The doctor removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. He stayed like that for a long time then slouched back and put his glasses back on. A large window presented a small room with a chair sitting in the middle of it. It was on a platform that was sunken a foot into the floor. The room was lit with warm lights among the walls and a floor lamp in each corner. It was pleasant set up, made to help one relax. The floor was a thick carpet and walls a pleasant wallpaper of light orange and brown.
A women sat next to him twirling her hair and chewing on some gum. She seemed totally uninterested at the whole situation as she flipped through a horror book. She wore the standard assistant uniform, but her hair was a dark purple and she would glance up at him with dark brown eyes. He understood, if he wasn’t so deep, he would feel the same.
“When is the next patient due?” He asked looking over a large machine with knobs and tiny screens.
The women picked up a clipboard and flipped through it “We have one at 4:30, male, seems to have some trauma that had happened a couple of years ago. Says he has tried everything, life falling apart, you know, the usual.” She tossed the clipboard back on the desk.
“Trauma trauma trauma” the doctor flipped some switches “You know I haven’t slept in three days, call that trauma. Can’t even get a decent coffee at the moment. Why do you think ? Oh, nevermind, they won’t tell us anyway” He readjusted his coat and moved towards the door. “Getting some coffee, you want anything?”
“That cream soda thing” she said without looking up from her book.
He nodded and exited the dark room.
He turned left and walked through the halls of the Animah institute. A wellness center that was built to harness the new age methods of treating the soul, the mind and the body. Using new techniques of therapy and advance technology they were proposing that they could release you form your burdens and help you be reborn.
The hallways held large posters of symbols that never made sense to him, happy go luck vibes that held something a bit sinister the more you looked at them. The whole place bathed in warm light of orange and vanilla colors. The walls a deep orange with the posters and some murals here and there, the floor in the hallways a vanilla color with speckles of black. He rounded a corner and entered the breakroom. All the walls curved into a light that ran among the ceiling. It was supposed to be futuristic, but he sometimes felt as if he was in a fun house.
The room was empty and he flipped the switch on the coffee machine and waited for it to heat up.
Another man entered. Doctor Philman.
“Hey, Cyrus, how you holding up? I head they have some crazy new project that you are on. I barely see you leave now a days”
He sighed and nodded “Yeah, it’s been a bit tough. How about you?”
Philman grabbed the coffee, his coffee, and poured a cup.
“Can’t complain, we are seeing some good progress on some of our patients. I mean most don’t come back, but they reach out and really let us know how much it changed their life. Your project going well? “
Cyrus flipped the switch again on the coffee machine and stared out into the hallway with blank eyes. “Can’t really say yet. Some good, some bad, some -“
“That’s great” Philman moved towards the door “Hey, make sure to get some rest, looking a bit stressed” He smiled and exited the room.
The coffee finished pouring and Cyrus looked down at it. The ceiling reflected off its dark waves. He picked it up and smiled, grabbed a cream soda from the fridge and walked back to the room.
“Whoa what happened to you?” Serena looked peered over her book at him “someone give you a nice compliment?”
He handed her the cream soda “No no, not anything like that Serena. I just remembered.” He looked out the window to the empty chair “I jut remembered what this was all about, what we are close to discovering, my dreams and nightmares swarming into a great ocean of the edge of scientific illumination. A new age, my dear, a warping of all consciousness. That’s why we are hear.”
The cream soda canned cracked loudly. “Yup” She took a sip.
Doctor Cyrus smiled and nodded to himself “This has to be done, we need more data, we need more answers.” Then he took a large gulp of his coffee. It tasted a bit better with his reignited resolve.
I have a plot that I am pulling together. You might remember the ad from the Animah Institute - Get Well Soon
It seemed a bit weird eh? Well there is nothing normal about this place. Guard your mind, body and soul. You never know what could happen within its walls. Even the doctors barely know.