Chapter 2

The house was empty, except for the sixteen year old sitting in her room with her notebook on her lap. Her parents went out to visit friends of theirs and her brother... Hannah never really knew where Sid was when wasn't home or at school.

She stared blankly at her screen, the messenger windows blinking as her friends typed, but all she could think about were the words her brother had said.

I have psychopathy.

Sid lied all the time. It couldn't be the truth, she assumed. A little investigation would help her find out. After placing the computer on her desk she hurried to her father's home office and searched for a folder that contained Sid's medical records in the archive.

It was easy to find what she was looking for, since there weren't many papers in that folder.

It read Secondary Distempered Psychopathy. Non-psychotic.

Further, the medication he should take was listed in a terrible calligraphy, she could not understand the names, but the doctor had specified what type of remedies were those: neuroleptics, antidepressants and psychostimulants.

For a moment she couldn't move. Hannah had never felt so shocked in her whole life. Did that mean he was mad?

She shoved the papers back in the archive and ran back to her room, shutting the door behind her. The brunette stumbled to her bed and threw herself on the mattress, hugging her pillow and trying to push away all the conflicting thoughts she was having.

On the next day at school she didn't see her brother anywhere and assumed he was ditching class as usual.

"Hey, Hannah!" A tall blond boy stopped by her locker, flashing a bright smile at her.

"Hi Todd!" She returned the smile, shyly and brushed loose strands of hair out her face and behind her ear.

Todd Wilson was the cutest boy in school. At least in Hannah's opinion, she had a crush on him since they first met. Now they had math class together.

"Do you have those notes from last class? I think I lost the sheet I wrote mine down..." He scratched the back of his head looking a little goofy and she felt like giggling, but held the urge back. The last thing she wanted was to look silly in front of him.

"Sure!" She said as she reached inside her locker and grabbed a small notepad. "Here, you can return it to me later." She handed it to him.

"Thank you!" He took the notepad making sure his fingers touched hers and then winked playfully before leaving.

Her cheeks were burning when she walked down the hallway, her heart beating erratically. When she stepped out of the building, looking around and trying to find her friends, three girls stood in her way. Two blondes and a brunette were glaring at her.

"Bring her." The brunette, said and the two blondes obediently grabbed Hannah's arms and dragged her to back of the school.

"Let me go! What are you doing?" She argued, trying to break free from the two girls' grip.

"Listen, Phillips." The brunette said harshly, and Hannah wondered how that girl knew who she was, because she had no idea of what was happening and why. "Stay away from Todd, he's mine."

And it was very clear now. She wasn't the one who thought Todd Wilson was the cutest boy in school, and this girl assumed she had some kind of right to claim him as her own.

"Is he aware of that?" Hannah asked with sarcasm. She knew Todd wasn't dating this or any other girl.

"You little..." The girl rose her hand and Hannah instinctively flinched and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting to get slapped, but nothing happened. The blondes who were holding her arms had let her go and she opened her eyes slowly.

A boy dressed in black was standing in between she and her attacker. He was holding the latter's wrist in the air, the blondes ran away cowardly.

"Stay away from her." His voice was low and menacing and Hannah couldn't believe it was Sid who was defending her.

"Or what? I'm not afraid of you!" She said with disdain.

He twisted her wrist in response and she screamed, he smirked darkly.

"You should be." He said when he let go of her arm and turned around to face his little sister as the arrogant brunette ran away.

"Let's go home." He was still smirking when he said that and she stared at him in disbelief not moving.

"Fine, stay here, then." He shrugged and pulled his skateboard from his open backpack, dropping it in front of him and stepping on it.

"Wait! I'm coming with you!" She blurted out, stepping closer to him, secretly afraid the trio came back and found her alone again.

"Step up."

"What? No way. I'll walk." She said walking past him, but he held her by the arm and brought her back.

"Step. up." He repeated, not quite harshly, but he punctuated each word and that meant do what I say. Hannah had learned that the hard way, so she obeyed, not wanting to make him snap and gain a new bruise. She tried to keep her balance as she stepped on the board, in front of her brother and was surprised to find he was steadying her with a firm, yet gentle grip as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

Okay, this is very weird. She thought, unsure of what to do and resisting the urge to hold onto his arm, because she needed to hold herself or she would probably fall.

He boosted the skate forward, and left the foot he used to do that in the air as they rolled. For a moment she thought they would fall and land on the asphalt, breaking their noses, but then she realized Sid had a skateboard since she could remember. And if they hadn't fell yet, they probably wouldn't. With that in mind, she relaxed against him.

The long hallway had many doors and seemed endless in both directions. She could hear voices whispering that seemed to get closer and closer to her so she ran, even though she knew the hallway would never end.

A figure faded into view, and she stopped running when she got closer. It was a person wearing a straitjacket and a half face restraint mask. Bright green eyes stared at her intensely.

And she froze.

The straitjacket was untied and the person took a step closer to her, Hannah tried to scream but no sound came out.

Hands covered by the long sleeves reached up and took the mask off, revealing her brother's face. He dropped the mask and closed the distance between them. He grabbed her arms with enough strength to hurt and covered her mouth with his, roughly. She squirmed against him and tried to free herself but she wasn't able. She couldn't breath, but she kept struggling, until she passed out.

Hannah woke up trembling and panting and hugged herself trying to calm down.