She didn't want to go home. So she didn't. she roamed the streets instead, letting the dim streetlights cast her as a haunting shadow; not the hollow girl she felt she was. Waves of sadness continued to sweep and she wondered for a moment, whether she was headed towards a real break down. She closed her eyes and breathed in, when she opened them she was back in her room. She stared at the dull walls with their eggshell tint, off colour but unintentional, and wished it hadn't been a daydream. She was horizontal as always, strapped in tight so no one could get bitten. She was small and she felt small. She imagined sliding up against the stone walls and cooling her hot, tense skin. But she was strapped down. Even a straight jacket allowed for a little wiggle room. She sighed and turned her head to the left. He had left his hat again. Her teeth hurt when she thought of him - as if they knew she wasn't fully able to handle the emotional pain right now, but a physical pain was familiar and even provided some comfort. If she was honest, he had hurt every part of her, but the other parts were being held down, and she had only had free reign over her teeth this past year, much to the distress of new orderlies. He had said he would be right back, like he always did. But she knew he wasn't coming back. Not this time. She had seen it in his wearily exhausted face; as if he had aged 10 years in the 1 that she had been in the institution. She had kept telling herself that she would get better, make it right, and they would get on with their lives. She lied a lot. Mostly to herself, but sometimes to the group, the therapist, her parents, her children, her husband, and him. They had had delusions of happiness once; she would leave her controlling husband for him and take the kids, once she fixed everything. She didn't tell him about her mental battles, her over medication, her husband taking her on numerous hospital trips; it would have ruined the delusion. And she got carried away with it by coming off the medication, and unleashing that part of herself she had kept numb for longer than she now cared to remember. She got hurt, her husband got hurt. And her...her children. A year and she still could not quite bear the thought. And neither could her husband, checking her in to what was now developing into her final resting place. And her partner in dream and delusion, as she often referred to him, visited regularly and spoke only of getting her out and campaigning for the injustice she was suffering. She didn't have the heart to tell him she had requested and signed a form to ensure she was never released. It seemed to give him something to hope for. But he had been out of hope today. Maybe he had known all along, but felt too guilty to leave her now. He had removed his hat, mumbled something about love, and said he would be right back. She heard the security gate close behind him as he left, watched the lint on his hat flicker in the sunlight through the window bars, let the tears roll on to the pillow, and closed her eyes.