In the small town of Peoria in 1953, a seventeen year old girl named Mary lived with her family in a small house in the outskirts of town where nothing really happens. Mary is a type of girl your eyes will skip over. She had a petite body shape with a round face and full lips. Her lips had a red tint with an outlining of purple, if you look close enough. Her long brown hair cascading down her back like waves crashing on the sand and her brown eyes that have specks of gold outlining the dark brown color and were lined with mile long eyelashes.  She was the type of girl that always tries to help out. So when she heard about the volunteership at the mental institution just out of town, she was dying to help out. She went out and signed up and before Mary knew it, she was an official volunteer of the Peoria State Mental Institution. She was ecstatic to help out the poor innocent souls that couldn’t find their way. On her first day, Mary made sure she looked her best, she wore her favorite dress which was the one with the red polka dots all over, she loved red polka dots, ever since she was a little girl the thought of red polka dot calmed her. She had her hair up in neat little curls and took off into her first day of work. When Mary’s father pulled into the mental institutions parking lot, she felt an unsettling feeling bubble in the pit of her stomach.
“It’s just first day jitters, everyone gets those! Good luck sweetie!” shouted her father, while he was pulling out of the parking lot with that old car that rumbled with exhaustion and before she knew it her father was gone. Mary still had the feeling in the pit of her stomach and somehow they it didn’t seem like ‘first day jitters’. Thinking it was nothing, she shook off the uneasy feeling and kept walking. Little did she know that there was someone watching her, intrigued by how she walked with her right foot tilted a little to the outside and how her hands swung like they were ready to throw a punch. Mary walked into the building seeing and hearing nothing. It was so quiet, that she could hear a pin drop. As she walked up to the administration desk, she saw a nun sit back behind the desk.
“Hello miss, I’m Mary the new volunteer.”
“Hello-”
“Helene, get  me a file on patient in the c-wing” interrupted a nun who face was so worn and wrinkled and her body was sickly skinny.
“Oh, you must be Mary,” said the nun looking at Mary with curious eyes,“I’m Miss. Johnson, I’m the head director here.”
“Hello Miss, I’m excited to begin” said Mary.
Miss Johnson took Mary to the common room where all the patients go to eat lunch and hang around. The room had a couple of tables and a radio in it and there were a few  people in there. A boy caught Mary’s eyes, a boy with beach blonde hair that was tussled and bright crystal blue eyes that reminded of Mary of the sky without a single cloud. He had a look on his face that encaptured Mary. He had a distant look in his eye and a frown that it looked sown on in the wrong place. Miss. Johnson pulled Mary away before she even had the chance to figure out who the boy was. Finishing up the tour of all the hospital wings, Miss. Johnson took Mary to one particular room; the room of medical examinations, a room that will be etched into Mary’s memories forever. The tiny room held machines that Mary had no idea what they were capable of doing. One had two paddles and a huge battery to it and another one had a mask type which was connected to a machine that looked like a chamber with wires and chains all around it.  As Miss. Johnson walked through the room, she wore a smile that Mary has never seen before, it was type of smile that made Mary’s body erupt with little bumps and made the tiny hairs on her neck, stand still. It sent chills down her spine. As the day passed nothing really happened that made Mary cringe as much as the medical examination room. Afterwards, as Mary drove away from the hospital in her dad’s beat up car back to her home, a person was walking down the empty hallways of the hospital wing. The person stopped at one particular door, crept inside and as Linda, one of the patients, was sleeping, a red polka dot pillowcase was pulled  over her head and the horrified screams flew through the empty hallways with no one coming to her aid. The next morning as Mary was pulling into the parking lot, she saw dozens of reporters and newscasters and couldn’t help but wonder what happened. She walked pass the reports and went up to Miss. Johnson who was standing straight up with ghostly look on her face, she just looked at the wooden doors and heard the screams of the reporters trying to figure out some news.
“What happened?” asked Mary, beyond confused on what could happen in less than twenty four hours.
