Manic

Cross-eyed

Naps are delicious especially when served with food. Mine was served with dinner, which brought me much pleasure. Especially when the nay-older-than-I orderly brought it to me. We had a mutual relationship, she brought me food and I told her stories. Not my stories but stories none the less. Sometimes we would sit together, other times I would venture out of my comfy musical chair, wanting her attention. I would find her off in a dark corner and we would share a story or two.

She was also a patient here at this happy place. She used to be my roommate, but was moved due to multiple self-inflicted wounds. Though rules didn't allow for this, I was of the few exceptions. Though not for long it seems. Hayden was going to see to my rehabilitation. I guess it didn't help that I was often lost in my picture that hangs on the wall. It just drew my attention and sometimes would not let go.

No doubt I was a partial factor in her self-brought pain, however there wasn't much water there. It could have just as easily been her paranoid schizophrenia. Whichever it was I had no want for part in that confusion. I had my own demons to deal with. Such as my best friend Dr. Thatch. He was; as I had predetermined, supposed to come in on the morrow. Though he might be taking a day or two off due to personal reasons. I would miss him if he did.

I looked over at the food tray that was still being held by the nay-older-than-I orderly. "Sorry to make you stand but I currently occupy the most comfortable seat in the house."

The orderly who I should note is named Tara, shrugged and sat in the quiet chair. The music-less one. "I wouldn't mind sharing it with you."

I smiled and beckoned her over, "If you don't mind then neither do I" She came and sat with me in the plush rocking chair, seating herself squarely in my lap. She had abandoned the tray of quivering meatloaf, left it sleeping on the other chair. I smiled as she was one of the few things that made me happy in this forsaken place. Everything else simply existed, and was less than I.

"'I am the truth, and they are the lies, evil lives, and heroes die. Such is the way life is', the doctor thought as he packed up his suit case..." I spoke, having settled on a story to tell.

"No, you told me this one before." She sighed and scratched her cheek.

"Well then listen close and I'll tell it better." I smirked.

She huddled closer wrapping a slender arm about my waist. "Then tell it to me and I shall love it." She whispered placing her auburn noggin in the crook of my neck.

"The doctor packed up his things and went on his way, leaving the young soldier staring into the mirror.

"Cancer is a vicious thing. Especially when convinced its terminal.

"The soldier was left to his own terrible vices. Knowing it would be all he had when the light came to take him, even god could not stop death. The soldier looked on at his meager reflection, his hair had all decided to run off to faraway places, leaving him bare. He stared harder and found that his reflection was no longer who he was, but who he used to be. He would die and he couldn't even do it as himself.

"He eventually left the doctor's office and stepped on the return bus home. Along the way he got lost in a bar and eventually drank himself silly. A woman, among one of the few who had been staring at him all night decided to take a chance. She walked over to him, blocking his sight from the mirror at the back of the bar. 'You seem troubled' she smiled stroking his chin, 'Would you like it all to go away?' The soldier was entranced he hadn't met such a beautiful creature, not since his deployment.

"He smiled weakly, eyes lost in her beauty. He was drawn in by her strawberry red hair and deep emerald eyes. The red-emerald girl had cast her spell and refused to let go. She leaned forward placing her delicate lips to his. There was a single solitary moment of intense pleasure, where the world seemed to stand utterly still. When suddenly the world became as ice and the soldier knew only darkness.

"He awoke the next morning his head light and his vision clouded in hues of lime and cherry. The red-emerald girl sat upon his porch, still and statuesque. He came and assumed a seat at her side, when suddenly she broke her stillness and turned her perfectly green eyes in his direction. 'You are healed of all mortal wounds and sins. With this gift...' she paused her piercing emerald eyes focusing in on him. She leaned in for another angelic kiss, time taking a break for a moment.

"When she pulled away, eyes fluttering, she whispered solely one sentence before the wind took her away. 'Change the world.' and she was gone in a breeze of ash and dust. Leaving the young soldier to reinvent himself."

As Thaddeus's story ended he looked down and found Tara to be resting. He smiled and wrapped a warm arm around her bare, freezing shoulder. Holding her close he fell into sleep, like a viper falling into a pit, and dreamed for the first time in seven years.

I awoke to find my dirty, dank and filth filled cell invaded by a massive bundle of stinking orderlies. None of them understood the meaning of sleep. What could they possibly want at this hour? I looked at my window high on the wall. I saw nothing, nay a star in the sky. The bright light of the sun hadn't dared wake yet. I rise with sun as do the orderlies. So what is the meaning of this starlit intrusion? I was hoisted from my chair, realizing that Tara was no longer with me.

"Where is my emerald?" I grumbled confused.

"Get up 'Thaddeus'" spoke a man who felt almost familiar.

I looked around sleep still lingering inside my head. I was at the present being dragged down a hall I had never been to. I didn't understand what place could they take me that I have never been? I felt the truth come upon me like the rising dawn. The torture chamber, where they conducted their so called 'reconditioning'. I felt like I was being pulled towards the sun, an inescapable gravity.

I looked back and saw Tara standing in the hall, her escape masked by my own fate. I smiled before turning back towards the end of the hall. Or should I say the end of me. They were going to break me, the hard way. Sadly they will find it's not that easy. My manic is not like the others. Mine is genuine.

The orderlies to my front opened a banded iron door, and pushed me through. The floor was slick and cold, covered in a filth of one sort or another. The room was dark like the fear in the pit of his stomach. I put my feet out to try and prevent the damned orderlies from pushing me further, but they simply raised him past his reach of the floor. I grunted and fought but still they were stronger wolves than I. Pain flashed through my eyes and suddenly I was dragged into the abyss of my mind. No doubt left for dead.