Anna stopped in her tracks, smiling demurely. “We have plenty to do on the floor today, Jessica, with those who are left. Why don’t you get to work in the A wing? I’ll take B, of course.”
I nodded, taking a step back from my questions but still curious as hell.
“Dude, leave it alone,” Brett said from behind the desk after Anna walked away. He’d been a silent observer the whole time, leaning back a little too far in the computer chair. “Why worry when it’s not your problem? Besides, I’m glad the biter’s gone. That bitch nabbed me more than a few times.”
He got up from his chair, heading to clock out.
“I know I haven’t been here long, but I was under the impression everyone here is pretty much here for good,” I muttered, hoping Brett would let a detail slip.
He shrugged. “Pretty much. But sometimes Anna finds better placements for some of the patients, especially the ones up here.”
He walked out without another word, and I headed to the A wing.
The ones up here. The violent ones no one would miss. The ones under heightened security who rarely have visitors or family to check in.
Something felt wrong about floor five, more wrong than normal. Something felt wrong about the whole place, of course. I knew it was probably my lack of sleep and the ghostly visitors. But as I studied Anna during our shift and thought about it all, I knew that there were more secrets among the living in this place than anyone would like to admit.
Chapter Eighteen
Even through the heavy doors, the desperate screams reverberated through floor five with a sharpness that tickled my fears. I tossed the paperwork down and ran toward the noise. I didn’t have to guess which door they were coming from.
I unlocked 5B and dashed in, heart racing as I took inventory of the scene. Anna was fumbling with the emergency pager as 5B tightened his grip on her arm. He frothed at the mouth, spit flying as he screamed in her face about lost causes, about drowning, and about one other thing that made me shiver.
Me.
“Hey,” I yelled, startling them both. “Hey, calm down.”
I walked toward them, not sure what I’d do when I got over there. He was strong, and who knew how long until help would arrive. But at the sight of me, his hands fell limp as if he’d seen the prized possession he was waiting for.
“You came back. They said you were hopeless, but I knew you’d come back. We’re kindred spirits, Jessica. We need to help each other.” He walked toward me as Anna gasped for breath, backing along the wall as she straightened herself out. 5B reached a palm out to me, smiling. Then, he walked back to his cot slowly, as if nothing had happened at all. Anna and I left the room in silence.
Anna regained her composure. “I had it, you know,” she offered haughtily.
“I know,” I replied, even though it was a lie.
“I think he needs another round of treatments. I’ll have to let the doctors know.”
“Treatments?”
“The electroshock therapy they tried. Started last year, thinking it might calm him down some. It’s either that, or he needs restrained again because he’s getting out of control.”
I busied my hands with paperwork back at the desk. I wanted to shout that he didn’t need treatment; he needed someone to listen, to figure it all out. I wanted to tell Anna that anyone would go mad under the circumstances.
Instead, I just painted on an air of indifference. “He seems calmer around me,” I replied.
In a second, I was whirled around. Anna was in my face. “You mean the time I had to bandage your arm this week because he went crazy? Or the fact that since you’ve come here, he thinks you’re the savior who can put his hallucinations to rest?”
“Sorry,” I murmured, her eyes raging as she glowered at me.
Anna took a breath and stepped back. “It’s okay. I’m just on edge. He seems to be getting worse. Hopefully, it won’t matter soon, though.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, stunned.
“Nothing to worry yourself with,” she replied as she sat at the computer.
My palms started to sweat. Was 5B leaving? Time was running out to solve it all, to help him. Is that what I really wanted? After all, if 5B disappeared, wouldn’t the horrific kids, too? I wasn’t willing to take the chance.
“Anna, did 5B have any sort of criminal record before the incident that landed him here?”
She looked up at me from the computer, but her face was calm and gentle this time. She was more like the Anna I had first assumed her to be.
She shrugged. “Not that we’re aware of. Of course, half the people in here are so unstable, who knows what secrets they house. But here, at least they don’t pose a risk or anything. Why?”
I studied her, wishing she could be aligned as a friend once more instead of the secretive adversary she’d seemingly become. “It’s just, well, the drawings. The kids. I just wonder if he . . .”
“It’s certainly possible. But does it matter, Jessica? He’ll pay for his sins, whatever they are. He’s already paying for them now. Let it rest. The fewer questions you ask, the better around here. Trust me.” The final words came out as a sinister growl, a threat, a dark promise.
I backed up and nodded.
“Got it,” I said, even though I knew I didn’t. After all, Anna wasn’t the one taking these dark fears, these disturbing occurrences home with her. Was she?
Chapter Nineteen
It had become my after-work ritual. I would strip away my clothes, shower with a fearful heart, and then head to my desk to examine the drawings. Thumbing through them, my heart icy and my eyes aware, I summoned the courage to peruse them. There had to be a link I was
