Hannah pierces the older student with her eyes as he pushes her into the room. He follows her inside and locks the door. She sits down on a chair and rests her elbows on her knees. He lifts his face and looks at her with curiosity in his eyes.
— What did you see there? — He asks directly, looking at her hunched over figure. The girl stands in the middle of the room, looking at him obliquely. She looks quite ghastly, but he is not impressed at all.
— How do you know I saw something? — Her voice is trembling, yet she relaxes and breathes a sigh as she sits down on the bed.
— Silly question.
The seventeen-year-old rubs her hands on her knees and her gaze is pointed at the floor.
— Stupid is what you are doing. A moment ago you hated me, and now you are helping me again. What are your real intentions? — She lifts her gaze and looks at him suspiciously.
— I feel sorry for you because you are exactly like her.
— Like whom? — interjects hastily, and a nervous smile appears on his face.
— My mother. She was also mentally ill.
The girl blanches.
Joseph pierces her with his eyes, no longer intending to hide the truth from her. He has decided that it won't help at all. Whether she knows it or not, her illness is equally likely to develop. As a young child, he witnessed this and hiding something so dangerous is not a good idea. It may come to the point where the girl unknowingly causes harm to herself. She should consult a psychiatrist as soon as possible.
He crosses his arms over his chest and doesn't take his eyes off her when he notices how frightened she looks on her face.
— You are lying — she announces sharply, driving an unfriendly gaze into him.
— You are the one lying to yourself. You are sick and all the foolishness you see is the image you create in your head. — The girl tightens her lips, as if trying to suppress her crying at all costs. — Everything you told me ... your contact with your dead sister and the fact that something is claiming to be her, everything is nonsense — she explains to her, tapping her forehead with her finger. — This is all just being created here. In your head.
— You're lying! — she screams, and her lip trembles with anger.
— Do you think you can see ghosts? To talk to them? You are abnormal.
The girl clenches the bedclothes in her hands and starts breathing harder and harder. Joseph knows this is coming because a similar situation happened with his mother and father when he watched them through the ajar door.
He needs to get all the anger out of him so that she finally understands that she is sick and needs the care of a specialist.
— You are lying to me.... You're doing it purposely to destroy me. You want me to suffer. You hate me and try to bring me down at all costs! — Her scream echoes against the walls of the building, and that's precisely what he wants. He wants her to take out all her anger. — I'm mental? It's your mistress, and you also have something wrong with your head because you clung to me from the very beginning, and I didn't do anything to you!
Joseph rubs her forehead, waiting for her to shout everything that is on her heart.
— Anger - anger, but count your words.
— Should I count my words? Oh, no. This is too much already! No one will tell me that I am mentally ill!
— I'm not telling you anything, I'm just finally making you realize the truth. I see that things are getting worse for you, so it's time for you to go for treatment.
— I won't go anywhere. You won't make me crazy, you bastard! — Tears run down her cheeks as she grabs a pillow and mercilessly throws it at Joseph's face. The boy tightens his lips to restrain himself and not treat her the same way.
— Jin also knows about your illness. Behind your back she is talking to your aunt, who is a psychiatrist. She wants to get you an appointment that doesn't require your mother's consent. This woman can make trouble for herself, and yet he is trying to help you.
Hannah feels betrayed. She would never have guessed that Jin would also consider her crazy. Why can't anyone believe that she really sees ghosts, and they are not a figment of her imagination?
— Screw you. Both of you — she says unexpectedly as she closes her eyes. — No one will tell me that I am mentally ill. I don't need your help. I can manage on my own. — She opens her eyelids and pokes the boy with a warning look. — Get out of here. Now!
— I won't leave until you realize that you are sick.
The girl starts screaming. She jumps on the bed and does such stunts that at this point she looks exactly like a mentally ill person.
Joseph has no doubt that she requires help. It is precisely such people who do not accept the truth and defend themselves, telling others at all costs that they feel perfectly fine and that the images they see are not illusions.
— Like two drops of water. Literally, as if they skinned it — he mutters under his breath, watching as in a fit of anger he pulls everything off the shelf and throws it on the floor. She doesn't think about the fact that she is destroying her things. She has her mind completely turned off at this point and wants to make the world aware of how angry she is.
