Hello Fascination

The asylum was my oyster as soon as I was allowed out of Dr Clarkson’s room. Without having to be led to my next destination, I already knew that I had to go to the recreation room. The monotonous day to day routine hadn’t changed nor had the dull atmosphere in the recreation room reverberating off of all of the patients. I had only taken a few steps into the room before I was attacked from behind. I should have been scared by the sudden abnormality in the atmosphere, but I didn’t seem to care.

I felt someone’s small frame wrap their legs around my waist and snake their arms over my shoulders. “Surprise!” I heard a familiar voice scream into my ear. I flinched at the loud noise, but I became less shocked at the surprise, realising who it was. It was Jezebel and I could already tell she was in a good mood today.

“What do you want?” I sighed not even fazed by her strange, bi-polar antics anymore. It wasn’t as if she was a burden to carry either. I was able to carry her weight without even attempting to participate. Her tight grip around me managed to keep herself up and steady.

“Giddy up!” She yelled excitedly before shaking my shoulders slightly. With a grumble, I obeyed her orders and walked over to the couch reluctantly. When I placed her down onto the couch, I deliberately placed all of my weight on top of her too. “Ow! What the fuck are you doing?! I can’t breathe!” For a moment, I forgot all about her disease and then her coughing commenced. Immediately I rolled off her and tried to calm her down.

“Jezebel, are you alright?” I questioned hastily.

Her coughing eased into a hysterical laugh. “Oh my God, you’re easy! I was just kidding,” she chuckled cruelly.

“Well, that’s not really funny.”

“Oh, lighten up. I would have thought you’d be able to take a joke. Today’s a good day for me. I haven’t coughed once...except for then, but they were fake. But now I know you love me, because you freaked out just then. You love me, you love me, you love me,” she repeated as she wrapped her arms around me in a hug. Normally, I’d be extremely uncomfortable at the gesture, but just as I was about to shove her away – I noticed Wendy standing at the nurse’s window, glaring jealously and full of venom. I hugged her back as I deliberately returned an identical glare. I knew I had won the glaring contest when Wendy moodily stormed off into the backroom. I smiled at my victory and pushed Jezebel away.

“So, Jizzebel, does that mean you’re getting better?” I asked. I don’t know why I showed an interest in this girl’s problem – there was just something intriguing about her story. I didn’t have to be sympathetic towards her because she didn’t show any signs of needing it. She was already so accepting of her own, ever nearing death.

“I already told you; this disease only gets progressively worse. I’m not getting better. Internally I’m slowly deteriorating, for lack of better word. Don’t be fooled by how healthy I look on the outside. It’s only skin deep.”

“At least you’re healthy enough to try and rape me. I really enjoyed that by the way – thank you,” I praised sarcastically.

“Hey! It’s not rape if the attacker yells ‘surprise’! It’s surprise sex if anything.”

“Rape is, ah, having sex with another against their will, no matter what the attacker yells.”

“Okay, who died and made you the fucking king of rape?!” She screamed, attracting a lot of attention, may I add? “Let’s change the subject, shall we? Do you wanna go play some cards with the guys? I know you don’t get along well with some people on that table, but it’s better than sitting here and doing nothing. Do you know what the problem with you and Hush is? You’re too alike. You know what I think? I think you’ve both gone through tough times in the past. Hush has had problems with his parents and I’ve only heard rumours that you have too. When Hush was younger his dad was a drunk and his mother was frail and willingly endured the abuse dealt to her and Hush. Hush hated both of them, so one day he tried killing them by cutting the brakes to the car. However, his mother was saved by Bruce Wayne’s father. Soon after he was taken here after brutally attacking Bruce in summer camp. The name ‘Hush’ was given to him by Crane for being a boy who’s never satisfied with what he has. In that way, I think you can relate to him. So, please, just try and get along with him. Don’t tell him I told you any of this, by the way. Come on – let’s go.”

Both I and Jezebel placed ourselves at the table in between Croc and Nigma. There was no reaction at all to our appearance, instead they simply continued with their card game. “What are we playing?” Jezebel asked as she leaned in towards the table.

“Bullshit,” Crane replied.

“But you’ll have to wait to play. We’re not stopping this game just for you two,” Hush remarked harshly. Jezebel sighed as she leaned back in the chair. Her head rested on the side of my arm when she crossed her arms huffily. We both watched the game of Bullshit which never seemed to end. Each of them were equally good liars, so it was pretty hard to tell which of them were bullshitting. I lost interest with the game when I heard a familiar voice speak up from behind.

