A look of madness

Night 1: Niece

For Vincent, time passed in any way, but not normally. The clock hands either spun around the dial like crazy, or moved slowly, almost standing still. Unable to calm down on his own, he tried to fall asleep, but due to anxiety, sleep did not come at all, so he had to force himself to switch off by hitting the carotid artery in his neck with the edge of his left palm. The day passed unnoticed for Vincent, who was lying mindlessly under the covers in his bed. He had a strange dream. In his sleep, he heard strange voices calling him. He constantly turned around to look at them, but there was no one there and they still continued to call him from behind. Rats that frightened him ran along his feet, which he crushed one after another while he turned around to the sounds that beckoned him. These rats burst like water balloons with a slight squelching, crunching sound. Suddenly the alarm clock rang.

Vincent woke up from this terrible dream, with his hand he tried to find the alarm clock on the nightstand to turn it off, but the alarm clock was silent. The doorbell rang again, only at that second Mr. Macaw realized that he had not invited anyone to visit. He was seized with panic, because these could be people who had come for the key.

- Uncle Vincent, please open the door!

- *Who should I open the door to and how should I open it if it's closed?* Who's here?!

- It's me, Lucia, your niece. Do you remember me?

- *Lucia? Who is this ? I don't know this one... Wait, shortly before I ended up in that madhouse, my sister gave birth to a daughter. It seems that she told me that she wants to name her daughter Lucia, perhaps this is her...* Are you really THAT Lucia?

- Yes, uncle, really, open the door.

Vincent Makau went to the door, removed the five locks that were on it and opened it. A girl stood on the threshold, one meter, sixty centimeters tall. Her eyes were bright gray, her hair was brown, braided in a ponytail. Her clothes included blue and pink striped tights, a yellow T-shirt with the words "Young and Independent" written in graffiti style, blue denim shorts and long brown shoes, the shape of which was reminiscent of shoes from Japanese schools, however, they only resembled them. The young lady had barely noticeable freckles on her face.

- Hello, uncle, I was informed that you have already been discharged, so I came to visit you.

- Come in and settle down, this entrance has ears, it hears all our words and thoughts...

The girl was worried by these words, but still dared to go into the apartment of her half-mad uncle. The apartment was relatively tidy. The room was cleaned and washed when Vincent was first taken to the psychiatric hospital. The only thing that gave the room an unpleasant appearance was the dust lying around. Lucia went to the kitchen and turned on the light, Vincent followed her, entering the kitchen, the girl went to check the refrigerator, and Vincent sat down at the chair and lay down on the dining table. The kitchen was made compact and convenient for one person. Along one wall stood a row of refrigerator, dishwasher, sink and stove, above which hung cabinets for dishes and non-perishable foods such as cereals and dough. On the other side of the kitchen, the only furniture was a table and two chairs facing each other. There was a lampshade hanging on the ceiling, a bit like a chandelier. There were no windows in the room.

- Uncle, how can you live without food in the refrigerator? You can't do that!

Lucia began checking all the nightstands on the wall. In each of them "the mouse hanged itself."

- And there is no food here! I'm immediately running to the store for food, you can't sit around hungry!

- Wait, child. Sit down. I want to ask you something...