Author's Notes: This is my favorite chapter so far. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Glimpses 10

1982 A.D.

There was a reason I couldn't be around other boys in the hospital. The Down Syndrome kids, the shivering epileptics, the swearing schizophrenics…

There was a reason they put me in my own padded cell when I was twelve and puberty hit with a vicious barrage of visions that left me a gibbering mess the twenty hours a day that I wasn't flinging myself around like someone possessed.

After I turned fifteen, I was mostly functional, and the doctors said I'd recovered from some kind of emotional breakdown. Usually I would ignore them, take my pills and sleep like a good boy.

But sometimes I'd forget why I needed those pills…

Sometimes I would find myself unable to stop twitching, or picking at loose threads, or chewing my fingernails until I bled, or screaming at the television that blared twenty-four hours a day in the 'family room' of the men's ward. Sometimes something as simple as a misplaced word would set me off and I would run rampant in the halls, violently tearing into anyone I caught until the orderlies could subdue me.

By fifteen I had already killed two people, maimed six nurses, and attacked all of my therapists. I could wreak havoc on the human body with my bare hands, pick locks, and escape my straight jackets. I was a perfect horror and I reveled in my insanity.

I could sing and cry and bleed like any other human, but I was something more. I knew things others didn't know, and learned languages I'd only heard in my own head, without outside contact.

But now I was in my cell, propped back against the wall with my arms strapped to my sides and my nose twitching with irritation. I'd just been caught in the head psychiatrist's office rearranging the patient's files so no one would know what mental fuckup Suzi or James or Jenny or Brad had.

The door opened and the light flipped on, and I glowered at the white sneakers that approached me.

"Time for your medications, Brad!" the nurse's cheerful voice bubbled at me. It was all I could do to not try and bite her kneecaps like some Monty Python character.

I looked up at an unfamiliar face and cocked my head slightly. This was a nurse I hadn't seen before…perhaps she was new to the ward.

Perhaps I could convince her to make my nose stop itching…

"Before I take them, could you please scratch my nose? It's been bothering me for an hour," I asked, my Southern burr rounding out my vowels so my words were soft and deceptively gentle. I even smiled at her, a shy boy just asking for a favor despite all the leather and canvas around me that practically shouted 'Danger! Don't touch!'

"Why sure, honey. Where does it itch? Right on the tip?" She reached out and touched the end of my nose; I couldn't believe my luck.

"Yes, right there. Thank you."

I shot forward and bit her finger off at the joint. Her screams were like music and I was smiling around the twitching digit in my mouth, silently watching her writhe on the floor until one of the orderlies dragged her out. Another one held his hand out and told me to spit out the finger I had been delightfully chewing on, his shaking fist enough of a threat that I obeyed without causing more trouble.

I could hear the nurse out in the hall, screaming still. "You freak! That freak bit my fucking finger off! Don't touch it! Oh my God!"

"That was a very bad thing to do, Brad," the orderly was saying, but I turned away, already bored, "That's why we're going to revoke your hall rights."

"Not much of a loss there," I countered, spitting blood on the hem of his white pants. "You people don't let me have any fun."

Fin Chapter 10

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