Telling Tales

Chapter Two: Of The Categorised And The Caged

"The Hades Institute For The Mentally Disturbed," Sora read aloud as he stared at the bronzed plaque with a look of supreme uncertainty. "Um, why are we here?"

"I'm here to ask Cloud Strife why he'd claim to have killed someone who's still apparently very much alive," Leon answered. "You're here because you insisted on tagging along."

Sora pouted, a gesture that made him look even younger. "I am paying you, you know." There was a pause as the teenager studied the stone building for a few more moments. "Why didn't he just go to a normal prison?"

Leon shrugged, staring at the barred windows with a faint sense of disbelief that something so gothic and clichéd was actually allowed to run as an asylum. Wasn't the justice system meant to be all sympathetic and understanding to the criminally insane these days? "The courts decided that he wasn't sane enough to be held responsible for his actions. It was a closed trial, so I don't know any more than that." Glancing down at his watch, Leon sighed. "Come on."

Sora hastened to catch up with Leon as the older man strode towards the entrance. "Where are we going?"

Leon glanced over his shoulder. "I made an appointment to speak to Dr Hades, the owner of the institute. We'll see what he can tell us about Strife and the murder case and, hopefully speak to Strife himself, if the man is in someway lucid."

Sora looked a touch pale at the thought of conversing with an insane serial killer, but there was a resolute expression on his face that dissuaded Leon from trying to convince the kid from sitting this one out. Although, in all honesty, Leon could understand where Sora was coming from. Between the sudden disappearance of one of your closest friends and the equally sudden and mysterious reappearance of another who was supposed to be dead, it was a little unsurprising that Sora was feeling confused and in need of answers. Leon, on the other hand, was wondering why it was always the supposedly simple cases that ended up turning into hideously complicated messes. He tried to tell himself that whatever was discovered, he wasn't going to remain involved any longer than the two days he'd agreed, but there was an irritating sense that Leon was going to get dragged into this case whether he liked it or not.

With a mental shake and a firm inner reminder that no money equalled no further involvement regardless of what he discovered today, Leon rang the small brass bell beside the heavy oak front door. There was a buzzing sound from inside and then a crackling noise through the speaker grill set above the bell.

"Name?"

"Squall Leonheart. I have an appointment with Dr Hades," Leon announced into the panel.

The front door clicked loudly. "Please proceed to the foyer. Someone will meet you there shortly."

Leon and Sora glanced at each other briefly before Leon pushed the door open and the pair entered the building. Just beyond the front door was another pair of re-enforced glass doors. As Leon pushed closed the front door behind them, the glass doors clicked unlocked. The second set of doors opened out into a richly furnished entrance foyer with a glossy marble floor. Leon took in the décor briefly before leaving Sora to gawk over the paintings and sculptures at greater length while he examined the security that had been so carefully hidden behind the expensive visual diversions.

The manner in which every exit out of the foyer where they were stood was blocked by two sets of doors, one white-lacquered wood with bronze handles and the other glass, was a good example. The glass to the inner set of doors had the lack of surface texture that informed Leon immediately that it was toughened and not about to break very easily. There was also a small bronze square between the two sets of doors with a small button that looked like a light switch. It wasn't though, the doors were all obviously set to an airlock system and the second set would automatically lock when the first were opened and unlock when the other set of doors had closed. It was a standard addition to any institution housing imbalanced, but still able-bodied patients. Most however didn't have a small grille panel between the two sets of doors that Leon was fairly certain was there to administer some kind of sleeping gas.

There were more panels scattered around the foyer itself, usually concealed behind plants or statues. Leon was heading over to one to discretely have a closer look when the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps called his and Sora's attention to the double set of doors on the north wall of the room. Moments later, a tall, thin figure in a white coat all but ran through the first set of doors and collided with the glass set after not waiting for the original pair to close. With a shake of the head the figure paused long enough to close one set before finally making it into the foyer in a burst of nervous energy. "I'm late, aren't I? I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened with the time…" The young man paused to stare at them both for a moment before panic crossed his gaunt face. "There're two of you! Oh dear, I was only expecting one."

Sora seemed too taken aback to say anything, so Leon calmly stepped in to cut off the newcomer's stream of fretting. "If it's going to be a problem, Sora will be happy to wait in the foyer." From Sora's expression, it was clear he would be far from happy with such an arrangement, but the kid still had the sense to keep quiet, so Leon continued by offering his hand to the other man. "Squall Leonheart."

