I wandered around the institute, seemingly aimlessly. That’s what it would have looked like – I had planned it that way. I heard lowered voices from the office, but that was irrelevant at the moment. I had a plan.

I watched from the corridor. The paper sheet stuck to the door – blue tack, of course – read “Big Bad Wolf.” I had heard that he went by no other name, the man in that room. Trapped in a straitjacket, completely immobile, he could see me but I was safe. I huffed on the window in the door and wrote “ESCAPE” in the mist. I hoped he could read – his stewing in anticipation could only help my plan.

I ran into the Beast on my way around. He stared at me, saying something about how I was looking suspicious. I didn’t answer, distracted by the plans formulating in my head. He grabbed my shoulder. That took my attention – I didn’t want this filthy creature touching me! I recoiled, sending a cold glare his way. He asked me what I was doing. I replied with “Wandering,” delivered in a nonchalant, innocent tone. I guess he didn’t believe that – he snorted derisively, replying “Sure you were. And I’m a world-class mercenary. Really, what are you doing?” I responded vaguely, revealing nothing of my plans. He grabbed me again, by the shoulder, and shook me. I shouted at him, telling to leave me alone – about how I wasn’t doing anything wrong and he was harassing me for no reason. I continued, telling him that I would notify the doctors about him. Suitably threatened, he backed off and headed in the direction of the dormitories.

As I continued on my way, I stopped outside the offices, checking if there was still anything interesting to be heard. I suppose not – I couldn’t hear anything inside so I presumed the people inside had gone elsewhere, perhaps to bed to tell the night-shift guards awake. It was late, after all, and I myself was only up and about instead of relaxing because I had plans. These plans would hopefully expedite my release from this place –they at least wouldn’t cause me to be kept here longer.

I wondered why nobody else wandered about, at this time. It was quite relaxing, wandering in the semi-darkness, nobody around. I suppose if everyone else did it, that wouldn’t be the case and it would be far less relaxing to bump into people. Unfortunately there was nowhere comfortable in the place to relax by myself, so I was limited to wandering at night to get my thinking done uninterrupted.

There was little going on at this time – no conversations to listen into, nobody to mess around with. I decided I would head to bed and get some rest for the morning.

Later that night, I woke up. I was slightly sweaty from the relative warmth of the bed, and I decided to step outside my room to cool down a bit – there was no restriction on us wandering around at night, since the night-shift workers kept an eye on us at all times. I relaxed, the buzzing of the light above my head blurring into a white noise I barely heard. Like the speech of all my, for want of a better word, fellows in this place with their unimportant issues. Couldn’t they see that my freedom was the important thing? They were fools – they had no idea that their lives were going to be changed dramatically by my plans and eventual escape! Hahahahahahaha!

…Ahem. Anyway, my plans were not yet coming to fruition, merely germinating in my head. So I could not tell, for now, how successful they would be. But from my intimate knowledge of the plans themselves and the insignificant personalities of my inferiors, I estimated a high chance of success. Of course, a spanner could be thrown in the works by some one or another, perhaps the Beast, but that wasn’t too likely and if all went well I should be out by the end of the year at the very latest. I sat a while, cooling down, before deciding I had stayed out of bed long enough – unfortunately, I did need to sleep. It was yet another flaw in my body, bringing me closer to the level of the rest of the….inmates here. I wished all too hard that it was not the case, but I could not fight my biology.

I shook my head, distracted by those thoughts, and stood up from the floor to head to my bed. As I did so, I saw Amanda down the corridor, seemingly heading towards the office – I was curious, as she didn’t have any reason I could think of to be up so late. I followed a distance behind, being cautious not to be seen as I dogged her steps, keeping a corner behind at all times. I sped up as she

reached a fork in the corridor, but I was too late – she had disappeared from sight, and it would look too suspicious for me to be trailing her at this time of the night.

I headed over to the rec room, wondering if anyone was there. Presumably nobody was, but…aha. The multiple-personality one, the dwarf, was here. The frown on his face indicated it was the angry personality at the moment. I entered the room, nodded to him and sat down in one of the comfortable chairs here. I noticed the clock, realizing it was very early in the morning, and shrugged, thinking that I wasn’t tired – I could stay awake and sleep longer the next few nights. I relaxed, staring out the window, fleeting thoughts of plans going through my mind – I decided that it would be pointless at this point to continue formulating more. I was tired. I needed to relax to be able to think properly, so I should just stay in this comfy chair and perhaps close my eyes. But just for a moment.

I woke up with a start, cursing my inability to stay awake in a…comfy chair in…a warm, slightly muggy room. Oh who was I kidding? I was going to fall asleep no matter what I did, the room was too relaxing. I was practically falling back to sleep in the chair despite having just gotten a few hours’ sleep. I supposed a...little while…few hours…okay, day off planning and plotting wasn’t entirely out of the question – I spent all my time doing it, I should get a while to relax some time, right? And with those words crossing my mind, I went back to sleep in the comfy, comfy chair.

Later on, after my entirely relaxing time spent asleep, I did some more wandering around. I checked the solitary confinement – the Wolf was still there, staring out. I raised an eyebrow at him, he nodded. I returned the nod, mouthing “Soon,” before going back to aimless wandering. This time, I had nothing to do – I was merely waiting for an opportunity to begin putting my plans into action, so I was just wandering.

The Beast passed me again, keeping his eyes on me but staying on the other side of the corridor this time. I kept walking around, nothing to do but staying aware of everything around me. Bored and having nothing to do, I stopped and leaned against a door to examine the corridor thoroughly. The floor was of the ubiquitous white tiles, slightly grimy from the feet of people constantly walking through despite the regularity they were cleaned (twice daily). The walls were white too – large granite blocks, testament to the building’s age, whitewashed so often they were smoothed to the point of making the House seem like a solid mass, hewn from one massive boulder. The ceiling (roof, before fairly recent additions) was similar to the walls, though plastered over on this side. We (the patients) had no clue as to the flooring upstairs – it was one of the few places we were not allowed to go in this building. Perhaps it was tiled like down here, perhaps there was a thick, fluffy navy carpet that you could happily wriggle bare toes in. I realized I had never thought about the building like this – looking at it, describing it in my head to ingrain it in my memory. I decided I would do the same for other rooms – it would be nice to have something to laugh about once I was out here.

I sat in the rec room, in the chair I had happily slept in earlier. It was a big chair – a kind you would expect to be upholstered in brown leather. It was instead a comforting sage-green colour, and fluffy. Sort of like a puffy cat. The floor was a rough grey carpet – a very calm colour. Everything in the room was like this, for example the walls. A creamy colour, wooden walls plastered over. It was very relaxing for the eyes and quite conducive to thoughts. I decided that, since it was late afternoon (I had slept quite a while) I would head to the canteen for lunch, mulling thoughts in my head.