The House of Fire and Bones

The Woman in Red

Another excruciating hour passed, and the inmate was just begging for at least a break from the questioning maniac in front of him. He could barely get a word out without her throwing a string of questions at him. When the conversation would finally die down, Rose would question him again to keep him talking. Disturbing the cycle was a loud buzz coming from the microphone in the corner of the room.

"Alright, Rose. We'll cut it there. You can end the appointment." The officer chimed, ending the short announcement with a huff. The psychiatrist stood up and dusted down her dress with a satisfying look evident on her face.

   She clasped her hands together. "I hope this appointment helped you in some way. Before I came here, I was told you had some sort of schizophrenic behavior." Just as she finished her sentence, she had struck a chord on Axel's murderous intentions on her already. Rose patiently waited for the metal door in front of her to reel open before tapping her bright red heels down the long tiled hallway.

The door closed again, this time for good. The inmate's leg bounced with more hatred towards her than he had at the world. He despised the look and tone of her voice when she assumed he had such behaviors. Like a broken record, it played over in his head.

   Footsteps from outside the door came heavily and stopped at its usual standpoint. The officer returned with the brightest feeling of amusement. He hadn't had this much fun in years. "Judging by your face on the other side of the screen, you had a good time, right?" The officer bellowed, "You lost your cool in the first thirty minutes."

"You filthy pigs," Axel spat, "out of all the damn psychiatrists, you had to grant me the presence of the noisiest one of the century." He snared. A team of four policemen trudged into the cell. Two held him down, and the others changed him into his new clothes. Axel sat helplessly in his straight jacket with his right leg crossed over his left. The officer only snickered with a proud "you got what you wanted." Following after it, Axel smiled, and shut his mouth for a moment. A gurgle followed by an all too familiar regurgitating sound echo throughout the room. Along came the remains of the inmate's meal tumbling onto the floor.

  This action effectively got the officer to sigh in defeat; he pinched his nose in great annoyance. "I don't understand how you keep this up. We don't even feed you often." He reached for the small radio on his arm and clicked the button. "Code yellow. Again."

Two weeks had passed since the first appointment. The psychiatrist returned two times after, but the inmate giving passionate complaints of her presence forced the staff to stop the visits.

   Unfortunately, three days later the officer guarding Axel's cell had suddenly died of a heart attack. Axel only sighed with disappointment saying, "He had it coming." But, he did request to attend his funeral. Of course with the requirement of being fully chained. A new guard was hired just yesterday, and already Axel hated him. The officer sauntered around like he was in charge of the pod Axel clearly claimed his.
The officer's nameplate read Elijah Priester on his slightly different uniform. His was navy blue instead of the traditional white. His jet black hair was gelled to the side, idolizing his khaki green eyes. Every other detail was blocked by the door, not that Axel really cared.

"Hey, Elijah Pig. So you're the replacement, right? Hope you're not a pushover." Axel teased, eyeing the clearly trained face of boredom. He waited patiently for him to say something because he knew police could be mocking too. He sat in his chair with his smirk slowly fading into a thin line. "Damn, you're even worse than the last one. I think I'm going to like you Mr. Pig." Axel's nose crinkled as he squinted his eyes and puffed his cheeks in attempt to be the animal.

"That's Priester to you, inmate." Priester huffed, tightly clutching his waistband. He cocked his head and let out a harsh breath. "Oh, and I've heard of your little stunt you like to pull. What do they call it? Code yellow? Just try me." Priester dared, and rolled his shoulders. For a moment, he peered through the looking glass a watched Axel bob his head up and down and giggle to himself incredulously.