I

“Ah, you must be……let’s see here……Ms. Angela Chase. Yes, please come with me,” a receptionist said through this small, barred glass window. Her voice projected from a small speaker above me.
I nodded my head and looked around as I waited for her to lead me.
    The lobby was pretty bleak. Grimy, white, peeling walls, and a small, ripped leather chair next to a magazine rack with magazines from about 20 years ago. They didn’t housekeep much here.
    The receptionist exited her small room and stood by an entry way with transparent, plastic strips hanging from the door frame.
    “Through here, miss,” she said and I followed her through. We entered a long hallway that led to the elevator.
    “You sure you still want to do this?” she asked nervously. “I’ve heard some pretty nasty stories about what happen to the therapists down there. I know this one patient that killed a few with this rusty nail he found in his cell.”
    “I’m sure I’ll do fine,” I answered annoyed. Ever since I applied for a job application, they’ve been giving me warnings, warnings, warnings. By now, I think I’ve gotten the point.
    She stopped and hit a button on the wall to call the elevator.
    “These aren’t normal people, you know.” she said solemnly.
    “Obviously,” I replied snidely.
    The elevator doors opened and we both piled in. It was a very cramped elevator; me and the receptionist’s shoulders were smashed together tightly. She pushed the ‘down’ button and we descended down.
    Since I arrived, I haven’t really noticed what the receptionist looked like, but as we rid down the shaft, I couldn’t help but look.
    She had a small build; a very lean and slender body. She had strawberry blonde hair and had almond-shaped brown eyes and thin eyebrows. She looked about 30 or so.
    The shaft doors slowly opened to reveal a small white room; complete with two guards and a metal detector.
    The receptionist walked to one of the guards, who proceeded to pat her down, and make her walk through the metal detector. I did the same and walked to the other man.
    I stopped in front of him and raised my arms. He patted me down; He started at my chest and to my breasts. He held his hands their for a few seconds until I answered, “Don’t even think about it,”. He laughed nervous and then he continued down to my legs. After he finished he moved aside and told me to pass through the detector. I walked through. Beep!
    “Empty any metal from your pockets, and remove your jewelry, ma’am.”
    I did what he said and put them on a small table; my acrylic pink tapers, iPod, phone, and belt. I couldn’t take out any of my nose rings, or my lip ring.
    I passed through again. Beep!
    “Ma’am-”
    “I can’t take out my piercing,” I told him.
    “Very well. You may proceed.” I walked on to the door at the end of the room where the receptionist stood waiting for me; she was playing with her phone.
    She looked up, “Oh, your ready. This way, please. We walked through the door and we were in the cell block. At first I was kind of intimidated, but then quickly shrugged it off. The patients were behind bars, they couldn’t touch me. Except maybe that one with the rusty nail….
No. I shook the thought from my head.
    Together we trudged slowly down the corridor; the patients stared at me in curiosity, or at least I thought it was. It could have been that they were secretly plotting my murder thoroughly. Actually, that was probably what they were thinking.
    One cell contained a man whose face was painfully pushed against the bars; He was panting his tongue like a dog and I could see the blood losing circulation in his pale white cheeks. Another cell had an amazingly thin man rocking back and forth on the floor muttering, “27.……27.……..27.…….27.…….27.……..27.……..” He had crude drawings of mutilated people in chalk on the wall. One that really stuck out was one where he decapitated a person in what looked like a lab coat. Most presumably a doctor.
    “Well, first off you start immediately. You have some sessions with a few patients today. I left the information on your desk. Also you need to meet with the warden later. Later, as in 5:30. Please bring up your resume with you. I left that on your desk also. Ah, here we are,” She stopped at a metal staircase. “Go up the staircase and follow the hall down. Turn at the first left and at the end of the hall is your office.”
    “Thank you so much…um-”
    “Karen,”
    “Thank you, Karen,” I smiled genuinely.
    “No problem,. Oh, and welcome to Fall Creek Institution for the Criminally Insane. It‘s good to have a friendly face around here,” she said and she walked back down the corridor of cells and into the metal detector room.
    I sighed. This was going to be a whole lot easier with Karen around this place. I continued along and jogged up the steps. I was greeted by another row of cells as far as I could see. I kept to the left so I wouldn’t miss the turn and went on. Suddenly, I yelped when a bloodcurdling scream came from one of the cells. A woman charged from inside her cell towards me, and grabbed with her bony hands through the bars my coat. She slammed me hard into the bars and bit my neck and I howled in pain.
“Get off! Get off!” I cried. A guard patrolling a ways down the hallway heard my cries and rushed over here and grabbed his taser gun that was clipped on his belt. He pulled me back and I fell to the floor. He shot the gun and I heard another scream; even louder than the one before as she was shocked.
    He came over to me.
    “I’m so sorry, ma’am. Are you alright?” he asked.
    “Yeah, I’m fine.” I said and felt where the woman bit me. I felt a hot liquid drip from the bite; she broke through the skin.
    “Holy s**t! I think you should get that looked at. The infirmary is-”
    “I’m good thanks,” I answered quickly and got up and I rushed down the corridor to my office.
    Guess this is why they warned me so many times.