Happy End

“So, what’s the catch?” Edith stood arms crossed looking out her window at the large rotating sign labelled 'A Happy End,' unsettled but not surprised at Judy's request. 

“Billy.” Edith’s distant stare draws focus and she drops her tea. “Billy is working that day. If we want to find any kind of justice for Beth we need—” With one finger raised loftily she silences Judy. 

“I have no remorse for Beth. Frankly, she deserved what happened to her.” Edith steps away from the window and closer to Judy. “I couldn’t care less about her memory, nor your quest for vengeance.” Her gaze slowly shifts from scornful to determined. Striding over to her bedside, Edith opens a drawer labelled ‘Edith’s knickers’ and pulls out a small pistol. “But if Billy is the thing that is holding you back from burning this whole godforsaken place to the ground, then let me take care of him.” Judy peeps out into the hallway and looks back to Edith. 

“If you’re on board, the plan begins now!” Judy waddles slowly out of the room with her frame in tow, Edith following shortly after with her pistol hidden in her gown. As they pass other rooms, they notice the faces of the other patients, all looking out of their small door-windows with startled surprise at the two making for the end of the hallway. 

“Burn it down, Judy!” One shouts from their bed, and a smile breaks on Judy's face. She’s going to finally do it. At the end of the hall, Judy strides out and Edith locks the door behind her. The West Wing had been their home for the past few years, but to them, it had been their prison. Following the Orange line, down a dark corridor, the women happen upon a wheelchaired gentlemen sitting behind two doors that look rather grand for the facility they were in. A wooded texture and a varnished finish, the doors did not match the dead blue that washed the rest of the building. With a damp buzz, the man slowly rotates his chair to reveal another gun in his hand.

“You are late! Derrick has already begun his round, if we want to do it, we must do it now!” staring over to Edith his gaze softens and wry smile forms on his wrinkled face, “and you brought the lovely Edith with you too.” Edith looks away hiding the smallest of smiles but snaps back with a stoic expression. 

“Evening, Gary.” His loving look shifts in focus and he reaches over to a button on the wall and presses it weakly. A clank reverberates through the corridor and the doors swing open revealing a wing that looks unlike a five star hotel. A carpet wrapped in red velvet and walls of mahogany, the sheen of the walls looked as if they had been freshly buffed. 

“Disgusting. And they had us living in the depression depot” Edith quips as Judy grabs Gary’s chair handles and ushers him through. He leads with his pistol and the trio slowly wheel past each room in the wing. All the doors were opened, and there seemed to not be a single patient in sight. Instead, some of the beds were filled with pairs of wriggling orderlies, their sheets hiding their depravity. Other than distant noises of celebration, the wing was eerily silent. 

“They haven’t noticed us yet” Judy whispers. Continuing their slow crawl down the luxury wing, they wheel toward the nurses desk. The desk was covered in puddles of rum and adorned with several half drunk bottles of tequila, with red cups littered around the entire space. A party. Approaching the desk, Edith notices the canvas board behind the desk and closes her eyes in pain. 

“‘Congratulations, Beth? They’re celebrating her death? I know she was an old witch but to be celebrat—” Judy hastily pulls Edith into a crouch behind the desk as two drunk and stumbling nurses clamber past. 

“We need to be quiet, if we’re going to get anywhere we have to remain silent!” As Edith nods, a gunshot breaks the silence and the . Judy turns to see a falling orderly, shot in the heart by a shaking Gary. “We need to go!” Judy grabs the wheelchair handles and pushes forward, Edith following closely behind. A couple of nurses step out a room with party hats on and before they could react, two more gun shots sound off and they fall to the floor. They quickly push forward and through another set of swinging doors, with Judy locking the doors behind her, halting the advance of several party clad nurses. 

“There it is!” Judy calls out, looking down the following hallway and pointing toward a golden door at the end labelled ‘SECURITY.’ Before they could take another step, they felt the heavy and lumbering footsteps approach from the side of the hall. 

“Billy.” Edith steps forward and points her gun forward when the hulking presence reveals itself around the corner. Standing tall and wide, the huge Security guard stops in front of the door. Exasperated, Edith takes a step. “Billy, I don’t have to use this. Remember the good times we had, son.” Judy and Gary swap gazes between the scene in front and the locked door as the number of nurses trying to get through doubles. Billy the security guard takes a step forward. Boom. Each step is louder than the last and fills the room like a gong. His slow approach changes to a quick jog, and then a full sprint as he lunges toward Edith. 

“Shoot him!” Gary cries as Edith squeezes the trigger. In that moment her sight flashes white and she is suddenly in a large house, familiar but also eerie. She stands in the kitchen holding a plate of scrambled eggs on toast as she hears heavy footsteps rush down the staircase. A large boy of 8 gleefully takes the plate and sits to eat. A tear runs down Edith’s cheek, stunned as she looks down at the now dead Bulk at her feet. Her son. 

Judy pushes Gary into a now stunned Edith and she falls into his lap as they make haste for the security office. The locked door breaks open and the pursuing nurses make chase. With the might of her prime, Judy pushes faster than she's ever pushed before and manages to get the trio into the office and lock the door behind her. After a brief reprieve, loud banging erupts behind the door as the nurses call for the door to be opened. 

“Edith, are you okay?” Gary whispers, looking at the blank woman. Staring into space, Edith’s memory loops around one question, ‘where did she go wrong? Judy shrugs the both of them off and approaches the security desk. Scanning the camera screens, her eyes glide over the patients in the rooms of her wing who are all up against their doors peaking through their small cubby windows. She scans other wings who are all doing the same. All of the elderly, stuck in their ‘cells’ with no hope of getting out. Judy presses the buzzer and grabs the intercom mic close to her chin. 

“Residents of Happy Ends. Long have we been incarcerated here, forced to wait for our inevitable demise. The staff here have kept you sedated and humiliated long enough and the time to fight back is now! Our lives are far from being over. In fact tonight I say they have only just begun! Our families left us here in the care of Happy Ends and we have only felt despair.” Louder bangs reverberate through the room as the nurses up their efforts. With a blank faced Judith on his lap, Gary wheels his chair up against the door, hoping to reinforce the hinges. Some figures on the screen become more animated and riled up as Judy’s message rings out. Others search their rooms for objects or weapons. 

“When I unlock these doors, know this! These people claim to help us but celebrate when we die. In the name of care, they break our legs and poison our food. Get out and fight! Let’s burn this place to the ground!” With her final word, her fist thumps down on the big red release button and all doors in the facility thrust open, as well as the security door, pushing Gary and Edith off his chair and onto the floor. Sirens call and a deep red light fills the hallways. As the nurses step in and reach down towards the two on the floor, distant screams echo through the hall. When the other nurses run to investigate more screams chime out. The head nurse drops Gary and looks out to investigate and immediately he is struck in the head and collapses to the ground. A small defenceless looking man in pyjamas creeps out wielding a bloodied bed leg. He stares toward the trio with a sly smile and flicks his head, as if to tell them to get moving. 

Scanning over the camera’s once more, Judy sees several patients ultimately overwhelming the nurses. Smiling over the justice she’s wrought, she helps Gary back into the chair and with Edith on his lap, the trio make their exit.

Not long after the facility burns to the ground.

A happy end.