I clutched by baggage as the taxi hit a bump in the gravel rode, some of my suitcases toppling over in the seat next to me. It hit another bump and my head hit the top of the inside of the vehicle, I yelled up to the cabbie to take it easy. I pulled my gloves up further on my hands and pressed my coat to my body for more warmth. The weather in England wasn't for my taste, cold and rainy almost all the time, and it wasn't what I was hoping for after leaving the states. I had left when my father died of Tuberculosis; I was alone having my mother die while giving birth to me. I had experience being a nurse, and was shipped to England to work in an Insane Asylum that my father had wanted me to work at after I graduated from High School. When I did, he was on the edge of death, and when he died, he gave me his money (What little of it he had) and sent me on it to work here in sunny, sunny England. The cab pulled up a large ancient building, looking sp broken down it didn't look stable. I reached up to cabbie and gave him the money for the ride and grabbed my luggage, heaving it out of the door and running out into the pouring rain.
I heaved a deep breath and climbed the steps to the front entrance, opening up the doors to a waft of sudden heat from the vents above. I climbed the flight of stairs to the first floor, finding myself surrounded by people dressed in medical uniforms scurrying about with people in wheel chairs and gurneys. I slipped past most of them and walked up to the front desk, coming face to face with an older woman. Her hair was cut short into a gray bob, her smile wrinkled and worn from so many years of using it. She had a medical doctor's coat on and was filing some papers of the deceased which I avoided to look at. She looked up and smiled kindly.
"Oh, you must be Clarissa, nice to meet you, we've all been expecting you." she reached her hand out and I shook it, "My name is Linda, I'll be your boss for the time being."
I nodded quickly as she helped me with my luggage.
"Was your father Val?"
"Yes, my mother was Jocelyn; would you happen to know her?"
"Yes, we were quite good friends, such a pity she died during your birth." she jerked her head towards one of the corridors, "Follow me."
The place was scary, the hallways old with cracked walls and yellow light coming down from the over head lights. The place was surreal as I looked around. There were large windows that looked into patients rooms, letting people look in freely. It was sickening to look at, to think that these people were just specimens for us to observe.
Linda brought me to an elevator, putting my luggage down and pressing one of the buttons. There were three buttons, excluding the one of the ground entrance floor. Linda saw me looking at the buttons, answering a question I wasn't going to ask.
"The second floor is where we keep the bulk of the patients, the third floor is the hospital, and we are part Asylum and Hospital. Although the hospital mostly holds children sadly, they're mostly just dying of diseases, slowly fading away. Each day getting paler and less energetic, it's such a depressing job working here sometimes."
The doors opened up on the second floor, revealing one that looked almost exactly like the first. Linda grabbed the rest of my luggage and led me out of the elevator. We walked down yet another corridor. It was lined with multiple rooms, some the same "Observatory" ones, and others with just a door and a small window covered with a curtain. Each looking like little apartments on their own.
"This is where they keep the ones that can't stay with the other patients, will either end up strangling them or something worse. But don't worry," she said seeing the distress on my face, "This one you'll have won't be a bother, he happens to like the ladies very much, such a sweetheart towards them. If we got him a man nurse they'd be dead in a matter of seconds, that's why we only hire ladies for his nurse."
We stopped at one of the apartment rooms, and set down my luggage outside.
"Let's meet him then." she said opening up the door.
I was afraid I was going to get an old man as a patient, with the whole "only women nurses" thing, I've dealt with those, trust me.
But he wasn't he was young, no older than me, and I was eighteen. He was thin and wiry from the many years in the asylum, but there was still some meat left on his bones suggesting he was much more muscular when he was younger. His face was heavenly beautiful with a halo of golden hair around his face. He was kneeling in front of the wall next to his bed with a piece of black chalk in his hand, drawing strange markings all over the walls of his room.
"Jonathan, this is your new nurse, Clarissa,"
"You can call me Clary." I said.
He didn't say anything; he didn't even turn around, but just furrowed his brow and kept drawing. He then stopped, swallowing and turning around slowly.
"Where's Susan? What did you do to her?" he demanded.
"Susan had to leave honey; this is your new nurse, Clarissa."
"Clary," I corrected.
She turned and smiled at me, "Well, I'll leave you two to get acquainted." she left the room and shut the door behind her slowly. I waited to hear her small footsteps outside the door, but there was only silence. I could guess that she was right about waiting outside if something went wrong. I kneeled down next to Jonathan, looking at him closely as he continued to draw the markings.
"Those are very interesting drawings of yours; I personally like them very much."
"Thank you Clarissa, there has been no one who has actually said such a thing to me, they all think I'm weird." he grumbled setting the piece of chalk down in front of him.
"I don't, I think you're a very charming boy, why would people think you're weird? Because I sure think you're not."
He shook his head, "They think I'm insane, like all the other freaks here, but I'm not." he spat through clenched teeth.
I put my hand on his back, rubbing it slightly as he calmed down.
"Well, it was nice meeting you Jonathan; I'll be seeing you tonight then?"
"Yes," he said politely, still staring at the wall.
I walked out slightly nervous, but still continued, leaving him alone. Just as my hand came down onto the brass doorknob, he asked, "Clarissa? Would you mind if I called you Clary?"
