pov. Tony

With every pothole the car raced over, with every sharp turn, I felt like I was rolling across the small space of the van. Yet in reality I was still sitting huddled as far away from the door as I could get. My tears had long since dried up, there were none left and there would be no point in shedding them anyway. I lifted my head from my knees as I felt the car slow down. I slid forward on all fours to the grate and clasped it again with my hands. The car turned into a small backyard. I couldn't see much, but it couldn't be an official entrance. "Of course not" I thought bitterly "after all, they don't want anyone to know what they are doing here." the car stopped with the back facing a slightly larger door.

I took a shaky breath in and out. I knew it was pretty much hopeless, but if they thought I was just going to come along like a well-behaved sheep, they were wrong. I buried my fingers a little in the shirt I was wearing, it still smelled like Stephen. I heard the driver's door slam shut, followed not a second later by the passenger door. With a click the door was unlocked in front of me, the sun was blinding me after sitting in almost complete darkness for so long and I raised my hand in front of my eyes to shield them from the light.

"Come on!" the man I had almost broken the nose of earlier grabbed me roughly by the left arm and pulled me along with him.
I pulled and tugged but could not escape his grip "You mustn't do that!" panicked I looked to the door that was opened from the inside and from which came a slightly older man wearing a doctor's coat "this is illegal!" I tried to appeal to their sanity and continued to try to wriggle out of the grip that kept me from escaping.
"Nonsense boy" the second man grabbed me on my right side, squeezing so hard I could already hear the bone cracking "we're saving your soul."

I gasped and for a moment was so shocked at this person's outdated view that I stopped resisting their grip.
The man who was convinced to save me from hell looked at the doctor "Watch it" he looked down at me disparagingly as if I were a disgusting insect "this one has a fighting spirit and is stubborn as hell."
I bit my lower lip until it bled and still yanked at my arms, but it was no use. On and on they dragged me across the gray tiled driveway. My feet were quite cold and ached a bit, as there were minor scratches all over them from my fight at my house.

The doctor's smile as I stood before him sent a shiver down my spine. Everything in me screamed to get out of there as quickly as possible, but I couldn't. The two men holding me by one arm and one shoulder prevented that.
The doctor, pulled out a small lamp and grabbed me by the jaw "Well, we'll fix you up boy."
All I could do was glare hatefully at him, and I did. I jerked my head to the side and immediately backed up with it as the man finally let go of my jaw.
"Give him something decent to wear for once." he eyed my shirt "there's no way he can walk around like that." I tossed and turned one last time, but they still led me down a long, dark hallway after the doctor until they stopped in front of a narrow door. It was made of cold, lifeless metal. Knowing that it was useless to resist, I simply let my two guards lead me through the door. There were several shelves in the room. In each of them were stacked blue cloth pants, white shirts, shirts in the same color as the pants, red hoodies and black sneakers. The only light came from the neon lights from the ceiling that bathed the room in a cold glow.
"Come on" prompting the doctor looked at me "put on some decent clothes first."
I gave the man a death stare before plucking my clothes from the rack and disappearing behind one of the shelves. There was some pain in my heart as I took off Stephen's shirt, it had given me a kind of strength, like he was with me, that feeling disappeared now.

With quick fingers, I buttoned up the overshirt and slipped into my pants and shoes, rolling my pants up a bit because they were too long for me. Finally, I tied the hooded jacket around my waist and, pressing my old clothes against my body, walked back to the three men. The doctor's gaze fell disapprovingly on my turned up pants, annoyed I blew out the air "Is it a crime to be short now too?!" I stretched a bit, which didn't really do much.
The man took a step towards me "I'll take that, you don't need it anymore." he stretched out his hand and at the same time pointed at the bundle of clothes in my hand.
Unconsciously I pressed it even closer to my body "Forget it!" I would not part with it under any circumstances. It sounded ridiculous to fight for a shirt, but it was the only thing that kept me from having a panic attack.

The man just came even closer to me "Listen boy, you alone decide how uncomfortable and how long your stay here will be." threateningly he looked at me.
I gritted my teeth so he wouldn't see my lip start to quiver and just did nothing. Faster than I could see, his hand had snapped forward and just ripped the clothes out of my hand. "Give it back to me!" I yelled, wanting to lunge at the man. But I had forgotten about his two chaperones. Before I could even put a foot in his direction I felt two upper arms close around my torso and something squeezed the air out of me. I screamed out. As irrational as it was, I wanted the shirt back, I wanted the only part of Stephen I had left back.

