The Ramblings of Artessa Trap

Hotch Pot was cleaning up the cafeteria from the daily mess, standing on two legs swiftly with a broom as he brushed the junk and litter into a nearby basket. It was already getting dark outside, and candles already gently flickered in the otherwise empty cafeteria. The dancing shadows created by the candles gave him company. He knew that the patients were probably being set to bed by now. The hallway nearby was bustling with staff ponies, each one making sure to send the patients to their rooms. This was often a time of shouting, laughing and biting, it stopped bothering him at this point. He stopped suddenly, hearing a clopping of hooves walking up the hall towards the cafeteria.

"Hey Hotch Pot," a familiar mare said nearby, "Ready for the night shift?"

Hotch Pot looked up, somewhat relieved to see Lolly Stick, his co-worker, walking in. "Yeah, sure," he responded, brushing up the last of the garbage on the floor. The stuff he found there was disgusting. Spit, piss, and a massive mound of uneaten food and spilled drink, among other things, made this an extremely messy job, and he wasn't graced with a horn to simply magic it away. He was just your average earth pony doing a modest job. He looked up at her again, noticing a fading bruise on her neck. "Screw-Loose, I'm guessing?

She shook her head, rubbing her neck again as she became more aware of the bruise. "Nah, that mare got released ages ago, remember? She's almost finished from therapy actually."

"Oh," he replied, knotting one of the garbage bags while conversing, "I remember now. I thought she got sent back for relapsing, though?"

"No, no. That was our mistake. Turns out a dog really was barking near her, but staff thought it was her, the poor thing. That's long been settled though, I'm surprised you didn't know about it. Anyway, this bite was from was Miss Trap. The yellow one. I should've seen it coming, honestly."

Hotch Pot picked up the garbage bags, balancing them on his back impressively as he walked into the hallway. "They're an unpredictable bunch, y'know. They'l always surprise you with something." He walked alongside Lolly Stick through the darkening hallways of the asylum sector, opening the door that lead to the main hospital as Lolly followed.

They both emptied the trash into the dumpster outside, coming back inside to start their night shift together. Hotch Pot's eyes were clearly bloodshot from the restless day of work. He looked over to Lolly in wonder. "Hey, besides the bite, you look fine. Aren't you feeling a little tired?"

She shook her head with a laugh and a nudge to his side, throwing him slightly off balance. "You silly, I finished my work early today so I got to rest in the afternoon. I told you I'd stay with you for the night shift. It's never safe alone."

Hotch Pot snorted. "So you just wanted to look out for me, huh?" He sneered at her, walking into the staff room to put on his security uniform. He pulled out a torch, a copy of the cell keys, a magic panic button that would turn the alarms on if pressed, a nite-stick, and hung them all onto his belt. Lolly just looked at him in the corner, resting against the other lockers.

"Can't believe you took both a day job and a night shift for the extra money, Hotch," Lolly giggled half-seriously, "it sounds like you're crazy enough to be one of them."

Hotch Pot looked over, rolling his bloodshot eyes as he tightened his belt around his belly, his torch holstered facing forwards beside him so that it can light up in front of him with the flick of a switch while leaving his four hooves free. He usually kept it off, since the moonlight still provided some basic light in the asylum hallways from above. It became extremely quiet now, all the patients were settled in their cells, the loudest ones were put in sound-proof cells which allowed the others to sleep comfortably. He swapped his hat with another hat with a ponyvile security logo on it, marching into the hallways with his co-worker.

It was insanely silent in the long dark ward. Not even the sound of keys was heard, as Hotch kept his keys tightly secure in his belt, which prevented them from clanging with each other. Looked left and right, looking back at Lolly now and then to make sure she didn't abandon him or something. He stopped suddenly, perking his ears up as he heard a muffled laughter followed by wet sobbing from a room, but it died down quickly. He shrugged it off, continuing to patrol silently down the corridor, washed by the gentle blue light of Luna's moon under every small square window he passed under, casting some moving shadows on the floor. He looked up, noticing it was just the gentle breeze brushing the trees outside.

"Hold on," he heard behind him. He turned around, seeing a shadow behind him holding a paper. "There's a paper here on the floor." He switched on his flashlight, seeing his co-worker Lolly holding a paper. She flinched at the torch blinding her momentarily, and then continued holding out the paper.

NO WRONG, TOMORROW. AFTER, BLUE. the paper had written. It was an extremely splotched hoof-writing, as if done in an extreme hurry. The paper itself was torn, too, and on the other side seemed to indicate it was torn off from a printed hospital document. Lolly suddenly gasped, letting go of the paper to the floor, sticking her tongue out, retching in disgust. "What's wrong?" Hotch asked, focusing on the reflective paper on the floor.

"It's got spit all over it, ewww," she complained, "just, ew."

"How'd it get here?" asked Hotch, getting to the point.

"I'm not sure. I hope this is some kind of prank." she whispered hopefully.

"I hope so. Either way we'l have to report this to the others in the morning. We'll have to collect it. Get a surgical bag from the staff room, we can't let this go unnoticed." He looked up, pointing the flashlight in Lolly's direction. She turned around as if she was going to walk up to the staff room, but she stopped. She stood there uncomfortably as the light cast her shadow in front of her. "What's wrong?" he asked, "Why aren't you moving?"

"I, uhm..I...I don't have a flashlight." she responded faintly, shivering a little.

This made Hotch raise his eyebrow. There was clearly just about enough moonlight to cross the hallway. "Fine. I'll go with you." he whispered harshly.

They walked down the hallway, the flashlight lighting the way, bridging the dark gaps between each overhead window that dimly lit little circles with moonlight. They reached the staff room at the end of the hallway, getting another flashlight and a surgical bag. They walked back down the hallway, now lighting the hallway a lot better with their flashlights, Lolly levitating hers. They looked for the piece of torn paper so that they could collect it, but they just couldn't find it, somehow.

"I could've sworn it was somewhere here," he commented in a low voice, "we didn't step on it, did we?"

They checked their hooves, finding nothing. Lolly became visibly anxious, making quick turns with her flashlight to cover her blind spots, while Hotch tried to keep his cool. Lolly started checking the cell doors, to see if they were all locked, while Hotch started sweating in place trying to rationalize it. Suddenly, they heard something that made their hearts skip a beat. Something fell, echoing very faintly throughout the hallway.

"The cafeteria!" Lolly screeched in a horrified, hushed voice. They both jogged up to the cafeteria door, their lights swinging around the room, shadows swerving on the walls from the tables and chairs. Hotch reached over to his nite-stick, holding it in his teeth tightly, ready for anything. They walked towards the kitchen counter, lighting it.

Suddenly, they saw something fling across the room, hitting the big barred window of the cafeteria, catching them off-guard. Hotch instinctively swung his nite-stick in front of him, trying to hit whoever was there, while Lolly screamed and dropped her flash-light in terror. Hotch turned and ran towards the window, smashing his nitestick down at the sound source, splattering something all over the window and wall.

There was a loud bang. Somepony screamed.