This is the beginning to a book i have started. It doesn't make a lot a sense, and isn't extraordinarily interesting, but it is needed for the content for which is to come.
Billy
I woke with a dull pain throbbing against in the inside of my skull. I sat up and glanced around my cell. Nothing had changed. The gray brick walls were as dull as they normally were, and the black metal door still stood as a impenetrable barrier. I yawned and stretched my arms out. With my muscles still stiff from the sleeping I slowly got out of my bed and walked across the constraining room. I picked up a paper clip that I found my first day and added another scratch to the many scratches that marked the wall.
“Day sixty three,” said to myself with a deep sigh.
I didn’t actually really mind living in an institute for the criminally insane. I knew that it was the only way to keep Billy from harming people, but the cell got extremely boring after a while. In fact the only thing to do was read, and I had already read the entire institute’s selection from the library. I had moved onto self-teaching myself physics and chemistry. I quickly mastered these and now I had moved on to theoretical physics and advanced molecular biochemistry. If it weren’t for Billy I could do incredible things with my knowledge! I thought to myself.
I turned when I heard a knock on the door and a voice saying, “Time to…”
****
“…take your pills,” Billy heard. As the small shutter on his cell door opened he stood next to his. A hand came through holding a paper cup. Instantly Billy snatched the hand and yanked it hard causing the entire arm to come through the slot. He then brought his head down and sunk his teeth into a finger. In reaction the door swung open and before he knew it a nightstick was smashing against his head. He fell to the ground, and a guard pinned him with the nightstick across his throat.
“Come on Billy! Just take your damn pills!” yelled the guard.
Billy opened his mouth cooperatively and the guard poured the pills in his mouth, but Billy just spat them out in his face. The guard rolled his eyes and called for someone to come in. Pain wracked his head, but an unearthly rage allowed him to block it out.
“I didn’t want to do this too you,” said the guard.
“Shut up Josh,” growled Billy, “I’m going to kill you some day!”
The man that had come in was holding a syringe with Billy’s medication in a liquid form. The institute had been specially made for people like Billy, and they had a machine that could replicate injectable medications. Josh continued to pin the struggling Billy while the other man jabbed Billy with the syringe and emptied it.
“Damnit Billy! Why the hell can’t you be more like Alexander,” complained Josh as he left the room.
Billy just sat in the cell and rubbed his arm where he had been injected. After a while he began doing pushups.
“I’ll kill them, I’ll kill them! I’ll get stronger and stronger then I’ll just kill them!” he said to himself as he exercised.
I lied on my bed with a notebook and some recent physics papers on my lap. I soon abandoned these and switched to biochemistry papers. I took notes and was so fascinated by the incredible possibilities of science. I continued studying until my lunch arrived. I got up and got the tuna sandwich that sat on the tray. Tuna? They must be trying to get me in a good mood today, I thought to myself. Normally lunches were a peanut butter sandwich, but today the tuna was an excellent change. In finished eating and put the paper plate back on the door tray.
Several hours passed and a then there was a knock on the door, “Alexander?” came the soft voice of a women.
“Yes?” I responded.
There were some clicks and then the door swung open, and in the doorway was Josh with a tazer pointed directly at me. Josh told me to get up and move nice and slow. I flashed him a grin and grabbed my notebook. Out of the room I was in a small hallway and I saw Dr. Angela Bennett standing there. Her hand was on her hip; I knew she had it there so that if I went nuts she would have easy access to her stun gun.
“Okay, lets move,” said Josh, who was behind me now.
Dr. Bennett turned and she walked began to walk down the hallway. I followed. While we walked I couldn’t help but glance up and down her figure. Her luxurious curves were even more enhanced by her dark business outfit. At twenty-six she was smart, gorgeous, and successful. Three excellent qualities all in one person, I thought to myself. It had actually been her idea to start the institution at which I was being held now.
We continued walking down the hallway and then out into another hallway. Then we took a right and into one of the three examination rooms. Angela spoke with patients from time to time. The room was painted pale blue. Not white because white disturbs focus. Not dark because dark colors deepens depression. Not red because red causes anger, I was proud of my knowledge. The room also had a large table in the middle with two chairs. Just for the fun of it I decided to walk around the table and sit in the place in which Angela normally sits. I looked at Angela to see her reaction, but she didn’t seem to notice. Or she just doesn’t care, I thought.
“So have you had any trouble with Billy today?” I asked, sincerely concerned.
Angela took out a thick folder from her briefcase, “Just when administering meds,” she said calmly. Her voice was like the call of a loon on tranquil water.
They sat in silence for minute while Angela looked over her folder, “Oh! I just remembered it have this great idea for a new medication!” I exclaimed, and I ripped out a page in my notebook and handed it to Angela, “You see with this med the chemical which causes Billy’s problem will become balanced. This will make the electrical impulse of the brain to revert to what they are supposed to be.” I explained while grinning. I then realized that I must have sounded like a child who had just learned something new at school and that I had to tell someone, “I’m sorry,” I said suddenly, “It’s a dumb idea.”
Angela looked up from her folder, “Alexander, you are an extremely kind and gentle person, and I fear for your safety. Your condition is extremely unique, but I’m afraid with the very little progress that is been made with you we will no longer be able to keep you in isolation housing.”
“What!” I cried, terror surged through me like being splashed with cold water, “You can’t throw me out their with that- that riff-raff! And what about Billy!”
