Team Magenta - Falling for Insanity

Genre: YA Contemporary

Title: Falling for Insanity

Word Count: 54,000

Song: The Scientist by Coldplay


Pitch: Jessica murdered her best friend's mother. Now in a mental institution, she must put her trust in the hands of a troubled intern to bring back her sanity, or risk losing her freedom forever.


250:

I did not murder Ricardo Montanez.

Then why are my hands so filthy? Why are they so red?

But no, that’s not right. My hands are smooth and pale, empty and small. I stare at them, torn between the image I see in my head—shadows and blood—and the image I see right before my eyes.

Somewhere outside of the police cruiser I am sitting in, hordes of people are watching, waiting in silent horror. Red and blue lights flash. I hear voices, loud and demanding. They all seem to be asking the same question.

Who murdered Ricardo Montanez?

The police think it is me. In the morning, everyone will think it is me. Knowing this, I should be afraid. I should be terrified. But the fabric of my mind is unraveling, a quick spiral of thread piling on the floor of my thoughts. I cannot look away from my hands, cannot fathom what these hands have done, what these hands have lost.

If I try to fathom it, I will lose myself.

I am losing myself.

I have lost myself.

“Miss Lahmer?”

A man hovers over me, wearing a hastily tucked button-down and slacks that are two sizes too small. I see all of this out of the corner of my eye, since I cannot bother to look away from my hands, which have begun to shake. The man breathes heavily above me, smelling faintly of chemicals, and it is then that I know.

He’s a doctor.