The windowless door creaked as he entered the room. That dreaded monotonous sound from the outside became overshadowed by the hard pattering of footsteps. Every step felt as though there was a story behind it, or stories rather. They grew louder. The door opened, but there was no creak this time.

"Good morning... Burnie, is it?"

There was no response, no reaction, no glimpse of any interest, just eyes fixed upon the young woman who had entered.

"Well, my name is Doctor Marlow. Shall we begin?"

"Honey, it began thirteen years ago" he responded.

"I'm not going to lie to you, I've seen your records and I know it's not easy for anyone to sit in here answering unnecessary questions in the hope of gaining some form of closure or... quite frankly gaining anything. At the end of the day it's part of the program, the same program that started thirteen years ago. So, if you don't mind, I suggest we get started."

She emptied her briefcase. Every strange device had an even stranger name.

"Burnie, please describe yourself in one word."

He gave a fair amount of thought into his answer. 

"Nocturnal" he replied.

"Interesting" she thought. "So, correct me if I'm wrong, but you think of yourself as nocturnal to show that you perhaps act differently during the night, and you maybe feel as though the night allows you to come alive and recapture your past."

"No" he interjected. "I just said nocturnal because I like to sleep during the day. Matter of fact this conversation runs right into my nap time."

"Burnie please, I need you to take this seriously. I can't help you if you won't help me. I want a real, meaningful answer with a little..."

"You know" he interrupts, "back before I found myself in here, before it all happened, I was a doctor, like you. For years and years I gained a reputation. They used to call me 'Doctor Charming' "he chuckled.

"Interesting" she countered, "you wouldn't strike me as a charming person."

"Well, looks can be deceiving. You of all people should know that."

"Excuse me?" Marlow replied.

"Cut the bullshit Doc. I know you're in here trying to do your pretentious job asking your ridiculous questions, so let me just ask you this. Do you want to keep going with this little charade that you call an interview or do you want to gain something from today?"

"I can't help you if you can't help me" he imitated sarcastically.

Marlow glanced at her watch, then began to place her leather beige briefcase on the ground beneath the metal table.

"Now, let me ask you a question Marlow. Why on earth did you decide to become a doctor?" asked Burnie.

"It's a long story" she replied.

"You can tell me, I'm a doctor."

"Well, when I was about 11 or 12 my mother decided to bring me to her job at the retirement village. She would look after the people there, cheer them up and give them what they needed. Even if it drove her mad. At first I thought it didn't pay well, but it didn't take long for me to realise that she wasn't in it for the money. She wasn't like that. She was... different, she was unique. She had this talent of finding the light even in the worst of times. Of course she did, she was made of light. My lighthouse...and I loved her for it."

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to her?" he muttered.

She noticed the moth flying into the light above her as she took a breath. "On that same day we needed to stop at the gas station. We went inside. As we were waiting in line, a man pulled out a gun on the clerk. Without even thinking, my mother stands in front of the man, looks him dead in the eye and says, 'put the gun down, turn around, and leave.' Then the man says, 'I'm sorry... but I don't have a choice'."

A single tear slides down the side of her face. It was as if she was there once again all those years ago, replaying the same moment over and over, like a broken clock.

She struggles to finish her story, "Then she said, 'We always have a choice'. Before I knew it she was on the ground, laying next to me, with a patch of the man's Nirvana sweater in her right hand and $58 in her left hand."

To her confusion Burnie wipes a tear from his eye.

"Wow, Burnie I'm sorry. I didn't mean it to be so depressing" she lamented.

"It's not that Marlow, I need to tell you something."

She looks at him in disbelief. That feeling of shock came over her again. The same feeling you have that single second before you come up for air when swimming underwater.

Before she could gather any words Burnie began to speak.

"My life fell apart. My wife left me and I was two days from being evicted from my apartment. My job wasn't giving me what I wanted."

"And what did you want?" Marlow asked.

"Recognition. That's all I've ever wanted. I mean, could you imagine finding a job after being known as the doctor who killed one of his patients. There was no chance. So, I went another route. I needed money, lots of it. All I wanted was a second chance... a fresh start. I was planning on leaving the country, but I needed money. I made a deal with a former patient of mine. The deal was, I would operate on his dying daughter and he would get me the money I deserved."

He stopped. He raised his head, tears dropping on the table. He looked at Marlow, placing his trust in her with a saddened look of the failures of his past.

"By the time I found out what he had done, it was already too late" he sighed.

"Burnie, what did the man do?" she questioned hoping for a silver lining.

"I heard it on the radio."

"What did you hear?"

"A single mother has just been murdered in front of her young daughter by a deranged man wearing a Nirvana sweater."