John Doe

A man is found and placed in an institution who can't remember anything about his past. As a doctor begins to work with him over a three month span his dangerous past is slowly revealed.

John Doe

By:

NJ Miller

 

 

“Doctor, he’s stopped rocking. I think this is a good sign.” The phone was louder then it should be and the doctor was sitting in his office in a leather chair with a while lab coat draped around his chair. He pulled the phone away from his ear as he sat there. “Thank you Eli, that’s wonderful. I’ll leave my office now and come to meet you.” Both ends of the phone then immediately hung up. The doctor stood up then sighed as he walked out the door taking his white lab coat with him. When the doctor went to meet up with his nurse, Eli, he saw his patient. “Ah yes. 50375. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Still a John Doe after 72 hours. Has he said anything?” The doctor peeled his eyes from the chart and looked up at Eli. “No sir. Not even a mumble the past three days.” They looked though the tinted glass at the brown haired man in the straightjacket. The man sat there just staring at nothing- his eyes glazed over. He seemed as though he didn’t even breathe.

The Doctor sighed once more leaving Eli in the side observation room and walked around to the entrance of the patient’s room. The doctor was intently watched as he walked into the room. The Doctor stood near the door of the room. “Hello My name is Doctor McCormick. What is your name?” The patient focused his eyes on him more intently. “I have forgotten my name. But I am number five. That is what HE called me.” The Doctor’s forehead scrunched up and his eyebrows gathered in the center. “How did you get your… number?” The patient looked down at the padded floor. “I don’t know that’s just what he called me.” The doctor wasn’t sure as to how far to take this conversation. He was afraid the man would get violent like he did before when they brought him here to the institution.

“So who is this man?” The patient continued to stare at the floor. “I don’t know his name,” the patient replied. “I know his face when I close my eyes I can see it.”

“Do you see him now? This man?”

“No. It’s just you and I in this room.” The doctor nodded at the man’s response. “Have you seen this man when you are alone or when there are people around you?”

“I am never alone with him. He never talks directly to me either. I just know it’s the man who is responsible for me being here. In some ways, I am glad I am here. I wish to never see the light of day like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I wish to stay secluded. I fear for the day that man should ever find me.” This statement intrigued the doctor the man was well read or knew someone who told him stories. Most of the people in the institution were not this articulate.

The Doctor then moved to the door. The man finally uttered, “You fear me I can sense it but I will not hurt you. As long as the man is not here.” The doctor looked over to the window and nodded his head at Eli although he couldn’t see her. “Is there anything you would like?”

“Just something to pass the time.” With that the guard on the other side of the door opened it letting the doctor out. The doctor turned to the guard after shutting the door. “At your earliest convenience, you may take the straight jacket off of him. I believe he will no longer be violent.” With that the guard nodded as he shut the door behind the doctor and they each went their separate ways. While the doctor performed his usual rounds he contemplated what to give his new patient. He couldn’t give him something to use as weapon so that would exclude and pens or paper. When he visited him at the end of the day he seemed to be in the same state. The straightjacket was no longer on him and he sat with his legs crossed and his hands in his lap. The doctor handed him a book. “I hope you enjoy it. It’s one of my favorites.” The paperback book had pages that had been dog-eared, and the binding was cracked but the patient was grateful. As the doctor turned to leave him once again the patient looked at the book with a worried look. The doctor caught his face change out of the corner of his eye. “What is wrong?”

“I don’t know if I can read.” The doctor walked over closer to him but still keep his distance. “Why don’t you try?” The patient opened the book and let out a sigh while shutting his eyes. “The man gave me lists hidden in books. Books much like these.” The doctor sat where he stood on the padded floor. He made a motion to Eli though the window, which told her to write everything down. “So the man gave you lists. What kind of lists?”

“Places. Dates. Times.”

“So an itinerary. I’m guessing this man was like your boss.”

“He was more like a master.”

“A master… and you were?”

“His slave- practically his toy. That was our relationship.” The doctor wasn’t sure if this man was making up this man in his head or could possibly be a schizophrenic. “How did you meet this man?” the patient looked down at the book once more that was sitting closed in his lap. “I don’t remember. I just remember small little bits. Of the man talking to me and of the books he gave me. I wish I didn’t remember I’m afraid if I do he’ll come here looking for me. I don’t want to see the man again. I DON’T WANT HIS BOOKS!” The patient then threw the book full force into the wall. He buried his face into his hands and began to sob and gasp for air causing him to cry harder into his hands. The doctor then nodded to the window once again and stood up from his spot on the floor. The guard then opened the door and the doctor left.

“Eli, how is he progressing today?” The doctor stood in his office with a large file in his lap. “He seems to be doing well here, Sir. He’s in the art room right now.” the doctor nodded his head. “He seems to be adjusting well here sir. Although he hasn’t revealed anything you didn’t already know last night from the tapes.” His forehead became scrunched up. “You watched them already?” The Doctor was quite surprised by this. “How long have you been here for Eli?” She giggled over the phone. “Sir I was covering for James last night. So I sat here and watched him. He is still screaming in his sleep though.” The doctor shook his head. “I see. I will come and speak with him this afternoon then.” The doctor began to hang up the phone when he heard Eli speak again. “What did you say?” The doctor replied. “Oh just that you’ll have to bring him another book he already finished the last one you gave him.” He then chuckled as he hung up the phone.

