Barry

Trigger warning: Gore, violence and slight mentions of substance abuse

I sat down in my navy blue swivel chair and turned on the monitors. I had just clocked in to my night shift at the Colorado Penitentiary. The chair creaked as I put all my wait on the seat. The locker behind me slammed shut and I turned around to bid goodbye to the day-shift worker, Sam.

“Watch out for Barry tonight,” She warned, “He’s been up to his old tricks again.”

“Thanks, Sammy,” I responded, “Have a good night. Tell that old man of yours I said ‘hi’.” 

Sam waved and walked out the door with her jacket hung over her arm. Sammy was a strong, brave woman who somehow found time to take care of her father and two children, completely alone, while also working a full time job. I admired her and longed to be like her. 

I had spent most of my time in the gym and never with any actual people that I liked outside of work. I lived far from my family and barely ever saw them, especially because they never fully forgave me for not showing up to my mother’s funeral. I just couldn’t take it. She was the only one who ever cared for me fully and I was going to live in a bubble of denial for the rest of my life. As far as I knew, my mother was still alive, making her grandchildren homemade halloween costumes and personal christmas countdown calendars.

I turned back to the CCTV cameras and watched the cells contently for any suspicious behavior. Sammy was right. Barry was banging his head against the wall and cleary muttering something to himself. His cell mate didn’t seem to notice, so I didn’t see any reason to stop him. He wasn’t causing a disturbance or anything.

I flicked through the cameras one by one, checking in on the prisoners, making sure nothing was wrong or out of place. 

I noticed a popular prisoner scraping away at the wall of his cell with a spoon. I sighed and stood up, cracking my back and knees, and made my way to Dalton’s bullpen. 

“Hey!” I yelled when I was in Dalton’s hearing range,”You do know I can see you on the CCTV don’t you?” Dalton quickly hid the spoon behind his back and sweared that he wasn’t doing anything of the sort. “Come on,” I commanded,”Give me the spoon.” I held out my hand and Dalton pressed the spoon into my palm. “You weren’t gonna get anywhere anyways. You would’ve just ended up in Hudson’s cell.” Dalton’s eyes widened, then he faced down in a look of defeat. 

Dalton wasn’t the smartest of the prisoners, especially considering he was caught robbing a bank with no mask and recording the whole thing with his Iphone to later post on Youtube. He was caught immediately.

Dalton groaned and climbed back in his bed. He pulled the blankets over his head and I thought I could hear laughing, but I assumed it to be my imagination. I couldn’t help but feel bad for Dalton. He came from a bad home and was never properly educated. He was 10 years into his 20 year sentence and I could tell he was slowly going insane. He wanted to see his daughter again, even if it meant spending the rest of his life hiding from the cops.

I headed back to the monitoring room and sat back down. The chair was a soft kind of leather and it felt nice on my skin. I looked at the monitors and realized that Barry was missing. I looked closer, thinking that I was just seeing things and he was in his bed sleeping away the massive headache that he must have attracted from hitting his head, repeatedly, on the cement wall. My eyes darted across the monitor, desperately wanting to find Barry and not have to chase him down or call for backup. I suddenly realized that I didn’t see his bunk-mate either.

I ran down to Barry’s cell, my heart thumping out of my chest, my feet pounding on the ground. When I got there I almost vomited on the spot. Blood was trailing out of the open door and footprints followed. I reluctantly tracked the footsteps. My gut wrenched as I realized that they were leading to the lockers in the monitoring room. How had I not realized? How long was he watching me? Is he even there anymore? WHERE IS HE? 

I opened the locker and Robert’s lifeless body tumbled out. I was careful not to scream. I didn’t want to frighten any of the inmates or let Barry know where I was. I ran to the cameras and searched for Barry. When I didn’t find him I decided to go back in the feed and watch what he had done. 

I watched as Barry stared at me while I walked past him to Dalton. I had dropped my keys. He smiled, reached for the key-chain, and pulled back the blanket lying on his bed to reveal a butter knife. Had he killed Robert with a butter knife!? I kept from closing my eyes, it felt as if he was going to disappear if I looked away. He later dragged Robert into the monitoring room and left just before I had entered. I saw him stand at the doorway watching me. 

It felt as if some animal was doing somersaults in my stomach. I turned, slowly, towards the door. Barry was standing there, a smile plastered on his face, the butter knife in his hand. His nose was bleeding, but he didn’t seem to mind. Blood was dripping onto the floor, creating a gruesome puddle on the concrete. I wasn’t sure how much of that blood was actually his. 

He stepped closer, still smiling, still bleeding. I reached for the panic button under my desk, sweat dripping from my forehead, never looking away from Barry. 

He suddenly began to sprint towards me, screaming. He raised the butter-knife, preparing to reach me, and he stabbed me in my gut. I gasped. Blood began pouring out of my mouth, dizziness filled my head. I should have been able to fight him off, but I just froze. He plunged the knife, rapidly, into my stomach, until he felt satisfied. When he finished, he got close and whispered,”Tom? Tom? Hello?” He didn’t sound like himself. He sounded eerily like Sammy. 

 She shook me awake, “Tom? What is wrong with you?”

I gasped. I was alive! It was just a dream!

“Hello?” Sammy asked. She looked concerned. 

“Sorry,” I responded, “Bad dream.”

“You’ve been here five minutes and you’re already falling asleep? I can take the shift if you’re too tired.”

“No, I’m fine,” I reassured her, “Go take care of your kids.” 

“Okay. Just give me a call if you need.”

“Thanks, Sammy.”

She hung her jacket over her arm and said, “Oh, and watch out for Barry he’s up to his old tricks again.”

I shook my head. It was just a dream. I checked the security cameras and saw Dalton scraping away at the wall with a spoon. My stomach churned. It was just a dream, I told myself. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling. “Don’t be stupid!” I told myself aloud, “It was just a dream!”

I headed to my locker to get my water. It would be okay. Barry is not crazy. He was only in for drunk driving, not murder. I opened the locker doors, breathing calmly, and Robert fell out.