Jack In The Box

I couldn’t stop the sobs that raked through my chest. Why did it have to happen with me? The worst feeling was how Aaron had looked at me with so much disgust. He was my superior, but more than that, he’d been my friend. The only man I’d looked up to and it killed me how he’d literally dismissed me out of his office. The accusatory look he’d passed me. He trusted me, but there was a definitely a shadow of a doubt where he wondered if I could possibly betray his trust.

I pulled out the paper tissues and blew my nose into it furiously, still crying.

If I saw Jackson in front of me right now, I’d kill him with my bare hands.

I heard a sound a few cubicles down from mine. When I’d entered the bathroom, I hadn’t paid attention enough to notice if anyone was using the other toilets because I thought it was obvious no one would. I’d purposely walked into the ladies restroom that belonged to the old wing which was situated close to the new wing but separated from the rest by a passageway and a stairway going down. There was a whole wing that was currently abandoned from hospital use and mostly only used by staff sometimes. No one came here.

So when I heard another sound, I thought my mind was just messing with me. If there really was someone in there apart from me, then they’d heard me crying.

And if they’d heard me crying, I would have to make up an excuse as to why I was crying.

Cautiously, I opened the door and noticed there was no one in the bathroom. I went and stood by the sink. I opened the faucet and splashed some water over my face. When I was done, I walked out of the restrooms.

The long passageway was spread out before me. Dark, and deserted. When I’d walked through it before isolating myself in the cubical, I hadn’t thought much of it because I was hurt and my mind preoccupied. Now that my head was in a clear state, the walk through the passage creeped me out. The lights above dimmed, and I knew that didn’t mean anything but I started to imagine all the slasher movie scenes. I walked two steps and made a run for it.

When I turned a corner, I stumbled and fell on the ground. It was Nurse Roxanne. Her body sprawled on the floor in a twisted angle, her eyes were vacant, staring upward.

She wasn’t alive. She was dead. I pulled myself up and ran down the hallway and out of the abandoned wing. I was scared and shaking by the time I reached Aaron’s office.

I didn’t even knock the door as I barged into the room.

Aaron glanced up from his papers. “You’ve been losing your wits, guess you’re losing some manners as well.”

I ignored the comment. “Aaron, the...the abandoned wing.” I stuttered. My entire body was shaking.

“What’s wrong? Why are you acting like you saw a ghost?”

“Nurse Roxanne. Roxy, I saw her sprawled on the floor. She was dead.” I said.

Aaron jumped out of his chair. “What?!”

“I saw her!” I said.

Aaron followed me outside and into the old wing. I led him to the place where I’d seen the body and gasped, my hand flying to my mouth.

The hallway was empty. There was no body there. No trace of anything, not even a drop of blood.

“Aaron, I wasn’t lying. I saw the body there. She was dead.”

Aaron sighed. “That’s enough Riley.” He placed his hand on my shoulders. “You’re just stressed with everything going on and you’re seeing things.”

“So you don’t believe me?”

body here, I don’t

it manage to vanish so fast? Had I

that it wasn’t my fault. I felt nice talking to her by the end of the call. She said some

satin and sexy; totally club worthy. Plus it was my Halloween dress from last year. I applied some makeup and I knew

A sexy witch.

I hadn’t worn in a long time and doused myself in

my head with all the crazy things happening, especially with Jackson. This seemed like a good

it would be. Granted, we had turned up a bit earlier than necessary. People mostly didn’t turn up until mid-night. I met up with the girls near the bar, Maddy was dressed as Harley Quinn and another one

the marathon.” Maddy commented, taking

rolled my eyes. “I’m good,

some action.” Maddy

don’t you take your own

laughed. “I just did last night. Remember

friend. “Yeah. What about him? Did you hit it off

a face. “Will you

on what you’re gonna

someone to babysit for his little sister so I agreed because he wanted to be there at a party. You already know, Conner is not my type and it was pretty apparent from

to be

“I put Cammy

for a full minute, just us staring at each

mean, I used to hang out a lot with Conner at his house before when you first introduced me to him and that’s when I met Richard. He was in the navy and has a hot body, and is really experienced in

he is Conner’s father and he’s twenty years older than us. Plus if Conner finds out that you’re sleeping with his father, he’s

is seriously so mature and nice. He’s really not the pervy kind of older men that we

my hand over

my life wasn’t so complicated, Riley.” She ordered for

she never enjoyed dating men our age. She was more interested

other, and if he makes

again. “At least I like settled older men, but what about you? I

whats that if I

gave me her teasing look. “Your fetish for bad guys, like you know serial killers and bad guys in

cheeks turning warm. I began

know you have a thing for them. You’re practically

down I had a thrill for all the bad people. Of course it didn’t justify for the atrocious crimes they committed but my obsessions had gone overboard until I’d started to feel ashamed of myself, the way I was ashamed that I was thinking of Jackson more than I should have, especially since he’d left the asylum. It almost made me sad

another retort when Maddy had spaced out until I realized she hadn’t spaced out but staring into a distance. At someone. “That guy’s staring at us. Oh no, he’s looking at

painted like Joker and I could tell he was pretty good looking under all that scary makeup. He wore a purple suit identical to the character and the joker

hopped down from the seat. “I...need to

“Hey, wait!”

thumbs up before rushing into the crowd leaving me