“So, what do you want now? Have you come to lecture me again?” Wendy’s familiar voice questioned from far away.

“Oh, no. No, I’m busy at the moment. I’ve been asked to help out in a group therapy session. It’s one of my patient’s first group therapy sessions, you see. Because unlike you, I like to help my patients instead of giving them blowjobs,” she replied cynically. This was also a voice I was extremely familiar with. It was Audrey. My head instantly turned – getting ready to watch a cat fight break out. Where’s the popcorn?

“Oh, that’s professional.”

“And teasing patients is? You should be thankful I haven’t told Dr Arkham about what you’ve been doing, hmm. You need to grow up, Wendy. This hate you have for me – just because I’m a doctor here and you’re not – has to stop. Whatever you’re planning to get out of this, isn’t going to work, so just quit while you’re ahead.”

“We’ll just see about that. Soon, he’ll open up to me. You’ll see. Speaking of which, how’s it going in the sessions? Getting any information out of him? Or have you given up hope with him yet? I’m going to enjoy seeing your face when I’ve rubbed all of the juicy information in it. I crack The Joker and then it’s an easy path to success.” Okay, that hit a nerve. And not in a good way. I literally wanted to get her by the throat and strangle the life out of her. I felt my teeth grinding together and my knuckles went white with blinding rage.

“Well...good luck with that. You obviously don’t know this man – at all. If you think it’s going to be that easy, then you’ve got another thing coming. I’m warning you; as soon as this man has the chance, he will kill you before you have the chance to put your panties back on. And he’ll lick at your wounds to have that extra self satisfaction. Trust me, stay away from my patient,” she warned and then I heard her heels click away.

I had already added Wendy to my list of things to ‘do’ today, but this task had suddenly become one of my main priorities. To begin with, I was never really fond of Wendy, but to say that now would be an understatement. The abhorrence I held for Wendy was just too odious to be able to explain it thoroughly and appropriately. Audrey had warned me about her and I believed her. But hearing it firsthand made my blood boil and my mind consumed with bad, bad thoughts.

“Are you okay?” Jezebel asked as she placed her hand over my pulsing fist. “Are you playing or not?” With hooded eyes I glowered up at her and hesitantly she pulled her hand away. I knew I shouldn’t have been angry at Jezebel; she hadn’t done anything wrong – but my bestiality had gotten the better of me. I could have taken this anger out of the most innocent of people.

I didn’t have to answer considering the head nurse came out of the nurse’s room and began shouting. “Gather around everyone! It’s time for our group therapy session.” I hadn’t been informed that I was to partake in this session, but then again, I hadn’t been informed on a lot of things. Willingly, I stood up and sat at one of the many chairs in a perfect semicircle. Jezebel was shooed out of this recreation room before the therapy session was allowed to commence. Directly in front of the semicircle were three chairs. In the middle was the old, head nurse. On the left was Wendy and on the right was Audrey.

“Welcome everybody,” the head nurse began with a cheery smile. I hated this woman. “Today I’d like to begin the session by introducing everyone to a new member. He likes to be called ‘Joker’. So everyone say ‘hello, Joker’.” Monotonously and in unison, everyone did so. It’s pre-school all over again. “Now, considering that this is your first session with us, Mr Joker – how would you like to introduce yourself and share your problems? Start the session off for us?”

“Problems? I don’t have any, uh, problems. What makes you think that, hmm?” I asked.

“Well, there has to be a reason why you’re here, right? A problem you may have,” she replied.

“In that case, Batman is my problem.”

“Care to elucidate?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, I suppose we’ve made a start. Waylon Jones, do you have anything to add on Joker’s problem with Batman?” The question was directed at Croc, so I automatically assumed that ‘Waylon Jones’ was his real name. I almost leaned in, in anticipation to hear him speak. It was seldom that I’d hear a noise being emitted from this man – I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak, in fact. In response to the nurse’s question, he merely shook his head from side to side slowly. “Are you sure? I’d really like to write in my notebook that you’ve expressed yourself for the first time. It’ll be beneficial for you if you open up and expose yourself in front of everyone.”

