“Morning ladies!”

Called Ida from the open doorway scaring the both of us awake.

“For the last fucking time Ida, Not a lady!”

Ida just plainly ignored him and turned to me.

“Margo, I need you to take a urine sample for me.”

Ida threw an empty urine sample cup at my bed and it landed on the mattress.

Atlas laughed,

“Do you have a piss kink or something?”

This time she noticed him and just gave him a stern glare before walking to the other rooms.

“Man, you must really like pushing her buttons, huh?”

Atlas laughed again,

“Yep, I absolutely love tormenting that old bat.”

“Time for hygiene!”

Yelled Ida from the hallway to every one of the patients in the unit.

I groaned as I rolled out of bed and wandered into the hallway. Atlas was still in bed with his hands covering his face.

The hallway in the mornings was always decorated with sleepy and slightly annoyed patients that would have wished for Ida to at least wake them up a few minutes later.

“C’mon ladies, I have a lot to announce.”

‘Great.’

I thought, honestly dreading what she had to ‘announce’.

After me and Atlas finished our morning routine, we both walked into the dayroom where everyone else was sitting on the couches and chairs in dead silence while Ida was at the front of the room with her arms crossed.

“Good morning, ladies.”

“Good morning, Ida.”

We all responded except for Atlas.

“Atlas..?”

Ida questioned while looking in Atlas’s direction.

Atlas just rolled his eyes.

“Well, I have something to announce. A staff member had sex with a patient here…”

I looked over at Atlas and his face dropped and a pit grew in my stomach.

“…This of course is very wrong and the said staff member has been terminated from working here at Westwillow. So, if you see something, say something.”

‘Holy fuck’

I thought

‘How the hell did she find out so quickly?’

only one name came to mind.

Nancy