-Julie's POV-
This 'Jack' dude was a tough cookie to bite into, that was for sure. Usually my other 'patients' would relax and let me do all of the work, but the eyeless boy I was caring for now would scream at me, his voice dripping with pure rage, if I even came close when he was doing something important.
"BOG OFF!" Jack screamed, throwing a trainer at me. "I can do it myself! I didn't need help before, I don't need it now!"
"But you do!" I argued, "You're blind, you're practically only a teenager - as much as I am - and you live alone. You need help."
Jack grumbled, flopping down onto his bed. "Don't you think I know that?" He moaned, rubbing the bandage around his eyes. "Every day I do feeble attempts to keep myself sane, to let myself gain independence, but it always ends the same. I can't."
I frowned. If I had known that independence was so important to him, I would of left him alone, just staying close in case he needed me. "I guess independence is hard to reach, but you can't stop going forwards. You will try, you will fail, you will try, you will fail, but the true failure is when you stop trying."
Jack lifted his head up slightly, giving me a weak smile and pushing his dark, oaky hair out of his face. "Thanks, 'Lie. I guess it's just so aggrivating to try and be an independent, free-flying person when you feel so... strapped down. So trapped. So insecure."
Me and Jack chatted for a while before I went to start cooking. Cooking was the only thing I wasn't supposed to let Jack do - he tried once when I was out and burned his hands. While I was cooking, I couldn't help but think about him. When I'd first came home with him, he refused to talk to me, and would just grunt as a response. He'd slap me when I got close, too. Fortunately, I'd managed to slowly soften him up.
He begged for me to stay by his side. I asked why, and he just said "I can't see the monsters. Do y' believe in monsters, Julie, because monsters are real. They watch me all night, Julie. They're watching. Can you see them?" Jack pointed a weak finger over to the window. I still have no idea how he saw it. For a moment, I saw a flash of black and white, shaped like a tall man. "The monsters were there since I was little. My 'friends' called me a freak, told me I was insane." He clenched his gray fists and snarled. "They're wrong, aren't they? They're the freaks, they can't see the monsters, Julie."
I didn't know why, but I kept the fact that I saw the tall man to myself, secret. Jack never knew. Sometimes I heard him mumbling "Julie, keep your head down, they'll see your face... Julie, keep your head down, they'll see your face..."
Every time Jack muttered those words they'd get louder and louder, then one day he slammed my face into the table in the middle of our conversation. "Down, Julie, they might see you, hush, Julie, they might hear you."
It was then that I knew something wasn't right. "Jack, calm down, they won't hurt you."
"D'you promise?"
"Promise." I smiled.
"Now you have to protect me, you know that, right, Julie?"
For once, his scratchy voice sounded normal, and if you heard it and didn't see him, you'd think he was a normal boy, with friends, a girl-friend, a brother or sister and parents. As soon as you'd come close enough to see him, however, your thoughts would shatter as if a mallet was pounded repeatedly onto them.
The realization hit me as if I were those thoughts. Jack was alone. Jack was different.
Jack was BROKEN.
