4 The Days After Pt. 2

While he was in New Hope Daniel didn't feel any better. He would still hear the same voices every night and he would still see the same things. His doctors diagnosed him with PTSD and said that he never got over the death of his family, which on some level was true, however Daniel didn't feel that this was it. The sounds and the hallucinations were too real for it to be PTSD.

After a couple of months had passed Daniel had gotten used to the hallucinations and the fainting spells, but he still didn't feel cured, he just felt that this was the new 'normal' for him. He gradually accepted that this was what his life was going to be from now, and Daniel was fully prepared to stay at New Hope forever if he had to.

It's worth mentioning that while at New Hope no one from his family had visited Daniel, not even after months had passed. The only person who had visited was his best friend Seth Heyman. Seth worked as a police officer and he had quite the status around the department, since his dad was the chief of police. Unfortunately his dad never liked Daniel, Seth's dad felt that he was a bad influence since his grades were never the best and he had no plans to go to college. Seth's dad made things difficult for us whenever he could, Seth didn't even find out about the death of my parents until a week had passed.

While Daniel accepted what was now the 'norm,' for him, fate had a different plan in mind. One fateful night Daniel was going through his usual routine of going to the bathroom, but this time it was different. Even after a few minutes had passed, Daniel was still awake and the sound of water still rung in his ears. That was the day Daniel saw her. His sister was in the bathroom with him, trying so desperately to say something, but all that came out of her mouth was water and more water. Even after feeling fear for months on end, nothing that Daniel experienced could've possibly prepared him for that.

Pale as the sheets that decorate his bed, Daniel felt terrified again, something he hadn't felt for weeks. However, as scared as he was Daniel didn't faint, no this time he was awake. She stood there for ten minutes trying to speak before she slowly thinned out, and eventually disappeared altogether.

At first Daniel thought this was a new crazy that he would just have to get used to, but he never did. She appeared day-after-day like clockwork. Always around midnight and anywhere there was water. Sometimes she would appear in bathrooms, and other times all it took was just a half-finished cup of water that someone left on the desk.

One day, Daniel had a crazy idea, which at this point while he was standing in a mental hospital wasn't really anything too uncommon, but he thought to himself 'what if this was actually real'. For several days Daniel's mind alternated between real and not real, and eventually he decided it was time for a test.

While staring intensely at the mirror, Daniel waited for her to appear. The other patients looked at him as if he was the real crazy one, but he didn't care, there was something he had to test out no matter what. Even after the orderlies ushered everyone back into their rooms, Daniel wasn't about to give up so easily, not when he could put an end to all of this right here and right now. Whether he was really crazy or not Daniel had to know.

After making sure that everyone was asleep, Daniel quietly snuck into the bathroom, and started waiting once again. After half an hour, Daniel heard a familiar sound, one that he could never forget even if he went deaf for 30 years. The sink was spraying water once again, but unlike the few drops there was now a steady stream of running water. Daniel anxiously stood up and faced the mirror, and there she was. Standing just one meter from Daniel was his sister, Alex, still wet from head-to-toe and trying her best to speak.

Daniel placed his hand near his pocket and took something out. He stretched his hand in front of her and slowly opens it to reveal a beautiful silver necklace, the same necklace that his sister planned to give to him before she died. This was the only object that he brought with him when he signed himself into New Hope. If he was right and this was really a ghost then she should have some reaction to the necklace, or maybe he Daniel was truly off his rocker, but at this point he was willing to try anything to prove that he was still sane.

As soon as she saw the necklace, Alex's eyes lit up and she jumped up and down as she pointed excitedly and the hand that was holding the necklace.

She reacted! She's real, holy hell I'm not crazy. I've always had my doubts but there's no way a hallucination would do something like this.

Ignoring the water that was pooling around him Daniel excitedly cried out "I'm not crazy, ahahaha, I'm really not crazy."

In his initial excitement Daniel forgot the time and place. Immediately after crying out several patients yelled at him from their room.

"Nice try buddy, but I already tried that one."

"Shut up, I'm trying to sleep."

"It's the voices, They're back, THEY'RE BACK!"

What happened next should come as no surprise. The orderlies rushed into the bathroom and apprehended the 'maniac' that was loudly crying out "I'm not crazy," while jumping up and down in the bathroom at midnight. Needless to say that while Daniel now knew he was not crazy it wasn't easy to convince the doctors that he should be released after that stunt.

At first Daniel tried lying to the doctors and telling him that the hallucinations were gone and that he was cured, however no one believed him after that day. The doctors simply thought that he was saying it because he wanted to get out, and while they were not wrong this time it was different. It was only after the sixth month had passed that Daniel was finally able to convince the doctors that he was not as insane as he was made out to me.

Before he left Daniel's psychiatrist Dr. Sims was nice enough to let him borrow her phone, and with one quick phone call Daniel was now on a one way ticket out of Looneytown. He called uncle Ben and told him that he was ready to leave New Hope, and he told him that he would need a place to stay at while he gets his things together. Uncle Ben, being the kind caring uncle that he is, immediately promised him that he would settle everything for him and that his cousin would pick him up. Who could've known that the old man would pull a fast one on him without telling him first.

Daniel was relieved. Knowing that you were not really crazy after 7 months of torturing yourself was the best feeling in the world. With a smile on his face, Daniel walks down the hallway as he says goodbye to all the nurses, orderlies, and even the patients for the last time. From now on he was a free man. Pushing open the doors of New Hope Daniels spreads his arms open as if to embrace the feeling of a freedom and yells "Finally I'm Free!"