Rule 29 - Priest
Moths are a dangerous pest.
Two years ago.
Moth sat across from me in the circle, his arms crossed and that shit-eating grin plastered on his face. Everyone left, including the therapist, leaving just Moth and I to stare each other down.
"Tomorrow is visitor day. Will your family come to see you, Priest?"
I grit my teeth. When he confronted me about looking at his files, he'd been right. Our diagnoses were very similar.
"I think my mom, dad, and my sister will be showing up tomorrow. My mom will cry, and my dad will sigh and apologize a lot. My sister will sit on her phone the entire time. She doesn't care that I'm stuck here. Sisters, am I right?"
I glared at him.
"Why is your dad apologizing? You're the one that killed someone."
"Yes, but"—he put a finger up—"it was a less dead. No one cared."
"Less dead?"
"People no one cares about. No one was looking for her. I made a few mistakes, but that won't happen again." He stood and stretched.
Again? He made eye contact with me and laughed dryly. "What, you think she was my first? No, just the first to be found. Now, come on, Priest. Let's go play chess."
I stood but went the other way. He asked me every day to play chess, and every day, I refused. I noticed that he never played with anyone else either, so the offer was just another game of his I didn't understand.
At dinner, Moth made sure to sit at my table and bring a few others along with him. He spent the entire meal discussing visitor day.
"What about you, Ricky? You got family coming?"
Ricky, a middle-aged black man with extreme OCD, nodded. He was one of the more tolerable residents here. He had his way of doing things and was soft-spoken. I knew from past visitor days that he would have at least six to eight people come, and they'd regale him with gifts to help his stay. He was one of the luckier people in here.
I tuned them out and ate my watery potatoes and bland carrots quickly. I finished eating, but there were still twenty minutes for dinner, and we weren't allowed to leave until then. Begrudgingly, I put my tray away and returned to my seat just as Moth started to talk about his sister.
"Tara, she's the worst. Two years younger than me. She put our parents through way worse than I ever did. Boy after boy, in our house. There was a tape that was thrown around at school. It was a fucking mess, and as the big brother, I had to always clean it up. My dad turned gray in just a year! What about you, Priest? What's Delaney like?"
The entire table's eyes shot over to me. My fists clenched under the table. How did he know about Laney?
"Who's Delaney?" Peter, a younger kid with pale skin andfreckles all over, asked.Moth, still grinning, looked around and feigned confusion.
"Delaney is Priest's sister. Did you not know that?"
"Priest doesn't have visitors," Peter said. "Not since I've been here."
"He's the only one who doesn't," Ricky added.
Oh, fuck off, Ricky.
"I guess that makes sense, considering what he did." Moth reached over and put his hand over my shoulders. I was on top of him in an instant, my fist going into his face, over and over again.
"You don't get to say her name!" I shouted as I swung at him. Orderlies came and pulled me off him. Two held me back, and another two were picking him up. Moth was grinning, as blood trickled from his nose. He managed to do exactly what he'd wanted. Now I looked like the maniac, not him.
"Fuck you!" I spat.He laughed, and they dragged us both out of the dining hall and tossed us into our rooms.
"You know better than to start trouble with the other patients, Priest," Jack, the orderly who'd been in charge of me, chastised."I'm going to lock you in early tonight. I suggest you find some way to calm down, or they aren't going to let you out for three days. You shook Ricky up."
I gave him the middle finger and went to my small, square window with the bars on it. The night had just started to come. It was hours before lights out. Jack left and I heard the click of the lock on my door. It was going to be a long night.
