An HSS assignment, if you please..

The Patient

Excerpts from the personal psychiatrist’s notes of Dr. Josephine Canard, at the Arkham asylum for the criminally insane:

Case no. 132

Monday, July 31

Interesting case. Male, of unknown age, looks to be in his late thirties. The subject has a face that ‘hides traces of past brilliance under a disarming mask of weariness’ (sic. Police report. They all think they’re poets). He has however committed a string of murders in the past month. All his victims were females and all were killed in the same way: he gouged out their eyes and then proceeded to hollow out their brain. Mortuary reports indicate that some patients died with the shock of having their eyes gouged out, but unfortunately most didn’t. It also indicates no signs of sexual abuse of any sort, which to me seems to rule out any sexual motives. He calls himself Narcissus and refuses to respond to any other name.

“Hello, my name is Dr. Josephine Canard and I will be treating you and hopefully in time, we will be able to cure you enough to shift you out of our facility and into a high security prison. What’s your name?”

(Silence)

“Look you have to tell me your name or I’ll have to address you as 132. Now that’s hardly nice, is it? You can trust me, whatever we say will remain within the confines of these four walls. So come on, tell me your name.”

“Narcissus.”

“Now come on, be cooperative and tell me your real name.”

“I am. I did.”

“Very well then, Narcissus. Are you aware of the crimes you’ve committed?”

“I committed no crimes. I exacted the revenge that was mine.”

“Revenge? Do you remember what exactly you did?”

“Yes. I punished them for imprisoning me. And for killing one who tried to help me.”

“Why did they imprison you? Who tried to help you? Look, there –was- no connection between the people you killed. They were all in different states of the country for God’s sake. Now I ask you again; are you aware of the crimes you committed?”

“They were not crimes.”

He kept up with this and we made no further headway today. Subject seemed detached, self-absorbed, seemed not to really be paying attention to what I was saying. Most likely the patient just suffers from acute schizophrenia. Delusional. Perhaps we will find his true identity tomorrow.
____

Tuesday, August 1

“Hello 132, and how are you today?”

(Silence)

“Alright then, Narcissus, how are you?”

“Fine thank you, Dr. Duck.”

“So, Narcissus, tell me something about yourself. Where were you born, what were your parents like?”

“I believe you call it Greece now. And they were.”

“Were what?”

“Just were. They aren’t now. No one remembers them anymore.”

“Oh, so sorry… So tell me, what were the like?”

“It doesn’t matter. They did me no harm.”

“So, Narcissus, Why do you choose to call yourself that? Do you love mythology?”

(A low guttural laugh, slowly building to a crackling crescendo)

“Did I say something funny?”

(Dying laughter) “No, not really.. well, in a sense. You won’t understand.”

“Yes I will, Narcissus. They pay me to do just that, you know? Tell me, and even if I don’t, I will try my best, that’s a promise.”

“I am him.”

“Come again?”

“I am him. I am it. I am the embodiment of the myth. I am Narcissus.”

“I’m sorry, I find that hard to believe, but I did promise that I will try my best to. So tell me, if you really are Narcissus, then how’re you still alive? The myth, I’m led to believe is at least two millennia old.”

“Dr. Canard, ‘let’s say you believe me’. Do you really know who my parents were? I’m sure the myth tells you that as well.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to tell me, I’m not much of a mythology buff.”

“My father was Cephisus, and my mother was Leiriope. Do you know what you would call them today? Gods. Divine beings. Anthropomorphic beings. And that really is the truth.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you are still alive today.”

“You answered your own question. You knew me. You knew of me. It’s the same thing. No one remembers my parents anymore. They don’t embody the rivers, the idea of spirits anymore. No one remembers them. No one believes in them. I, on the other hand am the very embodiment of narcissism. I am built right into your characters to varying degrees, but I am there. My existence as a concept assures my existence as an individual.”

“… I, I don’t know what to say. You make a very strong argument, unscientific as it sounds.”

“I think you’ve had enough for a day, Dr. Canard. And so have I.”

The subject is deeply delusional, much more than I thought. But he made a deeply cogent argument today which makes me doubt my initial diagnosis. There is a sincerity in his voice that transcends all medical reason. Could it be that he isn’t lying after all? Now that would have interesting consequences.
____

Wednesday, August 2

“Hello again, Narcissus.”

“Hello Doctor.”

“So how’re you feeling today? Ready to talk some more?”

“Fine. Yes.”

“So tell me about yourself. What was your childhood like?”

“Good.”

“Come on, surely you can do better than that?”

“I wish not to.”

“Alright then, tell me about your imprisonment.”

