MADMAN'S ARMS

7

My not-very-successful first meeting with Jacob ended and I left his room to sign the documents in his journal.

The clock was now 12 pm and thankfully, it was time for lunch break. After leaving off Jacob's file, I walked to the staff's room to meet with Harriet, Mildred, and Janet and have lunch. The three girls were already sitting down by one of the round tables in the personnel area. I grabbed my lunchbox of pork chop supper from the fridge and sat down at their table.

"So how did it go, with Jacob?" Harriet asked me as soon as I sat down beside her, and the other two girls looked up as they heard what she just said.

"Well, it was not my biggest success, but he managed to tell me about himself after a couple of attempts,"

The girls nodded their heads in an understanding way.

"He can get a bit too excited around new people, it will be better next time," Janet remarked with a white smile.

"I noticed. I wonder what it would be like if he didn't get his morning dose of drugs, after your recommendation Janet?" I admitted and looked back at Janet.

Her beautiful dark skin lightened up by the sun beaming through the window, and her glossed-up, plump lips made the shape of a smile once again before she answered me.

"Jacob has his days. You'll notice. It probably went that way today because he got thrilled about you being new," She stated before taking another fork of food into her mouth. Mildred and Harriet agreed with her words and I nodded my head thankfully.

I hoped that they were right, I didn't want to feel that there were patients I couldn't manage to treat or handle. It was my job to get into their brains and get them to talk or do what I asked them to.

It was my job to manipulate them enough to get another perspective of their mindset, and even if I knew most of the patients were here because they had cureless disorders and mental illnesses, I had to try and help them with having a healthy existence to ease their inner misery.

( 🎶 Crazy - 2WEI, Marvin Brooks )

While the four of us chatted around each other's tongues, my attention suddenly hit the hallway and the whole world completely decided to stop within a blink.

Outside the glass windows of the staff's room, there was an unknown, mysterious man walking by in the grip of two institutional guards. I realized that the three ladies were looking at the same thing as me as it got completely quiet around us.

"Look who's back," Mildred cautioned with a quiet voice while keeping her eyes stuck on the gorgeously terrifying creature outside.

The man on the other side of the glass turned his head in our direction and within the most sudden second, his dark, stiff eyes met with my own. A lump placed my throat and the hairs on my arms raised by the unexplainable shivers. I swallowed hard as I gritted with nervosity.

Everything passed by in the slowest of motions. But my heart seemed to race faster than ever. The young man's flair was dark and mysterious. Every feature of his was sharp and heavily attractive, and he had a surprisingly beautiful appearance.

"Who is he?" I asked, almost whispering, afraid that the creature might hear me even if it was impossible. Suddenly I lost contact with the unknown man again as he disappeared in the hallway, and the lump in my throat got easier by the relief from the previous hypnotization.

My heart was still pounding way too fast to be healthy. It was like he put a spell on me only by using his eyes. His piercing, dark gaze was so distinctly dangerous yet so fascinating and penetrating, and I couldn't possibly understand why.

"That's Brandon Barlowe, he's guilty of some of England's most well-known and brutal homicides. A rough, true psychopath," Mildred remarked, keeping her voice low as the atmosphere between the four of us was still tense.

"Has he been here before?" I added, and noticed that my question was dumb due to Mildred's previous words. But by the sudden feeling of curiosity, I wanted to know everything about him.

"He has," She replied and decided to leave me in the unknown. I was disappointed. I wanted to know more. What did he do and why had he been here before? Why was he a rough and true psychopath? What homicides was she talking about? And why did the girls react that way when they saw him?

I continued to eat as I thought about the many questions I had about the unknown boy I just laid my eyes on for only a couple of seconds.

The silence was still in the room and I didn't even dare to look at the other girls. I was bothered by their strong reaction. It was like that young man just silenced the whole hospital down with his appearance.

Even though I had known the girls for the past three weeks only, I knew for sure that there was never one silent second in their company.

I tried to let go of my curiosity and thought about the upcoming hours of work instead. After the staff's lunch, it was time for the patients to eat, which also meant that they were let out of their rooms into the refectory.

I was still not a hundred percent comfortable in situations where the patients were all together because I knew many of them were capable of things no one ever wanted to witness. But I needed to get used to it since that was just another tiny part of my self-chosen occupation...