That's The Name, Don't Wear It Out

Even to an ear trained for pain, the screams were unbearable. They brought tears to stone walls and whimpers to Knights in armor.
Why won't they stop screaming....?
Sometimes you'd see a group of nurses shaking their heads and mouthing the words they thought of every night before bed. How or why they stayed working at such a place was beyond even them. Most went home sobbing hysterically or jumped at the slightest noise.
By now every nurse and doctor was asking the same question to themselves: who is Nellie?
For that was the only name, the only word, that their most severely disturbed patient seemed to know how to say. And she said it every day, ever night, in every breath.
"Usually we are cut out for this type of thing, naturally, but this is getting to the point where we cannot help her, Miss. I believe she needs you here. Maybe you can help.
Five o clock tomorrow, come by if you can. If not, call and let me know. We can reschedule".

"Thank you for coming, Miss Auburn. I appreciate the wonderful timing. Half of my staff can't seem to make it on time for their own damn job".
"Has something happened? I was told months ago I wasn't allowed to see my daughter. From day one you told me I had no clearance. Me, her goddamn mother!".
"It was for her safety, and also strict protocol. If it was my choice these people would be given birthday cakes, everyday clothing, and a shelf full of books and games. But it's not how it works. They're too dangerous to themselves. Not to mention to others. I can't count how many times your daughter has stabbed my employees in the hands with a pen, or attempted to bite the nighttime shift man. And that's just her. We have hundreds of other patients.
So if you will excuse me for being blunt, it doesn't matter that you're her mother. Nobody is safe from her. And do you really think you want to watch us inject her with sedatives every night?".
Auburn fell silent, biting her lip. Biting back tears. Holding back all the pains of her life that threatened to flood forward.
"She's been asking for somebody" the doctor said, hoping to distract the irritating sobbing fit that he foresaw happening, "And we've checked family names, and nobody related to her had the name. Maybe you know it?".
"If you tell me what it is, maybe".
A stiff sigh.
"Nellie".
Auburn raises her eyebrow. She focused absentmindedly on one of Doctor Shale's black lab coat buttons, thinking hard.
"Nobody we know is called that. But....well, maybe...."
"Hm?"
"She has a doll named Nellie. A ventriloquist puppet"
"Dummy?"
"Excuse me...?"
"A ventriloquist dummy, you mean?"
"Yes, that. She wanted it for her birthday three years ago. She loved it to bits. Creepy, weird thing. I hate anything that doesn't blink. I had one of them when I was younger. My mother thought it was pretty. She bought her because she 'looked like me'. I hated it, and I buried it in the backyard when my mom left my father".
"Why would she ask for the doll? Why not you? Or ask for her sister?".
"Martha and her sister," Auburn said through gritted teeth, "Did not have a pleasant falling out. I prefer not to mention her or her deeds.
As for me well, I don't know. Maybe she blames me for putting her in here. But I didn't have a choice. I was incapable of taking care of her, and that's that".
"Well, why would she be asking so vehemently for this doll?".
"I have no idea. I threw that thing in a closet in my cellar when Martha was checked in here".
"I'm going to let you talk to her for a few minutes to see if you can get anything useful out of her. Maybe she'll snap out of it a bit after seeing you".
"Or I'll make things worse...".
"I don't think she can get much worse, Miss".

