Nick woke up and could not see anything. All was blackness. His head throbbed with the worst headache that he could ever remember having.
He tried to touch his fingers to his forehead and quickly realized that his hands had been tied down. After pulling at his restraints for a bit, he gave up on that. Nick was far too weak to waste his energy on getting free. At least until he found out what was going on.
Suddenly a face creeped into his mind. A smiling face. The face instantly filled him with fear, as the memories of what the owner of that smiling face did to him came rushing back to him.
Nick could not stop himself from letting out a scream when the memories filled his mind. He wish he could have put a hand over his mouth to keep himself from being heard, but it was too late.
Now Nick began to fight against his restraints with all he was worth. He began to sob as he worked at the restraints.
"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!" He kept thinking to himself, because he knew that the owner of the smiling face had to be nearby, and had to have heard his scream.
At this point a voice came to him from the darkness, "Calm down! Please calm down. You are safe now. No one here is going to hurt you."
Nick began to calm down a little. The voice that he was hearing did not belong to the monster that was filling him with dread. In fact, he had never heard this voice before in his life.
"Who are you? Where am I?" Was all Nick needed to know.
"You are in the Hospital. You've been here for nearly a week now. My name is Dr. Daily." This answer went a long way to calming Nick down further.
"Why am I tied down?"
"You have suffered massive amounts of trauma to the eyes. We are keeping you tied down so that you will not mess with the bandages and give you a chance to heal up a little first, before you go poking around at your face with your fingers."
This made sense to Nick, but something bothered him about it. Then he heard the voice of his smiling attacker in his head. "You will most likely bleed to death." It said. "In which case, I'll be back for the rest of you later."
"Untie me!" Nick pleaded. "I have to get out of here!"
"I am afraid that I just can't do that. You are in no condition to go anywhere."
"You don't understand!" Even though he could not see him, Nick tried to 'look' directly at the Doctor. "He's going to come for me! He's insane, and wants to eat me!"
"You are safe here. No one is going to harm you, much less eat you here."
"Please! I don't want to die!"
"Nonsense." The Doctor said, starting to sound a little annoyed. "Nothing bad is going to happen to you here. You even have your very own police officer just outside the door."
"Why is there a police officer outside my door?"
The Doctor took a deep breath. "You were found in the middle of nowhere, with your eyes ripped from your head. It's sufficient to say that they have questions for you. It is a rather peculiar way to be found, is it not?"
Nick couldn't argue with that. "So after I tell them what happened, you'll let me go?" He asked hopefully.
"Hardly. Like I said. You are in no condition to go anywhere."
Nick began to sob again. This time he didn't fight against his restraints.
The Doctor started talking to him again. "Look. Why don't I get you a nice cup of tea to help you calm down. Then, if you feel up to it, you can give your statement to the police."
Nick just nodded.
When the Doctor left the room, Nick could hear him talk briefly to someone outside, but he could not make out what was being said.
When the Doctor returned he sounded quite cheerful. "If you don't mind the police officer would like to talk to you while you drink your tea. Is that okay with you?"
Nick nodded. Then he pulled his head back when he felt something touch his lips. "What are you doing? Aren't you going to untie my hands so I can drink?"
"Don't be silly." The Doctor said. "I would just have to tie you down again afterwards. It's such a hassle."
"Fine."
With the Doctor's help, Nick sipped at his tea.
"Hello." Said the officer once Nick had gotten some tea down. "Your name is Nicholas Getty, is it not?"
"Yes." Nick answered.
"Well Mr. Getty, I am going to cut right to the chase, how did you lose your eyes?"
Nick choked on his tea. He knew this question would come up, but not so abruptly. No build up. Just going right to the payoff.
The Doctor wiped up the tea that Nick had spit up onto his chin with a napkin. "Take it easy."
"Okay. Maybe we will start with another question."
"No. It's fine. I'll tell you exactly what happened. A Cat took them."
