Oliver

I kick the empty can on the floor. It rolls a few yards, then lands in a puddle. I really don't have time for this. The doctors tell me I'm sick, and that this place will do me good, but really it's just a way for them to keep me away from society. You see, they can't deal with my demons. That's what I call them anyway. In these past few years they've become my only friends. They've always been there when I've felt lonely. But sometimes they mess with my head. It's like I'm not me any more.

These past few years, before I came here I mean, I spent a lot of time in my room. My mum got worried, and sent me here when I mentioned the voices in my head. But I don't want them to go away - they're like my family. A family who don't send you away when you don't conform. This is what this is about. Ideals. Lousy ideals. Well I plan to make the doctors' lives living hell. 

It's getting colder by the minute. The wind bites my face and arms. I sit on a bench, trying to block it all out. Naturally the bench is 'safe'. No sharp corners, no metal. We're not allowed sharp objects; too many psychos in here. Not that I'm perfect. The voices have stopped for now, but there's no telling when they will be back. Could be in a minute, an hour, a day. Who knows?

The bell rings - it's time to go back inside the unit. I groan. As I step inside, the more normal inmates give me strange looks. I know why. But it's not my fault. My demons make me numb towards everything. Sometimes it's like I'm having an out-of-body experience. So I have to bleed just to know that I'm still alive. It's the only thing I can control. This is partly what brought me here. One time I passed out in the bathroom, from loss of blood. They didn't find me until next morning.

I shouldn't think of those times. They weren't good, weren't normal. But the one thing I miss is being free. Here everything is smothered - there's no room for any freedom of thought. I feel like I want to punch a wall. But I mustn't do that again. It worries people, and that's the last thing I want. But then all of this goes out of my mind in an instant. Across the room I see Mia. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. She is the reason I'm still alive.

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This is a story about a unit for trouble teenagers, told through the eyes of Oliver, a depressive whos only friend are the voices in his head, Adrian, a boy with serious anger management issues, and Mia, who has been left vunerable by her alcoholic parents' abuse. As Oliver fights his inner demons to pursue his love for Mia, there is no guarantee that any of them will live to see another day.

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updated Sep 21 '10 by Scarlet-Ladder