“There was an attack” said Miss. Johnson, “a patient in the e-wing, she was the only one in her room in that wing, everyone else was in the common room for movie night. She was brought outside of property line and raped and brutally stabbed in the head about eleven times and then dropped right off on the property line” Miss. Johnson told Mary as she was surprisingly very calm during the entire thing.
“Oh my gosh!! That’s horrible! Do they know who did it?” asked Mary.
“No this isn’t the first time that happened, there has already been four attacks” replied Miss. Johnson. Mary was shocked, how could she have not have heard of this? Four attacks, four innocent people. Mary looked at the common room and saw that the boy she saw yesterday there again, as their eyes met she felt the nervousness run up her spine and how her palms began to sweat. She looked away back at the wooden door as she saw the reporters drifting away more and more and soon before she knew it, it was time for her to leave.
One day, when Mary was walking into the hospital, the crystal eyed boy was sitting in the common room, watching the walls and not doing anything. Mary walked up to the boy and started a conversation.
“Hello, I’m Mary. You may have seen me around, I’m the new volunteer.” The boy just started at Mary, he couldn’t get enough of her. He thought she was the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. The way her hair flows past her shoulder and how her brown eyes have little tints of gold in them, it looked like the sun was glowing off it. He needed someone like that in this hell hole of a place.
“Hey. I’m Evan” and with those words, months passed on and Mary and Evan became really close friends, they would talk every day whenever Mary wasn’t busy helping Miss. Johnson. One day Mary asked Evan something that was on her mind ever since she came to the hospital
“Evan, why are you here?” asked Mary curious beyond words. Evan dreaded this questions afraid that Mary would fear him after she knew.
“I use to live with my mother and my step father, my step father was very abusive and hurt my mother a lot. One day, when I was coming home from school I hurt shouts that made my ears ring. When I walked in, I saw my mother’s body on the ground covered in her own blood. My step father was just sitting on the couch smugly. Anger blinded my eyes and I didn’t think about what I did. I took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed eleven times in the head. The neighbors heard my screams and called the police. When they came in they thought I killed both of them and they put me in here.” Evan’s heart raced and his eyes watered remembering that horrid day. Mary was looking at Evan with pity, he’s been through so much and she just wanted to fix him. Instead of running away like Evan thought, Mary pulled him into a huge suffocating hug.
Months flew by with no more attacks, every day Mary came to the hospital and worked. She produced some friendships on the way and she was happy to come in every morning. One night, the same person walked through the halls with the same pillowcase and the same creepy smirk on their face. They walked into the room and the usual lifeless crystal blue eyes were closed and the beach blond hair was sprawled on the pillow. The attacker pulled the pillowcase over the once peaceful face and again the horrified screams drifted through the halls with no one to help.
The next morning, as Mary was walking into the entrance, she looked towards the common room and didn’t see Evan, who saw every day. The nun behind the reception desk was sobbing and praying silently
“What’s wrong?” asked Mary concernedly
“Evan was attacked yesterday”
“What?”
“Yes, he was stabbed eleven times in the heart and left on the property line”  Mary’s mind was racing with a thousand of thoughts at second.She couldn’t believe what was happening, he was such pleasure to hangout with. He was never in trouble, he was usually on the side of the conversation, he never meant any harm. As Mary was looking at the floor deep in thought, she ran into Miss. Johnson
“Just the girl I was looking for”
“Hello, Miss. Johnson I heard about the attack on Evan.”
“That’s actually what I needed to talk to you about that, the police is in my office and they want to interview everyone”
“Oh yes, of course.” Miss. Johnson and Mary walked into Miss. Johnson’s office and the police officer started questioning Mary
“Where were you yesterday evening?”
“I was at home, wait no, I mean I was at the store with my friends.” as Mary was answering these questions, she was shaking and her tongue felt as if it couldn’t into her mouth. The police finished their questions frustrated that they couldn’t figure out who it was. Afterwards, Mary walked away, she had the creepiest smirk on her face and her eyes showed so much mystery and a red polka dot pillowcase was hanging out of her purse and as she looked back and winked at Miss. Johnson and turned the corner awaiting their next victim.