The minute hand on the old wall clock above the nurse's station shuddered and ticked violently to 14:10 pm, its tick echoing down the empty tiled corridor like a gun shot. Nurse McGinty ignored the small passage of time, her mind was already occupied with her well-oiled routine. She knew her inner clock was vastly more reliable. With carefully measured steps she walked the length of the corridor and at each door of a patient's room, she dropped the long thin hatch and glanced in on its occupant. The hospital called the rooms, secured bedrooms, where they said, patients were safe from harm. Anyone caught calling them cells was taken to one side and made to understand the distinction between a safe environment and the dole line. The staff soon understood, as did the patients, with a little persuasion.
McGinty liked this time of the afternoon when all the patients were locked away so as the staff could take their break. At this time only one orderly or nurse was needed to walk the floor, rather than the usual two. Mcginty always took this responsibility and her staff was happy to let her.
Unlatching another thin hatch, McGinty leaned over and looked in and greeted the occupant of the room "Good afternoon, Arnold. It's nice to see that you made the effort to get out of bed and to dress yourself today. Tea will be served in precisely twenty minutes time. It's beans and toast and a jelly pot!"
Arnold sat on the edge of his bed, silently rocking. He would have smiled and thanked her but he couldn't smile or talk since suffering his stroke month's earlier. All he could do was think and he thought "If I was able to do anything I would have long since landed that fine bitch on her back and thanked her properly"
Arnold smiled internally and imagined McGinty in his cell with him as he thanked her over and over but he neither smiled nor moved from the edge of his bed.
Nurse McGinty, satisfied that Arnold was causing no problems, closed the hatch and moved on. The disjointed sounds of miserable patients moaning and crying floated eerily down the brightly lit corridor as McGinty opened another hatch. The name hastily scribbled on the board beside the door, was, Malcolm Cloverson. According to the report that had accompanied him, it stated that he was a mild-mannered young man who had spent the best part of the last year moving from one failed suicide attempt to another. The last attempt had been a fourteen-hour rooftop extravaganza as Police specialists had tried to coax him down whilst under a hailed of slate roofing tiles.
McGinty did not say anything to him, she just allowed him to lay with eyes closed on his bed, counting invisible stars in his head. So far he had reached 2389, 90, 91, 92. She slowly and quietly closed the hatch so as to not disturb him and moved on to the next.
This one she thought, would be a problem if given a chance. The copperplate handwriting on the nameplate, said, Samantha Barringer. McGinty opened the hatch and looked in on the sleeping form beneath the covers, which she thought strange for Samantha at this time of day, she usually was a handful. McGinty wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so she tried to close the hatch but something was in the way. Reaching her fingers through the narrow opening, she ran them side to side trying to find the obstruction but felt something brush over her hand and then with a wrench pulled her arm fully through the hatch. McGinty, startled, cried out in pain and then screamed in agony as she heard as well as felt her arm snap.
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Samantha hunkered down on the floor behind the door. She stifled her laughter as she waited for the right moment to strike. She looked at the body double she had creates out of rolled up clothing and pillows and stifled another chuckle just as the hatch in her bedroom door opened. From where she sat, Samantha could not see who was at the door but the familiar scent of rose water wondered in.
Samantha knew that the nurses were not allowed to wear perfume, apparently, it could cause issues with patients, especially of the male variety. But of course, McGinty wore rose water and nobody argued against her authority, the bitch!
Holding her breath a little longer, Samantha could hear the hatch being closed and with a rolled up insole from her slip on asylum supplied moccasin, she blocked it. After several attempts to close the hatch, Samantha watched as the nurse ran her fingers the length of the opening searching for the obstruction. With a swift flick of her hand, Samantha swung the loop of rope that she had hastily woven from thin strips of bed sheeting over the nurse's hand. With all of her weight, she pulled the slip knot tight and then heaved the rope down until she heard a satisfying snap and the agonizing screams of head nurse McGinty.
At last Samantha laughed out loud and with gleeful menace, she said through the hatch "Open the door, please!" And to emphasize her request she yanked on the rope and listened to the screams of the ensnared nurse. Tying the makeshift rope to the door handle, Samantha peeped out at McGintys's scared and tear streaked face "Come on, take that lanyard from around your chicken skin neck and swipe that key card and maybe I don't rip that arm off of your shoulder, OK!"
With a pitiful whimper, McGinty struggled to release the key card with her free hand. The pain in her arm was too much to allow her to turn and face the door but somehow she managed to reach back above her head and slide the card through the electronic slot by touch alone. Her first attempt was an incomplete swipe, the door lock beeped negatively and turned red and after a further struggle, her second attempt was also refused.
