In His Mind

He walks along the monotone hallways, the dumpy nurse waddles quickly behind him, trying to keep up with his long strides. She lists off various diseases, all psycho-babble to him. Her eyes are bright with a morbid fascination, an amazing case, she says. One in a million, she is lucky to study him.
Butler shivers with irony, Artemis would have said the same thing.
She unlocks the door and stands in front of it, once again listing the rules. The nurse says them in a scolding manner, talking to the bodyguard as if he is a child. For a second he finds it almost amusing. She barely reaches his hip, but her eyes threaten him with a flaying if he breaks her precious decorum.
She opens the door and Butler immediately sobers up. He is scared of this room, scared of what he will find inside of it.
The nurse looks at him with immense pity, and allows him to enter the cell. He shakes.
Butler scans the room, and for a second he cannot see anything but white. It is bright, and he has to squint.
The door shuts behind him and for a split second Butler wants to run away. As if, somehow, it would be better not to know.
He spots a little mound of black in the far corner of the room. The bodyguard is briefly puzzled, then identifies it as hair.
"Artemis..." His voice breaks, and he covers the distance between them in two quick strides. Butler grabs his principle in a bone bruising hug, quickly defying the standard procedure of the hospital.
Artemis is dressed completely in white, white straight jacket, white pants. Even his skin had faded to match the padded walls around him.
"Artemis, what happened?" Butler asks, "You were doing so well."
"You saved me old friend, as always."
Butler wishes that was true.
"I can remember everything Butler, it is invigorating." Artemis' pale eyes shine.
"What do you remember, Artemis?" Butler humours him.
"I knew I could do it, I cheated the Faries' mind wipe."
Butler sobs. Faries, of course.
"It was a close call, with the trolls. I must remember to be more careful." He says this dryly, he sounds almost sane. If it weren't for the words that were coming out of his mouth Butler would believe him.
"There's no trolls, Artemis."
"Everything makes sense now," Artemis sighs, "I can remember so much, the gold, the C-cube, rescuing father."
"Your father is dead." Butler's voice shakes. "He's gone."
Artemis grins, "I can't wait to get back to them, Butler. I can feel now, I'm who I used to be."
"Artemis, who you used to be was sane. Your father is dead." Butler says this more firmly, he needs to get this idea across to his young principle. He wants to grab Artemis and shake him, as if Butler could physically rid him of the insanity.
"I have to come up with a plan, Opal Koboi is brilliant, as much as I hate to admit it. This is going to be difficult."
There's nothing he can do, he can't protect Artemis from himself. He is helpless.
"Come home," Butler says.
"Please leave me now, it will be hard enough to defeat Opal without you jabbering on."
Opal Koboi, that name sounds almost... out of order.
"Who is Opal Koboi?" Butler takes the young boy's hand. The man's face is wet, has he been crying?
The boy's voice changes. A high pitched giggle pushes its way out of him.
He talks nonsense, girlish and intense.
His eyes wander around the room, as if they wish to look each way at once.
"Artemis Fowl, I will destroy you."
He says this with such malice that Butler backs away in horror.

There is no more hope...