No Fairy Tale Ending {for MR AZ}

[CleverFox]

The walls that he had long ago grown tired of staring at were a stark, institutional white but of course there was a very good reason for that. The small, almost claustrophobic, room wasn’t a cell, per se, but it may as well have been seeing as he was not free to leave and this was something that he knew all too well for he had tried on any number of occasions. The only furnishing in the room was a single, twin sized bed that had only a plain mattress and a blanket. There was no pillow as that wasn’t permitted since the people in charge seemed to think he might try to smother himself with it. The occupant of the room himself was sitting in one corner, one knee pulled up to his chest and the other leg stretched out in front of him, dark gray and brooding eyes focused ahead but not really looking at anything. His expression was blank, giving him the appearance of a shell of a person, mahogany hair falling to partially obscure those eyes so that he was peering through a veil. Dressed in the same white as decorated the drab walls of his own little personal hell his clothes could quiet easily pass for hospital scrubs, a v-neck shirt and loose fitting pants that had an elasticized waistband since drawstrings were yet another thing that he was not permitted. Neither was he permitted shoes with laces but he eliminated that problem by simply opting to not wear shoes, nor socks either for that matter.

He had lost track of exactly how long he had been in this place but really the length of time didn’t matter, it was an irrelevant thing and most of the time he didn’t even notice it’s passing. For most of the time he was lost to the past and to his own tortured thoughts, nightmares that plagued him even when he was not asleep and that was the vast majority of the time since his mind grew more troubled in sleep so he had developed insomnia as a defense mechanism to keep the worst of the nightmares away. The images were easier to control while he was awake but impossible to contain when he lost the battle and lapsed into a state of unconsciousness. There his tortured soul relived the horrors that had landed him in this far from peaceful place and often times he would shed silent tears and not even realize that he was doing it. Tears for the lost and tears for what could have been if only fate had dealt them a better hand.

* * *

“Patient’s name is Rafe Andrew Faolan,” the Director of the facility said as he led the kid’s newest doctor down the hall toward the solitary confinement room where the youngest inhabitant of their facility resided on perpetual suicide watch. This was not even a precautionary measure that he had really done anything to warrant however given the nature of the actions that had landed him in the institution in the first place the Director wasn’t willing to take any chances and so the boy was kept from anything that he could use to harm himself and only allowed a bed, low to the ground, and a blanket that was made of a sturdy material that he could not rip and therefore could not use to make anything with which he might try to harm himself. “He’s fourteen years old and he does not speak. He is capable of speech, or so I’ve been told, but since the day of the incident that landed him here he has not uttered a word to anyone. For the most part he doesn’t react to much of anything, simply sitting on the floor in his room and staring at the walls but I’m hopeful that you’ll be able to reach him where others have failed.” He fell silent at this point and gazed at the man that was walking along at his side, wondering how he felt about being assigned their most difficult patient, or at the very least the hardest to reach.

[NoiselessKnife]

Doctor Alaster Gowad, a rather old doctor that had been through many hospitals, both better and worst than this one, didn't look affected at all at the information, he just walked, his hands behind his back as he looked forward, not to the director.

He wasn't rushing, in fact he was taking his own pace to arrive, preparing himself mentally as he took all those details in.

The doctor had messy hair that once had been dirty-blond and now was gray, he sported a light lock beard and mustache that only served to make him look more messy and older, he was rather tall but not enourmous and he looked strong, he had one old scar that traveled his left cheek; earned in his younger years due being attacked by a patient, many thought that he should hate that patient due that, but it was far from the truth, Alester was in fact a rather calm man, his rare moments of anger were often due the incompetence or coldheartness of his collegues.

His icy blue eyes made him look unreachable at times, it was the attitude he often sported with the other doctors, not letting anything be seen as he knew how dangerous that could be, but right now they showed more concern than anything more. The director was a good partner of his and he trusted his words, even if he didn't always approved his actions.

"Did he actually try to kill himself? The records didn't mention that" The old doctor asked as they were now in front of the young patient's door.

[CleverFox]

The Director thought that perhaps a different approach could work to reach the young patient where all else had failed and it was for this reason that he had decided to enlist the help of Alaster, who was more patient and easy going than a lot of the other shrinks that had worked with, or at least tried to work with, the boy. After giving the basic information on the patient he waited to see if his colleague would have anything to say and when the older man asked if the kid had actually tried to kill himself the Director shook his head, a hard to read look entering his eyes as he replied, "He was never given the chance to do as such, the boy was placed in this room the moment that he arrived at our facility. While I'm not sure that he would actually try it his twin brother did commit suicide the day that he suffered his breakdown and attacked his parents so I can't rule it out as a possibility." It was for that reason that he wasn't going to lift the suicide watch even if Rafe wasn't actually a danger to himself.

Whether or not the boy was a danger to others was something else that he was reserving judgment on though of course he had to consider that it was a possibility given the nature of the incident that had landed him at the facility known simply as Haven. The background of the teen, who was small for his age and actually appeared closer to nine or ten, was largely unknown but that was yet another thing that he was going to look to Alester to figure out while working with the boy. "If you don't have anything further to ask of me I'll leave you to your patient, with wishes for the best of luck." The Director wasn't trying to get away, per say, but he did have many other things that required his attention so he was anxious to be on his way now that he had turned the patient over to his new doctor.

