Insomniac

by P J Mann

  “I am so sorry to hear that,” replied Laura, feeling a complete fool for having thought about some sort of mysterious conspiracy going on. “Do what you think it’s best for you and your family. If you are needed somewhere else, perhaps it is wise to continue the therapy following a different approach.”

  “I was thinking about it, and I will make my decision today,” Carolina replied.

  “You see? No conspiracies,” said Gabriel who overheard the whole conversation, as he was getting some more coffee.

  “I am sorry, Jonathan could really shake my senses with his stupid theories. I hope I can get rid of this suspicion as soon as possible,” Laura replied smiling.

  “Hold on,” said Carolina, “you really thought that there was something fishy going on in the fact that both me and Jonathan are leaving the therapy?”

  Laura started to be convinced that she was making a fool of herself with her suspicion, yet, considering that she was also given the wrong dose of drugs, she didn’t feel like she needed to apologize or to provide any explanations about her behavior.

  “I know I overreacted to this new situation, and that’s it, there is no need to go on telling me that I have behaved like a fool,” she replied a bit annoyed.

  “Darling we never thought you have been a fool, you just overreacted to the situation, don’t get us wrong,” replied Gabriel. “We are not here to judge each other, and perhaps we have been insensitive towards you.”

  “Apologies accepted,” Laura replied, “…I guess.”

  They all laughed and soon that incident was forgotten, and their therapy continued. However, for Carolina, the session had to reach an end, and she decided to leave to be able to take care of her family issues.

  “It is sad to see you go away, why don’t we exchange our telephone numbers? We might still be in touch once the therapy is over for all of us,” proposed Laura.

  “That is a great idea, but at least until the situation with my family is solved, I would prefer not to be contacted,” Carolina replied. “It has nothing to do with you, I just need to spend my time with them without any sort of interruption. Moreover, I will have to start once again to take care of the pets at the shelter, before I can start working again.”

  “Of course,” replied Laura. “Let’s do it this way, this is my telephone number, you can call me whenever you feel ready.”

  “You are very kind, I will surely contact you,” she replied walking away to the taxi that came to bring her back to the city.

  “This place will feel lonelier without her,” said Maximilian.

  Laura sighed, “Indeed, and I am wondering whether there will be another one who will leave the therapy group before the scheduled end of it.”

  “I don’t know, but sometimes life doesn’t really go the way we plan, and one day it might be your job, which is requiring you to be present, or some personal problems, or even some health-related issues. We do make plans every day, and we should never expect them to be fulfilled.” Max nodded.

  It was just after the group therapy that Dr. Wright’s phone started to ring. He knew there was nobody else in the world that could have called him at that number, the only exception was made for their client, Mr. M.

  “Hello,” Dr. Wright replied, as he was hurrying towards the laboratory of Prof. Doyle.

  “Good afternoon,” he replied with his usual calm and steady voice. The kind of voice that is modulated in a way that although you hear it calm, your senses started to be on alert, as something is bound to happen. That sort of voice that can get furious in the blink of an eye. “It is quite some time since the last time we had a chat, and I would like to understand what is going on. Particularly whether there are any results you need to share with me.”

  Dr. Wright opened the door of the lab and gestured Prof. Doyle to come closer as he would have put the loudspeakers on.

  “We have been trying to get the results with a couple of patients, but things didn’t really go the way we were hoping,” Prof. Doyle replied.

  “Oh Prof. Doyle, I didn’t know you were there too,” replied Mr. M. surprised. “However, it is good to have you both there in one location, so you can explain to me in detail the reason why this first trial didn’t work.”

  “Sir, we told you already since the beginning what the deal was and the risks we could have met if we would have tried to shorten the terms of the experiment. The drug was supposed to have a preparation time for the patient of about four weeks. During the fifth week, the patient would have been ready for the trial, and we are confident that at the end of this month we can have the desired results,” Prof. Doyle replied.

  “Moreover, despite the improvements we have made to the original formula, this sort of fail was to be expected. The drug was not ready for this stage, and we also had some trouble with the health of our patients, which was something we were trying to avoid,” added Dr. Wright.

  “My question was not how your patients were doing. To be honest, I don’t give a shit about them,” replied Mr. M. impatiently. “Nevertheless, I do understand that the formulation was not ready, nor did it have the time to be tested, but still I would have hoped for a different kind of result. My request for you is that you would continue to try with other patients.”

  Dr. Wright glanced Prof. Doyle, lightly shaking his head, he would have liked to say ‘no,’ as his guts told him it was going to be too risky and, whether Mr. M. could feel safe from himself, this was not true for the two scientists.

  Dr. Wright hoped that his colleague could find the right words to say to dissuade their client from such an irresponsible decision.

  Prof. Doyle closed his eyes, “we will try our best, but you need to understand that this was not what we agreed upon. The drug might not be ready without the proper testing; we need your patience and understanding at this point.”

