Can't run away from crazy | ✓

Chapter 16

"I'll let you all talk." Dotty gets up and goes upstairs. Dalion takes a deep breath and looks out the window, deep in thought. We let him take his time in telling us. Since he's never told us before, it must be difficult for him.

"I..." He starts. "I grew up in this town and had a pretty fun childhood to be honest. An only child in a pretty big house, with well-off parents. In elementary school is where I met Zack and since there aren't many people that live here, we were in the same class up until high school. The symptoms for schizophrenia started around senior year. I started feeling depressed, I couldn't fall asleep at night, I started mistrusting my family and friends. All these warning signs were brushed off as just a phase and my parents thought seeking professional help wasn't necessary."

Dalion lets out a sad laugh and bites his lip. Something in me is fuming just hearing his story.

"Then I noticed I was sometimes struggling with writing or saying certain words, which was odd, but I ignored it, knowing my parents would tell me it was because I was tired or something like that. Like, I look back and how could they dismiss my concerns like that?"

"I remember I was in math class, I'm pretty sure, when I heard someone calling my name. It happened once or twice, but I was so freaked out. I thought it was my friends pulling a prank on me, but it wasn't. The whispering was becoming recurring and I saw shadows and blurry figures move in the corners of my eye. It had been going on for a while when one night I woke up in the middle of the night and saw..." Dalion stops and a shiver goes through his body. The three of us are immersed in every word Dalion is saying. I sometimes hear Annabel have deep breaths every time he makes a pause, as if she's holding her breath while he speaks.

"Felix knows about this already, but there is one recurring person in my hallucinations and it's a clown. Not the party type with vibrant colors and weird, but I guess funny noses. This one, he has the whole killer clown package. Blood splatters all over his face, crooked teeth with bleeding gums, torn clothing, a... a knife. You know, the first time I saw him, he was just standing in the corner of my room, blocking the door. And that's when I lost it. I screamed, tried to hit him with everything I could reach. He stayed there, smiling at me, only moving his head from one side to the other. My parents came, obviously concerned. When they came I still could see him. I pointed at him and they saw nothing."

I remember when Dalion told me about this, we were leaving the cafeteria when he started screaming hysterically. Nurses came and took him away and gave him drugs to calm him down. The next day he told me about the clown and how it was right in front of him the previous day. He made me promise not to tell anyone about the clown as he felt embarrassed. Being scared of a clown was a small child's thing to do according to him.

"It went downhill from there. My parents told everyone that I was going crazy and I kind of was. Lack of sleep was eating away at me. I didn't sleep at night, scared that the clown would kill me in my sleep. I looked it up and everything pointed to schizophrenia while the only thing my parents were looking for was a place to dump me in."

"My grandma found out and at this point I was eighteen so I could leave my house and I did. My grandma and Dotty kept me here and didn't let anyone close to me. The reason why I wasn't at Ainsworth at that point was all thanks to them." Dalion's eyes are getting teary and he is smiling, thinking about his late grandmother. My eyes get teary as well.

"Then...then my grandma...My grandma passed away. I wasn't even allowed to grieve properly before my parents took their chance and shipped me off to Ainsworth. They could make that decision for me, since I was mentally unstable as they said."

"Didn't Zack maybe help you?" Annabel asks and Dalion rolls his eyes, scoffing.

"He was first to jump on the 'Dalion's crazy let's harass him' bandwagon."

Zack has such hatred and disgust towards Dalion for no reason and every time we come across someone like this, I understand why Ainsworth's activity managed to stay hidden for so long. When someone isn't a perfect version of a human, people are scared. The unusual is too much to comprehend so they do what it seems right to them; push it away.

"What was your grandma like?" Annabel sits closer to the edge of her seat, with her elbows on her knees and her head laying on her palms. Her eyes are red and watery.

"She...she was the most wonderful person I've ever met. Do you know what she would do? Everyday she would pack me lunch for school. My parents were busy with work and I wasn't the best cook, so she took the responsibility of packing my lunches. I would run to this house every morning to get my lunch before going to school. After school I would run back here and stay here with her and Dotty until my parents would come to pick me up "

I smile at the story, wishing I had someone like that in my life, making me feel loved. I'm glad Dalion got to experience that love, even though it was short-lived, so he has something fond to look back on. His eyes have a sparkle in them as he talks about his grandma.

"I can't believe your parents disregarded everything."

"I really thought I was being a burden and it made nothing easier, it made it much worse in fact. How can a parent do that to their own child?"

"Well, some parents are like that." I rub my arm, the image of my mom and dad that night outside my bedroom appearing vividly in my head.

"And this is why I don't want to give my parents a second chance. They don't live here in Merfond anymore and I'm glad." Dalion looks at me with red eyes. "I want to live my life as happily as I can. Don't I deserve that?"

"You do!" Cora says and hugs him tight. For the first time I've known him, Dalion accepts the hug and lets himself cry on Cora's shoulder.

Sometimes you can't forgive people, even if they are the people that gave birth to you. We spent so much of our time miserable and locked up that it can't be forgiven. I understand why he doesn't want to meet his parents. It makes me think though; if I had the chance to meet my parents, would I? I want to see them, talk to them, ask them how they are doing, but I don't know if they want to see me.

Annabel is wiping her eyes and putting her hair down, a habit I've noticed her do everytime she doesn't want to show she is crying.

"You alright?" I ask, putting my hand on her shoulder. She nods and raises her head.

"I'm okay, it's just you guys are like family. It's so amazing!" I smile and put my hand on top of hers.

"You are a part of this family too."

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