Becoming a nurse or a doctor is never for the faint of heart. The hours are long and the time away from family/loved ones is longer. Those who become such tend to be pulling multiple double shifts and sleep is almost non-existent. Most live off caffeine and their eating habits are not something that they would prescribe to their patients. But this was the life that a select few would take up for the rest of their lives. Lisa, a young nurse in training, was such a person who longed to help others, however, she wanted to help those that were either mentally challenged, insane, and criminally not able to be in public.

This was not a normal thing for a young woman that looked like Lisa, but appearances are only outwardly. The young nurse in training had some hidden thing that she would rather keep hidden. But not everything will stay hidden and in time some things that many want to keep under the table will always be known. The past left untreated or resolved will always come back to haunt a person even the most “stable”. 

Lisa was nervous about her upcoming residency with the asylum ward at Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. This particularly lunatic asylum had been known to have not just live patients but the dead ones still hanging around. Construction was between constructed between 1858 and 1881 with the main goal was to help those who faced mental issues including those who were deemed to be unfit for society. Those who were not fit for society could easily be women who were divorced or widowed, orphaned children, and those with learning issues like autism. Women were often thrown into mental hospitals to keep them in line. Those who often spoke out against their husband’s abuse or how their husbands acted would throw into the asylums never to be seen again. Another way besides begins divorced or widowed or as mentioned before was if they even hinted to being bi-sexual or into women. The only last way was if they were too neurotic for the taste of society. One would think that this would cause the nurses and doctors to separate the sexes, however, this was not always true and often even the youngest were harmed by those who were so criminally ill innocence was feeding frenzy for them. The most innocent and unable to protect themselves find themselves always in harm’s way. 

Lisa wanted to help ease this and protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, yet just a few steps of walking into the massive entry way of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum something felt dreadful. Something felt too familiar to her as if her own mind pushed a horrid memory into the deepest depths of her memory. Lisa made her way towards the front desk in the middle of the grand entry way and found herself next to what looked like a male doctor resident and another nurse resident. “You ready for tonight?” the other nurse that would be with her for then night. She gave a slight nod. “Nurse but yeah.” She said with a slight smile. “It should be fine. We are only going into the lock ward that is supposedly” the other nurse resident said with a slight worried grin on her face.

The other nurse resident was named Claire, and she had long brown hair pulled back into a bun with the nurse cap on top. Every strain of hair is put in the proper place and turning towards the tall doctor resident he was pretty much the same. Both looked professional like they had been doing this for years and were not learning like Lisa. Nerves sent a chill up and down her spin like a cold cup of water being poured down her back. She tried to smile a little and went to say something until the head nurse that would oversee them for the night walked to the front desk. It was at that moment that Lisa noticed there had been a receptionist sitting there the whole time listening as if she was gathering information. Why hadn’t she noticed her before? The woman’s outfit was cut to be noticed. “George, Claire, and Lisa.” She said with a smile upon her face and paused looking over the three like she was taking notes in her mind to put forth on their grade. “

After a moment, the head nurse who had the name tag of Naomi turned to the side, “Follow me.” She said in a calm almost motherly tone of voice. All three of the residents nodded and followed her down several halls before making it to two large doors that were locked. There was no glass on the doors to even investigate the ward. A blood curdling scream came from behind the door which caused each of the residents to back up. The head nurse smirked a little and shook her head, “You’ll get used to it. But remember the code I will give you, at the end of the sixteen-hour shift. Now we have exactly 25 patients in this ward and most have been put here for crimes or are extremely harmful towards themselves or others. However, those patients have been medicated to the point of being pleasant. There are times especially at night where most will get bored.” She said with a calm look upon her face and the same slight smirk still plastered there.

Each resident gave a nod and watched carefully as she punched in a code. Lisa took out her phone and put it into her notepad so that she could have it ready. Her stomach began to turn into knots, “Oh!” Head Nurse Naomi said then paused for a moment looking at the three of them in their eyes, “Your phones will not work in here unless you press it against the window in the staff lounge. The only way to communicate outside here is through the computer system that is connected with the hospital’s main system and the telephone that is connected with the hospital’s main system.” A wicked grin appeared on Naomi’s face for a moment then a loud alarm went off as the large doors opened. “If you don’t hear that alarm, you didn’t put the right code in. There will be a silent alarm that security will hear which tells them that someone didn’t put the right code in. They deal with that a lot with new patients that seemed to want to run. However, there is nowhere to run.”