Mind Over Psyche Read Online Free

narrowed on Joshua.
    â€œWhy is he drugged to the gills?” Joshua replied, but he looked at the carpet, the equipment, the walls, anywhere but at the psychiatrist’s battered face. Could Deryl really have done this?
    Malachai answered with patronizing patience. “We decided it was a more humane way to control him than placing him in restraints and putting him in an increased intensity ward, of which he has a most particular dread, as you know. His aunt and uncle are coming down this evening to discuss his future treatment. This may be his last day with us at the South Kingston.”
    Now, Joshua met his eye s. “What?”
    â€œI know you’ve become quite attached to him—that was our error, asking you to befriend him so. You did a fine job. Things seemed so hopeful…I’d like you to spend today with him, not as a psychologist, but as a friend. ” He rose.
    Joshua followed suit. “Um, ye ah, sure.”
    Malachai reached out and placed a fatherly hand on his shoulder. “Go get one of those lattes you’re so fond of and take a few minutes to get yourself together. And keep in mind that Sachiko is also particularly close to Deryl. This is going to be a blow for your fiancée, and she’s going to need your strength.”
    Again, Joshua looked over the room, the chief psychiatrist’s wounds. “It doesn’t make sense,” he muttered.
    â€œSometimes, we cannot predict a client’s reaction to certain treatments or stimuli. It’s a difficult lesson, and I’m sorry you had to learn it before your career had even begun. Now go on. I suspect if Deryl isn’t already in his room, he will be shortly.”
    Mutely, Jo shua left.
    *
    R un. Fight.
    The drugs they had given Deryl had split his mind in three.
    A part of himself lay curled up in a corner of his mind, gibbering, assailed by outside thoughts he could not shield against. Occasionally, he cried for Tasmae, calling her Miscria, the title she had used when she first came to him; sometimes, he begged for his guard ian angel.
    A second part, the part that was in control of his body, lay slumped and smiling, wrapped in a warm, fuzzy, comfortable uncaring. Everything was okay. And if it got less okay, they’d come and give him something to make it better. He just had to do what they said, and he could bask in the nice, comf y nothing.
    The third part of his mind, he managed to shield from the effects of the drugs: the conscious, panicked, thinking Deryl. He had railed against his other selves, tried to pull them into rationality, but the drugs were too strong. He could not make his body move, though it responded easily enough to routine and the suggestions of the staff. He was barely able to gather psychic energy; it came in slow, thick drips, like the last drops of honey from a jar. So he waited, fighting the terror that would leave him curled up like his other self and trying to push back a longing to join Tasmae in the Netherworld. Confusing as his times with her had been, at least he’d felt safe with her. Nonetheless, that kind of escape might ease his mind, but it wouldn’t help his situation.
    Joshua will help me. I just have to hang on. He thought he’d managed to send him a message, to sneak the movements past his too-amiable self. Then, Malachai appeared and whisked him off, leaving Deryl in the care of an orderly who escorted him to his room and told him to stay there. Just as he was to leave, Deryl had managed one desperate though t command.
    The orderly, Paulie, sighed with exa speration.
    â€œDon’t just sit there like an idiot. Draw or something. You like to draw.” He thrust paper and pencil in his hands and left.
    Deryl’s compliant self sketched obediently, without awareness of hi s subject.
    Inside, however, thinking Deryl smiled i n victory.
    *
    â€œHey, Deryl, how’re you doing?” Joshua pushed the door fully open and walked in slowly,