The Rutledge Private Clinic and Asylum was Alice's own private view of Hell. It was very difficult to imagine that any place could be worse than Wonderland but in retrospect Alice would prefer to have been with the Lost Children 24/7 than the memories she had of this place. It was certainly an innocent enough looking place with it's cast iron gates, neatly trimmed
lawns, and metal bars on every window but it was probably the moans coming forth like the wails of the Damned which ruined it's peaceful mood most.
"Well if you don't mind Alice my dear I think I'm going to take a cat nap." Cheshire said as Alice paid the Hanson cab driver. Wrapping her shawl around her neck a bit tighter, Alice looked at the Cat with a more than mildly irritated look.
"Your not coming with me?" Alice asked. Somehow even if she was mad, her delusions would be ever much more easier to bear than facing the staff without them.
"The Inferno has it's guide my dear Alice but I am not your Virgil." The Cheshire Cat waved his tail about his head before crawling into the bushes where only his eyes were visible.
"Who?" Alice asked blinking.
"Oh sorry, I've forgotten you haven't read Dante. The Lower Inferno of Wonderland is mine than the Banality of Dis." With a slow lessening of the glow to his eyes, the Cheshire Cat completely vanished. Out of sight, Out of mind indeed.
"Well now what the bloody hell am I supposed to do." Alice said, having learned to cuss a storm in her first few weeks out of the asylum.
"You could follow the White Rabbit." The White rabbit suggested as the proper English bunny wore a straight jacket and had a razor blade replacing his rotten incisors from before.
"Yes I could follow the White Rabbit...well don't just stand there stupid...go on in!" Alice gave the rabbit a thwap with her tiny shoe before looking around to make sure that no one had seen her talking to nothing again. It only now was occurring to her that this was the absolute worst place to be caught doing anything strange. She'd been unhappy in Wonderland tormented by the Red Queen and her minions but the one time she'd tried to commit suicide was because of the treatment here. Red King, insane children, and Cheshire cat or not she would do it right if they were going to try to incarcerate her again.
"Hurry! We have all the time in the world!" The Rabbit tossed Alice his pocket-watch. The thing was broken with a hammer obviously having been taken to the back of it. The hands of the watch had been perpetually frozen at the number which Alice's house had burned down.
"But I'm cured of that...aren't I?" Alice said as she gazed at the strange numbers, even as she reached the door of the Asylum. The heavy wooden doors had no knobs on the outside and only giant golden knockers. With some trepidation Alice bashed three times upon the instruments, watching the Rabbit move through the doors like the ghostly phantasm he was.
***
Heironymous Leonard Wilson sipped his morning Irish coffee as he looked over the stack of files that had been given to him by his colleague Doctor Jameson and stared at the connections drawn. His office grandfather clock was ticking silently towards half past three and the grim stone interior of the converted abbey almost drew his attention away from the shocking files. He was doing his best to ignore the presence of Edwyn in the seat across his desk who was waiting impatiently for his medical opinion on the matter.
"Merriweather McTaggert, classic comatose due to psychological inability to deal with reality coupled with brain damage from accidental fall from staircase. Parents graciously incarcerated him under the pretext of boarding school to avoid a scandal to one of England's prominent families. Likely the boy feared the adult responsibilities of being the future Duke and cast himself from the top himself." Heiro was hiding his opinion on the matter because it was too wonderful and fantastic to consider. The similarities could not be denied though to his beautiful lost patient and as Doyle's hero said 'Whatever is left when all other possibilities are eliminated, no matter how fantastic, must be the truth.'
"I'm aware of the patients history and present condition Doctor. I want to know if you think the case bears any similarity to your 'Alice' case?" Edwyn Jameson said. The ambitious young doctor was a cocky little bugger and had no respect for the tried and true methods of dealing with insanity. He wasn't quite as radical as the idiots who suggested patients might be healed with counseling instead of conditioning but Heiro wouldn't have minded never being associated with the fool.