“I was imprisoned.”

“By?”

“The nymphs. They played on my vanity to assure their own immortality.”

“To assure their own immortality?”

“Ask me not, how they did this, I am unsure of it myself. But I do know that they sought to entrap me and immortalize me in order to feed of my life-force to attain their own immortality.”

“And how exactly did they entrap you?”

“Surely you know my myth? That I fell in love with my own reflection?”

“I’m afraid that’s about all that I do know of it.”

“Well, I was a vain young man and ‘tis true that I spurned the love of the nymph, Echo, but it weren’t her prayers that cursed me to fall in love with my own reflection. The poor thing, she tried, in fact, to warn me of the trap that lay ahead, but knowing the love she bore me, hopeless though it was, the other nymphs cursed her to talk only in response to me. Unfortunately I asked all the wrong questions. I wandered to the nymphs’ pond and I was caught in a spell when I gazed upon it. But it wasn’t the spell of my own beauty, which -was- unsurpassed. Only a fool might, and I was no fool. It was a device of the nymphs’ making. They trapped me and whence they had devised the flower that also now bears my name, to mark the spot where I was trapped, they sped me away to the underworld and imprisoned me there.”

“That is quite a story you’ve spun. What else did the nymphs do to you?”

“You do not believe me. My rambling this way is pointless. I must show you.”

(A brilliant flash as Narcissus’ face becomes etched in light and transforms into a thing of utter beauty)

“Now do you believe me, doctor?”

“Oh, my God. You… you weren’t lying were you?”

“I told the whole truth.”

“I, I think that is enough for today.”

“So be it.”

It is him. He is in my hands. I must make the next move.
____

Monday, August 7

“Hello Narcissus. This will be our final decision. I have heard enough and will try my best to do all that I can for you. Now I have one final question for you. Do you recognize me?”

“Should I?”

“Look closer, Narcissus. You showed your true self to me yesterday. Now let me return the favor.”

(Another bright flash, as Doctor Josephine’s face becomes etched with light and transforms into a younger, more beautiful form of itself)

“ECHO? Is that you? This then is my most fortuitous day yet! I am a man much wiser than the vain young boy who spurned you all those centuries ago! For your warnings shall not go unheeded this time.”

“Umm, yes, look, about that. The nymphs and I sat down and had a talk. A real heart to heart, you might say. And we came to the conclusion that I don’t need to waste my life being in a dead-end situation, what with loving you and all that and immortality in general is better for us, all around, so if you don’t mind.. oh, what am I saying, of course you’ll mind, he he.. Well, in any case, I’m going to see to it that you’re locked up here, temporarily of course, until such time that we can arrange to break you out and return you to your lodgings in the underworld. Which reminds me, how did you ever manage to break out? We’ll have to make your lodgings more escape-proof this time, you know, and I rather we got it out of you without having to resort to… unsavory means.”

“YOU WILY BITCH! HOW DARE YOU? RELEASE ME AT ONCE!”

“Goodbye Narcissus. Don’t worry, I’ll visit you on my yearly vacation to Hades.”
____

To: The District Attorney, Gotham City
Cc: The warden, Arkham asylum
Bcc: Dr. Gregory Malloy, head psychiatrist, Arkham asylum
Date: Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Subject: Regarding case no. 132, ‘Narcissus’

Dear Sirs,

I have carried through a thorough psychiatric examination of patient no. 132 and based on the results of these and my interview sessions with him, I have concluded that the patient is suffering from extreme schizophrenia and is highly mentally unstable. It is my advice that he be held here at Arkham asylum for the criminally insane under maximum security for he will constitute a major threat to society should he manage to escape. Furthermore, I would advice that my sessions with him continue as before, for he would yield a fascinating case-study in schizophrenia.

Yours truly,

Dr. Josephine Canard.

“Nicely done, Echo. I can see that you have taken to being a human like a duck takes to water. Tell me, could that be the reason that you chose the surname Canard? I took a jab at it, but you seemed not to notice.”

“Narcissus!? How… how’d you manage to break out? You were under heavy guard!”

“Shush now, surely you’ll allow me my secrets? Anyways, the reason I came to see you before I broke out was to say goodbye.”

“And kill me?”

“No, no, you tried to save me once, and I owe you your life for that. Of course, if you try to get in my way again… Goodbye Echo. I can honestly say that I hope to never see you again.”

“Please, stop! I can’t let you go. You have to fight me. You have no idea what the others will do to me when they find out. Death at your hand would be infinitely sweeter a fate.”

“To quote Rhett Butler… frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

-- Ende --