Weirdo (Steven Grant)

Chapter 57

"Help!"a boy yelled

"This is all your fault!" A girl screamed to someone...

Taweret started yelling along with Steven and Marc while Lana just looked in confusion at the three of them.

"Calm down. Marc? Marc. I didn't shoot you. Your mind is violently vacillating between sense and nonsense. " Arthur said, what the hell?

He was just in the hall, and he's back in Arthur's office now.

"Picture this, all right? Your brain is a pendulum. Swinging between a very difficult reality that you are me and My Daughters patient here at Putnam Medical Facility in Chicago, Illinois and a reassuring fantasy that you've created on your own. " arthur continued.

But Marc swore that his life wasn't just a fantasy. He didn't know anything about a medical facility at all nor remember one ever.

"That you're some kind of, I don't know, superhero. All right? You are doing everything and everything possible to not look within "

"Your not really a doctor." Marc said.

"Is that why you keep starting imaginary fights in our hospital?"

"No, you're not a doctor. Neither is Lana."  Marc said, still confused.

"Look. I feel real. I feel like a real doctor. I'm pretty sure Lana is real too."

"You both are not real doctors." Marc repeated.

"Well, all right." Arthur chuckled "We aren't real doctors. Okay, well, All right, all right." He was starting to get a little angry. "

Arthur calmed himself down before speaking, "It's not about me, okay? Let's start with you. Let's try it your way. Retrace your steps. Tell me. Tell me. How did you come to be here today?"

"How did you get here?" Marc asked.

"I took the bus. Like I always do. You wanna know what you told me, how you got here? You told me that you were in a place that was oddly reminiscent of this office except that it was in Egypt, right? And that you were with a rhinoceros and..." Arthur was going to continue.

"Hippopotamus." Marc finished, finally realizing.

"You're right, I'm.. You're right it was a hippopotamus. But it- it talked. And you also said you were with some lady covered in stars?"

Marc looked at him.

"Now what do you think? Do you think that is sense or nonsense?" Arthur asked, making gestures with his hands.

"Nonsense?" Marc said,sounding more  like a question.

"I find this really encouraging. Honestly, I do. The struggling mind will often build places to seek shelter for different aspects of the self from our most traumatic memories. It's called just an organizing principle, okay? Some people they see a castle, right? Somebody else will see a maze, or a library."

Marc stared at him before thinking of what to say.
"Or a.. psych ward?"

Arthur was a bit shocked by what he said.

"Yeah. Or it could be. Could be a psych ward. Yeah."