InsaneJournal

Who: Hannah
What: A narrative
Where: 1004
When: The day(s) following this
Warnings: Angst.

Hannah called in sick to work early Monday morning. She hadn't slept the night before, spending those agonizingly long hours curled up on the couch with the television on low to keep her company. She didn't have a knife but she had a baseball bat at her feet, her hands curling around the cool metal handle at every noise - just in case.

The shelter believed her when she told them she'd come down with something, that the doctor had told her she had a bad case of the flu and should stay in bed until she was no longer contagious. They told her to take care of herself, that it was okay, but Hannah knew the only reason they bought her story was because she never called in sick. She didn't even feel bad about lying, because her head was still pounding and she didn't want to take an aspirin because she was already on two other kinds of medication. The temptation to take more than the prescribed dose was there, but she ignored it. The pain was a reminder, a warning, and as much as she would have liked it to go away, it needed to stay.

Even if the knife wound had been bad going to the hospital was never an option, but luckily it wasn't deep enough to require serious help - the first aid kit under the sink did the trick. She showered, she ate, she sat back down on the couch and stared at the TV. She finally managed to get a few hours of sleep in mid-afternoon, and she did feel a little better afterwards. At least her head didn't feel like it weighed a ton anymore.

Hannah managed to avoid any thoughts of Liam and Emery and what had happened for a good twenty-four hours, but once night fell and Monday became Tuesday, she couldn't keep them back. Time hadn't helped to make any more sense of the situation, so she decided to go through everything that had happened logically. As logically as she could, that is.

It had always been Liam. From the moment she stepped in the apartment it was Liam who waited, not Emery - but did that mean that it had been Liam she'd spoken to on the forums? Liam who invited her over? Liam who left her the chocolate and the necklace?

And what about his erratic behavior at the end? Liam had been arguing with himself, referring to himself in the third person and acting as though there was someone else there. Emery, maybe? One explanation was that Liam really was insane, and his breakdown was proof of that. It could have been another sick, twisted way to terrify her, but somehow she doubted that he would just let her get away like that.

There was another possibility, one she didn't want to consider, but it was still there in the back of her mind. Waiting, patiently, for the day it would finally be acknowledged and considered. Five years spent in a mental asylum meant that Hannah had seen all sorts of people. There were those with personality disorders, schizophrenics, people who suffered from hallucinations and thought everyone was trying to kill them - to name a few - but there were also a few who suffered from multiple personality disorder. Some patients only had one other identity, but there was one woman who claimed to have at least three. There were the identities they created because of some past trauma, and they took on the qualities that the patient wished they possessed but didn't, but Hannah knew that those with the disorder could be violent. There was one woman who called one of her personalities Jacob, and he was the violent one. He was the one who set her sister on fire, the reason she was committed, she claimed.

She wasn't a psychiatrist but she'd seen things, and what she saw in Emery's apartment reminded her all too much of that woman arguing with Jacob, something she hadn't wanted to witness then and never wanted to see again.

It couldn't be. "No," she whispered, nails digging into her palms. "Not Emery... he would have said something. Liam is just insane, that's all. Emery wasn't even there."

He listens, oh yes, he'll listen to you until pigs fucking fly. Do you know why?

No, no, no. Liam was insane, it was his fault; his fault.

Because if he listens to your pathetic, waste of a life? He'll never have to tell you all about his.

"Not him... please, not him." She shook her head, making her way into the kitchen for some coffee. No assumptions, not until she asked him about it. She'd get his side of the story, and then she'd figure it out. But not yet. She couldn't talk to him yet.

Not enough time had passed for that.