Saint Fidelity

"Okay, boys, I want you to follow Nurse Freya, and girls, follow me."

Just like that, the night was ending... these hours with Niall were over, and I was going to an unfamiliar bed where I'd be sure to have nightmares all night until I was in my own room again. I didn't want to leave- I wanted to stay with Niall, and that frightened me. Usually, I didn't grow attached to people at all, let alone creepy boys in a mental ward.

I slowly pushed the chair I was sitting on backwards with a loud squeak, about to go follow the rest of the girls without a glance backwards. I hated goodbyes more than I hated anything, even though I never really grew attached to people. It felt like a departure from a relationship or a friendship just saying goodbye, and I had a bad feeling that I wouldn't see Niall again. So, I turned my back on him, and started walking.

Until I felt a tight grip on my wrist. I spun around, eyes wide, facing Niall.

"You're leaving without saying goodbye?" He said, his nostrils flaring slightly. I retracted my arm, still feeling the soft pads of his finger tips pressing into my skin.

"I guess..." I mumbled, shrugging my shoulders. Niall frowned in response.

"I want to see you again."

"Why?" I asked. I realized after, that I should be thankful that someone wanted to spend time with me... but it just seemed like such a foreign concept. I couldn't understand why he would.

He sort of looked confused for a second, as if he couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to spend time with me, then his expression stiffened. "Because, I enjoy you. You give me good thoughts, and I want that again."

I nodded slowly, backing up towards the line of girls. "Okay, well... How about when we have free time on Saturday. I can come here, and meet you." On weekends we had a choice of going out into the lawn and playing sports, or just enjoying the air, sitting in the lounge, having visitors, or simply doing nothing and sitting in our rooms. I usually chose the last one, but seeing Niall again was an inviting concept, strangely.

"Okay, I'll see you then," Niall said, smiling slightly before joining his own line. I went to find Devilyn in the group of girls, and was by her side as quickly as I could be. It was really strange, regrouping with her. Usually, we wouldn't have left each other's sides, let alone go hang out with strange boys. It felt totally foreign.

"Hey," she said quietly, glancing over at me.

"Hi..." I said in response, staring down at my feet. My heart and breathing felt so constricted being packed into a big pile of girls. The nurse at the head of the line starting walking, guiding us towards our temporary sleeping quarters. "Who was the boy you were talking to?" I asked her, sort of wanting to keep the conversation away from Niall.

"Oh, his name is Louis. Multiple personality disorder," she said, chewing on her bottom lip. "What about that boy you were talking to?"

In here, your disorder was as important as your name sake. Illnesses in here were just as another use of identification, similiar to your name, age, hair color... "Niall, PTSD."

She nodded slightly, and the line of girls in front of us halted. I got up on my tip-toes, and watched as they sorted the others into their temporary rooms. The put Devilyn in her room before me, then I was put into mine right beside her's.

I didn't like the room. I didn't like the walls, I didn't like the placement of the furniture, or the floor. It was scary, unfamiliar... I couldn't possibly sleep in a place like this. Once I was inside, and the door was locked behind me, I couldn't breathe.

I stumbled towards the bed, gasping and choking on air. My head was pounding, aching... I felt a cold sweat wash down my back as I collapsed. My thoughts were fuzzy, and I just couldn't understand how out of everything, the fact that this room was different than my normal one was the thing giving me a panic attack.

My vision was darkening as more and more breath left my body. I lay down, and shut my eyes, willing myself to calm down, start breathing again... As the panic attack ended, I slowly covered myself in the blankets this hard as rock bed provided me, and fell asleep.

However, my sleep didn't last terribly long. I was bombarded with dreams- I guess some could consider nightmares where I was staring out through a shuttered closet door, watching a man with a neck tattoo on top of someone else.

As this man took a knife from his back pocket, and brought it down to the other man's chest. I heard the sickening crunch of the knife entering his skin, but the one on the bottom didn't scream. Instead, he just turned his head, with a mop of blond hair now spattered in blood, and locked eyes with me.

Big, blue, lifeless eyes locked onto mine, and Niall smiled...that same, eery smile.