He calmly looks at it. He puts his foot on his knee and, crossing his arms over his chest, watches as the girl throws off all her anger and eventually falls to the floor. In complete disarray, she begins to cry.
This is a good sign. She calms down.
— Will you talk to me like a human being? I have no intention of spending the whole night here.
She lifts her face and plunges a weepy look into it.
— Do you really think I'm sick and need help? — she asks, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand.
— I think you were convinced by Jin's words. So... you can believe him, but not me? — She hears the indignation in his voice, but ignores it because she can't think of anything else but what she heard from him. — Even if we are wrong, for your safety, you should take help to schedule an appointment with his aunt. Everything will remain a secret. I may not like you, but I have no desire to spread rumors about you. Perhaps because my mother went through the same thing.
— Earlier, you said that she died. Was it because of mental illness?
The boy is silent for a long moment. He looks to the side, but eventually nods.
— Despite the many years of illness through which she suffered, my father did not lock her up in a psychiatric hospital. He preferred to imprison her in a room where everything was secured so she wouldn't hurt herself. — Hannah hears his voice breaking at one point and finds it difficult to talk about it. — A psychiatrist came to meet with her, but she was already in such a state that it stopped helping. Eventually, she found a way and took her life. — The girl sees tears in his eyes, which she tries to chase away at all costs, hastily blinking her eyelids.
— You open up to me again....
He unexpectedly rises from his chair and with a quick step heads for the door. He stops in front of them as he grabs the handle.
— I am not opening myself to you. I'm simply warning you to get treatment as soon as possible and get out of this grandfather hood before it's too late. I have witnessed this disease and know what it can do to a person. Such a person becomes unrecognizable, and then it is too late and there is no way to help him.
Hannah remains silent. She simply watches Joseph go outside and closes the door behind him. Her gaze finds the girl standing in the corner.
— Don't trust him. He wants to destroy you. — He walks up to the teenage girl and crouches in front of her. — He makes you sick. He makes fun of you. Girl, you are healthy. How long will you put up with his hostility?
— It seems to me that this time he is sincere. He wants to help me — she says in a weak voice, uncertainly glancing at the girl accompanying her. — Maybe you are actually not real?
She bursts into a loud laugh.
— So I'm supposed to make you realize that I'm not an illusion?
The seventeen-year-old girl watches with horror in her eyes as the entity smashes the photo frame and takes a medium-sized glass in her hand. It walks up to the girl and crouches by her side. He grabs her hand and, with one swipe, cuts her skin to make her realize that she is real.
Drops of blood drip onto the floor, and Hannah just watches it in silence.
*
It's late in the evening. A bored Joseph is lying in bed because the room has been left alone. He guesses that Jimmy is secretly spending time with his girlfriend again, trying to make up for the last few months when he was mean to her. Jin is probably sitting in the library, and Tom is simply accompanying him out of boredom.
The boy rubs his face and looks, at one point, thinking about Hannah. Occasionally, he feels despicable when he treats her like this, especially since the girl has a serious problem, but a moment later he doesn't regret it because he explains to himself that she deserves to suffer. It was Hannah who killed his mother. It's both her and Danielle's fault.
He takes out a white handkerchief from under his pillow. It is the same one in the possession of a younger student. His mother learned to embroider in her youth.
She smiles, running her finger over a pattern full of mistakes.
— I miss you, mom. Although I don't remember too many happy moments with you, I can't get over your death. I would so much like to see you again....
A tear falls on a white handkerchief as the boy recalls the day he discovered what a dark secret his family hides.
4 years earlier.
The 15-year-old sits at the table, sadly staring at the housekeeper who is preparing dinner for him. The teenager loves coming to the kitchen at this hour, silently watching the woman who has been replacing his mother for a long time. He can talk to her about any subject, especially since he is closer to her than to his father, who perpetually has no time for him.
He rests his chin on his hands and sighs loudly.
— You've been walking around kind of sad for days. What is going on, Joseph? — The woman pauses for a moment and stands in front of the boy, looking at him with caring eyes.
— I don't know how hard I can try, my father doesn't have time for me anyway. He keeps saying he's busy, and I'd like to finally sit down with him and talk about my mother. I've been having nightmares every night lately, and I know they are memories of my childhood.
