The Pale King - I
The Pale King
Westknell Township Sanitarium’s border fence touches the old
Westknell Cemetery on its eastern side. The common room has a clear view of the stone edifices below. They serve as a reminder
of the inevitably of death for some and the remembrance of passed loved ones to
others. To the infirm and insane of Westknell it is seen as a portal to another
world. Talk is often heard, by the orderlies, as inane babble, coughed curses,
and drooled remarks of past lives lost and fractured to the slow steady tick of
mental decay. But there is one man who sits in silence among the dull witted
and drooling. He is revered by the patients and studied by the staff.
Most men in the ward are regarded by
their level of dangerous inclinations. Yellow level patients are cordoned off
for they are the most violent. Red level patients are docile but easily provoked
if not kept an eye on. Blue level patients are docile and complacent, often
lost in their own worlds babbling to themselves. Green level patients seem almost
normal with how they act, kept for observation until they are deemed either
worthy to leave or condemned to stay. Black level patients aren't criminally
insane but are handed over to the sanitarium by the state for preservation. They
rank highest on the invalid scales. And then there is the silent man. He has his
own distinction among the orderlies.
The white level patient.
He is either vegetative or absent
from his vessel like a soul on a vacation, the workers do not know. He eats his
food slowly, mechanically. He does his bodily functions in time and sleeps with
eyes half open, irises pointed back towards his skull. The white level patient
is the only one of his kind at Westknell. And he will remain that way if the warden
has any say of it.
The
other patients however have a different name for the silent man. The first day
he was rolled into the common room, after being found in a home abandoned by
his family some months before, covered in filth, malnourished and certainly
dying, he was met with disdain, concern, and fear by some of the other levels. The
docile reds were provoked almost immediately by his presence. The blue patients
spoke less and less in the first days of his arrival, most becoming mute. The
green patients reverted to previous levels of insanity at the sight of him only
calming down after two months of recovery therapy that they had completed
months prior to his arrival. The whole ward was in a stir. The strangest occurrence
however had been in the mood of the yellows. As has been stated Yellow patients
are deemed the most violent of insane offenders. Having murdered, or raped, or mutilated,
or in some cases committed all three atrocities or some variation of each before
being brought to Westknell for “treatment”. Treatment being a loose term in
their case as they were too far gone to be helped.
When
the silent man arrived, the orderlies noticed a quieting of the yellow block
where the yellow patients were kept. They banged less on their padded cells.
They cried out less, cursed less, shat on themselves less. Attempted to hurt
the orderlies less. And were almost cured of their insanity. One doctor, a Dr.
Henry Starcross, wondered if there was some aura in the silent man that caused
a stir in the less beleaguered but calmed the more insane.
After two
weeks things settled back to their old ways, but the silent man remained the center
of things. The babblers started to speak of something new and it was repeated
in the discussion circles. A new name had emerged to describe the silent man. A
new level of respect shown him for reasons none of the staff could explain. When
asked, a green level patient remarked, “He will save us…he will lead us to
salvation.” Very religious sentiment coming from a man who had been deemed an atheist
in his own words.
When asked
who he meant the man responded with three words:
“The Pale
King.”
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