GD: I don’t want to go back. I want to go home.
JH: Satisfactory progress must be illustrated prior to patient release. You know this. Mr. Denton, you must go back if you’re ever to go home.
GD: If I don’t go home…
JH: Where do you go during your treatments, Mr. Denton?
GD: It’s here. I can see it.
JH: What do you see?
GD: A city. Deep. Forgotten. Filled with towers. No! Mausoleums. Built from...not stone. The angles are wrong. They scrape the sky and cry out to dead stars the color of migraines, begging them to live again.
JH: Mr. Denton, are you all right?
GD: (inaudible)
JH: Mr. Denton?
GD: What day is it?
JH: What day do you think it is?
GD: Easter?
JH: It’s March 16th. Easter isn’t for another month.
GD: Then there’s still time.
JH: Time for what?
GD: I’d like to go home now.
***
Treatment Note: Subject #314-69-4245 Session 3/7
Date: 03/19/17
Procedure start time: 09:00:00
Procedure end time: 09:19:19
Total time elapsed: 00:19:19
Total dead time: 00:08:01
Complications: None
Subject comments: “The day of resurrection approaches.”
***
03/21/2017 Subject #314-69-4245 Post-treatment Interview #1 - Transcript
JH: This is Dr. Harper. Today is March 21, 2017. The time is 12:41, and this is the first of three post-treatment interviews with Mr. Denton. He has completed three of seven treatments. How are you feeling today, Mr. Denton?
GD: Like death warmed over.
JH: Is that supposed to be a joke?
GD: Everything is a joke. You. Me. That tape recorder.
JH: How so?
GD: The problem is that not all jokes are funny. Sometimes the punchline is just mean.
JH: Tell me more.
GD: (inaudible)
JH: No? Very well. Let’s talk about something else. I’d like to discuss something you said during your last treatment.
GD: Sure. Okay.
JH: You said, “The day of resurrection approaches.” What do you think you meant by that?
GD: I think my brain was deprived of oxygen from being killed and brought back to life for the sixth time.
JH: Third time, Mr. Denton. And I disagree. Last week you thought it was Easter, and this morning, one of the nurses brought me this. She found it under your bed. Would you care to read it?
GD: “He is not here; he is risen, just as he said.”
JH: Anything else?
GD: It just says the same thing over and over again. “He is risen.”
JH: Do you recognize that phrase?
GD: Yes. It’s from the New Testament.
JH: How about the handwriting?
GD: It’s mine.
JH: For a man who doesn’t believe in God, you seem awfully preoccupied with the resurrection. Can you explain to me why that is?
GD: Can you explain to me why Easter falls on different dates from year to year?
JH: I fail to see the relevance of that question.
GD: Then you fail to understand the basis of my obsession. The truth that threatens my sanity.
JH: Enlighten me.
GD: Enlighten yourself.
JH: You sound upset, Mr. Denton.
GD: Your goddamn right, I’m upset! I shouldn’t even be here! I don’t deserve to be here! And I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our incompetent guide leading us into that forsaken village! I wouldn’t know any of this! My wife. My son. My granddaughter. [crying]
JH: Tell me about the village.
GD: Ravaged. Ravaged by plague. I wanted to help. We had supplies. But it was a trap. I never wanted this! You think you’re the first one to show me what it’s like in Hell? [crying] You have to stop, Doctor.
JH: Stop what?
GD: They know about you.
JH: Who knows about me?
GD: They’ve seen me come and go. They know you can make them live again.
JH: Who? What are you talking about?
GD: Hell’s dreamers.
***
03/23/2017 Subject #314-69-4245 Post-treatment Interview #2 - Transcript
JH: This is Dr. Harper. Today is March 23, 2017. The time is 09:05, and this is the second of three post-treatment interviews with Mr. Denton. He has completed three of seven treatments. How are you feeling today, Mr. Denton?
GD: Go to Hell.
JH: No need to be hostile. Maybe this will put you in a better mood. I took your advice and did a bit of self-enlightenment last night. To answer your question from our previous session, Easter is celebrated on a different day every year because it is based on the lunar calendar, falling on the first Sunday following the paschal full moon.
GD: That’s the long answer.
JH: What’s the short answer?
GD: The stars have to be right.
***
Treatment Note: Subject #314-69-4245 Session 4/7
Date: 03/26/17
Procedure start time: 17:00:00
Procedure end time: 17:35:06
Total time elapsed: 00:35:06
Total dead time: 00:12:11
Complications: Patient revived after four minutes, but decompensated and required a second round of resuscitation.