"A Cat?" The Officer sounded a little confused.
"Not just any Cat." Nick continued. "He is insane. He tried to eat me!"
"Was it a rabid Cat?"
"No. Just insane." Nick then began to tell his story, of how he wrecked his car, and the Cat had showed up and scared the Hell out of him.
The police officer had to stop him however when Nick talked about how the Cat was going to let him use it's phone back at it's house so that he could get help with his car. "Were you on drugs at the time of this car accident Mr. Getty?"
"No."
"So you want us to believe that a talking cat was going to let you use it's phone?"
"Yes."
"I think you may be a little confused as to what happened to you. Cat's don't talk."
"This was no ordinary Cat! He was a Cheshire Cat."
"Like in that cartoon?" The Officer began to chuckle.
"Don't you laugh at him!" Nick exploded. "Don't you ever laugh at him! He is not something silly! He is real, and he tried to kill and eat me!"
"Calm down." The Doctor had put down Nicks tea somewhere, and was now trying to hold Nick down as he fought against his restraints once more.
The Doctor let him go for a moment, then grabbed hold of his wrist. Nick felt a bit of pressure with a stinging sensation in his forearm.
"Shhhhhhh..." The Doctor shushed him. "I am giving you a sedative. It will help you to calm down."
Nick could feel himself start to drift off into sleep. But before he was completely out of it, he could here the other two men in the room talking, even though he could not make out who was saying what.
"Wow. This is going to be harder than I thought."
"Yeah. It doesn't help matters any when he keeps freaking out over that damn Cat."
Someone sighed. "Oh well. Care to join me for tea?"
"I thought you'd never ask."
The next two weeks went by in a blurry haze for Nick. It seemed that the Doctor's answer for most things, was to sedate him. When he was allowed to be awake, the police officer would come in and start asking him questions again. Nick lost track of how many times that he had answered the same questions over and over.
Other than the sedatives he was given, there remained two constants for him. He was never untied, and the Doctor always had fresh brewed tea for him.
Finally, the Doctor gave him the news that he wanted to hear. "Well it seems that these last few weeks have been good for you. I think you have healed up enough to get out of here."
"Well it's about time." Nick could feel the relief start to wash over him at the thought of finally getting out of the hospital.
A long moment went by and the Doctor said nothing.
"Well?" Nick prompted him.
"Well what?"
"Aren't you going to untie me? You know. So I can get ready and get out of here." He held his hands up as high as he could for the Doctor.
"Yeah... About that." The Doctor sounded a lot like he was stalling at this point.
"Look. I am so much better now." Nick couldn't help but notice how much he sounded like he was pleading to the Doctor. "I just want to get out of here. Go home. Try to salvage what I can of my life."
"Well, it is like this. The police are less than satisfied with the story that you gave them about what happened to you. I too have my concerns about what you have insisted happened."
"What does that have to do with anything? I want to go home. Now!"
"You have my most sincere apologies Mr. Getty. But I fell that I have no choice but to send you somewhere where you can rest further, and get the help that you need, so that you can clear your mind and remember what really happened to you."
Nick sat with his mouth open in shock at what he was hearing. "I'm not crazy!" He yelled at the Doctor.
"No one is saying that you are. You are clearly just confused as to what happened to you. We just want what is best for you."
"I'm not crazy!" He repeated himself. "There was a big Cat that took my eyes, and it's probably still out there looking for me so it can finish me off! How hard is it for any of you to understand that?"
The Doctor grabbed his hand at this point and Nick felt the familiar sting of the needle.
"You need to calm down." Was all the Doctor said.
"I'm not crazy!" Nick kept screaming as he fell into unconsciousness.
When Nick woke up again, he was still in bed, and still tied down.
After a few moments he heard the doctors voice. "And just how are you feeling today?"
"What? How long did you knock me out for?"
"I'm sorry?" The Doctor sounded a little confused by the question.
