The Kreizler Institute | The Alienist + Mphfpc [Complete]

Chapter Four | Caleb Carr Has A Secret

Jade's POV:

"Okay, I'll see you guys when I come back." My uncle said as he slipped on his jacket and left the hospital room. The room was silent besides the sound of the machines I was hooked to. Caleb was still sitting in the chair he was in when I woke up. But he slowly got up and walked towards the bed I was laying in.

'I wonder why he wanted my uncle to leave the room.' I thought inside of my head. "Did you say the girl that died was missing her eyes?" He asked me curiously. "Yeah I did. She didn't have any eyes. The monster took them." I replied. His eyes lit up with concern, worry, and intrigue. I wasn't sure why he he was feeling that way.

A part of me though I was going crazy or something. No one else that night seemed to have seen the monster. "Here, look at the front page of the newspaper." He said, handing me a copy of The New York Times. Right on the front page there was an article about what had happened last night. As I read a few eyewitness statements it seemed as if I wasn't wrong when I said no one else saw th monster I saw that night.

No one knew why the girl's eyes were missing. Everyone just seemed to think is was some kind of witchcraft. Others who didn't believe in such things said they wasn't sure what they had seen that night. But one thing was certain... a young girl lost her life too soon. That's something everyone seemed to agree on.

"You said you saw a monster?" Caleb asked, noticing that I had finished reading the front page of the paper. "Yeah. It was very tall with gray colored skin and tentacles were protruding out of its mouth." I replied. A shiver ran up my spine as images of the beast came flooding back to me. "Can you draw it for me?" He asked gently.

That's when I finally made proper eye contact with him. He knew something, and I wanted to know why he was so interested in what I saw last night. "Why? You weren't interested until I said that little girl didn't have any eyes." I said. He let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through his graying hair. I guess he realized I wasn't giving him anymore free information until he explained himself.

"It's hard to explain, and I'm not sure you're ready to hear everything yet. Just... please.... draw what you saw for me and I'll promise I'll tell you everything when you're ready. When you've had time to process what you've already seen." He said with a sincere look on his face. I slowly took the pad of paper and pencil he was holding out for me to take.

I started drawing the tentacle monster I saw last night. I even drew the monster holding the little girl up in the air as it took her eyes. Part of me wanted to believe that was I saw last night wasn't real. I wanted to ride it off on some kind of diabetic problem or something, but deep down I knew it was real. I could feel in my bones that it was real; I just didn't want to admit it.

When the drawing was finished I handed it over to Caleb, and he looked at it briefly before he tore the page from the pad of paper. Then he folded it before tucking it into his inside jacket pocket. Once the picture was put away my uncle Alfius came into the room with bags filled with take out from the local diner.

"I got a bunch of different things in case you wanted some variety." Alfius said with a small smile on his face. "Let's see what goodies you picked out for us." Caleb said, patting my uncle's shoulder heartily. As he showed us what he bought at the diner, I ended up going for the pancakes. I thought the carbs would help since I basically vomited up dinner last night.

My stomach was growling with hunger, but it soon subsided as I ate the wonderful food that was sitting in front of me. Caleb and my uncle talked about various different things that were happening in the news. I think they were trying to avoid discussing what had happened last night, and I was grateful for that.