"Oh! Ah … Nick. I'm Dr Hades' personal assistant. Lackey you might say, ha ha! Ha ha!" Nick hurriedly waggled Squall's hand up and down a couple of times before stepping away and running two hands through his hair, smoothing down the already slick style. "Um … I don't see any harm in letting both of you see Dr Hades. Unless you're here to admit this young man to our care? Ha ha! Ha ha! Just a joke, sorry."

Leon and Sora exchanged looks. "I'm Sora," the teenager introduced himself as he was also subjected to a brief handshake. "I'm the one who hired Leon to look into this case."

"Case?" Nick all but squeaked, looking towards Leon in alarm. "You're not here to try and set up an appeal for one of the patients, are you? Dr Hades hates it when people try to interfere with his patients."

"We just want to find out a bit more about one of them," Sora reassured the man, obviously fearing that the constant heightened nerves might lead to Nick having a heart attack in front of him.

"Oh. Well… that's alright then," Nick drummed his fingers absently against each other a moment. "Right! I'll take you straight up to see Dr Hades." Turning, the white-coated assistant hurried over to a different set of doors and opened the first set of the airlock. "This way please!"

Sora leaned in towards Leon as the pair made their way to join Nick. "You sure he's not a patient himself?"

"He's wearing a white coat," Leon murmured back.

Sora didn't look fully convinced. "Maybe he stole it off the real doctor he killed."

Leon snorted but didn't reply as they reached Nick's anxiously hovering figure. With a brief smile at both of them, Nick immediately turned and led them through the airlock. The other side of the wooden doors revealed a long corridor lined with numbered doors that also had combination locks to each side. The rich carpets of earlier had been discarded in favour of a more hospital like linoleum flooring and white walls.

Nick glanced over his shoulder as he strode briskly down the corridor and noticed the interested glances of the two visitors. "These rooms are generally where we hold the art classes for those of our patients that have proven themselves capable of interacting with others to at least a certain extent. Art can be very therapeutic, you know. It allows patients to express themselves in ways they might not be capable of vocally. In the other direction are the gym and exercise and combat rooms."

"Combat rooms?" Leon questioned. "Is that a wise idea when your patients are criminally insane?"

Nick scowled over his shoulder briefly. "It's all supervised by our highly qualified staff," he informed Leon somewhat sniffily. "And healthy bodies make for healthy minds."

"I see," Leon murmured. Beside him, Sora seemed less impressed with the idea of insane and very physically fit criminals running around the building. There was a distinct tinge of apprehension in the teenager's expression and Leon had a suspicion that the kid was reconsidering his defiant argument that he was going to see Cloud Strife no matter what Leon may think about the matter.

They were led up a flight of stairs at the end of the corridor and through another set of airlock doors that brought them into a very lavishly furnished corridor. This was clearly where the administration work was carried out and the hum of various computers and other electronics provided low amount of background noise. There were a few members of staff walking around, using carrying stacks of paperwork, but no one seemed inclined to stop and chat with their colleagues.

Nick led them through the corridor to the office that sat at the far end with a small desk in front of it and to the left. Moving behind the desk, Nick rummaged through some of the paperwork that had accumulated until he uncovered the telephone system. Hitting a button, Nick held the receiver to his ear via his shoulder as he busied himself with polishing the Personal Assistant plaque that sat at the front of his desk. "Ah! Good morning Dr Hades. There's a Squall Leonheart here to see you. Yes! I'll send him straight in, Sir."

Replacing the phone, Nick gestured to Leon and Sora. "Just knock and enter."

Nodding his understanding, Leon proceeded to do just that with Sora close behind him. He stepped in a large and spacious office that still managed to seem very dark. No doubt due to the fact that everything inside was either grey stone or black leather. Sat at the far end of the office and regarding Leon and Sora with an expression that could only be described as a smirk, was Hades.

The man looked singularly unsuitable to be running a mental asylum, his dark suit and shirt hung loosely on his exceedingly tall frame and gave him the air of a used car salesman. This wasn't helped by the heavily gelled hair that stood up from his head in what could only be described as waves or the sneering smile that highlighted a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Making no move to rise from his chair, Hades waved at the pair of seats before the desk. "Come on in boys and pull up a pew. What can I do for you today, hmm?"

Pausing only for a moment at the overly casual greeting, Leon sat in the indicated chair and pulled out his notepad. "We're here to try and find out a little more about one of your patients. A Cloud Strife."

