Eyes On Creel

corridors of her mind II

:☆: A/N: S4 E5 Spoilers, adaption of the storyline, insanity, panic

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We march up to Nancy's bedroom, Steve was pushing behind us, the two of us now farther behind Nancy and Steve.
"Nancy, you're out of your mind if you think I'm babysitting again." Steve muttered.
"Okay, first of all, they're not babies anymore, and Max is in real danger." Nancy said.
"--She needs people around her." Nancy argued.
"-I know. But why me?" Steve asked.
Robin and I finally followed them up the stairs, "Oh my God, you have a Tom Cruise poster." Robin exlaimed.
"You have a Tom Cruise poster." Nancy repeated in a smugly-seductive tone, smirking towards her.
"That's.. old." Nancy said, trying to defend her honor.
Robin giggled, opening a bedside drawer.
"-It's just.."
"-Can you please not touch anything?" Nancy asked.
"-I just, I, I cant do anything here, Nance." Steve argued.
"-Maybe I can be helpful with this asylum director dude, I don't know." Steve said.
"I could turn on my.. my charm!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers.
"-Not the kind of charm we need." Nancy said smugly.
"Ouch." Steve said, obviously offended.
"No, I just.." She sighed.
"I did a little digging last night, and it turns out this Dr. Hatch is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Harvard visiting scholar, okay?" Nancy explained, very frustrated
I was sat on Nancy's bed, Robin was going through Nancy's stuff, like a child, giggling.
"This is a lifelong student of the world, and if we're gonna win him over, we're gonna have to convince him we are too." Nancy said.
Robin had activated a small jewerly box's music, a soft little tune began playing.
Nancy explained, gesturing towards Robin.
"That like him-.. we are true academic scholars." She said, grabbing something out of her closet.

Robin whispered "Holy shit. There's a little ballerina in here," said, ending it with a small little giggle. I giggled with her, the two looking at us, "Academic Scholar, she's giving you, academic scholar vibes, yeah." Steve said with heavy sarcasm, gesturing towards Robin.
"Shut up, you ass." I argued at him, defending Robin.
Nancy brought out some clothes for Robin, "No.. but..." Nancy trailed off "-...She will." She said, smiling.
Robin turned around, her giggly expression dropping, "Oh, please, tell me you're joking." Robin groaned. Nancy smiled, lifting the clothes up to face Robin.
"You're going to kill Robin, utterly kill her." I joked.
"What she said! Don't make me wear.. that." Robin begged, groaning.

                            [...]

Nancy, Robin and I, headed to Pennhurst asylum, parking in the front lot.
Robin was groaning, struggling to walk as she had heels on, she was dragging her feet and stumbling.
"I can't breathe in this thing, and I'm itchy."
"--I'm itching all over!" Robin sneered at Nancy.
"It's not all about comfort, okay?" Nancy said.
"We're academics." I said sarcastically, Robin groaned.
"Who are evidently coming straight from Easter brunch." Robin said sarcastically.
"Also, this bra you gave me is really pinching my boobs." She complained, picking at her shirt.
"Okay. Could you just let me and y/n do the talking? If that's even possible?" Nancy sneered at her.
"It's not even possible, it inevitable, because shortly, I'llbe dead from strangulation!" Robin said.
...
"3.9 GPA, the three of you, impressive." He said, quickly shutting the red paper-folder.
"And this is a recommendation from Professor Brantley." Nancy said, handing the man a paper.
"Yeah, I know Larry. Quite well, actually." Hatch said, glancing at us with a small smile.
Robin and I glanced at eachother, then at Nance.
"Eh, you know what they say, those who can't do, teach," He said, taking off his glasses, smiling still.
Robin and I started falsely giggling, trying to sell the act.
"Uh, yes, yes, that's actually why we're here." I said.
"I mean we can only learn so much in a classroom." I explained.
"Mmm." He muttered.
"And I'm sympathetic to your struggle, truly." Dr. Hatch said.
"--But there is a protocol to visiting a patient like Victor, you have to out on a request, and then you have to undergo a screening process, at which point the board will make a decision." He explained.
The three of us turn to him, utterly disappointed, "But I am more than happy to give you a tour of our facility."
"Perhaps you can even speak to some patients in our low-security wing." He offered.
"--And we'd... we would love that, it's just that, um.. [clicks tounge].. our thesis is due next month." Nancy said, trying to come up with a good lie along the way.
"And you're out of time, whose fault is that?" He asked sternly.
"Ours. Absolutely." I agreed.
"And we do apologize--" I said.
"Dont apologize Martha, Ruth. Screw that." Robin said.
"The fact of the matter is we did put in a request months ago and were denied." Robin argued, "And then we reapplied and were denied again, and coming here was our last-ditch effort to save our thesis, and I really, I can't breathe in this thing." Robin said, picking at her ruffled shirt collar, facing Nancy.
"Well, Rose, maybe you'd like to go outside and get some air." Nancy seethed through her teeth, towards Robin.
"-Maybe I should, Ruth,"
"Mm-hm." I nodded at the two of them, forcing a smile at Hatch.

