"Liam!!" I shout running down the hall way of the first floor "Harry!! Louis!"
"Woah Niall what are you doing?" Dr. Greendale asks walking out of his office in front of me
"Bhí liam screadaíl agus ag caoineadh ansin louis agus Harry d'fhag agus anois tá siad imithe agus-" I speak quickly
"Hey calm down!" He stops me "were you just speaking another language?" He looks at me oddly
"Yeah" I roll my eyes
"Alright? Now explain what happened in English please?"
"I don't know we were having diner then Liam started to scream and bash his head into the wall! Then Harry and Louis left with him and I don't know where they went" I explain
"Damn it..." He mumbles
"What damn it why? What's happened?" I ask worried
"C'mon their probably in the infirmary" we walk up the hall and go into a room where Liam is laid on a hospital bed with straps around his wrists fastened to the railings of the bed asleep with a large sticker gash in his forehead and Harry and Louis are at his side
"Wha-Is he okay?" I pull up a chair next to Harry as Grendale starts talking to a doctor
"Yeah he just had another episode" Harry explains
"Another episode? You mean this has happened before?" They both nod
"Why?"
"It's not our place to talk about" Harry says and I nod understanding
"Mhhmmm" Liam groans opening his eyes
"Hey mate" Louis says smiling at him
"Damn it" Liam says
"What?" Harry asks "are you in pain?"
"I did it again" a tear streams down his face
"Hey it's alright payno. It wasn't your fault" Louis rubs his arm
"I shouldn't have listened to him! I was fine for a month and now I'm back to square one! I'm never getting out of here..." I just look at him confused having no clue what he's talking about
"Don't say that Liam! You're still improving an getting better you're not at square one" Harry comforts him in his clearly extremely upset state
The doctor comes over and unstraps Liam from the bed after putting a bandage over the gash in his head and we all go up to our dorm. Liam sleeps in his top bunk silently. While I sit on my bed and Louis is across from me on his bed and Harry's on the floor in between us.
"How is he asleep already? It's only 8!" I say surprised
"The episodes take a lot out of him." Louis explains
"What does that mean? You guys keep calling it an episode but why does he have those?" I ask confused
Louis sighs "He's gonna kill me but I'll tell a bit about Liam but the rest has to come from him" I nod my head agreeing
"Liam has a form of schizophrenia. I don't exactly fully understand it but the way he describes it is there's a voice in his head. The voice is another person who has a name and everything and he taunts Liam. Degrades him, makes him feel so worthless that Liam has to do whatever he says or else the voice will keep taunting him. It always happens at meal times because he tells Liam that he'll be fat and worthless and all these terrible things if he eats. That's why he bashed his head on the wall trying to get him to shut up or knock himself unconscious so he'll stop" Louis explains
I sit there silent and in shock. That's horrible how could anyone live that way?
"So if you ever with Liam and hear him talking to Mason, you need to talk to him tell him that what the voice is saying is a lie. Try and calm him. Okay?" Harry tells me
"Alright, but if this happens to him and the doctors know it does, why do they make him eat all his food?" I look at them confused
"Because Liam's anorexic. Honestly it's harder to tell now because he's gotten so much better but when I first got here four years ago he looked terrible. Sickly pale, he had a tube in his nose force feeding him. When he'd take his shirt off you could see every single one of his ribs." Louis says sadly
"And it's all because of the voice, Mason?" They nod silently
~*~
"Alright boys!! Everyone get up!" I groan turning over seeing a nurse in our room with dark hair walking around
"We're up Ben now get out!" Liam throws a pillow at him
"Alright Alright I'm going" he walks out and we all get up and start getting dressed
"Aren't those the clothes you wore yesterday, Niall?" Harry ask as I put my shirt on
I shrug "yeah it's all I have"
"Well" Liam says "not gonna lie mate they're pretty worn out. Wear this!" He throws me a green shirt with jeans
"No it's alright-"
"No keep it. My mum comes almost every day and always brings new clothes even though I tell her I'm fine so keep em" he smiles
I return the smile "thanks"
We all get ready then go up to cafeteria. I walk behind the four boys watching as they talk casually as if what happened yesterday in cafeteria was normal. I guess it is for them though?
"Nialler!" Liam says
"What did you just call me?" I ask shocked. The name stings like salt in a open wound. My mother use to call me that
"Your nickname Nialler!" We walk in and one of the nurses scans my bracelet as we get in line for food "you like it?" He asks "thought of it last night before I fell asleep."
"Um yeah it's fine" I answer shortly as I receive my food
We all go and sit at our usual table in the back corner in the usually way. I'm next Harry Louis across from Harry next to Liam and Liam in front of me
"Bloody hell we have group therapy today" Louis says
"Why? we didn't have it yesterday?" I ask eating my fruit
"It's Monday. We don't have therapy on the weekends." Liam stops his usual self conversations
"And we have school" Harry adds
"School? here?" I question confused
"It's not really school it's just extremely basic classes for the kids who may actually leave here so they don't fall behind" Louis explains
"What year are you in?" Harry asks me
"I don't know" I shrug
"How do you not know?" Louis laughs lightly "if your finished like Liam and I you still have to go unfortunately. If that's what you mean?"
"No I Never went to school" I answer
Liam looks at me shocked "What do you mean you never went school? How'd you not go to school?"
"My parents never put me in school and ah life happened." I shrug
"So you can't like read or-" I interrupt Louis
"I can read my mum taught me how to read, write my name, and do simple math. And I learned how to write more by reading. I know everything I need to know." I shrug
"I guess" Liam says
"Here lads" a nurse comes to our table and hands us each a plastic cup of pills
We stayed until Liam painfully finished his food then we went to group therapy on the top floor.
There are maybe 30 chairs all in a circle we go and sit all together until all the are filled with other teens
"Hello everyone!" A male doctor comes and sits in the one empty chair "how are you all today?" Some mutter a quiet good
"Great! So we have a new resident here, Niall" he points to me
"Resident?" I whisper to Harry next to me
"That's what he calls us says it makes us feel like we're all 'equal'" he uses air quotes
"Perhaps Niall you could tell us a bit about yourself from the middle" I sigh standing up without my crutches even though I'm suppose to have them and move to the middle facing the guy
He motions for me to talk "I'm Niall"
"Ah okay how old are you?"
I sigh annoyed "17"
"Where are you from?" He continues to question me
"Ireland feel like the accent should have tipped you off on that one" I answer sarcastically making everyone laugh
"Right" he fake chuckles "why don't you tell us about how you ended up here?"
"I'd rather not"
"Oh we're all here for you Niall go ahead"
"I said Id rather not!" I say frustratedly getting close to his face
"You know Niall it helps to process things by talking aloud" he says as if he didn't just hear me shout
"Just talk to us we're all your friends here-"
"I said NO!" I swing my left fist colliding with his jaw
"NIALL!" Liam shouts and everyone gasps as I hit him again "Stop!!" Liam grabs my left fist about to hit the guy again
"No!! Let me go!" I pull my arm away hitting him again
Two more sets of hands grab me and slam me against the wall.
"No!! I'll beat the shit out of you!!" I scream at the man as Liam Louis and Harry hold me back "cé hé an ifreann a cheapann tú go bhfuil tú !? tinn buille an cac amach a thabhairt duit asal ! i dont iarracht a dhéanamh dom Déan a-"
"NIALL!!" Louis slaps me across my face "calm down!" Liam shouts "c'mon" they drag me out of the room and into the hall
Hope you liked the chapter! Please tell me your thoughts in the comments and leave me some questions for the authors/Characters Q&A at the end of the book!! All the love always~HXx