Chapter 3

Chapter 3

            I arrive back home and head straight for the throne room. He will have already known of my accomplishments but it still feels good to tell him yourself. The doors swing open and I walk in without hesitation. I kneel briefly at the throne steps before standing up. I am opening my mouth to speak when I realize that the throne is empty. I search the entire room with my eyes. The place is completely empty.

            “Master?” I call. The only response is the echo of my own voice. I stand and wait a little while. There is no movement and no noise in the throne room during this time. I call out his name a couple more times before deciding that I should go look for him. I make my way around the side of the throne. I have never walked past the throne- I have always thought it to be disrespectful, but this was a rare incident and it needed to be investigated. What if something bad had happened? The thought made me anxious and I picked up my pace. “Master??” I call again. No answer. I break into a small sprint down a long, never-ending hallway. I suddenly hit an area infested with doors. I start at the end and open each one. All are dark until I reach the last one. I hear loud voices inside. One seems to be yelling, the other sounds afraid. I hold my breath as I twist the doorknob carefully in my hands. I think of what could be going on inside. Awful circumstances where my master is lying on the floor, bleeding out of his head, and pleading with somebody to not kill him. I take a small peek through the crack I have made in the door.

            The scenario is frighteningly almost exactly how I imagined it. Except nothing as I had imagined it. My master is standing up, seemingly unharmed, which is a relief. I am confused, though, because a man whose name I cannot remember at the moment is on his knees. Tears stream from his fearful eyes. Sweat pours down his face and mixes in with those tears. He has fallen silent for a moment. My master’s head turns just slightly and I am suddenly afraid he has noticed me. He makes no more movement and I remain in my spot where I can easily watch the scene.

            “Why are you on your knees, begging for life, like some kind of stray dog?” My master asks in an incredibly harsh voice. I have never heard such a voice come out of him before. The man whimpers and tries to stand up. My master’s leg swings out and slams him in the side. He falls back down to the ground. The man cries in agony.

            “I did not tell you to stand up!” My master screams.

            “Why are you doing this to me?” He screams. My master spits on his face and kicks him again. And then something seems to crack in his face and his eyes become wild. His fists come down hard on the man and do not stop. The screams of torment are endless as blood flies from the helpless man’s body and splatters across the floor. Still my master does not stop. He continues to beat the man until his is unrecognizable. Then he stands up, carries the man’s body to the window, throws it out and turns for the door. I back away from the crack and run. My breathing is heavy now and a fear that I have never felt before wells up inside me. Heavy tears build in my eyes. Surely there is some explanation for what I have seen today! I run without really knowing where I am going and somehow end up at my house.

            When I stop I remember how excited I was to tell my master of what I had accomplished. Now my stomach was an empty pit and I felt like throwing up. Had I ever thrown up before? I run to my room and lay on my bed. My master had beaten a man to death! And then thrown his body carelessly out the window as if it didn’t matter! I remind myself that I had not seen the whole thing and that surely there was an easy explanation for what my master had done. Sometimes punishments were necessary when people did terrible, terrible things. I begin to wonder what that man could have possibly done to deserve such a punishment. Had he killed someone? Raped someone? I shake my head. No, nothing like that ever happened here. In the other society, sure, but not here. The only possibility I can think of is something that is strictly, strictly forbidden. The only thing this man could have done that would deserve such an awful punishment would be to try and overthrow our master. No one had ever attempted such a terrible thing. None of us had any reason to overthrow him. He ruled us with honesty and just, but he was kind and caring too. Everything about him was perfect and it was absolutely not acceptable to try to assassinate him or overthrow him. I nod my head. Yes, that had to be what the man had done. I shake my head. What a fool! Who in their right mind would want to overthrow our ruler? Anger rises inside me. The man got exactly what he deserved!

            My eyes close slowly and I am happy to fall asleep. I laugh at my naivety at the earlier situation. How could I have been so stupid as to think that my master would have been doing something that wouldn’t be completely justified? I decide that I will not bring it up tomorrow. It was exceptionally rude of me to snoop around like that and eavesdrop anyway. I would be too ashamed to tell him. Besides, I do not want to risk my status as right-hand man. No, I will just forget what I saw today and continue on with my life.

 

            The next morning, my mom comes and shakes me awake. I can feel that I haven’t gotten very much asleep.

            She leans down and whispers in my ear, “Gabe came by and said that our master wants to see you immediately.” I leap from the bed.   

            “Did he say why?” I ask. Had he known I was there, watching him yesterday? My stomach constricts in anxiety.

