"Do you want to go back outside?" I asked Brandon when I realized our long absence from the common room.

Even if he didn't want to go back, I knew that I had to. It was my job to supervise and even if I was allowed to leave to take care of my patients, I didn't want my absence to stand out.

"Yeah, I'll come with you," He responded as he began to rise from his bed.

I smiled at him to show that I was proud that he wanted to get out again, because I didn't want him to isolate himself from the surrounding world - even though it was isolating from him.

"Can I have another cigarette first?" He grinned as he asked.

I rolled my eyes as I looked at his humiliating and rude face. I shouldn't let him smoke, but nobody would know about it and I already allowed him to do it earlier.

I carefully picked up the white and red-colored package and grabbed one of the toxic paper rolls with my fingers.

I took a few steps closer to Brandon and moved my hand towards his mouth to place the cigarette between his perfect, dark pink lips.

"If you tell anyone about this, I'm dead," I said as I pressed the lighter and carefully placed the small flame under the cigarette to make it glow.

Brandon looked pleased as he kept the grin on his face while he deeply inhaled the smoke from the tobacco.

After he let the cloud of smoke leave his lungs again, he leaned his head forward to softly kiss my forehead.

"Who would I tell?" He said to make me feel dumb and once again I rolled my eyes. He was right. He didn't have anyone to tell.

I turned my back at him without further answers and I opened the heavy door to leave the room.

Brandon stood still in his place with the cigarette stuck in between his lips.

"I'll see you out there," I said as I took one last look at him before I closed the door behind me.

Even if it wasn't a secret that I was in there with him, it felt good that we kept it low and didn't leave the room at the same time.

I was still paranoid about making someone suspicious even though it was the most normal thing to be around one of your patients.

I entered the gathering room again and didn't get much attention from anyone which helped a lot to calm down my worrying nerves.

I walked over the big, high ceiled room and finally sat down next to Janet and Mildred who were peacefully sitting in one of the couches in the mid-area of the room.

"Where did you go?" Asked Janet.

My cheeks heated up with embarrassment and I realized that I had to come up with a lie.

"I was with Brandon, he needed a meeting. He got too overwhelmed by the surroundings" I said, happy about the way I managed to come up with a trustworthy reason for my earlier absence.

"Did something happen?" She asked further.

I shook my head and smiled.

"No, I got him in control before it burst for him, thankfully," I responded.

I hated to be a liar, but I didn't have much of a choice since the truth was the deepest secret I had ever had inside of me.

"I'm glad to hear that, Beverly," She said as she formed a smile with her glossed, plump lips.

I kindly smiled back at her.

The room was still noisy by the patients' banging, singing, and strange unexplainable grunts and sounds.

Some days it could really get you a bad headache, but after my break from the loud noises, and my wonderful, soul-healing intercourse with Brandon, I could manage to stand the chaotic and messy surroundings.

"Do you see who's sitting over there?" Janet spoke again to break the silence.

I looked in the direction where she slightly nodded her head and the first thing I spotted was Harriet.

Her beautifully thick and dark eyebrows made her recognizable from any distance. In front of her sat a man, all I could see was his bald head and broad shoulders, but I realized that he must have been the one Janet just referred to.

"Is that Joseph Acker?" I asked to make sure that what I assumed was right.

Janet nodded her head while she still looked over the room to inspect the psycho-killer who was sitting completely still.

"Yes. And he's cuffed. Not even Brandon wears cuffs in here, right?" She said with a low voice. I could still hear her curiosity even though she spoke very quietly.

I started to wonder why the man was forced to be cuffed in here. Usually, this was the free area for the behaving patients, and they were always monitored and supervised both by the guardsmen and the nurses, so handcuffs were rarely useful. And there were not often the most insane and aggressive inmates were let out in the common room at the same time as the other patients, due to the high risk of violence and outrage, but I guess this was an exception.

"No... no he's not," I answered Janet's question about Brandon.

What made this old man more dangerous than Brandon? I knew that he had killed his own family, but Brandon was a murderer too, and as far as I knew, he was the one everyone was terrified of in here.

I looked over the room again to watch the man sit by himself peacefully in the corner, with Harriet in front of him with a distance, and a guard tightly beside him.

I could only see his back.

He was sitting completely still, which made me feel uncomfortable. It was like he was frozen, like he waited for something to explode, like he prepared himself to outrageously act out any second.

I couldn't explain it, but the way he sat so peacefully still made him appear even more dangerous and terrifying.

He even reminded me of how I felt around Brandon in the beginning.

When he could turn my world upside down and make me feel humiliated, uncomfortable and submissive by only looking at me, like his evil was brought from his eyes and transferred into my innocent soul.

"I really wonder how it suddenly just snaps for someone, and they suddenly get capable of doing such rough things, out of nowhere? I wonder if we will ever understand, no matter how many psychopaths we will meet and have in our treatment?"

Janet was almost whispering now which was understandable. It was never acceptable to talk about patients in a public place, and at least not in front of other patients.

"I don't think we ever will, Janet," I said as I sighed out.

What I said was true. But I also knew that in only about three weeks, I had learned to understand and find sympathy with another psychopath, which wasn't as hard as I first believed it was.

"I guess so. Maybe we should be thankful about that," I could see how Janet's beautiful, big eyes were filled with thoughts.

"Yeah, probably,"