This story had been in the works for quite some time, I just never had the motivation to actually write it. After reading We're All Mad Here by SlntLullaby I finally had the inspiration to write this story. This story centers around Carlos and his relationship with my OC Alana who has been revamped for this story. You'll get to learn about the boys' disorders and Alana's as this story unfolds. So I hope you all enjoy and I'll try to update as quickly as possible.

Inside the doors of the Palm Woods Mental Institution are the afflicted, broken and dangerous (to themselves as well as others). Some residents are able to leave and go back to living normal ordinary lives, but there are those that can never leave because their sickness is eating them alive and refuse to believe it or their illness has become a part of them.

These are their stories.

{***}

Carlos took out his colored pencils and began to draw in the new sketchbook that his brother had given him a few weeks ago. He began to draw the Jennifer's (as usual) the 3 of them set on fire; a smile drew itself onto his face as he drew the skinny girls being consumed by fire (his only true love, those beautiful orange and red flames).

"Hey Carlos," his roommate James greeted him with a small smile.

"Hey James," he replied looking up briefly then went back to his drawing.

"I heard the guards talking and they said that someone new is coming here," the tall brunette replied as he sat down on his own bed as he pulled a magazine from under his pillow.

"Oh… that's cool, wanna see what I drew?" he asked holding out his sketchbook for the other to take.

"Sure… wow it looks just like them, but why are they always on fire?" James asked handing back the sketchpad to Carlos; he never could understand the shorter boy's obsession with fire.

"Because fire is beautiful, fire makes everything more beautiful," he replied with a shrug as if it all made sense.

"Oh… okay," the other simply stated not sure if he should mention the flaw in the shorter boy's logic.

Besides he knew that Carlos would only remind him of how own flawed logic (but the only flaw about James was that he was fat-fat-fat). And he knew that if he tried to tell the Latino about how gross or disgusting he felt after eating or talking to his therapist (she said he was sick, she said he was going to die…but he knows she's a liar), the pyromaniac would only stare at him with a blank look in his eyes then announce to him the amount of gasoline it would take to burn a car, bus or a house down.

(Carlos even mentioned how long it would take to fully burn a human body and he'd be lying if he said that didn't scare him at all.)

"Hey what time is it?" Carlos asked suddenly, his voice pulling the brunette out of his thoughts.

"It's 3:30, "therapy" time right?" the other said with a roll of his eyes as he watched Carlos get off his bed, sketchbook in hand. "You always take your sketchbook with you?"

"Not always, Dr. Collins doesn't like my drawings," the short boy replied with a slight pout. "Well see you later."

The tall brunette gave him a small nod before he went back to staring at the glossy photos of his magazines muttering over how he wished he could look like the gaunt dead eyed, long limbed male models.

Carlos shook his head, dismissing the brunette's obsession with being skinny. To be quiet honest, he couldn't see what was wrong with the tall boy other than him being extremely OCD.

"Now you'll start off in isolation until you can be fully evaluated before being able to have a roommate," Mr. Bitters said to a petite chocolate girl with long dark hair.

Carlos was brought out of his musings as he watched the large man lead the chocolate skinned girl down the hall. When she looked up and made eyes contact with him, his heart felt like it had stopped, his skin felt like it had been set on fire and the air in his lungs had evaporated.

Never in his life did he see such a beautiful girl.

"Her eyes are the same green color that Chromium looks like when it burns," he whispered to himself. 'She's so pretty.'

"So Carlos, how are you feeling?" Dr. Collins asked she pulled out her leather Journal and Carlos seated himself onto her leather chair in her office.

The pyromaniac shrugged before looking at his sketchbook, thinking of the new girl he turned to a new page.

"I'm okay… did you know that there's a new girl here?" he asked with wide eyed curiosity.

"You've seen Alana? Well she'll be staying here… for a while," Dr. Collins replied writing down something into her journal. "I noticed you brought your sketchbook today, did you have a picture you wanted to show me?"

"No, I just wanted to draw," he answered sketching Alana's face. 'I'll give this to her when I'm done.'

The blond woman was silent for a few minutes ash she watched the boy furiously draw. Most of the boy's artwork tended to consist of people (including himself) being burned alive.

"Are you drawing one of the Jennifer's on fire again?" the doctor questioned as Carlos kept on drawing.

"No… I already drew them… I'm drawing Alana, she's much prettier," he said blushing slightly at hearing his own words.

Dr. Collins looked at the olive skinned boy in shock, not only was he not drawing something being consumed by fire and he had already shown a new interest in a girl who wasn't one of the Jennifer's. However, Alana wasn't a much better pick (in fact she was worse…much worse).

