Chapter Text
They warned me when I started, don’t ask questions that don’t pertain to the patients. Just do your job, help those that need it, and leave any curiosity at the door.
I should have listened. I should have left my curiosity of the fabric dye in the employee bathroom alone. Maybe if I had, none of this would have happened.
_ _ _ _ _
It was a bright summer day when I started at the crisis center. I was so happy to be there. My dream had always been to help people. After some of my own personal tragedies, I knew what it was like to need that help even more.
Mark was my immediate supervisor, also the one who had interviewed me. We hit it off like lightning. We talked for hours after the interview was over. He said that he felt that, our conversation being a great indicator, that I would do well here.
So in I walk, ready for my first day. Even if all that was going to happen on my first day was orientation. After all, you have to learn about the rules and all when you start working somewhere.
I look back on that day now and laugh at my naivety. I laugh at all I didn’t know. I laugh at the fact that I couldn’t have known that the deepest and darkest thoughts would be what put me here.
Orientation went well. I and a few others were told the rules, how we were to handle an emergency, policies and procedures. We had a brief break for lunch before coming back to fill out more paperwork and learn more about the center.
Vacation time, time off, over time, clocking in and out properly, I could go on and on about all the ins and outs and intricacies of what we had to do there or not do. About some of the history they told us of the company, the building we were in, the lot we were on.
The lot we were on. The lot that the building was on. Yes, maybe I should backtrack a bit and tell you about what had been on the lot before the crisis center was built. Should I tell you about the horrors? About the bodies and blood and bone?
No, not yet. That’s not what I came to tell you. I came to tell you about the navy blue fabric dye in the employee restroom. About what happened when I started asking questions I shouldn’t have.
Orientation was winding down when suddenly Martha, our teacher for the day, caught our attention. None of us thought anything about it. There are always things that are forgotten or that you have to learn on the job. No one is able to learn everything in one sitting.
However, that’s not what this was about. It wasn’t a last minute bit of information or rule that we needed to know. Or, not one like we thought. No, what Martha said made no sense. At least, not at the time she told it to us.
“I almost forgot. Around here we only have on firm rule that is to be followed religiously. Under no circumstances, ever, are you to ask questions about anything OTHER than the job. Ever. No questions that have to do with anything OTHER than the patients.”
After that bit of information, she gave a smile, wished us a great day and that she’d see us tomorrow. We all stood for a moment, looking at each other before shrugging and walking out. It didn’t seem like a big thing, so none of us were concerned.
We didn’t know how wrong we were.
There were five of us there that day for orientation. No, six. Seven? I know there wasn’t a double digit of people. The room they sat us in wasn’t that big. It could only fit so many. There were six of us. I remember now. Carol, Sean, Agnes, Millie, Bart, and myself.
I think at this point that Millie and Bart are the only two who still work at the center. They’re the only ones who took the instructions about innocuous questions and things to heart. I wish I had been that smart.
Carol and Agnes were tall and statuesque, one blond and hazel-eyed while the other was a green-eyed redhead. Sean was Hispanic. Or was he Asian? I can’t remember. I do remember that he had the brightest blue eyes I’d ever seen. Millie and Bart were twins. Average height, gorgeous cocoa skin.
I had the biggest crush on Agnes. She was so gorgeous. Not that she ever thought of me like that. I was just a work friend at best. Probably just an annoyance. She could have told me to jump off a cliff and I probably would have done it. But who wouldn’t do almost anything for their first love.
First love. Was she my first love? I don’t remember. It’s all painted blue in my head. Blue, the color of the fabric dye in the employee bathroom that we were told not to talk about.
I remember the first time I saw it.
_ _ _ _ _
Hence, the navy blue fabric dye in the employee bathroom. I had to retreat to the solitude of the restroom to take a breather after a particularly hard patient file. They had needed so much help. Seeing things and hearing things that led them to do terrible things in the end.
I had dipped into the bathroom to splash water on my face and to just take a moment to collect myself. As I was glancing at myself in the mirror, a flash of blue out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. Turning, I looked behind me to see the bottle of fabric dye sitting there on the changing table. Sitting there so innocently.
I can remember walking back out after a moment and running into Mark. No, it was Martha. Was it Tom? Tom worked in HR. He was the one who kept us in line and made sure that we didn’t do anything untoward. No, it was Agnes. She of the red hair and green eyes. She always made me think of a cat.
I can remember asking her if she’d noticed the dye in the bathroom. And that was the start of the end. I asked a question that I shouldn’t have. And in asking Agnes, I brought her into it as well. Those questions. I shouldn’t have asked those questions.
Agnes said she hadn’t noticed the dye. I remember she told me that. She then walked into the bathroom to look. I can remember a feeling of uneasy creeping down my spine when she did that. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone look. Later, I knew that she shouldn’t have gone and looked.
She came out a moment later, this look on her face. I still don’t know what that look meant. I don’t know what it is that she saw. I can’t even remember what she told me. Nothing good. It couldn’t have been good.
I’m rambling. I know I’m rambling. I can’t seem to help it. My thoughts don’t work the way that they use to anymore. I can’t make everything run straight in my head. It’s all twisted.
Twisted. That’s what happened to Sean. He became all twisted after they got ahold of him. Not his mind, no, his actual body. They twisted and turned and wrenched him into a pretzel. Pretzels. I want a pretzel now. Can I have a pretzel?
_ _ _ _ _
I was telling you about the fabric dye. Is that what we were talking about? I have a hard time remembering. I’m sorry if I’m not making sense here.
