Chrono Voyage

Chapter 20: Left Alone

     Benjamin’s eyes were stinging, he tried to ignore it but the sting persisted so he had to open his lids, the sun rays pierced to his eyes making him squint, he stood from the bed and winced from the pain, he forgot that he was shot and couldn’t make any sudden moves. He looked around the room he was in, it was all white and not much furniture, in fact, there was nothing but his bed. He stood up and walked around the white room and noticed that there were bars on the window, rather strange for a hospital. He moved the bed just below the window as he stood on the bed to look out of the window hoping that he can catch his bearings and see where the hell was he. He saw a beautiful courtyard with trees and well-maintained green grass, along with pathways and benches around, and thick forest in the background. There were people walking around the yard or rather patients that wore gowns some of them were accompanied by doctors and nurses, some of them were left alone. But somethings struck odd with Benjamin, the way that the patients behaved, they were rather strange compared to normal behavior, and then there were the bars on the windows. He jumped from the bed as he fell on the ground and screamed as loud as he can, he forgot about the wound again and his leg couldn’t withstand the pressure. “f**k!!!” he managed somehow to get himself up with the help of the bed and walked to the end where the hospital paper was attached, with the detailed information about the patient. He knew how to read the paper, but he wasn’t interested in what it said because he already knew what was wrong with him, he was interested in where was he? He looked at the paper and saw that it was written by a typewriter and it was very similar to the ones that his hospital uses so he must be in the year or rather the century in which he belongs, then he looked at the language and it was English, so he must be in America or New York, maybe Elizabeth brought him back home, but then he looked at the top of the paper and his worst fears came to a realization. ‘North Brother Island,’  “Oh no!” he spoke to himself, he knew the hospital very well and you could say it wasn’t a hospital but rather an asylum. He ran toward the door and began knocking on it rather frantically. “Hey!!! Get me out of here!!!” he screamed but there was nobody answering, he kept knocking and screaming before the guard got annoyed and walked up to the door, he opened the small window in the door where food was supposed to come through.

     “What the hell is wrong with you!?” asked the guard as if he didn’t already know the answer after all he worked in an asylum. 

     “Get me out of here!” he ran and slammed himself on the door. “I shouldn’t be here!”

     “Yeah, that’s the spirit buddy, keep that attitude, and you might be out of here in no time,” said the guard and slammed shut the small window.

     “NO!!!” he smashed on the door again and kept knocking on it, hoping that somebody may finally open it and let him go.

     “Now you’ve done it!” he heard the guard's voice from the outside as he was unlocking the door, he was happy to hear the locking unlocking and the door opening, he couldn’t wait until somebody released him but what he didn’t expect was the guard that held the button in his palms.

     “Get me out of here!” he demanded, the guard took a swing with the baton and hit him on the shoulder as he fell on the ground screaming from pain.

     “Are you going to behave!?” asked the guard but got no answer as he struck him again. “I asked you something, are you going to behave?” Benjamin remained silent and the guard struck him again and again, eventually, he started bleeding and his gunshot wounds opened again, he became pale, he was losing a lot of blood again as he passed out.

     It took him a couple of days since he could get back on track, it wasn’t like he could do much, he was bedridden, he watched as the sun rose and set every day through the bars, the nurses would come and go feeding him, he had so many questions but was to weak to ask them. From time to time he would stand up and pace around the room as his leg and shoulder were slowly healing and were becoming stronger. He even started exercising because he knew he lost so much muscle mass by just laying in the bed. The day came when he finally had the strength to speak to the nurses and he demanded to speak to the doctor that was in charge of the asylum, he demanded answers as to why he was there. And the moment could not have been better, he was due for a checkup after all. The doctor just strolled inside his room not even looking at him just starring at the paper he held.

     “Benjamin? Is that right?” asked the doctor, Benjamin just sat on the bed and starred at the doctor like a little kid waiting any moment for the doctor to discharge him.

     “Doctor, I shouldn’t be here!” he told him as the doctor kept ignoring eye contact with him. “How did I come here?” he asked.

     “A lady brought you, she paid a rather handsome sum to keep you here,” he told him.

     “Elizabeth! Was that her name?”

     “Umm… No.”

     “She must have used a fake name! You’ve got to believe me, she has these tricks, she travels through time, and she took me with her, I should be with her, I should be with Cleopatra. Oh… Cleopatra, I need to get to her!” Benjamin stood up, the doctor finally looked at him and raised an eyebrow, Benjamin stopped himself and realized what he sounded like, he sounded like a nutjob, and thus it is why he is in an asylum, no matter how any of it is true about time travel and Elizabeth no one is going to believe him, they would just think he is crazy. He took a step back and sat down on the bed perhaps finally admitting defeat, he stroked his forehead and realized what kind of a ditch he was in or rather a ditch that Elizabeth threw him in.

          Couple more days have passed and he finally began functioning as normal, he had slight pains from time to time but it was normal, the guards and the doctors finally allowed him to get out of his room walk around the courtyard, it wasn’t like he is going to escape anywhere since the asylum was on an island, maybe he couldn’t escape but he would have to find another way or perhaps try to gain Elizabeth’s attention. He would sit on the bench for hours watching the other patients accompanied with the nurses' pace around the courtyard, but he wouldn’t just simply sit on the bench but he watched and he watched closely as the doctors and guards shifts changed, he would memorize their route and he would also remember where they hanged their keys, sometimes he would stay in his room starring at the shore calculating the time and day where boats came to the island with supplies. It then occurred to him that if he is to escape then there’s nowhere he can go, since the first thing they will search for is his apartment, basically, he would have to live on the streets which were out of the question, he had a plan to get Elizabeth to help him because the only person that could help him is the same one that put him there.