Chapter Text
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
The sound of the grandfathers clock's pendulum echoes in the living room of a farm house. A little girl was playing near the window looking over the edge of the forest. The weather was fine, clouds forming in the sky, the sun shining brightly in the middle of the day—a perfect day.
Isabella the little girl who was paying near the window heard a noise—a crying noise to be exact. She was alone in their house, her parents are at work and her siblings are at school, her babysitter fell asleep while they watched a gruesome documentary about a gruesome serial killer. She looked out the window and saw their guard dogs fighting a group of coyote trying to take one of the sheep's from their farm. A normal child will be frightened at the sight of this gruesome interactions between the animals, but Isabella was different, she watched as the dogs bit and tear the skin off of the coyote's legs, and the way the coyote's fight back with their sharp claws and teeth.
After a few minutes, the escalation of the fight finished and the coyotes failing to capture their prey, they all retreated to the woods except for one, a very injured coyote, it's legs was skinned and it's right front leg and left back leg was broken and twisted giving the creature no way of escaping and retreating back to the forest.
Isabella noticed this animal crawling, trying to go follow it's pack but was unsuccessful. she looked back at her baby sitter, still sleeping, and looked at the show they were watching, it was the scene of the reenactment of the dissection of the killer to his victims and how he did it. Isabella listened and watched intensely as the show explain every process of the killing. As Isabella was intensely watching the documentary, a glint of light caught her eyes from the kitchen. She walked slowly and followed the light that shone to her eyes just minutes ago. There in the counter top lay a utility kitchen knife. The babysitter forgot to place the knife at the sink when she sliced the pineapple into bits for Isabella that morning.
Isabella climbed on the seat and reached for the knife and lend it, slowly she climbed down from the seat making little to no noise for it can wake her baby sitter. Isabella walked back to the window looking for the coyote and there she saw it walking in the boarder of the forest—still breathing but barely. She slowly walked into the from door and walked down the porch of the house, grabbing her helmet on her way out. She put the knife on the basket of her bike and put her helmet on—safety first indeed.
She grabbed the handle of her bike and pedaled with her training wheels on the side of her bike. As she reached the edge of the forest, she slowly saw clearly the size of the coyote, it was a bit smaller than her. The coyote was passed out due to the loss of blood but it was still breathing. Isabella looked back at her bike and saw ribbons tied at both ends of the handle, she untied the ribbon and slowly approached the coyote, as she was approaching the guard dogs approached behind her but stopped behind her as if waiting to charge in case the coyote wakes up. She slowly approached the passed out animal and tied its snout shut—she tied it with a mix of knots and loops, it was sloppy but tight tie. The other ribbon she used to loop loosely on the coyote's neck, she then went back to her bike and grabbed the knife in the basket of her bike and resumed her position on looping the loose loop on the animals neck. As she was holding the both end of the ribbon she looked back at the dogs watching her, she then slowly tightened the loop on the coyotes neck, and as Isabella expected it tried to trash around to get her off of its back but was unsuccessful. Isabella waited until the chayote stopped moving and breathing, she held up for another two minute—just for good measure.
She let go of the ribbon and untied the snout of the animal she retrieved the ribbons and tied it again on her bicycle. She went back to the body of the coyote, and took the knife she placed near the body, she slowly raised the knife and slowly cut the chest of the coyote, she loosely followed the dissection of the serial killer she have watched, the cuts, and the placements of the organs. She Opened the coyote fully and took one organ bu another and organized it by size beside the corpse of the animal. When she reached the heart she ripped it out as if it were only a stuck toy on a sticky surface and the she reached the lungs, she tried to pull the lungs out fully but was unable, so she cut it on the trachea.
She laid every organ of the coyote beside the body except for the brain. the eyes was scooped out using the knife, and the tongue was also cut off. as she finished the arrangements of the last organ, she rose to stand and admired her work, Isabella felt pride as she looks at her masterpiece. She took a one last look at the corpse of the coyote and spoke for the first time today-she took a deep breath and said "See? You're much better now, the mean dogs left you hurting, so helped the hurting go away" Isabella said innocently and pity, but underneath those words rises pride for her work, she then turned her back to the corpse and put on the helmet and rode her bike back to the house leaving the knife beside the coyotes head along with the organized organs by size.