You want to know what happened after the questions started. I was the first one. I asked about the dye first. I asked Agnes. I regret that now. I had such a crush on her. I regret the fact that she was the one I asked first. Maybe we could have been good friends or even dated if I hadn’t asked her that question.
Carol was the next who noticed the dye. I can remember overhearing her and Sean talking about it in the employee lounge, speculating on what it was doing there. They shouldn’t have done that.
I wonder now if maybe if we hadn’t talked about it in the center, if maybe nothing would have happened to us. Maybe whatever it was that took Agnes and Sean and Carol would have left us alone. I can still remember what it looks like. I don’t want to talk about that right now. You want to keep your mind, don’t you?
Carol and Sean. Yes, they were talking in the lounge, speculating on what the dye was doing in the bathroom. Why would someone keep something like that in there? I can remember hearing Mark suddenly come into the lounge and reprimand them for asking questions that didn’t pertain to the job. They mumbled apologies and scurried back to their stations. We had people to help after all.
What did it do to Carol and Agnes? I can’t recall what happened to them. I know Sean was turned into a pretzel. I am obviously here in this asylum, so we know what it did to me. But what did it do to the girls? I don’t remember.
I remember its eyes. They were dark. Deep. You could fall into them. But if you did, you wouldn’t come out again. You’d fall so deep that the surface wouldn’t even be a memory. Falling forever and ever into the deep dark abyss that was its eyes.
Carol. I remember now. Carol was consumed. It ate her. It sucked the marrow from her bones. It licked the blood from her flesh. I chewed on her eyes like there were candy. No, it chewed her eyes like grapes.
Smacking and crunching and sucking. Its teeth were so sharp that I don’t think she felt it when it took her throat.
My throat hurts. Can I have some water before we continue?
_ _ _ _ _
You’re back again. Have I not told you everything? Oh, I haven’t. I forgot to tell you about Agnes. And me? I haven’t told you what happened to me? I’d think you’d be able to figure that out. I mean, look at where we are.
Yes, I do seem a bit more lucid at the moment. They made me take my meds. Snuck them into my food or water. Not sure which one. Not that it matters. It’s only a matter of time before I figure it out. After all, I’m not supposed to be here anymore. I was supposed to go with them. Agnes and Sean and Carol. I was supposed to go with them when it took them.
Why didn’t it take me too? Why did it leave me behind?
I’m rambling again, are I? Apologies. I didn’t mean to. Even with medicine it’s hard sometimes to keep it all straight and to make sure that I know where I am and what’s going on.
You want to know about Agnes. About what happened to her. I have a hard time remembering now what order they all went in. All I know is that I’m the last. Once it takes me, it will be all over until someone else decides to ask about the navy blue fabric dye in the employee bathroom.
Agnes. She was the first to see it. I know that. I remember now. That’s what that look was on her face when she came out of the bathroom the first time after I asked her about the dye. I showed itself to her. I think that if I had waited but a moment after noticing the dye, I would be the first one to have seen it. But then, I hadn’t asked my question yet. Maybe that’s the catalyst. Maybe that’s what brings you to its attention.
It got Agnes. It took her. She and I had stayed late one night. There were some papers that needed to be sorted and filed. So we volunteered to stay and get it done. Mark was happy about this. We had ordered some food in. Not pizza. Sandwiches of some type, though I can’t recall the name of the place now. Agnes liked onions on hers. I can remember the smell of them as they permeated the entire room.
She said she’d be right back. She had to go to the bathroom. I continued to sort and file. Then it suddenly occurred to me that she had been gone for a while. I got up to go and check on her. Maybe her sandwich hadn’t agreed with her? I mean, raw onions.
When I got to the door of the bathroom, there was a sound. It wasn’t very loud. But it was there. I thought it might have been Agnes. Maybe she was sick?
I pushed open the door. It swung inward. The lights were off. Why had she turned the lights off? There was a glint of something in the darkness. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. I reached in, flipping the switch.
I saw it. I saw it and it had Agnes in its clutches.
She was the first. I remember now. She was the first that it consumed. But it didn’t eat her. No, it was much worse. It invaded her!
I stood there in the doorway and watched as it entered her, this great big cloud of black, going up her nose, in her mouth, down her throat! I could see the bulge of it as it traveled down her esophagus. I saw as her eyes became opaque. She was blind! It had blinded her!
The black started seeping out her pores. It encased her whole. It consumed her and made her disappear.
I ran then. I ran out and grabbed my phone. Who did I call?
I don’t remember! I can’t remember who I called!
Wait! How did it take Sean and Carol?! They weren’t with us that night! I don’t remember! I don’t remember how it got them!
Sean! Oh god! Sean and Carol! It took them! It’s coming for me! It wants me! It’s mad cause I escaped!
Mark’s the one who put me here! I remember! He called someone and then they came and got me! They threw me in here and now it’s coming to get me! Don’t let them put me in that room again! Don’t let them turn the lights off!
No! No! Stop! Get off me! No, don’t give me that drug! I don’t want to go to sleep! No…no…please...it’s going to get me.
_ _ _ _ _
The nurses sedated the patient, moving them to an isolated room, straight jacketed and asleep. During the night, screams were heard from the room. Knowing the precariousness of the patient’s mind, it was reasoned that they had just awoken and become afraid of the shadows that plagued their mind.
They should have checked. They should have looked.
The scene they opened the door to the next morning…well…it’s a scene that horror stories are made of.