Institution - Part One

The contrapuntal textures of dark and light cast by the occasional barred windows traveled down the corridor like a river as I walked solemnly towards my fate. A single locked steel door at the end of a narrow passage. There a lone guard stood taught and waited for my arrival. Flanking me on both sides two other guards and a doctor clad n white marched, a measured cadence to their step. The tension was palpable. Nobody wanted to be here.

I halted as instructed in front of the steel door and the doctor transferred orders and paperwork to the guard. Flicking head to clear the now long hair from my face and better free my vision I glanced up at the sign above the door. Ward 15 - Criminally Insane it read.

Yeah right. I'm the only sane one here. I thought chortling softly.

"Ah our distinguished guest has a new room mate." The guard spoke while reading over the transfer.

"Yes one of Rasmoidious' equal. Every bit as crazy and twice as dangerous." The doctor said eyeing me cautiously.

"Doubt he can match the Mad Mans intellect." The guard offered as he unlocked the door which swung open with a heavy creak. I could feel in my bones that everything felt heavy and oppressive at the moment.

"Perhaps but dont take your eye of either of them. Not even for an instant. The institution board argued against pairing these two together. But our counterparts think different. " The doctor cautioned and took a few steps back, relieved to put some distance between himself and the door.

What's his problem. I'm already fully shackled. I smirked back at the doctor remembering the last time I was left unguarded in a room with him, free of any chains or straight jackets.

I stepped just inside the padded room and held my wrists up so the guard could undo my shackles.

My new home. I snorted in indignation and scanned the surroundings.

A lone desk sat in the centre of the room and a pair of bare cots sat in each back corner. A aged wirery man with flaming red hair sat up from one of the beds and looked towards me, a slow grin spreading across his face. He looked positively insane.

"Ras. You have company!" The guard barked and then slammed the door behind him. The lanky man stood up and paced bsck and forth waiting until the locks of the door were heard engaging and then finally spoke.

" So....a new friend. It's been ages since they paired me up with a roommate." The old man said looking me over appraisinglly. "You're young. You'll do."

I looked around the room and found the single window. Light streamed in from it. A welcome addition. At least it was sunny in my new cell. "You must be the infamous Mad Man Rasmoidious."

"Please. Call me Admiral" He said in a regal voice, a sharp contradiction from the creaky voice he just spoke with and smiled widely pointing at a pair of coloured paper ribbons fastened to his shirt. "And what did they lock you in here for?"

"All I wanted was a Pepsi." I replied

"Just one Pepsi?" He asked skeptically.

"Yeah. And they wouldn't give it to me."

"I see. These people." He swept his arms across the room. "They don't understand the real world as You and I do" he commented, an upbeat tone in his speech. Another sudden change in disposition I noted. The man changed affect seemingly ever few seconds.

"No. I suppose not." I said already bored of the conversation and peered out the window. Outside a starship hovered momentarily, its blades whipping about franticaly like a fly wheel or saw, before passing behind one of the glittering towers and disappearing behind the compound wall. A pair of armed soldiers paraded past on a causeway below. "The starships do they keep a set schedule we can exploit if we try to make a break for it later?" I asked.

"Starships! Are you daft? I've never heard of such a thing. Those are dragons." Ras exclaimed taken back by the notion.

"Well I see starships out there." I countered.

"No my poor fellow. You must be crazier than I first took you for. Those are dragons. And the Kings Guard has them quite well trained mind you. We'll never be able to use one to escape. Even if he has taught them how to land in the exact same place every time. Why I can hear the beating of a dragons wings now."

I stood silently and strained my ears to hear a deep rapid thumping beating a stacatto that slowly faded off into the distance. Having seen plenty dragons before I knew they didn't make that sound. That was definitely a starship.

"If you say so Mad Man. What's that you got there?" I sighed and pointed towards a rolled parchment of paper tucked half into his trousers.

His eyes lit up and he gestured me towards the table and unfurled what looked like a childs scribblings made of crayon.

"You know what this is!" He said emphatically jabbing his finger at the senseless lines.

"No. Humour me." I responded dryly.

He looked up at me with a demented smile painted on his face. "This ...This is our escape plan!"

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This is the first half of this months We Write contest hosted by the Freewriters Community, which can be found here at this link;

https://peakd.com/hive-161155/@freewritehouse/5k4va1-the-we-write-is-back

The prompt chosen by @mariannewest is "Institution," which I have decided to take literally by telling the tale of the meeting of two very crazy patients in a criminal psychiatric institution.

I now leave this story to my We Write partner @iamraincrystal to complete. Hopefully I didn't throw you too big of a curve ball with what I wrote, and I look forward to seeing what you decide to do with how their meeting ends.

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