A.N: The plot-bunnies will not leave me or this story alone
Thus: here is another chapter
Written with the prompt:
Colour: pink, Song: "Swim until you can't see land" - Frightened Rabbit, Word: Misunderstanding.
It's been four days, three hours and roughly 42 minutes since he last saw the strange and quiet Nordic man. Not that Willem had been keeping count because he cared – there was simply nothing else to do with his time.
It's also three hours and 22 minutes since his last meal.
It's been ten minutes since he last smoked a cigarette.
And if anyone were to ask – he has spent the past six weeks, three days and 15 hours living in this prison.
Willem makes his way down the white corridor, he needs fresh air and a cigarette – he couldn't care less that all the nurses are telling him it's pouring with rain outside, he wants out of the sterilized and 'dead' air inside the institution and breathe the clean and natural air outside.
Then he'll have a cigarette or two.
Stepping outside he can hear two nurses chatting in hushed voices around the corner, with quiet steps he makes his way closer to the edge of the wall.
The two women are standing under the half-roof, still burning cigarettes in-between their fingers as they talk in hushed voices to each other.
"All he does is stand there,"
"I know...it's creeping me out,"
"Did you not tell him to go inside?"
"I did! Told him he'd get ill, but he said he didn't care,"
"Perhaps we should give him some more medication..."
"You think it's his 'visions' telling him to do it?"
"What else?"
"I just wish he'd talk more, I don't know what to do when all I get from him is a blank look,"
Willem thinks he's got an idea who they're talking about; certainly there are a few tidbits of information that fits Erik perfectly.
However, Willem doesn't like to just speculate; he wants to know for certain.
Quietly and with careful steps he makes his way in the opposite direction from the nurses. About ten meters down the wall from the main entrance, Willem can finally see who the nurses were talking about.
Erik is standing in the garden, his head tilted backwards as he let's the heavy rain fall down upon him. He must have been here for a while already, because not a single dry patch is to be seen on him.
Willem wonders briefly if he should just leave the other man alone, he seems to be enjoying the rain shower quite a bit. However, the nurses spoke of 'visions', and while Willem has had his share of drug induced visions and imaginary scenarios he's never met anyone like Erik. A man who enjoys the imaginary creatures his mind makes up, a man who's mind gave him imaginary friends when the pressure and demand for his work became the sole focus of his life. A focus that made him sacrifice his own sanity.
If anything, Erik only looks even more lonely now.
Standing in the rain like a little lost child.
The grass makes a soft and wet squishing sound as Willem steps onto it. With long strides over the now near-flooded garden, it doesn't take him long to reach Erik, but already he can feel the water seeping into his shoes. Erik is barefoot, Willem just now realises – and again all he can do is wonder why this fellow patient makes him ask so many questions.
"You're causing a little bit of a stir with this behaviour."
Erik seems to snap out of a trance as he turns to face Willem with a rapid motion. At first there's a hint of anger and fear in his eyes, but then the expression softens ever so slightly and Erik is once again expressionless and impossible to read.
"You again...why are you here?"
"I could ask you the same thing...the nurses think you're crazier than normal,"
Erik looks unamused - save for his left eyebrow raised slightly; the only indication Willem gets that Erik wants him to explain more.
"You're barefoot and standing in this heavy downpour...don't tell me you can't imagine the staff thinking this is strange – even for you,"
Erik frowns slightly and looks away. His eyes once again become fixed at the dark grey clouds above them.
"Why are you out here?" Willem tries again, but he receives no reply.
After a good five minutes (and 34 seconds) Willem thinks Erik is just ignoring him.
However, as he's about to open his mouth to tell the Nordic man that ignoring him is rude – Erik suddenly speaks.
"I miss the sea..."
"The sea?" Willem looks confused as he takes a step closer to the Nordic. Erik looks a lot smaller when his clothes are soaked throughout – it's evidently he used to be fairly muscular, but the way his dark blue clothes are sticking to his skin, all Willem can think about is how malnourished the man looks.
Undoubtedly he looks similar. His sister remarked at her last visit that he's gotten a lot thinner.
'But you look better none the less' she had remarked with a large smile before kissing his cheek. Willem frowned at the memory – he doesn't like to think about his sister.
She deserves a better brother than him.
"I grew up next to the sea...lived next to it...hardly even been anywhere where I couldn't see it...but now I'm here,"
There's a sadness so evident in Erik's voice, even Willem can feel it pull at his heartstrings.