"You sedated me just after you told me that you were going to have me locked up for being crazy."
"I did nothing of the sort. You were brought to this institution from the hospital an hour ago. I've only just met you just now. As to how long you've been unconscious, I was told they put you under just before they brought you here. You know. To make transporting you easier for everyone involved."
Nick sat up the best he could. "This isn't funny. Not in the least."
"I assure you it's no joke. My name is Dr. Harmony. I will be taking care of you for as long as you are at this facility. We can talk together anytime you would like to. You can tell me anything you want."
Nick could feel his face twitching. He was unsure if it was from the confusion he felt, or the rage that he could feel building up inside him. "What is your problem? Stop playing around. I just want to go home."
"I am not playing with you. My name is Dr. Harmony, and..."
"And yesterday you were Dr. Daily! Stop trying to mess with my mind!"
"Ah, yes Dr. Daily. I have met him once or twice in the past. People tell me all the time how much our voices sound the same."
"Stop it! This is not funny!"
"No it's not." Then the Doctor leaned in close enough for Nick to feel his breath on his face. "I am going to leave you alone for now, so that you can compose yourself. When I get back, I expect you to get with the program. Capeesh?" With that the Doctor left the room.
Nick was not sure how much time had passed when the Doctor returned, but he was guessing that it had been about an hour.
He was sure that Dr. Daily and Dr. Harmony had to be the same person. If only he could have seen their faces. One thing was certain for him though, he wasn't crazy.
The Doctor did seem to be in a pleasant mood now however. "Feeling better now?" He asked. "I fear that we got off to a rocky start. So I have brought us some tea, so that we can start anew with no conspiracy nonsense."
Nick nodded, not really knowing what else he could do.
"Good." After he sat the tea down on a side table, he spoke in a calm voice that somehow made Nicks skin crawl. "Now listen to me very carefully. The hospital said that you were healed up enough so that if we loosened your restraints, you couldn't do your empty sockets any new damage if you touched them. So I am going to remove them for now. If you try to leave, harm yourself, or myself for that matter. There is an orderly on the other side of the door that will have no problem whatsoever putting you back in bed and tying you back down. Do you understand?
"Yes."
"Good." The Doctor began to untie him. "March is a good enough fellow, but sometimes he can go a little too far with the enforcer bit."
"What? What happens in March?"
The Doctor chuckled. "Not the month... Um do you prefer me to call you Mr. Getty or just Nick?"
"Nick is fine." He began rubbing his wrists as soon as his hands were free.
"Well Nick, March is the name of the orderly outside your door. Pay him no mind however when he asks you to call him Hare, or some rubbish."
"Rabbit!" The orderly could be heard yelling from the hall. "I go by Rabbit!"
"Rabbit. Hare. They're the same thing now aren't they?"
Nick didn't say anything.
The Doctor put a cup of tea in Nicks hands. It felt good to Nick to be able to drink his own tea and not have to have it fed to him.
"So tell me your story." The Doctor said as they drank their tea. And Nick told him everything.
The Doctor did not say anything throughout the whole story. No questions. Nothing.
Nick ended his story by stating once more that he was not crazy. The Doctor just yawned, as if the whole thing bored him to tears.
"Nobody said you were mouse. I do believe that I can help you to remember what really happened to you."
"What did you just call me?
"Oh sorry. In your story you say that the cat calls you a mouse. I just thought that maybe I could call you mouse as well."
"Why? Don't even joke about that. That cat was trying to eat me! I don't ever want to be called that again."
"Fine. Have it your way. Are you done with your tea?"
Nick handed the tea cup out to the Doctor, who took it from him.
"I am going to leave the restraints off of you tonight as a show of trust and faith that you are safe here. Do not try and get out of bed though. According to your charts from the hospital you have not been on your feet for some time. I would hate for you to have a fall while your legs are weak. Tomorrow we will get you out of bed and start getting you acquainted with walking again. If you need anything Hare will be out in the hallway."
