A.N.- This new character is based off of the "Sherlock Homes" stories. He is in none of them, because I made him up. However, in this story, the criminal mastermind has observational skills that rival Homes, in fact Homes is the one that solved his case. He is in an insane asylum in this chapter, because…well…he's crazy. It might be confusing at first, but just go with the flow and things will unfold themselves.

"Through strong, painful impressions we capture the patient's attention, accustom him to unconditional obedience, and indelibly imprint in his heart the feeling of necessity. The will of his superior must be such a firm, immutable law for him that he will no more resist it than he would rebel against the elements."

— Johann Christian Reil (who first coined the word psychiatry) 1810

The stare was blank. He couldn't have possibly been looking at anything. Everything was inside of him now, there was no personality on the outside anymore. A frowning, lolling mouth, bottomless gray eyes, it was a completely unreceptive expression. Even in the cell, which had no light source, he was bound up in chains. Manacles, which had grown looser with his thinning figure, hung around his neck, ankles, and wrists.

He could hear the screaming of one inmate, far down at the end of the ward. He was being dragged along the floor. Benjamin could almost feel the man's tears on his own face. As three guards and two nurses accompanied the squirming patient past Ben's cell, his gaze moved upward.

Three successful lobotomies so far…soon to be four.

There was no emotion attached to the thought, just knowledge that after the procedure that man would never be the same again. He would be half of a man, with half of his mind missing. This was supposed to cure insanity?

Long after the screaming died, Benjamin's mind still wandered to the expression of the patient. Blind fear. His eyes were impossibly wide, mouth stretched open in animal cries, fighting with a hopeless force. Ben had once been like that. There was a time when he fought blindly against the treatments.

Why was I fighting it? I don't remember…I can't remember a lot of things right now. I have no sense of time.

The echoing sound of metal being scraped against metal screamed through the air as the latch was being undone. Two guards, the resident doctor, and a nurse entered Benjamin's cell; he didn't look up. His matted mess of white blonde hair covered his empty eyes from view. Before the guards made to retrieve him from the floor, the doctor spoke, addressing the nurse. His voice was calming, optimistic.

"I'm very pleased with his progress. I think that all psychosis should be relieved after one more round of electroconvulsive treatment. See? See how his previously violent behavior has become a quiet peaceful demeanor? I'm telling you, this new treatment will soon be used all over the world."

With that, the guard unlocked each thick metal ring around Benjamin's limbs and they clanked open onto the floor. The skin was perpetually bruised where the heavy metal hung from him, but he didn't feel that anymore. All he felt was his brain denying his thoughts, his sense of reality altered until being quick and alert was not an option. The guard lifted him onto his bare feet. He didn't struggle, but it took a moment to get his footing. And with his head sagging to the side, he was lead out of the cell and into another room.

Once strapped into the chair, a sort of hat was placed atop his head. There were wires protruding from it, and a clean silvery panel that descended from the front was pushed flat against his forehead. With the confident voice of the doctor in the background and the clack of a switch being pulled, Benjamin fell into numbness.