I kicked my feet, squirming in the hold. As the second orderly approached me to help his colleague, I lashed out with my foot and kicked him in the upper body. Gasping for air, he went down, holding his ribs.
The doctor pulled out something "Hold him still!" he ordered my supervisor.
Only when he came closer could I see that the thing he was holding in his hand was a syringe. Eyes wide open, I stared at the long needle he was about to ram into my body "What is that!?"
The doctor grabbed my head and bent it back so my neck was exposed and stretched "I see you decided to do it the hard way!" he smiled cruelly and rammed the needle into my neck.

As soon as he pulled the needle out again, the room started spinning "What....was that?" I muttered, holding onto a wall. Spinning faster and faster, I felt myself hitting the floor. I crawled across the floor a few inches, my vision blurring, dark spots creeping into my field of vision. The last thing I noticed was two hands dragging me to my feet. Then my world darkened for good and I fainted.

Blinking, I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the snow-white ceiling. Under me I felt something soft, when I turned my head a little I saw that I was lying in a simple bed. The bedclothes were blue and red striped and I was lying on the blanket. My head was pounding like crazy, I closed my eyes and put my hand on my pulsating forehead. What had happened? My mind went blank, but then it suddenly came back to me. They had drugged me with something. Carefully, so as not to overload my head, I sat up and rested my elbows on my knees.

A rustling sound next to me made me whirl my head around. At the other end of the room, a red-haired girl sat on a bed that was the exact spitting image of mine. She had her knees drawn up, was leaning back against the wall, and was staring at me out of fearful green eyes. She was fifteen at the most. I raised my hand slightly and smiled at her kindly "Hi." I eyed the girl a little more closely, she was wearing the exact same clothes as me, except instead of pants and a shirt she was wearing a dress. The robe hung down a bit on her, as if they were a few sizes too big for her.
She looked at me shyly out of big green eyes "Hello."
I turned a little to look directly at her "I'm Tony......" before I could speak any further, the door opened.

A woman with her hair up came in, she was wearing a black and green patterned dress and had a woman in tow carrying a tablet "Anthony, I'm so glad you're awake." she took a few steps towards me.
I just looked at her emotionlessly, inside I was screaming, but she didn't need to know that.
Her lips twisted into a cruel smile "My name is Dr. Franklin and I'm in charge here." she paused for a moment as if thinking where to start "Here's the deal, you're going to do as you're told and you're going to have a good time here or" she looked at me sternly "you resist, then you've seen what happens."
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the girl looking anxiously at the woman in front of me "Yes Mam." I gulped a little as her cold eyes almost pierced me.
She rubbed her hands together briefly "Well then that's settled, you should sleep now, your therapy starts tomorrow." with those words she turned and stumbled out the door.

I desperately buried my hand in my hair, I had been passed out all day. I looked up to see a woman in a white nurse's dress standing in front of me holding out a small plastic cup. I took the cup from her hand "What is this?" I looked at the little red pills.
The woman continued to the redhead "This will help you sleep better." she pressed the cup into the girl's hand and then walked out of the room just like the woman before her.
Suspiciously I looked at the contents of the cup, I had seen drugs many times with some of my friends to recognize some when I saw them in front of me.
"You have to swallow them." the girl looked at me with glassy eyes, her cup lay empty on her bed "they notice if you don't, and then they punish you." she curled up on the bed and started staring at the wall.

Dumbfounded I looked at the red pills, not in a hundred years would I swallow that. My mind was the most precious thing I possessed, never would I even think of harming it. My eyes fell on a door inside the room. I swayed a bit as I stood up and walked towards the door, the sedative in the syringe must have been very strong. I held onto the door jamb to keep from falling over as I opened the door to what was a bathroom. It was tiny, a small shower stood in the corner, to the right of it a tiny sink and in the corner was a toilet, the thing I had been looking for.

I dumped the contents of the cup into the water, waited for it to dissolve and flushed it down. After that I just threw the cup on the floor and went back to the main part of the room. Only then did I notice that the room looked more like a prison cell than a hospital room. The walls were bare and painted a dark shade of gray. The only furniture was the two beds and a closet, as well as a small desk which stood at the very back of the wall. The only small window of the room was at the top under the ceiling and barred. Still insecure on my feet, I stumbled back to the bed. Although I had slept most of the day in a sense, I was incredibly tired. As if on cue, I had to yawn.

The bed squeaked as I lay down and pulled the covers over me. I pulled my legs up a bit and tried to sleep, but I just wouldn't. I was too afraid of what was ahead of me. Afraid that I could break someday in this place. My only hope, which I clung to like a drowning man to his lifebelt, was that Stephen and the others would find me before that time came. Tears formed in my eyes as I thought of Stephen, "Stephen." I mumbled, then closed my eyes, a tear rolling down my cheek, and fell asleep from the exhaustion of the last few hours.