The smoke from their burning tobacco filled the room. The bittersweet aroma of his cigar mingled with the mostly bitter aroma of her cigarette. Joining in with the mixture was the scent of Lilac rising from the light purple candle on her shelf. Ah, the smell of flowery cancer. He chuckled to himself at that. For the first time in quite a while, his spirits were high. He was half-tempted to uncork the bottle of merlot he kept in his closet until he remembered that they were in her office, not his. Ignatius normally didn't drop his guard this much unless he was in his own private area. The lack of light and pleasant company had lulled him into a comfortable state of relaxation.<br/><br/>He glanced over at the young woman on his arm. Now that the soft light of the candle could reach it, he supposed she'd notice the blood that stained his sleeve from where her nails had dug into it. The smoke she exhaled wafted over the raw wounds and made them burn as the harsh chemicals from her secondhand fumes interacted with his exposed flesh and blood. His nose twitched slightly, but otherwise he gave no outward signs of feeling it.<br/><br/>Watching as the gray mist poured forth from her unadorned lips, he wished that they would have had some sort of lipstick gently rolled across them to enhance the sensual effect. Even with decoration, however, her lips were still shapely and smooth. He watched as the smoke slowly passed between her parted lips and wondered if she intended for it to look as sexually charged as it did. Probably not, he decided. So far, she seemed oblivious to the underlying messages that could have been sent by her actions. Black lace, stockings, heels and a tight skirt, lighting a scented candle in an otherwise dark room as she pressed against a man right beside her….<br/><br/>He smiled. She was sexy in an interesting way. Some of the nurses in this place wore enough make-up to smother a horse, and they often walked like one to show off their rear ends. Of course, when they had a face like a horses’, who could blame them? For the most part, Ignatius ignored the blatant attempts and desperate advances of his underlings. Only a handful of the nurses here had had the privilege of joining him in bed.<br/>Ignatius was a focused man. His expression and attitude, like his features, were usually serious and intense. Locked away so high in the hills, miles away from any real form of civilization, one might wonder how such a man who was intense in all of his other endeavours could survive so long up here without physical companionship.<br/><br/>That’s what the patients were for.<br/>Some of them, at least.<br/><br/>“Yes, Doctor, the patients should do just fine. Many of them have grown accustomed to the blackouts. We all treat them like an old friend who still drops in every so often. We take a bit of time out of our day to converse and commune with the darkness.”<br/><br/>Long years of living up here had obviously taken their toll on Ignatius, yet what he said was true, especially for himself and the others who had been there for a long time. With so few opportunities to make friends, they found companionship wherever they could…even in the raw elemental force of a thunderstorm.<br/><br/>He pursed his lips as he drew deeply on his cigar, causing the tip to glow more brightly for a moment as a bit more of the exquisite brown leaf burned away into an oblivion of ash. Inhaling before continuing, he said “As for Jesus, I doubt he would be heralded by a cloud of sudden darkness. Trumpets, angels, and sunshine seem more fitting for Our Lord Savior.”<br/><br/>Ignatius—like his namesake, Ignatius of Loyola (or Saint Ignatius of Antioch. His parents had often argued over which he had been named for.), Ignatius had been raised as a devout Catholic.<br/><br/>Unlike those other two, more famous men named Ignatius; he had not founded the order of Jesuits or been a Bishop martyred in Rome. No, his lot in life was to care for the shunned children of God like a lone shepherd cared for the black sheep from a larger flock. Of course, his religious ways had never been particularly strong, but now he was not a lone shepherd any longer. A second caretaker had come along to lend her hand. Little Bo Peep had finally found her long-lost sheep.<br/><br/>He laughed to himself at that and at the religious comparisons he had just made in his mind. He was a man of science and psychology first and foremost. In the halls of this Asylum, religion played only a minor role in his life. He attended the weekly service held in the Chapel, but that was often the extent of his worship. After all, these were the men and women that God had cast out of His kingdom. They were the forsaken souls no longer bathed in the light of His grace; consequently, God disdained this place almost as much as he did it’s denizens.<br/><br/>Ignatius exhaled the cigar smoke as he spoke, thick gray wisps slowly curling over his lips and spiraling upwards, wreathing his face. He smiled at her and gently moved so that she would be pressed into him even more. "Don't worry about the darkness though. Even without Jesus, you should be safe enough for now. I know this place better than most, and I’ll protect you-  should the need arise.<br/><br/>Moving back to his earlier comment, he continued:<br/>“ Only a few of the patients react negatively to these events, and we have a system in place to see that they are taken are of". He did mention the fact that the system involved nothing more than letting them rot in their cells, screaming in torturous agony, wailing for rescuers that would never come. He figured she could find that out on her own and react accordingly. If she didn’t like it, then she could work to remedy the situation. Half of the mistreatment that happened at Lake Heart happened because they were too short-staffed to handle everything and everyone. (Of course, the other half of the mistreatment was purely intentional…)<br/><br/>“I hope you’ll be alright here. You seemed more alarmed than most people when the lights went out”<br/>he said with a bit of genuine concern in his voice. He was not only concerned with her being alright during the black-out but also during the months and years to come.<br/>