"Well, I'm sorry, Alice. I have to leave now. Brad just called. I'll see you next week!" Tara said, as she picked her bag up and left. Brad's her new boyfriend, apparently. I wasn't jealous, though. Love is a thing I want to be left out of.
"You have another visitor, Alice." A worker said as I spun around on the chair, giggling happily. I might be a bit insane....................nothing special. Then a person entered. A person I didn't think I'd see again. The first thing I saw was ginger hair as the person entered.
I gasped. "Patrick?" I asked, in complete disbelief.
He grinned. "Thought I'd see you in an asylum some day, Alice." I didn't react to his remark.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, looking at the ground.
"Visiting an old friend, that's what. The last time I saw you was nearly a year ago!"
"Yeah......but that's not what I mean! What I meant was........what....what're you doing outside LA? Did your brother send you an invitation or something?" I scoffed at him.
"No. Mum and Dad decided to move here at some point last month. I don't know why, but they said something about 'better climate', 'nice people', you know." Nice people? Hardly.
"So, is there something in particular that you came to talk about?"
He nodded. "What happened to you, Alice? Why did you kill those people? What happened to your mother?" I sighed.
"A lot happened. All starting with your brother. He killed my mother, when we went to a dance on Christmas Eve. I got adopted after that. The woman was really sweet. Way too sweet, like the people here. She kept telling me about how 'she knows how I feel'. She pushed me over the line when she said she and her husband might be an even better family for me. I kept seeing the knife on the table....and.........I thought she might finally shut up. She did, and so did her husband." I suddenly laughed. I had no idea what had taken over me. It just seems so funny now.
"So that's the whole story. And now, after a year, they didn't let you out?"
I shook my head. "Isolation isn't good for anyone. I'll admit it, I'm not completely isolated from others, but I'm not even allowed outside. Isolation drives people mad. The asylum drives people mad. David was ri---" I stopped myself, not believing that I nearly admitted that he was right.
"Don't think so, Alice. He can't convince you that his way of thinking is right. You're still a sane person, Alice! You just have to stay that way."
You're not a sane person, Alice. He's lying to you. He's just trying to make you feel better. You're an incompetent, delusional person. Just like you always were.
I just stayed quiet. So did Patrick. Just silence. Silence. Sometimes, silence had been my only companion. When I was mourning my dad's death, it was silent. When I saw my mom's present, it was silent. During most of my sleepless nights here, it's silent. Then I broke it.
"I'm not sane anymore, Patrick. You should see some of the things I've seen. You'd lose your sanity, too." He picked his bag up and walked out, making me regret whatever I said. I don't quite know what was bad about what I said.
"You should have just tried to act nice. Why didn't you act nice?" Someone asked behind me. I knew the voice. Charlene.
"Go away, Charlene. Please." "No, Alice. I have your dinner here. Eat up, then shut up and go to bed." Charlene. The newest and bitchiest worker here. I looked at the food: Rice. White rice. Are you fucking kidding me?
I just ate it and went to my bed, prepared for another sleepless night, when Charlene pulled me out of bed. "Sorry, Alice, but you've got another visitor."