Crude tiles filled the floor with a sense of repetitive madness, Ceaser hated being here. It was as though he never left, Sbrana has had the same staff employed for more than four years now with the exemption of yearly interns. But still it now felt more of a home than usual, which was absolutely concerning for Ceaser. The smell of alcohol used to wipe windows, or the fait fragrance of Tobacco sticking to the genitor. Above all were the false smiles given by the white coats 'Doctors'.
Ceaser was taken to an inspection area where nurses stripped him naked, the sensation of fingers searching his behinds made him twitch unexpectedly, he had been away from this place long enough to forget the sensation.
"Welcome back Ceaser!" nurse Astor teased with a secretive wink.
"Well I'm not exactly happy to be here." Ceaser replied arrogantly.
The loud clang of chains being pulled with great force startled the nurse, Constable Mogomotsi seemingly irritated by the flirtatious exchange between the two.
"Hey! I have work to do at the station. Take me to his isolation unit this instant." Constable Mogomotsi commanded.
"Hold on a second officer! We need to cut of his long hair, don't you know he can strangle someone with it?" Astor hinted at the long red bangs.
"Christ Jesus! Lets get it over with." Constable Mogomotsi groaned.
Nurse Astor took a pair of surgical scissors and flashed them before Ceasors eyes as she chopped at the air, 'In my experience, psychiatric health care officials seem more crazy than the ones they are actually caring for' Ceaser made a quick evaluation of the situation.
Calming clicks filled the void of silence in the inspection area, then nurse Astor held up a mirror to Ceaser's face. His glorious red bangs were chopped of into a distorted bob cut, now he looked the part of a mentally disturbed.
"You ruined my hair Astor!" Ceaser proclaimed.
Whack!!! Constable Mogomotsi slapped Ceaser on the head to silence him, even so he didn't break out in anger or retaliate. After all in this place, there was the sunshine where every normal civilian gets to see and then there is….
"A great and terrible darkness, deep in the underground holding cells….where people with my kind of reputation are sent. Good behavior was and will always be the only ticket out of that place." Ceaser recounted an understood principle of the psychiatric hospital.
They took an elevator into the deep and dark halls, where killers are sent for reformation…or so they say. Nurse Astor's grin faded into a cold and calculated pose, the elevator door opened and then the cold murderous air of that place came in.
Constable Mogomotsi coughed up everything he had for breakfast, his eyes reeling with trauma and shock all at once. He glared at Ceaser but then what he saw nearly made him spill his bowels, Ceaser had a calm face on but the air around him was more murderous than the one in that place.
"Nurse! You…you can go lock him up, I…I…I'll wait out here." Constable Mogomotsi squeaked a plea.
Then all ravenous cry filled the hall as convicts screamed, reeling from the scent of weakness coming from the elevator. But then everything went silent as Ceaser stepped out of the elevator, his hands spread out into a t-pose. And now cries of joy pierced the halls, as if a king was being welcomed home.
"Have you ever slept peacefully only to wake up in hell? This was my life, one day I was plucking daises in my garden then the next I was a king of Hell." Ceaser remarked internally.
The familiar straight jacket was strapped on and he, off-cause was locked in a room cushioned from corner to corner. The door made a familiar clicking sound and then they were gone, leaving him to busk in the world of memory.
Ceaser had one agenda, to address the looming darkness within him…the memory he fears to remember.
CBD Table 52...
That morning Elizabeth had a meeting with a journalist who'd been asking to cover the full story behind Ceaser Grey, the commissioner had sent her to take care of the tedious chore.
"I'm never getting used to this long elevator ride" Elizabeth remarked.
"It's out of character for the commissioner to send anyone on these." She remarked again "something feels off."
The elevator door opened and there she was at the roof of the highest building in the country, the gesture of a waving hand caught her sight immediately…. 'The journalist was unusually early' Elizabeth noted.
She arrived an hour earlier to have breakfast but now she had to entertain a guest, 'Was she hear to meet someone else before me?' Elizabeth questioned internally. But for now she wore her notoriously perfect smile, the staff brought out a cup of coffee to the journalist.
"You must be Detective Kylie, I'm Riley Gapes." The journalist announced her self while stretching a greeting hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Riley." Elizabeth greeted as she shook Riley's hand.
'I'm certain of it now, she came here to meet me.' Elizabeth noted internally. 'Something about this woman feels off.' Elizabeth concluded her initial inspection of Riley. On the other hand Riley rustled with her bag for a while then took out a small recorder, placing it on the table she whipped out a humble smile.
"I hope the commissioner told you everything will be on record, right?" Riley confirmed with Elizabeth.
"Off-cause Mrs. Gapes, I was informed of everything." Elizabeth answered. But internally she remarked 'Her nails are not done, she smells of lotion and a feint perfume fragrance. She stayed the night in one of the rooms in this building….although married.'