The doctor was at the end of his normal rounds and always last on his list was John. 50375. John hadn’t remember his name even after being in the institution for almost three months. One day John asked him what they had named him. When the doctor told him John and that it was a standard thing for them to do but he still smiled knowing that he had a name to someone and he felt as though he was no longer a slave and that the man maybe gone from his life. John still hadn’t remembered anything more then what he told the doctor the first time they had spoke but now they talked about things in more abstract terms like things that John wanted to do. Painting in the art room was one of those things.

The doctor stepped in at the end of their session and John was surprised but happy to see him. They walked together to John’s room when a page for the doctor came over the loud speaker. “Doctor McCormick. Please report to the front desk there is someone to see you.” They quickly nodded to each other and the doctor went down stairs to the front desk while John was then escorted back to his room. Upon arriving there the doctor saw an older man dressed in a long black coat. The man immediately walked up to the doctor before he could even get to the desk. As he got closer to the man he noticed the mans dark brown hair and his aged eyes. The man was well dressed and carried himself in a very regal manner. “Doctor McCormick, I presume? I am Alfonzo Rivera. I am interested in one of your patients here. I have been informed that you took in a John Doe about three months ago.”

“Yes that is correct, but what it your business here, Mr. Rivera?”

“You see my dear doctor one of my employees went missing about the time that your John Doe appeared. At first I believed he had fled the country but after some investigation, I am lead to believe that he is here.” The doctor nodded while thinking to himself. “I was wondering if I could visit with this John Doe of yours- to see if he’s my employee. Trust me what ever he is suffering from I will take personal care of I can assure you.” The doctor looked up with a skeptical look on his face. The eagerness in Rivera’s voice was unsettling to him and his face made that well know.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to see my patient today. Not unless you’re family and since your references have made it clear that you are not. You’ll be unable to do so. Why don’t you write down a number in which I can contact you at if my patient should remember of you.” The man looked down at the ground and smiled. “Doctor McCormick, I believe that you are unaware that this man has no family and I am sure that my name will not jog his memory but here is my card.” He held out a business card to the doctor. “There is one more thing that I would like to give you. It may help.” Rivera held out a small tan business envelope to the doctor, which he took and opened as Rivera walked out the door. It was a portrait of a lovely blonde woman. “Who is this?” the doctor shouted at Rivera. Rivera then called back with out stopping, “His wife.”

The doctor stood there baffled for a moment. The doctor could wait to show his patient the picture that Rivera had given him. He laid it face down on John’s table and the doctor could see that John was nervous. The doctor felt horrible. Here was a key to John’s past but John might not even remember her. Finally the silence broke with John flipping over the picture and letting out a terrifying scream. He jumped up from his chair grabbing at his face trying to make the memories go away but they came back like a dam breaking in his mind. Uncontrollably he began to claw at the door and breathing heavily as if he was taking in toxic gas from the air.

Two guards rushed in and pulled him from the room and the doctor picked up the picture and put it back into the envelope worried about what horrible memories this brought to his patient. The doctor gave the order to keep him sedated because his violent nature in their meeting room. The next day in the infirmary of the institution was filled with moaning. John had seen something so horrible in that picture of his wife that even sedated he couldn’t handle what his memory brought into his mind.

He didn’t speak for three days and didn’t eat until the fifth. The event traumatized him and turned him off as if he were some idle machine. John had referred to the fact that he had a master the man he called him. The doctor tried to get a hold of Mr. Rivera but the number he was given to contact him was just an answering machine that went unanswered. When John finally came back to the world it seemed that he had remembered everything. He asked for the doctor to release him several times but the doctor was unwilling. He feared the worst would come out in him and declared him a risk to society. John remembered he was once called Beau, but he only told the doctor his first name in fear not only for his own life but that of the doctor’s. He warned him everyday at the beginning and the end of the sessions that the man was getting closer to him waiting for him like he did. The doctor thought he had regressed back to what he had been when they first let him into the institution.

Finally the last day in the institution Beau grew quiet and withdrawn. The doctor believed that he would then relapse once again. Earlier that day Mr. Rivera had contacted him telling him he was in town and wanted to speak to his patient. The only way it would be allowed for Mr. Rivera to see Beau was if he was there with the doctor present. Rivera was more then willing to have that and was inside the institution within an hour’s time. 

As Rivera walked down the corridors to where Beau the doctor grew nervous. Their steps were practically in unison as Rivera followed the doctor. The doctor went into the observation room with Eli as Rivera stood outside to be let in by the guard standing in front of the door. When the time came the guard let him in and Beau didn’t look up. “I knew you would come. I could feel you a mile away.” Rivera sat down across from him and his back to the observation room. “I was always concerned about you, Beau. Knowing you were here once I had tracked you down wasn’t easy and leaving you here wasn’t always the best thing to do either.”

