Insane

Cold

"Okay. Undress to your underwear."
"W-what?"
"Virgil. I don't care if you aren't wearing clothes."
"I-I-I do."

He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Mary, darling?" A young woman wearing a similar, yet more feminine thing to Dr Picani comes in.
"Yes, Emile?" She asks.
"Could you help Mr Blair over here undress?" My eyes widen and she looks at me sympathetically. I shake my head frantically as my breathing becomes erratic. I step backwards into the corner of the room and slide down the wall as Mary comes closer. I see Dr Picani writing something down. Mary looks behind her to see if he's looking then she stops and speaks to me,

"Shh. Shh. It's okay. Listen, I know that this whole thing is unfair on you and-" She sighs before she continues. "I'm gonna tell you something that you can't tell anyone."
"O-Okay." I say quietly.
Mary turns and leads me behind I wall. Before sitting by me. It looks like she's only about 21.

"I really need you to do this for me. You see, I'm a journalist. I know that the conditions here are bad. I know that you aren't treated right. And, I know that you aren't 'insane,' as they put it. I managed to get a job here through a friend. I'm trying to expose the harsh conditons and treatment here. And, when I do- I'm hoping they'll shut this hellhole down."

I can't believe what she's just told me. Is it true though?

"R-Really..?"
"Yes. But, I dont' have much evidence right now. Do you think you could help me out a bit, Virgil?"
"Ho-How?"
"It might sound a bit.. scary, but-" Mary is cut off by Dr Picani's voice.
"Are you nearly done, Mary?"

-------------

"Four hours. Starting... now." Dr Picani says as he shuts the metal door to the cramped room that I'm in. All I have on now is my underwear.

Mary managed to come to a compromise with me. It's gonna be difficult. Mary thnks that with enough evidance, this place could be shut down in a month. To find that evidance, though, I'm gonna have to make a sacrifice. I need to try to get into the most trouble I can be in, which, knowing me, won't be hard. Mary is going to speak to my roomates. She wants each of them to do something to help, since I assured her they wouldn't give her up.

After a minute of nothing happening, the showerhead above my head starts to ache and groan. It then starts throwing out ice cold water. The coldest I've ever felt anything. My skin screams for it to stop. I don't even realise that I'm yelling and banging on the door until my hands start to hurt. No matter where I stand in the room, the cold water sprays me senseless.

The empty feeling overtaking my body stops after what feels like days, even though I know it's only four hours. I slump to the floor, panting like a dog. My skin is like an icicle.
"Get dressed. You have a talk with Dr Eller about how that treatment went in ten minutes." I don't even realise that Dr Picani is in the room until he speaks and throws me some clothes. I don't have a towel or anything, so I just use the sleeves of the shirt to dry myself off before slipping on the shirt and a pair of black shorts that I was given. My hands are still shaking like crazy from the cold.

Almost immidiately after I'm dressed, Picani opens the door. His serious disposition seemed to have faded as he stared at me. I can only imagine how I look. My hair is dripping wet and my whole body is shaking.
"See, it wasn't that bad! I bet that four hours went by in a flash! And you might even be partly cured of your insanity now!" It takes all the strength in my body not to lash out and yell at him.
I'm still panting horribly as I follow Emile out of the room.

My meeting with Dr Eller went very quickly. In all honestly, I wouldn't have punched the guy if I knew he was the one who would decide my treatments from here on out. I didn't even try to argue when he said that the treatment was effective and that I'd move on to hydrotherapy baths tommorrow. He laughed menacingly when I winced in pain after he touched my cold arm to escort me out. Since the meeting was so quick, I was still dripping with water and my hands were still shaking when I was pushed from behind into our room. Everyone was sitting on their beds, and Mary was even there, sitting on Patton's bed facing everyone as if she had just finished speaking.

When I get into the room, they all turn to look at me. "Kiddo!" Patton gasps in surprise.
"I-I-I'm fi-fin-fine, Pat- Patt-ton." I cough out.
"Virgil, your stutter." Logan says looking at me in concern.
I completely ignore him as I groggily walk over to my bed and flop down on it backwards.
"Virgil, uh, Mary was just talking to us."
I completely zone him out and crawl under my wafer thin blanket.
Everyone keeps talking and I zone it out as I start to cry as quietly into my arms.

"Virgil..?" I hear Janus say calmly. I sniffle a little before mumbling an "It's fine."

And before I know it, the darkness of sleep has consumed me.

So there you have it! The second chapter! Thank you so much for reading, I hope to see you in the next chapter!

1647 words