"Silas, seriously, just eat, will you?" The nurse groaned. "You know you'll just get in trouble if you start up."

Silas craned his head to look with a stare ablaze at the nurse who spoke to him like a human child.

"Where is my Sky?" Silas asked but the nurse remained unfazed as he rolled his eyes. Shaking his head in obvious impatience of Silas' attitude he brought the spoon of gruel back to Silas' lips.

"You need to eat," he said in a flat tone.

"Where is she?" Silas asked.

"Silas, stop." The nurse was trying to get him to focus on his food but again Silas refused to listen. He had heard Sky's scream and for him it wasn't a hallucination. They had to be keeping her somewhere, away from him. Several more nurses approached, ready in case Silas' fit escalated and he had to be escorted back to his room. He pulled at the wheelchair restraints, unable to pull his arms free of the straps buckled around his wrists.

"Release this one," the raw energy within Silas was beginning to agitate the other patients around him, including the old man, who was starting to howl while banging his fists onto the table. Maddy all the while, wailed with laughter.

"Alright, enough's enough." A nurse, who was certainly the biggest of all, put a heavy hand on Silas' shoulder, unlocking the break on the wheelchair. Silas was then wheeled away from the table and back towards the double doors to the hallway of rooms. "You need some time to cool down."

"Where is my Sky? This one knows you have her." Silas hissed. The nurse didn't answer as the common room disappeared behind him and the commotion died in his ears with the opening and closing of the doors. "He will not be tricked by lies."

"Because it's all just one big conspiracy, right?" The sarcasm was clear in the nurse's tone, dripping from his words. The wheelchair stopped at the door to his room. As the door was opened, Silas was briefly given the chance to see to the opposite end of the hallway from the common room doors. It was a staircase and it led down into the black depths of the hospital's basement. "Wish you'd get it through that thick head of yours that there is no Sky."

The words were an electric jolt to his thoughts. Such a thought was inconceivable. Eyes widening, the world stilled for only a fraction of a moment before Silas began to fight against his bonds more than ever. He hissed and spat as a wild animal trying to break free.

"Silas, stop!" He was commanded but he refused. 

The wheelchair shook and it was only a matter of seconds before two more nurses appeared to help the first. Wheeled into the room, his bonds were undone and replaced by arms, half dragging him forward before the rough sleeves and straps of a straight jacket were wrestled onto him. Pulled onto the bed, he was pinned there as an injection sedative was readied again. The process was repeated as it did before. He was injected and pulled into another black unconsciousness.

When Silas awoke, lying, his pale cheek again against the bleached fabric of the bed's sheets, his was head heavy and his sight blurred.

Rolling to his side, he tried to lift his body. He was still bound in the buckled straight jacket.

Was it all real? How could he tell?

Sitting up, his head hanging forward, he pressed his back against the wall.

Taking several long breaths, he searched for some way to test his reality. In that white sterile room, with its unending light, he stared at the floor. If only he could think straight and place his thoughts into the past but the drugs were blurring the lines of dreams and reality.

Silas sat unmoving for hours until there was a knock at his door, the small metal window sliding open.

"Hey Silas, it's time for breakfast." A nurse hollered. "Time to get up. You don't want to be late. You're the first in line to see the specialist this morning."

It wasn't long before he found himself sitting at a table in the common room, facing Maddy. He was in his wheelchair, still in a straight jacket and again unable to move.

"You're gonna keep getting jabbed!" She was near singing those words before her voice went low. "They'll keep you like this until you die. Trapped like all of the poor souls here, forced into believing the lies."

She was the only one who had acknowledged Sky's existence and she had Silas' full attention. He stared at her now, wide eyed,

"Where is my Sky?" His cold question but a whisper. He had asked that question so many times that he had lost count and he would keep asking for he knew Sky was there, somewhere.

Maddy's eyes fixed on him at the mention of her name. Swaying her head from side to side, she smiled, contemplative in her thinking. About to speak, she went silent just as a nurse approached with her tray. It was set in front of her and she was left to her own capabilities, an obedient patient.

