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24
Between the hallucinations and attention of her fellow inmates, Janice had taken to spending her free time in the library, under the kind and watchful eye of Norma Schelle. She wasn't sure why the skinny, bookish woman made her feel safer, but she couldn't deny that she did.
Janice set down her book, Eleanor Cameron's The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Kingdom, and walked over to the front desk.
Here goes nothing. She thought to herself.
“Hey, if you're not busy, could you um… help me with something?”
Norma looked up and smiled, “I'm so rarely busy here. What is on your mind?”
“Well… um… I'm thinking about writing a book.”
“Oh, that's wonderful! I always knew you were the sort of girl who would not be content with living in other people's worlds forever.”
“Yeah, well… I have this idea, but I'm sort of stuck.”
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Broken Night 25
The camera swept across a beautiful landscape, rolling hills, and serene forests, while soft piano music played in the background. Slowly, we move toward a small U.S. town, serene and charming as those from the writings of Bradbury. The camera travels down one of the small, one-lane streets, there we see a man mowing his lawn, then another washing his sensible (but stylish) car. As we move on, a smartly dressed business woman carries her briefcase into an official-looking building while a group of little girls skip rope.Suddenly, the sky grows dark. The soft piano music turns into a pulsing electronic beat, sinister and full of threats of unknown violence. The children freeze, a pigtailed blonde caught mid skip, her smile of joy turned to a silent scream of terror by the sudden lack of motion. Seconds later, an audible scream comes from somewhere off camera, high and pained, like that woman being tortured.Fade to black.Byron laughed to himse
Broken Night 26
Weeks passed in a blur. There was a flurry of investigations and Janice found herself questioned not once but thrice by official-looking people in suits with flashy badges, representing bureaus and branches Janice didn't even have names for. It was well known she recently had a dispute with “the deceased'' (which is all these official people ever called Rodriguez). She convinced them all in turn that she hardly knew the girl and wasn't anywhere near when she took her own life in the showers. She insisted again and again until they at least seemed to believe she had no idea where the girl got the razorblade she used for the deed.Janice made herself convincing as possible, playing the tough inmate and scared little girl in equal measures as the situation dictated. Finally, after all the investigations came to nothing, things went back to normal.The other two women who harassed Janice on that day never spoke to her again, but she saw them sometimes wat
Broken Night 27
“You know the rest.” At this point, Janice was crying but not weeping or gasping for air. Byron was once again impressed by her. “I found her in the bathroom, bleeding on the tile. She died in my arms. All the bouncer saw was the crazy girl screaming at thin air moments before now holding a stabbed corpse. It was pretty clear to him what happened, and from there, it was pretty clear to everyone what happened to all my friends. Even though they couldn't find the knife that Kelly was stabbed with, everything else lined up all too well.”“I was the only constant.”Byron nodded speechlessly. In the corner, Betsy wiped her tears.“The worst part is I keep thinking about what she must have seen, right before...you know? Did she think that I... that I hurt her? Or did it become something else in the final moment? She had a boogeyman as a kid; a tall, faceless woman with long claws that lived in her closet. So maybe
Broken Night Part II - 1
Weeks passed. Having all the details he required for his book, Byron could not find a reason to continue his interviews with Janice. Though they continued to correspond with letters, full of pleasantries and idle talk, it just wasn't the same as face-to-face meetings. Both of them felt the loss of something acute, though Janice couldn’t articulate what it was if asked.Byron never received a vision of Kelly Patrick's death, and after a while he stopped waiting for one. It was one secret, he guessed, would not be revealed. Thankfully, he was also not visited by any petite brunettes with creepy masks, even though he watched the entire run of Cain's Crossing, which he found engrossing in its weirdness.Byron continued to pound away at the book. His agent, a small, fussy woman in her forties with a pixie cut, loved what he had already submitted, and assured him it was going to be a sure hit, “maybe even a New York Times lister.”
Broken Night 2
Norma walked through the small library. Now and then, she'd drop a small stack of outdated magazines or a day-old newspaper on one of the round tables, which were strewn haphazardly around the room. It wasn't much of a job, but it gave her something to do, and with a mind like hers that was prone to wandering, something to do was precious.She had taken the job more out of desperation than any burning urge to help in the reformation of criminals, figuring there would be fewer people vying for the position than that of a more traditional library. She had been correct in this. After fingerprinting and a full background check (which came back squeaky clean) they had hired her.Her first few nights had been a paranoid nightmare filled with every cinema image of leering, snarling prisoners, depraved murderers, sadists, and all-around bad people. She had jumped every time upon hearing an unfamiliar noise. However, she quickly adapted and found most of the girls h
Broken Night 3
“I love it!” Claire's voice always annoyed Byron. Not only was it high pitched, but it also carried the airs that only a sheltered childhood full of money could create. She may be a great agent, one of the best, and she may have made him (and herself) a ton of money throughout the years, but that didn't mean he had to like her.“Really?” he asked, not really caring, but figuring that it was the path of least resistance in this scenario.“Oh yes. I bet I can wring half again what you made from your last one out of those misers at Billings and Jordan.” Billings and Jordan was the publisher who had handled his last two books, and in his opinion, they had always been fair to him, and far from miserly. “Not to mention the movie deal.”“Movie deal?”“Oh yes, yes. As soon as I finished reading your sample pages, I picked up the phone and called my people in Hollywood. They told me t
Broken Night 4
Byron's phone rang when he had been dozing at his desk. The sudden intruding noise startled him, almost tipping the half full coffee cup onto his expensive keyboard.“Don't you freaking dare,” he tried to hold the cup which quivered, unspilled on the desk.Staggered by the renegade coffee, Byron stumbled across the room to the still ringing phone. He was an old-fashioned guy who had a phone that hung on the wall with an earpiece and mouthpiece, even though he bowed to peer pressure a few years back and got a cell phone.“Hello,” he huffed, proud of himself for not putting the receiver against his ear upside down.A recording informed him an inmate was attempting to call him, following a less robotic voice giving him a name.Janice Rosse.The original robot voice returned and asked if he would accept the call, to which he replied in a positive tone. In a few seconds, Janice's voice fill
Broken Night 5
“This is highly unusual,” Warden Geoffry Thomas said, stunned. He was a large man, both physically and in terms of personality, also had a long, droopy mustache. So of course, everyone called him Warden Walrus, though never to his face.“I am aware,” Norma conceded, sitting on the other side of the warden's desk. “But I think I am in a unique position to help the girl, in a way no one else can.”“You are aware, Miss Schelle, we have rules against our employees becoming too emotionally invested with our inmates?”“I am, sir. But I am also aware it’s all of our jobs to help our inmates rehabilitate, and if one of us sees an opening, I feel we should do our best to assist the inmate.”The warden paused for a moment, contemplating.“I suppose these rules are in place to avoid sexual or romantic contact, which would give the prisoner untoward power over our employees.&rd
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