“Please! There are ladies present!” I exclaimed in faux shock. Audrey wasn’t able to restrain her laughter and ended up quietly chuckling to herself. The head nurse stared at her disapprovingly for her immaturity. Once Audrey realised this, she disguised her laughter with fake cough and straightened out her posture.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised quickly.

“Mr Joker, if you’re not going to say anything useful, please refrain from saying anything at all,” the nurse lectured, before focusing her attention back on Croc. “So, Mr Jones?” Once again, he shook his head in reply. “Dominic, how about you? Do you want to tell us anything?”

“Yes, actually,” this man who I’ve never noticed before replied. This man’s skin colour almost looked grey and his chapped lips were frosted with dry skin. He looked feeble and unsteady, as if he was about to collapse at any moment. “This time three years ago, I and my ex-wife were getting married. It’s our anniversary today. I should be home. I should be home right now, with her.”

“Dominic, your wife isn’t home right now. Is she, Dominic?” Audrey asked.

“No...no. She’s at home. Where else would she be? She’s at home. She’s waiting for me. Like she always is. She always waits for me.”

“We’ve been over this. You’re wife isn’t home. Where is she? Tell us where she is. Come on, Dominic, you know this,” Audrey tried to urge him. Quite frankly, I had no idea what they were talking about. But with every word spoken, this guy’s rocking back and forward became more apparent.

“I know what you’re trying to do. People keep telling me things. They keep telling me my wife’s never going to be home again. They say it’s my fault. I didn’t do it. I didn’t.”

“You know that’s not true. You’ve already confessed here what you’ve done. Don’t you remember? Why don’t you –”

“I didn’t want to hit her. I didn’t like hitting her. Every night she’d make me so....angry! She made me hit her. Then she’d cry. She’d tell me she hated me. It’s not my fault, it was hers.”

“And then what happened, Dominic? Things got worse, didn’t they? You couldn’t stand another second with her, could you? So what did you do to her?” Audrey continuously questioned.

“I DIDN’T KILL HER!” Dominic roared. I think I’d got the gist of what was happening now and it was rather entertaining. The good thing about these group therapy sessions was that people actually listened to you instead of waiting for their chance to talk.

“Okay, please calm down, Dominic,” Audrey ordered.

“DON’T say that...SHE always said that,” he growled as he buried his head in his knees and began rocking back and forth profusely. “She’d always beg me to stop. I didn’t listen. I kept on hurting her. I hated her. You remind me of her.”

“I remind you of your wife?” Audrey asked.

“You remind me of my wife. I fucking hated her. I hated my wife. I did kill her. You remind me of her. I slashed her throat. With a kitchen knife. She was trying to use it to cook something for me. She was always fucking late. She never did anything right. So I killed her. I hated her. You remind me of her. You remind me of her!” There was a moment silence. The admittance had stunned everyone. Just as Audrey was about to start talking again, Dominic abruptly stood up – knocking over his chair in the process – and charged towards Audrey. He pounced at her knocking both of them to the floor. There was a simultaneous release of gasps as Audrey was violently assaulted, yet no-one made an immediate move to help her. Audrey began screaming as she attempted to push him off of her. The head nurse ran off, most likely to find help. And Wendy simply watched the struggle happening on the floor – most likely enjoying the scene. I don’t know what had possessed me to do it, but I stood up also. No-one else seemed to be doing anything to help her. I quickly leaped at the guy choking Audrey and tore him off of her. Furiously, I began punching this stranger in the face profusely.

Why did I feel as if I needed to protect Audrey? I wasn’t quite sure myself. All I knew was that watching this man hurt Audrey infuriated me. Combined with the previously built up rage, I had to take it out on somebody. Beating this stranger senseless was helping me vent my anger.

It all came to an end when the guards entered the scene and tore me off Dominic. At least four guards were brutally abusing me. If I wasn’t being electrocuted with tazers, I was being struck with nightsticks and if neither of them, they’d use their bare hands. For once, I was the wrong culprit. It shouldn’t be me who’s getting beat up. I was trying to protect Audrey.

“Stop it!” Audrey shouted hoarsely. “Stop hurting him. Leave him alone!” No matter how many times Audrey would yell at them, they were relentless. They didn’t stop. When I was almost completely out cold and laughing as a defence mechanism had worn off, they stopped and then picked me up by my arms. They dragged my limp body towards the exit of the recreation room. I would have fought back if I wasn’t already weakened by an unfair advantage.