Patient No. 46
She stared at the blood on the carpet with a faint haze of ecstasy. She dropped the knife in her haze and walked away from the scene. She jumped as police sirens wailed in the distance replacing her buzz with panic. She started to run blindly past door after white door.
Patient number 46, Shani Seften had been admitted to Fulcrum’s Asylum for her addiction. No one talked about it and she always was alone, but she figured out a way to pick the locks and she was set free again. The buzz felt so good. She pouted, disappointed that it had gone. She pulled out a hairpin and picked the lock on door number 76.
Patient 76 was rocking back and forth in a chair in the middle of the room and staring at the floor. He didn’t look up when she came in. She easily slipped up behind him and clamped down on his throat. He kept rocking until finally he slipped off the chair. She cautiously felt around to the other side of the chair to check his pulse. She felt a strong rush of emotion as she felt nothing stirring inside him. She laughed faintly and skipped out of the room.
“Oh, there you are!” the nurse said grabbing No. 46’s hands and leading her back to her room. “How did you manage to get out this time?”
The nurse pushed her gently into the room and quickly shut the door. She pulled out a ring of keys and locked to door. Glancing from left to right, she chained the door shut and wrote on the chart clipped to a clipboard under her arm: Patient not ready for release. Relapse into murder addiction and needs to be chained in. No more progress.
