I Believe You

Chapter One

“Sal Fisher, you are announced guilty of the murders of Addison Apartments…” the judge’s voice fades out and a loud ringing starts in Sal’s ear. The room starts spinning; I got the death penalty! Didn’t I? It wasn’t me I swear! This can’t be happening! No! Go back to the apartments! The spinning room slowly turns black and Sal falls off of his chair and onto the ground, unconscious.

A van slowly turns into a long driveway up to a white facility. The passenger in the van turns around every once and a while to check on the newly admitted patient. The patient’s blue hair is matted, because of how long he’s been in handcuffs, but at least he’s not dead. The passenger turns back around and waits for his coworker to drive through the gates.

The security guard smiles at him and opens the gates for them. The van pulls up to the ominous looking building. The two men open the back doors and grab Sal forcefully by his arms. They yank him up and basically push him out of the truck. Sal’s eyes flutter open with slight pain. His mask is pushed up against his face. The men pull him up again. He starts frantically looking around, trying to observe his new surroundings. Am I dead? Where am I? He just stays quiet instead of asking questions. He is forced up the steps and into the scary looking building. A smiling woman greats them. Her wrinkled hand gestures for them to go into the first door labeled “Observation and Hygiene”. The lady walks in with Sal. The men leave them alone. “Sal Fisher is it?” Sal slowly turns to the lady. He gathers his thoughts and slowly nods. “Alrighty, I need you to take out your piercings, your mask, and get undressed.”

“Where am I?” He questions before doing any of what the lady just said. “You’re in a psychiatric hospital sweetie?”

“An asylum?”

“Honey no-“

Abruptly, Sal screams and punches the desk of the lady’s. She frowns and looks down at the clipboard. Her red nails tap on the wooden board, “Please get undressed and ready for a shower.” She asks again with some irritation in her voice. Sal finally obeys; he starts with his piercings. He pops out two black studs from each ear and places them into a tray on the lady’s desk. “By the way, I’m Crystal Legion. I am in charge of this hospital.” Sal feels no danger from this woman; she’s nicer than the judge, his psychologist, and the men who transported him. Maybe this place is for the better of me. Sal smiles under his mask and nods. “Can I tell you something Miss. Legion?”

“Yes, Sal?”

He leans up against her desk, “this is a prosthetic, not a mask.”

The warm water feels good on Sal’s head and back. He turns his chin up and throws his head back as he scrubs his blue hair with soap. A queer noise catches his attention. He peaks around the cement wall separating the shower heads. The growling gets louder; this sound is familiar to the blue-haired man. Completely naked with soapy hair, Sal checks up on the noise. He notices something black in the corner of the little shower area. His breathing gets heavier and his heartbeat faster. “No,” is all he says as he goes back to his shower. This can’t be happening again! Nononono. Not the demon. No! Sal falls into the corner of his shower. His hands clasp onto his blue hair and silent sobs come out of his mouth. A sudden thought hits Sal as he looks out of his shower; my mask! He abruptly stands and walks out of the shower. His feet make little splashing noises as he walks over to the corner where the demon was. The noise makes him turn around and the demon swiftly moves to him. He tries getting away, but slips and the demon attaches to him once again… just like at the apartments. Sal stands with red eyes replacing his sweet blue ones. An unfortunate nurse walks in. He gasps and drops the mask in his hands, “I-I brought your mask-“ he tries picking it up, but his hands are so shaky he can’t. Sal runs and jumps onto him, oblivious to the fact he’s naked; then again it is the demon doing the work. The pale hands with black painted fingernails grasp tightly around the nurse’s neck. He grabs at Sal’s hands, but fails to pull them off. As soon as he stops breathing the demon escapes through Sal in a screaming fashion. Sal falls to the ground and his eyes flutter back to blue. He sits up and swallows the gasp rising in his throat. “Oh no…” he whispers and crawls backwards away from the body. “Oh no, no, no. What did you do?”

“Put him in solitary,” Legion orders the two nurses. “But let me have a word with him first.” The nurses leave as Legion bends over to Sal. “Why did you do it?” She’s so close to tears, but is so good at holding them in. Sal sobs, “I didn’t… I don’t know!” He screams at her. “Clyde!”

“Yes ma’am?”

“Grab this man one of the lady’s uniforms and make sure he gets put in to solitary.”

As the nurses drag Sal to the solitary room, people in other room stare. Sal doesn’t look up until the very end of the hallway before the solitary rooms. He meets a pair of brown eyes. Eyes with years of pain, regret, and death. Sal wanted to talk to those eyes eventually. But for now he’d have to wait and think by himself for three days until he was out of solitary. What would he do during those three days? Probably sleep, even though he’d scream from the same nightmare over and over again; the night he murder all those innocent lives. He could also think about those eyes and why the hell he felt such a connection already. His thoughts are brought to an end when he is thrown in the basically empty room. A mattress is left on the floor and a bucket beside it. He leans up against the wall and slams his head against the cement wall. He takes off his mask; tears stream down his red face. His hands trace over his scars and different physical memories of his horrific accident as a child. He covers his sobs with his hand. He crawls over to the bed and pulls the light blue dress over his knees as he lay in a fetal position. His black nails trace patterns into his mattress. Tears slip off the bridge of his nose. His arm rests on his hip as he cries himself to sleep. “I’m so sorry Dad…”