Primus' Hellscape Horrorland

Child's Play

In an insane asylum, Andre works as an orderly alongside human and Transformer employees. One of his patients is a youngling but he never could figure out their name.

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Andre scowled as Minicons who oversaw delivery of food and other majority necessities maneuvered around him at a quicker pace than he was walking. They were always on the move and although they did their job well, it was somewhat annoying.

He checked in all his assigned inmates until he got to one particular door. Andre unlocked and slowly opened it to reveal a red Caminien youngling. They were looking out the window with a glasgow grin. They never left their room, never once tried to escape or eat or do anything yet they seemed to be the happiest patient.

"Will you come out today?" Andre asked.

The youngling shook their head, "No, not today. Could you imagine the look on the doctor's faces if they saw me out and about, yeah? They always want me to come out, be who I was but that bot is long gone. So, why should I appeal to their desires to see me 'healthy?' There's no point."

Andre couldn't help but agree and nodded, "True, but it would be nice to see one day."

He knew not where they had come from or why, just that they were here. He once brought the case of a youngling being held in the facility to the board members, but they found no evidence of a Caminus-born youth admitted into the asylum. An oversight, no doubt.

Andre sighed, "Alright then, see you in a few hours."

"You know I'll be here. Bye, bye Andy!"

That was their nickname for him. He never argued because they were technically the equivalent of a child after all. Andre closed the door and marked on his check list room 13B's resident being present though he skipped the check box that wanted to know whether the patient was being responsive. They were responsive, just didn't want to go outside which was considered defiance.

He paused when he realized he had drawn extra lines on his clipboard below and above the proper entry, lost in his train of thought. A simple mistake. He put down "Kid" as the name; he never managed to learn it for every time he asked, they would dodge the question. As he finished his rounds, he gave the clipboard for the head doctor to look over. Everything was perfect until he heard Dr. Robinson speak.

"This entry for 13B, you put 'Kid.'"

"Yes?"

"Andre, we talked about this. That isn't a name. Either do your job or I'm going to fire you. You can't be doing this stupid prank all the time. It was funny at first but now it's annoying."

Andre slowly nodded, "I understand."

"I hope you do because you're slipping. This isn't the Andre that was hired two years ago who excelled at his job. Fix it."

The orderly took back his chart and went to leave when Dr. Robinson said, "Look, Andre, your father was a great psychiatrist and I want you to succeed where he couldn't because of his obsession in that so-called experiment of his. You're better than he is and you know that. Why don't you come back to us, son, when you want to get serious."

He turned around quickly, "You're firing me?"

"Paid leave, so to speak. Today is your last day for a while. Take a breather. You need to get out of this hospital. That'll jog some memories and maybe your lost ambitions."

Andre didn't know what memories had to do with anything, but he knew his father enough to know there wasn't much he wanted to remember about him. He was a great psychiatrist, but his days were numbered when he decided that being a family wasn't worth it.