Chapter 6
The next morning when I woke up, I had a severe headache. Even though I’d managed to throw up all
the medicines that I’d consumedst night, I realized some remnants of it must have remained inside
my body. I nced out of my bedroom window and noticed it was still drizzling. The clock read nine
a.m so I had about an hour before my shift started. I was working a twelve hours shift today because
Aaron had literally pleaded me the other day since they were short staffed. Majority of the nurses
preferred to steer clear off Jackson and I couldn’t even me them.
Due to my unusual shift timings, I was never home and so Ken and I rarely got any time to spend with
each other as a family. Scribbled notes, texts and phone calls were the onlymunication that went
on for a few days now and I med it on my transfer to the Mental Health Wing.
I pulled myself out of the bed reluctantly, making a beeline for the bathroom. Twenty minutester, I
was dressed in my Nurse uniform, seated at the little dining table, gobbling down bread and Nute
(my go-to breakfast when I was feeling toozy to cook). I filled the thermos with steaming coffee,
picked my car keys and made my way downstairs.
“Good Morning, Mrs. Rossi.” I greeted Mrs. Rossi, the Italiandy living downstairs.
She nced at her left wrist; I wanted to remind her there was no wrist-watch on it. “It’s lunch time.”
“Good Afternoon, then.” I said.
I usually ignored her smartments. She was usually grumpily but invited me over for tea during her
good days, also baked some delicious Banana bread. The woman had over a dozen cats in her house
whozed around on every possible t surface. The cats were super fat and cute but hated my guts
for some reason.
When I approached the parking, I remembered I’d left my car in the hospital parking lot. Next thing, I
was standing by the road with an open umbre, trying to hail a cab.
I didn’t feel like visiting Jackson’s room that day. I knew it was my job, but he was also unlike other
patients that I’d dealt with. Jackson was a high functioning psychopath; he was also maniptive and
intelligent. He seemed like a normal person one minute, and you never know when the wheels in his
head were turning and he was plotting something life threatening against you. That part of him scared
me. It was a given that I couldn’t even read his mind.
The entire day I avoided going to his room and instead decided to tend to other patients. I’d told
another nurse to serve Jackson’s breakfast and lunch, warning her about his maniptive and
flirtatious tactics. I’d loaned her ear-plugs.
Afternoon arrived and I was seated in the hospital cafeteria with my friend and co-worker Madeline aka
Maddy. She was talking about a fight she had with a fellow nurse, furtherining about how she
was going to break up with her boyfriend because he wasn’t giving her enough time. I continued to nod
my head throughout the conversation, pushing around the sd in my te.
“You’re not paying attention to what I’m saying!” Maddy pointed.
“What?”
“How are things going with Jackson? You don’t seem quite that happy with the promotion.”
“Not really. You know Maddy, I’ve been good at handling people like Jackson in the past, but somehow
I feel like it’s not working this time. He’s just too difficult to figure out.”
Maddy nodded. “I’m surprised you even said yes to Aaron’s offer after all the rumors surrounding him."
“What kind of rumors?”
She moved closer and whispered. Maddy had the zing gossip eyes on, “People say that he wasn’t
always crazy, it was like a switch went off and he killed his own mother. Can you imagine? And then he
went on a killing rampage and murdered people in the most brutal way possible. They found severed
body parts and do you know the guts and intestines...”
“Maddy, I think I’ll live without the gory details.” I told her although I’d already lost my appetite.
“But...but you didn’t even listen to the best part.” She protested.
I’d seen worse things working in the hospital as a nurse and yet what Maddy said sent a chill down my
spine.
“When I work with patients here, I try not to study about their backgrounds because if I do that then it
may change my behavior towards them. A mental patient is a mental patient; nothing more than that
and that’s exactly how I see Jackson. Isn’t that what they taught us during nursing school?” I said.
“Whoa, you gotta chill Riley, but seriously though, you need to go home tonight and Google that good-
looking bastard and you’ll be surprised what you find. There are even stories about him on
Creepypasta and fan-fiction. This guy is a motherfu*...” she started saying when I coughed loudly to tell
her to keep her voice down. “I mean, he’s a legend.”
“Okay okay, I get it.” I said shoveling down the remaining sd into my mouth. “I really don’t
understand your obsession with killers.”
Maddy rolled her eyes. “They are just too interesting, I guess. Not saying that I really like all the horrible
things they’ve done to other people but I like to do research.” She gave me the ‘Am-I-really-that-weird’
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look. “You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”
“Don’t worry. You’re not the only one here.”
****
That evening I told Aaron about Jackson asking me if he could get a day off from the asylum if he was
to showcase good behavior, and before Aaron could answer that question, I knew what Aaron would
say and surely he said a big fat ‘NO’. He asked me how I could even propose the idea of Jackson
being out in the open for twenty-four hours. I totally had the walk of shame out of Aaron’s office on that
one, like a parent walking out of the teacher’s office holding a very bad academic report.
I was passing by the patient’s recreational area when I heard yelling, I stopped to peek in to find
Jackson seated facing the t screen that was mounted against the wall and two patients yelling and
screaming at him. His eyes were dead on the television screen, a deadpan expression on his face and
he had the mouth piece on, with his hands shackled together. The TV was showing a rerun of the
Friends series that no one seemed to be paying attention to.
I hid behind the door to see what was going on. David, also known as Mad-Dave was screaming in
Jackson’s face. Mad-Dave was another trouble maker around here; he was a pest to say the least. He
always tried to sexually harass the nurses and his mouth was fouler than a rotten egg. He was saying
something about Jackson’s sister who I wasn’t sure if she even existed. He said a word so vile that I
wished I was deaf before listening. Dave’s partner in crime, Owen wasughing to whatever Dave was
saying while Cody, the Man-Child was seated on the floor right in front of the screen, watching
television, but I wasn’t so sure if he understood any of it. He was rocking back and forth, sucking his
thumb andpletely ignoring the fight going on behind him. Mister Panda, (Cody’s stuffed toy) was
right beside him watching TV as well.
Dave was still throwing nasty words at Jackson and nothing seemed to be getting a reaction out of him
and that’s what made him scarier. Jackson’s eyes were still glued to the screen, but I knew they were
getting darker by the minute.
The minute Mad-Dave said, “Your momma called on the hospitalndline yesterday. Oh wait, she can’t
cuz she’s dead. All chopped up like meat.”
That’s when all hell broke loose.
There was a roar ofughter, and Jackson’s eyes turned into menacing slits as he literally kicked his
chair and pounded his shackled hand into Mad-Dave’s face so hard that his mouth started bleeding. I
was too dazed to even react to what was unfolding right in front of my eyes. His hands circled around
Dave’s neck as he started strangling him with the same shackles.
“Let go! Let go!” Dave was elbowing him but it wasn’t working. Jackson was so strong and muscr
that Dave’s power was nothing inpared of it.
Jackson let go for a moment and I thought he’d calmed down when he shook his arm so hard that the
shackles came apart. Literally broke in two, the metal digging into his skin but Jackson wasn’t the one
to care about pain. He easily tore off the mask holding his mouth shut and that’s when I snapped out of
it.
“Jackson, stop!” I yelled at him but it was like a switch had gone off.
He was violent beyond words. He pushed Dave down on the floor and continued to pound his face until
there was blood on his fists. If this went on, I had no doubt that Mad-Dave would be dead.
I needed to stop Jackson.