[NoiselessKnife]

Alaster nodded, his face blank even when he was slightly surprised by the new information, he would require more files on this case, not only on the boy as they had been given, but on everything else, on the parents, on the brother, on all that.

He took his pen and gave it to the director.

"Let's not risk it then" He said and went to stand in front of the door. "Nothing more to ask, I'll see you later to request some more things after this" The old doctor said and let the director retire before he sighed and went through the door.

The whiteness of the room nearly hurt his eyes at times. He closed the door carefully and looked at the boy sitting on the corner.

"Hello" He said smiling gently, his icy blue eyes losing all desinterest they had before and just gently regarding the boy. "My name is Alaster Gowad" He informed. "I'll be sharing some time with you today" The man said and went to sit at a respectful distance from the boy. "The floor is rather uncomfortable, wouldn't you prefer the bed to sit?" He asked then, knowing that the boy would talk with time and only if he wished to.

[CleverFox]

The Director nodded his head as he reached out and took the pen that Alaster was holding out to him, the man realizing that his colleague probably didn't agree with his decisions regarding the child but he thought that he was doing what was in Rafe's best interest and so the suicide watch would remain in place. He regarded Alaster for a minute longer before deciding that it would be best to leave the man to his work and so he made his way down the hallway, intending to return to his office and get started on the neverending stack of paperwork that was required in the running of a place such as this.

Hearing the sound of the lock turning Rafe's brooding gray eyes shifted in the direction of the door and he watched as a new one entered the room. This one looked different but Rafe didn't actually think that he was going to be any different, they were after all, all the same. Coming to ask their stupid questions that he never felt inclined to answer and this wasn't going to be any different. As such the child just regarded the man as Alaster walked over and sat down a distance from him, also not surprising as they all seemed to keep their distance from him.

As though afraid of the undersized teen who really didn't look capable of harming anyone, though as his parents had found out the hard way looks could be, and often were, deceiving. That was just a hard fact of life that most people didn't realize until it was too late to do anything about the situation they found themselves in.

Much like Rafe himself right now.

[NoiselessKnife]

Alaster smiled and leaned on the wall, sliding down until he was practically laying on the ground.

"Way too much white" He muttered and looked at Rafe with a smirk. "Unless you like it, it kind of hurts my eyes in fact" He commented and then sighed. "They say you don't talk, that's not really as interesting. How would I know how to call you then?"

[CleverFox]

This one was confusing to Rafe and the boy just stared at him as the man first leaned against the wall and then slid down so that he was practically laying on the floor. That was definitely a first since most of the men in white that came to his room liked to tower over him and make it blatantly obvious that they had control over what happened and, well, pretty much every aspect of his life in this little hell on earth that he found himself trapped in.

The comment about the white got a roll of the eyes out of Rafe but that was the extent of the reaction that he gave, up until the point where the man said that it wasn't interesting that he didn't talk before going on to ask how he would know what to call him. Another roll of the eyes in response to that one since Rafe was well aware of the fact that the doctor already knew exactly what to call him as well as any number of other things.

Deciding to show his sign language skills, or lack thereof, Rafe spelled out his first name letter by letter with his right hand before offering up a rather rude hand gesture. Which pretty much illustrated his disdain for this whole process.

[NoiselessKnife]

Alaster smirked at the eyeroll, knowing that many took it as something bad, but it was in fact something good, it meant the will to communicate, it was a reaction.

He lied on his side to see the boy as he spelled his name with his hands.

"R...A...G?...E?" He asked as he reacomodated. He wasn't going to show the boy that he had any power over him, since he knew that that would make the boy close up, he had seen that before, hence why he was now lying on the floor... apart that it was way more comfortable.

"Rage?" He asked then. "I'll call you however you want, that's why I ask" The doctor said. "If you wanted to talk you could call me Alaster or just Alas. That's how my friends used to call me."

[CleverFox]

The fact that the man seemed incapable of understanding the sign language that he offered up didn't really come as a shock to Rafe since he viewed most people as hopeless idiots anyway but of course the miscommunication that occurred actually worked for him, in a twisted sort of way. He could have corrected it, or at the very least tried to, but he decided that wasn't something he cared enough to do. He regarded the man as he introduced himself, thinking that he didn't need a way to address the man since he didn't have any plans of talking to him any more than he'd spoken to anyone else that had came to talk to him. In his mind they just viewed him as some sort of test subject anyway so there was no point in talking to them.

There was also the fact that nothing that happened could ever be changed so Rafe didn't see the point in talking about it, which people seemed to want to do incessantly around this place for whatever reason. Possibly morbid curiosity, Rafe really just didn't have the slightest idea.

His gray eyes shifted away from the man at this point, the kid trying to show that he didn't have the least bit of interest in anything that the man had to say. That was the way that he operated and it worked for him since eventually everyone that came into his room eventually grew frustrated with him and just left him alone. Which was what he wanted though no one seemed smart enough to figure that one out.

[NoiselessKnife]

The man looked at the boy, waiting for either comfirmation or correction, but as that one didn't come he just rested there.

"You're right, the floor isn't that uncomfortable" He commented and inched a bit closer to the boy by moving like a worm, faking to be trying to get comfortable.

He noticed the boy looking away. "Hey Rage, don't be rude, I'm your guest here, don't ignore me" He requested. "At least tell me you have things to do if you want me to go"