Silence Falls

Jack couldn’t form any words at the moment, and it wasn’t just because this Hermanni character was extraordinarily gorgeous! Never in all his life has he ever seen a man as good-looking as this man in a cage. In fact, no one of the opposite sex has ever seemed alluring to him before. Jack shook his head in distrust, he was now beginning to believe he was more traumatized by his friend Matt's undue death than he thought, especially if he was thinking that this young man was utterly tempting at a time like this. Jack averted his eyes from the uncanny ones of this jailed man to stare down at his dirty shoes.

“I know we have just met, but I am in a very burdensome plight as you can see, and I am in need of some assistance. I hope that is where you come in?” Hermanni queried, tilting his head to one side as he surveyed the handsome Orderly sharply from between the bars of his cage.

Jack was brought back from his thoughts by the prisoner’s last sentence, his eyes flitting from his shoes to the cage. Anxiously, he mumbled in a voice he could barely hear himself. “E-Excuse me?”

Hermanni gave him a warm lenient smile, not minding that he had to repeat himself. “I need your help Jack, and it is very important to me that you give me your generous partnership. I need your allegiance, your strength and your honesty for what I require you to do.”

“Y-You’re a prisoner.” Jack stated softly, not moving an inch of his body as he reminded them of that fact.

“Yes, I am.” Hermanni agreed, nodding. “And I also know that because I am locked in this tower, you presume that I must belong here for a very good reason.”

Jack nodded, feeling like a jumpy toddler introducing himself to his class on his first day of school.

“I will not defend myself against your beliefs. If you believe I am fit to squander the remainder of my life beneath the waters of this room then I will not argue. But you and I know very well that not every sinner in this swamp deserves the condemnation they reap so inhumanly every day here. In fact, I will share my own belief with you because I know that you are not as nefarious as your fellow staff. You still have time.” Hermanni replied, wishing that he could just move through the bar of his cage to stretch his limbs out but he knew Jack would flip out. He needed the Orderly to accept the truth first and face the malpractice being carried out in the swamp instead of being stumped brainwashed into believing it’s all okay. Above all, he needed Jack to help him.

The young orderly seemed to wait patiently for him to go on.

“Not every patient deserves to be in here, or your Hospital, or your departed facility. They were once ordinary citizens like you and everyone else in your town. And yet one inconsequential mistake is all they had to do to be incarcerated here for life? I have heard that you humans are not perfect, and I second that testimony. Your kind will forever make mistakes after mistakes for years to come. Take Bert McCracken for example. The young man had spent all his life following the rules until that one time he violated them to rescue a young lady in need. Instead of applauding him, compensating him for that good deed…they casted him underground along with the young lady for company. Out of all the patient’s files you have spent years critiquing, his file is the one you have criticized the most, and you still do not understand why that is.” Hermanni exposed, watching the Orderly raise his head in horror.

“H-How did you know about that?” Jack stammered, staring into those intense eyes that could see more than he could ever begin to understand.

Hermanni raised a dark brow. “How did I know what? That you defied the hospital’s rules by taking HIS file off their premises to the comfort of your own home for reasons you do not yet understand?”

Jack’s wide eyes magnified as he finally shuffled a step back. “How did you- How could you-“

“I know things that I do not have to witness nor hear. I understand things that I should not be capable of understanding. It is a small gift that is one of the causes of my imprisonment…as well as my new name ‘The Devil’. I am sure you have heard it.” Hermanni shared, leaning against one side of his cage as he watched Jack blink a few times before urging himself to renounce everything he was just told.

Jack shouldn't even be considering anything Hermanni was telling him because the guy was a patient in the ASYLUM, the lowest place anyone could be sent to! That was all it took for him to delete away this entire discussion completely from his memory. With his hands pressing against each side of his head, Jack whispered to himself. “No no no no no, this has to be some kind of dream! A nightmare!”

Hermanni tilted his head in confusion. “Why must it be? Can this moment not be as real as all the impaired souls limping the halls of your hospital?”

Jack shook his head, looking a bit taken aback by his question. “Of course not! What is happening here is impossible! You’re just a prisoner that’s locked up here day in and day out…and yet somehow you know what I do in the comfort of my own home?! What are you going to tell me next, huh? That you killed Matt?!” Jack blurted out that last part and was completely rattled when the man took accountability.

Hermanni glanced down at Matt’s corpse floating in the water. “Ah yes, Matt. I do owe you an apology for his death. As I said earlier, I have not had an admirable time down here. I suppose it was rather impolite of me to take it out on your guide, and for that I give you my deepest condolences. Matt had a vulgar way of speaking and I let it get to me.”

Blanched, Jack gaped at Hermanni through bug eyes. He wasn’t shocked by him claiming responsibility for Matt’s death rather how forthright he was about it. His apology sounded so trustworthy that Jack almost believed that he didn’t mean to murder Matt. He had to get a hold of himself soon, or he was about to lose it. No, he had to get away back to WORK despite what had just happened not an hour ago. Throwing up his hands, Jack exclaimed to both himself and Hermanni. “Enough! Okay, that’s enough! I can’t listen to this anymore! I shouldn’t even still be here in the first damn place!”

“You can believe me or not, it is up to you. But I will NOT let you leave this room until you…let me show you something.” Hermanni cut in, starting to become testy with Jack’s stubbornness.

Jack scoffed in aversion, shaking his head in defiance. “NO, I don’t need to listen or see anything you have to show me! You’re nothing but a prisoner!”

Hermanni sighed, narrowing his eyes a little. “Yes, a prisoner indeed…that can apparently detonate your head from the inside out without so much as a glance. Do you really want to test that theory because I truly do not want to be responsible for your promising life ending so shortly tonight?”

Becoming rigid as steel, Jack wasn’t really sure what to believe in or do anymore. Heads didn’t just explode out of nowhere the last time he heard, but it was even more difficult to believe that a person could do it without so much as lifting a finger. Believing that this prisoner was telling the truth was too hard to do. The best Jack could do was to humor the guy. “Y-Yeah? Well, how are you going to show me anything when you’re locked up in that cage like an animal! You can’t get out!”

“I can show you without unlocking my cage. It is as simple as giving me your hand.” Hermanni stretched a hand out from between the thick bars, the palm faced up.

Jack stared at his hand like it belonged to a monster, unsure if he was going to go along with Hermanni’s plan. With a wary sigh, he placed a rough trembling hand in his, thinking what the worst that could happen. The prisoner’s hand wasn’t as rough as his, but also wasn’t as soft as a rose petal. Jack was soon shocked to notice that his hand was somehow completely dry of water right before his vision went black.