The Hangman's Game - A 'Perfect' Town Murder Mystery

Chapter 4: The Hangman plays a game

Ricky got sent to his cell. As he smirked, the cuffs got undone by the guard, and he rubbed his wrists. "Thank you, guard", Ricky said with a smile as the guard locked the cell door and left down the corridor.

Ricky knew he wasn't done yet. 

He also had a cellmate named Wade Cooper; he was a strong, tall man with short black hair and faded, golden brown skin; he eyed him with his forest green eyes as he had tattoos on his arms, as he realized who his new cellmate was. 

"Wait, I know you; you're Ricky Anderson, the famous serial killer." 

"The one and only" 

"I'm Wade Cooper, and I'm such a huge fan of your work!"

"Oh, why, thank you, I didn't know I had fans." 

"Yeah, we all love you, man!" 

Ricky's eyes widened. "Seriously, you all love me?" he said, feeling a little bit of joy in his stone-cold heart. 

Wade replied. "Oh yeah, we do. You're so cool; the way you killed the Sanderson family, man, it was a fucking masterpiece!"

Ricky smiled genuinely. "That's really sweet," he said, then turning his smile into a smirk. Hey, do you want to have some fun while we're in here?" 

Wade smirked back. "Oh fuck yeah...boss." 

Ricky liked the title of being a boss as he acted like the perfect role model patient and did what he was told as a cover for what he was actually doing with his crew as he felt like a mafia boss, like Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, and many more mafia bosses. 

He felt powerful as he and his crew formed a powerful syndicate, as he smirked evilly. 

"Well, boys, what should we do first?" Ricky asked as they were 'model patients' and got whatever they wanted from the guards as his crew mulled over some ideas, smoking some cigarettes they had gotten from the patient commissary. 

"I'm not sure, boss," one of the patients said as another patient spoke up. 

"I got a perfect idea."

"go on then, Artemis." 

"Well, before I got sent here, I worked in plant toxicology, and I can make a paralyzing serum using some of the medical equipment in the infirmary, as that's part of my job here; then I spike it in the guard's coffee, and we can do whatever we want." 

"Oh, that is a perfect idea", Ricky said as Artemis smirked. "Why thank you, boss," he said, laughing, taking a drag of his cigarette. 

Their plan was put into action. As another patient, Kyle knew the guard's schedule as Artemis was making a paralyzing serum with what he took from the infirmary. He said, "It's done, the boss; now we just need to spike it in their coffee, and this will last for 24 hours or longer, I'm not sure." 

"How do we do that?" Roland, another patient, asked as Ricky smirked. "Oh, I got a perfect idea," he said as Artemis gave him the serum. "Kyle mentioned that we can roam around anywhere we want, I'm going to sneak into the break room and spike their coffee, and once they drink it, well, then we can have our fun" 

They all laughed and set their plan in motion as everyone played their part since the guards and doctors were on their rounds. 

Ricky snuck into the break room, opened the bottle, and poured the clear liquid into the full coffee pot; as the liquid dissolved into the bitter liquid, he smirked. "Perfect", he muttered as he put the bottle in his pocket and left with a wicked grin plastered on his face. 

"Well, that plan is done; now let's see what happens" 

All of them laughed as they went back to their cells to chill, they saw the guards drink the spiked coffee, but they didn't notice it being spiked due to the bitterness of the coffee covering the taste. 

The guards were taking Ricky to his therapy appointment when they started to slow down in pace. "What's going on," one guard said as the other guard shrugged, scared as Ricky smirked wickedly. "Well," he said smoothly, "I just spiked your coffee with a paralyzing serum. So you can't move anymore," He said, laughing as he smirked. "Oh, and I did it to all the staff in the asylum, too," he said, laughing as the guards and staff freaked out and couldn't do anything about it. 

Ricky staggered to Walter's office, tired as he flopped onto the couch face first and nearly fell asleep. 

"Ricky, how do you feel today?"

"Can you not yell...I'm tired..."

"Why are you tired?" 

"none of your business" 

"Alright then..." 

Ricky continued his session with Walter, trying to survive, whilst trying not to fall asleep. 

The guards and the doctors had recovered from the paralyzing serum but were still scared of Ricky and his crew as they chilled and drank stale coffee. 

The crew was still making up plans for a prison breakout but couldn't act on them due to security and their hungover state.

"Alright, boys, we'll make a plan to escape this godforsaken place, but we'll do it when we're fully ready," Ricky said, his crew nodding in agreement. 

The prison break was going to be a major news story, so the heist had to be perfect. 

Ricky and his crew were still talking as they tried to plan a breakout they had Kyle get schematics of the asylum as they started to plan their breakout and started to practice just in case something went wrong. 

They didn't want it to end like the Gunpowder plot, by being caught by the king's guards after being snitched on, then getting hung, drawn and quartered as a death sentence. 

Ricky started to remember the rhyme from when he was a child at school learning about Bonfire Night and the Gunpowder plot:

Remember Remember 

The fifth of November 

 gunpowder 

Treason and plot...