by P J Mann
Concerning my point of view, I think that perhaps the two girls, Ms. LaMotte and Ms. Jefferson, could be the perfect candidates, but I also need your opinion.”
Prof. Doyle remained silent, thinking about it. “This is not an easy answer; particularly I guess because it is too early to determine whether it would be safe to dare and try the hypnotic drug without the planned preparation time. Of course, we are reaching the point of shortening the time, but we need further calibrations, which are just not possible at this stage of the experiment.”
“I feared the same, but perhaps we might come to a compromise. Could you reach me here and discuss it in the office face to face? We will need to take all the results of the tests and run new models…” Dr. Wright proposed.
“I will be there in the late afternoon. I have something to take care of during the day here at the University.”
“That will be perfect. Meanwhile, I will gather all the data from those first two days of therapy and see what kind of solution we can figure out.”
“Something that might be useful to take a look at would be the results of the calibration test for the hypnotic routine you did with your regular patients. It is possible we might have underestimated some details that were more important,” pondered Prof. Doyle.
“Hmmm…” mumbled Dr. Wright, “Honestly, I haven’t thought that those results could have any other importance than the improvement of the routine itself. However, now that you mention it, this might be something interesting to check. My only concern is whether those results might be used in the case of Ms. LaMotte or Ms. Jefferson.”
“I guess we do not have any other option, but to compare all the results together, search for similarities and try to figure out a way to shorten the timeframe. However, despite the fact that we have a couple of promising patients, I suggest not to restrict our research on them.”
Dr. Wright frowned, “do you mean, comparing all the results of the previous testing with all the six patients? That might take a lot of time.”
“I know, but we need to work with all the material we have.”
Dr. Wright sighed, “fine, I will gather all the material. At what time do you think you will be here?”
“Not before five o’clock, this afternoon;” Prof Doyle, said with a contrite expression on his face, understanding that in their case every second counted and wasting the whole day was a luxury they didn’t have. Nevertheless, I cannot just leave everything here, he thought.
“I will try to have everything ready by then. See you later,” said Dr. Wright hanging up the communication.
Dr. Wright placed his mobile phone back on the table and started to think about the possibility to make it in perhaps a couple of weeks.
If we can shorten the time already now, we might come close to the desired result, he considered, thinking about the possibility of earning a generous bonus that would have allowed him to settle in comfort for the rest of his life in one of those paradise islands on the Pacific.
He shook his head and rushed to the hall, where he might have been late for the breakfast.
“Good morning everybody,” he greeted, noticing that the patients had already started to have breakfast and some of them were also about to leave.
“Good morning, Dr. Wright. It seems like your clock needs some adjustments; you are always late.” Carolina noticed.
Dr. Wright smiled, “I know, those first two evenings I have been up till late to finish up my work, and in the morning, I don’t even hear the alarm clock ringing.”
“I wish I had the same problem,” replied Laura.
“I am truly sorry, but as soon as you are finished with your breakfast, I would like to start a private therapy session with you.” Dr. Wright said taking the occasion to test the potentials of that first patient.
Laura looked at him, feeling a bit suspicious about that request. Her session was scheduled for the following day in the afternoon, and she found it strange to have it changed so suddenly. However, she tried to convince herself that he might have had his reasons to do so, and perhaps it was a decision that came about during those late nights work.
“I have already finished eating my breakfast, but weren’t we supposed to have our group therapy session in half an hour?” She wondered.
“I know, and the therapy is not canceled, it is just rescheduled in a couple of hours. Meanwhile, you all can have your free time to take care of yourself. If, for example, you need to call home, you might take advantage of this time,” he replied standing up from his chair, sipping his morning coffee quickly.
They walked in silence until they reached the room he had repurposed into his office.
“Please take a seat,” he said with his usual soothing tone of voice.
As they sat down, he took a deep breath and smiled at her. “I am sorry for this sudden change of plans since this is something on the experimental stage I am looking for some flexibility on the schedule. I hope this doesn’t bother you.”
“No, it just seemed rushed in the beginning, but you are right, and changes in schedule are fully understandable,” she said reassuring him.
“That’s great. Let me now ask you something about your experience with the therapy so far. I understand that you have only spent two nights here, but I would like to know whether you had the chance to notice any changes in your sleeping pattern.”
“Well, the good part is that I am beginning to feel more rested when I wake up in the morning. I am not sure whether it is because of the drugs, or because of the stress release. The sleeping time is still about four hours a night, but the quality has improved dramatically,” she replied, recalling the way she felt every morning.
“That is very good, and have you noticed any side effects by taking those drugs? Something like a headache, hallucinations, vertigo, anything that comes to your mind,” he replied.
“No, nothing like that,” she replied uncertainly.
“Mr. Abbey claims that he heard some noises coming from the corridor…”
“I’ve heard those too. In fact, last night, I was awakened by them. I went out to the balcony to figure out whether they were coming from the corridor or the outside. There I met Jonathan, who heard the same sort of noises,” she replied.
