Mental

Chapter Nineteen|The End Of All Things

Dan

He'd been with Sage for over five hours trying to find out what had gone wrong. Dan had seen him yesterday, and he was fine. He was rambling more than usual, but Dan marked it off as post-excitement. His father had come to see him the day before, and Sage had never cried so much. His dad worked a lot, but when he did come to see him it lit up Sage's whole world. He only has his father, and Sugar.

And Ren.

All of today after everything that happened, he only wanted to talk about Ren. He said she appeared to him first eight years ago. Four years before he turned himself into Cynthia Hall. Gradually, she told Sage more about her life everyday.

She used to be involved with a trouble maker. He did drugs, got in fights, and was severely depressed, but she loved him more than herself. And when she got dragged into his life they became the same person. In love, young, addicted to pain killers, and attending illegal parties almost every night. They sold drugs when they needed the money, and even took care of recruiting members to sell faster by attending different teenage social events.

Dan couldn't believe what he was hearing. Sage did have a creative mind, but the stories he was telling sounded so real they could be a book. It's like he was telling the life story of a real person rather than an imaginary friend.

"Sage, I'm sorry, but there is no way that this can be real," Dan said.

Sage tilted his head, "What do you mean?"

Dan sighed, "Sage...Ren isn't....she isn't...." He couldn't bring himself to tell him that she was merely imaginative. It was his job to tell Sage, but Dan could never do it because Sage seemed so much saner when no one told him he was crazy. Dan thought that it might make him better once he started to realize it on his own.

"Ren isn't what?" Sage presses.

"Ren doesn't exist," Dan said outright. He took a deep breath expecting another break down, but Sage just laughed.

"No, of course not. She's dead," he explained calmly.

Dan furrowed his eyebrows, "What?"

"Ren is dead. She was murdered by an old friend of hers in her drugs days. He threatened her boyfriend, and she threatened him right back. He killed her over drugs."

Dan's mouth hung open, "Are you telling me that you see the dead?"

"Yeah, what else would I see?"

"Wow, dude. That's just insane."

"No shit," Sage said sarcastically.

Dan didn't believe it all. Maybe Sage was worse than he thought. He decided to play along with it to see what Sage would say.

Dan took a deep breath, "So, Ren was murdered by some kind of junkie?"

"Yeah, it was brutal. Stabbed thirty times in multiple places of her body. He was ruthless."

"Oh god, that's bloody terrible."

Sage shrugged, "At least he got what he deserved."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he's dead now. Ren's old boyfriend killed him on the bridge he was planning on jumping off of. He shot the man right in the head, and laughed."

Dan felt as if he's heard that story before, but he's not sure from where. It sounded so familiar. Was it the news? No. From a friend? No...and then it hit him.

Like bricks falling onto his head he was struck with a shocking revelation.

Patient: Evan Tate Peters
Room: 10-22
Entry date: 22 March 2009
Severe depression, psychosis
Criminal records: Thievery [Records date back to twelve years of age; see Document(s) 5 for more details], Underage drinking, Drug abuse, Selling and consuming of illegal drugs, unauthorized use of opiates [Records date back to fifteen years of age; see Document(s) 6,7,8 for more details], Second degree murder*