"A few superficial ones. Why do you ask?" The Elder Doctor hid his excitement like a master thespian. The drawings, the moanings in one sleep, all the notes were virtually identical even in the childhood fantasy period from prior relations descriptions. If it was half of what he thought it was near confirmation of what the Theosophical society had sought for years in proving the existence of extra-sensory perception. He had been a complete fool to allow Alice to leave, even if it had been done during the superintendent's visit. Heiro certainly would not let this subject get away and he'd have to find some excuse for an immediate exploratory lobotomy.
"I'm wondering if your 'miracle cure' might be applicable in this case." Edwyn causally slid over an unsealed envelope as he took the file from Heiro's hands.
Heironymous snorted, though Edwyn was likely to construe it as contempt it was really because of the ridiculousness of his miracle cure. His treatment had been a combination of chemicals which injected into the blood stream would alleviate the pressures on Aristotle's humours by turning cold and tepid blood into more viable hot blood. The actual process which had been unfortunately nicknamed 'blood boiling' by his colleagues had received some negative attention due to a few dead patients subjected to it. Heironymous wouldn't know whether it would have helped Alice because she'd made her damned recovery the very day he was going to administer it.
"Don't be coy Heironymous. I'm in a desperate situation and I need your help. I've tried just about everything to help our young vegetable and if stewing would help I'm glad to do it. Open the envelope." Edwyn then did a rather shocking breach of etiquette by leaning back and placing his feet on Heiro's desk.
The contents of the envelope did indeed make up for the rudeness by far though. "Where may I ask did a middle class runt like yourself get five thousand pounds?"
"It's my savings dear friend from a great deal of things that I've done on my way to the top. I wouldn't get overmuch attached to that cheque my fellow alienist it's only half yours if the fellow dies. However if it succeeds I want the credit. I was effectively not ever here. If you never bring it up then I won't notice the discrepency in my account." Edwyn looked at him and Heiro had the incredible urge to laugh in his face. Still there were a number of rather well-connected men who were interested in his receipts at race track....he'd have to dispose of Edwyn somehow then to keep both patient and pay.
It was then that the annoying Nurse Ozma who refused to leave the patients alone in their wailing opened his office door. Unlike Nurse D she wasn't suited for the necessary evils of managing a proper asylum. "Doctor Wilson?"
"Yes Nurse?" Heiro said as he put the cheque in his pocket.
"There's a Miss Liddell here to see you."
-Charlemagne
lawns, and metal bars on every window but it was probably the moans coming forth like the wails of the Damned which ruined it's peaceful mood most.
"Well if you don't mind Alice my dear I think I'm going to take a cat nap." Cheshire said as Alice paid the Hanson cab driver. Wrapping her shawl around her neck a bit tighter, Alice looked at the Cat with a more than mildly irritated look.
"Your not coming with me?" Alice asked. Somehow even if she was mad, her delusions would be ever much more easier to bear than facing the staff without them.
"The Inferno has it's guide my dear Alice but I am not your Virgil." The Cheshire Cat waved his tail about his head before crawling into the bushes where only his eyes were visible.
"Who?" Alice asked blinking.
"Oh sorry, I've forgotten you haven't read Dante. The Lower Inferno of Wonderland is mine than the Banality of Dis." With a slow lessening of the glow to his eyes, the Cheshire Cat completely vanished. Out of sight, Out of mind indeed.
"Well now what the bloody hell am I supposed to do." Alice said, having learned to cuss a storm in her first few weeks out of the asylum.
"You could follow the White Rabbit." The White rabbit suggested as the proper English bunny wore a straight jacket and had a razor blade replacing his rotten incisors from before.
"Yes I could follow the White Rabbit...well don't just stand there stupid...go on in!" Alice gave the rabbit a thwap with her tiny shoe before looking around to make sure that no one had seen her talking to nothing again. It only now was occurring to her that this was the absolute worst place to be caught doing anything strange. She'd been unhappy in Wonderland tormented by the Red Queen and her minions but the one time she'd tried to commit suicide was because of the treatment here. Red King, insane children, and Cheshire cat or not she would do it right if they were going to try to incarcerate her again.
"Hurry! We have all the time in the world!" The Rabbit tossed Alice his pocket-watch. The thing was broken with a hammer obviously having been taken to the back of it. The hands of the watch had been perpetually frozen at the number which Alice's house had burned down.
