The Creature

Chapter Five: The Assumption

I walked down the hall, and knocked on Mrs. Phillips door, hoping she would be in still.

" Come in " She called back to me so I walked into her office. I was on a mission and I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out for me but I had some questions and felt like I deserved them.

" Hello Ms. Phillips. I'm sorry to bother you, but I had a few questions and was hoping you could help clarify some things for me! "

Ms.Phillips motioned for me to sit down, so I took that as a good sign.

" I'll try to help however I can " She smiled at me. She seemed like she welcomed the company but she was a little bit intimidating to me. She always came off so stern to me, which made sense. She ran a facility where she had to have a certain attitude about things. The same attitude that I didn't have. It's a miracle I got this job to begin with.

" Well I had some questions about section F. In particular, concerning the Patient Jamie" My words made her close her eyes, as though she had heard this conversation before. She had the same expression I seemed to always give when talking about Dennis.

" I'll try to answer what I can" She smiled awkwardly, keeping her hands clasped together on her desk.

" Well I had wondered why he was so isolated? He doesn't have any windows on his door, and he isn't offered the same treatment as the other patients. I know you told me in the past a bit about him. But is he really that dangerous? " I had talked to him and maybe I was wrong but I gently felt like he wasn't a threat. I mean, at least the threat they seemed to think he was.

After a long sigh, she leaned back in her chair and placed her hands on her gut, still keeping them clasped together.

" Jamie was young when the fire happened. And whilst I can't go into all of it, the child that was brought to me was not normal. He possessed an intellect for superior to those his age and was well spoken. He was a remarkable kid, and whilst we would not mind giving him the same luxuries as the rest of our patients, we can't. He is quite emotionally unstable and at the time, he was deemed to be a risk to the public.. We use to do quarterly psychological evaluations for him but he turned them down. He didn't want them. I'm going to be honest with you, I think he wants to be here. I don't know why, and have tried to figure that out for the longest time. Perhaps he thinks he is a danger as well, I really don't know. But what I do know, is that he seems to have his own thoughts and feelings, which made me want to originally release him but he became very violent at the thought that he would be released. I almost feel like he became violent intentionally. He self sabotaged to the point where I stopped bathing having the evaluations performed" She answered. That didn't make any sense to me though. He came off to me like he was trapped and didn't truly want to be here. But I pursued with my questions regardless

" Well, can he not have some books or something? Maybe to keep him entertained?" This left a concerned expression on Ms.Phillips face. " You've been talking to him, haven't you? " She Sighs and then explains to me " Ms. Lemont, we have tried giving him books. We have given him books, we have given him all the sufficient things he would need to keep himself entertained and he has turned them down. So much so, that one of our last employee's tried to push for a book club which he refused to participate in. He wanted nothing to do with it" this was quite shocking to me. Something about all of this didn't sit right with me whatsoever. " And you have to remember, he is very..different. But he is still here for a reason. Despite the objections for those reasons..." and there it was. I knew she had her own opinions as to why he was here and I wanted to find out those reasons.

" Please explain to me why you think he is here. I know this is a bit forward but I really just want to know" I pleaded.

" Well, this is my opinion and whilst it doesn't take away from the fact that he is here and should not be taken lightly. I will say that his parents were beloved by this town. And when they died, the town didn't react well. They wanted Jamie's head on a platter. The close minded fools felt like he was a demon or something. And so, in some ways, I think he was placed here for his own safety. And I think that is a big part of the reason he doesn't want to leave. He knows the world wouldn't accept him out there. He knows they would judge him, perhaps even act out violently against him and he doesn't want to suffer anymore than he already has"

" You think he didn't start the fire..don't you? "I couldn't understand why this town would be so damn aggressive about something that was out of the child's control. He was just a child at the time, it wouldn't have been intentional.

" I believe that accidents happen. I believe that things happen and sometimes we blame ourselves for those things. And I think Jamie blames himself more than the town could ever blame him. But at the same time..he accepted the blame for that. And the town ran with it" Ms.Phillips stood up and walked over to the door and opened it. " I am not going to discuss this any further with you. Just know, that you need to be careful with him. Don't try and make friends with him because this is all speculation and we could be very wrong. In all honesty, he could have very well set the fire and I could have analyzed him wrong. Which is why we can't take any chances. He doesn't want to leave if I'm correct on my evaluation of him, which means we will never get the truth and will have to work with what we have" She dismisses me and I leave the office feeling slightly more confused. I knew I needed to talk to him one way or the other. I needed to decipher the truth, and I needed to find out what truly happened. Perhaps it was because it was my sense of justice or my caring heart, either way, I knew I needed to know the truth and help him if I could..