Mr Dream. DNF

|3|

4.03pm, George's office

George sighed. It was the end of his work day, but he remained cooped up in his office thinking about a certain patient. That patient was Dream. George was trying to label what mental illness Dream could have, since he was definitely not playing an act. There was something wrong with him, some sort of trauma that haunted Dream.

Most people had trauma, you see. It's very common within this society to have childhood or any sort of trauma and not realize it. George was one of the victims to this childhood trauma. His parents were addicts from as far as he could remember. Always smoking,drinking, yelling. He was frequently beat and neglected as a child with many new scars on his face each week. This caused him to get caught up in his work as an adult and he never looked back.

George sighed again but louder this time and pushed his chair back, resting his head on the edge. He couldn't really diagnose the man after meeting him once. It would maybe take two or maybe three more appointments until George could guess what Dream had. He had thought about depression, which is why he gave Dream the prescription, but it might not have been the best decision after George got a report later that day that Dream had bit off the nurses finger while she tried to give him his medication. He was quickly taken off the anti depressants.

A knocking sound came from his door which caused the doctor to break his thoughts.
"Come in" he said while ruffling his hair. "Oh, it's just you Mr Jacobs. What brings you here?" Mr Jacobs, or Karl outside of work, was an old friend of George's from college where they both studied criminal physiology. They now both work at the hospital, however saw each other most at their shared apartment. "I was just coming to visit you, Mr Notfound. I was wondering how you where after your appointment with Dream".

Karl seated himself down on the table opposite George's desk and stared at him with curious eyes, waiting for an answer. George swirled his chair to face Karl, "Well, first of all he didn't talk much at all. Then I started explaining why I thought he chose to kill in the way he did. Not as in 'hey you stabbed those guys because this this and this'. I just explained his kill pattern-"
"As in that over analysed statement that you told me this morning?"
"Yes! That statement! And it turned out to be true. He even applauded after I began to overthink things"
"That's nice of him" Karl mumbled. George stopped for a moment.
"Karl don't pity him, he's killed people. He doesn't deserve sympathy."
Karl sighed, " I know George but... you always said that they were human just.... not in the right mind..."

George thought for a moment then replied. "I used to think that until I realised that some people deserve to be treated like animals. Especially if they hurt you. Or anyone else for that matter-"
"If this because of your parents?"
George stopped for a moment and looked Karl dead in the eye. "No, it's not. And not everything has to be about them anyway!" George snapped. Karl jumped at the sudden outburst. Stuttering, he quietly apologised and changed the subject.

After an hour of the two chatting away the decided to leave and head to their apartment. While walking to the metro, they shared a deep conversation about their favourite treatments to give to people. "Personally" Karl started, "I like the injections way more than anything else. I mean it's so enjoyable to watch the criminals cry out in pain, right?" George laughed and replied with, "I much prefer the ice bath treatment. You know I might use that on Dream because the hot and cold treatment looked like it showed some symptoms of pain on him." Karl laughed and nodded his head as they walked down the staircase leading to the metro. Graffiti covered the walls and chewed up gum stuck to the grey floors.

This part of L'manberg wasn't the worst, yet it still was horrible. The city was divided into three main areas: the centre being the richest and most high end area, the ring around it was poorer people, and the last ring being where the mafia and gangs stayed. 40% of the population lived in that area, which was dangerous, but the government didn't care.

When George and Karl got to the platform, they were immediately met with the stench of piss. It wasn't unusual for the metro to smell like this and it was lucky that it didn't smell of anything worse. It was around 5pm when the metal train came to a stop in front of their platform, George and Karl got on quickly and made their way too a pair of seats. A guy in front of them was smoking while an old man further down the carriage mumbled strange things. All common things in L'manberg.

~

Crack.
It was 7pm and George was sitting on his couch with Karl while they were opening fortune cookies. The air outside was cold and lights from the busy road below their apartment shone brightly into the room.
"What does it say?" George asked as he craned his neck to see what's the paper in Karl's cookie said.
"It says, True love with find you eventually in more ways then one. I'm going to find love Gogy!" He raised both his hands in triumph. George laughed then cracked his open, carefully taking out the white paper.
" Your life will change forever, but don't be afraid and accept these things. They will all end happily." He looked at the paper and thought for a moment before sighing sadly.
" Did you not want that answer?" Karl said as he put his arm around George and put his head against George's. George looked up at Karl, "It's not that I don't like it, it's just.. I don't want things to change. I like it this way." Karl sighed and brought George into a hug, resting his head on top of George and with George's face in his chest.
"It's not like any of that is true anyway," he started to speak softly to George as he knew his friend was difficult to speak too. "But look on the bright side, your lucky numbers are 16,75,40 and 38. Plus your lucky fruit is a peach."
"How is that supposed to help me feel better?"
" It's not, I was just reading the rest of your fortune. My lucky fruit is a grape." Both of them laughed. "Well Gogy, I think we should head to bed, don't you?"
"Yes, we should go to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow Karl. Good night!"
"Good night Gogy."

They both stood up and made their way towards their bedrooms. That night George thought a lot about Dream; about wether he could help the man or not. He never used to think about his patients outside of work, but something about Dream was different. It was probably the fact that the criminal wore a mask during their appointments. George couldn't be too sure but all he knew was that Dream had some effect on him, wether it be love or not George wouldn't let in get between him and his job. Not yet at least.

—————————————————

Word count: 1292