"Rabbit!" Came the voice from the hall.
"Whatever."
With that, the Doctor left.
The Doctor was true to his word. With the next few days he and the orderly helped get Nick out of bed to walk around a bit.
It did not go as well as Nick would have liked however. His legs were so weak from all the time he had spent in bed, and he almost fell more times than he could count.
On the fourth day, Nick tried to make a break for it and leave. But March the Orderly caught him and stopped him with a taser gun. After that Nick would get the choice to be restrained in his bed or in a chair when he wasn't walking with the Doctor and March.
One day Nick asked the Doctor if he could talk to one of the other patients, but the Doctor told him that that was against the institutions policy on patients interacting together.
As the days went by the Doctor seemed less and less interested in Nicks story. But out of the blue, he came up with a new way to get Nick to remember what really happened to him.
Instead of returning Nick back to his bed after their walk, Nick was put in a chair. His arms were strapped down to the arms of the chair before Nick knew what was happening.
"What are you doing?" Nick asked.
The Doctor ignored him for a moment as he and the Orderly placed a table in front of his chair. "Well, it occurred to me, that I may now need to use a little bit more of an aggressive tack to help your memory along."
"What the Hell does that mean?" Nick started to pull at his new restraints.
"Oh calm down. Would it help if I got you a cup of tea?"
"Screw your tea! I don't consent to this! I don't consent!"
The Doctor slapped Nick across the face. "How dare you! I have gone out of my way to be a good host to you while you are at my institution, and this is the gratitude you show to me? A filthy slander against myself and the libations I offer you!"
Nick was still shocked from being struck and had no answer for him.
"Now listen good, you. What we are going to do here is called negative reinforcement." He began to strap something to Nicks hand. "What that means is that I will ask you some questions, and if I do not like the answers you will be punished. If you give only satisfactory answers, no harm shall find you. Ready?"
"No!"
"Good. Lets begin now shall we. What is your name?"
Nick took a deep breath. "Nicholas Getty."
Nick herd a clicking sound and a jolt of electricity shot up his arm. He let out a scream at the sudden pain.
"Sorry about that. But I thought it only fare after how rude you were after my offer of tea."
"I don't want to do this! This isn't right!"
The Doctor gave him another jolt. "Oh we are doing this. This is more than right. How long we do this is entirely up to you. I have nothing at all planned for today so we can do this for as long as it takes."
"I will tell you anything... Anything at all that you want me to! Just please, please don't do this."
Anther jolt almost hid the Doctors quiet laughter.
The Negative Reinforcement treatment went on for what seemed like hours to Nick. When it was over the Orderly carried Nick back to his bed. All Nick could do when he got there was lay there and sob.
The next few days after the Negative Reinforcement treatment saw a whole slew of aggressive treatments come Nicks way. The nicest of them being the day the Doctor made him wear strawberry jam on his nose. The Doctor said that whenever he thought of silly things like the Cat, he could think about wearing jam on his nose all day instead. Nick had no idea what it had to do with anything because the Doctor just got angry with him when questioned about it.
One morning the Doctor came into the room with his Orderly rambling on about what he had in store for Nick, when he stopped in mid sentence. He starred at Nick for a long moment before asking, "Now what is wrong with you? I haven't done anything to you yet."
Nick just lay there and sobbed for a long time. He couldn't help himself. It all seemed to finally be crashing down on him for no reason that he could put his fingers on. He had just had enough.
"Well?" The Doctor prodded him.
"I can't..." Nick sobbed. "I can't do this anymore. I want to go home." He just lay there tied to the bed sobbing. "I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go back to my crappy job. I am done. Please... Please. I want to go home."
"No. I think..." The Doctor started to say but the Orderly cut him off.
"I think it's over Hatter."
"What?" The Doctor sounded a little confused at hearing this.
