Page 61 of Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

I walked up the steps and pressed the doorbell, peering around.

The woman who opened the door looked me up and down. Her severe bun and cold blue eyes bore into me. “Follow this way.”

She signed me in and ushered me through sterile hallways until we reached an examination room. Opening the door, she said, “Mr. Wolf will be with you shortly.”

I stepped inside, wrinkling my nose at the scent of bleach. My eyes immediately landed on the young girl, dressed in a white gown, seated at a rectangular metal table.

At first glance, she could pass as an innocent angel, with brown, albeit greasy, hair and vacant hazel eyes. But one look at the paperwork inside the thick folder in my hands told me all I needed to know. Skyler Burns was one sick girl.

The male nurse by the window cleared his throat as he approached me. “You won’t get a word out of her. She hasn’t spoken to anyone since she was first admitted.” He pointed a finger to his temple and added, “It’s all in here. She lives in her own little world.”

I opened her folder again, ignoring the amusement in his eyes. “Skyler Burns, twenty-two years of age, seventeen at the time of the murders…”

The door behind me opened, and an older man with a balding head and thick-rimmed glasses stepped inside.

He shook my hand, and I tried not to stare at the coffee stain on his gray shirt. His big hand engulfed mine and then he let me go and took a seat behind his desk.

The nurse dragged a chair over for me by the wall so I could quietly observe Skyler’s session.

“What can you tell me about Skyler?” I asked as he cleaned his glasses with his tie.

He put them back on, looking over at me from beneath his bushy eyebrows before opening the file on his desk. “You have familiarized yourself with Skyler’s case, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Good. She’s a special girl. Dangerous. Don’t let her quietness fool you. If we didn’t keep her shackled, she’d kill you in a heartbeat.”

I stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

Inhaling deeply, he removed his glasses again and rubbed at his tired eyes. “When Skyler had turned seventeen, she crashed her friend’s car.”

“They hit a boy, Nate Sanders.”

He hummed in agreement. “Skyler lost control of the car, careened down an embankment, and crashed into a tree. Her friend, Evelyn, died on impact. Nate Sanders, however, wasn’t so lucky. Skyler, believing him dead, dragged him back to the car and strapped him in behind the steering wheel to make it look like an accident. Then she doused the bodies and the car in gasoline from a bottle kept in the trunk before setting it alight, burning Nate Sanders alive.”

I knew this information already, but my stomach still churned at the visual.

“They ruled it an unfortunate accident. Skyler’s mental health progressively worsened until it came to a head on Halloween a year later.”

“Skyler and her friends stayed at a rented cabin, where she murdered them all.”

“She did, but not before she killed her boyfriend Dustin and her father back at the house. Shot them both dead with her father’s shotgun.”

I looked back at the girl seated across from me.

Rocking lightly, with her face hidden behind her stringy, brown hair, she muttered to herself.

“So, what progress has there been?”

“None,” Mr. Wolf replied, pushing his chair back and rounding the desk. He crouched down beside Skyler, stroking her hair away almost reverently as her rocking increased. “I can’t reach her in there. She’ll be stuck in her psychosis until she breaks free. She’s hiding in there for now, making up stories and characters in her mind. Too afraid to face what she’s done.”

The nurse prepared a needle on the metal cart behind her, and the sound made her stiffen up. “He’s coming. The wolf is coming.”

I frowned, leafing through the paperwork.

Mr. Wolf rose to his feet, took the needle from the nurse, and turned back, stroking her hair. “It’ll make you feel better.”

“Sedatives?” I asked, dragging my finger down the list of drugs they pumped through her system daily.

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