• Slam! The whole truck rattled as the big, burly, black man closed his door. It was quite early in the morning, the ground was covered by fog, giving the four story building in front of him a much more creepy look, and it didn’t help that the words “St. Dymphna’s home for the mentally ill” stood in faded maroon paint on the front of the white-walled building. He walked up to the side door, shifting his backpack to his left shoulder, and slid his ID badge which read ‘Henry Walker’ through the old scanner, which beeped, then flashed a little red light at him. Henry groaned and proceeded to bang on the door with his fist. A soft crackling sound could be heard through the building’s radio system, a garbled voice floated from the little box next to the door. “Show your badge to the camera.” was all it said. Henry, grumbling, did as instructed and held his ID badge up to the camera next to the door, there were little beeping sounds and suddenly the little light that flashed red a few moments ago was blinking green at him. He pushed the door open and headed down the deserted hall towards the security desk, calling forward “You know, Jim, if you fixed that damn reader you wouldn’t have to check me every morning”.
    “And you know as well as I do there’s nothing wrong with the reader, we’ve checked it before,” Jim replied, a slight know-it-all tone to his voice, “It’s your card, you know how to get a new one.”
    Henry ignored this statement and set his backpack on the counter. “So, how’s Jonathan doing this morning?”
    “Number 319? He’s fine, strangely quiet though. The guards down in that end of the building say he hasn’t broken the pool yet.”
    Henry sighed “I keep telling them to stop betting on him…he’s a human being, not some toy for their amusement…”
    Jim sighed as well, giving henry a small smile, “well, you know some people don’t care about people like him as much as you do, they just as soon write him off as crazy and have him sent down the river.”
    Henry grimaced, he didn’t need anyone else ‘sent down the river’, it was hard enough just trying to be an orderly here, much less having to load up all the patients deemed too dangerous for human contact on the van and see them off ‘down the river’ as everyone here said. Of course they only said it like that because the reality was far more unnerving, too much so to be mentioned.
    Henry gave Jim another smile, picked up his bag, and started walking down the hall to his left, towards his end of the building. There were no doorways to the outside on this side of the building, it was for the patients who had to be kept under close watch and serious medication. That’s the reason why they hired a guy like him to work as the orderly down there, big enough to contain any problems, black enough to scare the older patients into behaving. Of course, he got to help people, and the pay was fine, so he didn’t complain.
    After pushing his way through another door, he saw the security desk for his end of the building, with three guys standing in it, that was odd, usually only one stayed at the desk while the others patrolled. They were staring at a monitor, one of the rooms with cameras in it, so a serious patient.
    “What are you guys doing?” Henry called as he came nearer to the desk
    “Just keeping an eye on ol’ 319” the southern drawl rang out from the large man, much higher in pitch than you’d suspect, “he hasn’t said anything about who’s talking to him this morning, usually by now he’s going off his rocker and we know if someone won the pool.”
    Henry let out a grunt of disapproval before setting his backpack down on the counter, the southern man picked it up and set it behind the desk, they would watch it until the end of his shift.
    “Now don’t you get started on your ethical nonsense Henry, boy. We both know that there’s no time for that.” the other two guards remained silent, but kept an eye on Henry.
    They must be new, Henry thought. Sadly enough, the guard was right, he didn’t have time for this. If Jonathan hasn’t spoken at all today then there was something wrong, he was usually a very talkative patient, if only to what he saw.
    Henry nodded to the guards and headed down the hall towards room number 319, Jonathan’s room. It was the last room at the end of the hall, and one of the fluorescent lights had burnt out over in the corner, he’d have to send someone to take care of that.
    Knocking three times before entering the room, as was his personal way, Henry walked in smiling.
    “Good morning Jonathan, how was your night?” he said in a soft voice. It took him a moment to find the young man, crouched in a corner with a pillow held over his head.
    The only sound that replied to him was a soft dripping sound, strange, as this room didn’t have a bathroom built on.
    “Jonathan?” he said a little louder, hoping to catch his attention.
    Still nothing but dripping. Henry stared at the boy’s back for several moments before he noticed. The slight red stains at the bottom of Jonathan’s regulation white robe. He rushed over to the boy and grabbed the pillow away from his head.
    All he saw was the scraped and bloody sides of the boy’s head. Two holes, one on each side, were almost visible, but everything that had been his ears looked as though it had been clawed away, the blood was dripping from the edges of the pillow onto the floor next to him.
    When Jonathan saw Henry, he smiled up at him and whispered, “I only hear what I want to hear…” before bursting into a fit of giggles.
    Henry staggered back, then grabbed his radio, muttering into it quickly “I need medical help in room 319.” Tears starting to fall down his cheeks. He’d have to send another one ‘down the river’.
    It was over, after this there was no way Jonathan would be allowed to stay here. All that was left in the room was his soft giggling, alongside the steady drip, drip, drip…