The first short story I wrote here was based off of the mythical creature, the Chimera. If you don’t know anything about this creature, I would suggest that you look it up before reading my story so it makes more sense.
Just to give some background, the main character in my story represents this mythical creature through age and experience. He has multiple personality disorder and is locked up in an insane asylum due to it, and the fact that he has visions involving the future that no one believes. I hope you enjoy reading:)
“Kaimera Fatuus.” The guard sat down at the long metal table impatient. His short grey hair stiffly moved from breeze the cold room gave off. “Let me ask you again, Do you know why you’re here?” Kaimera stared at the bag of Doritos in front of him, reached for it, and then opened it. The guard hunched forward and scraped his chair across the floor closer to him. “I asked you a question. If you don’t answer me now, I’m going to have to tell the authorities again.” He folded his large arms and leaned back in his chair.
“Wait!” Kaimera blurted out. He sat up straighter in his chair and shoved a handful of chips in his mouth obnoxiously. “Okay, okay, okay I’ll tell you.” He fixed his wide mouth to a smile, showing his perfect white teeth. “I’m here because everyone thinks I’m crazy and ignores me, and then they blame everything I warn them of on me. Personally, I don’t think it’s very fair.” He looked straight ahead with a sad face. Then looked up at the guard and began crying. “I’m completely innocent I tell you!” He pleaded across the table to the guard and then immediately stopped and laughed, lining his finger under his eyes and flicking away the fake tears.
“I’m just messing with you.” His smile remained, “I mean- I am innocent, but who’s going to believe that?.. If only people listen to me. I’m just trying to help them… HA!” His eyes bounced around the room and then rested on the guard with amusement. “Have I ever told you how fantastic that uniform looks on you? I mean wow. Just wow! I bet you must-” The guard held up his hand annoyed.
“That’s enough.” He said bluntly as he stood up. “Come on. We’re going to therapy.”
Kaimera stood up and clapped his hands, “ooooooo therapy. How fun? My favorite part of the day. Wait a minute. Where is therapy again? Do you have anymore food? I’m hungry. Why am I always so hungry?” He continued to ramble as he followed behind the guard, his slippers slightly squeaking as they dragged across the slippery floor. Once they reached the room, the guard turned around and stood by another.
“We’re going to be outside the whole time, so don’t try anything again.” He opened the door and guestured inside. Kaimera stared at the guards’ feet with a blank expression and then briefly smiled, meeting their eyes.
“Oh, of course not.” He replied. As he walked by, he nodded slightly at the guards and slowly walked inside. He gently took a seat on the leather couch provided in the small, bland white room. As he waited for his therapist, he ran his hands through his golden shaggy hair and admired the way it shone in the sunlight beaming through the window. Soon, his therapist walked in and rolled her chair in front of him.
“Hello Kia, how are we today?” she asked concerned. His softened eyes rested innocently on her face and a kind smile appeared. “I’m doing very well currently, thank you. How are you today, Margret?” He asked with genuine and concern the same way she did. She fixed her glasses and smiled down at her notebook and began to write.
“I’m also doing very well. It’s a pleasure that I got you this way… I hope it doesn’t change again.” Margret gazed out the window, avoiding Kiamera’s response. He frowned slightly and stared out the window too. “Yes, many think this is my best self. I’m not sure it is, though.” His voice trailed off and got quieter as he spoke, leaving the room silent. She jerked her head towards him with a question on her face.
“And why’s that?” Her words fell out of her mouth and crashed onto the floor. He glared at her.
“Because I don’t think it is.” He snapped, slightly leaning closer. She widened her eyes and looked away.
“Oh right, the short temper,” she suggested quietly.
He glared at her and opened his mouth, but bit his lip and forced himself to calm down and maintain the softness in his eyes. “No, that’s not why. I just don’t think it is. I prefer my other self. I have flaws to this side.” He protested. She tilted her head in thought as she stared at his clean slippers.
“You know, Kia, it’s perfectly fine to have flaws. Everyone has them.” She said as she looked up at him. His face was blank and slowly his kind expression faded and he grinned maniacally as he stared out the bright window.
“No, Margret, It’s not “perfectly fine” to have flaws. It’s pathetic. But it’s a good thing I’m not everyone. Tell me, how does it feel to be utterly useless?” He narrowed his piercing eyes at her as his words slithered out of his mouth and coiled her throat. She swallowed and looked up to the ceiling, whispering to herself.