Hades snorted. "Blondie? Well he's certainly loony. And I am talking off the scale nuts," Hades leaned forward over the desk, creating a sense of imparting some gossip. "Get him in the right mood and you can probably convince him he's a chicken. Must have been dropped hard on his head as a brat, I'm telling you. Utterly loco."

"Is that the technical term for it these days?" came Sora's voice. Looking over at the teenager sat to the side of him, Leon saw that the boy appeared shocked – no doubt having expected a more sombre attitude.

Clearing his throat and thereby directing Hades' attention back to him rather than the teen he was currently glaring at, Leon tapped his pen on the notepad. "We're investigating a case which seems to connected to one of the girls Strife confessed to murdering five years ago. However not knowing the details of the confession or Strife's mental state is making it hard to determine how important our current lead is."

Hades stared at the pair of them with a narrowed eyed, considering stare that made Leon uncomfortable. Just when the urge to fidget under that look was becoming unbearable, Hades leaned back in his seat and pulled at cigar from his jacket pocket. "You wanna see Spikey, be my guest. I think Hojo's finished with him for the day anyway." He lit the cigar and puffed at it a couple of time before leaning forwards once more and jabbing at his own phone to call his PA. "Nick? Take these boys down to see Strife and see if you can't find someone to fill them in on blondie's quirks. We don't want another incident like last time."

Glancing at the pair of them, Hades waved a hand to show they were dismissed. "Staff Nurse Payne's on his way up. You got any questions, ask him."

Sora sat in the chair. "The nurse's name is Payne?"

Hades studied his fingernails. "Hilarious, isn't it?" he deadpanned. "We had a Doctor Slaughter too, but he quit last month"

A knock on the door indicated that their escort had arrived and Leon and Sora rose to their feet. Leon inclined his head in the smallest of nods before turning. "Thank you for your time, Dr Hades."

Outside the door was a short and somewhat rotund young man with an unusually flushed face and dressed in the standard white and blue of a male nurse. He appeared deep in a somewhat worried conversation with Hades' PA, but the two abruptly shut up when they saw Sora and Leon. The nurse offered his hand to shake. "Chris Payne. I'm a nurse on the ward where we put all the special cases. I hear you want to pay Strife a visit?"

"We'd like to talk to him if he's capable of it," Leon confirmed.

The nurse shrugged. "You can try. He's in one of his quiet moods at the moment, but at least that means he won't try to attack you like he did to the last one that came visiting."

"Attack?" Leon queried.

Payne sighed, an effort that involved a lot of air gusting through his substantial cheeks. "Strife has a severe reaction to a people with a certain colouring. Namely, green eyes and very pale hair. It's not usually a problem as we just get anyone with those features to cover their hair up, but the kid took his off too early. Strife got a peek at the hair and all hell broke loose."

"Kid?" Leon repeated, exchanging a look with a remarkably pale looking Sora. "Wasn't a teenager named Nakamura by any chance?"

"Nah, said his name was Riku," replied the nurse absently as they set off down several flights of stairs. "Probably came after listening to those musicians that play over at Seventh Heaven. You used to get quite a few teenage fans showing up, but never more than once."

"What do musicians have to do with a serial killer?" Leon asked, idly making a few notes as they headed into the basement level. "Is this some sort of new status badge for bands; adopting their own lunatic?"

Payne laughed at that, a reaction that sent all of his considerable bulk into perpetual, wobbling motion. "Almost. They knew him. Claim the confession was all a lie; well that's according to their singer and she's loud enough for the rest of them. You know, the usual Romantic stuff that sounds really good when it's about something you know nothing about in reality. Still, one look at Strife and it's clear he's nuts."

"So he reacts badly to certain people," Leon said, still scribbling away. "Any idea who it is they're reminding him of?"

"It's not like he really talks that much," Payne admitted with a shrug. "We just work it out from what we see. And what we see is stark, raving lunacy."

"Any other quirks we should know about before heading in?" Leon enquired. "I don't want to have wasted my day in coming out here only to trigger an attack of the sulks in this guy."

Payne shrugged again. "It changes. When he was first admitted, the guy couldn't stand the dark. And I mean, absolutely couldn't stand it. We had to keep his room flooded with light no matter what time it was or he'd absolutely flip out. Hojo started treating him not long after, and suddenly he switched and refused any light. Insisted on his room being pitch black the whole time. No one could figure out why he was okay with absolute darkness after the whole light thing."

Leon frowned. "That makes no sense," he commented, even though a small part of his mind was stubbornly underlining this section in his notebook.

