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Chapter 3: Dissecting the Soul

The bland hospital room was a suffocating prison, which was exactly why Henry was attempting to escape. Being idle was not a strong point of his, always wanting to be useful. More than ever now, he felt the urge to be running around doing something, which raised some questions about his lifestyle that he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted answers for. He needed to compensate for being a burden with his lost memories, which he could achieve by helping Dr Synecdoche, which he knew he was qualified for with his many, usually useless, doctorates. He tugged on his crisp dress shirt and pants along with a crimson waistcoat, making sure he was presentable and more blended in for his breakout. However, a sense that he had forgotten something important that he should have known even with his memory loss was nagging in the back of his head. He was on edge as he exited his hospital room to say the least.

Henry crept down the chequered and eerily immaculate hallways, a patchwork of ivories that were more like a labyrinth than a hospital. The scent of sanitiser was so overpowering out here that he near gagged, edging further down the hall and eventually adjusting to the strong aroma. The hallways were surprisingly empty. He would have thought that a hospital in the 2000's would be bustling with alarmed family members and frantic doctors, not barren as if the setting of a shilling shocker. He snuck around another corner and came face to face with an impossibly tall and slightly green person. Their eyelids and mouth were peppered with a barrage of tiny holes, lank string winding through the gaps but were cut off at the end as though the creature's orifices were once sewn together, the string ends now acting as some form of whiskers. The faded lime creature curiously towered over Henry's tall frame, clothed by bloodstained surgical scrubs, their stretched mask dangling from their neck, not bearing a good omen for their last patient. Henry supposed they worked here.

"Hello, how are you?" He greeted the creature cheerily, holding out a hand. The creature's sinewy fingers clasped his own, icily shaking it in a vaguely unpleasant manner that Henry wasn't going to allow to wipe the polite smile off his face.

"I'm fine," the creature rasped doubtfully and rudely, their voice rough, yet high and nasal. "I'm Dr Nye. Are you new here?" Henry felt some sort of pity rise in him for the green person, who was obviously unaccustomed to friendly behaviour. He grinned excitedly, much to the surprise of Dr Nye.

"Yes. My name is Henry. What do you specialise in? I was wondering if I could be of any help around here?" He was eagre to know what this doctor worked on. Surely someone such as them would work on things just as interesting as they appeared.

"I specialise in the soul. I'm trying to locate it so I can dissect and understand it," they replied swiftly yet crackly, as though it were not them speaking but a glitching android. A spark of passion ignited within Henry's chest.

"I can definitely help you with that! I also work on the soul. I'm more fixated on the purification and separation of it though." He could see the mutilated features of Dr Nye light up, delighted that they found someone that shared their obsession.

"Have you located it yet?" It almost interrogated him in their vigour. "Have you been able to split a soul yet?" It leaned in, placing its tray of surgical utensils on a cart with a brief symphony of clangs.

"I have actually! You see-!" Dr Nye cut him off, not with any rudeness but with a thoughtful expression that indicated they needed somewhere more private to discuss this. The creature's countenance also bore a strange mixture of being impressed but concerned.

"Follow me, we can retire to my office and you can show me where the soul is." They beckoned to Henry with that sickly corrugated hand of theirs, and started down the hall, robes fluttering. Henry eagerly trailed along; a sense of unease lay just out of his grasp as if another one of his forgotten memories. He wondered if he knew this creature and if he did, did Dr Nye recognise him? They soon neared a metal door the colour of an approaching storm, which Nye flung open with the manner of a graceful barbarian.