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Insanity

Note: This story is set sometime in the future so that I didn’t have to look up how an asylum really works. Don’t expect any laws to take effect in this story.


“But you don’t understand, I’m not crazy!” Jordan screams as the orderlies throw him into his new home; a padded cell in Mellow Springs Institute. “Please, let me out!” he tries once more. The orderly just shakes his head and shuts the door. Jordan screams and runs to the door, pounding until his fists bleed despite the padding.
“I’ll get out of here soon,” he mutters to himself, “My family will come for me eventually.” He knows this isn’t true though, they’re the ones who have had him locked up. If only his grandpa hadn’t loved him the best, he thinks. If only someone else had received the fortune in his large family, maybe then he wouldn’t be in this situation. Instead his grandpa had loved him best, and he had received the fortune his grandpa had obtained. He had enjoyed his newfound wealth for a month before the jealousy of his family took it all away. They had reported him as insane, and after an appointment with a well known psychiatrist he was admitted to his new home.
He looks at the featureless white padded walls of his room and feels himself beginning to lose hope. It’s over for him, he’s locked away, and he’s never getting out, and so Jordan’s first night in Mellow Springs Institute begins with him in a corner sobbing.
The next day Jordan is allowed out of his room to converse with the other “inmates” as Jordan thinks of them. Jordan is welcomed into the large community room by the hostile stares of several of the inhabitants of his prison. He is surprised by the amount of sanity and intelligence in their eyes.
The room is plain and rectangular, with tables set up in the center. Around the edges are couches and a TV in the corner. A few of the prisoners are watching the television with focused eyes, but most are staring at the newcomer who has trespassed on their turf. Jordan walks nervously to a nearly empty table and sits across from a lanky man staring into the distance.
“You’ll have to excuse my friends,” the man across from Jordan says quietly. Jordan answers the man with a questioning look. “They aren’t used to seeing someone sane in here. They’ll treat you with hostility until you become one of them.”
“I can’t help but notice that you speak of them as though you aren’t one of them,” Jordan says hopefully. The man’s eyes focus at last on Jordan’s face. “Yes, I do. But perhaps that is because while they see me in the same light as you. My name is Zach.” Jordan smiles at the prospect of having met a friend, and perhaps fellow sane man, “I’m Jordan.” The two new friends share a quick secret smile, and then Zach’s eyes slip back out of focus. Jordan lies his head down and begins to nap.
Several hours later, Jordan is woken by a tap on his shoulder. He lifts his head groggily and looks at the woman standing over him. Her hair falls in her face in long strands, and her hands shake. Her eyes are dark green and are amazingly sharp. She smiles softly and passes him a piece of paper. She quickly turns away and shuffles to a table not that far away.
Jordan slowly unfolds the paper and glances down at it. Written in small slanting letters are the words, “Watch your back,” and under it is a realistic drawing of the woman he just saw strapped in a chair with her scalp cut off and blood pouring onto the floor.
Jordan quickly folds the note back up and turns his eyes to where the girl had been, but she is gone. His eyes scan the rest of the room, but she is nowhere to be seen. He looks over to Zach, but he is staring into the void again. Jordan shrugs and stands up, his joints cracking from sitting in one position for too long. He stretches and walks to the orderly, who gives him a distrustful glare.
“I want to go back to my room now,” Jordan says. The orderly opens the door and nods Jordan out. He walks to his room quietly, and once inside sits in the corner, hugging his knees and wondering when he will wake from this nightmare. His stomach growls and he realizes he hasn’t eaten in two days. He curls up tighter and wishes the time to go faster, and despite the amount of time sleeping Jordan soon finds himself dozing off.