Mental

Chapter One|When The Day Met The Night

Dan

Dan is a little afraid of meeting his new patient, Phillip Lester. Dan has read his file over, and over again trying to understand him. He's just like any other unfortunate soul that lives in Cynthia Hall. Mentally unstable, and miserable. He's no crazier than some of the past cases Dan has worked with, but he is still very nervous to meet him.

Daniel goes over some annotations scrawled in Phil's file from past sessions. They all are written from his former doctor, Maya Bradley, who had retired. People like to joke she just couldn't stand Phil anymore, and left.

Flirtatious. Poetic? Doesn't show many major acts of violence. Clever. Has problems expressing true feelings, yet emotional. Sarcastic. Daring. Gets off on making other people pissed off, uncomfortable, aroused, frustrated, or annoyed. Anger issues.

Dan sighs to himself. He can't be that bad. Dan once had a patient who just whispered Beatles songs under her breath for hours on end. Dan quite liked her, actually. She never caused much trouble, so she wasn't that much work.

Dan has always been very smart. He's quite good at talking to people as well. So, when he became a full-fledged doctor at twenty-three years old no one was that surprised. He hasn't been a psychologist for very long, but he's very good at it.

Which is exactly why he was assigned Philip Michael Lester.

The mystery head case.

Phil has been at Cynthia Hall for nine years. Nine agonizing years with little signs of improvement. He was twenty-six years old. The same age as Dan. Dan hoped that Phil wouldn't treat him any differently because he was so young.

Dan looks at the little picture in the corner of Phil's file. Dan had to admit that Phil was very attractive. He had black hair that was slightly messy from running his fingers through it so much, and he had pretty, thin, pink lips. His skin was pale white like a daisy, and it contrasted well with his hair, but it was Phil's beautiful blue eyes that Dan liked. They had a hint of crazy, and a splash of sadness. Dan read faces for a living, and Phil's sure had a lot of emotion.

"Wow, he's hot." Dan mumbled to himself.

"I'm sorry, did you say something Doctor Howell?" Nurse Linda asks.

Dan quickly closes the file out of surprise, "Oh, uh no." he says, "I was just talking to myself." He forces a weak smile.

Linda smiles back, "Keep talking to yourself, and I might mistake you for one of the patients." she says.

Dan chuckles, and shakes his head, "I'm starting to go crazy anyway."

Linda walks away smiling, but then she turns around abruptly remembering her reason for entering his office in the first place.

"Oops, I'm sorry, Doctor I forgot to tell you that it's time to meet Philip." she says.

Dan's eyes widen, "Like, right now?" he asks.

She smiles, "Yep. He's waiting for you in his room."

"Isn't he supposed to meet me in here?"

"You will meet with him every other time in here, but today he said he wanted you to come to him. That way he can...um...watch you leave." Linda says biting her lip.

Dan raises an eyebrow, and clears his throat, "He said he wanted to watch me leave?" Dan asks.

Linda looks embarrassed. "Y-yes."

Dan laughs, "Um, alright then."

Dan was still nervous, but some of it had been replaced with curiosity. Was Phillip always this way?