  There was a long pause of silence, where they all had the time to ponder about their own positions. Mr. M. sighed. “I give you one week, then the next patient will need to be tested once again; you have plenty of time, and I suggest you not to try my patience.”

  That said he cut the connection.

  “What do you say?” Asked Prof. Doyle.

  “I say that we need to hurry and keep an eye on all of our patients, particularly those who are no longer here,” Dr. Wright replied.

  Prof. Doyle nodded gravely, “Should we start with Ms. Jefferson?”

  “No, she is one of our best patients; I’d prefer to keep her for the regular testing, just like for Ms. LaMotte,” Dr. Wright replied. “I was thinking more about Mr. Blake…”

  Prof. Doyle went to open the archive of their patients on his computer to check Mr. Blake’s conditions and test results.

  “Hmmm…” he said thoughtfully, and for some time he remained silent, trying to consider whether he could be regarded as the perfect candidate for the next round of testing.

  He opened several folders and looked at the results several times, “indeed, he might be a good candidate. If we consider only Mr. Blake and Mr. Garcia-Mendez, he is the one I would have chosen as well.”

  “Perfect, tomorrow, during the individual session, I will ask him to come to you for some additional testing. Meanwhile, I can add something to the evening dose…” Dr. Wright replied, cunningly.

  Prof. Doyle didn’t reply, he knew they were playing dangerous games, but they knew from the beginning what the deal was that they decided to agree upon. There is no more turning back, he thought.

  ***

  That night, Laura could not even close her eyes. She didn’t know precisely the reason, as everything was going following her expectation. “Actually, if we talk about my sleep pattern, it has been improving to the point that I cannot recognize it as my life anymore.”

  However, she felt restless. It was perhaps that within a couple of weeks, the group lost two of the most interesting members, and she was afraid she would have lost all contact with them.

  She sighed.

  “I shou
ld have asked them their telephone numbers. I am afraid that they will never contact me again, like they promised,” she said aloud. “People are mostly like that; they are afraid, to tell the truth when they do not feel like they want to keep in touch with you. They tell you a lie that they will call you as soon as possible, but that is not going to happen.”

  Laura walked to the balcony, hoping that a bit of fresh air would have helped her to find some sleep, but it seemed that every single movement in the yard was gathering her attention.

  It didn’t matter whether it was just the wind, or a wildcat, a bird or anything else. Her senses seemed sharper than usual.

  “I am wondering whether it was a good idea to come outside…”

  Suddenly, the moon peeking out from the clouds attracted her attention. It was very bright and seemed so close as she never seen it before.

  Its light was shining on the yard even on those spots, that generally are in the darkness.

  She took a deep breath when suddenly a noise came from one of those bushes, and she could have sworn that there was someone out there. She remained silent trying to focus her attention hoping to be able to see something more than just a shadow; to be able, at least to recognize who was there.

  “Is there anyone out there?” She yelled when she understood that she wouldn’t be able to recognize anything else but shadows.

  Nobody replied, but some noises like steps belonging to more than one person could be heard rushing away from that position, disappearing back into the darkness.

  “Yeah, like if it were a thief, he would have come out introducing himself,” she said almost joking about her reaction.

  “Oh well, let’s at least continue reading my book, if I keep staying awake for the rest of the night I can even finish it,” she replied closing the window carefully.

  For the following few hours, it seemed like the world got immersed in silence, and there was nothing else but her regular breathing and the sound of the pages of the book she flipped, and with that soothing sound, at about 2:00 AM, she fell asleep.

  A scream woke her up after roughly one hour of sleep. She remained alert to listen so she could understand whether she really heard someone screaming or if it was just a dream.

  Everything seemed quiet, everything was even more subdued than usual. There weren’t any noises by the hotel staff, nor from the other rooms. Even the wind seemed to be more quiet than usual.

  “I am certain that I’ve heard someone screaming…”

  She slowly walked towards the door remaining silent, almost holding her breath to spot the slightest noise, but nothing reached her ears.

  She walked towards the balcony and opened the windows, hoping to be able at least to spot some movement or any other sorts of noises.

  In the beginning, everything seemed to be quiet like nothing ever happened, but as she was ready to give up, and convince herself that, perhaps she just had a dream, something happened. She hurried to switch the light of her room off and started to observe what was going on in the yard.

  It was lucky that the moon was quite bright that night. Nevertheless, there were still many dark spots where she could not follow anything.

  What she could see was someone who was trying to run away, like he or she was chased by someone. Indeed, she could hear the presence of at least another person.

  It seemed like in the beginning they were talking together, and the tones seemed to be calm. Laura could not catch anything of what they were saying because they kept the tone of their voices pitched quite low. Nevertheless, quite soon one of them seemed to get increasingly nervous and tried to run away. She could guess by the noises that the other one ran behind the first one, and when he reached him, they started to talk louder.

  Suddenly, they both remained silent, and it was like they could have spotted her on the balcony.

