A Messed-Up Masterpiece

Sofia was sitting at her desk, observing the piece of a newspaper article, which read, “Insane scientist kills a person,” when she heard her name being called by her best friend, Camilla. “Hey, Sofia. The president wants to meet you”, she said. “What for?” exclaimed Sofia in curiosity. “I don’t know. Vaughn asked me to inform you”, she shrugged. Sofia got up with a bewildered look on her face, as she made her way into the president’s office, where she spotted her at her desk, with a scowl on her face. 

“Sofia! There you are! Well, I see that you look quite exhausted after all the brilliant effort expended on your exams,” said the president, in a tone that was clearly meant to be mocking.

Sofia stared back, not knowing how to respond.

“Oh god! You already know I am nervous, and yet you have the time for sarcasm. Just get on with it, you crazy woman”, Sofia thought to herself. 

“Well, Sofia, I am extremely pleased to inform you that you have failed in your psychology speech,” said the president. 

“I have WHAT? I have failed in psychology?” gasped Sofia, not quite knowing whether she was shocked or scared. She had always scored the top marks in psychology. 

“Yes, you have. Is there an echo here? Well, however, the board has decided to give you another chance to improve your grades as you are our top student on the records. We are giving you an opportunity to volunteer at an asylum in Jericho town tomorrow at 10 AM,” said the president. “If you can impress your supervisors there, well, we will have a think.”

Sofia let out a sigh of relief, silently thanking God for this unexpected opportunity. And trying hard to cover her relief, Sofia shut the door and took her leave. 

The next day, Sofia got up early. She wanted to make a good impression with the doctors working there. She dressed up in a black blazer and headed down for some breakfast. She had some coffee and some chocolate waffles and made her way into the parking lot, where her friend Vaughn was waiting for her. 

“Yo!”, said Vaughn. 

“Yo back” replied Sofia, showing as little interest as possible. 

“Heard you failed your psychology paper”, said Vaughn, with a smirk. 

“Wow. News spreads fast, doesn’t it?” “Well, this is a small university”, came the reply. 

Though Sofia and Vaughn have been best friends for the past few years, they were rivals when it came to studies. He was the only one smart enough to beat her in psychology, and she was annoyed by the fact that he had gotten the highest score on the speech, in which she had failed miserably due to her “nervousness”. You do not need to be the smartest tool in the room to notice that Sofia had always been a nervous person. 

“Hop in”, offered Vaughn, as he drove her to the asylum in Jericho. By 10 AM, Sofia stood outside the asylum, gathering the courage to go in.

Sof, you got this. If you were able to handle the miserable psychological failure of losing to Vaughn, you can definitely handle this.

She waited for five minutes, before she gathered the energy, motivation, and the courage to go in. She slowly knocked on the door, and a doctor with spiky brown hair opened it. He looked old, with tattered blue robes, and he had a smile on his face. Not the kind of smile that would make you feel warm, but one that would send shivers down your spine. The creepy kind of smile that represents crookedness. But how crooked could a doctor be? “Welcome, Miss. I am John! Come in, come in”, said the man.

With immense fear on her face and with goosebumps on her arm, Sofia slowly went in. She looked around, quietly observing each and every part of the building. She looked in wonder, and her face showed that she was quite impressed with the architecture, but she slowly scrunched up her nose as she sensed the strong smell of medicines. 

She was greeted by a bunch of other doctors who were wearing their blue robes, while they were yelling at one another. “Excuse me. I’m here for an…”, she started to say before she was rudely interrupted by a doctor. 

“You’re here for disturbing us. Kid, just pick your stuff and go somewhere. Don’t bother us again”, snapped the doctor. 

“Wow, the lady calls herself a doctor? I thought doctors are usually polite, especially psychologists. But she seems so..harsh..,” Sofia thought to herself, as she continued to walk. 

She kept on walking until she reached the patients’ ward. She slowly opened the door, careful not to disturb any patients. But alas, the scene too

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k her by surprise. 

