Room 22: Excerpt

Chapter 2

Isaac was sitting at his desk when he heard the scream. He was always sitting at his desk when he heard it. The same thing every Sunday night for two years. He looked up at the wall of screens to find which one was now black. 15. Great, that was Ian's room. He actually liked Ian. Well, maybe 'like' wasn't the right word. He just didn't hate Ian as much as the others.

"Hey it was Ian, room 15 if anyone cares!" he yelled.

"We don't," he heard one of the janitors out in the hallway mumble.

"Shut up Paul! You're just a janitor. No one gives a damn about janitors."

He heard Paul take a deep, exaggerated breath and continue mopping the floor. Isaac looked up at the wall of screens. Everyone was either sitting on their beds or lying on the floor, except for one guy in room 48 who was just standing there, staring at the camera.

"Freaks," Isaac huffed.

"Are you talking about me again, Isaac?"

"No, Paul. Now shut up and get back to work."

"Should you not go tell management who it was this time so they know which room to fill on Wednesday?"

"Jesus Christ, Paul! Would you please, for the love of God, shut up already? I am management. I'm the only management you've got in this joint. I don't know who refills the rooms every week, but I'm pretty sure they'll figure out who's missing by Wednesday. Please leave me alone."

"Okay," he heard Paul quietly say, like he was depressed or some crap. Isaac could hear his slow, soft footsteps as he walked down the hallway.

"You forgot your mop again Paul."

"Oh sorry," Paul mumbled as he quickly shuffled down the hallway.

"I'm so done with this place," Isaac sighed as he flipped a switch on the control board in front of him and the lights in all the rooms went out. A few seconds later the night vision on the cameras kicked in and he could see a few people frantically running around their rooms.

"Morons," he said as he flicked the lights on and off in rooms 4, 17, 29, 41, and 49. That's how many people were running around their rooms. The girl in room 17 fell to the floor and started spazzing. It was quite funny actually. Isaac laughed as he continued flicking the lights on and off.

"One more year then I get to leave," he yelled, his voice echoing down the hallway. "Did you hear that Paul? Only one more year here!"

There was no response. He got out of his black leather chair, which was extremely comfortable and matched perfectly with his jacket. He dragged his feet as he figuratively crawled to the door that leads to the hallway. Paul was nowhere to be seen.

"Thank God, he finally left."

Isaac closed the door and went back to his comfortable chair. "The only thing I like about this job is the chair. And out of the 50 people that are forced to stay here, the one guy I actually almost sort of liked is gone. Great."

He laid back and closed his eyes. "You know, being the only guy on security isn't too bad. At least I get to sleep on the job."

He cracked open one eye to look at the white screen of room 22. It was a fuzzy white, like a television channel that wouldn't pick up. "Maybe one day I'll find out what's going on in that room. Having only one white screen is kind of annoying."

And with that, Isaac fell into a blissful sleep. Well, as blissful as any sleep you're going to get in a mental hospital.