The old man from the day before was sitting at a different table and they were conveniently alone until a nurse would come with Silas' food. Around them, nurses directed patients to their chairs, leaving them alone for a short moment before they were again fed.

"You have to go down to find the sky," Maddy said. "It's dark down there. It's where they keep the ones that are different from the rest of us. The ones that are special."

Her voice turned to a soft mumble when a nurse appeared at Silas' side, setting the food before him. Sitting at his side, the same motions began as his last meal. The nurse took the plastic spoon, scooped up some of the watery porridge and presented it to Silas.

"All right, time to eat," The nurse sighed, his tone a reflection of what how he believed Silas would react. There was a pause of contemplation.

Silent, Silas looked at it.

"Come on, if you don't finish this, you're going to have to go back to your room. We'll have to reschedule your appointment."

His chance. Slowly, both his hands balled into tight fists within the jacket, he opened his mouth and ate. The first mouthful turned his stomach. It was rancid. Hanging his head he held the source of torment within his mouth before with all his will power, he swallowed.

"Good," The nurse said, mocking Silas, who was struggling against the gag reflex in his throat.

He looked up and the next spoonful was waiting. Again and again. Sour porridge churned in his stomach. The bowl was bottomless and Silas thought for certain he would not be able to hold back his revulsion for long. Maddy watched his every bite in amused disbelief. Silas ate every drop in the bowl and was wheeled away to the appointment with the specialist. He had his plan.

Like the Doctor, the specialist met with patients in a consultation room. Silas was wheeled down the hall, and back to the waiting room where he came the day before but brought to a different room than the Doctor's. A new room filled with the equipment needed to 'treat' patients.

Everything needed for surgery.

"Hello Silas! I'm glad you made it." The specialist was waiting. Like the Doctor, he was looking down at a clipboard, double checking everything that was scheduled for that visit. "We couldn't get everything done we were hoping to accomplish in your last visit. Let's hope today we can make some progress on that hand on yours."

X-rays of what appeared to be Silas' own arm were placed up onto illuminated panels for Silas to see from his wheelchair. He was nauseous.

"The plan today is to cut the tendon muscles that cause your hand to clasp shut. With some healing, we should be able to eventually get some use out of it. Now, let's take a look."

The signal was given to the nurse behind Silas to unbuckle and remove his straight jacket. His muscles aching when his arms stretched straight as the jacket fell free from his body. The specialist approached, reaching to take a closer look at Silas' unbreakable fist but Silas was suddenly to his feet from the wheelchair.

"Sit down." The specialist said, the nurse putting a heavy grip on Silas' shoulders.

Silas retaliated. He grabbed the nurse's arm, pulling him forward as his clenched fist connected with their face, smashing the bridge of their nose. The nurse fell to the floor, blood splattering from his face. Promptly, Silas gave the strongest kick he could muster to the nurse's head. To the specialist his attention turned, grabbing him before he could escape out the door. Forcing his arm against the man, near choking the specialist against the wall. Suddenly hunching forward, Silas wretched, throwing up everything he had been fed onto the white floor between their feet, before looking back at him.

Silas' eyes were beginning to drain back to black.

"No more games." Silas said into the specialist's ear.

A fist into the man's stomach and he crumpled to his feet. Pushing himself upright, he was out of the room, through the empty waiting room and into the hall.

Silas had only one destination.

The basement.

Without a word, he walked towards the staircase to its depths at the end of the now empty hall. No one stopped him. Reaching the top stair, he looked down into its black depths, unable to see the bottom.

He gave a quick glance over his shoulder, back to the vacant hallway of nurses and patients. No one was following. He descended into the dungeon of a dark world where he knew Sky was being kept. Yet for what he was about to see, he was unprepared. With slippers, Silas walked down each stair made of stone, the sightless black of his surroundings devouring his figure with only a few steps.