I woke up slowly, groggily, not knowing where I was, or how I got there. My eyes were only half open, sensitive to the overhead lights beaming relentlessly at me. I let out a low groan, then tried to look at my watch, only to find my arm strapped down. I sobered up quickly at this, and after taking a quick stock of myself, I found both arms and my legs strapped down, and another belt over my waist. I was on a gurney in some sort of industrial like white room, the smell of disinfectant reaching my nose as I struggled to pull free. What the hell is going on? Struggling against the restraints was useless, as they were thick leather belts attached to the gurney. I struggled anyway, with quick sharp burst hoping to jar something loose. I looked around and saw that I was in what could’ve been a hospital room, except the windows were pebbled glass with wire mesh in them. I was confused and restrained and I didn’t like this one bit.
“Hey!” I yelled at the door. “Somebody out there? Hey!!!” I struggled more with the straps, but they were on good. Still, I struggled, making as much noise as I could. Somebody better come in here and let me loose.
After a few moments of making as much noise as I could the door opened. A man in a white lab coat came in, someone I didn’t know, followed by two policemen. “I see you’re awake” said the man.
“Yeah, I’m awake”, I snarled, “Now get me outta this!”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
“What? Why? What’s going on? Who are you?”
“I’m Doctor Phillips. I’m here to help you.”
“Great, you can start by getting me out of this.” I gave the straps another spirited shake.
“Easy now, we need to talk first” said the doctor. The cops had taken positions on either side of me and a few feet away, still close enough to act. I was getting a bad feeling about them being here.
“How ‘bout we talk about getting me outta this?”
“In a moment, first let’s talk about something else”. He put his hand on my shoulder and looked down on me. “Just take a few deep breaths and we can get through this together.” Maybe he thought he was being comforting. I saw it as taking liberties. The sudden look I gave him had the right effect on him, and he removed his hand quickly. I didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed the only way out of this was through him. I wanted to rip his face off, and then shred it into a thousand little pieces, but first things first. Getting this man-child to release me. I mean what, was he fresh out of college? He had the look of someone who’s doing his thesis.
“That’s it, let’s just keep calm and you’ll be out of there in no time. Just breath, in and out, in and out.” Boy this guy was annoying.
“Look, maybe you don’t know who I am, but my name is Detective Brown…”
“We know who you are, now please, try to relax, just calm down and everything will be explained to…”
“Well if you know who I am then let me go!” I yelled. “Now!” I turned my attention to the two uniforms in the room. “Hey, you guys want to help me out of this?” I was getting pretty frantic, and the doctor putting his hands on my shoulders wasn’t helping.
“Ok” said the doctor, “I’m going to call a nurse with a sedative. Perhaps after you’ve calmed down a bit we can talk.” He turned his attention to the door and called for the nurse.
“No, no, no sedative. I’ll calm down. See, I’m breathing, in and out, in and out.” I started taking deep breaths. Better that than the groggy juice. I needed my wits about me if I was going to get out of here, so for now I’ll play the doctor’s game. It seemed to be working too. Doctor Phillips watched me with a cautious eye, and when the nurse came in he waved her off. Great, it was working. “See, we’re all just happy, calm people. Now what would you like to talk about?”
Doctor Phillips, satisfied that I wouldn’t cause any more trouble, turned to the policemen and the nurse and asked them to wait outside. He closed the door behind them, pulled a chair next to the gurney and sat down. “Well”, he began, “we certainly do have anger issues, don’t we?”
“Yea, well, if you woke up in a strange room strapped to a gurney you’d be upset too. By the way, where am I?”
“You’re at Marleen Hospital, the psychiatric ward, but that’s not what I mean. I was referring to what you did to your neighbors. And to those officers.”
“What are you talking about” I said, confused as to where this was going. “I discovered my neighbors chopped up bodies and called it in. And I have no idea what you mean about those officers.”
The doctor looked at me in earnest. “Don’t you remember? You grabbed an axe and attacked them.”
There must have been the most stunned look on my face, because I couldn’t believe what this quack was telling me. But looking in his eyes, it seemed he really believed this. There has to be more to this story. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. That doesn’t sound like me at all.”
The doctor continued, “Yes, you were a real terror out there. So you don’t remember. You had grabbed the axe you used on the family next door and tried to chop your way out of your basement, through three or four policemen. If I heard right it was like you were possessed with supernatural strength. It took all of them, about nine cops, to bring you down. Good thing the paramedics had a sedative on hand.”
I looked at him like he had two heads. As calmly as I could muster, I asked him “What are you talking about?”
“It was after we discovered your wife’s body. Do you remember that?”
That’s when it all came flooding back. I found her there this morning, in the basement. She had left me, and had gone to the only place I couldn’t follow, leaving nothing more than an empty husk. How could she leave me like this. Life here wasn’t bad, and all she had to do was keep the house clean, and my laundry, and cook, and have a drink ready for me when I got home. How could she!!! I put up with her many flaws, helped her to be a better wife, taught her what she needs to be to me, and this is how she repays me!!!
The rage was beginning to rise again. I vaguely heard the doctor say my name a few times, but I didn’t hear him. The anger at Carla for leaving me the way she did was just too much. The whiteness was beginning again, that white hot heat of all consuming rage once again slowly filled my eyes, complete with white noise filling my ears. By this time the doctor had called in the police again, and they were holding me down while the doctor prepared the sedative. I began to growl, and struggled at my restraints. I felt one of them begin to give, a small tear, or it could have been a tendon in my arm, I didn’t know, didn’t care, I needed to get free and teach those people not to mess with my family. A small pin prick was all I felt, and I began to calm down, cool down, rest, relax, sleep, forget, again forget…
