Author's Notes:
I'm going to keep this short and sweet since I know all of you come for the story and not necessarily the notes. I just want to let you know that this is based off of a true story that happened to me over the past few days. This is set in modern times. I have not written in about a year, I've only done choppy role plays, so I'm sorry if this comes out with little detail and just an overall crappy writing style.
This is not a religious fic even though there is a lot of talk about God. I am not a religious person; I float on the same boat as Eric.
Also, I have never had any experience writing as Grell or Ronald so I'm sorry if I get their personalities wrong.
When I was drowning
That's when I could finally breathe
The car was quiet, not much to be said after what had just happened in Dr. Kathie's office about ten minutes ago. Eric Slingby sat in the passenger seat as his mother drove him to West Creek; a mental facility in west London. They had traveled here from Scotland to seek help for Eric who was currently glaring out the window, wishing he had not broken his phone in Dr. Kathie's office. Really, weren't cases supposed to protect the phone? Perhaps not if it was thrown to the ground in rage.
"I wish you wouldn't be so hateful towards yourself." His mother told him in a stern voice. "I really wish you wouldn't get so violent when you-"
"Mum." The Scotsman snapped softly. "Cut it out, I've heard the same shit before."
There was a moment of silence before the woman with the (dyed) platinum blonde hair and big green eyes spoke in a gentle voice, "I wish you would watch your mouth."
That didn't seem to help the situation at all, but Eric chose to keep his mouth shut for once. He looked out the window at the other cars on the interstate. What were the people inside the cars like? Were they happy? Did they have good mental health? Eric always wondered this when he passed by people at the store or at his college.
College.
He hated college to be quite honest. Sure, he was in theatre and he was passing all of his classes with straight A's, however this was the second time he was taking these classes so it's not like he didn't already know what most of the work was. The thing was, most of his depression, anxiety, and stress came from school. Well, technically most of it came from his situation at home, but it wasn't like school wasn't a big part of it either.
"I'm stupid." He thought to himself as they went off the interstate and onto a back road.
He looked around, not really understanding where he was or how his mother knew how to get here. Then again, it wasn't his first time at the same mental facility. Still though, the last time he was enrolled in the mental hospital was three years ago when he was eighteen. Also, his mother could do anything really, including getting tickets to a sold out concert.
His mother had grace, beauty, and intelligence. She worked as a nurse at the hospital right down the street and helped Eric whenever he was ill. One time Eric overdosed and his aunt was called. They both took care of Eric when he was at the bottom of the stairs, shaking and unable to move.
It wasn't that Eric was weak, he just felt poorly of himself. Growing up being told he was stupid, useless, and that he should die didn't help anything at all. The situation at his house was just making him even worse which is the main reason Eric felt like he wasn't wanted.
"Are we almost there?" Eric asked after a while.
"Don't worry about it." His mother replied with a slight tone in her voice Eric didn't like.
About five minutes later, they arrived at the hospital. The facility was an adequate size. There was a PHP to the left, straight ahead was the main building, to the left was a church and a sign-in building. Eric cringed at the church, not being much of a religious person and just not enjoying the thought of 'praising the good lord'. It annoyed him to be honest, all that Christian bull crap.
His mother drove up to the main building and parked the red Prius she had gotten for free from a family member and put the parking brake on. "Come on." She said, stepping out of the car. Eric followed, not too thrilled about this happening.
They both went into the building; they had to go down a long hallway to get to the lady at the desk, who was helping another man who had brought food for a friend or family member. Eric guessed it was someone's father; he listened in on what he said. He heard something along the lines of "I'm here to see Grell Sutcliff," and he lost interest, zoning out until the man was escorted through a door.
He stepped forward, just behind the red line that separated him from the woman behind the desk. He didn't have to read the piece of paper taped to the side of the desk to know he was not allowed to cross it and knowing these people, they would get snippy if he didn't listen. He would rather avoid that.
"Hello." The woman behind the desk smiled at Eric. "Are you," she looked at her clipboard before looking back up at him "Eric Slingby?"
Eric nodded as his mother stepped in.
"I'm Marissa Slingby." The mother told the woman, "We called from Dr. Kathie's office, Eric Slingby had a plan for suicide and she was going to call the police if he didn't come here."
"Alright." The woman sounded a bit too happy to be hearing that news. "If you'll just follow me." She stood and lead them to an elevator with no buttons, there was a key hole where the buttons should be and she put a key in the key hole, turning it a few times before the elevator opened up and stepped outside.
The elevator was decently sized.
Once they got to the first floor, Eric realized nothing has changed. The large maze of tables were still there, there were the children, adolescent, and adult unit. He wondered if the staff had changed at all.
They stepped out of the elevator and Eric said goodbye to his mother who refused to let him go. After she left, he went through a strip search. It wasn't so bad, he didn't really have anything to be embarrassed about. If he was a woman perhaps that would be a different story, he might feel more vulnerable.
Once the strip search was done, he took himself down the hall to the adult unit. On his way down the hallway he passed by a skinny brunette who smiled and gave Eric a nod. Eric waved weakly at him before heading to the end of the hall to the dayroom where a man with two toned hair, (blonde and black) and glasses sat at a puzzle with a man with dark brown hair and glasses. Eric sat with them and introduced himself, but didn't say why he was there.
"William." The dark haired brunette spoke, fixing his glasses which were sliding down the bridge of his nose. "This is Ronald."
"Where are you from?" The two toned man asked. "You've got an accent."
Of course. Everyone said he had an accent. Which he did, however to him, they were the ones with the accent. "I'm from Scotland." He answered.
"Cool." Ronald said, turning his attention back to William. "Is Grell still in electroshock therapy?"
"Yes," William answered, putting two pieces of the puzzle together. "I don't know how long she has it."
"Gotcha."
Eric was quiet. The dark haired man seemed to keep a glare on his face while the other man didn't look older than nineteen. "How old are you?" he asked them.
"I'm twenty two." Ronald replied, giving a light chuckle, "William's forty."
"You ought to be lucky there is a no touching policy." William looked over at Eric, "I'm the oldest patient. I'm twenty five."
Well, at least there weren't fifty year old men here.
Eric looked around the room, turning in his chair to look at the man who had walked in the room. Well, he looked more like a boy. It was the brunette Eric saw in the hallway. The brunette looked to be eighteen; he looked at Eric before sitting on the opposite side of the room and curling up in a chair and staring at his lap.
Eric watched the brunette, who seemed to be mumbling something to himself, before looking back at William and Ronald. "Who's he?" Eric asked.
"Oh." Ronald shook his head as if he didn't want to talk about it. "That's Alan. Just ignore him, don't even talk to him."
Eric raised an eyebrow, looking back at Alan. "Why? What's wrong with the kid?"
"Just don't talk to him. He, uh…" Ronald trailed off, biting his lip, trying to think of what to say.
"He will get attached to you." William cut in. "It's best for everyone if you just ignore him."
Eric didn't reply, just looked at the brunette. His hair was a mess, his clothes were all black, his glasses were dirty…but he was a cute one, and just the fact William and Ronald seemed to ignore him made him want to know him even more.
Eric looked at the time, it was almost 10:00 which meant the dayroom was going to close soon.
"'Think I'm gonna go to bed." Eric told the other two as he stood.
The two toned reaper looked up at Eric. "Did you get your room yet?"
"Probably. I'll look for it. G'night."
"Night." William and Ronald said in unison.