Roleplay Group Forum Roleplay 3- Asylum

Alex was led from the commons area back into his padded cell. It would be another night of isolation...well...until his friends came to visit him, that is. As the medication set in, he began to doze. "Sleep..." he said aloud, "oh, but it won't last," he added giddily, "and when I wake up...they will be here." Alex fell into a peaceful rest.

Brenna aka Steve, at the moment anyway, sat huddled close to the door of the cell, crouched low so the orderly wouldn't be able to see him through the little window. Steve was unjustly incarcerated here, his civil rights being violated, and he took every opportunity to let whoever would listen know. The very fact that they thought they could hold him, a renowned and decorated veteran, showed that they had no idea what they were doing.

He heard the door next to him lock in place and crawled over to the wall adjacent where he had stripped away the corner of the padding. He began tapping out his SOS message in Morse code.

Alex awoke from his slumber, a couple of hours later, to a lonely cell. "Where are they?" He thought, his mind beginning to race with panic. Suddenly, he heard something...a tapping sound. "Astaroth?" He said, "I hear you, my friend. What is your bidding?"

Steve pressed closer to the wall, "Carter," he whispered urgently, "pull it together man. We need a plan of escape."

Suddenly, the door to his cell beeped, indicating the lock had been triggered by an orderly. The young man dressed in white entered, another young female orderly standing further back in the doorway.

"Time for your pills, Brenna..." The orderly said warily as he glanced at the peeled away padding. "You have to stop this, Brenna. We've talked about it before. I'm going to have to tell Dr. Elmer about this again."

"You can't keep me here," Steve yelled, feeling like he was losing his mind with how they were always treating him like some crazy woman! Did they not see him? "Carter!" He yelled, "Sierra Oscar Sierra!"

The two orderlies sighed and cornered him against the padded walls. Before they could jab the sharp end of the syringe that would put him out cold into his neck, he shouted again, "Sierra Oscar Sierra!" Then it faded to black.

"I hear you, Astaroth!" Alex shouted in reverence, "Sierra, Oscar, Sierra...the holy words...it will be done my lord!"

Brenna woke up to the sight of the peeling paint of her ceiling, the only wall in the room that was not padded. More often than not, she would wake strapped to the hard mattress of her bed, and today was no exception. Turning her head toward the door, her movements felt sluggish and her mouth cottony. They had again, it seemed, pumped her full of sedative.

She must gave gone off the deep end again, she thought, as she tried to swallow. Dr. Elmer would not be happy... he had thought she was making progress. She wondered who has caused trouble for her this time. "Hello?" Brenna called hoarsely, hoping an orderly was nearby enough to hear her, "Can I get some water?"

The door beeped and the young male orderly that was frequently on her wing entered her cell. Brenna shivered against the mattress. She wasn't sure why, but he always frightened her just a bit. "Can I get some water?" She repeated her question quietly as he walked close to her bed and looked down on her.

"Are you ready to behave now?"

Brenna nodded. She was always 'ready' to behave... She wished it was that easy.

Josh was almost finished ordering his favorite deck of cards. He had arranged the cards in four rows on the ground. Hearts on top, then Clubs, Diamonds and finally Spades. The rows were ordered by values, starting with the King on the left and ending with the Ace on the right.

“8 of Diamonds, 4 of Clubs, Jack of Hearts…” He called out the names of the cards as he laid them down. As he put down the last card he checked the distance between the cards. He let out a scream and quickly adjusted two touching cards, then let out a sigh of relief. They mustn’t touch! He continued inspecting every card, adjusting them when the distances weren’t exactly like the others, when the lock on his door beeped. He was so concentrated he didn’t even hear it. Then the door flew open, the rush of air blowing his cards into disarray.

Josh jumped up and screamed “No! My cards! Ow, my precious cards!” He fanatically tried to put them back in their place as two orderlies walked in, a man and a woman. “Come on Josh, time for your medication.” The woman said, while the man remained near the door. Somehow woman were better at calming him. Josh shot her a look, and then noticed the man at the door. “You! It was you! You caused my cards to go all over the place!” In the blink of an eye he was got to his feet and flung himself at the man. It took the orderly by surprise and Josh’ fist hit him right in the face. Then the woman was on top of him and pushed him to the ground. The man clutched his bleeding nose. “You all right John?” The woman asked. “Yeah, it looks worse than it is.” The man replied.

Together they pushed him into his chair. The man locked his arms into place while the woman injected him with a calming medicine. After a minute the man carefully let go of him, but it seemed the medicine worked. Josh was just staring into nothing, mumbling something to himself.

