A P R I L 4 T H, 2 0 0 4
L O C A L F O U R - Y E A R O L D B O Y, D A N I E L H O W E L L H A S G O N E M I S S I N G.
Phil Lester recently graduated college with a psychology degree. He had been interning at the nearest mental institution...
Phil Lester walked into Maudsley Hospital, going straight to the front desk. He smiled at the woman behind.
"Good morning, Phil. Congrats on the promotion!" she said, smiling and handing him some files that included just some of the people in the hospital.
"Good morning to you, too, Marie. And thank you," Phil replied, shooting her another smile.
"Go through those files and choose who you want to work with to start," Marie explained, going back to typing on her computer.
Phil started skimming through the files, looking for someone interesting.
James Gould - 19 - schizophrenia I can't do that yet, I'm not even entirely sure how schizophrenia works...
Alice Weinwright - 23 - says she can talk to ghosts Typical. No thanks, rather not get murdered by someone else who was murdered.
He rolled his eyes as he went through the files, letting out a small sigh. Finally, he got to the bottom of the pile, opening the folder and seeing the picture.
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Damn, he's good looking. Wait what?
He continued reading the file.
Daniel Howell - 17 - severe depression and anxiety, suicidal thoughts and actions, seemingly mute.
"Excuse me, what does it mean by 'seemingly mute'?" Phil asked, looking up from the file and gazing at Marie, cocking an eyebrow.
"Well, Daniel's parents say he used to talk all the time. But now, he never speaks, or makes any noise at all, really. They tried therapy and everything else they could think of, but he only seemed to be getting worse. So he was admitted here almost four years ago," Marie explained, looking sympathetic.
"Oh," he murmured, looking back at the file. He skimmed over the rest.
We don't know what happened to him... been here four years... hasn't made any progress...
Phil took the last statement as a challenge, a smirk plastering on his face. Even if he couldn't completely cure Dan of what was happening in his head, he would make some progress. He looked back up at Marie, who was busy clicking away at her keyboard.
"I'll take Daniel's case," he said, placing the other files on the desk.
Marie looked up at him in surprise. "Phil, are you sure? He's been here for four years and even our most experienced doctors haven't been able to help him. He's not stable... He could hurt himself, or even you for that matter," she murmured, looking worried.
Phil smiled to reassure her. "I'll be fine, I promise. And I'll work harder than ever to help him."
Marie sighed. She stood up and walked around her desk to stand next to Phil, still having to look up to him due to his height. "Alright, fine. I'll take you to his room. But, like I said, he may not be stable right now." She started walking to the long-term ward. Phil followed. "We have a camera in his room to make sure he doesn't do anything dangerous." She stopped at a stark white door, just like all the others in this ward. "Here it is. Good luck, Phil." She waited for him to open the door, not wanting to leave until she was sure he would be okay.
Phil took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.
The room was so white, it was almost blinding. The whole room was padded, and it was empty, except for a shaking boy in the corner.
He was extremely pale, or at least, his arms were extremely pale... and scarred. Burns, cuts, slices that were sloppily stithed together laced hid arms. Phil bit his bottom lip as he saw this. The sound of a muffled and quiet sob suddenly filled the room and he suddenly remembered he was supposed to be doing his job.
Marie watched as he ran up to the boy and slowly crouched in front of him so not to scare him. "Hey, hey, calm down, it's okay," he said gently, trying not to be too loud or too quiet. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to help, alright?"
No sound came out of the boy's mouth, but he shook his head. He sniffled.
"No? What do you mean?" Phil asked gently. He just shook his head again, wrapping his arms protectively around his knees, which were held to his chest. His head was between his legs, so he seemingly looked like a ball. "Do you want me to have Marie leave so it's just you and me?" he suggested, still using a gentle voice.
A nod and another sniffle. Phil smiled and turned his head over his shoulder, nodding at Marie in the doorway. She looked unsure, but decided to trust Phil. She walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind her.
"Okay, it's just you and me. Oh, right, I should probably introduce myself." Phil laughed a little at himself for forgetting to explain who he was. "My name is Philip Lester, but you can call me Phil." He gave a gentle smile.
The boy nodded and slowly lifted his head. His chocolatey brown eyes were wide and scared, he had tears running down his cheeks, which were just as pale as his arms. His face had no scars, however, except for another poorly stiched slice that peeked out from under the collar of his white shirt. He stared at Phil, who had a wide smile on his face. This was progress.
Phil decided to sit with his legs crossed, and he repositioned himself, the boy watching the whole time. He looked back up at the boy and saw that he seemed calmer. "So, you're name is Daniel, correct?" he asked.
The boy nodded, still staring at Phil. He was shaking much less than he was when Phil had first entered.
"Alright then, Daniel. What do you want to do?" He asked. Daniel looked surprised.
Why is he surprised by this? Have none of the other psychiatrists asked him this? Okay.. we can... uh... watch anime! Yeah, maybe that'll be fun? Phil was freaking out a little inside, but decided he would try and make Daniel feel safe.
"Have you ever heard of anime?" Daniel shook his head, but he looked interested. "Well, it's a type of cartoon from Japan. There's a wide variety of anime. Do you, uh, wanna watch some?" Phil asked, giving him a smile.
Daniel's eyes lit up ever so slightly as he nodded. It was extremely hard to notice, but Phil saw it and felt a surge of pride as he realized he was making progress.
"Alright. I'll show you a really cool one called Soul Eater," Phil said, smiling wider. Daniel nodded again.
Phil pulled his phone out of his back pocket and adjusted his position so he was next to Daniel, who flinched at his movement.
Frick! I didn't mean to scare him...
"No, no, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. The anime's going to show on my phone, I wanted to make sure you could see it," Phil said gently, scooting away a little.
Daniel nodded and stared at the screen as the anime started. His eyes lit up more than they did the first time, but he still wasn't smiling.
