Chapter one: Gray and the Name

Marlene. Marlene. Gray couldn't get this name out of his head. He had heard it before somewhere. But now it was haunting him. Marlene. Marlene. It was like someone else was whispering it into his head. This didn't happen anymore, not since he started taking his meds. Marlene. Marlene. It was starting to get unbearable. Gray started pacing back and forth around his tiny apartment around each box, the same path each time. Marlene. Marlene. He was starting to make a game of it now. Left leg over the little brown box,and right on que. MARLENE. MARLENE. But this time it was more of an inhumanely screech that took Gray down to his knees, as he fell he put his hands up to his ears, but to no avail the screech was inside his head. He couldn't protect himself from it. And as if whatever was calling out to him knew it was finally heard it let go and Grays vision swarmed and the floor came up to meet him.

Grey woke a few minutes later with a sore face. Turns out when he passed out he hit his head on the little brown box that was just below him. When the voices had came before he would at least clean up a little. Even got so bad at one point that he had to baby proof every corner in his old apartment. Grey knew who he should talk to.He went to examine his face in the bathroom mirror his first thought was 'Oh god' he looked like he had been draged through a lawn mower. He hadn't left his apartment in two weeks, that was when the voices started he just hoped they would go away in a few days.To his credit they had never been this bad before. He gave the rest of his face a quick glace and noted that there was a black eye forming on his left eye and there was a bruise on his cheek to accompany it. He tried to smooth down his hair that right now was in a frizzy mess.But decided against it. Deciding that he looked fit enough to leave his apartment. He snatched up his jacket that was on the counter and his keys that were hanging haphazardly on a key holder that wasn't on the wall yet. He was going to put that up, but then again his whole apartment was full of empty promises he had made to himself. He had been living here for almost a month now and most of his things were still in boxes. The only things that wasn't in boxes were that things that he couldn't fit in boxes. He took himself out of his front door and locked it. Did he lock it? Yes, no, yes he definitely locked the door. For sure. He walked himself down the corridor to the door on the right. The sign above the door was warped and sad looking. The letters in faded green paint were chipping off and flacking on the top of the door way, years of neglect is was this sign was showing. As Gray stated he could almost see it in it's former glory a bright green sign that stood over the door way that proudly said 'STEIR WELL'. Yes there was a spelling mistake but it was understood well enough. Grey made his way down the stairs an agonizing process for him he always hated exercise even when doing P.E at the academy. The name was only a whisper in his head.He stepped out the door into the outside world for the first time in what felt like years and almost understood why people went outside most days.