'Why in the world have you brought me here?', asked Larry protestingly when he realised that we had forcefully picked him up to the Saint Mary Hospital.
'You need some serious attention', Fred replied him back and continued, 'Now just shut up and follow us'. Larry looked at Fred grudgingly and then looked back at me with agitation.
Dr. Marcus Eastwood MD, PhD, MB ChB, MPsych read the name plate.
'There it is!', remarked Fred. 'He's an old acquaintance ya know. Three years back, my mom had been going through some serious anxiety problem when one of my friends recommended me to visit him. I brought her here and visited Dr. Eastwood. He diagnosed her with bipolar and cured her in a year'
'Larry Hughes!' There was the call after being seated in the waiting room for around two hours. The two hours had been quite strange for all three of us. While Larry was apprehensive about the doctor, Fred and I were unsure about when Larry would have his characterized fits or daydreams and start behaving in his weird ways or he would have a catnap and dream of some kind of a nightmare and somehow scare us to our souls and everyone present there. That call was an end to that erratic two hours.
'Ah! Mr. Frederick it is I guess, if am not wrong', said Dr. Eastwood with a vibrant smile.
'Nice to meet you again, sir'
'Oh! No need to use that word. Call me Mark. By the way how's your mom?'
'Oh, she's doing good with the grace of the Almighty'
'Then what's it which brings you here mister?'
'You may not call me by that. Call me Fred'. Muffled chuckles followed.
'Okay Fred, tell me what's the problem?'
'See, this is a friend of mine - Larry'. He pointed at Larry. 'There's something weird happening with him-'
'Oh just stop! I am fine!', Larry cried in disgust. 'I don't want anyone to care about me. I am absolutely fine and don't need to consult any shrink to know that!'
'Can't you keep calm for a second!'
'Why should I?'
' 'cause I want you to be so', said Fred giving Larry a grim look. ' If everything's gonna be fine then we aren't gonna disturb ya anymore. Think it to be a formality and please just shut your ass up!' Only this time did Larry become silent.
'Please be seated, gentlemen. Continue Fred', said Dr. Eastwood.
'So yeah, it must start with Liam.'
The doctor looked at me.
'It all started last Friday. He suddenly went missing that morning. We searched for him desperately until he was found out at an old mansion. I went inside the mansion to get him. But when I summoned him, he just went crazy and started assaulting me, but thing went worse when he threw me off the first floor balcony thus, getting me to break my arm'. Mark looked at my broken arm and then looked surprisingly at Larry.
Then Fred joined. 'Yeah sir. But it didn't end here. Since then, we have noticed some weird behavior in him. He had become kind of rougher and compulsive lately. And he is also having some kind of nightmares or hallucinations'
'Hmm'. Mark gave a sigh and turned towards Larry.
'What do you have to say on this mister?', he asked.
'I don't know. I don't know what's happening with me. But the nightmares, they are kinda-kinda-'. He burst into tears. He just couldn't hold it anymore. He had been trying to hide his grief from all of us till then. But now it was enough for him. Mark extended a glass of water at him. I could sense him trembling.
'Relax Larry. Everything's gonna be fine. Just tell me about your torments', said Mark with concern.
'The dreams, the nightmares- they are kind of eating me up.' He sniffled a bit. 'They are way too horrific. Sometimes I see a man trying to slash me and chasing me all through the dream. Sometimes I see a woman who initially pretends to be kind to me, serves me food and then suddenly turns into a rotten corpse with blood oozing out of her skin. Her hair becomes drenched with more and more blood. She throws the food at my face and then goes on stabbing me endlessly until I wake up from my tormenting sleep. Once I saw a girl with a face turned behind. She removed her hand, gave a cunning smile and threw that hand at me. It fell right in front of me and when I looked closer at it, numerous or to be precise, uncountable tarantulas climbed up unto me and started eating me up. The worst part of all these nightmares is that I can actually feel them, sense them as if they are real. As if it is trying to hunt me down somehow. I always feel as if I am being stalked by someone evil. A poltergeist perhaps. I don't know. But it wants me'. Now he could not hold himself up and started weeping profusely.
Fred and I were looking up at him with our eyes wide open. We were extremely frightened about his condition when we heard his ordeals.
'Jeez! That's insane!', remarked Mark. 'I need you to join me for some tests, Larry. I shall try my best to do something for you'. He took Larry with him to his observation room and started checking him up.
'My God! Larry had been through so much!', I said anxiously.
'Yeah, and we could never do anything for our pal'
'I never paid that much attention to his nightmares and visions. I wish I had'. Our heads were down with remorse.
'We are back!'. Mark was back with Larry at his side who was still wearing a devastating look. 'I want Fred and Liam to be here. Larry you may wait for them outside'. With this Larry left and now we were going to confront Dr. Eastwood.
'See guys, I don't find anything unusual with his behavior or anything else. Probably he is having some kind of nightmarish hallucinations. It may be because of some recent annihilation in his personal life. Has something like that happened to him in recent times?'
'No. But his mother had passed away a couple of years back. But he got out of that stress soon and has been alive as always since then.
'Well, sometimes we doctors also cannot do much about the patients condition if we do not get to know exactly what's the problem with the patient. Moreover, in Larry's case, it hasn't been long. So my advice would be to have an eye on him. Its upon him to support himself and you two have to extend a helping hand at him. Take good care of him. Try to keep him happy. What I think is that something is pulling him into depression. He looks quite stressed and anxious.'
Giving a sigh he continued, 'See I have prescribed him some anti-depressants and some other helpful drugs. I hope they would work and let's hope for the best.'
Fred and I shared a glance and then stood up.
'Fees?', asked Fred.
'Oh, we shall sort that out later. I think this case's gonna last long. Anyways, goodbye'
Another sharing of glances, but this time of fear, and then we left the chamber. Larry was sitting outside looking down with a gloomy face. He was really looking stressed which I could sense quite clearly.