Instagram to Insanity

Part 3

The next day John got up and got ready as he normally does. He opened the curtains and saw parked down the road was a white van. The color drained from John's face as he realized that he was being watched by someone. He shut the curtains with a whoosh and ran downstairs to his office, locking the door as he entered. After several hours in his office his wife knocked on the door concerned about him.

"Honey, are you alright? You've been in there all day." she asked.

"Y-Yes I'm f-fine. Just doing some work. You know." he replied in a shaky voice.

"Well ok don't stay in there for too long though. It's a nice day out and we should do something together."

"A-Alright maybe later" he said in response.

Within the office John was frantically passing across the hardwood floor shaking his head, murmuring to himself, "Is it safe? Will they try to take me? Will they try to take my family? Have they already taken them? Who can I trust?"

John's wife and two sons could hear him talking and muttering to himself throughout the day. When any of them tried to talk to him they got the same response from him, "Go away I'm very busy right now." followed by unintelligible murmurs and the sound of frantic footsteps around the office.

When they were cleaning up dinner William, Joel and their mother heard loud banging and crashing followed by hysterical laughter than whimpering coming from within the office.

"What's wrong with dad?" William asked.

"I'm not sure," their mother said, "But I think we should call someone. I'm concerned that he will hurt us or himself."

As she said this she picked up the phone and called emergency services telling them what was going on. About ten minutes later emergency services showed up to take him away to a mental hospital. Upon arriving at the mental hospital he put in a padded wall room. Later in the day the men that were assigned to watch him were outside his room waiting for their shift to end.

"What time is it?" one of them demanded, "I need to get home soon. It's my wife's birthday and I told her I'd be home by 7:30."

"If you need to go home so badly ask the boss if you can leave early." another suggested.

"Fine" he said as he walked down the long and dark corridor to his superior's office. On the door was a sign saying 'observation room' on it. The man opened the door seeing his boss sitting in front of several monitors on the walls. Some were showing other patients but the four biggest ones were of the newest patient John. The monitors along the side of the room were playing pre recorded footage of John taken from the past few months.

"What do you want Alex?" the man in the chair demanded. From the way he talked he radiated authority.

"I-I wanted to know if I could get the rest of the day off. It's my wife's birthday and all."

The man in the chair thought for a moment, "Yes I suppose so. But before you leave I need you to get the rest of the text files from the white van outside."

"The van used for intercepting messages?" Alex asked as he turned to the door.

"Yes the one that has all the messages from our newest patient here." he said as he gestured to the screen

"Right away." Alex said in a rush as he quickly turned and walked out

"Interesting, very interesting. After a few months of monitoring, just the idea of someone unknown watching can cause enough fear and distrust in this man's mind to drive him to the brink of insanity."