Then on Riley asked common questions on how they figured out the killer was Ceaser and what sentence he will be serving, off which Elizabeth answered honestly. The waiter, a bald man with ice blue eyes and reddish eye brows came back holding a breakfast combo for Elizabeth.
The proportions of the man's face were eerily familiar causing Elizabeth to lose focus for only a second, in that instant Riley had time to take out another recorder and throw it into Elizabeth's bag.
The recorder slightly offset the balance of the bag and Elizabeth's gaze quickly darted to see it, Riley held her breath in panic. Her eyes slightly tensing up, and Elizabeth noticed this in the corner of her eye. 'Something feels off about this' she noted internally.
"Tell me Detective Kylie, how it felt convicting your former fiancée to a mental institution….again" Riley threw in a long shot.
Elizabeth squinted her eyes in rage, then took a cup of tea and drank it.
"That content isn't part of the agreed terms, anything like that and the interview ends." Elizabeth warned, while her eyes lingered on the strangely familiar waiter.
"Hmmm, Miss Kylie it is rumored that you used Ceaser Grey's popularity to water your own career and when all was done and dusted you threw him away like a piece of trash." Riley persistently pushed for a provocation.
"It was a pleasure meeting you Mrs. Gapes, I hope you get home safely….working all night must be tiring." Elizabeth provoked Riley.
Elizabeth stood up all smiles then stopped to take one last bite of her egg toast, then she caught sight of the strange waiter laughing. He looked exactly like Ceaser and now she was certain of it, 'Ceaser always said he used to have a twin brother, but then he died during a family vacation.' Elizabeth recalled internally.
She pretended to enter the female rest rooms, then searched her bag. There was a recorder identical to the one Riley had, 'Was she planning to get off record data from me?' Elizabeth questioned internally.
She the left the bathrooms and handed the recorder to one of the waiters, "Make sure the woman sitting there receives this."
And when she left her message was delivered, but Riley didn't seem surprised. Rather the waiter bearing a striking resemblance to Ceaser came and sat next to her, his eyes deeply calculative.
"She took the bait your majesty I'm sure she will be waiting for you to go home later." Riley exclaimed.
"Your acting was absolutely terrible, don't ever take a job like this." Dominic scolded at Riley.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth sat in her car piecing together the event of her interview with Riley. She felt something was off but couldn't really find the connecting piece, 'everything points at this meeting being a sort of set up, what is the commissioner's hand in this?' Elizabeth brainstormed internally.
Elizabeth spent the day scrutinizing what she suspected, especially every time she saw the commissioner or heard him being mentioned.
Sbrana psychiatric...
"Fee-Fi-Foo-Fum! Strings of spider, strangle the cups of destiny and wrought forth to me a bridled chalice. My heart cries a red river, console unto thee a morticious song. The red moon rises, death awakens at your doorstep.' A voice like a crooked old box creaked from within Ceaser's heart.
Ceaser jolted from a dreamy daze, sweat watered him like the morning dew. Footsteps seemed to walk slowly, creeping slowly and ever slowly towards him.
Swat! He felt a hand hit him on the back but he was alone in there…or was he. A feint smell of blood came over his nose and there it was, the horrid memory of his brother dying. A ten year old Dominic fighting to breath, his chest a gaping hole of blood.
Rebecca Grey held her dying son close to her chest crying for a doctor.
"And I stood there frozen, Dominic's dying eyes dilated as he stared endlessly into my own." Ceaser recalled.
Then he inhaled a deep breath and he was now in his room…or rather his cell. With a long exhale he was thrown into a gaping darkness, a presence far older than him trotted lightly around him….scrutinizing him.
"Its almost time." The voice spoke audibly for the first time.
"Who are you?" Ceaser cried.
"Your insolence irritates me, even a dog knows who feeds it." The voice snarled.
"what do you want then?" Ceaser questioned into the void.
"I already have everything I ever wanted." The voice answered.
"You Ceaser are an interesting creature, after spending the past four years with you I can say you are a sea of wasted potential." The voice remarked.
"What do you mean wasted potential?" Ceaser groaned.
The voice let out a hearty laugh that slowly turned eerie, then everything was quiet once more.
Then his cushioned room came to light, but it had uncharacteristic abstract splashes of red. Whilst he was spotless clean, not even his feet touched the blood. Ceaser recoiled in shock, he'd seen this happen multiple times but it always felt new to him.
"My blackout episodes are back." Ceaser remarked.
A familiar clicking sound announced the door opening, Nurse Astor walked in eyes wide in shock.
"Damn it! Call in the janitor" Astor screamed.
Nurses came running in, one holding a tranquilizer. Ceaser was in another patient's cell and the patient was missing. One of the nurses took swabs of the blood spatter, Astor bent over to whisper into Ceaser's ear.
"I hope you had an amazing meal" she exclaimed
"My glorious king" Astor whispered.
And then night came.