Athena Grey, The Singer

Athena Grey was a very sweet girl once. She was pretty easy on the eyes as well. With slightly tanned skin and honey colored hair. She had silver blue eyes that was her most prominent feature, next to her gentle singing voice that is. She was 17 when she started volunteering at the hundred year old hospital that was still running in her small town in Louisiana.

The Story
"Alright, Attie, I need ya to help Mrs. Dubree outta her bed and into her wheelchair." Nurse Harley said with a soft smile. Athena brushed a stray hair off of her face, she laughed,"Now you know I hate being called Attie. And I thought Mrs. Dubree wasn't leaving until next week."

Nurse Harley looked sad,"Mrs. Dubree is being moved to the Terminal Ward. Her cancer hasn't been getting better. She wanted to tell you stories and hear you sing before she died. You've lived next door to her for five years, or so she's told me. Right?"

Athena nodded her head, she had visited the old woman next door since the day she moved to her small town. She enjoyed talking to her and personally knew some of her family. Knowing that she wanted to speak to her as her last moments meant a lot to her. "A-Alright." she managed to say, choking back the tears she wanted to cry. She somberly walked to Mrs. Dubree's room. When a strange thought came to her head,'Why not end it for her? You know how much this has been hurting the poor woman. End it for her......'

And for a moment, she felt she would do just that. But quickly brushed off the morbid thought. She had had these morbid thoughts running through her head since the first time she stepped foot into the hospital five years ago, when her mom had broken her foot while moving a dresser into the house. She felt as though she was losing her mind but was strong enough to simply brush them aside and move on to other things. Lately, however, these dark thoughts have been growing stronger and stronger. And yet, she simply pushed them further down into her mind. This was starting to fail and she felt that she had to tell SOMEONE. She couldn't tell anyone though. So she kept forcing it down, she could feel it building up however.

She snapped out of her thought when she reached Mrs.Dubree's room. The old woman was reading an old book, the title worn out to where you couldn't tell what it was. Athena knocked on the open door,"Sandra. It's me, Athena." The old woman closed the book and smiled kindly at her,"Hello Athena. Are you here to put me into my next room?" she asked, not even seeming to be phased about her dying. Speaking as though it's just another day on her front porch. Athena choked back another wave of sadness and nodded,"Yes Ma'am. Aren't you....you know....a little sad about your situation?" she asked. Wondering if the poor woman was losing her mind. Mrs. Dubree shook her head no,"I most certainly am not. Why should I? I'll finally be free of these terrible chemo treatments and these God awful aches all over. I'll see my late husband again and finally rest eternally in heaven.....Why should I be sad, sweetheart?" Mrs. Dubree asked. Athena shrugged,"I don't know. I mean, it just seems sad. I'm going to miss you, Sandra." The old woman smiled a sad and gentle smile,"Now don't you worry, sweetheart. I'll be resting in peace."

She eventually managed to get her to the Terminal hall. Her hands are shaking at this point, she's feeling sad and angry and the dark and morbid thoughts are racing through her head. They're showing her ways to end the poor woman's life, most ending in some form of gory bloodbath that makes her want to either cry or vomit. She starts humming the song her older brother had sent her in an email earlier that day. It sounded as though the singer was being tortured by some kind of inner turmoil and it made me sad, but that was the first thing that came into her head. It was some kind of techno type song called Awoken. Mrs. Dubree nudged her,"Care to sing that out-loud,sweetheart? You sound better when you're not mumbling the words." Athena puts on a fake smile,"I don't know. It's a weird song and I don't think you would like it very much." The old woman nods, seeming to understand. Athena helps her into her bed, trying to push the dark thoughts further. She left the room as soon as one of the other nurses came in to place the monitors and other things Athena didn't seem to notice.

