Mid-day 002

Tim sat in the white soft room for a few hours before Doctor C. finally came back to make sure Keith was still secure in his straightjacket they had put him in earlier that day. Doctor C. blinked a little when he saw Tim back to normal, glaring at him a little as he struggled in the tight straightjacket constricting his movements. Tim never liked someone controlling him or his movements; this made Doctor C. much less popular to him.

"You're awake," the doctor said with a small smile causing Tim to frown even more at the other man; if he was able to move his arms he would have crossed them over his chest and glared at the man in front of him but no matter how much he struggled the stupid straightjacket was just way too hard to get off, especially with the crotch belt that kept it on him when he tried to just pull it off over his head. Dang it straightjackets were a lot more complex than they showed them in the movies.

"No shit Sherlock," Tim finally said looking a little annoyed at the fact the Doctor hadn't gotten over here and taken it off him after seeing he was no longer the masked man. He stared at him a while longer since the Doc wasn't coming near him just yet and looked a little unhappy with Tim's sarcasm. "Sorry, look can you just- undo this thing? My arms are falling asleep," he complained. Doctor C. went over and undid the belts of the straightjacket, lifting it off him. Tim stretched after a second, letting his body crack a little before getting up and walking for the door.

"First treatment is down the hall, fifth door to your left," the doctor stated, Tim looking back and nodding at him before he slowly walked down the cold, dirty hall. Most of the doors in the hall looked run down, paint chipped slightly on all of them except for the one that Tim had been instructed to go through. The door was painted a nice white, the smelled of fresh paint reaching his nostrils as he approached it, grabbing the nice shiny gold colored handle and turning it, opening the door to reveal an even nicer room.

The room wasn't dirty like the rest of the rooms, actually it was probably the cleanest part of the whole facility that Tim had seen so far. The walls had a new coat of white paint on them, and there were a few cob webs here and there but it wasn't noticeable unless someone was looking for them. There wasn't a speck of dust lying about and the art canvases looked expensive and new, all the paints' colours bringing some life in the room.

Tim stared at one of the blank canvases a moment before picking up a brush and painting the first thing he could think of: French fries and a hamburger. He then made a Pac-man on the side of the canvas giving it hair and sideburns so it would represent himself about to eat said hamburgers and fries. He looked from his wok to the men beside him, realizing that they both looked rather familiar, the one with glasses painting furiously on the canvas in front of him.

The other one was the one who had looked through the window of his padded cell that looked very familiar but for the life of him he couldn't place where exactly he had met him before. He didn't exactly look like the video game type so he obviously didn't meet him at a game stop or anything and he was pale, it almost looked like he'd never left the comforts of his own home. Maybe the guy just looked like someone from school or something that Tim passed by in the hallway from time to time. He guessed it didn't matter.

He went back to drawing, making some Operator symbols in the background before realizing what he was doing. He forced himself to stop and stared at the symbols as the paint slowly began to drip down a ways and into the X making it look messily done. Tim frowned before trying to paint something over it, making red little dots for the Pac-man version of himself to go get later. He made a small red dot trail after the hamburger and fries before making a blue ghost on the side and sighing a little. He missed his video games a lot; it just wasn't fair that he wouldn't be getting out of here any time soon if at all.

"Alex?" he heard the familiar wide eyed man say, his voice sounding a little scared as he watched the brown haired young man look blankly at the canvas, his eyes glazed over as he continued to draw. Tim leaned to the side to look over at the canvas the man named Alex was using; it was filled with the symbol as well, a tall silhouette of a man standing in between a bunch of scribbled on trees. A masked man Tim knew was his other half was in the drawing too. This was weird, who the hell was this guy and how did he know about his other half and his boss?

The events that happened in front of him blurred slightly and he blacked out momentarily. When he came around he saw the nurses taking Alex out of the room and Jay looking around with wide eyes trying to figure out what had happened himself. Tim paused a second before slowly walking over to the brown haired boy. "Uhh, what just happened?" Tim asked him, unsure if Jay was going to freak out or not again like he had when he looked into the padded cell. Jay looked over at him then towards the door Alex had left through nervously.

