"Prisoner" - Bastille/Dan Smith Fanfiction

An unexpected visit

Saturday, Oct 24th, 2009

Today's the day on which family members are allowed to visit their relatives for a few hours. For me, it's completely insignificant cause since my hospitalisation none of my family has ever visited me or showed that they knew that I'm still existing. My little sister Gemma is dead and my parents turned away from me when I was diagnosed with the multiple personality disorder ("Who needs a son who is mentally sick?" as my father said when my mom came home with me from a psychiatrist). The only one who said nothing about it was my older sister Brooklyn, but I haven't seen her for 4 years neither. Suddenly, there was a persistent knock at the door and someone turned the key in the keyhole. It opened. "Mr Daniel Campbell Smith?" one of the guardsmen said. "Yes, that's me" I answered stutteringly. "It seems like you've got a visitor today", the man replied and gave me a sign to come out of the room and follow him. I hesitated. He must've been confusing me with one of the other patients. I took a deep breath and then I said with the clearest voice I could get out of my mouth: "Who would want to visit me? I don't have any family members who would be interested in seeing me being mended. You must be confusing me with somebody else." While I said those few words I avoided any look at the guardsman. "Nope I'm not", he answered pestering. "This note says: visitor for Mr Daniel Campbell Smith on Saturday, 24th October at 11am. The visitor's name is Brooklyn Smith". My heart skipped a beat. Brooklyn?! It was hard to believe. My sister Brooklyn wanted to see me. Truly? I didn't know if I should be happy or just more depressed. Anyway, I grabbed my jacket and followed the guardsman.

After we had walked a few corridors we finally reached the visitor's room. It was quite far away from my room. "She'll be here in a few minutes" the guardsman said. "Please take a seat and wait for her." I did like he commanded me and after I was standing in the middle of the room the door was closed behind me. I looked around. This was definitely the first room I saw in this mental hospital which didn't look like any other room. Instead of a white colour, the walls were painted yellow and the ceiling was painted blue, which gave the whole room a quite cosy flair. The furniture (A desk and two seats) also looked really nice and comfortable. I wasn't able to examine my new surrounding further, because the key in the keyhole turned round once again and the door opened. I turned round and stared directly into my sister's face. She looked completely different from when I saw her last. Her hair was dyed red (the natural colour was a dark blonde) and cut short. Her face was as pretty as it had always been and her blue eyes were still similar to mine. But her style! She used to wear dresses, mostly colourful and now she was wearing a black jeans with a red shirt with some words written on it. On her wrists I could examine several bracelets which were made of leather. All in all, my sister had turned from a cute, well-behaved girl to a punk. What on earth made her change so incredibly? Finally she broke the silence and cracked a little smile:

"Hello Dan" she said quietly. At least she remembered that I prefer to be called Dan instead of Daniel. I couldn't say anything. It was just too hard for me to get used to her presence after four years of separation. "Are you surprised to see me?" she asked after I didn't reply to her salutation. What an unpleasant start for a conversation between siblings who haven't seen each other for years. I still didn't say anything. "For god's sake, Dan, please say something. Anything!" – I was baffled. In my head there was emptiness, surprise and thousands of questions at once. "I know it must be hard for you to see me like this after four years" Brooklyn said, obviously trying to keep the conversation going. "But I couldn't take being with our family anymore. They're horrible. Mom and dad both barely talk of you, as if they don't even remember you anymore. I swear I've always tried to get to you and talk to you but mom and dad always prevented me from finding out the mental hospital you're in. I'm not lying". Carefully I listened to her words, even though my look was focussed on the ground. I knew that my sister knew that I was listening. "You know Dan; it's so hard to talk to you when you don't even answer to what I'm saying. You're just not the brother I used to have. Anyway, I love you in contrast to the rest of our family." I couldn't believe her words. Did she mean it for real? As always, doubts came into my mind. On the other hand, deep in my heart I knew that my sister would never lie to me or anything. She had always been good to me all her life. I compelled my stupid little mouth to bring out some words for an answer: "I love you too", I whispered, walked a few steps towards her and tried to hug her. I hesitated, but I touched her with my fingertips. Brooklyn seemed to be quite surprised. "Holy... Daniel!" she said with a slightly smile and tried to look me in the eyes. "I think you've just made a big step forward. That's awesome!". Although deep inside I was happy to hear her talking like this, I still refused to make an eye contact. "Is there a reason why you're here today?" I asked, suddenly barely thinking about my problem of talking to other people. "Well", Brooklyn replied, "I just wanted to let you know that I have never forgotten you and that I'm always here for you. So whenever you need me, write a letter to me. And I hope I can help you to get out of here as soon as possible." Forget about it, I thought mournfully. I'll never get out of here.