Drastic Measures

Originally Billy hadn't wanted to resort to such drastic measures but he couldn't think of anything else that might work. Other people might get hurt. But this was the only way.

Despite the progress she had made with her nightmares, Hazel still couldn't speak after four years of "treatment" in here. He wasn't sure if she would ever be able to speak again. She said she was positive her uncle wouldn't ever let her out unless she could talk.

If she never made any progress there, she would be stuck in here for another ten years. They had to let you go when you didn't have a legal guardian anymore; he had overheard the nurses talk about it before when a schizophrenic boy two doors down from him turned eighteen.

The nurses gossiped about how that boy had no skills, no diploma, and nowhere to go. They predicted he would end up dead or homeless within a month. Billy absolutely couldn't allow that to happen to Hazel.