"Everyone thinks this is a prison..."
Erik seems to pay his comment no mind, instead he shifts his gaze from the sky and looks at Willem again. From his point of view it actually looks like Erik has been crying – but his eye's are not red, just dull and dark, with even darker circles etched around them.
"Not far from the weather-station, there was a little wooden doc – I had a sail boat...and whenever the weather was nice enough, I'd take it out...I'd sail so far that if I turned around I could hardly see land any more..."
Willem can only nod, he doesn't want to speak – speaking will mean he has to interrupt him, and he doesn't want that. Erik is offering information, and Willem almost feels privileged.
"I always wanted to sail so far I could not see any land any more..." Erik's gaze once again is turned to the sky; Willem's eyes are locked on Erik – not even the rain seeping through his clothes can pull him out of the trance. Erik has a very comforting voice to listen to. He actually sounds a lot older than he looks.
"I know these walls are build to keep us inside, but once...just once I want to see the sea again..."
Willem bites his lip as reaches out for Erik, his hand hovering just above the other's mans shoulder for a moment before he quickly withdraws it again. He doesn't know how to comfort him. He can tell Erik that he'll soon be out of this prison, and then he can go back to his life – but they both know that would be a lie.
While Willem can cure his addiction, people like Erik are seldom let out again once 'caught'. People fear mental illnesses more than anything. It's impossible to see the 'scars' on Erik's mind and thus he becomes even more of a mystery. A person the nurses refuse to trust.
But Willem knows it's all just a misunderstanding.
Because Erik isn't crazy enough to be locked up, he's too sane to survive the life expected of him within these walls.
Willem just has to prove he's clean and then he's a free man once again.
But Erik? Erik can't prove he doesn't see the faeries any more. He can't roll up his sleeves and show the doctors he no longer does something he shouldn't.
No – Erik is cursed with a supposedly broken and scarred mind. That no one will ever know for certain if it is healed – and that, that is why he'll probably take his last breath within the four white-washed walls of the asylum.
This is just a temporary prison for Willem, he can escape. Erik can't leave – ever. They both know that.
"Maybe...maybe they'll let you see it again if you...you know...behave?"
Erik shakes his head.
"No. I don't do anything to anger anyone...but it's not like I get rewarded for that..."
Willem frowns. There's one thing he's forgotten to ask the other but he thinks he might dread the answer.
"How...how long have you been here?"
"I was...24 when I was admitted...I turned 28 this May"
He makes a quick calculation in his head. Erik has been here for (roughly) over four years. He's also older than Willem thought he was. He figured he was around 23, he should at least be two years younger than him, as opposed to two years older. Perhaps there really is a lot of truth in what the doctors said. That smoking really does shorten one's life.
Because people think he's in his thirties while Erik could easily pass for an older looking teenager.
"That's a while..."
"Yes...it is,"
An uncomfortable silence settles over them, Willem coughs into his hand – the itching in the back of his throat is growing more and more uncomfortable – but he can't light a cigarette up here. He's soaked to the bone, just like Erik is. Clothes dyed a few shades darker by the rain, making Erik look like a ghost. Pale skin a stark contrast to the dark blue clothes he's wearing. The only prominent colour being the soft pink hue across his lips.
Is it bad he wants to hug him?
Willem shakes his head slightly and scolds himself for even thinking it.
Erik doesn't seem like the hugging type – nor is he one of those people himself. But had his sister been here, she'd be all over the shorter man – smothering him with hugs and kisses in an attempt to cheer him up.
He can't do such things himself. So Willem excuses himself, as Erik barely pays him any mind.
A few steps away from Erik, Willem turns to face him again.
"Hey...Erik?"
"Yeah?" comes a reply after a minute.
"Promise you'll get back inside soon...if not the nurses might lock you up in Level 5..."
Erik chuckles and for a brief moment everything seems a little bit brighter.
However, Willem does notice - once he's inside - that Erik does have to get followed back inside by two women in white. Undoubtedly under the guise they're worried "he'll get ill", when in actual fact they just can't stand to watch a man have a brief moment of calm and happiness in a way they don't understand.
Sometimes, Willem wishes he wasn't part of the human race.
He does, however, have an idea of what his sister needs to bring him the next time she visits.
Erik might especially appreciate it.
A.N: This AU is far too much fun...
