Deranged || h.s.

Chapter 1

Hey guys! So I decided to go through and update everything. I didn't rewrite a ton of stuff, but I made little tweaks and edits here and there. I wrote this like 2 years ago so my writing seemed a bit too juvenile for this type of topic. But, hey, maybe it is still juvenile. Who knows? I hope you like the new changes! (I'm still working on the last half of this chapter, so only the first half is edited. Sorry lol)

Briar. When you say that word you usually think of a thorn or Briar Rose from Sleeping Beauty. Maybe you even think of something different.

But not this time.

This time when you hear that word you'll think of me, Briar Winters. I really do have a dark and dead name, but I guess it's perfectly suitable for my mental state. You see, I'm not fully insane, but sometimes I have my moments where I'll lash out during any situation. My parents inflicted this habit onto me. They're both insane and were thrown into an asylum as children. They stayed their until their late teens and that's basically how they met. Pretty spooky, huh? After they were released, they ran away and built a house in the woods. Then, they had me, and we still live in that exact same house, secluded from everybody else in London.

Up until I was ten I lived a perfectly normal life. I wasn't mad, I was kind to other people, and I even had a dog. But, of course, my parents didn't like that. They thought it was abnormal. So, they decided to do something about it. They practically turned me insane. They screamed all the time and locked me in the basement until my sixteenth birthday. I've been living in an actual room for two years now and part of my sanity has returned. I don't know why they decided to let me out now, but they're insane. Nothing makes sense with them.

When I was locked between four concrete walls my mind was completely dark. I often ended up finding myself screaming until my throat was burning and having nightmares almost every night. My parents obviously noticed, but they refused to turn me over to an asylum for help. They didn't want me to feel the pain and suffering that they felt. Honestly, though, I would rather go to an institution than stay at home. I'd rather go there voluntarily than be forced because that would make them think I'm fully insane. As I said, I'm only partially deranged. Not completely darkened like my parents and the psycho that always walks in circles around our house everyday. He screams during the night too, and throws rocks at trees. I think one night I heard him scream his name. I think it was Harry. He's completely psychotic. Thank God I'm not like that.

I leaned my back up against the wall next to my bed. There's really nothing to do when you're secluded in the middle of the woods. All you can really do is dream and wish to get away, but I know that I can't run away. I'm mad, as well as my parents. If I run away I'll just be making more trouble for myself. A partially insane girl roaming the streets unattended by either a sane family member or a policeman definitely sounds like a perfectly fine and safe situation.

Safe.

I wish I could actually be safe from my disastrous parents. More than likely, I wish I was a safe person. Having half a brain filled with evil still isn't exactly safe.

It was 9:30 in the morning on a Monday. Mondays are the days where I have to take care of my mom while my dad goes shopping in the town. On Wednesdays it's the opposite way around, and that's why I dread the coming of Wednesdays. My dad is a lot harder to handle than my mom. He's more... Terrifying. For lack of a better word. My dad is more like a monster than a human being. That's why, as a child and teenager, he was kept in the worst ward of the asylum, Ward C. He was kept in the children's Ward C then moved to the adults when he was 15. He went to the only mental institution in London, Briarwood. My parents named me after the institution, which I find kind of odd, but I still kind of like it.

I opened my door, and walked downstairs into our kitchen.

"Hi Mom," I greeted.

"Hello, Briar. Sleep well?" She answered in that creepy way of hers. Her eyes wide in a crazy fashion and her head tilted to the side. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Um, I'll make myself something," I replied opening the fridge.

"Okay, honey," she answered.

I opened the fridge to find rotting fruit and curdling milk. My parents really need to go to the store more often. I closed the fridge and walked to the window to find a man throwing rocks everywhere. One large one almost burst through one of our windows. It was Harry. Should I say something to him?

I decided to. I opened the window and shouted, "HEY! You down there! Harry is it?"

"Ya, why?" He asked, halting his arm, in the middle of throwing a rock.

"Well, Harry, I was going to ask you if you could, maybe, stop throwing rocks around? Some of them have come close to damaging our house, and we can't have that now can we?" I said teasingly.

"Sure, anything for a pretty girl like you," Harry replied, flashing a smile.

I blushed. Should I be blushing at a compliment from a psychotic freak that I didn't even know? No, I shouldn't. The red disappeared from my cheeks and I closed the window with a stern "thank you."

He was quite attractive for an asylum escapee. He didn't act like he was crazy...except at night. In the afternoon and morning he just acts like he's bored. He's actually annoying sometimes, too. He has a quality to him that makes people have mixed feelings toward him. Annoyance, terror, and even love. I feel only two of those emotions. Annoyance and terror. I may be insane myself, but definitely not as insane as Harry. He could scare the maddest of the mad because of the things I've seen him do while in the forest at night. The first night he escaped the asylum, I saw him actually kill a deer with one shot to the head with a makeshift slingshot....which broke right after that. Ha. Anyway, after he saw that the deer was dead...he ate it raw. RAW! R-A-W. Blood, guts, organs, and all. That's the terror he makes me feel. It was just creepy. The annoyance...well...he never SHUTS UP! God, he always yells about random things. I understand that he's crazy, but crazy is far different than annoying.

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HI GUYS! xx

I hope you liked the first chapter!