Twisted Dreams

Chapter 10

      A tall pale man stands before me. He's wearing a tan suit and a white lab coat which only succeeds in washing out his pale skin further. His beady blue eyes give me a once-over over his too-large nose, as he strokes his scraggly mustache with one thin-hand.
      "Hello," he greeted me, with a surprisingly strong voice for such a frail figure, "My name is Dr. Barnabus."
      I glance down to find the matching name embroidered upon his lab coat.
      "I'm the head doctor at Wilcomb's Psychiatric Hospital and I'm in charge of your treatment plan," he finished with a smile.
     "I think there's been a mistake, I don't need to be treated for anything," I insisted desperate.
      Dr. Barnabus just chuckles as though he has heard similar spiels before.
      "There's been no mistake, your fiancée brought you to us with very specific instructions," he revealed, staring at me with gleaming, pitiless eyes.
      "Fiancée? Richard? No, no. That man is not my fiancée and I'm not supposed to be here," I said with tears forming in my eyes, and my hands shaking.
      "You, like many of our other 'patients'," he said, with a uncomfortable wince on the last word, "are here for a behavior adjustment."
       "But I don't need a behavior adjustment, I'm fine-," I pleaded, before being interrupted.
      "I beg to differ, I hear that you're acting questionably, incapable of making a rational decision, and you've had fits of hysteria-,"
      "This is all wrong, I-," I interrupted again as the tears spilled over my cheeks.
       "that are out of character," he continued without blinking at my outburst, "I am here to ensure that you can return to your former rational-.. obedient self."
      My hands still at his last words. Any attempts to convince him of my sanity were ignored, and my tears continue to spill over in silence at the helplessness of my situation.
      "I have a doctor that's new to our facility that will be overseeing your treatment plan, Dr. Leonardo Wright. He is excited to be working with his first patient here, and is eager to implement an new method of treatment that he's discovered from a colleague."
      He reached out to wipe a tear off of my cheek, and I flinched at his cold touch.
      "Resistance will be of no help here, and it would be best to embrace our treatment willingly," he said, before licking my tear off of his finger.
      "I hope you come to enjoy it here, and perhaps you will learn to be grateful for your stay," he admitted, echoing a similar refrain I heard from Richard just last night.
      He grinned widely, his thin face stretching tightly and setting a ripple of unnatural lines across his face.
      "First things first, you will be escorted to lunch. Afterwards, I'll retrieve you for your first treatment plan with Dr. Wright," he finished.
      I go to speak, but my voice dies in my throat, and nothing comes out. Even if I could speak, I'm unsure of what I would be able to say with my thoughts racing too fast for me to keep up.
      "Amelia, dear," Dr. Barnabus says, addressing my forgotten roommate, "can you please assist Miss Vee to the dining room."
      "I-It's Vivianna," I respond weakly.
      "Really? That's not what it says on your chart," he answered with confusion, flipping through my chart back to the first page, "Vee Langford, that's you, yes?"
      "Vee is short for Vivianna, but-,"
      "Then we have no issue here. Vee or Vivianna, it's all the same," he responded with a shrug, unaware of my last bit of identity and control being stripped from me.
      "Right," I whisper in return, "all the same."
      Except it wasn't the same, nothing is the same. But I have no energy to argue, and my complaints would probably fall upon deaf ears. I resolve to stay in silence instead.
      I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn in a haze to find Amelia smiling sadly.
      "I'll take her, I have it from here."
      "Right! That's all for right now. It was wonderful to meet you Vee," he remarked, "I'll see you again shortly, in the meantime, enjoy your stay."