Samantha huffed with impatience and warned the nurse "I know that three failed attempts will lock my door solid and automatically send for security. So please, if you ever want to use your arm and hand to cuddle your loved ones or caressing your soft spots, can I suggest that number three is successful!"
To Samantha's satisfaction, the door chirped happily and opened a fraction. Although McGinty blocked the door, Samantha had no trouble pushing the door open, sliding the nurse along with it. Now freed of her room, Samantha stood over the nurse and contemplated what she was going to do to her. The solution was easy, she knew, kill her, what else! Balancing on one foot, Samantha raised the other and was about to bring it down with full force on the cowering nurse when Samantha heard a sharp tapping behind her. Annoyed at the interruption, she turned to see where the noise was coming from and was delighted to see Doc through the security door at the end of the corridor, tapping with his car keys on the glass. He was shaking his head and beckoning her forward.
Nurse McGinty received a temporary stay of execution as Samantha, with her newly acquired key card ran excitedly to the door and let the Doc in.
"Haha! Doc, it worked just as you said it would, see!" She pointed at the collapsed form of the nurse.
Harleson gave her a congratulatory smile and a kiss on her cheek "Well done my dear, I knew you could do it. Now shall we leave this despicable place and get you something decent to eat. Theres a wonderful bistro in the town centre called Sage. Their gourmet burgers are to die for but first why don't you tell me how you managed to kill your grandfather in the two hours since we last talked, hmm!"
Samantha's smile evaporated at the mention of the only person she every liked until she met the Doc "He isn't dead, I haven't killed him" she answered sheepishly.
A glint of disappointed along with anger flashed in Harlesons eyes "Oh! And why not?"
Samantha shrugged her shoulders "I, I did want too. Don't worry, he'll be dead before the end of the night"
Harleson raised an eyebrow "And how do you think that is going to happen now that you will no longer be here to do it, hmm?"
With a conspiratorial whisper, she said "I asked him to kill himself for me and he said he would!"
Impressed, Harleson smiled at her "Ah! And you believe him?"
Samantha nodded vigorously "Yes, he would do anything for me"
Harlesons smile broadened "Good. My dear, you will become such a wonderful woman once given the chance for you to spread your beautiful wings"
Samantha grinned, pleased to see he was happy with her and said "Thank you Doc! But first I have unfinished business with Nursy over there. I'm going to rip out her evil eyes and squish her neck under my foot"
Harleson smiled back and said "I wouldn't want to spoil your fun, my dear but why not take just one of her eyes and leave her alive. It would be so much more fun to know that she will live her life in misery, with the memory of what you did to her, don't you think, hmm?"
Samantha looked at Harleson questioningly "Why only one eye?"
Harleson smiled at her and said "Why do you think?" and tapped below his right eye.
Her look of confusion turned to delightful knowledge "Uh? Oh! Ha, yes of course" and with that Samantha fell on McGinty and in seconds she had curled her index finger into the nurse's eye socket and as nurse McGinty screamed and howled, dug out her green eyeball. In agonized pain, McGinty passed out and lay unconscious on the floor with her broken arm still hanging from the rope.
Harleson looked at his watch and said "We have fifteen minutes before the rest of the staff come back on duty. Quickly, change into the nurses uniform I left for you in the cleaning cupboard over there and tie your hair back. Hurry!"
Samantha ran to the cupboard and disappeared inside, whilst Harleson bent down to McGintys still form and slapped her cheek repeatedly, until finally, she came too. With cries of despair, McGinty manage to sit up with Harleson help.
"Oh dear, look what she did to you, how awful. There's so much blood. Oh well, never mind, at least you have a spare eye, hmm!"
McGinty groaned in pain as Harleson bent over her and whispered into her ear "Now my dear, unless you wish to lose that other beautiful green eye of yours, please pass a message on for me. When you are found and the police have sent for, a Detective will come running. His name will be Robert Peel. Please tell him that we are sorry we couldn't stay and chat but I and Sammy had a more urgent appointment to attend too. Tell him not to worry, though, soon he'll get to attend to it also!"
With that, he left the nurse mewling on the floor and walked over to Samantha, who had exited the cleaning cupboard wearing pale green scrubs. Adjusting her lapel watch and hanging McGintys's lanyard around her neck, Samantha spun around on the spot with arms open wide and asked: "What you think, Doc?"
Harleson clapped his hands and said "A nurse if I ever did see one, my dear! Those Scrubs really bring out the green in your new eye"
With that, he reached out a hand and with his handkerchief he wiped her cheek "A beautiful crimson tear, most poetic, hmm!