Subject comments: Unintelligible. Phonetically interpreted as: “R’lyeh,” “Tharanaak,” and “Gotha hai uln.”
***
03/27/17
S: Patient reports persistent sleep disturbances despite pharmacologic intervention. Appetite better today. No overnight events.
O: Mental Status Exam: Alert. Oriented to self. When asked to write a sentence, the patient produced the following:
“Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.”
Affect: anxious.
Mood: anxious.
Thought process/content: evasive, delusions (“Eleventh Plague”), auditory hallucinations (“whispers from the abyss”).
Vital signs within normal limits.
A/P: 42-year-old male with non-specified psychotic disorder on experimental protocol.
Increase risperidone for psychotic symptoms
Increase zolpidem for sleep
Begin clonazepam for anxiety
Continue experimental protocol as scheduled.
***
03/28/2017 Subject #314-69-4245 Post-treatment Interview #1 – Transcript
JH: This is Dr. Harper. Today is March 28, 2017. The time is 14:45, and this is the first of three post-treatment interviews with Mr. Denton. He has completed four of seven treatments. How are you feeling today, Mr. Denton?
GD: Fine.
JH: You seem less anxious than yesterday. It seems the medications are working.
GD: Maybe I wouldn’t need medicine if you’d stop killing me. Or stop bringing me back.
JH: Yes, well, that’s one consideration. And perhaps once your treatments are over, the need for medication will subside. In the meantime, I need your help with something. Can you read this for me?
GD: What is it?
JH: Read it, please.
GD: I can’t... I don’t... [sighs] “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn?” Is that right?
JH: Your guess is as good as mine. Does it mean anything to you?
GD: No. No, of course not. Why are you showing me this? Is this part of the therapy?
JH: You don’t recognize it?
GD: Should I?
JH: You wrote it.
GD: (inaudible)
JH: Yesterday. After breakfast. And you spoke similar—I’m not sure I’d call them phrases, gibberish might be a better description—after your treatment last Sunday.
GD: I’m sorry. I don’t know what it means.
JH: Are you sure?
GD: I said I don’t know!
/>
JH: Okay. Calm down. Let’s try a different one. I copied this from a page in your therapy journal.
GD: I thought that journal was private.
JH: You thought wrong. Read the paper, please.
GD: It says, “Nyarlathotep.”
JH: What is Nyarlathotep?
GD: Not what. Who.
JH: Very well. Who is Nyarlathotep?
GD: He was once a great house. A bringer of plagues.
JH: I don’t know what that means. You’re going to have to be more specific.
GD: In the time of Moses, Nyarlathotep was a Pharaoh.
JH: Back to the Bible?
GD: Not everything in the Bible is bullshit.
JH: That’s an interesting assertion. I’d like to discuss that further in the future, but for now, I’d like to know more about Nyarlathotep and how you came to believe you met a Pharaoh from ancient Egypt in the jungles of modern-day South America.
GD: You read my journal. You already know what happened.
JH: Still, I’d like to hear you say it. Sometimes when we hear our thoughts out loud, we recognize something obvious that is otherwise obscured when those thoughts are kept inside our head.
GD: [sighs] We were on a humanitarian mission in South America. Our guide got lost and we wound up in a village that had been all but destroyed by a series of seemingly natural disasters. One after another—nine in as many years. We had supplies and medicine, so I sought the tribe’s leader to ask permission to distribute them to survivors.
JH: Did you find him?
GD: You know I did.
JH: And?
GD: And it was Nyarlathotep.
JH: Did you know then that he was an Egyptian Pharaoh?
GD: Of course not.
JH: What did he say?
GD: He said I could administer any aid I saw fit, but that it would do no good.
JH: Why not?
GD: Can a bandaid effectively treat a traumatic amputation?
JH: So, he thought they were beyond help?
GD: He didn’t think it. He knew it. And it wasn’t just them. It’s all of us.
JH: Why?
GD: [sighs] Because. He’s only one plague away from bringing about the end of days.
JH: Ah. There it is. Did you hear it, Mr. Denton? The contradiction?
GD: What contradiction?
JH: As someone who doesn’t believe God, how do you reconcile the idea that the antichrist is alive and well in South America, quietly plotting the end of the world?
GD: Because Nyarlathotep is not the antichrist. He’s not even a man.
JH: What is he then?
GD: You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.
JH: You said yourself that belief is irrelevant.
