It was dark outside when I left my room, despite nurse Wahise telling me to take the rest of the day off I had no desire to continue sitting in bed over thinking. My feet had carried me over to the cafeteria and my stomach, throwing a tantrum inside my body, was a welcomed distraction.

The cafeteria was built to accommodate for wheelchairs but the majority of people were perfectly fine gathering their own food. There is this misconception that the inside of an asylum is full of screaming patients and banging heads on walls. While this might have been true fifty years ago, most patients here don't actually stay more than a couple months. The place isn’t just filled with old or homeless people either. There is a nice range of fucked up, from twenty year olds with anxiety to fifty year olds with OCD. Not to mention the abuse victims or twelve year olds with eating disorders. For a few there is a pattern where they end up coming back, and for the rare fewer they never leave.

Looking in the cafe you could see all of these people. My friend Dante was among the crowd waiting to get some Mac and cheese. I go over and join him in line. Dante was one of the people who kept coming back, the first time he entered I was maybe thirteen . He left three months later, then came back when I was fifteen and stayed for a year. This is his third time back to Loving leeches and he has been here for two weeks already.

Dante is about a foot taller than me,and looks like an Egyptian god. He hair is deep black and a mess of loose curves down to his shoulders. Looking into his eyes you get the feeling like they have seen things impossible to comprehend. His intelligence proves my theory true too because, if it weren’t for the fact he comes here, Dante could have easily been the next person to create a form formula that makes time travel possible or some shit. Dante is also older than me by four years but it never stopped us from getting along, and definitely didn’t stop him from being an asshole, because the first thing he said to me was “I heard what happened with your sister.”

“A simple hello works too you know.”

“What did you do to piss her off so much?” He asks.

“How the hell do you even know?”

“Echo saw them carrying you to the inferminary, before they shut the whole wing down. They didn’t want to scare everyone with all the blood.” He looks at the bandages covering my neck and gives a low whistle. “I’m assuming there was a lot of blood.”

“I passed out so I wouldn’t know. Pass me me the spatula.” He obliged and I begin to pile enchiladas on my tray. We were heading over to my usual table at the corner of the room when Echo stopped up.

“Oh my god god! Charlie! I can’t believe your not not dead!” Dante tried his best not to laugh at the comment.

“Oh hey Echo, yeah she missed the artistries.” We continued to walk and Echo followed.

“Did did you need stitches stitches ?”

“Only five.”

“Why did she bite bite you you ?”

“They don't know yet.”

“Are you gonna see see her again-gain ?”

“I plan to.”

“Can we shut up up and eat our food food?” Dante interjected the conversation, which I was half grateful for it because I wasn't in the mood to be interrogated and half annoyed that he had to be so rude about it. Echo’s real name was Violet, she was short and kind of on the chubby side with amber hair she kept in braids and glasses that always slide down her nose. She was given the nickname echo because… well…. she echos. It’s not a stutter or speech problem, she just does it.

“Well that’s just rude rude.” She slammed her tray onto the table and angrily shoved a chicken nugget in her mouth.

“Don’t mind him he’s just grumpy cause he’s back in this place.” I patted her shoulder and sat down ready to consume some oh so tasty cheeses triangles.

“You would be too if you actually ever left this place. Imagine all the pussy just outside these walls. All the strip clubs I'm missing out on.” He said this while dramatically waving a fork with mac and cheese on it, before dramatically taking a bite.

“Your the gayest person person I’ve ever met met. What would you know know about pussy pussy.”

“Ya got me there.”He shrugged.

Dante had decided he had enough of the conversation and continued to eat quietly. Echo looked at him in confusion, then glanced at me like I should be doing something. I had nothing to offer though, Dante was just as confusing to me as he was to her. I tried looking threw his files the last time he came back so I can see why he got sent here. All I could find was “prone to anger” on a sticky note and then his medical records.

We sat in silence enjoying our meals for a while and observing our surroundings. I heard crying and looked to my left to see a lady in what looked like her thirties sobbing as a nurse tried to get her to eat a carrot. Echo looked in the direction and for some reason the image triggered a memory because she suddenly bursts out an “OH YEAH I FORGOT FORGOT!” Which made everyone within ten feet of her violently jump, including me and Dante.

“I was so excited to see you Charlie I completely forgot-got.” I waited for her to continue, upset that I had dropped one of my enchiladas in the scare.

“I went to the infirmary after the incident to see see if you were ok ok. You weren't’ there so I assumed they had moved you to your room-room, but Nurse Wahise was there.I know she’s like your grandma-ma.”

“What?She not my grandma, is that thing people think? “

“She is your honorary grandma dude, basically changed your diapers and everything.” Dante added.

“Shut the fuck up she is just my assigned nurse.”

“Who used to read you bed time stories.” He snorted.

“I was seven !”

“That’s not the point point !” We both looked at Echo. “The point point is that she was talking to a a doctor about Ivy. They are thinking of sending her to a higher higher category institution.”