A new orderly I’d never seen before collected me from the Infirmary and escorted me to the large room where Dr. Miller held our daily group sessions.

For those patients with less serious issues, she conducted group therapy on a weekly basis. Lucky for me, my issues had issues, so I was stuck here daily for the time being.

Dr. Miller herself glided into the room, her white lab coat billowing behind her as she walked. For some reason, it brought to mind Gandalf the White, the benevolent wizard from Lord of the Rings.

Putrid white roses, coated in blood, rot on the stems.

Fluffy white princess sits on a throne of white, rides a steed of white. One day she’ll lay face-down in the muck like the rest of us peasants.

Echoes of maddening laughter filled my brain but I struggled to hold a straight face. Dr. Miller took her seat and then took a moment to meet each patient’s gaze, holding it for a few seconds before moving on to the next. She did that every day. She’d told me that it was a way to show everyone that she genuinely wanted to help, that she saw us as people, not crazies locked away from the world.

And she was right, it had helped her establish a kinship with a lot of us. For a woman in her early fifties, Dr. Miller was still a beautiful woman. She wore her dark brown hair in a short bob that swung in tandem with her head. When her golden brown eyes met mine, I smiled and gave a short nod of acknowledgement.

She gave me the barest hint of a wink and moved on.

“Hello everyone,” she greeted warmly. “Did everyone sleep alright last night?”

“Penny didn’t,” Liz announced and I turned in my chair to glare at her over my shoulder. The same strange orderly who’d brought me in led Liz in by the hand.

“Liz, are you feeling better?” Dr. Miller bypassed Liz’s statement and gestured for her to take the vacant chair to her right. “As you can see, Penny is perfectly alright, just like I promised.”

“She’s not alright,” Liz argued and slumped down into the chair, pulling her knees up to her chest. “She’s the portal to hell and she’s gonna kill us all.”

My stomach surged up into my throat and I swallowed convulsively to clear the lump. Everyone’s eyes converged on me and I squirmed in my own chair.

“That’s enough Liz,” Dr. Miller gently scolded. “Penny suffered a seizure and long before modern medicine, some physicians claimed seizures were the work of demons,” she explained to the group at large. “But science has come a long way and humans have evolved, both in mind and spirit, and now we know it’s no more than a short in the brain’s wiring. Nothing demonic about it,” she finished and turned to study Liz. “Agreed?”

Liz’s eyes flashed to me and I felt the anger she directed at me. We’d only been roommates for a couple of days and I wondered just what the hell I'd done to make her treat me like this.

“Agreed,” she murmured but I heard the underlying tone that said something different.

We told you. You’ll have to kill her. There’s no other way. She’s a threat.

“Alright, back on track,” Dr. Miller announced and slapped her pantyhose covered knees. “Anyone have anything specific they’d like to discuss today?”

Kill her! Do it now! You can have her by the throat in seconds and we’ll do the rest. Squeeze, squeeze until her eyeballs ooze from their sockets. It’ll be so easy.

My hands balled into fists and sweat beaded my upper lip. A cold droplet ran down the course of my backbone and I shivered. I began tapping my right foot on the tile floor. Scenes of me bathing in Liz’s blood washed over my mind; me rolling naked in her cold, wet and sticky bed sheets after I’d ripped her throat out.

So, so easy…

“Dr. Miller, may I be excused?” I asked and lurched to my feet before she had the chance to respond. “My headache is coming back.”

“Yes, yes of course,” Dr. Miller agreed and signaled an orderly. “Give her a hundred milligrams of Sumatriptan,” she called after us when the orderly had taken my arm. “Feel better Penny, I’ll check on you soon.”

I glanced back at Liz over my shoulder, and almost tripped when her face morphed from sweet, innocent girl to gruesome, rotting flesh dripping from the skull. Had it not been for the tall, muscular orderly’s grip on my arm, I would’ve fallen and kissed the filthy tile.

I furiously blinked my eyes and looked up at him, taken aback when he smiled at me.

“I’ll get you fixed up sweetie,” he murmured and I’d never been more afraid in all my life.

A/N: Please don't forget to vote!