sick
-
-
The demons are banging on the door.
They don't want to come in.
They want to escape.
As far as Subject #481, a.k.a. Arsenic, can remember, his childhood years were spent in between the four walls of the laboratory.
His life, in terms of documentation, starts five decades ago. Arsenic, aged 14 at the time, appeared at an orphanage out of nowhere without the escort of any legal guardian or any official birth certificate and requested enrollment into the institution. The child showed signs of malnourishment, mental illness and possible post traumatic stress disorder, but he wasn't shy and didn't fear physical altercations, even sought it out against older and stronger orphans. He had an unnatural perception of simple concepts like personal space and possessions, verbal communication, eating and sleeping and had a frightening temper. He visibly disliked non-violent physical contact, which worried his caretakers the most. A case was started in an attempt to find and lock up the boy's abusers but Arsenic refused to disclose their locations, going as far as trying to convince the research team on his case that he had retrograde amnesia (his literal words). The detectives eventually closed the case and left Arsenic to his devices at the orphanage.
The child was too mentally distorted to be considered for adoption by any family that met him. He didn't talk or act like a child at all and it was understandable when some people found his vocabulary unnerving. There were a few cases of overly optimistic, pitying couples, who took him in the hopes of restoring some humanity back into him, but they all quickly returned, profusely apologetic and disappointed. Arsenic was a psychotic thing. He went on frequent tangents about torture methods, pain reception and the conceptual meaning of death - his obsessions with these topics scared his caretakers and foster parents into writing up petitions for transferrals.
Nobody wanted him and he didn't want anybody either. He was rude and harmful to other children, showed to affection or like towards anyone and most strayed away from him after he killed the resident orphanage cat to prove he was capable of fatal violence if need be. As he grew, his instability grew accordingly. By the age of 12 he was already a murderer. (to be extrapolated on) This was enough of a reason to make him viable for mental hospitalization. The orphanage heartily agreed to hand him over and he spent the next 3 years of his life getting treatment. Fruitlessly. Doctor Jonathon Eldon was the resident psychiatrist, the one treating underage patients, Arsenic included, and Arsen soon found the man had a very exploitable secret.
Jonathon Eldon was exposed as a child abuser, charged with it, and was sentenced to several decades in prison. On their way to collect Eldon, police found him unconscious instead, having ingested a heavy dose of perscription pills; barely alive. After investigation of Jonathon's suicide attempt, a book of journal entries was discovered next to his unresponsive body. Two in particular stood out and were cited as proof of the identity of this case's hero. However, Arsenic was gone.
---------------
AGED 14
Journal entry #1
Journaling is stupid and Doctor Johnathon Eldon is too for suggesting it but since he likes a good read, we'll make it worthwhile for him. He likes to insist that the scribblings of disturbed children would help his research their psychological conditions in depth but we know better, don't we dear diary?
We know that Johnathon Eldon is only a money-eating fraud with perverted affinity to younger patients and he thinks he's protected by his recognition in the professional fields and his prestige as an expert. It's easy to pick out your victims when there's such ready access to personal and mental information - you just have to search for the following in the fine print - 'troubled past', 'mentally disabled' and 'antisocial behaviour'. These three in particular are an open invitation to suggest 'personal treatment', aren't they?
Aren't they, John? The weak minded ones are the easiest to fuck because they'd never tell and you know how to spin it just right in front of the parents. 'It's normal at this stage, just a side-effect of the treatment, don't worry about them.' Hah! I know I'm a paranoid psychotic, but you're worse than even me. I know you'll read this, John. I'll tell on you.
Unless you do me a favour.
Journal entry #9
YOU HAD
ONE
FUCKING JOB
JOHN!!
ONE FUCKING JOB AND YOUR PATHETIC, UNPROFESSIONAL ASS COULDN'T EVEN FORGE A RELEASE PAPER!
You think you're gonna get out scott-free from this, John? I'll run you to the god damned ground and then send my journal entries to your cell to let you know how I'm doing.
Much love, John.
Years later and Eldon has continued receiving letters to his cell, courtesy of an known to all sender. The handwriting
eerily matches up to that of one Nikolai Dobrev, a seemingly impossible to track enigma.
