A Crown of Clouds

Chapter 9

I could hear screaming coming from a room down the hall, the high pitched shrill of the woman's voice had kept me up the past two nights. Not even two pillows worked in muffling her screams, which often turned into weeping. It made me wonder what kind of shadows lurked in the corners of her past, the horrors that still lurked and tortured her. I'd never ask her though, not that she ever looked up to even say hello. This place was filled with a mixed bag, some people looked so surprisingly normal, I liked to think I was one of them.

Day three in this place and I was sorely regretting my choice to come here. I needed help to feel normal, and sane...yet this place somehow made me feel more insane. "Hal Lancaster, Doctor Jeane is ready to see you now," thank goodness, I'd been sitting alone in this waiting room for over an hour. "Thank you, Miss Jones," I said as I smiled at her, she didn't smile back, her eyes looked a little glazed over.  Miss Jones was normally the kindest person in this entire asylum, she always smiled and had one of those laughs that would echo throughout the walls, her sass was that of a 28-year-old African American woman, but today, nothing.

I opened the door and found Doctor Jeane sitting with his back towards me, he was tapping away on his computer, spinning around he grinned more cheerily than he normally did... "How are you this morning Miss Lancaster?"

"I'm okay I guess..." I went to keep speaking when Doctor Jeane interrupted, "That's great to hear, would you mind shutting the door so we can begin."

"Oh of course sorry, I completely forgot the door," something was off, it was like Doctor Jeane had stolen Miss Jones' personality and replaced hers with his own full personality. Sitting down on the chair, Doctor Jeane locked eyes with me, with an intensity I didn't know what to do with, how to react. He spoke after a moment, "Hal, what I'm about to tell you is every bit as true as the sky is blue, listen carefully, I don't have long!"

"Is this a new method of therapy? I don't understand?" Just then, Doctor Jeane, in his white pasty skin and thinning hair, morphed right in front of my eyes, turning into a forty-year-old, dark-skinned male. My stomach churned at the sight, I was going to barf, "this is wrong, I must be having another episode, I need to..."

"Hal, look at me, you are not having an episode, everything you have seen is real, you need to get out of here, they know you exist now and will be coming for you..." his voice was stern, steady, sickeningly serious. "Oh this is definitely a hallucination, I came here to get help from these nightmares, and now I'm hallucinating my doctor..." My head pounded once again,  I looked around the room trying to find a focal point to focus on, to bring my mind back into my body...wherever that was, if I was even in this Mental Institute.

"Hal!" The Doctor snapped in front of my face, clicking his fingers, "look around you, does everything seem real, touch something, does it feel solid, is this room exactly as you remember it?" I looked around, I picked up the jar of jelly beans with a gorilla handle that were always sitting there. Everything in the room was normal, real, yet there sat a man I had never seen, who was Doctor Jeane when I walked in, and now someone else I'd never seen. He continued speaking as he watched my eyes scan the room, "illusions are one of our gifts, I had to get you away from everyone... Hal, please focus, I need you to listen!" I tried hard to focus, the man looked human, yet not... his eyes danced with a secret I didn't know... "I knew your parents, you were spotted in Westerwick and reported to the High Lord, you aren't safe here... go home, I have placed a safety seal on your home, you will be secure there."

"Westerwick? You knew my mother? a seal?" I clutched my head, none of this was making sense... "Hal, I know none of this seems possible, soon enough it will all make sense," suddenly there was muffled yelling not far away.

"I have all your things back at your apartment already, Miss Jones thinks you have discharged yourself and you are fine, she will be back to herself the minute I leave, I will transport you back there, I cannot come, however, I have mere seconds left before I will be taken back to where I am from."