He got this injection regularly to prevent him from going out of control, which he often did, as nothing ever was as orderly as he wanted it to be. “I think we will have to increase the dose.” The woman said. “This is the third time this week he went into a rage.”

Brenna was on her way to the commons, released from her room now that she was drugged up and calm... and blessedly still herself. Her slippered feet shuffled against the hall floor as she walked, too sedated to actually lift her feet.

She paused by another room just as the orderlies had injected a man strapped to a chair. A little whimper of distress escaped her. She gated. Being strapped down and injected, hated even to see it happen to others.

"Move along, Brenna," the female orderly commanded as she noticed her lingering near the doorway. "Dr. Elmer will be up soon for group." She exchanged an exacerbated glance with John.

Before moving past the doorway, Brenna reached down to grab up a playing card that was keying near the door. She turned it over in her hand... a joker....

Dr. Elmer strode into the wing, gathering charts from the little holders outside each of the patients rooms. His steps were long and swift, as though he were in a hurry, and his commands to the orderlies concise. "Gather them up, whatever condition they're in as long as they're not being violent." His words ended as he swept into the group therapy room.

This room wasn't padded, but furnished only in plastic chairs gathered together in a circle. There was no natural lighting in the room and the fluorescent bulbs overhead flickered in a way that made Brenna's head hurt. At one point, someone had tried to soften the room with a artificial plant in the corner which was now gray with dust.

Brenna shuffled in with the others and took her customary stop on one plastic chair that was in the end of the circle near to the door. Dr. Elmer began with his customary, "Good afternoon," to which those who were able echoed back emptily.

As the good doctor began his lecture for the day, Brenna's attention became riveted on a ragged old teddy bear someone had left in a heap on the floor. The doctor noticed this and motioned for an orderly to bring it to him.

"How are you feeling, Brenna?"

"Umm..." Brenna muttered as she shifted uncomfortably in the chair, "anxious... I guess."

Dr. Elmer held up the bear, "Does this make you anxious?" Brenna only nodded a reply. "Stay with that feeling, Brenna," the doctor pushed, "tell me about it."

"It, umm..." Brenna answered haltingly, her discomfort increasing, "it reminds me of..."

"Reminds you of what, Brenna?" Dr. Elmer asked with barely veiled impatience.

"Of..." Brenna trailed off as the memory revealed big hands, blood splattered, and the smell of something burning. She began to feel lightheaded, barely hearing the doctors command to stay with her memory... she couldn't stay with it... she couldn't!

Suddenly she screamed, and when she looked back up, Lucy had drawn her knees up to get chest as she rocked softly in the plastic chair.

Dr. Elmer sighed and passed the fear over to her. "Can we have Brenna back, Lucy?"

"No..." Lucy replied in a sing-song little girl voice, "Brenna doesn't like Mr. Fluffles."

"You don't seem to mind Mr. Fluffles," Dr. Elmer challenged.

Lucy looked momentarily surprised and then giggled, "This isn't Mr. Fluffles, Silly..." She hugged the teddy bear and looked to the doctor with a precocious smirk, "His name is Elmer."

"Elmer...speaks to you?" Alex asked.

Lucy grinned over to Alex, her knees no longer at her chest, but now relaxed against the chair as she swung her legs nonchalantly. "Yep," she replied as she held up the bear and waved his furry paw at Alex. "He can talk to you too..."

Dr. Elmer felt that he was losing the group and tried to regain their attention. "Brenna," he commanded sternly but only got the girl looking back expectantly with mischief in her eyes. Lucy's eyes, but he wasn't going to give in to the patients psychosis. "Brenna, you will behave," he added, knowing he sounded like he was talking to a child, and thus giving in anyway.

Lucy giggled in response, "Brenna always behaves." Rising from her chair, she half skipped over to Alex. "Want to talk to Elmer?"

"Hello, Elmer." Alex said to the bear. "Yes...yes, Elmer, you'd better believe I do." Alex turned his head slowly toward the doctor, amd looked at him with contempt.

Lucy watched the old man talk to the teddy bear and giggled again.

Dr. Elmer cleared his throat nervously at Alex's malevolent look. "Enough. Alex, that bear is not talking to you. We need to reality check, remember? Do stuffed animals talk?" He was tempted to take the bear back, almost regretting handing it over to Brenna, but didn't want to incite the patients into complete rebellion.

Puzzlement fused with the malevolence on Alex's face as he replied, "Stuffed animal?  What are you talking about?"

"Take a look at what you are talking to." Dr. Elmer's voice was calm and rational, intentionally not using any name Brenna had given the toy, "It is a stuffed animal. So reality check. Do stuffed animals talk?"