"Because I'm starting to think this whole thing is a colossal mistake, I'm breaking out in a rash, my boobs hurt, and I'll tell you the truth, Anthony, May I call you Anthony? These aren't actually my clothes, I borrowed them--because I wanted you to take us seriously, because nobody takes girls seriously in this field."

"--They just don't, we don't look the part or whatever. But can I tell you a story?" "1978, I was at summer camp, and my counselor Drew told me and everyone in cabin C the true story of the Victor Creel Massacre, and little Petey McHew.. you guys know Petey, right Ruth, Martha?"
"Of course." We said in unison.

Robin continued her argument, "Little Petey McHew started sobbjng right there on the spot, full-on hyperventilating. And all the other campers, they couldn't sleep for weeks!--And I couldn't either, but not 'cause I was scared, because I was obsessed with rhe question, what would drive a human being to commit such unimaginable acts?" She continued
...
"So yes, we don't have the official paperwork, but don't tell me that little cry-baby McHew wouldn't have gotten an audience with Victor in a matter of moments, if he'd asked politely, because you and I both know that he would!" She breathed out.
"So.. ten minutes with Victor, that's all I ask." Robin pleaded.
Hatch leaned into his chair, the chair slightly ripping backward.
                            [...]

"These are our gardens, beautiful, aren't they?" He said, touring us around the facility before reaching Victor's wing.
"Creepy, yeah?" I whispered to Robin.
She nodded, the older patient staring at us  as we pass, in a eerie, but creepy way.
"We allow them two hours of outside time a day." Hatch said, glacing at a few of the wandering patients.
"Can't they just.. escape?" Robin asked curiously.
"They could, but the vast majority choose to be here." "--They like it here." Hatch explained to Robin.
...
Classical music was playing lowly as we walked into a room with many patients in white, record players on a few tables, a chalkboard on the wall, it read "Moonlight Serenade" and "Red Sails In The Sunset."
"This is one of our more popular areas, the listening room." Hatch said.
"We found that music has a particularly calming effect on the broken mind, the right song, particularly one that holds some personal meaning, can hold a sailing stimulant, but there are some, who are beyond the cure." Hatch said.

We managed to persuade Dr. Hatch into letting us see Victor Creel alone, as we can be rather.. persuasive.

I didn't imagine this as 'meeting the parents' but, yeah.

...

"Victor! Today's your lucky day, you've got visitors, real pretty ones." The guard said in a creepy tone, making me gag to myself.
..
"Hatch knows I don't talk to reporters!" Victor sneered.
"We're not reporters, and we're here because.. we believe you, and because.. we need your help, and whatever killed your family, we think it's back." Nancy explained to him.
He slowly turned towards, us his eyes were gooped up, like white pus, like he took blades to his eyes. The sight frightened me at first, making me run into the dull coloured brick wall.
I slowly got up, makimg my way back to Victor and the girls.
"Does any of this, anything we've told you, sound like what happened to your family?" Nancy asked, Victor was rubbing his hands together, "Victor, I know this is hard--" I said.
"You don't know, anything!" He shouted loudly.
"You're right." Nancy said.
"We don't know."
"That's why we're here." Nancy explained.
"--To learn, to understand." I interjected.
He turned towards us once more, "We need to know how you survived that night." Robin said.
Victor Creel let out a disbelieving laugh, "Survived?" He asked sarcastically, "Is that what your call this?" He sneered. "Did, I, Survive?" He said, crossing his arms.
"--No I asure you, I am still very much in hell." He said, inching closer to the metal bars.
...
He explained the Creel backstory, he didn't believe me when I said his son was still alive, as if I was the crazy one, but maybe he doesn't have it all wrong, perhaps.

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