“Anyway, I went home with him, and we fooled around. Well, I thought it was just another one night stand – I mean, how many of those guys actually use the number you give them – until he actually did call me, and I saw him a few more times over the summer – always on Tuesdays, as I recall–”
Athena reacted, dropping her face and covering her eyes with a hand. She shook her head and whispered through the tears that were returning, “Just like clockwork…” Ashley kept talking as if she hadn’t heard.
“–and I thought we were getting close. Imagine my horror when I had him as a professor of Psychology the very next semester. He didn’t have a problem with it. I called it quits. Way too weird. He called a few more times, but I wouldn’t talk to him. I was just so embarrassed.”
“The man had a knock for doing that to people,” Darla assured her. “He would tell you just enough to get you into bed with him.” Athena never lifted her head.
“I am so bored,” Tricia declared again, breaking the moment, and bringing the attention back to her.
“Then go to bed,” Laura said, very annoyed. “No one is stopping you.”
“Dr. Quired suggested we room with someone,” Darla said. “With six of us, that works out to two to a room.”
“Works for me,” Mindy shrugged. Darla told everyone to follow her into the hall, and they all complied except Athena who was more than grateful to be left alone. Looking down the hallway in the waning light of the sunset, they could see that the lights were only on in this hall, as down the hall and around the corner, it was completely dark, or would be once the sun stopped shining in the windows.
Darla led them into the first room to look it over again. All of the rooms looked exactly the same in that they each had two beds on opposite sides of the room and a wardrobe on one side. These beds were covered with some basic white linens, but nothing more. In fact, most of the rooms had only one bed, but knowing that these women were coming, Quired had the beds doubled up so they could room together.
“Ew, do you think all the rooms are like this?” Tricia complained. She had said the same thing earlier with Quired, who had confirmed that, indeed, they were all the same except for the double beds. Laura was the one to sigh and field this one.
“It’s a health facility, so yeah.”
“All right, girls,” Darla said in her authority voice, “we’ll be staying in the first three rooms here. I doubt anything will happen tonight, even if one of us is the psycho, since we were checked rather intimately for weapons and such earlier. I’ll take this room with Athena. The rest of you will take the next two down. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Tricia piped up, “seriously, do I have to pick one of these losers to room with?”
“I’ll spare everyone else the pain, and deal with your complaining,” Mindy offered.
“How unselfish of you,” Tricia muttered, crossing her arms.
“Oh, did I mention I read the Bible out loud at night?” Mindy said with a smile.
“Oh, my God, no,” Tricia said. “You can go on without me, Mindy.”
“What are you going to do?” Laura asked.
“Lots of hallways in here,” Tricia said, looking around. “I always work out. I figure I’ll walk in here to at least get in some kind of workout.”
“We should really stay together,” Ashley said, nervously.
“It would be a good idea,” Darla agreed.
“Has anyone noticed we’re behind locked and secure doors?” Tricia said. “Give me a break.”
“Tricia, I really do think–” Darla began, but Tricia interrupted her.
“You know, I don’t have to listen to you in here,” Tricia said, getting right up on Darla. “You’re in the same boat as the rest of us for the same reason as the rest of us. You’re no better than we are, so you’re in no position to order anyone around. We’re not at school in here, so your authority is meaningless.”
Tricia spun around and left the room to walk down the hallway. Darla was visibly shaken by the encounter, so when the other three turned to watch Tricia go, Darla remained as she was. Finally Ashley turned back to Darla.
“She’ll be all right. Right?”
“Well, of course,” Darla nodded, gathering herself back together. “We’re completely safe in here. Go on to your room for now. I need to talk to Athena.”
The other three dispersed to their rooms as Darla walked back to the gathering room to find Athena sitting alone right where they’d left her. Darla stared at her for a long time until Athena finally acknowledged Darla’s presence by looking at her. Darla moved into the room, but paced nervously, clearly trying to summon the courage to talk to Athena about the elephant in the room between them. Athena just watched Darla silently. Darla finally sighed and sat in a chair across from Athena, whose face looked tired but betrayed no emotion.
“Athena,” Darla said before summoning her breath to continue, “can I be frank with you?”
Athena shrugged. In fact, Athena would attest that she was quite burned out by the time Darla returned. She had cried over and over since the whole affair began with his death, and no matter how bad each day had been, each subsequent day just got worse. So nothing Darla would have to say would phase her.
“Look,” Darla continued, “I met Hank when he first got to the University. I didn’t know he was married, and he didn’t tell me. By the time I found out about you, I was already in love with the man. I was head over heels for him. I hated him for that.”
Darla looked at Athena, but Athena only looked at her through those tired eyes. Darla took a deep breath, and continued. “I put him through hell trying to get him to be with me. When I found out about everyone else, I tried even harder. I gave him whatever he wanted, and he took it. I wish I hadn’t…”
She paused again and looked at Athena, but Athena’s expression had not changed.
