Mikey had never told the truth about his brother to anyone. Partly because he felt like it wasn’t his place to tell people, it was up to Gerard. But he thought that if anyone ever did find out the truth about Gerard, then they’d hate his brother and instantly label him a freak and Mikey didn’t want that for Gerard. He wanted things to be as normal as possible for him. He’d never even told Frank, his best friend, the person he trusted with his life, about Gerard. He’d always just told Frank that Gerard didn’t live in Jersey and he only came over for Christmas and birthdays, and for the four years that he’d known Frank, it had worked. Frank had never questioned why he never got to meet Gerard.

When Gerard was thirteen he got sent away. Mikey didn’t understand at the time. He didn’t understand that his brother was ill and needed help. He was just upset that he’d had to go away and Mikey could only see his big brother once a day at certain hours. He didn’t like the big building that was like a prison. He didn’t like the staff that walked around in their pristine white uniform. He didn’t like the other people that lived in the building either. They scared him. But what Mikey did like about it was the fact he could see Gerard.

When Mikey got older he understood. His mother told him. Told him about why Gerard had been taken away. He’d never known about it. He’d never known that Gerard had schizophrenia and acute stress disorder. He’d never known about the things that had happened to Gerard.

The schizophrenia was something Gerard had been developing anyway. It made sense to Mikey now, why Gerard’s games were always so real and vivid and imaginative, why he could always make the impossible things seem real. It was because he really believed he was seeing all of those things. Gerard had always told the best bedtime stories and come up with the best games. Mikey understood that it was never made up for Gerard. It was real for him.

The acute stress disorder had been caused by what had happened to Gerard. He’d been with his friends, just messing around as they’d walked home from school. Mikey had never understood why a group of six high school drop-outs would want to gang up on a four thirteen year olds. But they had. They had and Mikey hated them for it. If they hadn’t, maybe things might’ve been better for Gerard. They’d mugged them, but when one of Gerard’s friends refused to hand over his stuff, they’d gotten pissed off and decided to beat the shit out of him. It had ended with the boy getting stabbed and bleeding to death before the paramedics could do anything. The teenagers who’d attacked them had vanished, along with Gerard’s two other friends. Gerard had been the only one to stay with his friend. He’d had to be there on his own with his dying friend, watching him bleed to death on the street, all because he’d stood up for himself.

Gerard wasn’t the same after that. He didn't trust anyone and withdrew from his friends, retreating into the depths of his mind, always worrying about things that didn't make sense, telling everyone about things that weren't there and just acting plain weird in general. That was when Gerard had been taken away.

He’d been let out two years ago when he was twenty, after years of being confined with other patients, endless medication and therapy sessions. Gerard still had to take his pills though. The pills kept on top of the illness just in case.

Gerard had moved out, buying his own house in Newark and getting a job as a comic book artist and doing the odd bit here and there at displays in galleries and illustrating books. He rarely contacted Mikey or his parents anymore and they’d only been around to his house a couple of times. Gerard mainly came to visit them, which wasn’t that often. He seemed just like every other person Mikey had ever met when he saw his brother and he was convinced that Gerard was okay now.

But sometimes he still worried.