She approached the house and got of her bike, walked up to the porch and sat on a chair. She listened to the birds chirping and the soft wind whispering to her, she looked at her hands that was dirty and said to herself that she will wash it after a while. She then focused on the peacefulness of her soundings and didn't realize she have fallen asleep on the rocking chair, nor the state of mess she was in.
"Isabella! Isabella! Wake upp!"
A knock on her door woke Isabella up from her peaceful slumber.
She rose up and opened the door of her room. There she saw her sister Victoria standing in near the door hands crossed.
"Tori, what are you doing here?" Isabella asked as she walked pass her sister to the kitchen of her apartment.
"What am I doing? What are you doing! You're gonna be late for class!" Victoria said as she rushes and pushed Isabella to the bathroom.
"No I'm not Tori, it's like 6am in the morning" Isabella shouted as she brushes her teeth and fixes her hair.
"It's 7:50 Bella, you still have 10 minutes to get ready and get to your class" Victoria said strictly from outside the bathroom.
"Crap" Isabella said as she rushes out the bathroom door and went to change for school.
"You have 7 minutes Bella" Tori said counting down the time for her sister.
"Yeah, yeah, wipe that smugness off your face, I can be at class in no time." Isabella said as she rushed out the door of her apartment and ran to her class. Her apartment was just around the corner of NYU so all she had to do was run really fast.
As she approached her class she went inside and sat near the door, she looked at the time and it was exactly 8am. So she decided to text her sister saying:
"Guess who got to class in time, ME" and sent.
A few minutes later she got a reply saying "Guess who would be late if I didn't wake her up?"
Isabella read the message and replied "Touché tori" and sent and at the same time her class commenced.
She is currently taking BS Applied Psychology she is on her last Academic year before she graduates, and in this moment she will have the best news in her whole college experience.
"Alright class, may I have your attention!" their Professor, Professor Robby said to gather the attention of the students.
"This academic year you will have a clinical case study that you will submit at the end of this year to secure yourself a spot for graduation. This study will take place at a psychiatric hospital in New York, and luckily for this year, NYU got an approval to conduct this study at Claremont Psychiatric Hospital. Do not worry students, you will have the choice to choose who will be the patient you will study. The list will be sent to you tonight in our forum, just kindly choose your patient and add your name on the file name for properly selecting your case study. Any Questions?" He stated.
Some of the students raised their hands and asked question, mainly about the safety of the students during their case study. Professor Robby assured them that a guard will be there watching and alert at every movement of each patients.
"Oh class, remember, If you are in the room with the patient, do not and I will emphasize this, Please Do Not Cross The Red Line. It's for your safety." He reminded them.
"Any more questions?" he asked again, and no more hands are raised.
The class was dismissed and it was the only class Isabella have for her last year, since she took advance classes in the past 3 years of her college life.
"Hey Bella!" someone shouted and Bella turned to look who called her. It was a classmate of her, Thea.
"uhh Yeah? what's up?" Bella asked.
"We were just thinking on going shopping, do you wanna come with us?" Thea asked excitedly.
"I would love to Thea, but I gotta do some research on this case study we will having, you know, crazy people" Isabella said with a hint of sorry and sarcasm in her voice.
"Oh yeah, that crazy people" Thea said and they both laughed
"OK then, I'll see you tomorrow! Bye Bella" Thea said while jogging to her group of friends.
"Bye!" Bella said smiling and waiving goodbye. But as she turner around her smile cracked and slowly morphed into an emotionless face.
She rushed to her apartment and went straight to her laptop and looked into their forum waiting for the list. A few hours later a notification appeared and Isabella went straight to the list looking into the names searching for that 1 name. Dr. Martin Whitly, also nicknamed as The Surgeon.
She read every name and their file until she found what she was looking for.
"Well, hello Dr. Whitly" Isabella said to herself with satisfaction and excitement as she typed her name beside the name of the patient on the file name and it enter. She smiled as the name of the file updated, excited for the day she will meet The Surgeon.