The next day, with only two hours of sleep, I got into a car and took a two hour drive to my new hell for a couple months. The driver was actually a kind person but I wasn't in the mood to talk. I didn't have much luggage, well actually only one bag of essentials, but other than that my parents hadn't sent anything else.
I got out of the car and took in a deep breath, this was my going to be my home for the next couple months. It looked more welcoming then I'd expected. I grabbed my bag and walked in. I found my way to a check in desk.
"Um I guess my parents checked me in or something like that," I said running my hand through my hair.
"Name?" She asked.
"Gaskarth, Alex."
She pressed a button and asked for someone to come show me to my room. I sat down in a nearby chair. As I waited I noticed a room full of teenagers, well they were my age but it was strange, none of them looked as if they belonged in here they looked almost, happy.
"Alex," another nurse said.
I looked up and she asked for me to follow her.
"My names Katy," she said, "and I'll be one of your nurses, so from your file were gonna put you in the less extreme area, by that I mean you'll be in with people who have anything from depression to bipolar. And you'll have a roommate his names Rian, trust me he's a nice guy."
I simply nodded and followed her. She showed me around but I didn't pay much attention. We finally stopped at a room and I walked in the nurse left and it was just me, and my new roommate.
"Hi, I'm Alex," I said awkwardly.
"Hey, I'm Rian."
"So I guess were roommates now," I put my bag down.
"Until one of us leaves," Rian said, "let me show you around."
He started to walk out and I followed. He showed me around and I met some of his friends.
"It's not how I imagined it," I confessed.
"Let me guess you thought we'd all have bars on our windows and all be pulling our hair out while the nurses all looked like witches?" Rian joked.
"Well when you put it that way," I looked down.
He chuckled.
A guy then came up to Rian and hugged him, "Who's this?" The guy asked.
"He's Alex, he's my new roomate, Rian answered.
"Alex this is Jack, Jack this is Alex."
I awkwardly waved at him, I was never good at meeting new people.
Jack invited me to to hang out with him and Rian.
Rian took me back to our room.
"Hey look they dropped off your uniform," Rian said pointing to a pile of clothes on my bed.
I picked them up and walked into the bathroom to change. I stared at myself in the mirror, they'd given us short sleeved shirts, I assumed it was to make sure we wouldn't cut ourselves while in here. I looked at my arms, they were still a light shade of red, each cut still very visible. I took in breath and walked out into the room.
Rian looked at me and said, "I'm sorry you had to do that to yourself."
He didn't seem disturbed by my cuts. We went out into the recreation room and Jack smiled and waved at me. I went and sat with him.
At first I was awkward but I quickly grew out of my shell.
"So Alex, what you in here for?" Jack asked.
I looked down and I wasn't quite sure what to say.
"If you're not ready to talk about it then it's okay," Jack said.
"No, no, its just I don't know where to start," I answered.
"From the beginning," he said.
"I guess this all started about two years ago, when my brother died. I mean always had the symptoms of depression and anxiety, but it all went downhill when he died. At first it'd be nightmares, then it turned into panic attacks, and eventually I started cutting. I was good at hiding it for a while but one day I got lazy and accidentally left one of my razors out on my desk. My mom found it and I was bombarded with questions, even my dad cried, I'd only seen him cry once before. After that I was clean for a while but one day I was just so sad, and I picked up my razor again and just cut, I decided that it was time. I cut up both my arms, as you can tell, and I grabbed a bottle of pills and took them all," I looked at Jack, waiting for his reaction.
"I'm so sorry Alex, you honestly don't deserve this from the few hours I've known you I can tell you're a great person who shouldn't have to deal with this," Jack sympathized.
"What about you?" I asked.
"Where do I start? When I was a kid my parents didn't really care about me, well they still don't, I've always been bullied for anything you can imagine, and I hated myself so much, when I was ten I started straving myself, it wasn't too bad at first I mean it didn't actually get bad until I was 11, at also happened to be the year I started cutting, that was honestly the worst year of my life, basically that year I'd go four days without eating, eat a small meal, go another four days without eating, and so on and then my cutting got so bad," Jack showed me his arms, "That year my parents became even more distant, I think they were using me as a form to get money, since we were getting checks from the government. Fast forward three years and I attempt suicide and my parents send me here, at first I thought it was their way of giving me help, but when I went back home they weren't there, they'd moved, I saw the disappointment in the social workers eyes, I lived in so many group homes all while they searched for my parents, eventually they found them, they'd actually forgotten about me, that day was what should've been the best day was the worst. Finally I wanted to end it all, and well you can tell how that worked out. When I came here I got diagnosed with depression, anxiety, anorexia, bipolar, and well I was put under as suicidal and self harmer."
I looked at Jack, the guy who'd made me laugh on my first day in hell, he had it so much worse than me, I was speechless.
"Now I don't want you to treat me differently because of this, you promise you won't? "
"I promise"
YOU ARE READING
Mental Ward (Jalex)
Fanfiction{Can be triggering} Alex isn't happy with his life, one day he decides he'd had enough and attempts suicide, in a panic his parents take him the hospital and manage to save his life. When he wakes up he's told his parents have signed him into a ment...