"Yes, that would be fine Jonathan, just fine."
"Then-could you call me Jace please? I prefer it over Jonathan, if you would."
"I'll do that Jon- I mean Jace." I opened the door and entered the yet slowly quieting hallway.
Linda was still standing outside next to the door, holding my luggage in her hands.
"Are we about ready to get you moved into your room here?"
My room wasn't exactly very big if I say so myself. It was actually very small, a small four poster metal frame bed with a nightstand and dresser, with a small bathroom that worked as well as dirt itself. I put away my clothes and belongings as fast as I could, also putting on my scrubs, my boring scrubs. I brushed my hair, making sure not leave any tangles in it, those bugged me to death. My hair was red, a beautiful red that was redder than blood itself, which some people thought as creepy. Linda met me outside when I was done cleaning up, and was going to show me around, give me a tour of the place to be able to know my way around.
We left on the elevator, going to the third floor. When we got off, I noticed the place was half empty, only one or two of the large patient rooms lit and alive with people. One of them was a play room for them, another was a patient room filled with kids that sat in the same metal frame four poster beds that sat along in four rows.
There was one boy who caught my eye as we entered. He was small, looked only about eight or nine-ish. He had a pair of small framed glasses hung loosely on the bridge of his nose. He had tousles of brown hair and big blue eyes that met mine. He was holding a comic book loosely in one hand and a small blanket in the other, observing me closely.
"Clary, this is Max Lightwood, Max, this is Clary Fray." Linda introduced me to the boy.
He straightened up slowly and then said something that didn't sound like it belonged on such a young child.
"Why, quite nice to meet your acquaintance Ms. Fray, I gladly shake your hand in greeting." he held out his little hand and I kneeled down and shook it.
"Quite nice to meet you Mr. Lightwood, what have you got there in your hand?" I asked him.
"A comic reading, I was planning on reading it, but when you got here I was contemplating on whether or not to ask you to read it for me Ms. Fray, you seem very well with books if I do say so myself." he smiled sheepishly.
"Why, I guess I would, thank you for your offer." I said.
I turned to Linda, "Isn't he such a gentleman?" she asked, and "He's so intelligent sometimes we don't know what to do with him!"
I climbed up onto his bed with him and let him sit my lap as I read the comic to him. He laughed at the parts that were funny, he groaned when the bad guy almost took down the good guy, and he "awed" when the hero got the heroin. Max was adorable, and it was sad to think that he was sick with some sort of disease that was eating him alive from the inside out.
Linda came over to the bed and pulled Max off of me as I slid out of his bed.
"It was a pleasure to meet you Clary," he said smiling that cute adorable smile.
"You too Max, I'll be back sometime later." I said waving back at him as we left the room.
"Ms. Fray, I think it would be around the correct time to help Jonathan to bed, you'll get used to the schedule after a while. Do you remember where his room is?"
"Yes Linda, thank you." I waved goodbye to her as I entered the elevator and she continued down the hallway.
It went down to the second floor and I stepped cautiously out into the hallway. It was dark and gloomy, some of the lights over head had shut off and some were just flickering slightly. There were hardly any nurses or doctors in the hallway anymore, leaving it empty and dark.
I swiftly worked my way to Jace's room, finding it yet again as I had left it. I opened the door just slightly, to find Jace still sitting on the floor with the piece of chalk in his hands, staring at the wall with a slightly furrowed brow.
"Jace, it's time to get you ready for bed." I said quietly, stepping in only just a little bit.
He looked up, his halo of blond hair almost glowing in the damp light of the room.
He looked down at the floor, and then nodded slowly, getting up to stand. I actually hadn't realized how tall he was. I admit he did impress me on the looks factor of him. He wore a hospital gown that was tied at his back.
I walked swiftly over to him and led him into the bathroom to brush his teeth. As he did I stared at him intently through the mirror, trying to make out his most infinite features. He paused and spit into the sink and looked at me as he wiped the foam from his mouth.
"Why are you staring at me?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing, I was just- let's get you finished up here and get you in bed Jace. " I said leaving the bathroom.
When he came out, he looked tired, purple circles under his eyelids and the way he shuffled his bare feet against the tile floor.
I patted his bed, "Come on."
He climbed into bed and I adjusted his blankets and fluffed his pillows, as I turned away to turn off the light, he grabbed at my sleeve.
"Wait, don't go."
I sat down on the edge of his bed and looked at him, holding his hand which was still clinging to my shirt.
"What?"
"Let me see something, could I have a lock of your hair?"
I furrowed my brow as he grabbed a lock of my hair and lifted it to his nose, smelling it.
"You smell good, like fruit, or flowers. What kind of shampoo do you use?"
I laughed, "Why would you want to know."
"Just so I could ask the other nurses to get me some of your shampoo for me so I could smell you when you're not here."
"Oh, well, I'll tell them that, you better get some rest though." I said standing up.
He smiled at me as I turned the light off and left the room. After I shut the door, I realized something; this boy wasn't normal. I mean, yes, he's in an insane asylum, but he's not a normal insane person. I stood in the dark hallway for a while, and then turned around to the elevator. I needed to sleep on this to figure out what really was going on with Jonathan Christopher, what was really the insane mask of Jace.