His arms open like he’s about to fly away and he goes nowhere. And a second or two later, his legs give in to his weight and he plops on the floor with no moans, with no sounds. Patiently, the nurses help him up again and eventually they put him back to bed.

I always observe him from a corner of the room, my arms folded, my back resting on the closed door, my eyes half-closed, doing my best to watch him with that particular detachment that only scientists have. Often I succeed in this. Some other times, it’s more difficult.

Mine is not pity or compassion or empathy. He is just a mass of flash and nerves and muscles and bones with no brain left and I cannot feel sorry for a practically inanimate being.

Mine is job, job is job, business is business. Above all, money is money. Somebody is paying me to look at this guy and try to understand if he can be useful to our purposes or not. Honestly, I am almost entirely positive that he can be only useful to diapers.

Anyway, I am a patient person. I learned to be what my employers want me to be. It’s quite easy when you have tons and tons of money regularly accredited on your Swiss account.

I run the palm of my hand on the smooth surface of my skull and it’s not as smooth as it should be. I must shave my head again. It’s my own personal hobby, after all, the last one left. These days, I barely have time to piss, to fuck or to drink a beer.

Which is good, because my job needs concentration and stillness of mind. If you’re lucid, your brain reacts faster.

I chuckle inwardly realizing that all this game, this entire plan, is only related to brain after all. My brain, engrossed in the best, most prudential, most silent, rapidest ways to shed blood. My employer’s brain, concentrated on revenge in the purest of forms. This guy’s brain, a total void. Except for Lucy, the sky and the diamonds.

”Fortune, fame
Mirror vain
Gone insane
But the memory remains
Heavy rings on fingers wave
Another star denies the grave
See the nowhere crowd
Cry the nowhere cheers of honor
Like twisted vines that grow
Hide and swallow mansions whole
In light of an another
Faded primadonna”