In the wee hours of the morning, the beaming sun rays dispersed through the French window of the couple's reserved hotel room, bathing the room in scintillating light as its sunlight swept their skins, protecting them from the light spring breeze which tickled them as they have forgotten to close the window the night before after making love to one another.
The both former devotional members of the clergy have sunk in a deep slumber as their stark, soft bodies were covered with a silky blanket, blanketing their senseless bodies as their light snores sailed in the hotel room. Whereas their eyelids were tightly shut, shielding them from the scintillating sunlight.
Once Timothy came to his senses, he stretched his arms as he emitted a yawn as if a mild dim was blew from his dry lips. Afterwards he promptly rubbed his drowsy eyes with his creamy fists. The sight of peacefully, motionlessly sleeping Jude rendered him cracking a beaming, heavenly smile, dancing across his lips. It molted his frail heart as its pulsating motion electrified in his chest.
"My rare bird!" His honeyed voice whispered as if his sole echo was sufficiently audible for him unlike the blonde, who was recently unconscious, due to her deep sleep. He couldn't avert his warm chocolate brown eyes, fulfilled with immense love, desire and indisputable lust from her gleaming, beauteous face, admiring her ethereal grace.
What the former man of the cloth contemplated was her sheer angelic identity. Her ringlet of old Hollywood honey curls were ruffled on the crimson red cushion, haloing her palish, parchment face as it ideally framed her elegant facial features.
All of a sudden, the former sister of the Roman Catholic church woke up as she stirred, drawing Timothy's exceeding attention within seconds as she stretched her arms, thereafter rubbing with her fists her drowsy eyelids until she open them like blinds and meeting his stare. When the older woman noticed his incessant stare with its beaming, charming smile, distorted across his lips, she couldn't help but smile back.
"Good morning, sweetie!" In the meantime, she extended her hand as she cupped his jawline, tilting his head without breaking an eye contact.
"Morning, rara avis!" The younger man replied softly by cupping her milky cheeks in the palms of his mammoth, veiny hands as his thumbs kneaded the flesh of her well-defined, perfect cheekbones. "How did you sleep?"
"Good! And you?" Whilst one of her hands was occupied with cupping his jaw, meantime she picked up from her nightstand a lighter and a cigarette pack by offering Timothy a cigarette as he didn't reject her offer by putting the cigar length in his mouth, gapping his plumpish, baby pinkish lips as they sat on the bed, whereas the blonde light up the both cigarettes as they took their first puff of them, blowing faint dim as it overspread in their booked hotel room.
"Fine as well! Odette's birthday is in matter of 2 days only." Timothy uttered each syllable in velvety voice by taking a second drag of his cigarette as he released severe dim, escaping his lips and nostrils. "What have you thought of giving her as a birthday present?" He furthered as he enquired concerned by chewing her bottom lip at the thought of leaving the hotel for a while by searching for the ideal gift for their sole daughter they have by roaming the Boston streets for hours after paying a visit to the young lady in the nuthouse.
"Well, I have thought of something simple but unique which she might be fond of once she lays her eyes on it."The slightly older woman responded emphatically by clearing her throat, glancing from distance at the balcony as its sunrays dwelled in their room like guests. "Something unique. Something authentic. Something just simple which she's going to love it, of course!"
"You mean a piece of jewelry, right?"
"Exactly! Or perhaps something different." Jude said in honeyed, low voice by reclining her head on the wall as she took another drag of her nicotine length by blowing dim again.
"Something different like what?" The former holy man inquired with ginormous inqusitiveness, vomitted in his inquiry as he set free a light, merry giggle.
"To surprise her with a trip to somewhere whenever she wants but it should be a surprise as you know?"
"For sure! I think she might be into exotic or tranquil destinations. I'm not quite sure."
"If we ask her right away wherever she wants to go, otherwise the surprise is going to be ruined even after her release of Briarcliff." The middle-aged mother took another drag of her cigarette as her long, fine fingers caressed its nicotine length as if her caress resembled of a delicate, feather touch of a newborn baby's head.
"I think she's going to question us why we are asking and she will raise the topic about her birthday."
"Higher than the highest mountain! And deeper than the deepest sea! That's how I will love you, oh, darling, endlessly! Softer than the gentle breezes," Brook Benton was singing inside the married couple's cab after catching their flight in seven o'clock in the morning without delay as Massimo's sole free hand cupped Elsa's knee, layered in thin black pantyhose as his other hand was spinning the steering car wheel as they hummed jubilantly as they were already in Boston since almost ten o'clock. His chocolate brown eyes were readily focused on his path without shifting them somewhere else. In the meanwhile, Evelyn was sleeping on the passenger backseat as her eyelids were tightly shut as she has been asleep after leaving the airport and hopping up in the vehicle. What it didn't bother the adolescent was the song that played inside the car's background, without doubtlessly interrupting her catnap. They have been awake since five o'clock in the morning and the young woman won't attend regularly school until she returns back at Florida with her parents.
