Depth: Into Insanity

Chapter 1: Wake

BOOM! CA-RASH!

I jet up to a sitting position, the lightning yelling for me to wake. I look at my surroundings, my bedroom, my comfortable large bed I sat in, the desk I use to do my work in and a bookcase where I keep my favorite pieces of literature. That book, The Tell-Tale Heart by Mr. Poe is fascinating to me. Such darkness in such a man… and such an imagination... I get up to move to my desk. Upon it was one of my own manuscripts; Men of Minds by Vincent Leonardo III. I am not satisfied with it, as my publisher has a mutual feeling of the story. It does not really capture his or my eye even though I wrote it. I only have started becoming an author though. I sigh, getting up and picking up a lantern. Lighting it as I started making my way out of the room.

I walk into a room, dark and brooding. My footsteps echo as I take each step inside. The only thing visible in the shadow of a dark morning was a chair. The chair was just there, for no reason, mocking me as if it says, “Ha ha… look at you, you have only two legs while I have four. You’re not a chair.”

It somewhat bothered me; the chair, just sitting there in the darkness of the room. I shook off the feeling and walked past it, knowing I left it there because I needed to fix a leak on the ceiling. I walk downstairs, the stairs whispering as I took a step on each one of them, like a small orgasm to my ears. I took another step but nearly fell forward, stomping it down in fear of falling. I should have realized there were not nineteen steps. I walk across the hall, passing by my predecessors.

I look upon them as I walk, Vincent Leonardo II, my father who is now deceased, wearing his vest under a long magenta jacket. Many of my associates say I have his personality. Ha, they do not know what goes on upstairs. The kind of psychotic thoughts I have at night that should make me be put in an Asylum. No matter, I do not show it, in danger of actually being put in one of those madhouses. My mother however is the contrary of my father, in the background of the portrait is her, Joan Mary Leonardo, her soft face and warm eyes always soothed me when I used to sit on her lap. She wore a long red dress with white ruffles under it. A diamond necklace hugged her neck, making her appear more beautiful than she already was. She wore no makeup, showing that her beauty is natural. But, do not judge a book by its cover, inside she was nearly as psychotic as me… and she showed it. I remember the day she was taken away to the St. Baltimore Aslyum. I was only a young lad, fourteen years old, my father holding me back as we watched her being pushed into the wagon and driven away. She died of tuberculosis only a years after; my father suffered the same fate a decade later.

When I was younger, I could not take it that both my parents were dead. I did not want to believe such a thing. However, as I grew, I realized more and more and I needed to move on. Although on this wall, there were many of my ancestors, the men and women that made my father’s father and soon, me; my parents were the most important for me. Mostly mother. My eyes began to water and my throat closed up, the thoughts were rushing at me, and overcoming me with sadness. I push through, wiping my eyes with my arm and trying to think of something else. Ah, yes, there was one person who helped me come through as well…

“Sire.” A voice spoke, I look to the door at the left and smiled. Standing there was my trusted servant, William. His face was wrinkled and his eyes were a very light grey. In his hands was a plate, silver with an yellow lining and covered with a hollow dome. “Your breakfast.”

I nodded to him and gladly took the plate. I can already smell the scrumptious food under the cover. “Thank you, William. Is the wagon ready?”

“Yes sire, ready to depart to Columbia.” William responded calmly. He always reminds me of my Uncle Lucas with his tone of voice.

“Thank you, William, you are dismissed.” He bowed to me and walked back to the Living Room. I walk back to my room, past the chair that was mocking me and to my desk. I set the plate on my desk and pull the chair out to sit down. However, there was something… strange with the plate… the dome shifted…

It was probably my imagination…

I sit down and open the dome; something flew past my head, cutting my ear. I cry out in pain, and grip my ear, I look back see the disc, flying towards me. I duck. Barely. It had cut a piece of my hair, ricocheting off the desk and wedging itself into the bed. I can’t take the pain in my head, it’s excruciating!  Nails banging into my skull, a hammer constantly slamming into my cerebrum!

“Sire!” I look up and see William, knelt down and to my side. I got up and gave a very angry glare at him.

“What is wrong with you, William! Are you attempting to assassinate me!!” I yelled at him, balling my hand into a fist.

“Sire, may I ask of what do you speak of?” William said to me. By the second I grew much angrier at him.

“The sawblade that you commanded somehow to kill me!!” He gave me a dumbfounded look and touched the lobe of my ear, drawing brown liquid from it.

“Sire, were you playing with your food?” He asked me.

“I am 28, of course I was not!” Then it hit me. I look back at where the ‘disc’ was wedged in. It was just a… pancake… “Wha-what?” I take some of the ‘blood’ on my ear and took a lick… maple syrup… “Wha- bu- how?!”

“Sire, you must learn to control yourself. Please eat your food like a gentleman.” William said to me, before leaving my bedroom.

How? How did this happen? I decided not to think about it too much and sat down, seeing that there were scrambled eggs and two pancakes on it… the third stuck on the wall. I walk over to take the ‘disc’ off the wall and dropping it into a basket where I throw my garbage. I sat back down and ate my breakfast… this morning was very… ludicrous in my taste.

I am still not sure why I saw what I saw, nor how the pancake flew across my ear and into the wall… Once I finished my breakfast I began to put on my clothes. I look outside, seeing that the sky was clearing itself of the dark clouds that lurked the town of Haven. The townsfolk began to leave their homes to their day of work, charity, and series of events. However, there was one that I had my eyes on. I reach for a spyglass and raise it to my eye.

‘Twas as if I was watching a swan, so beautiful and majestic. Her pale face and long brown hair, bounded into a bun. She wore a silk dress and carried a large umbrella. She walked the sides of the street, swaying as she took each step. Her name… Charlotte. I would love to court her, but what would she find in a man like me?

I am sure things will be calmer, later today during my trip to Columbia…