“I’m not a bad person, Athena. I’m really not. I made a mistake trying for Hank, and I regret it fully. I know that I can’t change everything that’s happened, and I know this won’t make it feel any better, but for whatever it’s worth...” Darla took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
This got Athena’s attention. She cocked her head, narrowed her eyes, and smirked, disbelieving. “You’re sorry?”
Darla just let it all go. “I’m sorry he treated you the way he did. I’m sorry I treated you the way I did. I’m sorry for everything.”
Athena seemed to process this, but her face finally revealed the anger of a woman scorned pitted against the woman who scorned her. Her eyes darted back and forth as if thinking of the best way to phrase her thoughts without completely exploding. She took a deep breath followed by a controlled exhale and then bit her bottom lip as she pondered her words.
“While I appreciate your honesty,” Athena began in a level tone, “here’s what I’m going through: I had an image of Hank as the perfect husband, and if all I had to deal with were his death, that would be hard enough. But I had an additional bomb dropped on me in the form of you and everyone else in this place which told me that my life as I knew it was nothing but a life. A horrible, senseless lie that I played into the entire time we were together. Whatever you think you’re going through as a result of this inconvenience cannot come close to the hell I’m experiencing right now, so…” Athena paused and took another breath to contain herself. “Please go away.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Darla asked as sincerely as she could.
“Nothing anyone can do,” Athena replied levelly.
“If you want to talk–” Darla offered.
“I would have nothing to say,” Athena brusquely interrupted her and she locked her eyes on Darla’s. Though Darla knew Athena had blue eyes, the pale color had deepened to the point of nearly black, so when they locked onto Darla, Darla knew the conversation was over. She sat locked in Athena’s gaze for a moment before she finally nodded and left the room.
As soon as she was alone again, Athena closed her eyes an
d while she did not cry necessarily, she could not stop the flow of the tears which came so regularly lately.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Elimination
When the Bluffs Mental Health Facility was built, there was a real need for a psychiatric hospital, and this need carried on for many years until another hospital was built in another part of the state which proponents of that construction said took some of the burden off of the Bluffs facility. The fact of the matter was that the Bluffs facility wasn’t under any stress or burden, as only a few years before that new facility was constructed, they had expanded their own floorplan to include this massive new secure building now occupied by six displaced women. Since they had the run of the place, Tricia had plenty of room to jog without bothering or being bothered by anyone else.
She had settled into a decent circuit of halls that didn’t even come into the viewing area of the room Darla had previously designated for them, nor was she interested in seeing any of them. She would eventually make her way back there in order to keep everyone from freaking out completely, but she also planned to wait as long as possible and be as tired as she could before starting returning. She had left the group a little over thirty minutes ago, and decided to stop for a moment to rest before continuing. She wished she had remembered some water since she knew that if she ran for much longer and she could get quite dehydrated. She knew there was a water fountain next to the bathrooms near the entrance, but she wasn’t ready to go back yet.
She stopped next to a barred window and looked outside. The land behind the facility stretched out into the darkness beyond the lights on the sides of the buildings, which provided the only dim light within these hallways, which were otherwise very dark since the administrators only turned on a few lights thinking that they wouldn’t need to light the entire wing. It was a logical assumption, and she didn’t mind the dark. She would easily be able to find her way back since the exit signs were all in working order and pointed the way back to the entrance at every junction of the hall. What Tricia didn’t know was that as she looked out the window, someone else was watching her from inside a room nearby.
Tricia backed away from the window and ran again through the halls past the room where she was being watched. She continued onward though, turning corners and circling back around on her circuit through the hall. As she passed that room again, she heard a sound and stopped. She looked around, having had the feeling for some time that someone was watching her, and the sound coming from the room seemed to clench the idea for her.
Slowly, she stepped toward the room but did not call out to anyone, as she always felt this would be a foolish thing to do. After all, if someone were spying on her for some reason, calling out would simply alert them to the fact that she was now aware of their presence. Her plan was to turn the light on in the room as soon as she reached it, since walking into a dark room would also be foolish. She may approach much of her life with reckless abandon, but self-preservation was not one of these things. She considered simply running back to everyone else now, but telling them that someone was here without proof would not buy her any more friends than she’d done on her own, and she knew she had no love from anyone here nor did she care. If she were able to positively identify someone here with them, however, she would be a very good position to lord it over them.
She reached the darkened room and flipped the external switch. These rooms were equipped with an inside and an outside light switch so that those on the outside could control the individual rooms’ power when they needed to. There was, of course, a master power control that could simultaneous shut down all the rooms, but when the power was on, the individual rooms were generally left off unless occupied. The internal switch was clearly still off since flipping the external switch did not light up the room. She knew the switch was on the internal side of the room wall directly opposite the external switch. She slid her hand around the door frame toward the switch. As she felt the switchplate, a knife sliced across her wrist.
Tricia screamed and jerked her hand back, cradling it against her stomach. She backed away from the doorway, hyperventilating and staring at it as if the darkened hole before her was what cut her. She was desperate to stop the bleeding which was rapidly soaking her shirt. As she stared, the faceless figure stepped out of the shadows to be visible against the stark white wall.
