Book of Asylum

His Butler, Some Friendly Advice

It was the fourteenth day that changed everything, the beginning of the end as some might say. While Grell's warning from last night was still freshly burnt into Sebastian's mind, he noticed a certain change in atmosphere. It was small, almost nihil, Sebastian doubted anyone besides him would've been able to sense it, and it sparked a somewhat unsettling feeling in his stomach.

He made his way to the dining hall, as he had done every morning since his arrival, but again there was something simply off. A whiff of opium, ever so slight, tickled his nostrils, simultaneously raising his eyebrows.  Opium was strictly forbidden by Her Majesty the Queen herself, so what in god's name was it doing here? Sebastian's thoughts, however, were interrupted by Doctor Wright's sudden appearance at the end of the hallway. With a fixated look on his cranky face he limped towards Sebastian, coming to a halt right before him.

"Ah, Michaelis! I was looking for you", he said with a forced smile (Sebastian decided to give the old man points for the effort). Although Wright probably did his very best to hide it, Sebastian noticed how the bags underneath his eyes had darkened, and exhaustion was seemingly placed over his face like some sort of veil. He certainly did not look like he had had a pleasant night, Sebastian thought, subconsciously already wondering what he might have been up to. "Today is your day off, we need to transfer a patient on your ward, you see. Have fun!" And while that was probably meant to sound cheery, all it did was leave Sebastian with a threatened feeling, meaning nothing but no good.

It was a warm, sunny day, and the people of London decided that hiding away from the usually grim autumn weather was not necessary. The streets were swarming with people, and the city itself simply seemed more alive than it had done ever since the beginning of September. Everywhere there were fancy dressed-up nobles, spending their capitals on new clothing and god knows what. Laughter always seemed to come from at least one direction, and broad smiles were plastered upon the faces of the upperclass. Everyone seemed to forget what a rotten city London was, everyone except Sebastian; he was not smiling, but looked at the passing Londoners in disgust.

For some reason a weird thought crossed his mind, a thought of which Sebastian wondered where it had come from, and what is was doing in his head right now. These people, every single one of them, walking by spending money as if it was nothing, were responsible for the people in the asylum. Well, maybe that wasn't entirely true, but at the very least they were the reason why all these nutters were locked up behind bars in drafty cells that leaked like mad. If insanity didn't kill them off, pneumonia certainly did, simply because these people decided they were odd, out of their minds, and dangerous.
All these happy smiling people were the reason why that boy was locked up. Apparently being a child mattered little when their pretty little world was being threatened.

As Sebastian kept walking, the road and sidewalks became emptier, the shopping streets turned into normal ones, with big houses on either side. This was the place were the rich people lived when they were in town instead of in their mansions on the countryside. Here and there a few people passed him, a nanny with two children, a servant walking a dog, a couple going for a walk, but the sickening feeling from earlier persisted despite the change of scenery.

Then, when Sebastian reached his destination, he stopped, and knocked on the front door.

Two days ago, a letter had arrived, given to him personally by Doctor Wright. The wax seal was still closed, and yet Sebastian had felt uneasy, and not just because he had no clue whom the letter was from.
Outside of a few street cats that lived around his previous accommodation, he had no friends whatsoever. No living relatives, or at least none he could recall, and so the letter left him quite puzzled.
Opening it had certainly not made him any less puzzled. The letter had turned out to be from one Prince Soma, who insisted he'd come round for tea soon, even though Sebastian had no clue what a prince would want him for (he was just a simple psychologist after all) or why specifically him.
But since he'd gotten a day off and felt like sniffing up some good old fresh air anyway, he might as well go and see what this was all about.