Bouquet D'Illusions ▷ Enola Holmes

i. struggling against the perception of facts

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐍𝐎 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐀𝐒𝐘𝐋𝐔𝐌. It should have been a place of refuge from the storms that hurt and weathered the mind, a place of safety and sanctuary, a place to be welcomed into with open arms that will hold on until the entire self is soothed, content to simply dwell in those tranquil moments—the pillar in the hurricane. And yet, it was anything but.

In truth, the asylum would have been more aptly named as a house of torture, for the removal of any hope of real love is such. Proof lies in the bare walls and bare floors, reflections of what the place really was, as if the building itself was trying to tell the miserable staff what they had built and perpetuated. Then there were the windowless rooms, the lack of real light, the doors without handles—if the asylum was truly an asylum, it would be akin to the rich's fancy retreating homes, all soothing and quiet and calm, void of screams without meaning at any given moment of the day. It would be the manifestation of empathy to soothe a person's entire being, and there is no sanity or goodness to unearth when one simply declares a jumble of words if the actions tell another story.

The only thought running through the nurse's head at the moment was that lunatics never had any common sense, but then, that was exactly what unhinged the facility—lack of common sense. The newest inmate at Milbury Hospital was not unlike many of the others, but if he had any sense, he would be taking advantage of yard time to exercise with the others under the beautifully shining sun, doing himself some good instead of insisting he didn't belong.

"Let me out!" he demanded for what seemed like the thousandth time, his tone angry as he protested vehemently, "I am an English gentleman and I do not tolerate such treatment of an upstanding British citizen!"

The nurse paid little attention to the man's demands, and he continued. "I demand my rights as a faithful subject of the queen. Let me out of this blasted coffin, I say!"

"It is not a coffin, Mr. Kippersalt," the nurse patiently corrected, staying focused on her knitting needles as she sat quite comfortably in a wooden chair beside the door, employing a soothing but bored tone, "Perhaps it resembles a coffin, but you can see quite well that a coffin would not be built in such a way to allow you to breathe freely. You are not in any difficulties—"

"Not in any difficulties?" the man interrupted her with a barking laugh heard very clearly from inside the confines of the restraining box, causing the nurse to frown and lay her knitting needles in her lap in favor of reaching for a pad of paper and a pencil. "Not in any difficulties in the horrid device?" he exclaimed, letting out a rather high-pitched laugh.

The man had been confined to a utica crib—an ordinary bed with locked hinged top—shortly after his arrival, having fought with the keepers and blackened the director's eye in an attempt to escape, and the nurse had seen several similar cases of the man's behavior in the past. "You are not physically indisposed," she assured him, "And surely the crib is preferable to a straight-jacket."

The man scoffed amidst his barks of laughter, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "A crib? Is that what this fiendish device is called?"

The nurse watched Mr. Kippersalt carefully, fingering the pencil in her hand. She had to keep a close eye on him, she knew, for despite his apparent delusions he was unexpectedly quick for someone of his build, as well as resourceful—he'd managed to get as far as the asylum's fence when trying to escape. The pad in her hand was empty save for the date and time, but this was no longer the case.

Laughing in hysteria.

The notes she was taking would make their way into Mr. Kippersalt's case book as soon as she had a chance, but for now, she merely sat and observed, taking notes when she saw fit, stating that the man had actively resisted putting on the asylum's standard grey wool uniform while his things were carted away for safekeeping, how he had refused food, how he exhibited some standard of intelligence, as well as a dozen other mentions of his bodily functions that needn't have been included if not for his protests at being in such a situation.