Inside the Asylum (Book 1)

Chapter 4 - Mother?!

Suddenly the lock clicks and the door is thrown open. I look up in shock. There stands Daniel and next to him is......"Mum?!" I question surprised.

"What are you doing here?" She didn't say anything. I look from her to Daniel.

"I said what are you doing here?" I was frustrated now. My mum is a small woman, skinny. She had lost weight since I saw here last, she has ash blonde hair which comes down past her shoulders. She hasn't really changed much since she kicked me out.

Slowly Daniel walked towards me running his hand through his honey coloured hair.

"I brought her so she could see that you aren't crazy, she loved you before an accident that was only meant as a joke. I brought her here to show her how awful this place that you've been trapped in for 14 years is!" Daniel looks at mum hopefully while she stares at me, her facial expression unreadable. Still she says nothing.

"Daniel take her home. She doesn't care about me anymore. She's never visited me and after today she won't ever visit me again. She doesn't want to be here so just take her home." I couldn't help but feel let down after all she was my mother. I look at Daniel and he looks like he could cry.

"Go home." I say looking at the floor. It's then that my mother found her voice which sounds transparent and ghost like.

"Honey, you look so grown up, so pale! You look weak, almost sick....are you okay?" My head snaps up and anger boils within me like the bubbling lava in an active volcano.

"Am I okay? After 14 years all you can say to me is are you okay? All this time you knew where I was. All this time you could have visited me but you didn't! Not once! You acted as if I wasn't part of the family. You acted as if I was a discarded memory. You wanted to forget me, you tried to make Daniel forget me! 14 years of hell! That's what I've lived through while you pretended that I didn't exist anymore! The reason I look ill and pale is because they have beat me and hurt me. Hell they even tried to kill me! Not that you care about me. You had to be dragged here by your own son!" I gasp for breath as I finish, gulping it, trying to calm myself down. They both just stare at me as if I had horns sticking out of my head. Daniel then looked at mum begging her with his eyes to say something. For a moment she stared at me bewildered, then she opened her mouth as if she had something to say but slowly closed it again and looked anywhere but at me.

"See." I said looking at Daniel, he looks back at me as if he can feel my pain.

"Just go mum. You clearly don't care about me at all." I couldn't look at either of them.

"I do care! I couldn't deal with the fact that you hurt your brother. I was angry. Dad was angry. We thought it was safer for all of us, for you to leave. I couldn't come to see you as I felt like I had failed you as you're mother. I didn't know here you were until just before your father passed away." That news shot me like a bullet.

"What? When did dad pass away?! Why didn't anyone tell me?!" I let the tears fall. I was broken. Growing up my dad was my best friend, we did everything together. Suddenly he was now gone.

"At least I got to see him once after I got here. But now he's gone?!" Neither of them say anything and then it hits me.

"How long ago did dad die?" Daniel looks down, refusing to look at me. I look at my mother and realise she won't look at me either.

"Well?! When did he pass away?!" I shout getting angry. Daniel looks at me through a cloud of tears. He breathes deeply.

"10 years ago." My jaw hits the floor.

"What?!" I stare into the space in front of me.

"My father died a decade ago and neither of you told me?! Why would you not tell me that?? You know how important he was to me, why didn't you think to tell me?!" The pain I felt was worse than anything I had experienced in the last 14 years. The pain quickly became too much, twisting into anger. I was beyond angry at the two people standing in front of me. I was so angry I punched the wall, not that it did anything since the walls are padded. The next thing the door flew open and three nurses came running in, grabbing me and pinning me to the floor. I lay there on the floor seething, if one of the nurses had let me go I probably would have tried to kill them. That's what the voices said to do. That's what they want me to do.

As I am lying there on the floor, I hear my mother whispering to Daniel.

"If you're not going to talk loud enough for everyone to hear you then stop talking." I spat. She clears her throat then starts again.

"See...I told you this was the right place for her! I told when you were younger and I'm telling you again now." She swallows.

"This place is where psychopaths like her belong, where they should be kept! She is not sane! She deserves to die for what she did to you! I mean it's because of her all of those other children bullied you! It's because of her I almost lost you!" I couldn't help but laugh. Everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.

"What's funny?" Daniel looks at me confused and concerned.

"She just proved the point dad always made. She cares about you more than she ever cared about me! Dad used to say it all the time." I say watching Daniel's reaction.

Flashback

"Honey, you're doing it again." Dad says.

"Doing what again?" Mother sounds confused as she sits playing with a 6 year old Daniel.

"Showing favourites and making it beyond obvious who is more important to you." His calm voice is as soft as he could make it but firm, a slight sound of anger barely detectable but it was there and his eyes showed the anger he tried so hard to hide. Angry that she made me feel so worthless! Angry that she showed favourites.

"I am not!" Mother exclaims outraged. "How dare you!" My 8 year old self sat crying in the corner wishing that for once she would come and spend time with me instead of Daniel.

Present Day

"I am not!" She says as I say exactly that.

"Stop mimicking me!" She's angry and I sit laughing.

"I knew you'd say that! Just like all those times when I was at home with you and dad, when he would point it out!" She looks at Daniel, who looks at the floor.

"She's right mother." He says so quietly that mother almost didn't hear him. She looks at him with hatred in her eyes.

"How dare you! I did my best to make sure you wouldn't go insane just like your sister did but yet again I have failed! How is it possible that I have failed with both of you? Well at least I have Robin. She will do as I say."