“Can you describe those noises?” Dr. Wright asked.
“Hmmm, that’s difficult to say… It was like someone was walking in the corridor; like he or she was dragging something heavy.”
“Did Mr. Abbey describe it in the same way to you?”
“To be honest, we didn’t talk about what it sounded like; we just both acknowledged having heard it. Jonathan called the reception, asking to check what the source of that noise was,” Laura replied.
“I was called by the receptionist this early morning, and she confirmed having received the call from Mr. Abbey. Nevertheless, the guard didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. We also checked the content of the security cameras installed in the hotel, particularly those on your same floor.
We haven’t found anything. For the whole length of the night, the hotel has been as silent as a grave, and no movement was recorded either,” he replied.
Laura frowned, “Do you think that Jonathan and I, we had the same kind of hallucination? How is something like that possible?”
“The lack of sleep coupled with a wrong dosage of drugs might be the cause. However, Jonathan could have transferred his hallucination to you. When yesterday morning, he claimed having heard noises in the corridor, you might have been unconsciously conditioned by that; this means that you might have not heard anything, but since Jonathan did, you put extra attention in hearing something that didn’t exist,” he explained calmly.
“But then what is the cause? Is that the lack of sleep, the drug dosage or the fact that I was oversensitive to Jonathan’s story?” She wondered.
“That is something we are going to find out soon,” he said. “Later this afternoon, Prof. Doyle will come here to find out more about Jonathan’s case and
yours. We will find a solution to this immediately, don’t you worry.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” she replied shyly.
“I guess that for the moment this will be enough,” he said, looking at the watch. “On your way back could you please call Mr. Abbey and ask him to come here?”
“Sure,” she replied briefly leaving the room.
As she left, she took a deep breath, and almost ran to get Jonathan so there wouldn’t have been any waste of time before the group therapy.
As Jonathan was going to meet Dr. Wright, Laura met Sabina in the garden.
“Hello, beauty, what’s that concerned expression? Is there anything wrong?” Sabina asked.
Laura looked at her tiny figure, and the first thing that came to her mind was how could she breathe in that tight black leather corset.
“Can you even breathe in that?” Laura said pointing at her corset.
“Oh, that was your big concern! Don’t you worry; it is the same thing our great-grandmothers used in their everyday life,” she replied graciously walking towards her. Watching her walking was like seeing a sort of ghost, she was practically floating in the air.
“Well, to be honest, that wasn’t the reason why I look concerned,” she explained. “The fact is that Dr. Wright believes that the noises me and Jonathan heard during the night in the corridors, are pure imagination. He is trying to understand whether those hallucinations come from the lack of sleep, the wrong dose of drugs or only because Jonathan’s hallucination influenced me.
“Also, Prof. Doyle will be here this afternoon, and he will try to find a solution to this problem. Let me ask you something, didn’t you hear anything last night?”
“No, Darling. I wasn’t sleeping the whole night, but I am sure I haven’t heard anything coming from the corridor, or from any other part of the building,” Sabina replied.
“Then let’s hope that I am not going crazy, this would be a worse problem than insomnia.”
“Well, I am not a doctor, but I can tell you that you are not going crazy. If the problem is because of the wrong dosage, then once it is fixed, also those hallucinations will disappear. In any case, you should focus more on yourself rather than listening to Jonathan’s stories. It seems to me that the men in this group tend to be attention-seekers. I don’t know whether it is because of the presence of a beautiful girl like you, or not, but for sure they do not deserve your attention.
You are here to learn once again how to fall asleep, not to find a date or to get impressed by the first dude,” Sabina said with a flirtatious glance.
Laura sighed, “You are probably right, I hope the meditation session will be helpful in this sense. Have you tried it already?”
“Not yet, but it seems to have sorted miracles among those who have tried it, what do you say?”
“It helped me a lot, I can sleep at least four hours a night with that,” Laura replied. “I cannot tell whether it was more the effect of the drugs, the group therapy, the individual sessions or the meditation, but it seems that everyone who tried it benefitted from it.”
“That is interesting, I think I will try it this evening.”
The rest of the day went on with the usual routine, except for the group therapy, where everybody noticed something strange.
“Where is Jonathan?” Asked Max.
“Mr. Abbey didn’t feel well. Right after our individual therapy session, he fainted, and I ordered him to go to his bedroom and rest. He has taken some relaxants so it would be best if none of you will disturb him.”
“I might need those relaxants too,” said Carolina sarcastically.
“I would rather give you the chance to improve your sleep pattern without using any drugs, from the day you will end this therapy on,” Dr. Wright assured.
“But then, what are those drugs that we are being given for?” Sabina wondered.
“Yes, that is a good question, and I also wish to know the answer to that one,” Gabriel replied as the rest of the group carefully followed the debate.
