Page 18 of Straightjacket

With wide eyes, she tries to pin her own hand down onto the bed but there’s nothing to keep it secure now. “No, Peter, what have you done? Why didn’t you listen to me? Fasten the strap now!”

“But... momma?” I say with panicked breaths. “This will-”

“Fasten it now! She’s coming back, fasten it before it’s too–”

Panic seizes my throat as she flips again, then as I try to step backwards away from her, she wraps her long fingers around my wrist and squeezes tightly, forcing a cry out of my mouth.

“St... stop, you’re hurting me!” I yank my arm as hard as I can, but it only makes her hold on tighter.

“Ohhh, you silly silly, sweet boy.” She mocks with a wide grin, spreading from ear to ear. “You should have listened to your waste of space, whore of a mother!” She screeches, like a monster from one of my nightmares as she continues to pull on my arm, dragging me closer towards her.

“You’re nothing but a wretched little boy! I could have had a good life if your daddy hadn't knocked me up with you! Now look at me, stuck in this fucking shit hole with you.” She spits her cruel words at me and I sob, feeling more hurt than ever.

“You don’t mean that, momma!” I shout and pull on my arm again but it’s no use, I’m too small and the towels on the floor cause my feet to slip, then everything happens so fast. She drags me harder until a deafening pop in my shoulder echoes around the room.

“Owwww, my shoulder! Momma... stop this!” Pain burns across my shoulder and down my arm as she grabs me tightly. “Daddy help me!”

At the sound of my shouting, the bedroom door flings open and crashes against the bedroom wall.

“Peter!” He cries out and strides towards me in a hurry, but momma is quicker, she wraps her arm around my body and sinks her teeth into my shoulder, biting like a wild dog on my skin. Blood sprays across my face and the more that my dad tries to pull me away, the more my skin is being ripped apart.

My head pounds and I begin to scream until my lungs burn. “Daddy please help me!” He grips onto her hair and tries to pry her mouth away from my shoulder.

“Let him go, Alice!” He bellows, causing my ears to ring. “No more of this, Alice, stop!”

At the mention of my momma’s name, she releases my shoulder and whips her head around to face him. Around her mouth, thick globs of blood cover her lips and teeth, then she grins. “What’s the matter, are you afraid of your wife?”

My dad shakes his head firmly, but I can see how scared he is.

“Never,” he spits out. “But you aren’t my wife. You’re not Alice.”

No, he’s got it wrong. This is my momma, she’s just sick.

At his words, she tips her head to the side, her eyes wide and bright. “It seems you aren’t as thick as you look because you’re right, Alice isn’t here anymore. She was weak, pathetic even to put up with your shit, and this little fucker here.”

I cower as she drops her head to look at me, and for the first time in my life, I don’t recognise my momma. She’s not the person who made me pancakes for breakfast or put bandages on my knees whenever I fell over.

My momma isn’t here anymore.

Lifting my hand, I pull the collar of my shirt down to touch the raised scars on my shoulder, feeling exactly where my mother sank her teeth into my flesh. After that night I was left with permanent nerve damage, but I was still determined to cure her. I wanted to find out what snapped inside her brain, what made her change into an entirely different person.

Closing off the camera screen, I pull open the drawer inside the desk and dig underneath the stacks of paper to find the key that I’m looking for, once I have it in my grasp I stuff it into my coat pocket and leave my office with determination in my steps.

I want to see the other side of Alice.

Ithink I’m going to die here.

There’s a quote, written by Shakespeare himself that says, “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” And he couldn’t be more fucking right, because this place is filled to the brim with evil, the very devils from hell residing within these walls and never in my wildest nightmares did I think that I would ever meet them, but I guess I couldn’t be more wrong. And nightmares really do come to life.

Peeling my broken body from the cold floor, I use what little strength I have to push myself up until I’m able to lean against the steel metal bars. I have no fucking clue of where I am, all that I remember is watching Silas give himself over that sickening doctor, and then everything went black but there’s not enough drugs on the planet to burn away that image, that’s something that will stay inside of my mind for as long as I live, that’s if I actually survive this place.

Salem Penitentiary is the embodiment of evil, and just the thought of Silas spending most of his life here before he escaped makes me sob. Tears coat my face and I simply don’t have the energy to stop them.

“Please... don’t cry.”

Wiping my eyes, I look around the dark and empty room to try and find the voice that I’ve heard so many times before.

“Silas? Is that you? Please tell me it’s you.” I say between choked sobs. Silence fills the room again and I wrap my hands around the bars, pulling myself closer to them in an attempt to investigate the adjoining cell at the side of mine. Blackness smothers the musty smelling room, but just there in the corner, a small stream of light illuminates an orange jumpsuit. Strong hands, covered in black ink, hang loosely over his knees.