Let It Burn - Short Story
**TRIGGER WARNING! This story has mentions of self-harm, a psych ward and some medical stuff that's not for the faint of heart.**
Cody sat on the floor of his room in the psych ward, watching the world spin around him. His family had put him in here just a few months ago, but it felt like he had been in there for a few hours. They had dragged him from his home, kicking and screaming, having to restrain him in the back of the ambulance.
Nothing helped him feel any better right now. He tried to draw, write, make music and none of it helped. He reached up to fiddle with his earrings, only to realize they had been taken out by the hospital a few minutes ago. They only allowed him to sleep with them in, so he wouldn't hurt himself. It was his favorite pair of earrings, a hourglass pair given to him by his bestie, Liam.
He hadn't been sleeping well lately, most of the stuff the hospital had given him was on the floor. The red sheets were strown across the floor, due to his tossing and turning every night and getting upset at the way they looked when he woke up. The hospital staff constantly had to fix it for him, because if he fixed it, he just ripped them off the bed again. It was getting annoying to them.
The only thing he hadn't thrown off his bed at any given point was his colorful blanket, but that was currently wrapped around him. He had begged and pleaded with the hospital for him to keep it with him, it was one of the only things giving him comfort right now. He rocked back and forth on the floor, as he just continued to sit there on the floor in his motionless, soundless room. The only thing he heard was the sound of his own shivers and breathing. Nothing else but pure static noise.
Looking around, the only thing near him on the floor was a napkin that he wrote on last night, which contained lyrics from one of his favorite songs. The lyrics to "Let It Burn" by Citizen Soldier. Reaching out, he picked it up, and flipped it over in his hands, reading the lyrics over and over, knowing how much it meant to him. On the other side of the napkin was a rose he had sketched on it, similar to the ones tattooed on his left arm, but that was currently covered up by an IV, medical tape and bandages.
He hadn't been wanting to eat or anything lately, so that's why there was an IV hooked up into his arm, and the bandages were there because he kept scratching at his arms, the cuts he had given himself a few months back, and wanting to rip the IV out, but he was unable to, it was helping him stay alive.
As Cody looked over the lyrics one last time, he focused on two lines specifically. "The past is just lessons learned, light it up and let it burn." With a shaky breath, he was determine to fix himself, and get himself in a better mental state so he could get out of the psych ward. A way to turn his life around.
