Hello! Welcome to a brand-new chapter, and the first one of this year!
Thanks to those who read and/or reviewed last chapter- it was great to see that so many people are already interested in this fic from so early on! I actually finished this chapter when the first chapter was published, which is why this one is being uploaded earlier than my target of mid-January. Consider it a late holiday gift for you guys!
Also, I'm not sure if anyone has noticed yet, but I've put an Easter egg in this chapter for one of the characters. If you spot it (some of you just might), be sure to point it out! It's a tough one though, so I'll be highly surprised if you find it!
*Nintendo owns all things mentioned in this fic*
Chapter Two: The Raven
Just outside the doors to Dr. Main's office stood a young man in a doctor's coat with stiff, spiked blonde hair and a white smile that could have easily made young women swoon. Seeing David emerge, he stuck out a gloved hand in such a suddenly motion, it looked as though he was karate chopping a patient of his. "Ah, so you're the reporter from the mainland!" the young man exclaimed in a high, nasally voice. "I'm Dr. Isaac Soloro, the head doctor here at the Mansion. Dr. Main asked me to give you a quick tour before we head up to your room."
Taken slightly aback at the doctor's energy, David nonetheless shook his hand, and winced at Isaac's iron grip. "I'm David Kojima...I hope you don't mind me saying so, but you seem pretty young to be the head doctor."
A quick laugh escaped Dr. Soloro's lips, but it seemed to sound hollow and devoid of humor. "I suppose twenty-five is quite young, but I assure you I'm well-trained for the position." There was something that passed through his eyes at that moment- almost a clouding over of emotions or a blanket of dark thoughts- but they passed as quickly as they had come, and he seemed not to react or notice. "Now, how about we start the tour? I don't think it'll take too long, since the patients already ate their supper and are winding down for the evening."
"Sounds good. I'm interested to see this place."
"Hate to break it to you, but this place isn't exciting at all." Isaac led David back down the hallway he had come from earlier, and out into the entrance hall where the pitiful vase of flowers still sat. The doctor came to a stop in front of the flowers and gestured at the wide space they occupied. "This is the entryway for the Asylum, or the Mansion as it's more commonly called. The hallway we just came from is home to the Master's office and the rooms with patient files. Over to your left is the hallway where I and the other doctors and nurses have our rooms, along with a medical room for examining our patients. Up the stairs-"
"How many nurses and doctors are there here?" David interrupted quietly.
Dr. Soloro gave David a sour look, and bitterly answered, "There are twenty seven of us here to do our job. Now, as I was saying, upstairs are the patient's rooms, and a few rooms where we restrain the patients who become problematic. Behind these stairs are the sunroom and library, and a hallway that leads to the kitchen."
"Library? I've never heard of an asylum having a library before."
"It's actually locked," Isaac answered quickly, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Dr. Main's the only one who uses it, and he's made it off-limits to patients."
David wasn't the type of person to hate people, but he was beginning to find the young doctor's rudeness aggravating. "What about the third floor? Anything interesting up there?"
Immediately upon hearing the words "third floor," the doctor stiffened and narrowed his eyes. "There isn't a third floor here at the Mansion."
If that's the case, then what the heck was Dr. Main talking about when he mentioned the third floor? David, realizing that he wouldn't get any answers from Dr. Soloro, quickly changed the subject. "This seems like a big place for only a few patients who are locked in their rooms."
Isaac still looked suspicious, but he seemed to relax slightly as he smirked. "Whoever said that we lock them away?"
"You mean that...?"
"Come on, I'll show you."
With a rising sense of apprehension, David moved with the doctor to the right behind the looming stairs, where a pair of large wood doors stood proudly. Dr. Soloro opened one of the doors with a creak and pointed inside. "See? Take a look."