“Behavior like that will do nothing but keep you here longer.” She forced her words through behind her clenched teeth and shot him a look of disgust. He welcomed her words with a smile and slightly laughed.
“I don’t care. I’m leaving soon anyway.” He whispered, looking out the window. She looked at him surprised and leaned her ear closer to him.
“What did you just say?” She paused waiting for an answer.
“You heard me.” He said unequivocal. She stared at him in bewilderment and shook her head.
“You are most certainly not.” She laughed,”and I’ll be damned if you- or anyone thinks otherwise!” He stood up and scowled her, tilting his chin to his chest, forming long shadows on his face and showing mostly see the whites of his eyes. He stepped closer and slammed his hands down oh her desk that was messy with papers and carefully grabbed a pen, making sure her eyes were on his and she was not paying attention to his hands.
“You have some nerve to laugh at me after what happened last time.” He threatened.
Her eyes widened as a flashback ran through them and she slowly rolled her chair away from him by pushing her feet against the floor.
“Guards!” She yelled frightened. Once her eyes were on the door, he deceitfully lifted the pen and placed in his gown pocket and stood annoyed as he heard the guards yelling at him not to move.
The guards burst through the door and grabbed each of his arms and tried to pull him back, but he did not budge. He yanked his arms out of their grasp, leaving them to fall to the floor. He held his fists firmly by his sides and the anger in his eyes intensified.
“Don’t you see? You’re all inadequate in my pressenses. Worthless.” He hissed. As Margret stared at him with complete terror in his eyes, the guards hurried to pick themselves off the floor and tackle him. They dragged him out of the room, but his eyes did not leave Margret’s and soon the eye contact broke as she quickly turned away.
Kaimera smiled maniacally the whole way back to his room. The guards tightly squeezed his arms as they pushed him forward to keep walking. They shoved his slender back into the room and slammed the steel door. “Don’t expect to leave your room anytime soon!” They yelled through the thick door.
He stumbled and fell to the tile floor and heard the guards footprints diming. Making sure they were gone, he gathered himself off the floor and stepped towards his bed to lift up his mattress. His only set of clothes were neatly folded under his mattress and he quickly slipped them on under his hospital gown. He took off his slippers and laid them neatly beside his bed so he could be more stealthy. He sat on his bed, waiting for mostly everyone to leave as they do every night.
After a couple hours, he reached inside his pocket and pulled out a pen he had stolen from his therapist and grinned. He disassembled the pen and grasped the sparse metal stick that had come from it and made his way across his dim room to the door. He kneeled at the door knob and quickly, but carefully, forced the thin line of metal into the keyhole. Working promptly, he managed to pick the lock in less than a minute- a new record for him. He grinned, pleased with himself, and lifted up his gown to place the metal stick in his pants pocket.
He slowly cracked open the heavy door without saying a goodbye to his room and slipped through it. He stood barefoot in the tile hall, the floor brutally freezing beneath his feet. It was eminently dark with the exception of two or three lights shining pale light. He snuck along the wall to avoid the cameras by hiding in the shadows, running his hand against the rough cinder blocks behind him. The air smelled of aseptic carbolic acid and the hopeless smell of flowers. He heard footsteps clattering against the echoing floor, making their way closer and closer to him. He got up on his tiptoes to run quicker, clinging to the wall.
He turned down a hall, paranoid of being caught and sprinted until he collided into a sudden wall. He had reached a dead end and there was nowhere to go. He bent over to catch his breath, but the thin air would not fill his lungs. He began to panic and he started to hyperventilate, gasping desperately for oxygen. Progressively losing the air in his body, he hit the hard floor and passed out.
A vivid image of fire and death overtook his mind. Screaming and sorrow. Buildings collapsing as the earth beneath them crumbled like nothing more than a dessert. Enormous explosions and utter destruction of everything everyone knew.
He thrusted forward as he jerked awake. His bulging eyes welled with tears as he choked on the thought. “I need to hurry.” He said aloud to himself.
He forced himself off the floor and felt his head throbbing from where he ran into the wall and hit the floor. Despite his pounding headache, he began to run again. He ran the dark and long halls of the mental institution he had been kept for years. His eyes searched frantically for the directions to “therapy hall”, where he had been planning to escape for the past years. Running past every door, every room, and up every set of stairs, the halls became more familiar and he recognized where he was. He stopped running, made a right turn, and smiled. There it was. “Margret Janice” was hanging on the door and a welcome matt waited for him in front of it.
