Chapter 40: Things of Consequences

When anger rises, thing of the consequences. -Confucius

A blood-curdling scream thunders. I flinch. The bathroom door is partially opened, and the woman is no longer singing. Her voice emits an eerie screech from where she's standing under the doorframe. She slams her head into the solid wood encasing the steel door. Holding onto the frame, she strikes her head again and again. The action produces a jarring, smacking noise.

The nurse and her entourage scurry across the room. They grab the woman, forcing her face down on the floor. Her screams fill the common room. Several of the patients pace back and forth, holding their hands over their ears while others giggle and sway to the beat of the screeches voiced in rapid procession.

"Come on," Jennifer Ann says. "We can slip out while their hands are full."