Outlast the Night

You and I

It took thirty minutes for the guards to bring Denis into the interview room. Star had spend her time rereading his file as she waited for him. The watch along her wrist ticked on by as she read over and over how his family verbally abused him. To the average person it might not seem so bad to be yelled at by your parents; they tell you its apart of growing up. But to Star, the file painted a life time of abuse into his adulthood. He was known to lash out on his doctors and on other patients if they raised their voices at him. Violence used to violence. Fire to fight Fire. She wrote down to keep a calm and submissive manner to connect to Denis. 

It might be a naïve form of connection but her research needed a new idea. That a type of therapy would be a better tactic to use instead of an abrasive style.  

She could hear the muffle sounds of men yelling at him as well as Denis fighting against them. She fought the urge to stand up and yell at them to let him go but she had to play her new role.

Two muscular guards held a smaller man in between them. They struggled back and forth with him. 

"No no please. I I'll be behave I I p promise." The man in the middle must be Denis. His eyes darting around the room looking to see some type of torture tools. His hands and body shaking as if he was in a snow blizzard.

She jumped back watching the guards slam his body onto the table scattering her file and notes. Her recorded bounced but thankfully didn't drop on the floor. The little red dot glowing up to the yellow lights 

"Stay still damn it! Hold him down!" One guard had taken his hands handcuffing him to the table. Denis was starting to cry now that he looked so helpless. Star kept her mouth shut as the guards looked down at him and then up at her. She kneeled down to the floor picking up the few papers and tapping them on the table. 

"Have fun doc. He's a wild one." One of them laughed as they walked out the door. Star and Denis sat only in the room. The yellow light above flickering on and off until setting on a high bright. Denis sat shaking in his skin, hiccupping every so often. Star set her hands out on the table open but close to her body. Her legs crossed under the table.

"Denis. My name is Dr. Star Swan. I'm not going to hurt you all I want is to talk." She flipped a clean page in her white notebook and clicking her blue pen.

She adjusted her glasses on her head and kept her eyes down. She pushed her body backwards and setting the notebook in her lap allowing Dennis to have a more open space.

"I want to ask you a few questions, is that okay Denis?" She looked up at him seeing his head nod up and down. A small smile forming on her lips.

"Okay. How long have you been in a patient in Mount Massive?" She wrote out her questions saving a space below to write down his answer. He said nothing for a time. He kept looking at the ground fidgeting with his hands.

"Denis. I am not here to hurt you. I want to help you. I need you to know I will only tell you truth and be honest as I speak to you." She set the pen down giving him her full attention.

From the other side of the window, Jeremy and Dr. Richard Trager stood together watching the new doctor talk to the Variant.

"I don't know Jer. I doubt any person could turn these lunatics into people." Trager crossed his arms over his chest trying to make sense of the woman. Her heart might be in the right place but she was blissfully ignorant to what a Hell this place is. An angel among demons.

"Well they wanted her here. And who I am to go against their wishes."

Blaire and Trager shared an awful smile while Star continuing to "talk" to Denis. She made several attempts with promises of water or an extra blanket as they spoke. Nothing made any progress until she told him something about herself.

"Denis I read in your file that grew up in the South. I also grew in the South with my Dad and grandparents. When I was old enough my grandmother would make me help her in the kitchen. And she would make pickles at the beginning of the summer like clock work. The whole house would smell like vinegar and she would also make me help her to the point where I would smell like vinegar and pickles for a whole week!" Star began to laugh remembering how at the end of her visit she would get a jar of pickles and a chocolate or lemon cake to take home to make up for the smell.

"My my granddad would take my hunting with him when when I was younger."

A shock rippled through the doctor's and Blaire. Star held off on jumping for joy and continued to connect to him. They had begun to discuss their childhoods while maintaining the main evaluation for the interview. Denis did not display any other personality for the duration of the time. Blaire had taped the glass three times letting Star know her time was up. She glanced down at her watch seeing it was only four o'clock.

"Okay Denis our time is over but I hope to see you again." She held out her hand realizing that he was still handcuffed to the table.

"Sorry." She put her hand done to her side whipping it down her skirt.

"It's okay. I I like talking to to you." He moved in his seat but kept a smile on. Blaire and Trager have never seen any doctor keep their patients so calm. Most of them have to be taken down once they get angry but Dr. Swan kept her patient calm and actually happy.

She shut the camera off and collected her papers once the guards came and picked up Denis. He didn't fight with them and actually walked away this time.

Once everyone has left the interview room, Dr. Trager and Dr. Swan met each other.

"You did some good work buddy. I've never anyone who could talk a psycho down like that."

"It 's not about talking them down but rather understand them. And not all DID's are psychotic. They are human beings same as you and me."

Star walked around the two men and back down her room to study her notes. Trager and Blaire walked together to Blaire's office talking about her.

"So do you think she belongs here?"

"Absolutely my dear boy. Absolutely."