"Oh Scheisse! I know from somewhere, we cannot give any items to Odette since she's institutionalized in this hellhole and she's going to be sent immediately to solitary." Elsa evoked plainly by pursing her lips by following its monotonous thrumming as her bloody red lips motioned.
"At least, once she leaves Briarcliff, we can give her birthday present right away." The middle-aged man suggested as the couple half-heartedly sniggered in low voice, without snapping their sole daughter out of her train of brief slumber. "However, we should look and search around the shops for something which she might like."
"She has always being fond of her presents, regardless if it was her last birthday or her 16th birthday shortly after we met her." The German emigrant answered with her firm, nonetheless husky accent by taking a deep breath. "She always likes whatever she gets."
"Because nobody hasn't been so generous to her unlike us."
"Unfortunately, yes! We are the sole people who are doted on her, besides pressumably her parents."
"And stronger than the wild oak tree! That's how I will hold you, oh, darling, endlessly! Oh, my love, you are my heaven! You are my kingdom, you are my crown!"
"Just imagine if we met her parents in face-to-face." The Italian wondered abruptly by biting his bottom thin lip unwillingly as he exhaled sharply.
"It would be splendid. It's going to be an enormous pleasure." The German lady rejoinder.
"Why you asked me to come urgently in your office, Monsignor?" Odette posed the question in jaded, grave manner by furrowing her thin, elegant eyebrows as she pursed her lips by shutting the juvenile, pigheaded priest's office door behind her as he looked away from the papers he inspected with his cunning, studious sapphire blue eyes, fueled with ginormous malice and abhorrence, oozing from his glare, casted on the young singer's porcelain, white as vanilla complexion.
The brunette was exceedingly called to pay a visit to the man of the cloth's office as he was the essential reason why he cut off the both young adults' conversation they had a several minutes ago in the commom room, being encircled by swarm of criminally insane inmates. Criminally insane inmates, who were either banging their heads incessantly in the old, brick wall or bewailing out loud as their wails sailed up in the common room like echoes, colliding in the dull, bleak walls.
The poignant stench of cigarettes, emanating from the young, aspiring holy man man was toying the young singer's sensitive, vulnerable nostrils. At least, it didn't bother the orphan at all as she has mustered with its acute smell of tobacco.
"Well, Miss Odette Beatrix! One of the patients told me you were friends." Initially, the young lady didn't believe the slightly older man's words as her mouth was agape, whereas her heart briskly raced in anticipation to hear who's that friend of her who's associated with the head of Briarcliff.
"You are full of shit, Monsignor!" Odette pouted her lips as she crossed her frail, bony arms as she lost a couple of pounds in a matter of few days since her arrival in the nuthouse, huffing as she didn't step forward in the sufficiently expansive, austere office. "I thought you were a smarter person to trick me."
"It's not a trick, Odette! You have a wonderful surprise and you should guess who's this friend of yours." Alexander retorted as he gamely arched an eyebrow, expecting the patient to show hints of wisdom and wit without indisposition. It was a roller coaster of determination and crystal ingeniousness as she should descend by taking the impending step in guessing the correct answer. What it came up to her mind as a first thought was her childhood friend from the orphanage Serena. But wait? If she's otherwise institutionalized in the asylum whether for anything, consequently what's the history behind her sinister, remorseless imprisonment?
"I'm thinking of my childhood friend from St. Ursula," The brunette stammered as he struggled to utter each syllable, in fact, she was in embarrassing, reluctant situation in this moment as Father McKenzie gestured her to take a seat momentarily in a swift motion by swatting his hand as she obediently followed his instruction without complaining. All of a sudden, she verged to have a gruesome heart attack at the thought if once she guesses the correct answer to his rhetorical question. "Urm, aren't ya talking about Serena?" Odette resumed her exclamation as her rosy-coloured, luscious lips trembled as a piano key when she spelled Serena's name, her heart heavily throbbing in her osseous chest.
"Correct!" Nefarious, unholy smirk crawled on the priest's complexion, framing his facial features which were masked in malevolence. His azure blue eyes glinted glee, exposing its genuine nuances of his emotions in this moment. "She's going to be released from the solitary in a few minutes. It's a matter of time to be patient for your present, Odette!" Once the young woman realized her childhood friend was jailed in Briarcliff especially the solitary, where are imprisoned the least innocent, obediant and docile patients, who are part of the institution's responsibility, she was beyond embittered by Father McKenzie and the asylum staff's doubtless ferocity. Her heart leaped as if it's about to spring up of her chest within seconds without reluctance.