"I… don't know," Jay replied, sounding a little scared before looking over at Tim again. "Do you know about-" He cut himself off causing Tim to tilt his head slightly not sure of what he was going to ask him. Jay saw the questioning look and shook his head, telling him to forget about him asking before walking away from everyone going back to being antisocial without Alex. Tim shrugged before going back to painting more.

Alex:

Alex walked into the white room with a smile on his face as he and Jay kept talking together. Jay was actually smiling instead of being so scared and antisocial with him like he was with the others. Alex thought that was pretty great; he was helping another patient get better. The nurses were even smiling at him as he kept Jay within their small conversations.

They each picked their own canvas, Alex grabbing two paint brushes and handing one of them to Jay with a small smile. "Let's paint together," he said sounding encouraging to Jay. Jay looked down at the paint brush with a blank look before nodding a little, smiling nervously before he slowly began painting with him, a real smile slowly spreading on his face as he drew a small sun at the top of the canvas.

The smile slowly began to fade when he noticed Alex had become quite quiet beside him. He now had this blank look on his face as he walked towards the canvas and violently began painting a forest of black trees. Trees overlapped other trees as he kept painting with that unchanging blank look on his face, not seeming to be in the same world as everyone else.

Jay looked a little nervous as he slowly tugged at his new friend's blue and black jacket but that resulted in Alex using his free hand to push Jay away slightly to get him to stop bothering him as he worked. The push was a little too hard and made Jay stumble and fall to the ground, looking up at Alex with wide eyes. Alex was acting nothing like how he had when they had met just 25 minutes ago in the cafeteria, and it really freaked him out. He slowly stood up again and looked at his friend's eyes, blinking in slight concern when he realized that Alex's eyes seemed to be glazed over as he kept drawing.

Tim watched quietly as Jay kept trying to get Alex back to normal but Alex just kept ignoring him and drawing violently before he drew that man with a camera again. Something connected in Jay's head as he looked from his friend to the canvas, his breath catching in his throat when he realized that the figure Alex had just finished drawing resembled himself. He didn't know what to say or even do after he saw the figure he had finished making, something tickling the back of his brain. The canvas was almost completely filled now, Alex's eyes starting to go back to normal. He blinked at the picture before turning to the surprised-looking Jay.

Alex moved a hand towards Jay not sure what to say to him but Jay backed up slightly, still confused over the whole picture Alex had drawn of what seemed to be him and other strange people. "Jay- it's ok," Alex said at the wide eyed young man that kept moving away as Alex took a step towards him. He was still pretty skittish but not so bad when it came to Alex for some reason. Alex didn't think Jay would run off because of this and he was correct. Alex's hand gently grabbed Jay's shoulder and Jay jumped before he slowly looked up at him.

"T-that picture…" Jay stuttered still looking scared; Alex turned to look at the picture he had no idea he had done, looking back at Jay as he stared with slight fear in his eyes. "Why did you draw m-me in it?" Alex blinked and looked at the picture again, noticing the young man he had apparently just drawn looking like the one he had drawn back at Amy's and his home just the day before. Now that Jay had mentioned it the man did actually look like the new friend he had made here.

"I don't know- I don't remember making the picture," Alex admitted, his voice sounding a little concerned himself. He wasn't sure why he had drawn him and it scared him a little but the fear bubbled over into anger again and he kicked down the stand. The paint splattered into a mess of colors as the picture connected to the tile floor below. He panted angrily before calming down a little, looking back at Jay who was surprisingly still there watching him with those natural wide eyes as nurses ran past him to get to Alex and make sure he didn't hurt anyone else. Alex struggled before forcing himself to relax; he didn't want to go to the padded cell only an hour after he had been freed from it.

