Broken Minds

Chapter 4

Damien growled as he tugged the fire ax out of the guard's chest, blood spraying against the front of his tan uniform. He tossed the guard from his arms, reaching down to pry the loaded handgun from the dead man's frozen hand. Seven men, patients and guards alike, had fallen to his axe. It seemed like almost second nature to him. Anyone within his vision was a threat. They presented him a danger, they must die. There was no other way. He slipped the handgun into the pocket of his jumpsuit, clutching the axe tightly. He slinked along the hallway, quietly, close to the floor. He viewed himself as the apex predator of the now anarchic asylum, instantly killing anything that crossed his path. He believed himself an undeniable killing machine, the only one that would live. He did not hope and pray for escape anymore. He only hoped for prey that wouldn't escape.

He passed a restroom, bloody handprints strewn around the door knob. He slipped between the door and the frame, raising the axe in anticipation for what he believed an inevitable ambush. After surveying the bathroom severely, he dropped his guard, moving to the sink. As he washed his face, he glanced up and was horrified at the view which presented itself through a crystal clear window. A paper white, blood splattered man, eyes bloodshot and murderous, clothes ripped and shredded, malice apparent within every expression upon his gaunt face. This looked exactly like the patient that murdered the doctor, the patient who had lost every ounce of his sanity. Strangely enough, the man's expression matched his own, as well as his movements. Damien's tired mind took a few moments to process the horror of what was happening. This wasn't a window... It was a mirror. He was looking at what he had become. At the reason he had been cast aside, for fear that he may become this. Damien shook his head crazily, groaning in anger and disbelief as the axe clattered to the floor. He pounded his fists against the wall, wincing as bones broke against the solid material, but there was no hesitation. That is, until, the bathroom door was thrown from his hinges, and Damien was grabbed by the collar of his uniform, by the true "apex predator" of the destitute asylum for the insane.