Alright! This was a little introduction to a new ask blog on tumblr I made called "AskBeMoreSaneGuys" I really hope this takes off so if you like be more chill at all go check it out! Or even if you just liked this, you'll like it!