Mad Hatter

Picture. Picture. Smile For The Picture

She stared at the old dirty photo, the words Jacky Laurens written in now smudged red sharpie under it. That stupid nickname had never seen so taunting before. It had to be him, there were no doubts. The name, the freckles and curls, even those big childlike eyes and eye bags were almost the same. But it shouldn't be, it made no sense. She could swear...

John had been put into a mental hospital years ago.

She wasn't crazy, she remembered vividly the day the teacher announced that small little Jack wouldn't be attending to school with them anymore because he was going to "get help". All the kids in the classroom snickered and made fun of him even when he wasn't there anymore to hear their taunts. It was scarred deep into Maria's mind, how much happened that he didn't deserve.

Still, it made no sense. Unless they had let John out of the hospital, but that was highly not the case. The other day when she saw him, when she asked him if he knew Angelica, he still had that lost look on his face, even when he didn't noticed it he always had it. And he lied, too.

Which was oddly suspicious.

So what was John doing here? Maybe he escaped the mental institution? No. Highly improbable. That was a high security facility.

What was the name of the place anyways?

Was it... Arrowhead Lake Mental Institution? Something like that.

Maria pulled out her laptop and started typing.

—~•~—

Sitting on a bench in front of the school fountain sat John waiting for Alexander. He still had a couple more classes and was going to be here in around two and a half hours, basically any second now. Meanwhile he looked at the beautiful surroundings to entertain himself, the colorful and gentle flowers, the delicate design of the grayish and white fountain, the small pretty butterflies, the sound of soul wrenching screams on a nonexistent distance, the kinda cloudy but still wonderful and warm sky, the imaginary person hanging from a noose tied to the delightful and green tree. All of this small details made this day exquisite.

Suddenly, he felt the presence of someone besides him, at first he thought it was just product of his abstruse mind but then the person spoke, and that wasn't how his hallucinations usually sounded or felt.

"He–Hello!" The person said, a redhead John discovered when he turned to see him.

"Hi" John hummed skeptically. He remembered this boy. Slightly, but the memory was there. It was from that time when he almost had a panic attack, right at this place. He was the one that looked for Alexander.

"You know, p–people say that you're crazy. B–B–But I don't think th–that's true" Redhead said.

"Huh?" What does he even mean?

"I think w–what you have is t–t–the devil's work!" He declared. "You my f–friend, are possessed by a malevolent ent–entity"

Oh.

"I don't think that's the case" John mumbled. What's with this guy? Even modern christians recognize the difference between demons and mental illnesses, so what's his problem?

"Oh, I k–know it isn't. Don't worry my friend, you can be free if you b–believe in Jesus!" Redhead said, making it sound like the most awesome thing for a second.

Yeah, right. Jesus was never there for him, and neither was God, or Maria, or the angels, or any of those people. He had always been alone. Always.

"Why do you think that? That I have a demon inside?" John asked instead.

"Oh! That's b–b–because there is something malicious about you, a–about your aura. But it obviously isn't you! Be–Because I know you're a g–good person, you're only misunderstood!"

Redhead was so innocent, John wanted to squish his cheeks.

"Yeah, maybe all I need is Jesus" He played along.