Peering inside, David was surprised to see that the room beyond the doors was bright and cheery, with two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows casting a pale light onto the lemon-yellow walls. There were roughly thirty people (not including those dressed in nurse outfits or doctor's coats) in blue pajamas similar to what Sam had worn, who were scattered around sitting on threadbare couches, reading books, or playing what looked like checkers with one another. Easy listening music filtered into the otherwise-quiet atmosphere, with the songs broken only by the coughs and grunts of patients and the sliding of checkers. Someone who looked in might assume that everything was normal, but David could see the dullness that blanketed their eyes, and how each patient moved as if walking through a thick syrup.
"They don't seem very dangerous," he reluctantly remarked to the doctor after a moment's pause.
"That's because we have them all drugged to the gills. It's the only way we're able to have them all together in one place without having any...incidents."
"I see." The patients certainly were drugged, but the reporter couldn't help but notice there was something...off about their behavior. Sure, they staggered around as if in a drugged up stupor, but for some patients, it looked as though they were trying to act that way. It was strange, but David knew there were probably stranger things to be found here within the walls of the Mansion. "Do the patients stay down here for most of the day?"
"Yes: they receive breakfast at nine, and then are led down here to stay until lunch at two. After that, they come back here until dinner at six, and by seven they're all locked back into their rooms."
"Seems like a pretty boring lifestyle, if you ask me."
"It's perfectly fitting for criminals like these," Isaac muttered. "These are the worst of the worst, the ones who commit crimes because their sanity has been worn away. Due to their unpredictable nature, they are sent here where they have no contact with the outside world." The doctor paused to give David a glance, and the reporter realized that he was the 'outside world' mentioned. "This is the final destination for them. Here there is no escape."
The somber mood set my Dr. Soloro's words was broken as he shut the doors to the sunroom and turned to face David with his hollow smile. "Now, I think it's time to show you to your room!" he remarked with bitter cheeriness as he clapped David on the back and led him away from the door, indicating any further talk of the island and its patients had ended.
David said nothing as he was led up the wide mahogany staircase and onto the second floor, which was nearly identical to the downstairs (dusty yellow walls, chipped and splintered wood floors, and little lighting) save for the fact that a row of white doors yellowed with age took up the entire right wall. The row was split by a one-way hallway that trailed off into darkness, making it impossible for David to see what lay at its end. Acting as if there was no time for dawdling, Isaac pulled out a large rusted ring of keys and selected a small, dented one from the metal mass. Seeing the reporter's curious glance, he sighed and said, "Each of these keys goes to a patient's door. There's one for each of the thirty-some patients who are here, and no two keys are the same."
"That must make it hard to remember which key goes to which door."
"It's actually quite simple, if you know how to remember them," the doctor answered as he moved toward a door to the right of the dark hallway, and slipped the key inside until there was a satisfying click. It took a bit of muscle, but he pulled the heavy door (which was apparently made of metal) outward and gestured for David to look inside.
Calling the space a 'room' was an extreme exaggeration, for the word held far more warmth and comfort than the space David was now presented with. It looked more like a jail cell, with a single cot and pillow pressed up against one of the gray cinder-block walls, and an ancient toilet and sink squeezed against the other, with a lime-encrusted shower head suspended over the dirty mirror built into the wall over the sink. The only source of light came from a small window over the cot that was no bigger than a dinner plate, and was obscured on the outside by rusted metal bars. Just by looking inside, David knew that if he stood in the center of the room and stretched out his hands, he would have to press his palms against the walls in order for there to be enough space. These were the conditions in which the patients spent most of their days? No wonder they stayed insane!
Some echoing footsteps could be heard upon the stairs, causing Isaac to sigh. "Looks like the patients are being locked in their rooms for the night. I better go assist the other nurses and doctors, since it's my job."
"Oh, okay then. Thanks for the to-"
Before David could finish his thanks, the doctor had shut the heavy door with a solid thunk, without even bothering to say another word. It plunged the room into smoky darkness, and David took a moment for his eyes to adjust and for the reality of the current moment to sink in. After a brief few seconds, he sat down on the cot's mattress (which wailed under his weight), took off his coat plopped his backpack by his feet, and removed a brown, weathered journal from the front pouch. He fished around in his bag until he found a sharp pencil, then leaned back against his pillow, opened to the first blank page of the journal, and began to write.