The room Auburn and Shale entered was small and clean, except for many writing pads, filled with the documented ramblings of the clinically insane and the notes from their caretakers.
The one-way glass looking into the large silver room beyond was smeared. The silver room itself was barren of any object. After all, anything could be turned into a weapon of the intent was strong enough.
Auburn sat down in front of one of the microphones, and Shale sunk into the second seat next to the other mic. There was a screen showing a better view of the silver room on a small tv between them.
He paged his staff, relayed the okay to bring Martha in, and put the pager back in his pocket.
As Auburn waited, she couldn't help notice that Shale's eyes liked to flit around; to her ankles, her bare fingers, up the side of her chest. She cleared her throat loudly, and he started ruffling through papers. Whether he had noticed her discomfort of not, she felt far less exposed now that he wasn't looking at her,
She got to her feet when three nurses entered the blank room, two of them holding firmly to Auburn's daughter's forearms, the other with a small medical kit at the ready in her hands.
Martha was a tall girl (she had always been), with milk chocolate colored hair that fell thickly to her breasts. Her eyes, crazed and blue, were gathering many dark circles.
The two nurses holding her gently pushed her to a sitting position, crossing her legs.
The third nurse stood by the door, it buzzed, and opened. She backed out and held the door open.
The other two nodded at each other, one took her hand and turned Martha's head away from them, and then the two made a dash to the door.
An inhumane growl of anger escaped from Martha's lips and she bit the air where the nurse's hand had been, and tried to get up, but her crossed legs tripped her. The nurses closed the door and it buzzed again, locked.
Martha roared and threw herself at the door with an unpleasant thump. She them began to bash her fists on every inch of the wall she could reach.
"Why isn't the room padded?" Auburn asked crossly.
"No need. The only reason we bring people in there is for interviews, and when we do, we have them strapped to a heavy chair. Your daughter would be restrained as well, but your father heavily insisted that it would distress her more".
"He convinced you against protocol?".
"Miss, it's hard enough to make a profit at what we do as it is, and a generous offer to keep your daughter unshackled indefinitely was not going to be ignored".
"How much did he pay you?!" Auburn asked, appalled.
"I'm not allowed to share that information with you" Shale said blatantly.
Auburn's eyes were large with irritability, but she left the subject dry (making a mental note to give her father hell later) and turned to look at her daughter in the screen.
She had stopped yelling, but was still pounding the walls.
Shale flipped a switch on and Martha's voice came in clearer.
She was muttering frantically "Nellie. Nellie. Nel....".
"Can I talk to her?" Martha asked, turning to Shale.
He nodded and pointed to the button near her microphone, "Don't talk too loudly, the speakers in there reverberate a lot".
Auburn pressed the button, swallowed whatever was choking her up, and said "Martha, baby? It's mommy".
Martha stopped pounding. She turned slowly, almost robotically, to look at the camera sending feed to the screen between Shale and Auburn.
"That's right, baby! It's me! I'm here".
Martha clawed at her hair, seemingly confused. Or trying to remember.
She eventually looked at the camera again and said "Mom. Nellie".
"You're already doing better than us, Miss," Shale said with a small smile, "First time she's said anything other than that name for months".
Auburn wasn't listening and leaned in closer to the mic, "Honey, stop, she's just a doll. I'm here. Your mom. I'm here. Listen to me. You need to tell me what's wrong".
"ELLIE!" Martha screamed, yanking a handful of brown hair strands out of her scalp.
"Stop that! Stop it! She's a doll. Nothing more! Will you listen to me!".
Martha shook her head roughly, repeating the same wretched name.
"I am your mother! Listen to me, goddamn it! Look at me! Look...at...ME! Answer me, God damn you, what's wrong!?"
"Miss...."
"MARTHA MAY, STOP DOING THIS! RIGHT NOW!".
Martha broke out into a fit of screams, falling to the floor, flailing madly.
Auburn slammed her hands angrily onto the desk, pushing herself up. She paced around the room while Shale watched her blankly.
He leaned in and pressed the button on his microphone, "Martha, if she brings you Nellie, will you come into the Violet room and talk to us?".
Martha stopped screaming almost as if she had been manually muted. She sat up and stared at the camera vehemently. She blinked, her breathing heavy, her eyes wilder than before.
She nodded.
Auburn turned around to face the glass again, "What did she do?".
"Nodded" Shale said simply, "You see, it's give and take in this kind of situation. And if she can't give us what we asked for, we take the doll again".
"First I have to agree to get the doll for her".
"Would you rather she go back to screaming? Common, Miss, it's the only solution to get any progress in her treatment".
Auburn threw her purse defiantly onto her shoulder and turned to go, "She better benefit from this. I had better too. If she gets the doll and doesn't talk, she can go right back to her useless screaming. My husband walked all over me when I was weakest, my daughter won't be doing the same".
With that, she walked out of the room.
Shale turned once again to the screen. Martha was still staring at the camera.
And she kept on staring until the nurses came to get her. Her eyes were still just as violent, just as insistent. She didn't so much as grunt when they steered her to her room.