"That's Strife," Payne sighed. "He's also got a thing about doors. Seems to think there are hidden ones in his room. If you don't keep him sedated, he'll knock on the walls until his knuckles are bleeding and raw. Then there's the other personality."

"He's got multiple personalities?" Sora murmured, getting increasingly less keen on the idea of visiting someone so obviously unhinged. "Are they insane as well?"

Payne shrugged. "Insanely upbeat. But also a lot more violent. Takes offence very quickly. Basically, if he's talking in more than two words, he's about two words away from getting angry at you."

Leon sighed and pinched his nose. He was not getting paid enough for this.

They were led through several more sets of doors into a sterile white corridor. The doors along this section of the hospital were more widely spaced and carried a number of sturdy-looking combination pad locks. There were also more of the grille panels from the earlier airlocks and several panic buttons, if Leon was any judge. He raised an inner eyebrow at the additional measures as he wondered why, if the residents were so obviously dangerously unhinged, they weren't simply left heavily sedated. And if they were, then why the added security?

Payne came to a halt outside a door roughly half of the way along the hallway. Pausing, he stretched up slightly to peer in through the small panel of toughened glass at the interior. "Ah, it seems he's had enough of the dark today. You'll be wishing for sunglasses in about three minutes, but at least you'll be able to see him." With a brief smile at Leon and Sora, the nurse quickly tapped a string of numbers into the combination pad before opening the door and beckoning them in. "Come on in."

With a glance at Leon that betrayed his misgivings, Sora was the next one to enter the room leaving Leon to bring up the rear. The strength of the lights reflecting against the white interior of the room made Leon narrow his eyes until they adjusted to the gleam. The walls themselves did not appear to be padded, contrary to popular opinion on such places, but painted in a pure white that leached any sense of warmth from the surroundings. The quantity of the lights that appeared to illuminate every last inch of the room in combination with that colour were almost painful in their intensity. It took several moments of squinting and rapid blinking before Leon's eyes adjusted.

A single bed sat neatly made in one corner of the room not far from a partially transparent door that clearly led to a bathroom. Sat on the bed and watching them with no discernible reaction was an extremely slender blond man that appeared to be in his early to mid twenties. Leon stared at him for a moment, wondering what he was doing in the room, before he realised that the pale figure with the bizarrely spiked hair had to be Cloud Strife.

Leon's first reaction was sheer disbelief that anyone so frail in appearance could have the strength, let alone the capacity, to murder a string of young girls. Strife looked too weak to open a jam jar. But a moment more of observation saw Leon picking out the telltale curves of lean muscle. There wasn't a scrap of fat on the other man and Leon was fairly certain that Strife had an intensive work-out regime at the gym that had been mentioned as they entered the institute.

Strife had been sitting with his back against the corner of the room, staring down at the knees that were drawn up against his chest. At their entrance, he looked up and Leon noticed a pair of blue eyes that appeared almost luminescent due to the paleness of the surrounding skin and hair. Strife stared at them blankly, taking in first the nurse and Sora, before his gaze flickered briefly when he studied Leon.

Strife frowned, an almost imperceptible narrowing of the eyes combined with a faint tug down of a full lower lip. The gesture was more felt than observed; Leon simply knew that the other man did not appreciate the intrusion into his space.

With a casual disregard that clearly displayed a practiced comfort in Strife's presence, Payne moved towards the bed in the corner of the room. "Visitors for you today, Strife. Hope you're feeling chatty because watching you glare at strangers for an hour gets awfully repetitive. Anyway, show me your hand, Doc says you've been smashing it up again."

His gaze not leaving Leon's, Strife wordlessly extended a hand that was already wrapped in bandages. There was staining across the knuckles, where the wraps were heaviest and Payne made a noise of displeasure when he saw them. "Great. Don't tell me I'm going to have to start washing the walls in here again…"

Leaving the nurse to his muttering and Leon to his staring contest with the madman, Sora cleared his throat. "Um… good morning? We're here to ask you some questions, if that's okay."

Strife's unnatural blue gaze shifted to Sora, though an expression was still not forthcoming on the blond's face.

Stretching his mouth wide in what would no doubt have passed for a grin were it not for the obvious case of nerves, Sora rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and through the brown spikes of his hair. "Ah … well … see my friend's gone missing and I think you might be able to help. 'Cause … uh … I think he was looking for this other friend of mine and so he came to see you as you … uh … you know…"

"Killed her," Leon finished for the teenager, getting irritated with the amount of circumlocution. "At least, you confessed to her murder."

