How Are You? (Delena Fanfiction)

Chapter 2: I promise

I woke up with a lot of confusion the next morning. I finally had my dream job, after working for it for more than a decade. I was really happy about it, but my thoughts were somehow only aimed at Demi. The desire to know more ate me alive that night. I wanted to know how she got here, how she came to be this way. Did she have family who visited her?

"Mister Sanders!" I called after him while running towards him. He turned around.

"I-I want to ask you something."

"Shoot." He said with a smile.

"Could you maybe inform me about Demi?" I asked.

"Who?" He took a sip from his coffee while he looked at two patients walking by.

"Lovato." I added.

"Ah! The confused girl from the primary department. Sit down with me." We sat down at one of the tables of the cafeteria.

"I remember the day she was brought here. She was only a 9-year-old kid. She was brought by a few doctors from the hospital, they told me she had been in a fire at her own house. The fire killed her parents. Nobody knew how the fire started, it didn't start in the kitchen. They thought Demi had set the house on fire because she behaved inhumanly at the hospital. They thought she was crazy. But after some research, the house appeared not to be lit up on purpose. Demi didn't do anything, but something must have led her to be the way she is now. They couldn't diagnose her with a specific mental illness, she once was a normal girl. She was highly self-destructive since the first day she was here. She has been depressed until the present. Many psychiatrists believe she needs somebody to love. But when her family visited her or when we sent a caregiver that gave her the love she needed, she'd always scream at them. We gave up on her after four years of trying to heal again." He took another sip of his coffee and left me speechless.

"You gave up too soon." I said.

"Listen, my friend, there was nothing we could do anymore. We tried everything. We even tried to school her after we found out she wasn't schooled at all. She can't read or write." He said.

"I'm going to give it a try anyway. To make her behave like a decent person. I'm sure she can be one." I stated.

"I wouldn't count on it."

The hours flew away before it was my turn to tuck the distracted girl in bed again. I opened the door and saw how Demi faced the opposite wall, sitting in the same chair. I closed the door behind me and stared at her while thinking. I didn't want this girl to dislike me. If I wanted to help her, she needed to like me. I shove the plate of food on the table and sat down.

"Hi." I said. I felt a great déjà u at that moment. She inhaled deeply. I noticed she had bent over, with her forehead glued to the wall.

"What are you doing?" I asked. She still didn't say a word. I got up and sat on her bed to see her looking at the cracks in the wall. She softly caressed them with the nails of her left hands. She breathed through her mouth, which was slightly open. Her eyes aimed up and down in short shocks.

"Are you going to do everything by yourself again today?" I asked. She turned her head to me, still with her forehead pasted on the white wall. I now saw how red and puffy her eyes were. Red from crying and exhaustion. The scratches around her eyes were renewed. She looked at me with her eyelids descended. Something was off with her. I scanned her body to see if something was wrong. And yes, only now I noticed the big robe, tied around her right hand to the arm of the chair. She had been tied up.