A Harsh Reality (Reece)

Isabelle pulled her knees to her chest and placed her chin in between them, wrapping her arms around herself. Her small body shook with the chill in the dank little room, not taking her dark eyes off of the man across the room. He didnt even seem to regret what he did, killing all those guards. She remembered their dead eyes looking back at her, an ache forming in her chest, rising to become a lump in her throat. She tried to swallow the lump multiple times but it was worse than the pills the "doctors" forced her to swallow. Sometimes she spat the pills in their faces out of spite, but that always ended up with her in expierements or getting beat. She uncurled herself and leaned up against the wall.

Isabelle scratched at the bloody bandage wrapped around her arm, wanting to tear off the dirty cloth along with the bearly there scab. She wanted to watch the blood drip down her arm. The desire was almost overwhelming enough to yank off the belt around her waist and use the buckle she'd widdled down, stabbing into the fleshy part of her arm. She wanted to bleed, but she managed not to, settling for scratching the cloth instead.

"Sorry... I panicked..." She lifted her chin from her knees, her eyes flashing suddenly. One had to be awfully egotistical to think everybody had heard of them. "Know you? I've talked to you for at the most one minute and you expect me to know you? I dont even know your name!"

Isabelle waved her arms around her in exasperation before she stood and walked over to the door, jiggling the handle. Locked. Of course it would be locked for him, he wasn't in a jacket. She worked her jaw before turning to the guy. "So... what is your name anyway? And why dont the put you in a jacket...?"

She felt slightly put out at the unfairness of the entire place. The "doctors" always forced her into a jacket, probably because she would stick any remotely sharp object into her flesh, but still the notion stung a little. It took quite a bit of time and energy to wiggle out of the buckles at the back of the jackets even though they were always too big on her, even if she just got out of the rough white restrictions to stand in the rain only for a moment.

Isabelle's obsession with the rain was something the "doctors" always found peculiar. The soft pattering always calmed her, craddled her in the night when nightmares kept her awake. The rain cleansed her more than physically, but mentally and spiritually. The rain brought life to everything around her. If she ever had the choice about how she died, it would be to drown in the rain. To live and die in the rain was the ultamite life when someone lived the cold and desolate life of being a 'patient', more like slave, in an insane asylum. The rain was much more than falling water to her, it was life, essence, the only thing that kept her going, a goal or something to look forward to. She could smell when it was going to rain, which meant it was going to be a good day.

Even then, Isabelle relaxed as she slid down the wall and sat with her head tilted back against the wall, staring up at the high window. Through the window she could see a dark sky and rain fall like icy pelets and hear the soft pattering from above their heads. With the rain, she was somehow able to relax while being in the same room with the man who'd just killed several people. Pain still radiated from her developing bruises, but they were much easier to ignore as she closed her eyes, with her head tilted back against the padded walls.

The rain will help the flowers grow...

"Its strange... how unsuspecting people can be... like the rain. It can either be a soft drizzle or sideways, painfully hitting your skin, or in between... People can be the same way... The things burried deep inside people can be surprising, that potentional.. Like the rain... Does that make sense...?"

She sighed and rubbed her right upper arm with her left hand. Trying to smooth down the goosebumps that riddled her flesh as she tried to hide the curious nature of hers. The wanting to know more about him was like a dagger in her torso, twisting in her gut with the want to ask. So many questions she had, about everything, but was never able to ask anyone. Whenever she'd ask questions, they were always ignored as though she were a child again. Her curiosity for things had always gotten her into trouble despite the fact that she was deemed insane and incapable of being apart of society. She wanted to learn, to take in as much knowledge as she could about anything. She wanted to know, to have the ability to know, but there was no one to teach her. She wanted to know about the rain especially; why it fell from the sky to die in a splash, why it could be ice could or warm as a bath, why it cleansed and why it washed away the bad in the world so the earth could heal. Her curiosity got the better of her some times, delving deeper into trouble than she meant to. This was one of those times.

Isabelle opened her eyes and looked back at the guy. “Why do they let you out...? It's odd, they dont let anyone out in the rain. Their visibility is low when there's a storm and they think the so called 'patients' will get themselves into trouble...”

She knew she had to tread carefully here, either she could royally piss of the man on the other side of the room or she could royally piss off the guards that watched their every move. Either way, one wrong move or word of mouth and she'd be in serious trouble; to be beatened by the guards and tested on by the doctors, or possibly killed. She didnt want either of that to happen but she'd rather be dead than forced to live a torturous life in the shit hole she somehow survived in.

Isabelle wet her lips as her shivering slowed to small spurts of shaking. “Sorry, it's not my business to ask...”

Without realizing it, she'd unravelled the dirty bandage and scratched off the bit of dried blood that had stopped the wound from bleeding. A deep gash stretched across her wrist, blood welled up and spilled down her pale arm covering her skin and dress in blood, her left hand scratched absentmindedly at the cut, covered to her wrist. She looked down as she felt the sliper wetness in between her fingers. “Oh...” The dull pain the radiated from her wrist spread through her body and combined with the other wounds from the beating she'd taken, sweetening the pain until she hardly felt it anymore. The pain in her body lessened the pain in her mind. The physical pain made the world around her hurt less as she quietly watched her blood drip off her arm and pale fingertips to fall to a splashing death on her skirt, legs and the padded floor, much like the raindrops that fell to a splashing death outside...

