After this chapter, it will be the end ! Will be short, though, I've been running out of ideas. I don't like the way this story is going, it's disappointing. Hope you like it anyways 3
After the events that occured, everyone was left speechless. Everyone felt guilty. Especially Laurie. She remembered all the moments she could have actually tried to help Michael and she only saw the monster in him.
The same monster that had tried to take his own life. It hurt to think she had let him suffer like this. She knew it wasn't her fault, but deep down she was sure it actually was. She always considered she was the good one and Michael was evil. Not anymore. The roles had been reversed. She understood her brother was a broken man, who couldn't control himself and actually had sorrows.
She should have understood already the first night she saw him. She had taken off his mask and had seen his face for a few seconds. He looked as terrified as her. He wasn't evil. Deranged, obviously, but not evil.
Laurie didn't know what she could do to help him. She didn't want to leave him alone in the hospital, he would do "it" again. She couldn't take him with her ; if anyone saw him they would call the police. She couldn't even tell the story to a tribunal and ask to keep him in her house, they would sentence him to the electric chair.
She chased the pictures that came in her head immediatly. Her brother tied to the chair, people wrapping bandages around his eyes to prevent them from hanging out of their sockets, the helmet on his head, and his body convulsing to the awful noise of electricity, the smell of burned flesh, the doctor checking on him and shaking his head, sign that he was still living, and this noise again, the boiling saliva coming out of his mouth, then the hot blood finally running down his face, and the silence. The sound of death. She didn't see all these images, she didn't. She tried to convince herself she didn't.
Her brother had done horrible things, he had killed her older sister she never met, her best friends, so many people... She felt responsible for their deaths. It was her that he wanted, not them.
She hated him when she thought about it all, but then she saw him drawing with her daughter, drawing the faces of his victims, and his miserable self.
He gave his heart to a nine years old girl. After all this time she was trying to see things from his point of view. If he really couldn't control himself, and had to watch people he didn't mean to kill die in front of him, Laurie's heart ached for him.
He knew he was a monster, and she wanted desperatly to prove him wrong. If only she could bring him to her house, feed him, nurse him back to health... She grew attached to him, somehow, she wondered if it was the Stockholm syndrom, when the victim feels affection toward the molester. But he was her brother after all ! He was family ! The only family she had, not that Jamie was not from her family, but it was different. She always thought she'd forever be the little orphan looking for her origins, and Michael was part of them. No matter what he had done, she wanted to give him another chance. He deserved it after all the efforts he did, didn't he ? Maybe that was just what he needed. A new start.
That's why, when Loomis told her what Michael wanted, she was devastated.
"He wants to be judged. He knows he will be sentenced to death. He is well aware of it all. He just wants the nightmare to end.
- I refuse !"
Laurie was terrified. What would happen to her daughter if Michael died ? He was only getting better, he couldn't give up now !
"He knows what he wants, you can't refuse it to him. If he loses control it will start all over again. He made his choice." That was not a choice, Laurie thought. Michael didn't... Well, somehow he did deserve to die but Laurie didn't want to let him die like this. There was humanity left in him, she had seen it ! And Laurie didn't think any human deserved to die.
She came to visit Michael at least once a week, spending time with him. She cared about her brother and wanted him to know it. She sometimes offered him drawings that Jamie had done for him and he gave her the one ones he made for his niece. She also gave him presents that she bought herself ; mostly books. Biographies of famous people. She wanted to show him he could have a brilliant life like them. That maybe he would speak again. He would finally get rid of the darkness inside him. She hoped this with all her heart. Michael was smart, no matter what anyone could say. He just didn't know anything about relationships and contacts, but in no way did that make him dumb. He had so many possibilities and he wanted to give up now...? No, she wouldn't let him ! She didn't give up, why would he ? Yes, she had lost her faith in him but she had gained it back. She knew he could get better if he had a motive. For so long he didn't have any... But she would do her best. She swore to him, everything would get better. If only he could wait...
One day, as she was coming to see him, something surprised her. He wasn't there. He was gone. Why ? Did someone take him in front of a judge as he asked ? It couldn't be... She would have been informed... He was her brother...
She tried to calm down as she realized she was panicking. Maybe he was somewhere in the hospital. Maybe he was sick and was resting in the nurse station. Maybe he had a therapy. She walked around trying to find him, but he was nowhere to be seen. As she looked through a window, she saw Loomis in the garden. There was a little park around the hospital, and patients could go out if they were allowed to. Maybe the doctor knew what happened to Michael.
When she walked to him, she understood. Loomis was sitting on a large rock, looking at the birds chirping around. Michael was with him, his mask on his lap, tilting his head to both sides as he was staring at the birds. He was fascinated. Little tweeting things.
Loomis turned his head and poked Michael's shoulder. "Look who's there." The younger man didn't move but smiled widely at his sister, closing his eyes in the process. Laurie sat next to him and squeezed his hand.
"How are you ?"
He kept smiling, but it was starting to look forced.
"I know what you want to do. I don't want you to die. I understand your choice but I just can't let you be judged. I can't..." Michael stopped smiling and frowned, looking down at a bird trying to eat his shoelace.
"I want to see the progress you're going to make. You made so much already, I know you'll only get better. Look ! You're outside ! A few months ago you wouldn't have been allowed to sit in the park ! And I'm here with you !" She squeezed his hand harder. "I'm here... I need you Michael..."
After a long silence, Michael took his notebook and his pen out of his pocket and started writing. He carefully hid the page, not wanting anyone to read until it was finished. He finally handed it to his sister. "Do I have to read it aloud ?" Michael shrugged. "If you want", he seemed to say. So the young woman started reading.
"People seem to have hope in me now. I don't understand why now and not before. I don't understand what has changed. I'm still the same, why would people make up their minds now ? I feel like it's just a lie. I don't feel different. I want to end it. I want the memories to go away. If you really loved me you would let me decide."
Laurie could barely read the last words as tears blurried her vision. She was sincere to him... She really was... And he didn't believe. It hurt her.
"I really love you. Probably not enough to let you go... But I wouldn't lie to you... Not about it..."
She tried to hold back tears and failed miserably. She didn't want Michael to believe it was his fault if she was crying. Hopefully he wasn't paying attention to her anymore, focused on the small bird hopping around his feet. Laurie bit her lower lip. Her brother then looked at her and seemed concerned.
His sister was crying, what were people supposed to do to comfort each other ? He thought maybe a hug would do. So he wrapped his arms around his sister. He smiled contently when he didn't feel her flinch away . She trusted him, didn't she ? If she wasn't afraid it meant she did. He remembered when he used to hold her like this. She was a baby. It made him feel all weird inside. Laurie felt the same. He was too young to remember the time his 6 years old brother held her in his arms, smiling proudly.
But she remembered his touch, his warmth, his little but already strong arms, and it was more comforting than anything else he could have done.
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