ArHi FF! Dante's Labyrinth: Thread 1 [Completed]

Summary:

The mind is on threshold of sanity and insanity. What tips the balance? What would push them over the edge?

Thread 2

Index:

01. Chapter 01 - God arithmetizes - Page 01
02. Chapter 02 - Sicilian Defense - Page 08
03. Chapter 03 - War Crimes - Page 11
04. Chapter 04 - Retrogradation of sanity - Page 23
05. Chapter 05 - Abomination of the human mind - Page 30
06. Chapter 06 - Games people play - Page 38
07. Chapter 07 - Sycophancy - Page 46
08. Chapter 08 - Of things not seen - Page 55
09. Chapter 09 - Children of the dark - Page 60
10. Interlude I - Arnav, Aged 17 - Page 66
11. Chapter 10 - Dangerous minds - Page 73
12. Chapter 11 - Spy vs. Spy - Page 80
13. Interlude II - Tara: A falling star - Page 87
14. Chapter 12 - Jailhouse Rock - Page 94
15. Chapter 13 - Karma - Page 101
16. Outtake 1 - Page 108
17. Chapter 14 - World Outside - Page 116
18. Chapter 15 - Blink - Page 123
19. Chapter 16 - Blurry Lines - Page 130
20. Chapter 17 - If Only - Page 137
21. Chapter 18 - Mad Season - Page 144

Chapter 01: God arithmetizes

She had walked without a fuss or the drama that generally followed men and women through the building whose architecture often reminded him of sacred geometry. His pale dotted hand rose in a bleak greeting; his eyes however were mocking contradicting the soft smile sporting on his lips. She curled her lips and shrugged her left shoulder delicately and ignored him.

The lack of shackles on her leg and arms indicated either she was already drugged or she knew what was coming to her. In his experience, the latter scared him the most.

"What's she in for, my good man?" He asked following the man and woman who were locking the girl behind door.

"Get lost Arnav," the woman sighed and pulled the door several times to be doubly sure of the locking mechanism.

"Oh, come on sweetheart don't be like that. Just a teeny bit of info and I am good to go," he smiled at her charmingly.

The woman looked at another man who shrugged carelessly. Arnav increased the charm amount in his smile. She sighed.

"That one," she said thumbing at the door. "She is a nice piece of work; a compulsive liar who is accused of killing her younger sister."

"And she says someone else did it, eh?" Arnav asked chewing his lower lip and scratched his eyebrow distractedly.

"Yeah, like someone will believe her. She is claiming it's her stepfather who did and then changed the story to a stranger with a weird mask and finally said both the stranger and the stepfather did it. She was found at the crime scene with the scissors which killed her sister in her hand and soaked in blood incoherently mumbling about nonsense." The woman said and left him alone in his thoughts.

"Hey nurse!" Arnav jogged to the woman who was walking away towards nurse station. "I am having trouble sleeping these days…do you think I can get something tonight? I think I will burst otherwise," he said crossing his fingers behind his back.

The nurse sighed. "You should take it up with Dr. Malvika Arnav. She will prescribe you something," nurse said knowing very well why he was asking her. She smiled inwardly as he let out a string of obscene words.

"I just want..." He trailed looking at the way she had become stiff and her had was slowly moving towards pocket which he knew very well why. She would sound an alarm using her wireless device and there would be four men within minutes and haul him to treatment room. That was the last place he wanted to be so he decided to stop that trail of thought.

"What's the girl's name?" He asked instead. He breathed a sigh of relief seeing her relax her shoulders a little.

"Why?" She asked carefully.

"I want to invite her to this asylum, of course," he said as a matter of fact.

"This isn't an asylum Arnav it is-"

"Yeah, yeah I know, I know," he said waving his hand and stopped her mid-sentence. "It's the house of crackpots," he said and started to laugh. Looking at her annoyed stance he decided to let it go for now. "It's a psychiatric facility for those who are mentally disturbed and are sensitive to their surroundings," he said flatly.

The nurse frowned at the unnecessary subjectivity of the facility. It was simply a private psychiatric facility which offered services to state law enforcement departments and also to private citizens. They tried to explain behavior and offer a lifestyle surrounding the said problem along with treatments.

According to him, his was the simplest case of all. He was a druggie with a serious anti-social behavior which his father always misunderstood as rebelliousness. He had no memory of volunteering to the facility. One day he woke up from the drug induced haze and found waking up in a locked cell.

He shook his head untangling the past clinging on like a spider's web and saw that the nurse was saying something.

"What?" He asked.

"Khushi." She replied. "You wanted to know her name and that's her name – Khushi."

YYYAAAYYY...

Bless ur bus journey...Thanks for writing and for your PM

Cheers

Yeah - another Arhi story by RB! I am so glad for your long bus trip. Kushi a killer? Can't picture this one as she is always so sweet. But then the sweetness surely hides other things we don't want people to see right. This is so intriguing now, depressed murderer or a wrongfully framed victim? And then a junkie Arnav! Oh the possibility of their convos in the loonie bin . . . Hope their cells are next to each other. I am sure with your writing style, we will get a very intense and intelligent story dwelving in their psyches. Looking forward to the next update.

Main aayi!

I get all excited when I see a PM from you, it is a "good" start to the day and this promises to be the beginning of an amazing journey. Of late, I don't recommend any stories to people I know in the IF world, I simply ask them to read everything you write. Labyrinth you say...I agree your mind is no less...

yay! i get so excited when you send out a pm... and justifiably so.

Beautiful part
thanx for the pm
Twinkle

600 Kanjis be damned..