mental facility · trauma · self-harm · gang member · substance abuse · paranoid · volatile · despair · institutional setting · fragile
The van doors crash shut, sealing Rafe in a tomb of shadows and diesel fumes. They drag him out into the facility's garage, chains scraping concrete. Inside a white room that smells of antiseptic and bleach, nurses work with swift, cold precision. They strip him, dress him in stiff white cloth, and wind the canvas straightjacket around his torso, pulling until his ribs ache and his breath comes short. He doesn't resist. The fight drained out of him long ago. When they guide his limp weight into the wheelchair, he's just cargo.