“The experimental drug you are using is not supposed just to put you to sleep, but rather re-educate your brain to develop a regular sleep pattern that lasts for the rest of your life,” Dr. Wright explained.
Laura thought about it, but something made her suspicious about Jonathan’s absence. Of course, it was plausible for everybody to feel unwell, particularly after the extended sleeplessness, but it made her feel uncomfortable.
That evening, as she was reaching her room, she hesitated in front of Jonathan’s door. She wanted to knock and ask whether he was feeling better, but she refrained from doing so. Besides, if the Dr. was right and he took some relaxants, the last thing he would have appreciated, was having her disturb him.
She sighed and looked around before closing her door. Although she was convinced that she simply had a hallucination, she still wanted to make sure that everything was like it was supposed to be. Therefore, she remained listening, making sure that there weren’t any suspicious movements, noises or whatever else that didn’t belong to the normality of that hotel.
“You should stop thinking about that noise,” she told herself. “We already went through this, and we agreed that it was a hallucination.”
She took a hot shower and made herself comfortable on her bed, making sure that she took her drugs, and she connected her bracelet to the monitoring devices.
She closed her eyes and decided to go through the same routine they used during the meditation, and after a couple of hours, she finally fell asleep.
“So, you told me that you received a call from our client. I was expecting him to call at least in a couple of weeks when the trial would have reached the mid-stage,” commenced Prof. Doyle as he was finally alone in Dr. Wright’s office.
“I was also stunned about that sudden call. Particularly because Mr. M. called me in the middle of the night when I was reviewing the details of the first day.”
“You mentioned that he wanted to try and shorten the testing time, am I recalling right?” Prof. Doyle tried to recap.
“Yes, but I am not sure; I think it is too rushed to try and have some results with the drugs we have now,” Dr. Wright replied.
“No, we cannot do that. If the patient is not ready, we might risk that either he or she will remember what happened the evening before or worse, there might be repercussions on their health,” he explained. “Those people are here for treatment, and if it comes out what the real reason behind our treatments are, we might end up in jail. Personally, I am looking forward to a wealthy life.”
“So am I, but couldn’t we at least try? Are you sure there isn’t any room for this sort of trial?” Dr. Wright asked.
Prof. Doyle shook his head but remained silent. He considered for a while the possibility, but he needed more tests and those required more time. “Do you have someone already in mind? Are there any of our patients who could fit the protocol for the experiment?”
“There are those two girls, Ms. Jefferson, and Ms. LaMotte, who seem to be very interesting; however, Mr. Abbey recently stood out as the best potential patient in that sense,” Dr. Wright started to explain. “You see, only during the night I can move freely and make the right preparations for the final test, but unfortunately Mr. Abbey was able to hear some noises I wasn’t able to hide coming from the corridor.
“The next morning at breakfast everybody knew about what he heard, but only Ms. Jefferson seemed to be interested, and the next night, she also paid attention to the movements in the rest of the hotel and could hear some noises too. From that night on, I decided not to make any other preparations and make sure that during the day none of them can stay inside the hotel so that I can prepare the crime scene. I could convince Ms. Jefferson about the fact that she was hallucinating, but Mr. Abbey was more difficult to convince.
“This afternoon, after the individual session, I gave him an extra dose of our hypnotic drug, and as I ordered him, he went to his room, where his door remained loc
ked. We might have him tested tomorrow as the first one to try the drug; what would you say about that?”
Prof. Doyle didn’t reply; he needed more time to think about it and to consider the feasibility of shortening the times already from that stage.
“I need some time and test results. Our client’s need to have results as fast as possible is blinding you to what we are trying to accomplish here. We told him already that this would have been a process that needs time to work,” he warned. “My main concern is that even though we agree in murdering people in the name of the research and for our glory, I would at least try to minimize the amount of those who will sacrifice their lives for the science.”
Dr. Wright glanced at him, and shook his head, “perhaps you’re right, but at least, let’s consider performing new tests on those two patients.”
“Fine,” huffed Prof. Doyle, almost annoyed. “Tomorrow morning, I will start to work on them, and I would like to visit Mr. Abbey one more time before running the models once again.”
“What I hope is that our client won’t call again. When I hear his voice, I get cold shivers along my spine,” recalled Dr. Wright grimacing.
“I know the feeling; he has a voice that penetrates the core of a human soul. Something is fascinating but yet extremely dangerous about it.” Prof. Doyle sighed getting more comfortable in his chair, “I need to look at the details of those people…”
“Do you prefer to start working on it tomorrow morning?” Asked Dr. Wright, “it’s starting to get a bit late.”
Prof. Doyle frowned and looked at the clock, “Hmmm… I suppose I will start to work on it tomorrow in the early morning, but I would like to take a look at those people’s data now, to avoid wondering about them for the whole night.” He switched on his laptop and started to browse on the data of the patients. “So you were mentioning Ms. Jefferson, Ms. LaMotte and Mr. Abbey, didn’t you?”
