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“How did you end up here, bro?” He grabbed his shoulder intimately, “If it’s personal, I promise I won’t tell anyone else.” He raised a hand as if taking a vow.

Lineas scratched his head, “I robbed the bank, but something went wrong so I ended up here.”

“Oh, robbing a bank is the dream of many,” Derer clasped his hands and spoke with a dramatic expression, “But your way of doing it was not good. Otherwise,  you wouldn’t have been caught! The best way to steal was through the internet. Roads go everywhere there, and you can s.h.i.+p anything. Actually once that thing was invented there’s nothing safe anymore. Spend a tiny bit of time and you can make the world a huge mess! Hey, I’ve tried it before, bro, It’s not popular anymore to pull out a gun in the bank. We need intelligent crimes, conducted on the other side of the world, j.a.pan, Spain, Africa or f.u.c.king wherever. We could steal millions or billions and leave those dumba.s.ses in a rage while we dance in exotic hotels with women in our arms!” He looked at him excitedly, then after several seconds, he realized it and made a gesture, “Sorry, I was too excited. You can go on.”

“Eh… I am not clever enough to do what you’ve described. I just wanted to try, if money is really that hard to get, so d.a.m.n important! Lucy died, my girlfriend… She was sick, and she needed money to get a new kidney. As long as we had the money, it would have been fine… but we didn’t. I was just a poor boy in the ghetto. I tried everything I could yet I still couldn’t get money. We shared a joke, “Oh my G.o.d, let’s rob the bank!”. We planned it together, to entertain ourselves. Then she died, because we had no money. She suffered so much, and eventually died. The next day, I got a gun and walked into the bank… I wanted to see if the thing that was so hard to get was really so d.a.m.n important that it was worth more than Lucy’s life!”

“Then some b.i.t.c.h set off the alarm and cops surrounded the bank. I had hostages, so they didn’t dare to come in, but I didn’t know what to do next. I didn’t have any experience… The criminals on TV would tell the cops to prepare millions of dollars and a helicopter with a full tank of gas, then escape with a beautiful hostage. Maybe they’d even have an affair. But I stood there with no idea what to do. I didn’t want to escape at all. So what if I could escape? I felt so stupid. Outside were excited journalists and and a crowd watching. The cops yelled at me to surrender… they didn’t know I was only a failed loser!

“I shot the b.i.t.c.h that called the police. I made her stand in front of the gla.s.s door and killed her in front of the cops, then I shot the hostages one by one, all in their face… They shouted and claimed I was crazy, but I knew I was sober at that time. I killed five people, on camera, in full view of the public, one by one just like killing chickens… I was a f.u.c.king loser, a clown that people talked about over their coffee, the clown that those people looked down on! I couldn’t get anything, everything belongs to them, so what does it matter if I kill some of them? I can only send myself here in the end.”

“This is very silly,” Derer said, “The sentence wouldn’t be too harsh for robbery only, especially if you turn yourself in. But now you have to spend half of your life in a prison for the worst criminals.”

Lineas grinned, “This doesn’t seem like something you would care about.”

Derer was quiet for a while, then stood up and hugged him. Lineas stiffened. He felt Derer’s slightly awkward hands stroking his hair, like a mom with her crying child. Indistinguishable murmurs in his ears brought him comfort and warmth.

He had no idea why he did that. He’s a psycho, so everything about him was strange, but he reckoned that he didn’t hate the hug. He knew that Derer wanted to comfort him. It had been many years since someone wanted to comfort him, although with Derer being a madman, maybe he learned it from the TV and happened to want to try it out today.

Then he realized this was a good chance. Although Derer was very dangerous, Lineas didn’t think he disliked him, especially since he’s hugging him right now. Even though technically he’s the one “being hugged”, he could clearly feel the slender body in his arms, which fit his embrace so temptingly well. His waist was so small that he could easily wrap his arm around it.

When they slowly parted, he tried to make more progress. The eyes of the man in his arms were like a child’s. The eyes of adults are sophisticated and indifferent, but his eyes are so curious, enthusiastic, and… lunatic. A grown-up wouldn’t have such eyes.

He approached his soft-curved lips. They were slightly open and looked so s.e.xy. He wanted to taste him so badly. He wanted to kiss him. He liked this person. He felt Derer obviously stiffen. The moment he touched his lips and felt their warmth and tenderness, he was pushed away!

Lineas stood there awkwardly, watching Derer kneeling on the floor heaving his guts out.