GD: [laughter] So I did. Fine. He’s an immortal prophet of the Old Gods. The ones that ruled the Earth in a time before man, and although they fell from power before the first four-legged creature crawled out of the primordial ooze and onto dry land, they still exist. Beneath the oceans. In the furthest reaches of space.
JH: You’re right. I don’t believe you. And what’s more, I don’t believe that you believe it, either.
GD: It doesn’t matter what either of us believes. The truth remains.
JH: I think that’s enough for today, Mr. Denton.
GD: Just one more thing.
JH: What’s that?
GD: If you think the second coming refers to the return of Jesus Christ, you’re in for a nasty surprise.
***
Treatment Note: Subject #314-69-4245 Session 5/7
Date: 04/02/17
Procedure start time: 11:45:00
Procedure end time: 12:27:13
Total time elapsed: 00:42:13
Total dead time: 00:22:10
Complications: Patient experienced significant blood loss from epistaxis secondary to hypertensive crisis.
Subject comments: “He’s coming.”
***
04/07/17
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
RE: George Denton and the Eleventh Plague
Dear Dr. Harper:
Thank you for your message regarding Mr. Denton’s case. Pardon my delay in response, but your request required more time than I originally anticipated. Upon further investigation, your suspicions have been confirmed—each of Mr. Denton’s deceased victims was, in fact, either an only child or the eldest of their siblings. I’m not certain how this detail managed to escape attention during the initial investigation, but if your assessment is correct, I believe this is further evidence supporting the court’s decision that Mr. Denton be remanded to your institution for intensive psychiatric care.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of further service.
Sincerely,
Christopher W. Meyer
***
04/08/2017 Subject #314-69-4245 Post-treatment Interview #3 - Transcript
JH: This is Dr. Harper. Today is April 8, 2017. The time is 13:35, and this is the third of three post-treatment interviews with Mr. Denton. He has completed five of seven treatments. How are you feeling today, Mr. Denton?
GD: Do you have children?
JH: Excuse me?
GD: Children. Do you have them?
JH: I do not.
GD: Siblings?
JH: No.
GD: Me either. Not anymore. Never had siblings, my older brother died before I was born. And my kids? I sacrificed my son, and now my daughter won’t speak to me. She doesn’t understand.
JH: This isn’t the first time you’ve used the word “sacrifice” in reference to your crimes. I’d like to explore that a bit if you don’t mind.
GD: (inaudible)
JH: It’s come to my attention that all of your victims, the ones who died, they were only children or the eldest of their siblings.
GD: (inaudible)
JH: You were recreating the Tenth Plague of Egypt.
GD: Yes.
JH: Why?
GD: Have you ever wondered why Passover and Easter are so close together?
JH: I guess I never considered it.
GD: Think about it.
JH: I’m sorry. I’m not seeing a connection.
GD: Okay, let me ask you another question. What is the purpose of blood sacrifice?
JH: I don’t—
GD: Appeasement!
JH: Who were you trying to appease?
GD: You haven’t been paying attention.
JH: Nyarlathotep?
GD: [laughter] Blood! Death! Resurrection!
JH: Mr. Denton, I’m going to have to ask you to lower your voice.
GD: [laughter] He failed once before! Ten became eleven, suppressed by the blood of the innocent! Eleven! Eleven! Eleven! Only ten can unmake eleven!
JH: Security!
***
Treatment Note: Subject #314-69-4245 Session 6/7
Date: 04/09/17
Procedure start time: 13:30:00
Procedure end time: 14:57:03
Total time elapsed: 01:27:03
Total dead time: 00:33:11
Complications: Subject revived, briefly coherent, then slipped into a catatonic state.
Subject comments: “One more.”
***
04/12/17
S: Patient remains catatonic.
O: Patient has not slept in four nights. Hydration provided by IV. BP: 155/95, Vital signs otherwise within normal limits. No acute distress.
A/P: 42-year-old male with non-specified psychotic disorder and new onset hypertension on experimental protocol.
Discontinue oral risperidone
Begin risperidone injection IM for psychotic symptoms
Hold zolpidem
Hold clonazepam
Start atenolol IV for hypertension
Continue experimental protocol as scheduled.
***
04/15/2017 Subject #314-69-4245 Post-treatment Interview #1 -
Transcript
JH: This is Dr. Harper. Today is April 15, 2017. The time is 11:00, and this is the first and last of originally three post-treatment interviews with Mr. Denton. The previously scheduled interviews were cancelled due to Mr. Denton’s recent catatonic state. He has completed six of seven treatments. How are you feeling today, Mr. Denton?
A Lonely and Curious Country Page 8
