Chapter Two

Waking up, the sun seemed to glare into my eyes, the alarm was just as annoying as it always was. The beeps indicated that I had to be up and hall my ass into the bathroom to get started for the morning, another day at work and another day of long hours of that always ever seemed to end. Finally getting up, I headed for the bathroom to get ready, I wore the same uniform in the most ugliest brown tan that seemed to match up with my skin almost perfectly. It was paired with khaki pants and the combination made me want to vomit. The company logo was that of a house with the initials of the Nursing home inside. After getting ready, I left my apartment and headed to work, the radio played the newest number one hit and oh how perfectly it seemed to match up with my life. It only took me about 10 minutes to get to work but thank the heavens I decided to leave a bit more early today because traffic seemed to be going a little slower then normal today. There seemed to be a crash near by, judging my the sound of the police cars racing to get it by and the sound of the ambulance indicated that someone was injured.

It seemed I would be late today and my boss wouldn't be too delighted by that. He seemed to always nag at me about being on time, as if I was really ever late. I took pride in being on time for my shifts and I hated getting late anywhere. My mom would always laugh at me whenever she took me to school, saying I was almost always on the verge of tears every time we almost got late to school. I looked over to my passengers seat and saw the bright pink shoes from the night before, I needed to get rid of them, I decided to out them inside of a trash bag I had in my car. I would get rid of them after work, the trash people usually came around the time I got out of work so it was perfect.

The radio was playing an amber alert about a missing 19-year old that was last seen on King Street Sunday night. Another missing girl, news like this seemed more and more common this days. Every week there seemed to be another missing person near the area, it made me feel uneasy. I was starting to feel less and less safe, I couldn't help but think of what would happen if they got me, thoughts like that lingered in my head and sometimes filled my mind in dreams.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I noticed that I had finally made it to work, unexpectedly I had actually managed to make it a few minutes early. Some relief washed over me, knowing that Mr. Keith wouldn't go on and on about how I needed to be on time and if he wanted to he would fire me. I didn't care though, I only needed the extra year worth of money for reassurance. I wanted to be sure that if I need the money that I had it but its not like I need to work anymore. I was quite ready to start my dreams of publishing my novels or getting a deal with a publisher.

Opening the doors to the building made me hope that today would be a better day than yesterday.

"Good morning Daisy" I said to the receptionist and one of my dear friends. We had met the day of the interview, we bumped into each other at the restrooms and since then we've been friends.

She was a bubbly person and enjoyed working here, though she also hated the uniforms, she liked her line of work. She never complained and god only knows how she could work directly with Mr. Keith.

"Good morning to you too Helen" she replied smiling brightly

Smiling back at her, I headed to the office area of the building to see what elderly were assigned to me today. Perfect. I was assigned rooms 99, 45 and 72. John, Rubi and Frank, these three were one of the best and nicest elderly. They were the ones that liked to share amazing stories of their youth, some filled with war and grief and others with longing and sorrow. Beautiful stories that had me on the verge of tears somedays.

Putting on my apron, I grabbed my notebook, pen and gloves. We had to write down each morning, our patients stats every four hours to make sure they were always healthy as can be. It was always hard to let go of one of the elders, but it was a common occurrence for the medics to be here. Many would suffer of heart attacks or have some sort of health complications during the nightly hours, so we had to check and note down their stats.

Walking towards the elevator to get to room 45 was quiet. During the morning hours is when everything seemed to quiet down, most of the elders were fast asleep and others were quietly playing games in each floors common room. Rubi usually enjoyed her morning bath and going to the common room to see her husband, Walter. Her and Walter had been put in the same nursing home because their kids had decided that taking care of two elderly was not something they could handle. They also didn't want to separate the two, which I thought was beautiful. Rubi's face always lit up whenever she caught a glimpse of Walter, she would share stories about them whenever she was about to sleep.

"Good morning Rubi" I said as I walked through the door, she was sitting on her bed looking out the window

"Good morning sweetie" she replied back, turning around to face me.

"Ready Mrs. Bridge for you bath, if we get started now, you'll be at the commons room in 30min." I tell her asme walk into the bathroom to prepare the water.

"I'm ready sweetie, make me look nice after for my husband please, I don't want any other lady taking my husband from me" she giggled a bit as she said replied.

"Don't worry Rubi, your husband only has eyes for you." I said smiling at her

Getting her into the bath was easy, Rubi quite enjoyed taking baths by herself. It was the one thing she had asked me to not help her with, though I still had to stay in the bathroom to supervise her just in case an accident occurred. My mind slowly started thinking back to the noises from Mr. Stewarts apartment, I couldn't help but think that something didn't feel right. Hear the sound of the water stop brought me back to reality, I had let my thoughts wander off into the unthinkable, how could Mr. Stewart do anything bad. I was starting to go crazy from all the missing girls reported, now I was starting to think Mr. Stewart had something to do with it. Gosh, I needed to stop this nonsense.

"Sweetie, could you help me out please." Rubi's voice seemed to ground me once again back to reality.

Yes, Mrs. Bridge, I'm right here" I replied while grabbing her towel. I opened the curtain and helped her out, making sure to be careful as to not let her slip. She was a petite woman and I feared one slip could end up hurting her badly. She had decided to wear her crimson suit today, as it was one of her husbands favorite colors on her.

Once finished, we headed towards the commons room, just like always. She spotted her husband and instantly her face spread with a warm wonderful smile. She started walking faster and I had to remind her to slow down as to not injure herself, she never listened though, always falling into her husbands arms and kissing her tenderly. It was a sight, oh how beautiful love could be.