Beautiful Mess [UsUk / AmeDen]

Chapter XXVI

Alfred used to think that being admitted to a psychiatric hospital would be really difficult. And it certainly was. A couple of months ago, if someone told him he would be diagnosed with a psychotic illness, medicated constantly, that he would have mood swings all the time and that he'd hallucinate not only really loud voices, but also images and sensations of things and people that weren't there, he would tell that person they're crazy and know nothing. Now, he was getting out of such a hospital with all of that still burdening his chest.
Admission was hard. He had to go through a long process of diagnosing, meeting his psychologist, having his first short individual therapy, getting all these tests taken, from psychological to blood tests, and he had to carry all his luggage to the room he'd have to stay in for a month.

But being discharged from the hospital now seemed ten times harder than that. They had to do the written test again just to 'be sure' he was ready to be let out. And sure, he might have scored low on it, but no one really gives a damn about those things anymore. They prescribed him medication, and told him to come to this exact ordination every single month on the 15th to get a shot of antipsychotics, and if he didn't do that, he wouldn't be able to function. For home, he got a pack of casual pills to take each morning. Well, this was certainly going to be a hazy year, lost in medication and not very productive.

The most difficult part was saying goodbye to Emilia, who he had grown close to. He had all the right to, after all, they saw each other every single day for the past month, sometimes even stayed up together during the nights - but those nights were usually filled with panic attacks, yet also lots of personal conversations he would never forget.

As she helped carry his bags downstairs towards the reception, she kept throwing little sideways glances at him, simply couldn't help it. She was scared that she'd never see him again. He was a great person. Even though she was aware there was nothing to do about the fact she wouldn't get any romance with him, friendship sounded great. Despite the fact his mental state was quite unstable, that meant nothing to her. He was a great person, that was what mattered the most, that's what should matter the most to people.

They left the luggage with the receptionist as they headed into the patient discharge ordination where a co-worker Julia spent her work time, knocking onto the door just to make sure that the girl wasn't in the middle of an important call or anything.

Once they heard an affirmation that they could come in, they slowly stepped into the office, Emilia gently telling Alfred to sit in the chair on the other side of Julia's desk. The girl had extremely long, pale blonde hair that almost reached the floor, and wore hipster glasses with black edges. Her facial expression seemed serious, but there was a hint of softness in her blue eyes behind the glass.

"Am I gonna have to take any more of those stupid Rorschach tests? I mean for the last time, I see a bunch of useless inkblots, not dead children or whatever y'all think I see. It's not even good art. I would know." Alfred was obviously bored of seeing a paper and a pen, something he faced a lot today already, and he just had to ask.

"No, nothing like that. Don't worry. I'll just ask you a couple of question, you'll have to sign a paper, and we'll call your caretaker to come pick you up. That's it." Julia said in a monotone voice, more intimidating than he thought it would be. Although she did also have a soothing foreign accent, but not as nice sounding as Emilia's was to him, still, that just might have been because he was used to Emilia's, and not to Julia's.

"Why can't Emilia ask the questions?" He asked without thinking, making the two girls exchange a 'not so friendly' look with each other. The Icelander unconsciously bit her lip, awkwardly shifting in her standing position and slightly leaning against the chair that Alfred was sitting on.