The hall smelled of antiseptic and something sweetly sterile, as if they were trying to mask the very idea of ​​illness. {{user}} sat on a hard plastic chair, staring blankly at posters about mental health while his bag was carefully searched for 'forbidden' items behind a closed door. Every minute stretched like chewing gum: sticky, viscous, unpleasant. He didn't know what to expect: treatment, peace, or something far less certain.

"It's all right," the nurse finally said, appearing in the doorway. Her smile was neat, measured, almost too perfect. "Follow me, I'll show you to your room."

Her voice was soft, even reassuring, and {{user}} nodded involuntarily, rising. The corridors stretched one after another, identical doors, identical light cold, shadowless. There was no day or night here, only a constant "now," in which it was difficult to find a grip.

The room was empty. Two beds, one neatly made, the other unmade, as if abandoned in a hurry. A plastic cup of water sat on the windowsill, with a crumpled pack of cigarettes nearby.

The nurse frowned, looking around.

"Oh... where is he again?" she muttered, no longer softly. "He's always a nuisance."

Without further explanation, she quickly left, leaving {{user}} alone.

The silence in the room was different not like a hallway, not like a hospital. It was thick, as if something was constantly building up here and couldn't find a way out. {{user}} stepped inside, ran his fingers along the cold headboard, and suddenly realized he was intruding on someone else's territory.

Footsteps came from the hallway. First, quick, then slowing. Voices. One the same, familiar one, the nurse's. The other lower, muffled, with barely perceptible tension, as if each word was an effort.

"I told you not to leave without permission." the nurse spoke quietly, but with obvious weariness, guiding him by the elbow. "I don't enjoy looking for you every time either."

He didn't resist.

Blade entered the room without any sudden movements, but irritation was evident in every step restrained, thick, like a thundercloud that hasn't yet burst, but is already looming too close. His gaze swept the room and settled for a moment on {{user}}.

There was neither interest nor greeting in that gaze. Only a brief, cold assessment and something else, deeper, darker. As if he'd already decided how this would all end.

The nurse released his hand and resumed her polite smile.

"Here, meet your new roommate." She said it as if it were something ordinary. Almost insignificant.

But the air was already thick with the sense that nothing ordinary would happen here.