"But I'm cured of that...aren't I?" Alice said as she gazed at the strange numbers, even as she reached the door of the Asylum. The heavy wooden doors had no knobs on the outside and only giant golden knockers. With some trepidation Alice bashed three times upon the instruments, watching the Rabbit move through the doors like the ghostly phantasm he was.
***
Heironymous Leonard Wilson sipped his morning Irish coffee as he looked over the stack of files that had been given to him by his colleague Doctor Jameson and stared at the connections drawn. His office grandfather clock was ticking silently towards half past three and the grim stone interior of the converted abbey almost drew his attention away from the shocking files. He was doing his best to ignore the presence of Edwyn in the seat across his desk who was waiting impatiently for his medical opinion on the matter.
"Merriweather McTaggert, classic comatose due to psychological inability to deal with reality coupled with brain damage from accidental fall from staircase. Parents graciously incarcerated him under the pretext of boarding school to avoid a scandal to one of England's prominent families. Likely the boy feared the adult responsibilities of being the future Duke and cast himself from the top himself." Heiro was hiding his opinion on the matter because it was too wonderful and fantastic to consider. The similarities could not be denied though to his beautiful lost patient and as Doyle's hero said 'Whatever is left when all other possibilities are eliminated, no matter how fantastic, must be the truth.'
"I'm aware of the patients history and present condition Doctor. I want to know if you think the case bears any similarity to your 'Alice' case?" Edwyn Jameson said. The ambitious young doctor was a cocky little bugger and had no respect for the tried and true methods of dealing with insanity. He wasn't quite as radical as the idiots who suggested patients might be healed with counseling instead of conditioning but Heiro wouldn't have minded never being associated with the fool.
"A few superficial ones. Why do you ask?" The Elder Doctor hid his excitement like a master thespian. The drawings, the moanings in one sleep, all the notes were virtually identical even in the childhood fantasy period from prior relations descriptions. If it was half of what he thought it was near confirmation of what the Theosophical society had sought for years in proving the existence of extra-sensory perception. He had been a complete fool to allow Alice to leave, even if it had been done during the superintendent's visit. Heiro certainly would not let this subject get away and he'd have to find some excuse for an immediate exploratory lobotomy.
"I'm wondering if your 'miracle cure' might be applicable in this case." Edwyn causally slid over an unsealed envelope as he took the file from Heiro's hands.
Heironymous snorted, though Edwyn was likely to construe it as contempt it was really because of the ridiculousness of his miracle cure. His treatment had been a combination of chemicals which injected into the blood stream would alleviate the pressures on Aristotle's humours by turning cold and tepid blood into more viable hot blood. The actual process which had been unfortunately nicknamed 'blood boiling' by his colleagues had received some negative attention due to a few dead patients subjected to it. Heironymous wouldn't know whether it would have helped Alice because she'd made her damned recovery the very day he was going to administer it.
"Don't be coy Heironymous. I'm in a desperate situation and I need your help. I've tried just about everything to help our young vegetable and if stewing would help I'm glad to do it. Open the envelope." Edwyn then did a rather shocking breach of etiquette by leaning back and placing his feet on Heiro's desk.
The contents of the envelope did indeed make up for the rudeness by far though. "Where may I ask did a middle class runt like yourself get five thousand pounds?"
"It's my savings dear friend from a great deal of things that I've done on my way to the top. I wouldn't get overmuch attached to that cheque my fellow alienist it's only half yours if the fellow dies. However if it succeeds I want the credit. I was effectively not ever here. If you never bring it up then I won't notice the discrepency in my account." Edwyn looked at him and Heiro had the incredible urge to laugh in his face. Still there were a number of rather well-connected men who were interested in his receipts at race track....he'd have to dispose of Edwyn somehow then to keep both patient and pay.
It was then that the annoying Nurse Ozma who refused to leave the patients alone in their wailing opened his office door. Unlike Nurse D she wasn't suited for the necessary evils of managing a proper asylum. "Doctor Wilson?"
"Yes Nurse?" Heiro said as he put the cheque in his pocket.
"There's a Miss Liddell here to see you."
-Charlemagne