He pulled the metal stick out of his pants pocket and picked the lock with ease as he had done before. Once the door creaked open, he proceeded inside the room he had sat every Wednesday for years and took off his gown and placed it in his usual spot to leave a sign saying to Margret, “I did what you said I wouldn’t”. He wandered over to the window and peered outside. The same tall trees and rolling green hills he studied every session called to him.
He broke the lock on the large window and it screeched as he opened it, causing an abrupt alarm to go off. Red lights began to flash as the sirens blared in his ears and he swiftly threw his legs out the window and followed them. He crashed on the ground as he landed in the overgrown grass and immediately started running towards the open gate. An announcement boomed over his head as he ran, and then he started sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him.
“ATTENTION! THERE HAS BEEN AN ESCAPE IN UNIT 5, WING 13! CLOSE THE GATE IMMEDIATELY!” The gate ahead began to squeak and it started closing faster and faster.
“Stop it right there Kaimera! STOP!” Guards were yelling at him as they filed out of the great doors behind him. He turned around and could see all the other patients in their gowns gathered around the windows cheering for him.
He ran through the trees turned black by the night and reached the closing gate. With no hesitation, he flew through the narrowing opening and collapsed when he heard it close all the way. He lifted his head and could no longer see the psychiatric hospital, but could only hear the distant curses of the frustrated guards. He laughed to himself relieved.
He walked all through the night across the grassy hills. His feet were aching. The sky was pink and purple and the sun was a dark orange. It greeted him as its dull light kissed his face. He continued to walk through the tall grass that hit his kneecaps until he reached an empty road and the bottom of the last hill he climbed. He walked along it for hours barefoot until he came to a large city. “At last!” He yelled and ran to the first group of people he saw.
“You there! Prepare yourselves! Something is coming!” He yelled as he looked all of them in their eyes, panicked. They looked at him confused as he described the vision he had to them and they kept walking.
“Ignore him. He’s just crazy, poor guy.” One of them explained. “Should I call the police or something?” Another asked.
Kaimera grabbed his long hair infuriated and shrieked. “No! No, No, No! Don’t you understand what I am trying to tell you?! Listen to me! Stop ignoring me!” They continued walking, glancing back at him as they shook their heads in repulsiveness.
Distressed and frenetic, he confronted everyone he saw about his vital news. They sneered and scoffed at him and pretended not to hear him. “Kaimera! Don’t move!” He looked over his shoulder and saw guards pushing through crowds of people and making their way towards him. He stood there helpless trying to devise a plan, but everywhere he looked, there were guards coming at him.
“The world is ending!” He yelled and everyone stared at him. “Prepare yourself for your last days! Volcanoes will erupt spewing their lava and explosions will-” one of the guards grabbed him and started shaking him.
“That’s enough! We’ve already been through this haven’t we? You always tell people these types of things and all it does is frighten them.” The guard looked at him worried and waited for a response.
“It always comes true though, doesn’t it?” As Kaimera questioned him, the guard grew angry and threw him to the others.
“Throw him in the car. We’re going back now. Sorry about that folks! You all just carry on now!” He smiled and turned to Kaimera who had tears streaming down his face.
“Please just listen to me! I know that what I’m saying is true!” He cried. The guard laughed nervously as everyone observed the situation concerned.
“Kaimera.” He said gently, “you’re in an insane asylum for a reason.” Kaimera slightly nodded his head defeated and looked around with pleading eyes. Everyone turned away and continued with their day as the guard instructed.
The only sound on the car ride back was the car’s wheels running on the road. “I don’t know what you think you were accomplishing by doing all that, but you’re not going to be able to do it again.” one of the guards spat at him as they stopped at the familiar destination. He stared out the window and did not speak another word.
A couple days later, Kaimera was peacefully sitting in his room as the sound of terrified screams filled the world outside. The horror spilled inside the hospital after it caught on fire from an explosion in the 4th wing. Half of the asylum was obliterated to ashes and outside his widow were the tall trees and rolling hills burning with fire. He folded his hands in his lap and shook his head, looking away from the window. “I tried to warn them.”
One thing about me: I love to travel. Learning about and seeing new places is one of my favorite ways to spend my time. For me, my fall break was Thursday the 24th through Tuesday the 29th, and I spent it traveling:) After seeing a advertisement made in Boston some years ago, my mom and I have been talking about how we wanted to go to one day. So, we finally lived up to our word and went this past break. I hope you enjoy this blog post about why it is now my favorite city as I describe my very enjoyable experience to my best effort.
