EPISODE III by Adriel Mohammed

"What did you call me?" Brian shook the oncoming haze of the tablets hearing another clue.

"Mr Belmont, that's what the doctors and nurses have been calling you since you came in." the man answered, confused that Brian did not know this himself.

Mr Belmont, that must be my last name Brian realized. He pushed for more answers from the patient, "When did I come in? How long have I been here?".

"Oh not long you came in yesterday afternoon but you were asleep until this morning." the man replied very calmly. He wondered what someone like him was doing in the psychiatric ward. Other than his rope belt, the man was well put together and spoke eloquently; he even had an accent of someone who lived abroad for a while, England maybe.

"Why am I in the psych ward? What are you even doing here you don't seem too crazy." Brian pressed on trying to get as much information from the man as he slipped into a dreamlike state as his medication dissolved into his brain.

"Don't you know the first rule of prison is you don't ask what someone else did to end up there." the man replied abruptly, almost angry. He turned and left immediately as if Brian had said something to insult him.

"Wait what…. prison?" Still in shock at the realization. Patient Brain Belmont was at his wit's end. 

"I need to talk to the other nurse….the young one …. please! I just have one question. She was wearing blue!."

His voice was heavy with panic. 

"Other nurse? Sorry darling I'm the only female nurse on the ward this shift. Just try to relax, okay the doctors are coming this afternoon. I know it may be hard to adjust to the tablets."

She looked at him with the same silent pity the male nurse had when he helped him dress. He wasn't accustomed to his newfound invalidity, he was a mad man posing as a sane man who suffered moments of madness.

Just then, the young nurse hurried past him wearing a doctor's coat, clipboard in hand. Infuriated with the helpless feeling and seemingly refusal of assistance from everyone he saw today the young nurse or doctor or whatever she was ignoring was the straw that broke the camel's back. He grabbed the young woman by the arm spinning her around to look at him in the face, admittedly a bit stronger than he should have but being ignored and treated as a child or worse a madman was something he didn't know got him so angry until now. The young doctor went white with fear, her eyes flashed with panic and began opening wider in alarm. Realizing his error and that he had very little time he blurted out-

"My name is Brain Belmont and I'm not supposed to be here!"

The male attendants were upon Brian in an instant ripping him away from the doctor, slamming him flat on his ass making him skid a bit on the linoleum. A beating was about to follow as another attendant was over Brian a big black hulking mass of muscle and indifference, they were the enforcers and this was just their job. Just as the first attendant wrung Brian's collar to lift him back onto his feet like a sack of potatoes, the young doctor raised her hand and said, "Mark, stop it."

"Mr…..Belmont is it," she said writing on her clipboard, "the head doctor will be here in a few minutes and we can try to sort out the situation okay?"

Relieved his problems were finally given some attention, maybe it was because he finally remembered his name?

When he got to the room where he would wait for the head doctor it just looked like a regular doctor's room with a hospital bed and cupboards filled with forms resembling the one the nurse had of him, he sat in a straight chair with Mark standing over him. 

"You okay man? The headache gone?" Mark asks Brian to his surprise. His voice was indifferent as ever.

"Yeah…. sorry about just now I didn't mean to cause any drama," Brian said looking at the stained linoleum floors.

"It's just my job Brian, I got nothing against anyone here." That reply almost seemed as if Mark said he liked Brian, at least he didn't hate him Brian thought. 

While he sat in the room with Mark Brian sat and thought about what he did during the day from the shower to his name to grabbing the doctor he wondered if he was crazy. 

The doctor that came was a heavyset man with thick glasses and a permanent frown in the shape of wrinkles coming from his cheeks he sat down with great weight. there was barely any differentiation from his chin to his neck so he looked like a large neck with a face on it and just a bit of a bump for a chin Brian thought to himself. 

"Ah, Mr Belmont right? I heard you woke up with quite a tantrum today? My name is doctor Rajpaul, what seems to be going on?"

He seemed tired and just wanted to get the entire ordeal over with. 

"Doc' I woke up today with a really bad migraine and I just wanted to take a shower because I felt like I've been dirty for a long time. I woke up and to be very honest I couldn't remember my name but the young lady told me it was Bria- "

"-I didn't- "

The young doctor was about to interject but Dr Rajpaul raised his hand to let Brian finish. 

Her interruption barely phased him as he continued recounting his experience.

"-I heard this is the psychiatric ward for criminals but Doc I'm no criminal, I'm just having some memory problems."

Slowly putting his clipboard down and furrowing his eyebrows while Brian finished, he paused for a moment to make sure he was done.

"Hm…..manic." Dr Rajpaul first said to the young female doctor. 

Turning to Brian he spoke in a matter of fact way, "Well Brian the truth is we also don't know if you're supposed to be here too."

Relieved Brian let out a sigh and dropped his shoulders.

"But you have been asleep for the larger part of a week. Your name is definitely not Belmont.  A little over a week ago police picked you up in Belmont covered in blood muttering to yourself, that you had a knife in hand and that is why you're here. Anymore about what happened, I can't tell you but you seemed to have been in a fight you had about a two-inch-wide gash behind your head and a concussion. We had to put you in a coma and wait for the swelling in your brain to reduce. Because we didn't have a name for you, we named you Belmont. I understand the stress you must be going through but you must've heard the name while in the coma you also have seven stitches behind your head."