Damned.

Michel paced back and forth between the two twin beds of his room. With his right hand he rubbed his scruffy face and had the other hand under his right arm pit.

“Impossible. I do not believe it!” Michel muttered to himself.

His frantic and dizzying behavior had Alec tensed up into a ball on his bed. The younger boy wanted to ask what the problem was but was afraid that Michel would begin a rant in French as he had done once before.

In the middle of the room Michel paused. He looked at Alec. “Were you there last week?
When Luther threw another tantrum?”

“Who is Luther?”

“Oh, you’ve seen him around. The guy with those ridiculous slippers and the curler in his hair. Everyday he goes around the cafeteria asking for everyone’s pudding.”

Alec’s blank expression said it all. Doesn’t anyone pay attention in this God forsaken place? Michel asked himself. He sat on the edge of his bed, facing Alec. He had followed the two male nurses that had taken Luther away. He followed them until they got to the basement floor but he wouldn’t have made it past the security at the end of the hall. Instead, he waited for them to come back. After hours had passed and there was no sign of their reemergence, Michel decided to wait back up on his own floor.

He hadn’t seen Luther ever since that day. It was too suspicious for Luther to just disappear. The man was practically famous on their floor and there would’ve been talk if he’d been cured and let out. Michel’s hand went back to rubbing his stubble just as a knock came at their door.

Chelsea, the same flirty nurse, poked her head in. “Just a reminder Michel that you’re supposed to see Dr. De Clercq in ten minutes.”

Michel groaned when Chelsea winked and closed the door.

“This Luther guy…” Alec said quietly as Michel rose from his bed. “Did something happen to him?”

Michel shrugged. “Je ne sais pas… But I’m going to find out.”

With confidence, Michel strolled to his therapist’s office for their one-on-one session. He hated these sessions with a passion just as everyone else probably did but he would placate them for now. Sitting down in the chair in front of Dr. De Clercq’s desk, Michel put on a calm smile.

“My, is that a smile I detect?” the doctor asked.

The patient shrugged. “If I smile too much I might get the tranquilizer isn’t that it?”

Dr. De Clercq frowned. “Why would you think that Michel? We want you to be happy here at Ashworth. Our goal is to cure you.”

Michel narrowed his eyes. He wanted to get to the bottom of what happened to Luther without making himself out to be overtly suspicious. “To cure us?”

“Yes, of course.”

Michel put his finger to his chin and his gaze landed on the bookshelf behind the doctor. His mouth almost watered at the sight of them. It had been days since he’d felt the intoxicating sensation of paper on his fingers and been able to read leisurely.

Faire attention! Michel scolded himself. He dragged his eyes from the books and placed them on Dr. De Clercq who was smiling knowingly.

“Like my collection?” he asked.

“Not as impressive as my own but, given my circumstances, yes. You’ve got quite a lot of volumes. What exactly would happen, doctor, if I were to take one of your books or threw a tantrum until I got my way?”

Dr. De Clercq’s face shadowed with a frown. “I wouldn’t advise doing anything of that sort Michel. It wouldn’t be beneficial to your recovery.”

Michel scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Recovery… Right, but let’s just say I did. What would happen?”

“Well, Michel, we’ve got special kinds of behavior correction treatments. So far, none of them have been very… enjoyable but they get the job done.”

“So what treatment did you give to Luther?”

Dr. De Clercq cleared his throat and shuffled the papers on his desk. “I think we’ll call this session to an end. I seem to have forgotten how much work I have left to do before the day is out.”

“Bien sûr,” Michel said getting up from his chair.

He smiled cordially to his doctor and exited the room. Dr. De Clercq’s smile dropped immediately into a frown. He picked up his phone and dialed a three digit number.

“We may have a little problem on our hands,” he said.

“What’s up boss?” the gruff voice said from the other end.

“The patients may be getting suspicious. Well, the smart ones at least. Perhaps if you had been more discreet as I had instructed none of this would’ve happened.”

“You want us to take care of it boss?”

Dr. De Clercq sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. No need to draw anymore unwanted attention. Just keep a close eye out on Michel Louis-Charles. He’s a sneaky one.”

“Alright boss.”

“And another thing Horace… I am a doctor of medicine dedicated to bettering the lives and mental states of my patients. Do not call me boss!”

Back in his room, Michel felt the need to talk to someone about his suspicions. Although Alec was obviously oblivious to patients disappearing, Michel would inform him. He sat the young man down and told him about his book smuggling with Arthur. They’d discovered that he’d been breaking the rules and they carted him away, never to be seen again.

“I thought you said you didn’t know that guy? How come they didn’t take you too?” Alec asked, wide-eyed.

“Of course you’re not going to expose your fellow patient! What kind of principles do you American’s have? Mon Dieu…”

Alec frowned but ushered Michel to continue.

“Now there’s Luther. He had that awful tantrum last week. It may have been his third this month and when they hauled him away, I followed. I haven’t seen him since.”

“So you think they’re killing off the patients? Why would they do that?”

“C’est une bonne question.”

Alec shook his head and threaded his fingers into his black hair. “But… this doesn’t make sense. We’re here so they can help us, not hurt us! What kind of place is this?”

Michel flinched when Alec shot up from his bed. Now it was Alec pacing back and forth but significantly more frantically.

“What’re we going to do? We have to get out of here. We have to go before they come for us too!”

Michel used a soothing voice. “If we behave then they won’t come after us.”

“I’m not going to sit around and take that chance,” he said, going for the door. He found it locked and struggled with the knob. “Hey! Let me out of here! Hey!”

“That’s never going to work,” Michel said calmly.

Alec didn’t pay him any mind and continued banging and kicking on the door. He soon turned around and Michel saw the crazed, caged animal look in his eyes. Alec turned himself onto the furniture in the room. He flipped over his bed and yanked the drawers out of the bureau, scattering identical articles of his dark red uniform all over the room. Michel tried to distance himself as far from the rampaging youth as he could, hoping that an outburst like this would get the attention of a passing nurse.

“I want out!” he yelled, ripping yet another one of his uniforms from his body. He tore it to shreds and let it scatter among the rest of the clutter he’d created.

The door barged open just as he ripped open his mattress. Michel watched with utter disbelief as the scene unfolded before him. It took two men and two women to contain Alec long enough to stab him with a syringe. Only a few seconds after the injection, Alec fell limply into one of the male nurse’s arms. He managed the boy by himself and exited the room.

“Wait a minute!” Michel yelled at the group of nurses who turned to leave as well.

“Yes?” one of the female nurses turned to him brightly.

He was surprised by her unflappable happiness. “Where are you taking him?”

“Just downstairs. Maybe a change of environment and a little behavioral correction will do him some good.”

“He’ll be back right?”

The young woman smiled and shrugged. “It all depends on little Alec doesn’t it? I recommend that you take this little incident to heart. You don’t want to end up like Alec now do you?”

The ominous tone in her voice belied her facial expression but Michel didn’t say anymore. What more was there left to say? Michel couldn’t let this go on for much longer but he had to be smart about it.

“It’ll be like I’m not even here,” he said with a smile.