Seventh Judgement || DBH Original Story

[ P R O L O G U E ] [ Part 1 ] 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫

Patient 501 had been quite a handful for the English Summerfield Mental Institution For The Criminally Insane. 

They had never had a subject quite like him before. He kept to himself for the most part, but something deeply sinister was hiding under the surface of his pale skin. He wasn't outwardly violent towards any particular patient, yet always seemed to be scheming to himself, reading whatever Shakespearean play happened to be available to him in the recreational area.

His name was James Edwards. He had been convicted of stabbing his mother in the stomach with a kitchen knife at the age of 19, serving life in the institution Miraculously, the woman had survived, winning a trial against his own son, landing him here. 

He didn't seem to enjoy speaking of his case or his mother, and further treatment appeared to reveal why.

Edwards gave small hints during therapy of his time with his parents. Both of them were very heavily religious, seemingly catholic, and mirror many of their beliefs on to their children, Eve and James.

The specialist deduced that because of this, James may have developed some sort of paranoia, leading to delusions, which his guardians enabled. Based on James's time with her, he revealed to being locked in a confessions booth, being tormented by his mother and a priest, sometimes for hours, to confess to being a demon of some sort.

His mother believed he was a curse from God, since he was conceived out of wedlock. James describes the torture only getting worse, until it bubbled up to the kitchen incident.

Today, however, was different than his previous days at the institution. Due to his outstanding current behavior, he'd be allowed outside of the premise for a short time. All patients got this privilege if they had been keeping to their treatment plan, and James was no exception. 

He flashed a small smile to the warden letting him out, latching a tracking device to his wrist, the word 'CYBERLIFE' etched into the side of it.

"I won't have to worry about you getting into trouble, now, will I, Edwards?"

"Not in the slightest." The patient replied, his accent thick, dripping from the coy smile that plastered his lips. 

The device clicked on, and the warden saw him out. Harmless, she thought...the man had been improving under her care, she thought.

That was, until 2:43am, after James had returned to his room by 6pm..

-|-

Alarms started to go off, wardens rushed to Edwards's cell, only to find an empty room. The guards were told to set up perimeter, to find the patient at all costs while technicians hurried to figure out what could've gone wrong to cause the event of the patients cell being remotely unlocked.

Rushing to find an exit, James ran through dark hallway after dark hallway, until inevitably running directly into the chest of the warden that had checked him out earlier in the day. She was much taller than him, a woman made for keeping men like him in check.

"You lied to me, Edwards." She said, sounding less upset and more disappointed as she grabbed the late teenager by the wrist, pulling his arm behind his back while he snickered to himself. 

"Did I? I'm terribly sorry, but...I like this game, Scarlet." He says, recalling her name from having overheard it somewhere before. "Shall we play again another time?" 

His wit was stopped in it's tracks as she forced him to move forward, relaying to her fellow wardens and guards that the subject had been found, and that lockdown should be ceased.