“Sorry I panicked... I... I didnt know what to do.” Isabelle put her arm down, letting it rest on her skirt, the blood pooled in the loose weaving. “They would have found me anyway if I had run... what with all the cameras... There isnt a way to hide in a place like this. It would have only perpetuated the beating I had gotten anyway, but thank you...”

She was quiet for a moment, watching the blood fall from her wrist. “Why did you try to help me though...?”

There was that curiosity again getting the better of her and asking questions she probably shouldnt. For all she knew, the man had tried to help her get away from the guards because he just wanted something to do to pass the time. In her opinion, it wasn't the ideal way to rid one's boredom considering the punishment he must have received in return. “If only... there were a way out...”

Isabelle looked up suddenly, hopefully she'd spoken quietly enough for the camera to not have captured her words. She looked back down at her arm and touched the tender skin next to her cut and winced as the pain caught up to her. So much pain. “Ow... ow...”

She wrapped her arm back up in the dirty bandage, cringing as it rubbed her open wound the wrong way. If she werent carefull, an infection would set in.. Hell, it would probably kill her but it would be a better death than the one that loomed over her if she stayed in Psych Ward 7. She feared that the death she would received would not be in the pouring rain, but by her own hand out of misery instead. She wanted to be free of the retched place she was forced to call “home”. “I... dont understand... I want to, but I cant...”

This girl was fascinating. She'd panickedunder pressure, making her of next to no use to me. Well, that's how i'd seen it until she started to think. Her brain appeared to be ablaze with thoughts, curiosity and other extreme thoughts and emotions were running through her.

My name and why i'm not wearing a jacket. She truely didn't understand her situation, did she? Poor girl...

"You can call me DaVinci. It's my pet name but i kinda like it. And truthfully, they stopped trying after the 35th time. I already know the ways out of every one of these padded cells."

I smiled, able to appreciate my partial genius. Only partial, i hadn't solved the riddle that lay behind these walls. Not yet. The place kept updating and moving things which had been throwing me off since i first came here but i'm nearly there. Just a few more months and i'll figure it out. All of it.

"Yeah, i guess it is strange... After all, there is so much potential hidden within these walls. All we need is that one final push and before you know it, we're free..." I was surprising myself. Where was this freedom of speech coming from, I would never have said some of these things if i were thinking straight. But this girl seemed to be influencing me, her ideas and thoughts and emotions and the rain- that god damn tapping outside should have driven me insane but i'm not insane. Course i'm not.

I shrugged. "Cigarette break. I need one so they let me have one. You'd be surprised how much control they don't actually have. And that is true, it's not your business to ask..." I couldn't help but feel a little happy. It had been a while isnce he'd spoken to anyone even remotely close to sane, let alone someone... philosophical. I saw her arm starting to bleed, not profusely but a little. Enough to possibly cause a mild appeasement within her brain as she would feel the pain dulling across her arm. That seemed unfair that she could do such a thing and be able to enjoy it. Completely unfair.

I continue to lightly bite my thumb, trying to avoid major damage as i fiddled with the nail subtly as i listened to her telling me of how there is clearly nowhere to hide. I smirked a little. "Oh you'd be surprised. If you'd got to my room that is..." I ripped the nail from the skin, a light pain as it came from the rest of the nail, starting a minor bleed at the corner of my thumb. Should've hurt but oh well...

"Honestly? I dunno... you seem a little too sane for these walls. Bleeds and all.." I smiled before crouching, relaxing against the wall. "And i love the walls in here. If they'd stop giving it good lighting, i'd consider moving my stuff in here."

"if only... there were a way out..."

My eyes widened a little. "I've been in here seven years and i'm almost out..." With a smile on my face, i turned to her.

"But the thing i find strangest.. is that you're the only person i've met who has thought logically even once. The rest of them think they have brains, but you..." I smiled again before coming over, unveiling a bandage and sitting closer to her, passing her the fresh bandage, one he had ripped from a patient's straightjacket about a day or two ago. Convienient...

" ..You're like me in a way. And i'm trying to figure out if i like that concept." I smiled before laughing lightly. An interesting concept. Two DaVincis, both aiming to escape. This could cause major problems for the asylum if even one of them got out, let alone two. That would be truely amazing.

I stood up, leaving the cloth with her, then looked at the camera. Directly into the lens, pondering if they understood yet. I'd imagine that most of their cameras weren't needed, but of course they'd have this camera on. I'm the great DaVinci, the star of their midnight screenings! And to have me talking to someone is a rarity only those which were so important that they were left behind by the owners were allowed to watch.

With another calm urn, i fiddled with what was left of my nails before talking. "What if... What if i told you that i know the way out?" I smiled at her, knowing any second the guards would burst in and take me or her away before i could say any more. Probably me, to be fair. But that's what i wanted. Then they would change the routine to one of the next formations, one of them i would know. This routine was almost entirely random, whereas the others had been created specifically for keeping the patients in. This one was to keep me in. And if i know how people work, i know that they'll believe me. Any second now those guards will be bursting in. I closed my eyes, taking in a last few breaths.

Any second...