“We will have to release Billy to the general house as well,” explained Angela, “I just want to try you in a different environment for a while. Perhaps with social interaction your condition will improve.”
“But! What if Billy hurts someone! I- I can’t live with that kind of responsibility! No! I can’t- I can’t!” I cried.
“You will spend seven more days in the isolation room, and after that you will be moved. I’m sorry Al, its our only option,” she said.
How could she be so calm? Didn’t she realize that people would die if Billy got out of isolation? It would be a massacre.
In his cell Billy laughed. Freedom would finally be his! He began doing pushups again like he did in the morning.
“I’ll get stronger and stronger so when I get out I make people hurt!” he then laughed coldly.
He finished his pushups and stood up. He felt happier that he had in a long time. This joyous occasion called for some celebration. He glanced around his room and found his paperclip, and using it he managed to pry open the small shutter on the door. Glancing out he saw Josh standing guard.
“Hey Josh!” Billy whispered loudly, “Hey!”
Josh looked and quickly located the source of the voice, “What?” he asked, angry that he was interrupted from his reverie.
“Hey man, how ‘bout a chaw?” asked Billy, almost pleadingly.
“What? I can’t hear you,” Josh to a few steps closer.
“A dip man, lemme get a dip,”
Josh glanced around carefully, “Damn, man. You know I’m not supposed to give you that shit,” Billy gave him a look, “But I’m not supposed to have it on grounds in the first place,”
With these words Josh pulled out a package of chewing tobacco. He packed it and placed a healthy amount in Billy’s outstretched hand. Billy quickly put the chew in his lip and relished the rush of nicotine.
“Mmm, what is this kind? Mint?” Billy asked.
They continued to converse about varying tobacco products until Josh finally said, “Man, sometimes I forget how messed up you actually are.”
There was silence for a moment, “I’m only half screwed up,”
The dinner arrived and I was happy to see spaghetti. The sauce was soupy and there was no Parmesan cheese, but it was still delicious. One thing I always enjoyed was good meal. No matter what I ate I was reminded how incredible we are. The miracle of how our DNA is coded to break down specific groupings of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins and allow us to continue living was what I truly found incredible. However, I knew how our bodies have evolved to this point, but I always wondered how is it that our mind began? What is it sparked creative thought? What drove humans to express themselves through differing methods?
After the meal I stretched back on the bed and pondered these questions. Then I looked over the notes I’d taken from the theoretical physics papers I’d gotten printed for me. I realized I knew pretty much everything about physics, chemistry, and biochemistry. If I were ever going to apply it I would need to learn engineering. With these thoughts I got up and walked to the door. I rapped the cold metal.
“Hey Josh., I’d like to make a new library request.”
There was pause then a reply, “Alright, what subject this time?”
“Chemical, physical, and biological engineering,” I said.
“Wat’cha planning on? Gonna build something?” Josh asked.
“Nah,” I said, “Just interesting subjects.”
“Alright, I’ll try to get them to you by tomorrow after,” assured Josh.
“Thanks man, goodnight.”
Day 64
The next day I woke up and did my daily ritual of marking the day on the wall. I yawned and glanced up at the shatterproof glass that was my only link to the outside world. I sometimes wondered why there were no birds singing, but this was irrelevant. I patiently waited for my medications to come and I obediently downed them. Then a dark thought struck me. If I keep myself here to stop Billy, then why don’t They just kill us? There is no point in us living if we are just going to sit in these cells our entire lives. I told myself I would ask Angela next time we had a meeting, but this random though merely passed through my mind and swiftly exited.
The headache continually plagued me as the day crept slowly onward. The walls didn’t change. The lighting didn’t change. I couldn’t tell if it was day or night. For some reason the memory of the funeral crept into my mind. The funeral that nobody went to but I. The events that led up to that funeral- they had changed me forever, but then I met Billy, so I got two changes.
Why? Why did I listen? The offer Billy made was so tempting that I couldn’t resist it, even though I knew in my gut it was just another poor decision. Looking back I realized my pride was my downfall. It had blinded me so now I was paying the consequences.
Day 65
Billy leapt out of bed and tore at the bolted down chair. After three hard and violent yanks he was rewarded by hearing the sound of hard, aged wood breaking. Relentless anger raged within him as he destroyed the chair by viciously beating it against the wall. When only fragments of the chair remained he flopped back down on the bed.
“No respect! They can’t even respect the brilliance of how I operated! Nobody would have caught me! Even now they can’t even have respect! I will torment them beyond their worst nightmares. I will make them wish they were in hell!” cried Billy in a moment of brutal passion. Blood dripped from his hand since tiny splinters of the chair had cut him. He didn’t care; he just focused on the pain. That sweet pain: his only friend- his only ally.
****
I woke up and found my headache had disappeared in the night. It was already a good beginning to my day. However, this good beginning didn’t last very long when I discovered the disappearance of my chair which normally sat bolted to the floor adjacent to the middle of the bed. Irritation pricked my insides and I knocked loudly on my cell door.
“Hey!” I called, “What happened to my chair,” I waited patiently for a few minutes then pounded on it again.
“Billy decided to have some fun with his chair earlier this morning so was have been forced to remove it,” came Josh’s familiar voice.
It was so irritating how all of the things Billy did affected me. It was like having a disobedient shadow, always doing the wrong things and screwing up my life. I’m so selfish, I thought. I’m annoyed at what Billy does to me, but it is so much better to alternative.
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