I turned around to see the last person I wanted to see. Him.

"You see, my parents, they hated me. They never showed it, but I knew they did. I was always the weird child, while Patrick over here was always the good child." Oh, so he did recognize him.......

Patrick clenched his fists. "That's not true! They loved you, but you had to ruin it with your.........with your insanity. From one moment to another, you changed from the good, nice kid.....to this! I lost something that I can't get back. I lost my brother David." he spat.

David winced at his name. "Don't call me that...." he growled. "It's common to call people by their names, David." He laughed quietly, and looked up at Patrick. "I don't have a name anymore. You lost a brother, I lost a name. No one used it anymore. This smile," he pointed at his scars, "this smile is my name. People recognize me by it."

"People used your name, David. They did. People used it all the time."

He laughed again. "They didn't, Patrick. They didn't use names at the asylum. You should see how they treated the people. That's what turns people truly insane. What we used to do wasn't insanity, Patrick. It was teaching. We taught people the truth about life. Everyone has to die some day, but some don't want to accept that truth. We show them the truth, Patrick. We show them that people always die."

"And I suppose that you showed them in a way that they wouldn't live to tell the tale?"

David laughed. "You know, I always looked at them from your point of view. After you pointed it out, I realized that those who experience the truth looked frightened, so I gave them a smile." He looked at my scars. "Take little Alice for an example. She looks happier, doesn't she?" I remembered the pain and winced, my hand on my cheek. It hurts.....it does.

"Why don't you leave? You destroyed my life, anyway. There's nothing that can fix this anymore. If you're going to kill me, why don't you do it? Why didn't you do it when I was tied to that chair?" He looked at me again, studying me.

"I told you, killing is only half the fun. You're easy prey, Alice. Too easy. It isn't fun if you're tied down."

"Fun? You think death is fun?! You kill people to teach them, yet you love seeing them suffer. You love fear. It's sick.........it's just unnatural. It's something you'd see in the mind of a psychopath, you know? I can't think of it any other way. It's animalistic, almost."

He laughed again, but insanely. Just that laugh that sends shivers creeping down your back. "It's animalistic to treat different people that way. The asylum. They treated us like animals. There was a little girl there, you know? Somebody sent a little girl to an asylum, because they think it'll help her. It didn't. They didn't treat the little girl well. They did experiments on her. They experimented on a little girl, Alice! If you want to tell me that people who do such things are better than people like me, then I don't know what has become of this world." With those words, he turned around to walk away.

Little girl.....little girl.....Was it...? "David!" I yelled.

"I said, don't call me David." he growled, but he stopped.

"The little girl...was she Sophie?" A different look filled his eyes. Not insanity. Not anger. Pain. Deep, incredible pain.

"It doesn't matter..........." he said, then ran off. Patrick was standing right behind me.

"Great family reunion, eh?" I laughed a bit. "But, Alice, who's Sophie?" I thought of the little girl, who scared me so when I was in that dreadful place.

"She's a child who helped me escape the asylum......" I answered. I thought a bit, then asked him something. "Why would he think that your parents hated him, though?"

"I don't know. He was getting all sorts of weird thoughts........."

"I should get home. Mom's probably worrying." He said goodbye, then walked into the opposite direction. I went home, and me and my mom had dinner.

"Christmas is next week!" she said, a bit excited.

"But how will we celebrate? We don't really have any other family......." I said, trailing off.

"You can invite your Patrick friend if you want to!"

"Alright!" She was so happy. It's impossible to find a more optimistic person............."I'm off to bed. Good night!"

"Lock your window!" That would be smart. I locked it, and went to bed.