“So you gave them the picture of Donna, didn’t you!?”                                                  “Beau, if I didn’t do something-”

“Do you know how she died? You don’t concern yourself with things like this… do you?” Rivera looked away not wanting to know the details that Beau was more then willing to give up. “Well then I’ll tell you, You sick b*****d!” Beau stood up quickly starring Rivera in the eye. Beau’s hands slammed against the table as he lurched forward to face Rivera. “She laid there dead asleep. No one could have waked her. She slept like an angel. Then a mechanical spider came a long and put her into the deepest sleep as this same little spider opened her up like a surgeon slowly cut out her heart and sent it to her boyfriend so he would then drop his lawsuit against a man who was a career criminal, and that’s all good for you?!” He slowly walked up behind him as he spoke. “She didn’t do a damn thing wrong and all you wanted was to have someone come along and kill her. And for as long as I knew her I loved her and in one night that angel was no longer able to touch the world.”

“She was your best work, considering it was just desserts for a wife’s infidelity. But I am sure you’ll top yourself once again.” Rivera reached into his pocket and set on the table a deck of cards. Beau then walked to the side of the table still watching Rivera closely and watched as Rivera then picked up the cards and took them out of the box and spread them in line before Beau’s chair. “Don’t you want to play this game once again? I have a few plans if you pick the right card.” Beau looked down at the line of cards and took his place before them. “I never wanted to play this game.”

Rivera laughed. “You always play Beau. You’re addicted to what you do. You’re good at it and still to this day the numerous bombs you’ve set off, the people you’ve killed and the bodies that a hundred years from now won’t be found. I think you’re pretty well off.” Rivera got up from his chair and walked half way to the door. “Humans are the only animals on the planet that kill each other for no reason. Wolves will kill the weak- but humans, we kill because people like you hunt them down like they are lesser animals. Beau, you’re a predator.” Beau’s eyes glazed over. Hearing the words that Rivera spoke shocked him he didn’t want to become what he was in the past and his mind was fighting urges he thought he could suppress and had been hiding while he was in the institution. As Beau contemplated what he should do Rivera came up behind him and whispered in his ear. “The man thinks that you have had enough vacation time number five.” With that Rivera grabbed the back of his neck and a humming sound came from within it. “You forgot to leave your collar on. You know he likes to have you more as a pet then an assassin. It’s time you got back to work, number five.”

Beau’s glazed over eyes began to be more unresponsive. Rivera then pulled out a cell phone from his jacket pocket, dialed a number then held it up to his ear. At this time the doctor let in an entire security team. “The police will be arriving soon. I heard everything so who ever this girl was,” he reached in his pocket for the picture and shoved it right in Rivera’s face, “her death won’t be such a mystery anymore.” Rivera didn’t even move. He looked as though he didn’t care. Finally someone on the other line picked up and only noise could be heard. “Yes sir I am awaiting your arrival. But I seem to be detained but I am sure it will only be momentary.” Rivera listened to the voice on the telephone once more and then hung up. “Who were you talking to?” The doctor was frustrated by Rivera’s unwillingness to accept him as an authority. The doctor walked over to Beau and saw that he was unresponsive. “What did you do to him?” Rivera scoffed. “Things are not what they seem. My employer will be here shortly to take possession of his asset that I have reacquired for him.”

The doctor was so astonished he didn’t comprehend all that Rivera was trying to convey to him. Rivera noticed this and walked over to the doctor slowly “Let me tell you something. This man you see before you is a very delicate piece of ingenuity. In a half a second he will proceed to kill your security team not alert anyone and then kill you. It would be better if you didn’t resist. I’ve heard it’s much worse if you do.” Beau then jumped up on the table and proceeded to engage with each member of the security team breaking each one of their necks in the most silent method that a skilled assign could harness. Beau then approached the doctor who then began to back away from him in utter fear wetting himself in the process. Beau then knocked him down to his knees and placed his delicate hands around his head and broke his neck as well. Rivera then nodded to the door. Beau followed Rivera outside of the institution to an SUV still running, waiting a half a block away. Beau got into the back seat with Rivera and the SUV began to drive down the road a voice sprang from the seats behind them. “Was everyone eliminated?”

“Yes sir. Exactly how you asked.”

“Good.” The man then reached for the back of Beau’s next and pressed hard on it the humming noise peaked for a moment then stopped and Beau slumped over in his seat. “The scene was very clean, sir. Even though if there was any witnesses they will be passed over by authorities.” The man pressed a button next to him and the driver responded. “Have the authorities arrived on scene?”

“Yes sir about two minutes after our departure. We are currently not being followed.” The intercom then clicked off. The man in the back seat then spoke once more to Rivera. “I think we shall have the scientist modify number 5 when we get back to the lab. I refuse to have an androidian clone running rampant with my face again.”