Fear Asylum

Everyone Knows Decisions are Hard to Make (Ch. 11)

Graham's eyes were locked on her face. Caulfield stepped back, sensing and trying to avoid the tension. The old lady slowly raised her gaze to look up at Graham.

"Graham, honey, I-" Her voice was barely audible, it was practically a whisper.

"NO! STOP!" Graham roared. His fists were clenched so tightly, I thought he'd break his hands. His teeth were gritted and in his eyes blazed a state of fury and realization. "I spent four years here. FOUR years. Guilty under the charges of your death. And you're ALIVE?!" A single tear fell down his face. The were tears of pain, anger, and mostly betrayal. His eyes widened, and his eyebrows tilted slightly upwards. "That means Jimmy is still alive." He said slowly. His mother looked down and continued to stare at her twisting fingers.

"Yes. H-He's alive." She said softly. Before Graham could say anything, an upbeat voice that could only belong to a child, came through the room.

"Mom? Can I come out now? I wanna see Gray!" And with that, the small seven-year-old boy from Graham's drawing stepped into the light.

But he wasn't seven anymore. He was eleven. "Gray!" He cried. "I missed you so much!" He ran to Graham and hugged him. Graham stared at him. That was it.

Just seeing his face was enough to completely break him down. He fell to his knees, sobbing. His red hair fell alongside his face, dangling lifelessly like his trust. His arms were crossed around his face, trying desperately to hide the fact that he was crying. He didn't want to cry in front of his brother. I mean, who would? Jimmy looked up to him. Why would anyone want to see their role model cry? Jimmy kneeled down to get next to Graham.

"What's wrong, Gray?" He asked, peering at him, confused. "It's just a game, remember?" Now it was my turn to be confused.

"This isn't a game. Unless..." Then it hit me. "You told him it was game?!" I spat at Caulfield and their mother. Jimmy looked scared.

"What do you mean?" Jimmy asked.

"This isn't a game, Jimmy. This is real life. Gray's been here for four years. He was convicted of killing your mom and you. Then he was sent here, a mental institution." Jimmy looked to his mom.

"Mom is that true?" As he got up and turned around, to face his mom, I knelt beside Gray and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. The frail woman simply nodded her head. Now it was Jimmy's turn to be mad.

"WHY?! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH HE'S SUFFERED?!"

"I sacrificed so much for him, too!" She said with a new found strength in her voice that allowed her to yell.

"Sacrifice?! You don't know the meaning of the damn word!" Jimmy spat. "Graham spent four god damn years here?! And the first time I get to see him he's in tears. Can't you see how horrible this place was for him?" Jimmy narrowed his eyes in disgust as I tried to calm Graham down. "How can you call yourself a mother? You're sick! I never thought I'd say this, but if you could do something as awful as this to your son, then you are sick!" He turned to the warden. "And you," He pointed straight at him, "you're just as sick as her. I can't even believe we're related." He finished, practically spitting the last words out.

Graham raised his head to look at the ongoing scene. He saw his mom and brother arguing and the warden smiling. He was enjoying this. He was observing it all. He looked at me and into my eyes.

"This is wrong." He whispered. "I can't let them fight." He rose and so did I, and he raised his voice. "Jimmy, this isn't your fight. Drop it." The little black-haired boy turned to his now seemingly stable brother.

"B-but she ripped us apart for years! This is my fight!" Jimmy pleaded.

"Jimmy." That was all Graham needed to say in order to silence Jimmy. Jimmy stepped back, but anger burned in his eyes. "Mom. I spent four years here. Four years of harassment, physical and verbal abuse, and mistreatment, to say the least. The worst of it all was the guilt. The guilt of your murders. They had pressed it against me so many times I had actually started to believe it. And that's when the guilt started. I had actually felt pain in my heart, slowly ripping me apart, piece by piece. I was alone always. I had even stopped talking for those years. And I was mad at myself for you. You. My mother. But now I regret it. If anything, I should have hated you and felt sorry for myself." He turned to Jimmy. "And Jimmy's right. Not only did you hurt me, you hurt Jimmy, too. And at this point, I only have one question left: why? Why did you do this to us?" At the end of his speech, we were all mind blown. His pain was not only noticeable in his cracking voice, but also on his face. His eyes looked as if they were stabbed, and were scorched by white-hot pain.

"I did all this for you, Graham! Can't you see? The government is looking for people like you! They said that they'd run some tests and help you improve your powers. All we had to do was fake the trial. It was kept top secret; all the lawyers, judges, witnesses, they were all government agents." His mother tried to justify herself, but I couldn't believe she'd even try.

"Then why didn't you just tell me? We could've talked about it! Why did you have to lie?" Graham asked.

"Because we had no guarantee that you'd say yes. And after you knew that much, we would've had to force you into it, anyway. It was just easier this way." Caulfield interjected.

"Easier?" I asked. "You think this was easy? And how the hell did you know I was the person to look for?!"

"Mrs. Stockholm helped me. She has a different form of mental telepathy. She can sense other people like herself. You see, these genes run in the family."

"Then that means..." Graham said turning to Jimmy. "Jimmy?" Jimmy looked shocked.

"I-I'm not special! I don't have any powers or anything!" He said, defensively.

"Why of course you do!" Mrs. Stockholm said. "You have one of the most important powers!" Jimmy stared at her.

"No, I don't. I would have known. Just like Gray. He knew and he told you. And that's why he's here now."

"Then don't you know why you're here?" She asked. Jimmy's face contorted in anger.

"I DON'T HAVE ANY POWERS!" He yelled and I felt the ground shake. New Jersey isn't prone to earthquakes, so I stared at Jimmy, whose wide eyes were looking at his hands. "I-I couldn't have done that."

"But you did. And that's why you're here." She said. Jimmy backed away and ran to Graham. He shook his head in disbelief. As Graham held Jimmy close to himself, their mother spoke up. "Your powers are unstable. But we can help you control them here. Please. Now that you know the truth, stay." She looked to Graham. "Graham, honey, you said you would stay if I told you truth." Graham looked into her desperate eyes with a look of cold, hard defiance.

"I know I said I'd stay," He began. "But I never said I'd let Jimmy stay. And I can't leave him alone. So Icelynn, Jimmy, and I are leaving. You can be assured that we won't say anything about this place. In fact, I don't think any of us even want to remember this hell hole. We just want normal lives. After all you've done to us, this is the least you can do." When Graham finished, his mother had her eyes screwed shut. She let out a deep sigh and nodded her head.

"I'm afraid I can't let that happen." Caulfield said. "Despite any guarantee you make, I am bound by my oath to this country that I cannot let you leave after finding this. So I'm going to give you a choice. Either you stay, or you die trying to escape." Graham gave me a small nod.

"We'd rather die trying to escape than stay in this place." I spat.

"So be it." And then Caulfield began to grow...

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