Tricia’s eyes opened wide, and she struggled to find her voice. She hadn’t really believed Athena’s story of the shadow figure until right now when it was too late. She stumbled, momentarily dizzy from the blood drenching her shirt, and started to run away from the figure. She took in a deep breath and screamed, hoping anyone would hear her. “She’s here! She’s in here with us!”
She said nothing more for the figure moved with incredible speed and sliced right across her throat, silencing her forever. The figure followed this up with a final burial of the knife in Tricia’s gut under her ribs. Tricia fell to the ground in a heap, her blood spreading around her. The figure quietly sidestepped the carnage, leaving Tricia where she fell.
* * * * * * * *
Darla had gone to her room immediately following her disastrous conversation with Athena, which only served to make her feel worse about her life - an unexpected outcome considering she just wanted to apologize. She couldn’t blame Athena for her feelings, of course, since Darla would admit that she would feel the same way if their roles were reversed. So she had come to their room, changed into her pajamas, and immediately lain down, though her eyes never closed for a second. As depressing as this experience was shaping up, tired was something she knew she would not feel tonight.
Knock, knock.
Darla walked to the door and opened it to find Mindy standing nervously on the other side, looking very worried. Her eyes darted to Darla’s as she played with her hair. Darla invited her in, and Mindy sat down on the bed. Darla sat next to her, both of them facing away from the door, which remained open.
“What’s wrong?” Darla asked, honestly concerned.
“It’s Tricia,” Mindy said. “She’s not back yet.”
“Now, it’s only been forty-five minutes since we broke our meeting,” Darla assured her. “I’m sure she’s still roaming the halls somewhere. I’m surprised you’re missing her.”
“It’s not just that,” Mindy said. “Did you hear a scream a little while back?”
“We’re in the loony bin,” Darla said with a shrug, trying not to look concerned about a scream and a missing person. “Screams are probably a normal thing here.”
“Look, I was only joking about reading to her,” Mindy confessed. “Forcing it on someone isn’t the way to do it. Anyway, it just seems like a long time.”
Darla put her arm around Mindy, comforting her. “Now Mindy, we’re all a little afraid of what might be out there. We should be. It’s not every day some homicidal psychopath makes you a target.” Mindy gave her a disgusted look, and Darla smiled, knowing that was not really in the best of taste considering their very real circumstances. “God forbid, right?”
“All the same, though,” Darla continued, “we’re locked up in a very secure facility. There’s no way a killer’s getting in here.” And she believed that whole-heartedly. With everything they witnessed and experienced in getting into this part of the facility, it seemed very unlikely that the killer would have any way of getting past all the security. And if the killer were one of them, they would only have what was available to commit any crime with, and there wasn’t much here.
“Tell me about this Greater Life Church you go to,” Darla suggested.
“I don’t know much about the people past the college stuff,” Mindy shrugged. “I usually sit with my age group in service when Pastor Chambers preaches.”
“Tell me about everything anyway,” Darla said. “It might help to get both of our minds off of this mess for a bit.”
Darla listened to Mindy talk about her post-Hank Michaels life hoping it might take her mind off of the mess they were in and
let her sleep eventually. Yet, as they took comfort in their supposed security, the faceless figure walked past the door behind them.
The hallway was completely empty as the figure made her way to her next victim, but at present, she was simply surveying her surroundings searching for the perfect opportunity. She walked to the bathroom door, and in this wing, the main restroom contained not only toilets, but also a communal shower area such as one might find in a high school locker room. As present, Laura was alone in the shower area wrapped in a towel and working to shave her legs. The figure paused for a moment, watching her, but the sound of a toilet flush drew her attention away from Laura. She turned, walked into an open stall, and closed the door just as Ashley exited another stall.
Ashley walked to the border to the shower area and watched Laura for a moment from the position that the figure had stood in just moments before.
“We’re stuck here all night and you’re actually bothering to shave your legs?” Ashley declared. Laura glanced up to her without a trace of humor.
“A girl’s gotta look her best, no matter what,” Laura told her very matter of factly. “That’s what my mom always says anyway. I guess it’s a hard habit to break.”
“Maybe if there were a guy in here with us,” Ashley shrugged, “but with a bunch of other women … I can wait until tomorrow.”
“Suit yourself, Ashley, but don’t complain to me when your legs feel all scratchy tomorrow morning.” Laura said it like some kind of portent, which led Ashley to immediately scratch one of her legs.
“My legs don’t feel scratchy,” Ashley said and then noticed she was scratching a leg and stopped.
“You say that now,” Laura warned with a smile.
“I’m going to the room, Laura,” Ashley said. “When do you think you’ll be done?”
“I won’t be long,” Laura said concentrating on her task at hand. She took a few more strokes on her legs when she realized that Ashley had remained standing at the entry to the shower. Laura stopped and looked at her. “Do you mind?”
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