Christmas is different on the dark side...
***
Ruby’s singing tailed off as she turned to look at Becky with a puzzled expression. Then abruptly she faced the window again and began to hum - a loud, monotonous, ‘mmmmmmmmm’ - which rose in volume and tone, along with an increasingly violent rocking motion, so that her head kept hitting the wall behind with a sickening crack.
Working herself up again, Becky thought. God, what on earth had made this woman this way? Somehow she’d functioned in the outside world for over twenty-five years before she’d put herself on the radar with an attempted murder charge, and made it to the unit. Now twenty-seven, and sometimes as rational as the next person, it was clear she’d been seriously damaged at some point in her life. But who could help her if she wouldn’t talk? And with no known relatives and no identity, it was all the more a mystery. Who was she and where had she come from?
But to ask…again…and risk the wrath of the raging monster within…well not today! And definitely not alone. Best to try and calm her down before she did herself an injury. Becky’s hand hovered over the panic alarm she kept on her person at all times: if she touched Ruby in an effort to stop her from harming herself, the situation could escalate in any number of ways and she’d need help.
Outside, the insidious mizzle from the moors had darkened the evening to a foggy gloom, reflecting the women’s ghostly faces in the window; an oblong of buttery light bathing the sodden lawn. Ruby’s rocking was escalating, the humming reaching jet-engine proportions.
Becky kept her voice low and even. “Ruby? It’s Becky. Would you like some tea? We’ve got chocolate digestives today! Come on, love, you’re hitting your head. There’s a good girl.”
The humming ceased unexpectedly.
Ruby swung round. The stare blank. Eyes dead.
******
If you would like to know more, please visit my blog today! http://www.sarahenglandauthor.blogspo...
Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays, and remember to keep the lights on when you go to sleep...
Father of Lies
3am and Wide Awake: 25 Tales from the Dark Side...
