piano man; d.h [discontinued]

dormitories

"Hey, are you okay?" Ruthie asked worriedly as Phil sat behind her in the corner of the lounge.

"Yeah," I panted. "I'm fine." I tried to calm myself down before she could see the obvious fear on my face. I glanced over at Phil, who just gave me a worried look before he turned back toward the TV. I looked over to the clock, noticing it was nearly ten at night, and retreated back to the nurses' lounge to get my things.

"Are you sure you're okay, Lia?" Ruthie asked from behind me. I turned around to face her, trying not to draw attention to myself.

"Can we talk about this later? Like, in the dorm?" She gave me a sympathetic look.

"Of course," she almost whispered. Then we both grabbed our stuff and headed out through the nurses' exit, walking towards the dormitories.

When we arrived, I opened the door to my room and put my things down, then continued down the hallway to where Ruthie's room was. The dormitory was nice enough, though it wasn't spectacular. It was much like a college dorm or something of that caliber. As I entered Ruthie's room, I saw all the posters and the potted plants that lined her windowsill. Her desk was covered in drawings and her bulletin board was full of notes and long pages of written paragraphs.

"You sure have decorated," I said.

"I've been here a long time, so I've had time to," she replied. "So, about tonight." I knew where she was going and I really didn't want to discuss it. I had a patient practically assault me and I had to go back and see him tomorrow whether I liked it or not. "What's going on with you? Is it your patient?" Her face flashed pale as soon as she said this, almost as if a demon had entered her body. "It is your patient, isn't it?" she asked, a look of dread crawling across her face.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay? Lia, you can tell me if anything happened, or if you got hurt or something?" She looked really worried.

"I'm fine, Ruthie. I'm not hurt." I reassured her.

"Good..."

"Ruthie?" I questioned. "Why are you so worried? What's so wrong with Da-"

"Don't... say his name." Ruthie looked dead serious. I didn't know what was wrong but I didn't dare question her about why she was so worried.

"Ruthie... My brother said he knew him. I don't know what that means or what's going on. You've got to tell me." I heard her sigh deeply before looking out her window.

"It wasn't too long ago, he was 17 maybe, and he allegedly stabbed both of his parents and threatened his brother. No one found out until the neighbours noticed something wrong and called the cops. Dan was arrested for the murder of his entire family, but broke out of jail after only a month." She paused, taking a deep breath in before continuing. "They locked him up again, thinking he'd have learnt his lesson, but he broke out again after two months. So instead of locking him up again... they brought him here." She stopped.

"So he's insane?" I asked.

"Everyone thought he was. They actually let him hang out up here for a while but..." she paused again, contemplating whether to continue or not. She sighed. "One day, he lashed out on a patient and... I couldn't let it happen again, so Madame sent him downstairs and he hasn't been seen upstairs since." I began thinking about what Phil had said the day before, about his best friend. Could it have been that the person Phil missed the most, was also one of the craziest people here?

"So, you think he's not well yet? Do you still think he's crazy?"

"Yes," she spoke with no hesitation. "I'm worried he'll hurt you."

"I'll be fine. I've dealt with plenty of weirdos in my time. It'll be okay." I tried to reassure her that I would be fine, but at the same time, I worried I might be wrong. She leaned over to hug me and I hugged back, taking in the friendly embrace. I smiled and told her I'd see her in the morning, before retreating back to my own dorm.

I took out my phone and rang my brother. I needed to talk to him more than anyone. The phone rang three times before I heard him pick up. "Hello?" he said, his voice tired and groggy.

"Damon! I need to talk to you about Dan. This is really important and I need help right now," I said, my words almost too fast to process.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. What's wrong and why do we need to talk about something that's no longer relevant?"

"DAMON! This is the most relevant thing right now. I need to know what you know about Daniel Howell. I'm his nurse now! I need help! Why do you know him? How do you know him?"

I heard him call to my mum with his hand pressed against his phone so I wouldn't hear him. "Lia, Dan was an old friend of mine." I wanted to pry, but I let him just speak. "He was really nice actually, but in year 12 things got kind of weird and he stopped coming to school regularly. He just seemed kinda... off. Next thing you know, he's in jail for homicide."

"So you two were school friends?"

"Yeah. We knew each other in secondary school. We had Maths together but I never saw him as a mad man." His voice started to sound as though he was ashamed of knowing him. Damon was a few years older than me, and would've known Dan when I was only 10 years old. "Lia, I've got to go. I have work in the morning and Mum needs help. I'll call tomorrow. Just stay safe and don't hurt him." He hung up.

I was so confused. On one hand, I had my brother who seemed almost sympathetic towards Dan, and my only friend here, who knew him as a killer. I didn't know what to do.

Until the next morning.

- unedited
HI SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO COME OUT OMG I HAD FINALS AND EXAMS AND WASNT WRITING BUT IM BACK NOW SORRYYY