MADMAN'S ARMS

19

"You need to stop calling me that!" I was way smarter than to raise my voice at the dangerous murderer in front of me, but evidently, the earlier corrections of my name weren't clear enough.

Brandon lit up with a leer and laughed out. Of course, this was what he wanted. He wanted to make me frustrated and annoyed to get control over me. I took a deep breath to settle myself and I looked at Brandon who was still seated in front of me.

"I don't believe you," I didn't. I didn't believe him at all.

I knew that he was totally capable of lying because of his abnormal, messed-up persona. By now, I felt more annoyed with him than I had before. We were not just alone in his room right now. This was no meeting. He had his free time and chose to waste it on me and make me raise my voice at him out of frustration.

"I never lie. I NEVER EVER lie, Beverly!" The constant switches from his insolent grin to the dark and intensively scary countenance were making me withdrawn.

Now he was the one raising his voice. His dark vocal and patency drove attention to our area and the guards forearmed their intervention. The many eyes staring at Brandon and me were making me uncomfortable and I instantly regretted that I fired at him and got him going.

I descended in the armchair and closed my eyes out of inconvenience. The last thing I wanted was to make a scene. I nodded my head at the guards to assure them the situation was under control. I felt safe about their sensitivity and quick reactions, but I didn't want them to interfere if it wasn't really necessary.

My heart was racing so fast as I looked at Brandon who was sitting right in front of me with an enraged look on his face. His gaze was as dark as evil, and his sharp eyebrows were creased together which made his face look so extremely horrifying.

He hydrated his beautiful lips with his tongue and grabbed the bottom one between his teeth. His knuckles were white, and the veins in his neck were clearer than before. Purple strings, pumping his blood to keep his heart beating in fury.

Once again, I felt the strange combination of horror and attraction. Those two feelings were not something that was supposed to be connected and it made me so confused.

Brandon grabbed his hands on each side of the armchair and raised, still looking at me with the same furious face. Because he was standing up, he was now a lot taller and even more terrifying. I swallowed hard while looking at him with the most enormous eyes, and the heart inside of my chest pounded with the rush of dread. Another move from him, and I would call for the guards.

"I'm done here," With those simple words, Brandon looked away from me and began to walk his way. I exhaled loudly and turned my head around to watch him leave the big crowded room. Why did he get so mad about that? There were so many things I didn't know about him, and the last thing I wanted was to get on his nerves because I knew about the potential consequences.

Even if we were always surrounded by guards, I knew he could find a way to cause damage before they would manage to get to him, even if it was just about a matter of seconds.

After what Brandon told me about the way he felt for me, I still didn't believe that he would hurt me. But I could not trust his actions in his anger, and after all, he was still a maniac. My body was just reacting the way it should.

I walked out of the room to catch a break. The way that man took so much energy from me really was something new. I drank a glass of water and smoked a cigarette to settle myself.

I knew I had to walk over to his ward to check on him because he was still my patient and my job was to make sure that he was fine. Even if he didn't want to see me right now, he didn't really have much of a choice.

Way down the dark hallway, I entered the pharmacy to get some anodyne pills for Brandon. He was already under heavy medication, but after a provocative situation like the previous one, the anodyne was only for the better sake. If only I could have one myself...  Just one. No.

When I reached the monitored security ward number 5, I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. To handle him, I had to handle myself, that was an unwritten rule.

I put my key in the locker of the door and stepped inside the small square area. When the door behind me was closed, I locked up the next one in front of me.

I looked down the long, dark hallway of the ward and began to walk past the guards and towards Brandon's door in the very end. One of the broad guards stood behind me, ready to walk with me into cell number 401.

The apprehension crawled inside of me, but I knew that I had to do this. It was my job. As I carefully opened the heavy iron door, my eyes spotted the familiar silhouette sitting on the wide window-sill on the opposite side of the room. He didn't even turn his head around to look who just got inside, he just sat there in silence while looking out the grid window.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was dark but still much calmer than before, all sentiment was gone. Did he really know it was me entering, or was he just rudely asking the random visiting person?

"I wanted to check how you were doing, Brandon. I noticed you got pretty upset out there," I used my friendliest voice against him not to show him any sign of fear. The seconds passed, and he decided to keep quiet.

I took a couple of steps further inside the room and sat down on the edge of his bed to try to get his attention. Still not getting a single reaction, I placed the pills beside him on the window-sill.

"Brandon, I am sorry if I provoked you before. It was not my meaning," I swallowed my pride and decided to be the mature one. After all, I was the reason why he raised his voice and walked away, and that was not a part of my job. Even if our sessions often led to frustration or outrage, it was not the nurses job to bring up sensitive things on the patients free days, and at least not in front of others. So even if I thought that Brandon was overreacting before, it was still professionally wrong to trigger him into rushing out.

Another couple of seconds passed in the silent room before Brandon slowly turned his head in my direction. His eyes struck mine, and compared to earlier, they were now a lot less dark and full of anger. The butterflies inside me began to flutter as I looked at him deeply in the silence. He was so beautiful yet so broken.

He licked his pink lips and leaned his head to the side, looking so innocent and shy with that face.

"You're sorry?"

I was a little surprised by his sudden words, but I nodded my head and placed a shy smile on my lips to assure him my words were genuine.

"I am sorry,"