@xuteo liked for a LIL SOMETHING NEW !
IT’S OFTEN A CURIOSITY FOR LUDWIG: whether Frederick Chilton’s work in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane is as much for his own benefit as the benefit of the patients that he collects under its room. Indeed, it seems very much to Ludwig like collecting; Chilton has always seemed fond of his psychopaths. The Chesapeake Ripper is but one of his continuing obsessions and the one currently at large – Ludwig’s sure he’s had many more under his care... it takes an avid gatherer of the grotesque to know one, after all.
Just what degree of care they receive, as opposed to satisfying Chilton’s own fascinations, is yet unknown. The hospital is really no place for a doctor of Ludwig Humboldts’s qualifications, but he does make occasional visits. If only for the pleasure of hassling Chilton himself under the façade of academic interest.
His leisurely departure from Chilton’s office, one ever so routine, is disturbed by movement caught out of the corner of his eye. Head swivels to catch sight of the young man lingering not far down the hallway, one too small for the uniform that hangs off of him – he seems antsy. Impatient. Comfortable yet unfamiliar in his clothes.
❝ I don’t suppose he’s treating his orderlies as a secondary surveillance system now? He has cameras everywhere already, I’m sure. Recording devices, too. I think he can hear me whining even now. ❞ Ludwig wonders, vaguely, what exactly the nurse has been waiting there for. Like a predator lying in wait – the doctor suspects it’s not him that the orderly’s set his sights on. Ludwig’s already sorting through the contents of his pocket, searching for the car keys to his old Volkswagen Beetle, interest in the other man quickly dimming.
