The Hatter Went Mad

There are people in the world with a few loose screws

Some of them abusers, and the others the abused

And there are those who sit on their pedestals high

With a question as to why people's minds go awry

There's a rare few who are guiltless in their suff'ring

Drowning in the madness while the rest are busy bustling

As a hatter once said, 'You can't take less than nothing.'

My name is Jeanette Marling. I'm a recent graduate of Pencey University with a degree in psychiatry. I'm pleased to say that I graduated at the top of my class, and received a prestigious job offer from The Pencey Institute for the Mentally Insane. My interest in the insane is rooted not in my own macabre obsession with the dark and the occult, but in my obsession with the complexity of the human mind. I want to find out why sometimes things happen to go…awry.

My first day entering, I was permitted to peruse the rooms of the patients. Stark, clean and small were they. Hardly a surprise, for the Institute was not considered an asylum. Patients were held and housed until they were either cured, or their disability was sufficiently identified and were able to be placed in homes or societies able to attend to their needs.

I was pleased upon my inspection that this was indeed the finest rehabilitation clinic in the country. It's staff second to none. Then there were of course the patients. I was given my first assignment about two days after my initial introduction.

Yugi Mouto was his name. Fifteen years of age, both parents deceased, only living relative is his grandfather, Sougoroku Mouto. He suffered from acute scoliosis, partially responsible for his stunted growth. There was a joke around the institute that it was because he didn't eat his green veggies. His institutionalization was due to his mild paranoia, thought to have been brought on by excessive bullying from his classmates.

The first time I met with him, he asked me if I knew anything about Ancient Egypt. "This Puzzle my grandpa gave me," he said, showing me a golden box decorated with hieroglyphs, "It's from the tomb of a Pharaoh! Pretty neat, huh?"

Yugi was a sweet boy. I could see why a boy of his stature and mannerisms would be easily victimized. He was on the shy side, and a little bit of a nerd by children's standards, but he seemed genuine and friendly once given time to open up. I was pleased by his willingness to cooperate with me and talk. You'd be amazed at the number of patients that can't stand the thought of talking to their doctor.

I asked him to talk about his social life. "Well…It's not too great really," I noticed that he had taken up the puzzle box and started fiddling with the pieces inside. "Anzu is nice to me, though."

I asked who Anzu was. "Oh, just a girl in my class. She talks to me sometimes and keeps Jounochi away when he's being mean." Jounochi Katsuya had recently been admitted to the institution. Nothing serious, he was only having a short psychoanalysis being done after it was discovered that his father had been abusive to him since childhood in order to eradicate any potential mental trauma.

He began talking about some of the children at school who bullied him, and their methods of bullying. He relayed to me a certain incident of when he had been given a false note saying that girl wanted to go out with him. When he went to meet the supposed potential date, he waited for two hours after the set time before three older boys arrived who had been waiting to pummel him, and of course publish copies of the letter as well as photos of Yugi waiting to meet the sender. Poor boy.

He mentioned that his Grandfather owned a game shop, and that he himself adored playing games. "My favorite is Duel Monsters. Do you know how to play?" I had seen the foil packets of the cards on the counters of 7elevens, but the game was a tad after my time to be playing it. Yugi even retrieved his deck from the drawer of his nightstand to show me. He had quite an impressive collection, I would admit, and he took great pride in them. I asked him if he often played with other people, Anzu perhaps. Yugi shook his head, "No, not really, Anzu doesn't play very well and doesn't like it. I used to play with…" he suddenly grew very quiet, and I could see him withdrawing once again.

I prompted him, asking who it was he had played with. "…Ryou used to play with me." Why didn't Ryou play with him anymore? "Ryou went away. He's gone now…" he leaned forward towards me, "I think maybe someone took him away. Ryou was wonderful; he and I were good friends."

He went on for quite some time about Ryou, and how special and caring and sweet he was. I wondered why Yugi thinks someone took him away. "I think Ryou was sick. He went unconscious a lot, and sometimes, bad things happened to people who were around him too much." What kind of things? "Comas, most of the time. No one knows why. But, Ryou always got really upset whenever something happened, and acted like it was his fault. He was really careful around people, and distanced himself, sometimes even from me. Anyway, he's gone now. No one knows where."

This seemed very odd to me. Not just that no one knew where a teenage boy had so spontaneously disappeared to, as Yugi had lead me to believe, but these incidents involving comas. I wanted to ask more questions, but the nurse had in-opportunely arrived with his medication. Yugi cheerfully bid me good evening, and said he would see me tomorrow.

My Supervisor called me to his office before I was allowed to check out for the night. Silas Kratz is his name. Brilliant man, genius in fact; a Graduate of Ivyward University at the age of 20, and running the Institute for the past five years. I entered his office with a bit of timidity, acknowledging his prestige. "Dr. Marling," he greeted warmly, "Good of you to come, do be seated."

Dr. Kratz turned out to be one of the most attractive men I had ever met. He had dark brown hair slicked back in the appropriate business fashion with loose strands that framed his square-jawed face. High cheekbones, light blue eyes, a strong nose and full lips further complimented the regality of his face. Thin wire frame glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. "I wanted to know how your first day faired. How did you like Yugi?"

I smiled and answered that I liked him very much. I assured him that any progress made towards his recovery would be reported accordingly. He chuckled, "I'm not too concerned. Yugi is a perfectly stable young man who had a run of bad luck that temporarily altered his psyche. I expect he should be released in about a month." He had a British accent which seeped into his speech like melted sugar. I felt extremely unprofessional getting turned on by my BOSS of all people.

He thanked me once again for taking up a position for them, and was preparing to leave, when I asked him a question. I asked if he himself had ever had a session with Yugi. He answered yes, that he had had several. I wondered if he had ever mentioned a teenage boy named Ryou to him.

This question seemed to faze the doctor. His perpetual smile had faltered and his eyes had darkened for the briefest second before he quickly recovered, "No, I'm afraid not," he answered. Was there a boy by that name that he knew of? A local boy? "No. I have never heard that name before. If you'll excuse me doctor, it's getting late. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Perhaps my interest in the boy was insignificant. However, if Yugi had believed this boy to be real, when in truth he was not, this could be a significant lead in his case. It was surprising that someone who had clearly meant a great deal to him had not been mentioned to Dr. Kratz.

After the rooms had been locked, the patients in bed and the security guards in place I took my leave of the place. Call me juvenile, but I still find something eerily frightening about a Mental Institution at night. Walking to my car, I saw a woman standing several meters away from the main entrance, like she was debating whether or not to go inside. I called to her, informing her that visiting hours were over and she would have to come back tomorrow. She turned to me, startled by my presence. A long white veil covered her head and most of her face. "Right, I apologize," she said politely with a Middle Eastern accent. The woman hurried away.

A/N: Yeah, I'm sorry I'm trying so hard to put off writing NMD, but you know how you get an idea and if you don't write it down immediately you forget? Yes well, I have frequent problems with that. Rest assured, NMD is coming along. I have the next chapter all written out in my Philosophy notebook, and merely have to transfer it to my computer. Hehe. Huh? No, I don't see a neglectful student…Anyway, new idea, thinking of actually making this an actual story, not a fanfic, once I remove all the Yu-Gi-Oh characters and plot references of course. It does have its own structure after all. Lemme know what you think.