            “No, just to hurry up.” I throw on some clothes and run to the throne room. I barely stop and wait for the doors to open. I kneel at the throne and then stand up. “I came here as fast as I could master.” I say as I try to catch my breath.

            My master’s face is grave when I look up. “I’m afraid we have an issue with James.” My heart begins to pump fast again.

            “What has happened?”

            “He was submitted into an insane asylum yesterday evening. He was running through the town screaming about another world. Our world. If he doesn’t stop this crazy babble he will stay in there forever.”

            “What would you like me to do?”

            “I want you to go down there and stop him from babbling so much of course! I am proud of what he is doing but maybe he should find a more inviting way to presenting his new found life. Now, talking to him should be the easy part but getting into the asylum will be the hard part. They are very strict in there. They will only allow you in if you are family or a very, very close friend. I want you in there without anyone knowing with the exception of James.”

            “I understand.” I walk out without dismissal. Looks like Mr. James will be more of an issue than I thought he would be, but no problem! I could handle this, just as I handled the first job. I go through the same routine I did the first time. Run at full speed, jump and land in a street.

            I scope out the area for a sign or something that point towards the asylum. A strong winds blowing to my left practically knocks me off my feet. I take this as a signal to walk left. I walk left for several miles until I finally see a sign that reads Harvey Mental Institute. The place looked inviting enough. I scope out any security. There were no cameras that he could see. The gate was locked and required a password but was easy to jump. I hopped over and crouched onto all fours. I crawled around back and hid behind a set of bushes. A few people sat on benches and several nurses stood around watching the patients. The back door was wide open. The only obstacle was the nurses. There was a small opening between these bushes and the next set of bushes. If he moved swiftly he could make it without anyone noticing- then the hard part would come. He counted to three and then darted into the other bushes. He listened intently for any sound of alarm. None came. He smiled to himself. Easy enough. I noticed now that the nurses were far enough away that I could walk, with my head down and I could easily be mistaken for one of the patients. It was risky, but a risk I had to take. I had no idea what awaited me once I got inside. I stood up and walked straight for the back door, head down and as if I knew where I was going. When I got to the door and stopped and peeked in. The room appeared to be empty. I darted in and hid myself where I could see everything, but nobody could see me.

            The place was small, now that I was inside. It was like a home for the insane- a place where these types of people lived the rest of their lives. James was not meant to stay here, that was for sure. Three hallways led out of the room- one read ‘Employees Only’, and the other two appeared to be patient’s rooms. I closed my eyes and pointed at one. The random hallway I had chosen was on the left side of the ‘Employees Only’ hallway. The doors had small windows in the center so that I could look in. I glanced in a room, did not see James, and headed to the next one. I continued this process for the entire hallway and did not see him. I ran back into the main room and headed down the other hallway. This time I did find James.

            He sat in the second room, which was fixed up nicely. He was sitting in a chair in the center of the room and stared out the window. I opened the door, slipped in, and shut it swiftly behind me. He did not turn around.

            “Seems you did your job well- a little too well.” I say with a chuckle. He turns in his seat and a look of surprise crosses his face.

            “What in the world are you doing here? How did you find me?”

            “There is no need for pointless questions right now. I am running on a tight schedule and I do not have much time. My master is proud of what you have attempted to do but he thinks you went a little too over the top. Yelling about it in the streets is only going to make you look like a crazy person! That is why you wound up here!” I gesture to the walls surrounding us. “We want you to be as excited as you are but we don’t want to scare people into joining us.”

            “I’m- I’m sorry I didn’t realize I was being to over the top.”

            “No, no, it is quite alright. Most people go a little over the top the first few days.”

            “Just not as much as I did.”

            I laugh. “No, not as much as you, but enough talking- how will we get you out of here?”

            “What? There is no way out of here unless they allow me out.”

            “We can’t wait for that; I have to get you out now. Are there any back exits you know of?”

            “Sure, but there are nurses at all of him, do you really think we’re the first to try to get out of here?”

            “Then we will have to make a run for it.”

            “What?”

            “What are they gonna do once you get out? Will they really take the trouble to track you down?”

            “I guess not- I’m not really seen as dangerous but I still don’t like the idea of running.” I am done arguing with him. I take his arm and yank him out of his seat, pull him into the hallway and we begin to run. As we burst out an exit a few people scream and harsh voices yell for us to stop. James slows but I pull him along- we cannot stop now. If we stop, they catch us. If they catch us, James will have to stay here forever. If he stays here forever, then he can’t spread the word about our society and if that happens, then I have failed. And I cannot fail.

So we continue to run.        

Author's Note

Please be nice but criticism welcome!

Reviews

[Calypso]

Very descriptive!