Slave to Sanity - Lams

Chapter 1

Alexander watched the clock that was imbedded into the wall. It was covered by a layer of bulletproof glass, and the ticking was completely muted. Vaguely, Alexander wished that he could hear the tick — he liked the way that clocks ticked. It was steady, but it wasn't perfect, and each tick sounded a little different. The imperfection made the noise bearable to him.

But no. Alexander turned his head to look out of the glass wall. Currently, Angelica was standing in the other side, her face in a frown. Alexander straightened himself up and walked over to her.

"Good afternoon, Miss Schuyler. How are you?"

Angelica seemed taken by surprise. "I am well, how about yourself?"

Alexander thought for a second. "Its a little warm in here. Would you mind adjusting the temperature?"

Angelica nodded, still taken aback. "I will get right on it...how did you know my name?"

Alexander gave a small smile. It wasn't malicious, it was clean, it was pleasant. "Mr. Burr mentioned that the manager quit yesterday. He said that a Miss Schuyler would be the replacement. I assumed it was you because the manager is almost always most interested in me."

Alexander watched as Angelica copied his words to a sheet of paper on her clipboard. Angelica looked up and met his eyes. "Do you mind that everyone copies what you say?"

Alexander shook his head. "It deserves to be written by someone, I suppose. Would you happen to know when my next therapist arrives?"

"This afternoon. Why is this your fourth one in two weeks, Mr. Hamilton?"

"Please, call me Alexander. And if I can recollect, the last three were afraid of me."

Angelica nodded. "What did you do to make them afraid of you, Alexander? Did you say something?"

"Well, I didn't say anything out of the ordinary. I believe they were disturbed with how well I infiltrated their minds. I always knew what they were feeling, and it upset them. I'll admit that I didn't like them very well and was glad that they left."

"Why didn't you like them?"

"They weren't entertaining. They asked the wrong questions. I didn't think they were particularly intelligent. Is this therapist better?"

"I met him once," Angelica pushed her glasses up on her nose. "I believe he is different. But I also think that will be for you to judge."

"Hmm. Thank you, ma'am,"

"You're welcome,"

Alexander sat back down on his bed in the far corner and Angelica watched him for another moment before moving on. Alexander decided to sleep and wait for his next therapist, as he couldn't fathom anything more interesting than dreaming.

•••

Alexander woke up around 5:00 in the afternoon with a man in a chair by his bedside. Alexander stretched and sat up slowly, stifling a yawn.

"Afternoon, sir. My apologies that I was not awake to introduce myself. I'm sure you know, I'm Alexander Hamilton."

The man tilted his head. "I'm John Laurens, your new therapist. You're very polite for how 'insane' they say you are, if you don't mind my terrible bluntness,"

"Not at all. I understand their point of view. And I strive to be polite. What would you like to accomplish today?"

John squinted at him. "Aren't you going to guess my age? Where I went to college?"

Alexander rolled his eyes. "That's not how it works. That's a myth. And that's boring information. Why would I want to know that? And how would I guess?"

"You ask questions?"

Alexander chuckled. "You have the wrong idea about geniuses. I love questions, and I enjoy asking them. I don't waste time on predicting things like age. That'd be rather silly,"

"Hmm. Could you describe yourself?"

Alexander put his face in his hand and bit his lip as he thought. "I am Darkness,"

John raised his eyebrows. "Care to elaborate?"

Alexander stared blankly into the distance. "No," he said slowly. "Not right now,"

Alexander made no more moves to speak in the next minutes, so John left without another word being exchanged.