(I got started on some of these ideas kind of randomly. From a mixture of C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy and watching Twin Peaks for the first time.) My first story is unnamed still and I'm not actually sure if I like the title for this one either. The idea is to have a bunch of loosely connected short stories with Dr. Mike being the uniting figure).
"Leon, calm down." Mike put his hand on Leon's shoulder. Leon was shaking and it had nothing to do with the fact he had been running.
"Mike, Marcus, he's..." Mike saw the rest of the sentence in Leon's eyes, before Leon could finish Mike sprinted down the hallway. One of the inmates cheering him on as if he was in a race. Mike had worked so hard to protect Marcus from himself. Marcus had been okay for month's. Mike had taken him off his medication and Marcus was sleeping better. Marcus had said (rather seriously) this was because the new Nurse smelled like dogs.
Dr. Michael 'Mike' Mathew McMahon stood in shock at the doorway of Marcus's room. There were somethings that he really wished were not true. At other times he had really wished that some of the things his patients imagined were real. Who wouldn't want to travel through space and see a Ghost moon? Explained to him as a mere illusion of a moon, seen as a ghostly grey sphere made of heavy gas, which gravity had gathered together
Or the fact that Joycelin actually thought that she was a super hero, able to fly and stop bullets. Joycelin also believed that every man was instantly in love with her. She was his happiest patient. Mike wished sometimes that he could have super powers and the love of all women. Life would be so wonderful...
Then there was Marcus, poor Marcus who he had not been able to help. Marcus who's room he now stood in the doorway of. Marcus who believed in Elves. Mike shuttered how once he had wished he could believe Marcus. That Marcus was one of the chosen who could actually see the Elves. That there were other beings in this world, unseen.
Marcus had always been Mike's most disconcerting patient. Marcus had seemed to be completely normal and sane. Actually at some points Mike thought that Marcus was probably more sane then half the population outside of the institution. The problem was that Marcus had this uncanny inability to be dissuaded away from his belief in Elves. In fact Marcus had spent most of his time almost convincing Mike of the likely hood that Elves could actually exist. If Marcus would had stop trying to kill himself in bizarre and unexplainable ways, Mike would have released him from the institution a long time ago.
In fact it was the bizarre and unexplainable instances that seemed to follow Marcus like the plague that made Mike wonder about his own sanity. Of course working with the insane always made you wonder about your own sanity. But Marcus's high intelligence and reason made it so hard to believe that he was insane. Marcus never tried to hurt others. This was, according to Marcus, because others could not be hurt by that which they did not believe in. It was actually safer if people did not believe in Elves.
"Then why do you believe in Elves" Mike remember asking during one of their early sessions together.
"It is no longer a questions of believing for me. I know that they exist. I can not stop knowing. Once something is proven beyond a doubt... one no longer needs to believe. Knowledge is a dangerous thing Doctor. You know about the insane, but does not that knowledge make you question your own beliefs? Do you not wish that you could believe in something as foolishly as some of the people who are interned here?" Marcus had smiled at this point. Mike remembered with a chill that Marcus did have the strange ability to know what he was thinking.
"Marcus I do believe in things that can not be proven. I do sometimes wish that I could believe with such foolish abandonment. And I guess you could say that my belief walks the line with knowledge." Marcus had shook his head at this. "You do not put your knowledge on the same plain as mine?"
"No it is not that. I share some of the same believes with you, after all there are many things in this world that we must believe in rather then know. If there are somethings that we must believe in, why can't other things be true as well?" Marcus had said this in a simple tone, conversational. As if he was the doctor teaching a wayward student.
"I would believe you Marcus, if only you were not constantly trying to kill yourself."
"It is strange to me that the very thing that should be the strongest evidence of the validity of my argument is the very thing that makes it impossible for you to believe me."
"Strange, in what way?"
Mike felt the questions echoing down the hall ways. There were many things that he wish that he could believe in. Many more that would be cool if they were real. Who wouldn't want to travel through space and see a ghost moon? But Elves whom no one else could see, who were trying to kill the one man who could see them. This was just ridiculous.
Or it had to be ridiculous, if not it was to scary to believe. The room looked like an image out of some sadistic Japanese manga. Too much blood to be realistic, too brutal and gross to be real. It could not be real. But even all of that Mike might have been able to deal with. It was the look on Marcus's face, that made Mike wonder again if he was really insane. Marcus had a look of extreme happiness. As if he had died in mid-laugh.
Dr. Michael 'Mike' Mathew McMahon, really wished that some of the things his patients imagined were real. Then there were things that he knew were real, real and horrible. Perhaps it was better to be insane, delusional, and happy. Perhaps it was better to be insane and die with a laugh.
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