The woman puts her hand on his shoulder.
— I think your father is just avoiding the subject because it is still difficult for him. Give him time. Eventually, the day will come when he himself will tell you about it.
— But I'm not a child anymore! I'm old enough to find out the truth. This is about my mother. I would like to know what bad things happened to her because this mystery is making me worse and worse! — The housekeeper lowers his head and closes his eyelids. She can't stand his suffering face anymore. — I swear that if I don't finally find out the truth, these nightmares will finish me off. I think that if someone reveals the secret to me regarding my mother's death, I will be calmer. I know that these dreams will eventually go away.
He bites his lip to keep from crying. He looks at the housekeeper, as if he hopes she will finally take pity on him.
— Joseph, you know I trust you, right? I treat you like a son and would do anything for you....
— Therefore, help me and reveal the whole truth, even if it is painful. I want to know what happened to my mother and to know the reason that brought her to such a state.
The woman anxiously looks around the room, as if she is afraid that someone is eavesdropping on them. Eventually, she plunges an attentive look into the teenager's face and squeezes his hand.
— Promise me that everything I tell you will stay between us. Your father can't find out about this because he will destroy me. I really like working here, and I wouldn't want to leave you, Joseph.
— I promise to keep everything you say a secret. You are the only person in this house with whom I can talk honestly. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you.
The boy opens his eyes wider as the woman squeezes his hand tighter and speaks to him in a whisper:
— Your mother had an affair with another man.
This was not what he expected. He swallows his saliva harder out of nerves, but says nothing, waiting for the woman to tell him everything she knows regarding his family's secrets.
— The pregnancy betrayed her. Do you know why? Because your father is infertile.
This information makes him breathless, but he bravely keeps an unmoving face so that the housekeeper doesn't accidentally stop talking. He wants to hear everything from her.
— Wow. Miss Wesley, you can be very direct, and I like that.
He sees the confusion on her face. She probably didn't expect such a reaction from him.
— I shouldn't tell you this.... it's too much. I inadvertently hurt you, Joseph.
She wants to turn her back on him, but the boy grabs her hand.
— This is precisely what I knew about. My father revealed to me three years ago that I was adopted. Don't worry.
The housekeeper closes her eyelids, as if relieved.
— A stone has fallen from my heart.... — She puts her hand to her left breast, and Joseph smiles softly at her. — When I start talking, my tongue is too long, and I don't control what comes out of my mouth.
— Do you know who my mother was pregnant with?
She shakes her head in response.
— No. I don't know anything about it, but your father became enraged and in order for her not to see him again, he locked her in a room. He decided that he would imprison her until she gave birth. No one could find out that she was having an affair with another man. This would have brought great shame to your father, and you know very well that he is a respectable man. — Joseph is confused. He puts his hand to his mouth without taking his eyes off her. — Your mother slowly began to go crazy in this confinement. These were the beginnings of her illness. On the day of the birth, which was picked up at home and covered up by money, your father decided to give the twins to an orphanage. A few days later, he did just that.
— The twins? — he repeats, recalling the situation when he was four years old and his mother kept telling him that he was not the only child in the house, that he was accompanied by girls.
— Yes. I'm sure you don't remember that because you were only two years old at the time, but a situation happened that I saw. Even then, you were an intelligent child — the woman reveals, and he wrinkles his eyebrows, wondering what she is talking about. — You played with the handkerchief your mother gave you. When your father left the baby carrier in front of the door to go back into the room for a while, you ran up to the twins and put the handkerchief on their quilt. You ran away, and I hid it deeper, so your father wouldn't throw it away.
— I was just a two-year-old, I didn't know what I was doing — he announces, lowering his gaze. He stares at the countertop, unable to look the housekeeper in the eye.
— Children at this age are smart, and you acted very nicely.
— What's nice about it? These brats have destroyed my family. They are my mother's children from an affair. I understand now. — His voice becomes sharper. — My mother became completely sick with longing for them. I heard her crying at night and telling herself that the girls were with her. They were the ones who killed her.
The boy heads for the exit, but before stepping outside, he looks over his shoulder.
— What we discussed today, I promise, will stay between us. It's our secret.