When you’re inside the building, all the windows face the courtyard. The rest are covered in thick heavy curtains, the color of a faded yellow embroidered with golden butterflies. The entire first floor is for fun, therapy, recitation, food, and emergency health issues. The next two are dorms and doctors’ offices, and the last floor is where we keep the padded cells. The dorms are separated by how much supervision a patient needs. Me being the glorious person that I am, reside on the second floor. This has basically no supervision. No sharp objects or being out past curfew but I can lock my door and jerk off to my hearts desires. The poor souls on the third floor have windows on their doors so a nurse can look in at any time. They also have some type of mental disability that requires bathroom assistance. Finally the fourth floor needs the most supervision. The “dorms” on this floor are simple rooms surrounded by soft cushions and emergency buttons every couple of feet. There are five nurses on this floor at all times and the doors can only be opened from the outside. They have no windows but there are cameras in every room.

Now you might be thinking “oh Charlie that’s so bad you should try and escape these horrible horrible people.” To which I am going to have to call you an idiot once again. The people on the fourth floor are in those room for their own safety, and for the safety of others. They are usually the ones with extreme cases of schizophrenia, or have the urge to try and cut their own limbs off. It ranges from suicidal to homicidal, my sister leaning more towards the homicidal side. I was on my way for a mandatory check in on her when I made my first mistake in the sequence of events that is this story.

Mandatory visits are part of her therapy, I basically take her around and she tries not to bite my head off...fun times… Her name is Ivy, she (unlike me) she has pale blond hair and hazel eyes. Her face is plump and round with a natural blush and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. She would look very soft and pretty if it wasn't for her mouth. It is littered with scars and fresh scabs from times she tried to eat things she shouldn’t.( It ranges from pens to flesh depending on the day. )She wears clothing with no strings or zippers or buttons. So it makes it look like she just cut some holes in pillow cases to poke out her scrawny little arms.

I am the exact opposite, my hair is dark brown and by eyes are darker. My face is hollow and even though Ivy’s mouth is nasty, her smile still seems to be way less creepy than mine. I've practice in the mirror but no matter how hard I try the corners never seem to go all the way up. It looks like I ate an invisible square when I try to smile. Not that I’m too concerned with how I look, there isn’t a lot of people I want to impress in this place. It’s just annoying when you try to be friendly and end up making little kids cry.

“Passes please.” Said a familiar voice as I reached the fourth floor.

“Hey, Rob you look-in thicc today." What can I say, I have a way with words. Rob just rolled his eyes and stamped the passes I handed him.

“I heard she was refusing her medicine today, hope you come back with all your fingers.” Rob opened the door for me and started to waddle his way to my sister’s room at the end of one hall. His face was red and his breathing heavy from the effort it took to walk. His stomach hung in lumps down the front of his pants and he could never find any shirts that seemed to cover it all the way.

Rob sneaks me in cotton candy and books he gets from the library outside. I would die for Rob, even if he always smells like too much coffee and looks like a warped tomato. Is it a problem that I’m willing to die for cheap cotton candy? I’ll leave that up to my therapist, all I know is that cotton candy is the food of the gods not meant to be so cruelly hidden to us.

Rob opens a little slot on the door and speaks into in.

“Ivy sweetie, your brother is here to see you. We would all very much like it if you remain seated once I open the door ok?” There was a pause and then the faint sound of two pats as small hands tapped on the padded walls. One tap meant no and two meant yes. Rob slowly opened the door and sitting in the corner chewing on the blanket was my little ball of sunshine.

“Heyyyy baby did you miss me?” I walk in and sit down on the soft pile, Rob waits outside pretending likes he’s not listening.

“Did you hurt your hands again?” Ivy’s hands were in what I liked to call bubble gloves. They were basically clear bubbles they put her hands in to keep her mouth from reaching them. Ivy hated the gloves but they were the only thing that kept her fingers safe and she didn’t quite comprehend that. Ivy also couldn’t speak, so a lot of our conversations were yes or no based. She patted the ground two times.

“You dumb bitch, there are better things to chew on, just ask for a fucking dog toy and have at it.” Ivy simply reached out her arms asking for a hug. My sister was small and folded into the curves of my body as I held her. I was waiting for the inevitable bite on the arm, instead I just heard pats again. We learned Morse code from a forgotten book in one of the nurses’ offices. I thought it would be easier for Ivy and me to talk like this but she rarely said anything. This time she simply said “garden” meaning she wanted to go outside.

“Uh Rob...can we go play in the courtyard?”

“You know I need a doctor's permission slip for that.”

“This is abuse, this poor innocent child just wants to spend some time with her wonderful brother in the remaining hours of sunlight. You are depriving her of the vitamin D she needs!!!! She could have scurvy because of this institution!!!”

Ivy giggles and the scabs on her lips cracked, even with blood running down her chin the smile was still so full of life. It made her eyes curve and her cheeks puff up...lucky brat.

“She gets plenty of vitamin D supplements and regular health checks up. If she had scurvy we would have known. Ivy probably will just end up breaking a tooth trying to eat a tree branch. I don't need that kind of paperwork today, the best I can do is give you an iPad and you can watch a documentary or something.” Rob in all his tomato glory didn’t look like he was going to cave.

---Just going to give you guys a warning… this is where the first mistake comes in. Let’s see if you can spot the exact moment I screwed up because it’s pretty clear.---

“Alright go get the iPad, we can chill with some nature documentaries.” Rob left and I turned to Ivy and started to undo her gloves. Why? Fuck if I know, I just did it without realizing what I was doing. I guess I wanted her to be comfy, I should at least earn some big bro points for the good intentions. I had undone one hand and she didn’t immediately stick it in her mouth which was a good sign. Instead she held out the other one. Rob came back just as the glove slid off and I hear a startled “oh god” before he slammed the door shut on us.

Before I could even register why he nearly pissed himself I found myself staring at the ceiling. Ivy in all her scrawny glory had me pinned to the soft ground. Being pushed onto my back was more startling then it was harmful. The fact she was chewing away at my neck, now that, was the harmful part. What type of vampire wannabe bullshit was this? How was I even supposed to react to this situation. How would you react? I assume your reaction would be somewhere along the lines of “OH MY GOD SHE'S RIPPING OUT MY ARTERIES I'M GOING TO DIEEEEE” and then proceed to push, punch and kick as hard as you could to escape the situation.

I however am not you, and I was not going to hit my sister, because she would get upset and cry and I didn’t like doing that. She is a very ugly crier, and I mean the type of ugly where your whole face transforms into a blob of runny liquids and somewhat solid snot. So I lay there and waited for security to come in and take her off me. It didn’t take long, maybe about thirty seconds before a group of three men rushed in and grabbed her. Ivy’s mouth was dripping with my blood, the color of it so dark it almost looked black. She didn’t struggle as they injected the tranquilizer into her thigh, just patted the ground kind of lazily “I didn’t mean too”, and then proceeded to pass out.

Rob rushed back, clearly out of breath, with three other nurses and a medical bed, the type that roles on wheels. I thought they were there to take Ivy away but no one was paying attention to her. They were all focusing on me now, my mind was very foggy trying to process the words they were saying to me. I tried to turn my head and my vision got very blurry. I tried to lift my hand it felt like it was made out of solid lead. Everyone seemed so much taller, was I still laying down? Why weren’t they helping Ivy? Why were the walls moving? I didn’t think I ever left the room but I could have sworn I heard a door close behind me. It was all too loud and too bright and too soggy, I think the soggy part was the bloods fault. Naturally this was the perfect time to take a nap, so I did, and everything was calm again.