“d.a.m.n it…” Derer moaned. In front of him was a pile of vomit. He had spewed his dinner out, but he was still dry heaving bile.

“d.a.m.n it… How could you do this!” He yelled in anger, “How dare you do that! At least you should ask for my permission first! Then I would have told you no, because I have trauma about kissing! Do you f.u.c.king know what trauma is?! It’s not the same as being scared, it’s so strong that I will freeze and want to die! d.a.m.n…” he retched, “My brain stops functioning and I can’t move at all… Oh, of course I am better, now that old man is dead! I f.u.c.king abhorred him kissing me, telling me ‘open your mouth, baby, let me taste you’! d.a.m.n! That loose-skinned, meat-dangling, triple-chinned, obese pig!” He walked around in circles, then started heaving again with the support of the iron bars. Poor Lineas hid in the corner of the room.

He suddenly pointed his finger at Lineas, “You!” He yelled, “Get out, get out! Go ring the bell, and tell the cops I want to kill you, and ask them to arrange you to spend the night wherever! Also clean up that pile of stuff. I don’t want to see your face! d.a.m.n, you make me want to kill!”

“The bell is right next to you…” Lineas said in a faint voice.

Derer smashed the b.u.t.ton with a fist. He hit it violently, cursing loudly, “Are all the cops dead! A murder is going to take place right here, d.a.m.n it!” After repeated smashes, there was still no sight of cops in the hallway. The bell was smashed so hard that it had sunk inside the wall. He turned back and complained, “The cops today are too lazy. How dare they take the money from the taxpayers!”

He kicked the TV to the floor, where it broke into pieces in loud blasts that were especially scary at night. Then he kicked over the TV stand, swearing, “How much money have I paid all those years to these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds that treated me horribly! I spent tons of money, and paid tons of consumption taxes, contribute millions to the economy, and that’s how they pay me back! Even though you need to spend money anyways! The television and commercials only scam you into buying their stuff, and when you hear enough of it you think you really need it! Then you toil and moil to earn money to buy things you don’t need, to feed a monster! They call it the economy! It keeps sucking your blood, but treats you like a piece of dog s.h.i.+t!” He cursed while smas.h.i.+ng everything he could smash to the ground, and creating a huge mess of the room. “If you let them suck your blood then you’re a good citizen, and if you refuse you get sent to an asylum! It controls everyone, telling them you’re insane, because your existence threatens its growth, because you don’t want it to suck your blood…” – he kept going, until the cops rushed in.

Quincy and Truman grabbed him from behind, and Lineas unexpectedly noticed Olay among them. Derer struggled for all he’s worth, while yelling, “I’ve had enough of it! At least in this place they can leave me alone! Hey, send the kid away, I don’t want to see him… I know, I know, I am being crazy, a crazy man of course will go crazy! Oh, injections again!”

Quincy saw the vomit on the floor and complained to Olay, “I told you not to give him too much tranquilizer. That’s bad for the brain. Look at him, spewing everywhere.”

Olay was comforting Derer as he finished the injection. He heard Quincy’s complaint and answered, “If the effect of the drug was too strong then he would be lying quietly in bed instead of being like this. I’ve said so, his brain is hyperactive and different than ordinary people. Sometimes tranquilizers have no effects on him. When he’s hysterical, he can’t control his body, and his autonomic nervous system dysfunctions. I suspect there are other reasons that caused him to throw up.”

Lineas kept his mouth tightly shut and said nothing.

“Man, and you told me that psychos have hyper-functional brains?” Truman asked sarcastically.

“Some are, and Derer’s situation is even more special.” Olay said. There’s only a very thin line between genius and crazy, and obviously Derer is the latter.

The crazy man looked better. They helped him sit on the floor. He waved at Olay, “Doctor, ask the a.s.shole to get out! I don’t want to see his face. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee not to dig his eyeb.a.l.l.s out in the middle of the night.”

Olay s.h.i.+vered. He told the cops in a low voice, “He’s serious. He’s done it before.”

Lineas helped clean up the room before being escorted out. When he looked back he saw Derer sitting on his bed, smiling creepily at him. He looked away, and followed the guards out. He would spend the night in some other cell that had an empty bed tonight, for example Jim’s cell – thanks to Jim starting trouble with Lineas, he’s currently lying in the infirmary.

I will definitely not request to come back here because of nostalgia, he thought.

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