Silence Falls

On the other side where the Men’s ward was established in Psychiatric Hospital was the Women’s ward. This would be the new home of Otep, Onika, Natasha, Alexis and Demetria. They wouldn’t be allowed to venture outside of it to see Bert and the others. For the duration of their lives they would remain on this floor in this sector of the building doing...absolutely nothing. According to their daily schedule, it seemed like the only breakthrough they would be able to make would be to follow it and swallow every pill handed to them without fuss.

The girls kept huddled close behind Otep, who was the only one not advertising any fear as they traipsed down the hall following their personal Orderly, Rachel. She was a beautiful woman with pale skin, blue eyes and black hair, but of course someone that sublime had to have defects. Hers was the kind of attitude where she didn’t give a hoot about anything or anyone, and was continually impatient like she had better things to do other than her job.

Grumbling beneath her breath, Rachel unlocked the door of their assigned room with a sizable silver ring with assorted keys. Stepping aside, she held it open to them to enter. When they merely peeked inside to scrutinize the place from the doorway, she rolled her eyes at them and gestured impatiently for them to go in. “Well? What the hell are you idiots standing around for? GET INSIDE!”

Wordlessly, Otep let the other go first before she leisurely took her time entering the very dreary room to further infuriate Rachel. Gray linoleum, white walls and sheets and two bunk beds. The patients held back their judgement and remained reserved as they continued to look around with sorrow in their eyes.

Rachel lifted up her clipboard and began to give them another recap on their daily schedule in a disinterested tone, indicating to a sheet of paper taped to the wall that their schedule was printed out for them to review every day. The patients began to pick out their beds, ignoring her completely. Otep was the only one to catch on that there were only four beds in the room, but five of them. As soon as she realised this, her brows furrowed in on their Orderly who’s eyes were honed in on Onika.

“Alright you, let’s get going to your room now to meet your new roommates.” Rachel snapped, pointing her pen directly at Onika, wishing for her to follow her out into the hall.

Onika was taken aback by this news, her mouth opening and closing. She would be confined in a room full of strangers from her friends! Wishing to argue, but knowing it could make the already horrendous situation worse, Onika closed her mouth firmly and slowly stood up from one of the beds. She didn’t expect the hands of her friends shooting out in every direction for her, gripping onto her tightly. Not wishing for this to get them in trouble as well, she silently attempted to pry their hands off of her so she could head to her new room.

Otep didn’t like this division one bit. It was bad enough they lost the boys, but now these people were trying to split them again!? Out of the five, she was strongest and could survive on her own even in this kind of mayhem. The other four couldn’t survive, they needed each other! Which meant a self sacrifice would have to be made. Striding over to stand in the doorway of their room, Otep brazenly called out to a retreating Rachel and Onika. “Hold on a minute!”

Upon being delayed again, Rachel stopped in her tracks and let out a petulant groan. Spinning around, she glared at Otep with malice. “What the hell do you want now? The bathroom’s that way if you need to go take shit!” Using her pen again, she directed the tip down the hall in hopes that this kid was not already an imbecile like the rest of the patients in this ward are.

Otep stepped forward out into the hall, her eyes studying Rachel before saying. “I want to volunteer to be moved to the other room in place of Onika.”

Onika’s lips parted, her eyes widening in astonishment at Otep for heroically sacrificing herself for her. “Otep...I…”

“It’s fine.” Otep pledged to her, her eyes never leaving Rachel. “I’d like to have the other room.”

Onika released her a breath of relief she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Honestly, she didn’t want to be the one moved away from her friends. In fact, from what little she had seen of these meandering patients so far, she was terrified at the thought of being left alone in a room with them.

For discernible reasons, she was positive Otep would be able to handle it a lot better than she could. Worrying about her wouldn’t be paramount in the least bit.

Rachel narrowed her eyes at Otep. She suddenly got the feeling that this blondie was going to be a bit more of a headache than the rest of these demented weirdos she was being paid to oversee. Stepping forward to use her height to loom over the young girl, Rachel strived to spell this out for this disreputable child. “Look, I’m in charge of my patients, you understand? I tell them what to do, and when to do it. In fact, I can tell any of these deranged fucks on this floor what to do and they’ll have to do it, or else.” She lowered her face down to look Otep in the eye to further dishearten her. Nevermind the fact she hadn’t batted an eye since she commenced into her speech. “You are nothing more than a piece of shit, and I’m the dazzling diamond you wished you were. So, Otep, you don’t come up to me to volunteer for anything, I volunteer you. The same way I’m about to volunteer your little entitled ass to get back into your room.”

Otep slowly nodded to herself, appearing to take in Rachel’s words when in reality she was trying to exile the notion of her slapping the woman across her face out of her mind so she wouldn’t get any ideas. Countering with brutality was not the best way to handle this situation especially because she didn’t know this situation. She’d never heard of Silence Falls having a Psychiatric Hospital before, nor of Bert mentioning it. This was unfamiliar grounds and so they would have to be leery, including herself.

But dammit, it just wasn’t going to be possible for her to keep her mouth shut if this was how every confrontation with Rachel was going to play out. The staff in the Medical Facility barely acknowledged their patients unless they weren’t listening or misbehaving. It was their first day here at this hospital and already Otep wanted to get into a fight. Flashing Rachel a tight smile, Otep replied. “I take it, it's my turn now?”

Rachel scoffed at her like she was a meaningless bug she was about to stomp under her white shoes. “Oh, this should be cute!”

And it was that response that had Otep saying screw it. Leaning forward, her smile dropped as her eyes honed in on Rachel’s face. “If you think your dumbass can scare me, Rach, then you better think again and get out of my face while you’re at it. I don’t care what fuckery you got going on at home, but I know it can’t compete with what havoc I can reap on your pathetic fucking existence from this little hellhole in the swamps. Do not fuck with me, Rachel, because I warn you I’m a vindictive kind of monstrosity that will demolish your whole life in a matter of minutes, and trust me, you don’t want to find yourself losing your own sanity one day and being stuck in here with me. There is nothing that will keep me from tormenting whatever scrap of meat that’s left of you after your former employees get done first.”

Evidently, Otep was a one of a kind patient. She wasn’t at all timid of Rachel and her little posse of nurses and Orderlies. But it was the dark look in her eyes that made her iris’s look black that struck terror into Rachel’s core. Her heart has started hammering away somewhere during Otep’s speech, a lump formed in her throat that muzzled her voice from interrupting, and her skin broke out into perspiration under her white uniform. Unable to speak, and needing to cover her unease from Otep’s eyes, Rachel gave Onika’s back a shove forward towards the first room. Onika didn’t hesitate to hasten back inside, partly because she had also been fearful by Otep’s menacing speech too.

Rachel strode past Otep to lock Onika and the other girls in their room for the day before turning around to face her again. “Come with me.” She managed out tightly as she quickly made her way down the hall, then across to bang the door open with her fist, startling the three patients inside.