The nurses picked him up and took him to his cell where Alex had to wait to get spoken to again. His head was down but when he looked up Doctor C. was there looking at him before unlocking the cell and walking in. He sat down on the other bed in Alex's room and stared at him quietly before handing him a pill and a cup of water. "Take it," he stated sounding gentle yet firm, Alex knowing that there was no arguing with him on this.

"Well- what is it?" Alex finally said, looking at the emerald colored pill in his hand before looking at Doctor C. the doctor was staring at him blankly before standing up to go to the cell door almost as if he wasn't going to tell Alex what the pill in his hands were. He turned around one more time before sighing.

"It's medication that helps with that bipolar disorder you have Alex," he finally stated, his tone had a tint of disappointment in it like he had hoped that Alex wouldn't have acted out so badly during the class before he turned to leave the cell. Alex watched him as he walked down the hall before he went past a corner out of his sight only knowing he was still nearby by the clicking of his shoes on the concrete floor before a door opened and shut, the sound of the shoes on concrete now dispersed.

Jay:

Jay walked into the art room, eyes immediately widening at everything but mostly all the people packed in the room with them. He didn't trust anyone in the room beside his new friend so he stuck extremely close to him, not wanting to chance someone attacking him if he strayed too far from this Alex guy who had been so friendly to him in the cafeteria just 15 minutes ago.

Alex led him to a blank canvas and smiled slightly at Jay who looked a little unsure of himself, the nervous man smiling back a little before looking down at the nicely polished floor. It was so clean he could see his reflection in it but every few seconds he would have to look up to answer something Alex said to him. He knew Alex was trying to make him open up a little to him but he wasn't as suspicious of him as he was of everyone else in the room or on the planet to be honest. He never thought he'd feel so comfortable near someone he had only just met but somehow Alex had managed to slip into Jay's life easily and learn more things about him than anyone else he knew including his family in just a matter of a few minutes.

"Let's paint something together," Alex said lightly, holding out a clean paint brush gently in his hand trying not to seem like a threat to the wide eyed man who nervously took the brush. He looked at it with a blank expression before smiling at Alex, a little unsure of himself, but when Alex looked away he smiled wider, almost happy as he walked over to the canvas and dipped his brush carefully into the paint. Standing on the tips of his toes, Jay reached up to make a sun on the top edge of the canvas, his expression softening as the simple action calmed him completely. "What do you think Alex?" he asked, sounding happier than he had ever been for as long as he could remember but Alex didn't reply Jay turned his head to look at him. "…Alex?"

Alex looked like he wasn't really there; his eyes were glazed and fogged over as he stared blankly at the white canvas in front of him. He walked over to it before dipping his own brush into black paint and drawing trees almost like a forest, the trees overlapping each other as Alex drew viciously at the paper, making strained sounds as he worked. He growled softly in his throat as he drew a masked man on the sheet of paper Jay recognized as the man that had paid him a visit the night before.

Alex pushed him out of the way with a shudder as he began painting another being, this time a tall man that almost looked like a tree he was so tall, seeming to be wearing a suit and tie. Jay had seen that somewhere before, but he didn't know where- Oh wait, it looked like the thing he thought he had seen in the interrogation room that had been watching him and Doctor C. while they were talking about the masked man.

"Alex?" he asked again, wanting his friend to snap out of whatever trance he was in and tell him who or what those beings were and explain what was going on. It seemed they were both seeing the same thing and if Alex was drawing the same things that Jay himself was seeing then maybe they could prove they weren't crazy. If they told Doctor C. together that they were seeing the same thing then perhaps they wouldn't have to stay anymore, maybe they could figure out exactly why they were both sharing such a vision...

Jay tugged on the soft fabric of Alex's jacket sleeve but was suddenly violently pushed down onto the nice tiled floor hard, Alex not even noticing what he had just done. Jay stayed where he had fallen for a moment, trying to process what just happened before he got up again, attempting to push him back and get him to come around but nothing he did worked as he was blatantly ignored.

