Waterveil

1.

Dreams they called them, I wouldn’t call them dreams, then again I’ve never really experienced what people describe as a normal dream, I’ve always been in and out of Waterveil” she looked at me adjusting her glasses with her pink notebook resting on her high crossed knee, held only by her parker pen. “You mentioned Waterveil again, that is the world you say you go to in your “dreams” sarcastically performing the common gestures as the word dream slipped her tongue. I really wonder why my parents are paying for this woman to scrutinise me and try to find answers in what I’ve already told them in the plainest form possible. Why couldn’t they just let me stay in my white padded room for the rest of my “rehabilitation”? This world that I’m so told is the “real world” feels like nothing more than purgatory, no understanding, no complexity. Waterveil, the world I love so dear was the only place I ever want to be and wish to stay in forever but the only way I could return to my sacred land would be to play along in this interrogation of hers, I could stand a few more minutes of withdrawal, as she said “for the good of everyone including yourself” I heard a sudden siren noise and I opened my eyes, I had tried to drift off again. “While you are trying to escape to your imagination there is never going to be any term for release, no matter what you may think your dreams may be telling you”. I look up at her from the slouched chair and rubbing my eyes trying to make an attempted at cloaking the black rings that circle them, symptom of my withdrawal, maybe I would look more alive if she gave me an hour just to reset my body clock. “I’m sorry, the temptation becomes so great sometimes, I just can’t control it, I don’t want to control it” she readjusted her glasses and clicked the top of her pen. “I think that’s enough for today” relief and expectation flush me “From what I heard in the music room and your talent on the piano show signs of progress, you’ve earned your sleep Mr Tolvant”. The metal hatch behind her opened to where a man in full black and white armour entered. “#942 is ready to go back to his cell” She spoke to him instructively her back to him. He advanced up to me and unholstered handcuffs from his belt of contraptions, I went to bring my wrists into them “Ah he can do without the cuffs today, this one has earned the luxury” He halted and looked towards her through his black visor. “Protocol 517 requires all patients graded level 3 be transported cuffed ma’am”. She looked over her glasses at him, her legs now crossed “I know I read the list in my induction as you did and everyone else did, I if you had forgotten am perceived as your superior, now escort Mr Tolvant back to his cell unshackled, understood?”. He holstered the cuffs and saluted her “Yes ma’am, forgive me ma’am” facing me he addressed me “With me #942, you are to stay close to me and to make no attempt to wander from my sight” He really believe I would want to escape, effort that would lengthen my withdrawal, maybe if I get the chance again just not today, I need to return to the light among the darkness. Nodding he let me first out the hatch, he behind watching my every move, I knew the route back anyway it wasn’t a problem. A hundred and seven times I have walked this route if I’m not mistaken. Each time the same, the other inmates that looked out as I walked the corridor where the only things that ever changed, some killed others which resulted in their termination, some killed themselves and very rarely, a patient would gain freedom to join the rest of the world, the world I loathe with a passion, the same that distracts me from Waterveil. I smirked at a few as I strutted along aggravating them. One man whom evidently was in for some form of killing rambled at the plastic porthole of his hatch like a rabid barbarian, as I let out a deep breath towards him. One way used to calm the inmates in this section was to concentrate the amount of air pumped into their cells to try and calm them, this worked for some leaving them breathless, for some it left them aggravated lusting for fresh air, fresh air for which I had the pleasure of inhaling. Four corners of key coded made the path, my armoured escort at each time stopping to swipe his wrist mounted barcode and pat me for if I had picked anything up along the way that could help me perform an escape attempt. Finally at my hatch he asked me to stand a metre away while he opened pulled the hatch wheel. “Wait their while I open up” I did as I was told and stood heel to heel, arms to sides. At opening of the portal the white stunned my vision for a second requiring readjustment, my withdraw feeling weaker now. A white padded room before me, nothing but a red pillow in the corner, a chest of draws built into the right wall and a bedside table with lamp atop adjacent to the pillow, this was home. “Try not to get too comfortable” the escort spoke as I sauntered in, I giving no response, now in my thought palace. The hatch closed behind me as the wheel spun, I surveying around the white environment, as if welcoming myself back to my room. I closed my eyes a smile now brewed on my face “Greatest advantage of an entirely padded room, fall where you wish” I let myself plummet forward towards the floor, my head targeted for the pillow. My body flopped like a fish, no pain struck me, only a sudden rush of relaxation and comfort surged my body, I wrapped my arms around the pillow, head still balanced on it and began to attempt sleep. Although what I wished to enter was more than mere sleep, I’ve paid my day in the sun, time to return to the homeland of Waterveil.