"What is wrong with me?" she asked herself in the bathroom. She splashed cold water onto her face, trying to bring some sense back into her head. Suddenly, she heard a faint voice, like a little girl's voice,"Nothing is wrong with you,Miss." Athena turned around to find a little girl in the bathroom with her. The child seemed to be about six or seven years old. She had short, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes that had a far off look to them, as if she wasn't all there.She had pale skin that were dotted with little scabs and cuts. The girl was wearing a hospital gown with there being faint streaks of blood. Possibly her own. Athena squatted down to the kid's level and touched her hair, just to make sure she was real. "Why do you say that, Kiddo?" She asked, not really sure if what she was feeling was even real. The girl simply blinked,"You're not stuck here like me, or the others. So nothing is wrong with you." Athena looked at her with sadness. This little girl obviously wasn't happy being a patient. And from the color of her skin, she could tell she hasn't been outside for a long time. Athena wipes her face of with a paper-towel, since it's still wet with cold water. "I'd imagine it's not fun being here. But don't worry, you'll get better. I promise, kiddo." She heard the door open and before she knew it, the little girl had left. Athena stuck her head out the door and saw no sign of the kid. 'Where'd she go?' she thought, 'She couldn't have gone too far.' Yet, walking up and down the halls she saw no sign of her. Maybe she was losing her mind.

"Miss Athena Grey. You are requested in room 342. Miss Athena Grey. You are requested in room 342." the man at the reception desk said in a bored drawl. Mrs. Dubree's room. She probably wanted to talk to her. Athena quickly walks to the room, trying to ignore the voice in her head saying 'End it. End it. End it.' Athena got into the room and smiled at the old woman. "D-Did you need something, Sandra?" She tried to hide her shaking hands, she tries restraining herself. Mrs. Dubree seemed to notice and had a worried look etched onto her face,"Is something wrong, sweetie? You look like you've seen a ghost." Athena looks at her in disbelief. "I think I have.....I just have some stuff going through my head right now." Mrs. Dubree looks at her and thinks,"Did you see a little girl with dark hair and blue eyes?" Athena nods her head rapidly. The old woman lightly laughs, as though it hurt to laugh harder. "She IS a ghost. You forget, this place is a hundred years old. And it was an Asylum before it was a hospital." Athena could feel her face lose color. Her entire body making the chair shake. She knew the place was old, but she hated movies about old insane asylums. "A-And what do you know about her?" she asked, she felt like she was going to lose it if anyone else so much as talked to her. "Well, her name was Trinity May. She was the last child admitted into this place in the asylum days, she had a very strange mental case indeed. She always seemed to know what was wrong with a person. Yet, for some reason she would tell them there was nothing wrong at all." Athena almost had a heart attack, "And how did they know she knew?" She choked on each word, she was terrified now. The old woman thought for a moment,"I remember now, she would draw pictures for them. She drew what was wrong with them, and the strangest thing was, as soon as they saw the pictures, they panic and almost instantly lose their common sense. In short terms, they did what they secretly wanted to do." Athena was going to puke. She ran to the bathroom and turned the sink on, the hot water was fogging up the mirror. She hung my head over the sink in hopes that she wouldn't do just that, instead, she hung it too low and ended up burning the left side of her face. She screamed as her hands shot up to hold the pain, only to make it feel worse.

Athena was admitted as a burn patient. Bandages covering the water burned half of her face. She still visited Mrs. Dubree and apologized for her reaction. She didn't feel the dark, gruesome thoughts in her head anymore. She had been there in the hospital for a few days when she saw something on Mrs. Dubree's door. She grabbed the paper and saw a child's drawing. A picture of her, the left side of her face red and yellow with burns and blisters, her left eye bloodshot and the blue color being invaded with more red. She was smiling a crazy smile in the picture, holding a bloody scalpel with multiple bodies surrounding her. She also seems to be singing in the picture. Athena can't figure out how she can tell from a child's drawing but she can. She suddenly feels her mind, slipping back into the black, bloody thoughts she had been forcing back for so many years. She smiles a demented smile and walks into Mrs. Dubree's room. Singing Awoken as she rips off the bandages covering her un-healing wound.

A News Report
"The horrific massacre of over 35 patients at the New Land Hospital is under investigation. Though many of the surviving nurses and patients claim to have heard a young volunteer by the name of Athena Grey, singing strange songs as she killed her victims. One doctor claimed she had burned her face after a slight meltdown in a room with Sandra Dubree. An 83 year old woman who lived next door to Athena for five years, who was the first victim of Athena the Singer. We are still unaware of her whereabouts, if anyone has seen this dangerous criminal. Please, do not approach her and alert the authorities."