In a small hall were six beds arranged adjacent to one another. The occupants of the beds were wearing purple robes, and looked like they were interrupted in the middle of a civil conversation, perhaps a little too civil for her to have expected in an asylum.

 

“Oh, miss! I expect you’re here to treat us? Let’s see how good of a job you do”, said one patient, with a weary sigh.

“I expected the patients to be rude to me but they’re actually not that bad! So not like the doctors. Gosh, I’m surprised,” she thought. 

“But miss, I have a favour to ask you. You might not believe this but…-” started the patient before getting interrupted by another. 

“She does not need to know about our “favour”. How many students and doctors have ignored us? She won’t be any different”, said another patient, shooting an angry glare at Sofia. 

“Fine! I don’t have anything to say. It’s your call”, said the patient and walked away. He went to a pillow, and began to bang his head on it, while shouting, “Can someone save me? Please!!”. 

Sofia, who was getting more and more agitated by the moment, went to call one of the senior doctors. “Excuse me, doctor. The patients here.. I think they’re all delusional or something. One of them is-” she informed, before being cut off.

“Excuse me, miss. How dare you call us delusional?”

“Huh? Why would I call you delusional?”, Sofia questioned. 

“Sorry, the patients. How dare you call them delusional? I’ll sort out stuff myself. Just leave”, said the doctor. 

“That man is so weird”, she thought to herself.  

She walked to the cafeteria to get some fries and cold coffee to go. As she bought them and walked back, she started to ponder other things. “Wasn’t this the hospital where they treated Noah Hernandez, the serial killer? How is this hospital so bad when they have treated the most complicated patient of all time? Pity nobody has seen him except for the doctors. I would have loved to see what a killer looks like,” she thought. 

All the desks in the cafe were empty. Suddenly, she spotted some of the doctors lying on the floor. They were going at a few sandwiches, eating them like a bunch of maniacs. A couple of sandwiches were lying on the floor, and the doctors were going at it. They grabbed each other’s shirts, pushing one another aside. The sandwiches, by now, were mangled and in pieces, which the doctors grabbed and ate from the floor. 

Sofia started in horror.

“Oh god. What in the actual world is happening? No no no!! This is NOT normal! I don't care if I don’t last a day here! I don't care if I fail. I am going to call Vaughn to help me out. And, I am definitely getting out of here!”

She took her phone out and dialled Vaughn in a hurry. And after 5 seconds, which seemed like 5 months, he picked it up. 

“Hey Vaughn!” 

“Hey Sof! What’s up?” 

“VAUGHN! Just come over here, please. And don’t ask me anything! Just get over here as soon as possible”

“Oh my god, Sofia. Are you ok?” 

“Just get over here fast! It’s extremely urgent.” 

“Okay! I’ll be right over.” 

Vaughn arrived at the asylum in a while. “Vaughn, I know I sound crazy and I know it’s going to be hard for you to believe me but just listen,” said Sofia as she explained everything to him.

“This is crazy, yes. But I do believe you. Let’s just take a moment to clear our heads and sort this out”, said Vaughn, trying hard not to look extremely nervous.

Sofia mindlessly opened the newspaper that wrapped the fries that she had bought. She peered over at the headlines of the newspaper, as her jaw dropped in shock, and she dropped the fries.

“Sofia! What’s up?” questioned Vaughn.

“Vaughn, Look here”, said Sofia, as she picked up the newspaper and pointed at the news article. 

There, in bold letters, was printed the headlines in bold, dated 2 June 2022: “Asylum in Jericho set for a $50 million renovation.”

And below that was a half-page article. 

“What’s abnormal about that, Sofia?” questioned Vaughn. 

“The… the picture….” 

In the faded picture, the patients she had seen a few minutes ago were wearing the surgeon’s robes, whereas the “doctors” she had interacted with were seen smiling that awful grin of theirs…wearing purple-colored robes.