incarceration //phan

two

Phil
To say he didn't feel any anticipation whilst walking over to Connor would be a blatant lie.

Maybe he was insane and it was best for the both of them that Phil stayed away. No, he told himself that he had to at least try if nothing else.

"Who are you?" Connor asked before Phil had a chance to say anything.

Phil was little taken aback.

"Why are talking to me? Did he send you to torment me or something because I swear I can't take any more of -" he spoke in a panicked tone.

"I'm not here to torment you, don't worry." Phil tried his best to calm him.

Phil assumed the 'he' Connor was speaking of was a reference to Alfie.

"And 'he' sent me here for the same reason you were sent here."

"Alfie, tell the guy you're controlling to fuck off!" Connor shrieked, his mood changing like the flick of a light switch, causing a few people's heads to turn.

"He's telling the truth you dimwit."

Why could he hear Alfie, surely only Connor should've heard.

Connor turned to face him. "Like I'd believe Alfie. Prove you came from the real world."

"I know your friend Dan."

Connor took a moment to think, letting down his guard and allowing his mood to revert back to the state he was in before. "Is he doing alright?"

"He really misses you. After you left he kinda had this weird rebellious phase and reputation he didn't want to let go of but he's a little calmer now."

"Oh." was all Connor managed to say.

"Why are you on the floor?" Phil asked him in an attempt to change the conversation.

"Because he could break the chair I'm sat on. If he breaks the chair I could fall. If I fall I could land on my head, if I land on my head I could suffer from severe injuries that could result in my death. And that wouldn't be very good, now would it?"

Chris wasn't kidding when said he was paranoid he thought.

"I suppose not." Phil responded, going along with what Connor was telling him.

Phil stopped himself from asking what Connor thought would happen if Alfie made a crack in the floor - it was probably safer for both Connor's sanity and his own.

"What's your ability?" he asked in an attempt to change the topic of conversation.

"Enhanced hearing." Connor replied in a flat tone of voice.

"Sounds cool." Phil commented, not realising the joke he'd made until after he'd said it.

"Yeah, it's great." Connor said, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

Connors voice turned into a whisper that was only decibels away from being inaudible. "I can hear everything people say about me. They all think I've lost my mind, I'm absolutely fine but hearing everyone else say otherwise isn't something I appreciate.
Perhaps they're correct: I've been here for two years with no one to talk to aside Alfie on the odd occasion; there's nothing to do aside just sitting around and waiting to go back to where I should be - it's enough to make someone go mad."

"Have you tried to make friends with anyone here?"

"They're all programmed to hate me."

"Programmed?" he questioned.

"Uh-huh. You and I are the only real people here. Chris isn't real, Dan isn't real, Josh isn't real -"

"Who's Josh?" Phil asked, not recalling there being a Josh at the academy.

"Exactly." Connor responded as if he'd proved his own point, which only left Phil more confused.

Phil had made up his mind to just not ask questions about some of the things Connor came out with.

"As I was saying, no one here actually exists aside us; they were created by Alfie in whatever you want to call this godforsaken place. He likes to play God, he controls them to act a certain way around me - us now - and I'm pretty sure that there's nothing we can do, I've tried everything."

"So you're saying it's like a story? Alfie's the author, and everyone here are the his own characters that he writes the plot for. But because we didn't originate from the story he can't control us but he can control every other aspect of our world?"

"It's a good analogy of it." Connor nodded.

"And that's why you don't like to sit on chairs?"

"Partly. I want to be as uninvolved with this place as I can be; by sitting on the floor I feel like I'm rebelling against him. But also he could break the chair that I'm sat on and if the chair breaks - I'm pretty sure we've been through this already."

Phil was slowly beginning to realise that there were in fact methods in Connor's madness; some things made zero sense but there were other ideas that were far wiser that people had to find hidden meanings in to see what they really meant.

"You come up with these types of theories often?"

"Yeah, you tend to overthink things when you've been alone for this long. Letting your mind wander does you good here."

"Have you ever been told you're incredibly creative?"

"Hmm, some people say I'm so creative in fact I hear voices and talk to someone who isn't there." he joked, then Phil realising Connor had described something Chris had said to him when they'd had a discussion before.

"We all have high and low moments. I just like the way your mind works - it's fascinating."

Connor smiled for the first time since they'd began to talk.

"But, what do I know? Academy basket case doesn't know what he's saying half the time, he's a total weirdo, no-hoper and utter lunatic, right?"

***

I don't like this chapter but it's Phil's birthday so I'm publishing it anyhow.

Thanks for reading y'all :)