"It's not finished here's what I have of her so far," Carlos said interrupting the therapist's thoughts and note taking.

"Sure Carlos," she replied taking the drawing pad from the boy's tan hands and was pleasantly surprised at what she saw. "This is beautiful Carlos; do you plan on giving it to her?"

"I want to… but I'm scared she might not like me," he replied honestly taking his sketchbook from Dr. Collins. "She's just so… beautiful."

"I think you should, once she comes out of isolation," the doctor suggested as the boy closed his sketchbook. "Well, that's all for today, I'll see you tomorrow Carlos."

"Okay…bye Dr. Collins," he said giving the therapist a tiny wave and exited the office.

Carlos closed the door carefully and was surprised to see Alana standing there behind him.

"Oh…sorry… um, Hi I'm Carlos," he stuttered as he looked over her beautiful face.

"It's okay… I'm Alana; I have to talk to the "doctor"… I'll see you around," she said with a sweet smile and moved past him into Dr. Collin's office.

"Bye," he whispered as he stared at the closed door and then made his way back to his room clutching his sketchbook to him tightly.

Sitting back on his bed the raven haired boy opened up his sketchbook to the unfinished drawing of Alana and blushed, his thoughts suddenly consumed by the new girl.

"So how was therapy?" James' voice asked pulling Carlos out of his thoughts.

"Oh… it was okay, I saw the new girl… she's really pretty," he replied his blush deepening.

"Really, you got to see her, what does she look like?" the sandy haired boy asked with curious hazel eyes boring into him.

"I drew a picture of her… it's not done, but this is what she looks like," he said handing the other his drawing of the new girl. "Do you think I should give it to her?"

"I don't know, maybe when you see her at lunch or tomorrow," James said looking over the drawing. "She's gorgeous, does she seem nice?"

"I think so… but I didn't get time to talk to her, besides its dinner time," Carlos announced taking his sketchbook from James and gently placed it under his pillow.

"Yeah…dinner," James grimaced at the thought of having to eat.

He couldn't understand how the short boy could enjoy stuffing all those calories, carbs and saturated fat into his body. It was absolutely disgusting watching him and Kendall stuff food into their mouths, and what was more sickening was that they enjoyed it.

"I hate the food here," he commented as he and his roommate made their way to the cafeteria.

"What are you talking about? The food's actually pretty good," the shorter replied with an almost bewildered stare. "I just wish that I could work in the kitchen the way Dak and Jett get to.

"I'd hate to be around all that food," James said shuddering at the thought; he noticed in the corner of his eye that slightly annoyed look Carlos gave him.

He sighed knowing that neither Carlos nor the Jennifer's themselves couldn't comprehend his disgust for food. He wanted to be perfect (and he couldn't do that with food sticking to his bones).

Walking through the double doors and following the pyromaniac into the food line, he caught sight of the new girl with her tray of food walking to a far table away from everyone else.

"Carlos, what's the new girl's name?" he questioned the boy who was scooping chicken, broccoli and cheese onto his tray, the tall anorexic did his best not to barf at the smell of the food.

"Her name's Alana… why is she sitting alone?" Carlos said as he moved down the food line.

"Alana… I'll have the fish and salad... maybe she's shy," he said to the server and did his best to smile as the elderly woman handed him the tray of food and then acknowledged the shorter boy's question.

He noticed with disgust how he was given bread, and twice the amount of fruit that he asked for.

"Come on James, Logan and Kendall are waiting," the fire obsessed boy said bringing James out of his thoughts.

"Oh right," he muttered walking with Carlos to their usual table with Kendall (the skinny cutter who could eat everything and not gain one pound… James wondered if he should hate him for that) and Logan (the paranoid boy who's nightmares were scarier than that freak Ozzy).

Kendall looked up at them and smiled as they sat down; James noticed new pink scars on the blond's long arms. Feeling his stare Kendall pulled his sleeves down slightly embarrassed.

"Hey, did you know that we have a new girl here?" the blond asked still tugging on the sleeve of his flannel shirt.

"Yeah, Carlos got to talk to her," James replied, the pyromaniac just shrugged trying to act nonchalant despite the blush blooming on his cheeks.

"Her name's Alana," he said simply and began devouring his food.

"What do you think her affliction is?" Logan said his brown eyes curious and scared as he looked over his shoulder at the lonely girl.

"She doesn't look like… a match stick," Kendall said shamelessly staring at the girl. "I guess we'll find out later."

The other boys nodded and went back to eating (or James separating his food by texture and color and then dissecting his fish into tiny pieces), their minds were still focused on the new girl immensely curious about her and the reason(s) that brought her to the Palm Woods.

Hope you all enjoyed that. Please leave me a review with your thoughts. xoxo