"I don't understand," I said aloud, although it was more to me than him. "Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?"
Moments where we fought, and he picked on me in front of his friends, and was cruel in private—flashed in my head. Now, he suddenly flipped his opinion on me.
"All of a sudden?" Priest met my eyes with his dangerous ones. "Laney, why do you think you were sent away?"
“I-I can’t remember.” I shook my head. Flashes of doctor visits and harsh lights filled my mind. I stumbled out of his grasp. I put my hands over my temples. Why had I been sent away? “I don’t know.”
“Laney.” Priest took a step closer to me. “Are you all right?”
I closed my eyes as my back hit a wall. “Yeah, I just... I don’t remember a whole lot about…” The image of a female doctor with sharp features and cruel smile continued assaulting my brain. “I don’t want to think about it anymore,” I said quickly and swallowed.
“I don’t know. But I take it my leaving had to do with you?” I shook my head, still in disbelief.
Priest nodded. “It did. I care deeply about you, and that’s why I worry about you spending time alone with Moth. He’s a pathological liar. He’s a narcissist, who doesn’t give a shit about you, and?—”
“And what?” I had spent my high school years in Shelley Vale, a shitty, backward town, all because of Priest? What had he done? While I couldn’t remember, I knew he hadn’t touched me. He had done something even more sinister. Somewhere, buried deep inside my mind, I knew that he had hurt my soul more than my body. “What is so wrong with Moth that has you so insanely jealous over the thought of me being with him? I don’t care if he’s a liar, or likes himself too much or?—”
“He’s a psychopath, Laney.”
Rule 19 - Priest
Be charming.
Three years ago.
“Idon’t know, Priest. I could get fired.” Chastity, the young, night nurse ran her hand through my hair and tugged lightly. “They already don’t like me for befriending you guys.”
I chuckled. Befriended? This pretty little slut just got done deep throating my cock. My cum was still on her tongue.
“Oh, come on, I thought you liked me.” I pinched her chin. Chastity wasn’t the first nurse I’d seduced while I’d been locked up in Cunningham’s psychiatric facility. She was moderately attractive. I’d definitely had prettier and smarter, but none of them were who I truly wanted. None of them were Laney.
“I do,” she whined. She’d come into my room to give me my nightly meds and took a break to blow me. She fucking loved sucking cock. I didn’t even have to ask. “I do, but I also need this job. It pays well and it’s so close to my apartment.”
“Oh, right.” I put on my false face. “I forget you have a life outside of here. Must be nice.”
“Priest, don’t be like that.” She reached over and rubbed my back. I stiffened but forced myself to relax. I didn’t like her enough to want her to touch me, but if I wanted her to do shit for me, it was a necessary evil. “It’s not so bad in here. You have me.”
“At night, sure. During the day, I have no one. And now we’ve got that new guy. I don’t trust him. He’s lying about himself. Chastity, you need to get me his file.”
Chastity stood. “Fine. But I have to do it when no one’s around. Some of these nurses love to catch people doing stuff they’re not supposed to. Just the other day, Bridget told on Miranda because she’d offered one of the children her bag of chips! It was a whole big thing and a headache and I am not trying to have another memo sent out about being too nice to you guys.”
“You are too nice.” I stood and adjusted my soft blue standard-issue Cunningham pajama pants. I reached for her and moved in close as if to kiss her, getting her hopes up, just to dash them by quickly moving my lips to her ear to whisper. “But I like the nice nurses.”
She swooned and then quickly left, promising to return later. She didn’t, but when she came back the next night for my meds, she had a small packet of papers hidden under her shirt.
“Here. Read them and then give them back. I’ll have to burn it or flush it or something once you’re done. Bridget’s suspicious of me. She saw me looking at the file last night. That’s why I had to wait.”
Timothy Burke, 19, admitted by family for violent behavior.
I skipped the family history and physical forms and quickly scanned the list of medicines he was on. Anti-psychotics, a lot of them. I’d been locked up in here with himfor two months, I knew for a fact that the fucker wasn’t taking any of them.
I continued reading and found pages and pages of incidents and statements from psychiatrists, all saying the same thing. He was a narcissist, a pathological liar, and based on the number of animals they’d found dead in his care, a psychopath. There had been an incident that went to trial, which wasn’t fully listed, but the result was that he’d be doing a year here to pay for whatever he’d done.
I tossed the papers back at Chastity.
“Are you not happy?”
I stood and paced my small, beige room.
