Our Perfect Insanity

ChApTeR TwO

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”
~Edgar Allan Poe

I stared at Ariel in shock.

What could she possibly mean by that? I wasn't crazy, I am a psychiatrist. I am sane, I always have been, and I always will be. Ariel obviously didn't know what she was talking about; after all, she was the insane one.

"I don't think so, Ariel. I'm not the insane one." I disagreed.

Ariel smiled at me, her smile was sweet, yet, delicately sinister.

"Oh, I don’t agree on that, doctor. Who else would know if someone was crazy, except another crazy person?" Ariel asked with a grinning, which caused me to notice how her teeth look almost... sharpened.

Ariel almost seemed… inhuman.

"I disagree." I stated, quite bluntly, might I add. Ariel smirked, before shrugging her shoulders beneath her form fitting straight jacket.

She grinned over at me, once more showing off her jagged teeth.

"Believe what you want, Jonathan. Though, I know the truth… actually, we all do. Hopefully, you'll come to except it too, and then you can bask in your own madness,” Ariel grinned. “Doesn’t that sound delightful?”

“No, not particularly.” I replied, frowning slightly.

She grinned.

“This session is over.” I said firmly, standing up and shuffling my papers, avoiding eye contact with the female the whole time.

I turned, setting my hand on the door handle, when she spoke again.

"Awe… did I offend you, Johnny Boy?"

I spun around again to glare at her, though she didn't even seem fazed.

"That’s Dr. Kilmury, to you." I sneered, causing her to quirk an eyebrow in response, though she was looking at me in amusement.

"Touchy, touchy..."

I turned and exited the room after that. Dr. Bell was waiting outside for me, a hopeful smile on her face.

"How did it go?" She questioned, looking at me curiously.

I smirked, handing her the clipboard in my hands. She looked down at it eagerly.

"You got her to talk?" She breathed, looking up at me, her tone sounding almost astonished. I nodded with a smirk, glancing back at the door of Ariel's room.

"She talked to me right away. She was very… relaxed." I told her, and Dr. Bell's eyes flickered, yet she grinned.

"May I watch the security tapes? I would love to see her speaking; I’ve never gotten her to talk before." Her voice wavered for a moment, though I shrugged it off and nodded.

"Yes, of course. We can go watch them now."

Kathryn smiled, clapping her hands together. She started walking quickly down the hall, towards the security room, where the tapes were kept.

I had to struggle to keep up with her.

"Kathryn… please, wait up..." I panted, struggling to keep up with her strides.

She glanced back at me, a laugh escaping her lips. I glared at her, and she rolled her light hazel eyes, slowing her pace and allowing me to catch up, while she tossed her brunette hair over her shoulder.

"One would think, for a twenty-seven year old, you'd have more stamina." She teased, and I scoffed, rolling my eyes as we neared the security room.

We entered, walking over to the nearest man sitting in front of a monitor.

"Hello, Doug. How are you?" Kathryn questioned, sweetly, and the man spun around in his chair, smiling at us.

"Oh, you know, can’t complain. Come to look at some tapes?" The man inquired, and Kathryn nodded.

"Yes. We wanted to borrow the tape of Dr. Kilmury's meeting with the patient in Room 269." Kathryn replied, and Doug turned and looked through a drawer, finding the correct one right at the front.

“Here you go. We just put it on tape, so it should work perfectly.” He said, turning and hanging it her.

Kathryn smiled at me, walking over to the room off to the side, which held the television that doctors could use to view interview tapes. Usually we did this to find out more about our patients, before interviewing them.

Kath slipped the tape into the machine, sitting down in the only available chair and leaving me to stand.

Deciding that there was no real reason for me to watch, seeing as I already knew what happened, I turned and slowly made my way over to the shelves, which were filled with tapes.

I walked around slowly, eventually finding the shelf with Ariel's patient number on it; #127. I filed through the tapes, examining them. There was already a copy of the tape Kathryn was watching, set up on the shelves.

The security people took their time organizing, and they made sure everything was easy to find. They were also quick with getting the most recent tapes, up on the shelves.

"Jonathan?"

Kathryn’s quiet voice was what snapped me out of my musings. I turned to see her looking at the, a odd look on her face.

I walked over to stand at her side, wondering what was wrong.

"Jonathan… she hasn't spoken a word..." Kathryn said to me, and I looked down at her in confusion. What on Earth was she talking about?

"What do you mean by that, Kathryn? I had a whole conversation with her-" Kathryn cut me off, shaking her head sadly and looking up at me.

"No, Jonathan… you're the only one talking."

She pointed to the screen, so, I turned my attention to it as well.

"That's an interesting name... so, why is it that you've never spoken to any of the other doctors, yet, here you are, speaking with me? Why is that?" My figure on the screen questioned.

I stared at the screen, my brow furrowing in confusion.

Ariel's figure on the screen leaned forwards, that same sly and psychopathic smile on her face. I knew what she was going to tell me, that I was apparently ‘just as crazy as the rest of them’,but, Ariel didn't say anything, just smiled.

"But… but, she talked to me. I know she did..." I muttered, looking at the screen in horror. Kathryn shook her head, standing up and shutting off the tape.

She turned to me and took me gently by the arms, tugging me out of the room.

"You're probably just tired, you know… imagining things. You should go home, get some sleep." Kathryn said gently.

I shook my head, staring at her in shock.

"No! She did, she spoke with me! That tape is fixed or... or something…" I breathed, searching for a reasonable answer for this.

Kath had a look in her eyes that I didn't quite understand as she shook her head.

"…why don’t you go home? Get some rest. You'll feel better in the morning." She told me, pushing me down the hall.

I sighed.

I couldn't have imagined her speaking.

We walked past the room of the room that Ariel was in, and I saw that she was standing just behind the glass.

I stopped, and so did Kathryn, eying me warily.

I looked through the window, and looked straight at Ariel. She smiled at me, and pressed her fingertip to the glass, revealing that she no longer had a straight jacket on.

A red stain appeared beneath her finger, almost like blood.

She began tracing something; it turned out to be a letter. Then she wrote another, and another, until she had written a sentence, though it was backwards.

I stared at it, and focused on reading it, even though it was written backwards.

'?ssendam eht gniyojne'

Those were the words. Reading the message backwards, I decoded it into: 'enjoying the madness?’ My breath caught in my throat, and I turned to Kath, who was still watching me warily.

"Can you... can you see that?" I asked shakily, pointing at the small window that bore the words written in blood.

Kathryn looked at the window and her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and she looked back at me.

"See what?" She asked, and I stared at her in horror, before looking back at the words, and Ariel standing behind them, smiling in fiendish delight.

"Nothing… it’s nothing. Just… never mind." I mumbled, and Kathryn took me by the shoulders, guiding me towards the exit, acting very kindly, as she always did.

"Go home, Jonathan... I'll see you in the morning." She told me, and I nodded my head, walking away from her and out the doors of the asylum, Ariel's words echoing in my head.

You're just as crazy as the rest of us.