Stranger In My Home

Name: Lorraine Jones-Park

Age: 26

Nationality: American

Ethnicity: African American

Diagnosis: Schizophrenia

Cause of isolation and transfer:

- constant disturbance of other inmates, she'd repetitively state that (quote) "He is not the one ,he is not Sungjae . HE killed them! He killed them all ,you need to stop him! You have to!!"

Traits and History:

-Aggressive behaviour

-Attempted to evade the facility multiple times.

-Unfit for social interaction

Advise: do not mention her husband and her children it might trigger the patient.

The nurse in duty sighed as she read the file of their latest patient arrival.

She had been newly transferred and this was going to be her first shift with her.

She had seen many patients over the years, with similar story , similar problems, similar symptoms.

It wasn't their fault .

They were mentally unstable.

They were Sick.

Still, people like them could not be forgiven for their criminal acts. Especially when it came to murder.

Be it consciously or unconsciously, they had done an unforgivable thing. The law never forgives criminals, the system was not going to be soft with them irrespective of them having any mental health conditions. They did not serve the freedom that they used to have.

Hence why they were stuck in special facilities like this for life.

There nurse made her way to the room.

Room 054

She took her cart with all medical supplies and unlocked the door.

She did not hesitate to make her way in.

She knew the patient would be bound, so there was no threat.

She was supposed to have at least a guard with her given the level of reported aggression, but she had waved them off.

After all, she was experienced.

She prepared the pills, wore her gloves then finally turned her attention to the patient.

For some reason as she stared at the last arrival, she felt something strange bubbling inside her.

Some sort of ominous feeling.

There was definitely something odd about her.

Something odd about the whole situation.

She could not put her finger on it.

The 'crazy' African American woman looked... innocent?

It was crazy, the sick lady looked like a deer caught in the light.

Like a pray being hunted down by a hunter.

She just looked so scared, so lost, so...Vulnerable.

The nurse could not explain if what she was feeling was pity or something else.

The nurse almost felt....guilty?

It was crazy right?

There was no reasons for her to feel this way.

The woman was freaking locked up and confined for a reason, how could that look "innocent!"

But...

She did not look like the normal psychotic person or the usual murderer you saw on this facility.

She looked like a woman who had simply been through hell on this Earth.

The nurse could feel her pain, her desperation and her request for help.

Her eyes spoke louder than words.

As the nurse stepped closer she felt a shiver run down her spine, for some reason she felt caged , she felt trapped ,she couldn't tell why but she just knew that whatever was gonna come out of the woman's mouth once she removed her gag.....

Was going shock her for life.

The desperate, icy stare the patient was giving her was making her lightheaded, she almost scrambled back towards the door in retreat, but she knew better than that .

She had to get herself together.

She was on duty and had to give the patient her medications in other to prevent her from becoming overly aggressive.

That was her job.

The nurse took a deep breath before addressing the said patient.

"- Good morning Lorraine" She said quietly, in an appeasing manner.

Just as she had been trained to do so.

The patient stared at her.

"- I am going to give you your meds now, so we can finally give you your breakfast, is that okay?"

The patient still stared at her unblinking, unmoving.

No sign of confirmation nor refusal.

Well it wasn't like she could respond or do anything to be honest . She was heavily restrained in the little confined and whitewashed room. Even her head and her mouth were restrained, preventing any kind of movement nor any type of communication.

The nurse, Joselynn carefully took a few steps towards the restrained woman gently unlocking the mouth restrain to enable her, to feed her medications.

It actually took her longer than it should have normally taken, the trailing eyes of the restrained woman were making her uncomfortable, her hands were shivering with each strap being unlocked.

She proceeded to get the numerous coloured pills contained in the little cup out the tray, carrying a second cup of water along with her other hand.

Just as she was about to approach her, the patient talked.

"-You do know he's out there, right?"

Joselynn shivered.

The patient's voice was raspy from being unused for so long , Joselynn could tell that the woman would have been normally soft spoken.

"-Umm let's take your meds Lorraine we can talk about this later..." Said Joselynn dismissively, whilst attempting to keep her composure.

"-No." Lorraine replied firmly.

"-You need to listen .You need to know the truth ! I need someone to know the truth, before I die! Before he comes for me again. He put me in here! He did it! " She said, raising her voice towards the end of her sentence."

Joselynn was starting to get anxious.

"- I..I..if... I listen to you will you take your medications without a fuss. I really don't want to call...the guards..." said Joselynn, before nervously biting her lips.

To be honest she was scared, she was scared of whatever Lorraine was about to tell her.

It was weird she usually was able to talk to all patients into taking their meds without any problems, she was usually able to ignore the non-sense that normally came out from her patients' mouths .

After all, they were not in their right state of mind.

This was a psychotic ward for a reason.

This hospital-cellar was a confined building for people with mental problems .

Joselynn did not know why she suddenly had the urge to listen, to give the young woman a chance, to know her point of view; And that made her nervous.

She just could tell that whatever she was going to listen to, was going to be big and probably bothersome to cope with.

Her guts told her so.

And she was right.

Joselynn would have no idea that was she was about to listen to was going to change her life for good.

Soon enough, she'd be able to say that never in her life she would have imagined that such a nice woman would have gone through such a series of events.

Lorraine smiled.

It was forced, it was uneasy, and it was painful.

"-I should have noticed that something was wrong" she started.

I should have realized that something was off.

If I did, they'd still be alive .

They'd all be alive .

I should have known ,

I should have noticed... that he wasn't my husband

" That he was instead, the devil."

To be continued...