The Institute

They said that I was schizophrenic. But what do they know? After all, they’re just doctors. And, hey, I swear that creepy man that was stalking me was real! I just did not tell anyone about him sooner because I’m sixteen, I should be able to take care of myself. He followed me home every day after school and hung around in my backyard, daring me to come out and join him. I yelled at him to buzz off a couple times but he just smiled his nasty smile and shrunk into the shadows. When I got fed up that the guy wasn’t leaving me alone, I did what I had to do: I told my mom. Naturally, she freaked out and wanted to know everything. So I told her. I told her everything about him. The way his yellow, dirty fingernails curled up into claws. How he always wore a hood so I could only see the bottom half of his face and how his mouth was always sneering at me. My mom called the police, Dad, my grandma; she even called the neighbors to warn them not to come out of their house...