"Just look at him." The Orderly went on. "He's done. I think our little game has run its course."
The Doctor watched Nick for a long moment before he said anything.
"I am so sorry." He started. "I am sorry that I didn't take you to the Hospital when I found you."
It took a moment for the words to sink in for Nick. "What?"
"Go ahead." March said. "The game's over. Might as well tell him everything."
"Well it's like this," the Hatter said. "I was on my way home from the store when I found you unconscious in the middle of the road. Damn near ran you over, I did. It looked to me like you were dead, what with all the blood everywhere and your eyes missing. But low and behold, you were still alive. So I brought you home in the hopes that I could nurse you back to health."
"Why didn't you take me to the Hospital?" Nick asked.
"Oh that? Well I hate those kind of places. Why would I want to go there for?"
Nick couldn't say anything. He was too dumbfounded.
"So after I got you here, one of my friends suggested a game we should play with you."
"What kind of game?" Nick could feel his anger starting to flare.
"Well it was decided that since you couldn't see, we would try and make you think that you were actually in the Hospital, and see how long it would take you to figure out otherwise."
"Untie me." Nick said as calmly as he could.
"Just a moment. March and I need to confer with each other to see what we should do next." The two of them left the room before Nick could say anything.
They were only gone a few moments before they returned.
The Hatter seemed to be in a good mood when they returned. "We have decided that your convalescents has come to an end."
"That's great news. Now untie me so I can go."
"Not so fast." March said.
"Yeah. Slow down there Mouse." The Hatter said. "The game may be at an end, but we must end it properly."
"Okay. Fine. How do we end it?"
"Easy." The Hatter sounded almost eager to end the game. "To leave the Hospital properly, you must be given over to the care of your loved ones. I.e. your family."
"Really?" Was all Nick could think of to say.
"Yes. Now if you could give us a number to call..."
Nick thought for a moment, but try as he might he could not think of anyone's phone number. "I can't remember anyone's number. But my phone was in my pocket. It should be with my stuff. It will have all the numbers we need to get me out of here."
Nick heard someone suck air through their teeth.
"What?" Nick asked. "What's wrong now?"
"Well see now we have a problem." The Hatter said almost timidly.
"What kind of problem?"
"Well this is embarrassing." March said.
"You see," the Hatter explained. "When we first decided to play our game, we were afraid that someone might track you down by using your phone."
"So we smashed it to make sure that that didn't happen." March finished for him.
"Yes, well, in hind sight we should have copied down all your contact information before we smashed your phone."
Nick groaned at this turn of events.
"But don't worry." The Hatter said in an attempt to cheer Nick up. "Just give us a moment to figure out how to fix this."
Nick didn't even bother to answer him, and March and the Hatter didn't bother to leave the room this time. Instead they just went to the far wall to whisper quietly amongst themselves.
When they came back to his bed they sounded proud of themselves. "We have decided on what to do with you." The Hatter said.
"How about just untying me and letting me leave."
The Hatter chuckled at Nicks suggestion. "Since we have no way to get in touch with your family, we will just release you to one of your friends."
"That's great." Nick said. "Now please untie me."
But March then spoke up with the bad news. "But once again the phone thing stops us from doing that."
Nick did his best not to scream in frustration.
"But don't worry." The Hatter seemed happy about what he was getting ready to say. "You see, because it is not going to work out with us sending you home with one of your friends or a family member, we will just have to release you to one of our friends."
"What?" Nick was not sure he really wanted to know what was being suggested.
"Don't worry." The Hatter tried to assure him that all was well. "Because as it turns out, we share a mutual friend with you."
Nick was now confused. But before he could ask who the Hatter was talking about he heard a familiar voice that turned his blood to ice.
"Oh yes, the Mouse and I are great friends together. Why, he even gave me his eyes."
Everyone laughed at the Cat's little joke. Everyone that is but Nick, who began to scream with the horror that they had just given him to the Cat.