"01 November
Arrived at the Mansion today to begin research for my article on the infamous insane asylum. I was greeted by a nurse who seems to echo the same warnings that have been uttered by those I have told of my mission: that I am in over my head. Even the captain of the ship that brought me here gave me a dire warning before I embarked. Yet, why else would I have become a reporter if not to investigate the things normal people would shy away from? By staying here for thirty days, I hope to prove that the madness present here is not some of 'curse'' or an occurrence of the supernatural, as some on the mainland have been led to believe. However, there is something about Dr. Main- who many on the island refer to as 'the Master'- that makes me believe he is not being honest with me. While he is entitled to his secrets, the method in which he hides them is most peculiar, as if he wishes me to dig them up and uncover them. Perhaps-"
Tap. Tap tap tap.
A small noise startled David out of his writing, causing him to glance up and notice that the sun had set completely, bathing the room in complete darkness. Time had apparently carried on while he was writing, and for a moment, he wished that he had bought a watch before he had boarded the boat. Suddenly, the light tapping sound came again, and with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance at being interrupted in his writing, he paused to listen intently. The noise seemed to come from the cinder wall beside his cot, and struck up a strange pattern the longer he listened to it. At first, it seemed to be meaningless, but after a moment, something seemed to click in his mind, and the taps began to sound familiar.
Wait a second; David thought in shock, this is some kind of code! Not wasting any time, he flipped to the next page in his journal and began to scribble down each tap as a single line, making the shorter taps correspond to small dashes. As he wrote he unintentionally began to write down letter instead of dashes and lines, as if this was something he had done many times before in the past. He didn't notice what he was doing until the tapping came to an end, and he paused to glance down in surprise at what he had come up with:
Are you the reporter?
David was momentarily stunned, not by the fact that he had managed to strangely translate something he had never heard before, but by the fact that someone on the other side of the wall was trying to communicate with him. It couldn't be a patient: Dr. Main and his assistants were supposed to be the only ones who knew of his arrival, and he was positive no insane patient could make up a code like this while under the influence of a multitude of drug cocktails. The only thing left to do was answer the strange message, so David leaned against the wall and- using his journal as a guide- tapped out a response: I am. My name is David. Who is this?
An answer came quickly: Hello David. You may call me The Raven.
"The Raven?" David muttered to himself, then tapped back, Is this some sort of joke?
No. I go by another name, but I prefer to be addressed by the one the doctors here don't call me: the Raven. Welcome to the island of the smashed minds. Here there are no jokes, but there are plenty of lies. You already have experienced some of these lies from Dr. Main, who is keen in keeping the truth from you.
How do you know about my meeting with Main?
I have eyes and ears everywhere, David. You could say that I am the true 'Master' of this place, although I do not arrogantly flaunt the title as the doctor does. I will not be like Main: I deal in the truth, but I can only tell you what you are ready to know. Knowledge here is a powerful weapon, and it is best to know as much as possible than to know nothing at all. If you wish to write of the truth of this place, you will have to dig deep and learn who exactly is on your side.
Why are you helping me? Who are you really?
All will be revealed in time. For now, sleep while you have the chance, for tomorrow, your investigations begin and your naivety will be shed. I will speak with you tomorrow night.
No further replies came after this, and David knew that his mysterious correspondence had ended. With hundreds of questions whizzing through his mind, he attempted to sort through them all as he removed his glasses and set them on his backpack with his journal (not willing to risk putting anything near the grimy sink), then settled down and quickly fell asleep as his questions disappeared in order to prepare for more to be asked the next morning.
Ah, I just love a good mystery...
Due to a very hectic end of the month (midterms! Agh!), I'm hoping to have chapter three up around Valentine's Day. Until then, be awesome, leave me a review below, and possibly share this fic with someone you know!