Jay finally looked at the canvas and saw the new person Alex was drawing; a man with a green hat, camera, brown jacket, and brown hair. To him he knew who it was almost immediately: it was himself there near the masked man. Jay took a couple steps back, not sure if he should run from the only man he had come to trust or to stay there and hope things turned out good. Alex's hand began to slow before stopping completely and letting go of the brush, letting it clatter loudly to the floor of the room, the sound echoing loudly. No one looked up from their own work but the dark brown haired boy beside them that was drawing Pac-man and food on his own canvas sheet.

Alex stared at the completely filled canvas before slowly turning to look at the wide eyed man standing behind him looking unsure of what he should do now. Alex took a step towards him, putting a gentle hand out towards him as if trying to make him relax and trust him again, something Jay wanted to do more than anything but right now his mind was telling him not to do so when his heart was telling him to do the complete opposite.

"Jay- it's ok," Alex said, taking another step towards him and this time Jay took a cautious step away from his friend, looking like he was really considering running away but he couldn't get his feet to move, his body wanting to stay near Alex for some reason completely unknown to Jay.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder making it now impossible to run away now as he tried to process what to say to Alex now that he was talking and acting normal to him again. "T-that picture…" Jay began sounding a little more scared than he really was "Why did you draw m-me in it?" He didn't know why he worded that question that way, he didn't want to know just why he was in the picture but if who the others were and if those people were actual people and not just fragments of their imagination. Alex blinked at him, looking back at the canvas a moment before returning his gaze to Jay. Alex didn't admit it but Jay could tell he saw the resemblance in the picture he had drawn of him and Jay really wasn't crazy in assuming that drawing was him.

"I don't know, I don't remember making it," Alex admitted before feeling anger over take him, licking his stand to the floor in his fury causing Jay to make a small startled sound but didn't budge from where he was standing. Alex turned, looking at Jay before calming down a little, concerned at his friend who was just staring at him quietly. Looking a bit scared as the nurses ran passed him and straight towards his friend, Jay found himself frozen in place in fear. He couldn't move from his spot he was so frightened, a deer in headlights Jay thought and if the occasion had been different he probably would have stopped and laughed at the saying but right then was a bad time and instead he found himself unable to speak, just watching as the scene in front of him unfolded.

His head slowly turned as Alex was dragged out of the room feeling almost heartbroken when Alex mouthed, 'I'm sorry,' to him, hanging his head in defeat as he was taken most likely towards his room once again. Jay wasn't sure when he would be able to see him again and for some reason that bothered him more than anything that had just happened. He jumped as he was brought back to reality when he heard someone ask him something; he turned his head to look at the dark haired man beside him who had been drawing food on the canvas.

"Uhh, what just happened?" Tim had asked, Jay looking at the mess of paint on the tile floor, unsure of what to do; he didn't know if he should tell this strangely familiar person what he was thinking or not about why Alex had acted up. Taking a minute or two to finally come up with the conclusion that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell this person anything just yet he instead shrugged slightly.

"I… don't know," he finally said, looking defeated and scared before his mind went back to the picture of the masked man that he had had the horrible encounter with the night before; did it visit Alex as well? Now that Jay recalled what he saw of the masked man made Tim look more and more like him in his eyes yet he really did have his doubts seeing as Tim wasn't threatening him yet- he felt the need to know for sure. "Do you know about-" Jay paused, suddenly feeling like the idea of asking was more dangerous than helpful at the moment.

It was then he realized Tim was looking at him curiously; Jay shook his head before moving away from the other man and the rest of the patients, going back to believing that everyone in the room was a threat. He didn't liked the fact that Alex had just met him yet he was so comfortable when he was near him and as soon as he left Jay felt powerless and small, once again stuck in a world filled with people who stalked him and had only evil intent in store for him.

This was going to be a long day, Jay could tell.