"W-What you did to her, Father? For what's responsible so that to be imprisoned here especially in a solitary?" The young woman clutched her fists as she could no longer tolerate the haughtiness of the juvenile holy man, besides opulent questions swam in her mind about Serena, resurfacing, in case, if their answers are being found answered at last.
"Oh, you the little poor girl," Alexander gasped amused as a smug, wicked grin hugged his lips by running his dexterous fingers through his light chestnut hair. "I didn't know you were so aware why she's here." He carried on as he opted to test the young lady's patience with his daredevil, guileful game.
"Just give me an explaination why she's imprisoned in this nuthouse!" Odette was fed up with the lack of seriousness from the young man's cunning demeanor by gritting her teeth.
"Well, just talk to her! She was accused in violating the asylum's rules and that's why she is no longer wandering in the wards but sitting by herself on the ground of the solitary."
"Stupid idiot! He thinks I'll receive presents since it's a madhouse." Odette evoked as Frank escorted her to the common room after paying a visit to the Briarcliff administrator's office as the both adults ambled up in the dim lit hallway of the nuthouse, clearing her throat after spelling each word of her sentence.
"Well, he's a great manipulator! You know, I don't like this jackass either, Odette!" The middle-aged man sighed frustrated, seconds before commencing with his utterance by scratching the nape of his clammy neck with his fingertips as his shoes clicked against the corridor's flooring.
"Oh Frank," The brunette inhaled, then exhaled sharply by wiping with the back of her hand her perspiratory, damp forehead as her tongue clicked. She was beyond astounded even livid why he's a slave of the manipulative, exaggerating priest's system and his austere, unwelcoming rules. "Then why don't you move somewhere and have a fresh start as a security guard somewhere else?"
"I have never thought of this, to be honest. Until I was beyond livid how radically brutal and barbaric is Father McKenzie." Honestly, Frank has never thought of resigning his post as a security guard of the mental hospital until he confronted and witnessed the cruelties of the much younger man, who's in charge and having ultimate control over everything in Briarcliff. Little did he know when his fresh start actually begins. "He's always sounds mad as a hatter."
"Isn't he definitely as mad as a hatter, Frank?" All of a sudden, the singer nagged as she attempted to control her voice tone without being as harsh as her worst enemy in the facility. "You can't work with somebody, who's your boss and being a murderously mentally-ill. He's a sociopath! He loves it when you are his slave. Of his system. His literal slave. Doubtlessly!"
"Fair enough! I'm thinking of leaving Briarcliff soon and work somewhere else as a security guard. You are absolutely right, Odette!"
"I'm glad I'm convincing ya to walk through the right path though it's not my business."
"Oh, Odette! I know you don't have an ultimate control over my life but you're so helpful. You're just like your parents. Compassionate! Helpful! You're an amazing girl whose parents are amazing."
"Why thank you," Once the both adults pushed the double wooden doors of the common room as they arrived as they set foot inside the expansive room, suddenly the young woman's gaze was transfixed on each corner of the common room, trying to find her childhood friend by recalling somewhat how she used to look like as a child. Silence arched between the both adults, whereas Odette's hazelish-brown eyes scanned swiftly the common room until she laid her eyes on a young woman with familar appearance, recognizing her until she clamped with her both hands her mouth in merciless, timeless horror as her honey brown orbs widened of the horrid scenery which she currently witnessed. It was her childhood friend Serena. She looked much different unlike her early years. What Odette did was actually refraining to emit a guturral wail. "Oh Jesus! God! Serena!"
In the meanwhile, the both adults approached the desolated inmate by resembled as if a monster did everything to her by aggravating the adorable looks which she once possessed. The other young woman's eyelid was sewed as if something horrifying has happened to her especially an incident, befalling her at such fragile age. Partly of her mane of strawberry tresses was shaved on the left side and her skin was layered in light bruises, pinkish and blue tints airbrushed on her flesh. She was sitting all alone by herself on the tattered, filthy sofa until the inmate shifted her solely opened eyelid as her chocolate brown orb was darted absentmindedly to the anxious Odette and Frank as they seated between her. Fortunately, the love child didn't scream in horror at all. Odette and Frank's flimsy hearts were already broken once they spotted Serena and her abased condition.
The young singer shed a couple of tears as they sprung up in her frail eyelids, transfixing her gawk on her childhood friend as Frank did either. She felt honed daggers stabbed right into her chest as thick, marvelous blood bleeded, spurted by splattering.
To be continued...