Butterfly

4 - Patient #160512

"I have just now come from a party where I was its life and soul; witticisms streamed from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me, but I went away — yes, the dash should be as long as the radius of the earth's orbit ——————————— and wanted to shoot myself." - Søren Kierkegaard

The next morning, Chou opened her eyes, and for a split second, wondered why the sunlight wasn't beaming through her window to wake her up. And then she remembered. She had locked herself in a prison for crazy people.

Cool.

She sat up in bed and winced at the stiffness in her body. She was used to a rather elegant mattress. The mattress she was given here was akin to the one she'd had to use at age eleven on a school camping trip. As the blanket slipped off her bare arms, she shivered. It was definitely colder in the cell block than it had been the night previous. So, walking around with the blanket it is, then.

She found her slippers next to the bed and put them on before standing up. It was partially because she knew that Japanese and Koreans usually found walking around without shoes or slippers rude, but it was mostly because she didn't want to walk on the concrete floor barefoot. Just then, she noticed a strange, quiet clicking noise from outside her cell.

The main part of the cell block was dark, and Chou's cell was only illuminated by the small light that was available for her to use that was above her bed. She knew that there was a light switch for the main area right outside her cell, as the angry nurse last night had used it to switch everything off after telling Chou the lay of the land - or cell block. But there was definitely somebody out in the middle of the block, and with all the lights off, and they were doing something that was causing a weird clicking noise.

If that wasn't a creepy way to start the day, Chou didn't know what was.

The things I do for my job, she thought, then wrapped herself tightly in her blanket, stood up, and went to the button that would make her door open.

She found it strange that the prisoners could practically control when they wanted to get in or out of their cells, but she was sure there was a reason. She'd tried asking the (bitchy) nurse from the night previous, but the woman didn't seem to want to tell her anything, much less answer Chou's questions. So Chou would have to ask someone else later.

But first, her stupid-ass, I'm such an idiot reporter brain had to learn the source of that clicking noise. So she pressed the button, and a few seconds later, the steel cell door slid open with a painfully loud grating noise. As quickly as she could, she ran to the light switch for the main area and flipped on the lights. Her heart raced as the lights slowly flickered on. As soon as they did, she was surprised to see a person calmly sitting at the table in the middle of the block, his back to her. The clicking noise came from his direction. There was a pile of boxes on the table close to him, but he wasn't looking at them at all.

A strange mixture of curiosity and confusion filled Chou, and she slowly walked to the stranger.

"Good morning," the boy said, and Chou just about fell over with shock.

When her heart recovered from his split-second stopping, she glared at the boy who hadn't even turned to her. "Hi," she said coldly.

The clicking noise continued. "What are you doing?" she asked, walking closer. As she got closer, she saw a cube-shaped object in the boy's hands.

"Rubik's Cube," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm working on memorizing the pattern. Lots of people have done that, you know."

Indeed, it looked like he was completing a Rubik's cube. Just one vital thing was missing - "That cube doesn't have colors," Chou said.