Pentatonix: Asylum

Thirteen

"Jed's been a good boy. Always has been. Always listened. Never talked back." The grieving mother says to Sister Esther as she sits in front of her desk.

The mother looks over at the father, who is sitting in silence looking down at his feet.

"Our problem started a month ago-"

"Don't bother you don't need to worry." Esther says cutting the woman off.

"Good boys who've gone bad is my expertise. I've had great success in curing the chronic master-baiter." Esther says looking at the grieving woman.

As Esther was in the middle of her meeting with the boys grieving parents, Avi walks in and interrupts them.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." Avi says walking in and closing the door behind him.

"We haven't finished our conversation, Sister Esther. I didn't realize you had company. Hi. Doctor Kaplan. The psychiatrist here." Avi says walking over to the parents and shaking their hands.

Esther doesn't say anything, but has a look of shock on her face and can't believe Avi is still talking.

Esther finally gets out of her chair and says, "You need to leave, Doctor."

"Oh...uh...Sister Esther, please? For our boys trouble, we could use a doctors opinion." The mother says.

Avi turns to Esther and looks at her for her approval, as if he would need one from her.

Esther sits back down in her seat and Avi sits on the edge of her desk to talk to the parents.

"What can I help you with?" Avi asks.

"Jed just turned seventeen. He's...the last months he's grown restless and moody. Sometimes he doesn't get up from bed for days and other days it's like someone tied a live wire to his body." The mother says.

"Adolescent can sometimes be a time of conflict and rebellion." Avi says.

"No, doctor! Jed...sees things, he hears voices that aren't there." The mother says hesitantly.

"I'm afraid he'll bring us harm." The father says finally speaking up.

The room grew silent for a moment as everyone was shocked by the father saying something.

Finally, the father continues on with his story.

"Yesterday we heard horrific cries coming from the barn out back. When I got there I'd seen Jed covered in blood speaking a language no one could understand." He says.

"Then I had saw what he had done. He had ripped open the belly of our best cow...."

"HE ATE HER HEART!"

"It was unholy. It...was like something stepped inside my boys body and taken over his soul!" The father yells.

Avi sits there and listens to everything the father is saying with a blank expression on his face.

Esther looks at him to see what he is thinking and what he is going to say to them as a diagnosis.

"Nothing?" Esther says to Avi as she stands up.

"For a man who's opinion relies on talk, talk, talk, you appear to be at a loss for words, Doctor." Esther says fiercely looking at him.

Avi looks over at Esther for a moment at then back at the grieving parents.

"I...I...I would need to see him first to give a proper diagnosis." Avi says.

"We brought him!" The mother says.

Without skipping a beat Esther says, "let's go see the boy now." As she rushes the parents out of her office.

She opens the door for the parents and waits for them to leave so she can have a little chat with Avi.

"Doctor Kaplan, you are nothing but a guest in our institution. DON'T wear out your welcome in the first day." Esther says angrily to Avi and then walks out of the room.

Avi stands there shocked by what Esther had just told him.

Avi, being the person he is, won't give up that easily.

He's going to find out all of Sister Esther's and this institutions secrets if it's the last thing he does.

**

Sister Esther opens the door to Jed's room so that the parents and Avi could see him.

"Mother, where am I? I'm scared." Jed says all twisted up sitting tied to the bed.

The mother sits down on the bed next to Jed and tells him where he's at and what's going on.

Jed starts to make weird noise and shaking a bit.

"Jed?" Avi asks.

Avi points the little light in Jed's eyes to examine them, when Jed growls demonically at him.

This causes Avi to fall backwards and the mother to jump off the bed into the fathers arms.

Jed starts to speak in another language like his father was talking about earlier and Avi looks at him with a scared expression on his face unsure of what to do.

"Jed needs to be immediately medicated." Avi warns.

Esther looks at the boy, as she knows what's really wrong with him.

Jed keeps speaking in this other weird language, when Esther finally speaks up.

"No, doctor. That's not what this boy needs." Esther says shaking her head.