"I'm not like this all the time" or "The Connection".

Chapter 1

I walked through the hallway of the asylum. Sounds crept through the walls and whispered to my ears. Strange sounds. I constantly tried to decipher them. If I can find an explanation for the sounds I won't get frightened and if I won't get frightened I'll keep my job. And I need this job. Working in an asylum isn't your typically teenage fantasy dream job but it pays a lot more then turning hamburgers at Mc Donalds. Yet, it's been hard adjusting to the routine of this institution. Things go differently when you work with crazy people. No wait, she had to call them patients. Nurse Jenkins had reminded her several times to call them "patients". She recalled their first meeting. Her uncle had gotten her this job and therefore Nurse Magnolia had not been pleased with her all that much. Yet she'd better be pleased to have her do all the dirty jobs for her. Cleaning toilets, cleaning up filthy rooms. "Patients" here don't exactly watch their hygiene. So she had spent a full week cleaning, cleaning and cleaning. Yet today the big day had come.

"Gretchen I need you here for a second!".

Gretchen sighed. She knew where this was going to. This whole week she'd been working here the madhouse had been, well, a madhouse to put it bluntly. There were just too many patients and too few employees. People were working over time and the clinic still had problems managing everything.

"Come on love let's talk in the office"

Gretchen smiled politely at nurse Jenkins and sat down in an uncomfortable chair.

"As you might know I am very pleased with the work you've done for us so far."

"Well thank you very much nurse Jenkins"

Stupid old witch she taught, always badmouthing me and now we're playing the goody two shoes role.

"In fact, I am so pleased with your work that I've decided to give you a promotion. You are now allowed to interact more closely with the patients. This will include duties such as feeding and grooming some of our "safe zone" patients."