“Dinner time, you eat or you starve, make your minds up!” Sally bangs on doors with her night stick walking down Wing A. The doors open as individuals come out in droves, two single files heading towards the kitchen. A man steps out with slicked back hair and a heavy shadow on his chin, his eyes glazed over with dry drool on the corner of his lip.
Shuffling down the hallway, he enters the dining area. It’s hard to eat in a room that smells like stale urine, but if you’re hungry enough your brain will overlook it. He pulls a wobbly chair out at an empty table, his slender arms stretch out over the surface and momentarily get stuck on a sticky residue. He retracts his arms and sighs “Man what I wouldn’t give to have it back.”
A client walks by scratching her head while looking around the room, she seemed to look normal from his point of view until she turned towards him. Her right eye was missing, with no eye patch to wear, it was just a hollowed pink socket. Scars ran down from the bottom of her eye to the right side of her lips, botched operations attempted to fix her mouth but wasn’t much surgeons could work with. Trixie was her name, and everyone knew her story.
With the death of her husband in a car accident, she became a raging alcoholic drinking herself to sleep every night. One night the pain was too much, but as was the amount of liquor swimming in her belly. She attempted to kill herself but, due to being inebriated, miscalculated her gun position. She blew out her eye, part of her mouth, and lodged the bullet in her brain. Somehow she survived, but her basic mental capabilities didn’t.
She looks over to Mark and winks with her remaining eye, passing her tongue over her deformed lips. He smiles back to be polite and turns his attention to the barred windows.
Lenny walks out of the kitchen area with a hunk of raw meat, like a small pink mountain with canals of blood pooling into the bottom of the bowl. He has a worried expression grimaced on his face as he walks by, Mark nods his head towards him and turns back to the center of the room. Staring off into a hypnotic like trance, he zones out before someone snaps their fingers.
“Mark, you okay?”
Refocusing his vision he sees a little girl with dirty blonde hair tied into pigtails, her belly portly along with chubby cheeks.
“S**t sorry kid, must of zoned out. Take a seat ma.” He pulls a chair out for her as she plops in and scoots forward, her cheeks emitting a pink hue from the slight labor of heaving her weight into the seat.
After getting comfortable as she could, she glanced her eyes over the room, checking every corner and dark spot. Slowly she then whispers “I heard it again, last night. It was closer this time.”
“S**t, where?”
“I think it was in the hallway, I was laying down and I heard it giggle, the same way it would when you pulled the cord on its back. I can’t forget that sound, I don’t think I ever will, he’s coming for me.” Her lip quivered with each word, her heart beat increasing to a rapid pace.
Mark leans forward resting his chin on his clenched hands, “Just stick with me anytime we’re out of the rooms, I can’t do anything to help without my outfit, but I can keep you safe if you’re with me.”
“Where’s your stuff at?”
“Mrs.Cranston’s office, that place is locked up tight, there’s no chance of getting it out of there.”
Kelly lowers her head, any positive news, even a lie, would of been nice to hear.
She leans sideways and curls her arm under his pulling herself in “I’m scared Mark, I really am.”
She wipes her soggy eyes with her free hand before Mark slides his arm out and wraps it around her, gently rubbing her shoulder he responds “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
At the end of Wing D, Lenny approaches with the meat. The lights at the back of the hall didn’t work, making the experience even more nerve racking. The last staff made the mistake of sticking her hand too close to the open slot, she lost the part of her hand and two fingers, a third finger had the skin pulled clean off leaving what looked like a skinned hot dog.
Lenny shakily pulls his night stick out and taps the door “Feeding time Adam.”
He pulls the tray slot open and bends down to look in, complete darkness with barely recognition of someone breathing. Lenny starts to grab handfuls of meat and tosses it in, he hears it plopping on the ground. As he gets the last chunk a portion of it falls on his shoe, bending down to wipe it off he’s suddenly thrust back against the door.
A hand with overgrown nails and sores spotted across the forearm grips his shirt.
“Oh f**k! Help! Someone!”
He grabs the hand trying to loosen it while using his other to reach the black stick just a few inches away, it had fallen and rolled a little ways away during the commotion. The hand pulls hard on his shirt digging the nails into his right shoulder, Lenny fights to get away but feels helpless.
A loud smack is heard as the hand lets go quickly going back into the door, Lenny scoots forward turning away while fighting back tears.
He looks up to see a gorgeous woman, with red hair and sparkling green eyes, she slams the door shut and looks down at him “Lenny you okay?”
She extends her arm helping him up to his feet “Yeah I am now, th-thank you. I don’t know what happ-”
“You let your guard down is what happened. We keep telling you hon, these people aren’t your friends, they’ll kill you first chance they get. Even the ones who act like they like you, now come on lets get you checked out with Nurse Penny.”
The night sky developed over the land, bringing a slight chill to the air. Residents all got ready for bed, with nothing else to do for entertainment besides look at the walls, bed time came early.
Kelly tucked herself in but couldn’t sleep, fear crept over her like the reapers cold touch, her stomach in a jumbled knot, she had a bad feeling. Staring at the ceiling, she hears a quiet tap on the door. Sitting up she awaits a guard to walk in, but the door remains shut. Standing up to go press her ear against it, she hears giggling from the other side.
She runs back to her bed terrified jumping under the blankets, wrapping herself up. A high pitched voice whispers “I found you, yes I did. I told you you can’t hide from me, you’ll be meeting your parents in Hell soon.”
The voice begins to laugh, growing from a child like laughter to a demonic roar, Kelly covers her ears as she lays sideways in her bed, squeezing her eyes shut, suddenly the door swings open.
