“It’s odd to think that the country’s most dangerous people are below our feet right now,” John said as he observed the wildflowers that were currently surrounding the iconic tower of London.
“Yeah. You just wouldn’t have known if you didn’t know already,” Adele, John’s daughter, said.
John had not visited the Tower, or London since before the government built and opened New Bedlam Hospital for the Criminal Insane near the Earth’s core underneath it.
The knowledge of what was under the peaceful wildflower meadows and imposing Medieval fortress was quite unsettling to him.
“I wonder if the inmates are going to be brought up to the surface so they can see these flowers,” Grant Corbellings, Adele’s boyfriend who had black thick rimmed plastic glasses and an unusually plastic looking nose and moustache, said.
“I don’t see why not,” Adele said. “It would be good for their mental health to be surrounded by wildflowers and fresh air for half an hour.”
“It wouldn’t be in the best interests of public safety to have a load of psychopaths on the prowl.” John said.
“They may have changed, having been in a mental facility for a couple of years,” Grant said.
“I would hope so,” Adele said. “Otherwise there wouldn’t be much point in putting them in there. Unless, of course, there was no intention of helping them and they’re simply there to be conveniently out of the way from polite society.”
“I’m sure they’d have special security measures in place if they are planning to allow the patients to see the Superbloom.” John said. “Such as showing them round once the public has gone.”
“I guess so,” Adele said.
John, Adele, and Grant continued to walk among the wildflowers that surrounded the moat. John took photos to show Jo for inspiration for the wildflower meadow she was planning on doing in Lower Strangling.
Afterwards, they then entered the tower itself.
John surveyed the Medieval, Tudor, and Georgian components of the iconic fortress around him.
He’d forgotten how beautiful it was, how peaceful, how quiet. It was all rather ironic considering its history, and what was currently 5,000ft below it.
“I bet if it wasn’t a tourist attraction, the government would have built New Bedlam inside the Tower, not underneath it,” Adele said, admiring the elaborate graffiti left behind on the walls by prisoners past.
“That was probably the original plan,” John said, “but they probably had to build underneath it because Historic Royal Palaces was having none of it.”
“If that’s the case, then I’m glad they had their way.” Adele said.
“Me too,” John said.
Later on, John, Adele, and Grant had lunch.
“I think the authorities should place Patrick O’Brien in New Bedlam.” Adele said. “The man’s clearly psychotic, considering his history.”
“Yeah.” Grant said. “However, he could become the success he is, is beyond me. It really is.”
“If that is to happen, then someone from London would have to come up and do it.” John said. “Stuart will go nowhere near him soon. I’m sure he’s the only person he’s afraid of.”
“Well, something has to happen to him eventually,” Adele said. “He simply can’t continue as he is.”
With that, John, Adele, and Grant continued having their lunch.
After visiting the rest of the Tower and buying some Tower themed gifts for John’s birthday in the shop, John, Adele, and Grant left and went home to their flat in Hampstead.
When all the visitors had left for the evening, four men in white coats and a man strapped to a trolley in a straight jacket and a mask rose from the depths of the Thames behind the Traitor’s Gate.
They had brought Dr Scamander Trout to the surface to see the Superbloom.
“Look at the pretty flowers,” one man said to Scamander in a patronising tone as they wheeled him around the flowers.
Scamander did not respond. He simply stared straight ahead of him as they wheeled him around the wildflowers.
And so, one by one, they brought the patients of New Bedlam up to the surface and wheeled round the moat of the Tower, the citizens on the other side of the Tower walls being none the wiser.
The Lower Strangling Chronicles 