"Wait, let me guess," He said, backing up against the door. "Taxes?" I readjusted my aim.
"Are you serious? Not even close," I said. "It was just all in a days work for you then, stealing mothers on lies," I growled.
"No, wait, wait. I know now," He gulped and pulled at his tie. "Just please, don't shoot. I'll tell you anything you want to know. Anything!" There was no way I was letting him out of the house alive, but I decided to play along.
"Alright, fine," I said, lowering the revolver a little. "Where is my mother?" He turned to open the door and I followed him with the barrel. We walked down a flight of stairs to the left, and into a large basement of file cabinets that gleamed under the naked light bulbs suspended from the ceiling. He stopped at one, opening the top drawer and rifling through the papers. He pulled out one and closed the drawer behind him with shaking hands.
"Here, this is all you're going to want to know. Or not," He started. I snatched the paper from his hands and glared at him, then began to read. I crumpled the paper in my hand and turned back to face him.
"How could you?!" I roared. "How could you do that to anything, much less a human being! And much less a mother!" I was furious. I kicked him square in the stomach sending him to the floor.
"I-I," He wheezed.
"I really don't care!" I replied, placing my shoe over the buttons of his vest. I pressed down hard, transferring my weight to my foot, causing him to splutter. Then, readjusting my aim, I fired.
Looking back down at the piece of paper in my hand, I compared the address to the three story building I was standing in front of. I asked around the previous day about how hard it was to get in. Apparently just walking in isn't uncommon, they don't really want the people in there in the first place. I folded the sheet in half and walked in through the front door.
The receptionist greeted me and asked who I was seeing. I told her my mother's name, and her painted on smile faltered almost unnoticeably.
"I'm sorry, sir," She said, "but guests are not allowed in that wing of this sanitarium without proper identification."
"That's tough, huh?" I said, and walked past the desk. She called after me to come back, but I walked even quicker down the plain green hallways. What I really needed was a map, so I scanned the walls for one. Eventually I found one, and was relieved to find I was heading in the right direction. My mother was staying in the third floor and the last room, so I climbed the nearest staircase I could find. I loaded my gun on the way up, in case of any problems they might give me.
I opened the door leading to the third floor quietly and stuck my head through the frame. There was no one around. My brows furrowed; this was much too easy. I walked cautiously down the now stark white hallway. It was completely silent, and that frightened me. I made it all the way down the hallway and slid open the door. Running to the figure hunched over in the corner, I dropped to my knees.
"Mama. Mama, it's me. Turn around, please," I said, my voice faltering. She turned to face me, but what looked back at me wasn't what I expected.
"What did they do to you?" I asked, hugging her. I started crying silently. This was not how I remembered my mother. They had changed her so completely, I would not have recognized her. Who would think that their own mom was a circus animal?
"Don't cry for me, dear," she began. "My time is almost up, anyways. Why do you think I'm here? They're through with me."
"Then come with me, mom. If they're through, why can't you just walk away?"
"Look at me," she said, grasping my shoulders. "To everyone else, I'm a tiger in human clothing."
"But I don't care! You're still my mama inside, that's what matters to me." She smiled sadly and stood up, stretching.
"I'm done here," she said, walking out the door. I stood up and followed her out the door into the hallway. She walked calmly to the end of the hall, where there were two glass doors and a balcony. I realized suddenly what she was doing.
"No! Come back, please! I need you!" She turned around and smiled.
"You don't need me, you never really did. You are your own, independent person and always have been. Just like your father." She had backed up to the edge of the balcony, holding the iron bar in her hands. She moved to hug me one last time, like she used to, them let go and fell backwards.
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