Insanity Was A Man

11. Insanity

The palace was every cliché villain's castle. Something I was all too familiar with from the many hours I had spent reading comic books and high fantasy novels. But it's one thing seeing a drawing or reading a description, and another to witness it in real life. It was a tall building, made from the darkest black stones. The main spectacle was more of a giant tower than a castle, with a few smaller buildings scattered around it. It had a huge set of stairs twisting around it like a screw, leading to a foreboding entrance at the top. The entrance seemed to be a large wooden door, but I couldn't see it very well from where I stood on the ground.

I walked toward it slowly, but when I remembered it was where my grandmother was, I had to force myself to go faster. She was in there. She was in there. A place straight out of a lunatic's worst nightmare, a place that most likely was the home to horrifying things. And she was in there, alive. Alive, most likely being tortured.

As I got closer and closer to the palace, I could tell that Knowledge hadn't been lying about the whole "unsettling aura" deal. The air around me was immensely pressured, and I could almost hear my thoughts buzzing around in my head, thrashing violently, as if they wanted to bust out of my skull. It was something I had never felt before, and it made it hard to concentrate on anything. All I was able to do was walk onward, letting the atmosphere eat at my head. It was a strong reminder that I was in a place where Insanity was king.

***

Step.

I wanted to turn back, but I had already started.

Step.

The buzzing got louder.

Step.

Nothing in my head but buzzing and screams.

Step.

Almost there.

***

There was no guard at the top of the tower, not a single one. There was no lock on the tall wooden door that stretched far above my head, there was no means of protection at all. I suppose Insanity and his palace gave off such a vibe that even the most hardened spirit didn't want to have anything to do with the place. Protection wasn't even needed.

On the door, there was a large brass carving of a distorted face with a handle in it's mouth. I slowly moved my hand toward the handle. It wasn't for opening the door, but rather swung up and down. For knocking on the door.

I just held the handle for a while, trying to muster up the courage to do it, thinking about who or what would answer the door. Thinking about what Insanity would look like. About what it would feel like to actually be inside the building.

I knocked. But it was a light knock. A cowardice knock. I myself could barely even hear it. I shook my head, unsure if I would be able to do it.

But then I shook my head harder.

Grandma. Grandma.

I had to do this. Courage building up in me, I grabbed ahold of the handle. Then I banged it against the door as hard as I could. Three times.

Knock, Knock, Knock.

***

A man answered the door. He wore a red and white striped suit and a monocle on his right eye. His hair was a a bright white, like snow, and his wife smile showed his teeth to be the same. He looked like someone who would run a 1920's circus.

"Hello," he looked me directly in the eye as he spoke. His little black pools stared into my blue ones. As I looked at him, the buzzing in my head heightened even further. I wasn't able to form a single coherent thought, and the feeling that I didn't have any control had reached it's peek.

"A-are...you...I-Insanity?" I struggled to even be able to get the words out of my mouth. His aura was completely dominating me.

"Yes!" He exclaimed. "I am! Come in."

My vision was becoming blurry as the buzzing was now a roar in my ears. All I could see was a giant black blur with a few other color thrown in as I hobbled into the palace, not even sure if I was going the right way.

"Why are you walking crooked?" Insanity's voice came out as merely a distant whisper through the roaring, and I felt him take my hand and pull me into the right direction.

"How funny you humans are! My, you should just look at yourself right now!"

He led me further into the blur.

"You came for your grandmother, correct? I'll have you know that she's perfectly fine. It was fun playing around with her. The Capgras Delusion is certainly one of my most clever inventions. She thought you had all been replaced by clones! Funny, she came looking for you...but found us! The very cause of her problems. It was all a coincidence, of course. It always is when humans find us. It's very rare though, they have to wonder upon an opening-- there are only two of those in the human world. Unless you have one of those little button thingies Knowledge made..."

Knowledge said all of this, and continued to ramble on. But I couldn't even here any of it.

And I definitely couldn't see my grandmother, or hear her weak shrieks. I couldn't see her hair lying in patches on the floor, having been ripped off from her head by her own hands as she suffered here. And I couldn't see her face, twisted and horrifyingly wrinkled, eyes melted into paste, saliva dripping out of her mouth, skin turning to clay from being too close to the one who had controlled her.

I couldn't see her, so I couldn't help her. I couldn't even feel sorry for her. I couldn't do anything.

And I couldn't even stop to think that it was all a cruel joke.

How could I stop to think, when I couldn't even feel everything that had happened to Grandma happen to myself? When the buzzing was so loud that I couldn't even feel my own face twist?

"Oh, this shit is hilarious!" Insanity laughed, and I did not take in a single word of it. "But do you know what would make it even funnier? A public execution! Yes, yes! One for all to see! Hopefully they will see it through my aura! I hope they do. Man, a family execution..."

He laughed harder.

"A family execution..."