  She went back inside; her heart was beating furiously in her chest. “Why do I feel so nervous? There is nothing to fear. Whoever was out there they were apparently having an argument, and that’s all,” she said aloud.

  She shook her head, “I do behave like I was a witness to a murder, rather than witness to a simple argument.”

  Suddenly she recalled the scream that woke her up, “but what if instead there was a murder?” she whispered hoping not to be heard.

  She went to the door to make sure that it was still locked, but even though she felt relieved in the realization of being still locked inside her room, she tried to block it with a chair. “Paranoia or not, I want to feel safe. If there is really some sort of maniac roaming around the premises of this hotel, I’d prefer to know that he won’t be able to get inside this room,” she whispered.

  She reached her bed, and she was sure that for that night, finding some sleep would have been impossible. However, she didn’t want to switch on the light and start to read, so she decided that she would keep her eyes closed, trying to focus on her heartbeat and go through one of the meditation routines she had been learning.

  “I am not sure whether I will be able to fall asleep, but at least, I will be able to rest a bit and calm down my heart. I still feel like it wants to run away from my chest,” Laura whispered.

  As she could forecast, the night progressed without any chance to fall asleep. Nevertheless, as soon as she saw the sun rising, she felt relieved, like in those horror movies when bad things happen only during the night.

  She hurried to prepare herself to go to have breakfast, but before doing so, she went to knock on Sabina’s door, hoping she could have talked to her before breakfast.

  The door of Sabina’s room opened, and she appeared surprised to find Laura insistently knocking at her door so early in the morning.

  “You can stop knocking, I have already opened the door,” she replied amused.

  Laura smiled, embarrassed, “I am so sorry, I just had one of the worst nights of my whole life,” she said coming into the room and closing the door behind her.

  “Why don’t you take a seat and try to calm down?” Sabina replied sitting on her bed, inviting Laura to do the same.

  Ungracefully, Laura let herself fall on the bed drawing a deep breath.

  “Did you hear anything unusual last night?” Laura said, trying first to understand whether it was true that someone screamed, or if it was just a dream.

  “Don’t tell me that you still hear those noises in the corridor?” Sabina replied.

  “No, this was something different. To be honest, everything started in the evening, just before going to sleep. I went like every evening to get a bit of fresh air on the balcony, but I’ve noticed that there was someone in the yard. I yelled at them, just to make clear to whoever was there that they had been spotted, and it seemed like they left.”

  She took a small pause to recall her memories.

  “I fell asleep reading a book, like every other evening, but after about an hour, I was awakened by a scream. Someone was screaming like to ask for help, but when I stood up from the bed, there was nothing to be heard anymore. I went once again to check outside on the balcony, and I could hear two people talking to each other. I could not catch anything they were saying because they were almost whispering, but in the silence of the night, even the slightest noise carries.

  “It seemed to me like whoever was there they were having an argument, and they started to sound restless. One of them tried to run away, but the other was able to reach him, and convince him to stay.

  Suddenly, I think, they noticed my presence and I tried to hide back in the room switching off the lights.”

  Sabina looked at her with a slight smile on her face, “unfortunately, last night was a lucky night for me, and I could sleep almost the whole time. Are you sure you heard someone screaming? Having two people on the staff arguing can happen during their night shift I’m sure. Perhaps you should stop thinking like there is always some sort of conspiracy. Maybe you should try some lighter reads before going to sleep.”

  “Please, Sabina, I’m not cra
zy. Perhaps the scream was a dream, but those two people in the yard didn’t simply sound like they were having an argument. It seemed like the topic was quite serious,” Laura replied.

  “Like what? A murder?”

  Laura remained silent for a second to think about it, “that is exactly what I thought in the beginning, but I am not convinced about it…”

  “And you shouldn’t either!”

  Sabina grabbed Laura’s hand in hers, “Please, Laura, try to focus on what is the most feasible explanation for those two people being in the yard at that time of night. If they really were two killers and they had indeed killed someone, they would have come directly to find you. They would have never left a possible witness alive.”

  “Maybe you’re right, but don’t you find it a little suspicious? Not even a little bit?” Asked Laura with a quirked brow.

  “Admittedly that it might sound suspicious, we are not investigating any murder, as a matter of fact, there isn’t any hint that suggests a crime has even occurred.” Sabina’s voice was calm, but there was a hint of concern for the mental state of her new friend.

  Sabina smiled kindly, “how about let’s both of us get ready to head down to breakfast. Maybe you can have a chat about your fears during group therapy, or if you don’t feel like you want to share this detail with anyone else, then you can talk with Dr. Wright during the individual session. How does that sound?”

  “Sounds like you are trying to get rid of me,” Laura admitted.

  “No, darling that isn’t the case at all. I just wish I could help you somehow, but I cannot find any reasonable way to do it. Admit it, we cannot start playing the cops when we do not have anything to go off of, but two people having an argument during the night in the yard. Think about it, does it make it really so suspicious?” She replied.