The Black Knight

The Black Knight: Chapter One

"One cannot lose what is already lost. Such is the mind,  sanity the cost."

I would start off by saying I'm a normal girl, but I'm not. That's probably why I'm set up for a long term stay at the Milford State Mental Institution and also probably why everyone calls me Trubel. My name's actually Theresa Rubel, but when I get arrested for petty theft, a B&E, or whatever, and the cops make me hold up that stupid card for my close-up, it looks like T. Rubel. I've been hanging around too many crazies nowadays, anyway, to care about my nickname, but I guess I like it. It usually keeps people from bugging me, plus it's much more fun to hear coming out of the mouths of those doctors – you know, the horrible ones that talk in such a boring way that it makes a person question whether or not they have a life outside of mental hospitals, or even a pulse.

Anyway, for the most part, they call me Trubel.

I was walking down the hallways of the institution. There were doors propped open in an inviting way, murals, carpets, warm lighting – basically the exact opposite of what I had expected the place to look like when I first arrived. I had been in a few that were basically typical hospitals with that sterile smell, creepy fluorescent lighting, and, of course, those white walls, floor tiles, doors... They gave me the creeps, and they still do.

I was making my way to the cafeteria when one of the other patients, his name was Kevin, walked out of his room and stopped in front of me.

"Are you ready to play the game?" he asked. Every day for the past 15 days, Kevin had tracked me down and asked me if I would play chess with him. I was his chosen opponent because he had already played with and defeated everyone else in the hospital, including the nurses. He never lost.

"Get out of my way, Kevin. I'm not playing any of your games," I responded.

He laughed in my face. "What? Are you late for something?" He thought that was hilarious. "Seriously, it's not like you have somewhere to be. If you had something better to do, you wouldn't be here."

"I do have something to do. It's this game I like to call 'Try not to Punch Kevin,' but I think I'm about to lose," I informed him. He got this really big, stupid grin on his face, and I didn't want to look at it, so I pushed past him and kept walking through the straight hallway.

Kevin ran in front of me, turning to face me, and started walking backward so we could both keep walking. "C'mon," he begged. "You promised!"

I stopped walking, and his grin started to spread across his face again. I glared at him which only seemed to encourage his weird mood.

"Listen, psychopath, I know I don't need to tell you this considering where we are, but if you honestly believe that I ever told you I would play chess with you, you are insane! I don't even know how to play!" That was when I realized that he only said that to me so I would stop walking.

His features took on something a little less annoying; he looked kind of reassuring and a lot desperate. "I'll show you how," he promised as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

I took a step in his direction, so I was right in his face when I asked him if he wanted to keep his arm.

For the first time since I had met him, he seemed to finally be getting the message because he swallowed hard and pulled his arm back really fast. I would have laughed at that if I wasn't trying to keep glaring at him.

I started walking, but he started walking backward in front of me again, apparently recovered from my threat.

"Please play chess with me," he asked.

"No. Go bother someone else," I replied.

"Pleeeeeease?"

"I'm not kidding, go away." Geez, he was relentless!

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"NO! Don't ask me again!"

"Please?"

He asked me again, so I moved to one side of the hallway and Kevin, still walking backward, moved over, too. After a few more steps, he smacked into the propped open door that I had steered him into. For the record, I did warn him.

"Ow!" he yelled, and I walked around him so I could finally get some food.