Strife's head tilted slightly to one side as he blinked at Leon.

Leon waited for a moment before closing his eyes and pinching at his nose. I will not lose my patience, he told himself firmly. This is not a complete waste of my time … who am I kidding, the guy seems a complete vegetable.

"He's gone?"

Leon's head snapped up at the quiet words spoken in an unknown voice that had to be Strife's. It was softer sounding than he'd expected, but lacking any inflection or tone. The blond was staring at Leon again, that faint frown from before slightly more prominent. "Disappeared," Leon confirmed. "We're trying to track his movements."

Strife's eyes lost their focus for a moment before he turned to look at the hand that was being re-bandaged by Payne. "He's left."

"Left to go where?" Sora asked. "We know he came to see you. Was it about Kairi? Is she still alive or did you really kill her? There's pictures…"

"I heard the door open," Strife muttered mainly to himself.

"Just now?" Sora asked. "That was us."

When Strife made no more attempt to respond, Leon sighed in frustration. "This is getting us nowhere."

Returning to where they stood near the centre of the room, the nurse Payne shrugged. "I did warn you. This is actually the most chatty I've seen him in weeks – excluding the screaming fits, of course. You nearly had a conversation."

Leon shot the man a quelling glare, in no mood to be patronised about the level of success that they were having. With the fake cheery smile wiped off Payne's face, Leon tapped Sora on the shoulder. "This is useless. He's not going to tell us anything useful. We're still completely in the dark."

"Dark…" Strife murmured.

Sora stared at Strife helplessly for a few moments before giving in to Leon's firm grip on his shoulder and allowing himself to be turned towards the door. "I just want to know Riku's alright," he told Leon somewhat hopelessly as he passed by the taller brunet.

Leon nodded. "Don't worry, kid. There's other leads and I'm still investigating." Turning to follow Sora, Leon took a step away from Strife.

"The shadows," Strife suddenly called out after him, his voice sounding more engaged than at any point previously. "Tell that other one to watch the shadows. They're dangerous."

Leon looked back over his shoulder in surprise, but the blond had already resolutely dropped his gaze back to his knees and was clearly determined to ignore their continuing presence. Seeing no other option, Leon turned back towards the exit and left the room.

Back outside the corridor seemed positively gloomy after Strife's room. Leon had to wait again for his eyes to readjust. He noted somewhat irritably that Sora seemed to find the transition a lot easier than him and reflected sourly that he was clearly getting old. Turning his attention back to Payne, as soon as he could focus on the nurse reasonably clearly, Leon nodded his head slightly. "Thank you for your time, but I believe we're finished here for today."

Payne didn't try to hide his relief. "Good, I've got to report to Hojo about Strife's level of awareness and he really doesn't like visitors. I'll show you out first."

"Thanks," Leon replied, clamping a warning hand on Sora's shoulder when the teenager looked about to protest at the end to the visit. He kept that hand on Sora's shoulder the whole time they were led back to the entrance foyer and then waved from the building.

One back in daylight, Sora shrugged the hand off and turned to face Leon. "I knew he was crazy, but I still thought he'd be more help than that," Sora complained. "Now how am I supposed to find out what happened to Riku? You're only working for me until the end of today and then I'm on my own again."

Leon ignored Sora, flipping instead through the notes he'd made so far. "Strange," he mused.

"What?" Sora was all but trying to climb Leon's shoulder in order to read the notebook for some potential clue. "What is it?"

"Riku must have taken something about Strife to heart," Leon told the kid. "They both seemed to want to avoid shadows. Strife had his room lit up like an operating theatre and Riku had every possible light in his apartment switched on when I went to investigate." Leon flipped the book closed and tapped it against his other forearm. "I wonder what was said…"

"Should we ask to go back in?" Sora said, dread and anticipation hiding behind his words in equal measures.

Leon surveyed the building, mentally weighing the option up. "Not today," he answered. "There's somewhere else I want to try first."

"Oh?" Sora fell into step alongside Leon with the energetic bounce from their first meeting restored, no doubt due to the possibility of a further clue. "Where's that?"

"The nurse mentioned something about a local band being quite adamant that Strife was innocent … at least of killing kids," Leon answered. "I want to head by Seventh Heaven and see just what it is they're saying."

"Seventh Heaven?" Sora repeated. "That's in a really rough part of town."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Figures."