MidKnight: The Asylum [FINISHED]

Chapter 3: The Maniac

He awoke to Dr. Jeanette's voice and the cage door unlocking. "Hi, sorry to wake you." she said, entering with the chair. He shook his head, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. "No, it's fine, actually. I probably slept longer than I should've." he replied. "Well, we don't make you do anything. For example, you can sleep all you want." He looked at her. "Wow, this really isn't as much like prison as I'd initially thought."
She giggled. "Yeah, I had the same idea when I first came here. Anyway, how are you feeling today?"
Harold yawned. "Tired."
She giggled again, "Okay but mood-wise."
"I'm pretty..." he looked at her, "I'm alright."
She tucked her hair behind her ear. Harold wondered, isn't that what females do when...
"That's good." she smiled. "So, let's pick up where we left off in our last session. When, after your camping trip with your uncle, did you try started fires?"
He thought for a moment. He couldn't let comfort with her mess up his lying. "It was about 2 days after I'd gotten home. I got some tools together and tried to start one in my backyard."
"Any luck on that first attempt?" she asked to progress the story.
"None. I tried again the next day, same luck. I made a 3rd attempt, that's when I saw the flame. I'd done it, and I loved how the fire danced. I loved the color, the heat. It gave me so much comfort." he faked a smile, but made it look genuine.
"But are you aware that's bad? Not to do on a camping trip but to set a church on fire." she asked. He nodded. "Of course. I wanted to see a big fire, though. I had no idea of how else to go about doing that, though. I had no idea there were people in there, though." his voice trailed off, he added a hint of fake sorrow in his voice to completely sell it.
She took his hand. "Don't worry, I believe you."
They had another one of those moments staring into one another's eyes. A fight broke out near Harold's cell. There was screaming, you could hear grunting from blows landing. Dr. Jeanette rose from her seat to look out the barred door. She started a conversation with the security guard, he told her he was on it and ran off. The doctor returned to the steel chair. Harold looked at her. "Is everything alright out there?"
"Yeah, it'll be fine." she lied.
"Hey," he said, meeting eyes with her again, "is everything alright out there?" she paused, then gave it to him straight. "No. There's a fight, a patient with psychotic disorder--psychosis, he has a gun." she said. Harold could tell something truly was wrong, she was scared. A gunshot sounded and silenced everything else.
"Oh, my god." she gasped. She leaped from her seat.
"Get behind me." Harold commanded.
She shook her head. "No way. It's my job to help my patients, that means protecting them."
"And you have. Let me protect you now." he pleaded. She nodded and huddled behind him. He moved slowly towards the door, once he got close enough to see out, the shooter jumped out and pointed a gun at Harold's face. The patient started laughing maniacally.
"What's his name?" Harold murmured behind him.
"Travis Alexander." Dr. Jeanette responded quietly.
Harold turned back to the shooter, he was still laughing. "Hey, Travis!" he said to shut him up.
"How do you know my name!" he demanded.
"I know--"
"Nevermind! I don't want any of yer tricks! Just lemme shoot the doc!"
"You're not going to touch her. Sorry." Harold told him.
"Fine. I'll blow your brains out, and then hers. Sound good?"
"Do you think you're better than me or something? Is that it?" Harold challenged, setting him up for failure.
"I'm better than everyone!" Travis laughed again. Clearly, along with the psychosis, he had some delusional problems, too.
"Prove it."
"How?"
"Fist fight. Outside my cell. If you knock me to the ground, you can shoot her."
"Deal." Travis grinned, he left to swipe the security guard's keys off of his corpse and let him out.
"Wait!" Dr. Jeanette screamed, running after Harold. He turned around and slammed the door in front of her.
"Trust me." he said, staring into her eyes again. He turned to Travis, "Let's get to it." Travis threw a punch, Harold dodged it, punching Travis' gut. He could hear Brian cheering from his cell. Travis swung again, Harold ducked again, using his killer right hook on the psycho's face. He could see the damage he caused Travis' jaw. Harold kicked at his knee, causing him to fall to the floor. Harold held him down and rummaged through Travis' pant pockets, robbing him of the gun and the keys. He knocked him out by striking him in the back of the skull with the glock's handle. Brian hollered like crazy, cheering him on.
"Yeah, dude! Nice! Unlock me, let's get out of here!" he screamed happily. Harold shook his head at him, "Not yet." He ran back to the security guards bloody body and utilized the cuffs to capture Travis' wrists and placed the gun back on the guard's belt. As he let Dr. Jeannette out of his cell, she leaped out and embraced him. He held her back, rubbing her back to let her know she was safe.
    "Alert the guards. Hurry." he said, handing her the keys and walking back into the cell. She locked his cell door and ran off.