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Prolog

The cold night was unbearable as the air seemed to sink into clothing mading a person's skin feel like it was about to freeze. The temperature was typical for an average New England night in April, but knowing that did not make it any easier. The temperature must have been in the fifties earlier today and the look and feel of the sun shining made it feel like a beautiful day in spring. Since it had rained during the last three days the sun was a welcome change. It was only during the evening, when it became cold again, that it reminded a person it was still too early to put away their winter clothes.

The stranger ignored the cold as he continued to walk along on the almost empty street. He had other things on his mind and even though he could feel the cold he ignored it and focused his anger on the cars passing by. The headlights would briefly shine in his eyes and ruin his night vision causing him to cringe as a reflex.

A couple of times he stumbled on the sidewalk because of his marred vision. Several spots of the pavement were displaced because of the tree roots growing underneath them causing the sidewalk to be uneven. Even though he had lived here his whole life the conditions of the sidewalk still annoyed him. Every time he tripped he would curse himself for still not being used to it by now.

He turned and walked unto the lawn of a certain property and passed a sign that said "Sacred Oak Nursing Home." The place seemed as old as the people living in it with the grey cement that had the looking like it was soon to begin crumbling. The few cars that remained in the parking lot belonged to the workers on the night shift. The place looked placid and tired just like the people living there yet the building seemed to have gone to sleep faster than they had.

He looked about absently not really seeing the surroundings but trying to find the person he was looking for. There were several places that a person could hide in because the exterior had a poor lighting system. He could only guess that the women working here must be afraid of their overzealous boyfriends hiding in the shadows trying to catch them with forbidden lovers. To him it seemed laughable that anyone would want to date someone who worked here and spent all day cleaning up after old people.

He nearly became paralyzed as unexpected feelings of anger and hatred began to fill his mind. The surroundings suddenly felt dangerous and something kept pushing him forward. The feelings of danger changed with the desire to set things right. He felt as if his children were in danger and he wanted to throw himself in front of them to protect them. He was not sure why because he had no children of his own yet the feeling was there for some reason.

A lone security officer sat at a desk watching the external cameras of the nursing home. It was the time when the third shift would come in to relieve the second shift and he had to monitor the phones to transfer any call outs to the supervisor on duty. This was the busiest time of his shift and once the shift change ended he would have more free time at the desk. The only other responsibilities were to do rounds every hour, which were easy, and be ready in case of an emergency, which never happened.

Peter was average height but his dark brown hair sometimes looked black to people. He had a shaggy beard that made him look older than he really was. Of course the workers there tended to treat him as a child but he was fine with it. He felt a better relationship with them would make the job easier and they would be more cooperative. His glasses had black frames and they made him look handsome but the lenses were often dirty. He cleaned them rarely because he would get lazy constantly cleaning them and also due to his poor vision. He was developing cataracts due to his diabetes so the dirtiness of the frames did not impair his vision as much as the cataracts did. His eye doctor thought he was still too young to do the surgery and wanted to wait until they developed more before attempting to remove them.

The biggest task he faced was directing ambulances EMTs to the floors where they would be picking up the residents that were going to the hospital. They would stop by the desk and he would tell them which floor and room to go to. Provided they called him ahead of time to let him know an ambulance was on its way. One of his pet peeves was that an ambulance would show up and he'd have to go searching for who called them.

Peter adjusted his glasses as he noticed a man was standing at the front entrance. He guessed the guy might be smoking but he kept looking inside and it seemed strange. He wondered if the guy was afraid he was going to go out and throw him off the property not not smoking in a designated area. Peter did not really care as long as he received bno complaints because then he would have to take action but right now it seemed harmless.

The man finally entered and Peter turned his gaze to look at him and he smiled. The man did not smile back so already Peter knew he was in a bad mood. Not another usual event here because relatives often complained about how their loved ones were treated. Some expected that the whole nursing home to cater only to their family members and would become disgruntled by the fact they were not the center of attention. There were over two hundred people living here that also needed attention and the staff could not solely focus on one. Peter could understand the views of both sides

Just as he was about to greet the gentleman the phone rang and he immediately motioned for him to wait as he answered the call.

"Sacred Oak Nursing Home, how can I direct your call?" Peter said into the receiver and turned his gaze away from the man. On the desk where he worked there were numerous numbers posted so he could know what areas to call or to transfer calls to.

"Yeah let me talk to the nurse on the second floor." a woman said her voice seemed indifferent so he quickly wondered if this was a worker trying to call out. The policy at the home was that call outs need to speak to a supervisor but there were some that tried to circumvent that rule. They thought if they spoke to a regular nurse they could get away with it and not be expected to come in.

"Sorry but is this a call out?" he asked as he had been instructed to do when someone called this late in the evening. He was expected to be at the front line to prevent them from trying to get away without talking to a supervisor.

"No, I want to talk about my mother that lives there." she said with her voice now showing signs of agitation.

"One moment please." Peter said as he transferred the call then turned his attention back on the man waiting. Unbeknownst to Peter, while he was talking on the phone the man had removed a pistol from his coat and when Peter looked up at him the man was pointing the gun straight at him. It only took a second for him to understand what was happening but before he could say or do anything the gun fired and the last thing Peter saw was a bright light then he was falling.

In another part of the nursing home on the first floor an aid named Mary was preparing one of the residents for bed. She had passed the midpoint in her life yet she had the look of a woman that had given birth in the past. Her stomach did not protrude but the weight she had gained had never disappeared. It just seemed to relocate and spread itself around. She was too thin though to be called overweight yet that was how she referred to herself as. Her hair was dyed a vibrant brown to hide the fact that it was turning grey. She was quite strong from the years she had spent working here and having to lift the patients she worked with. It would seem odd because she was only five foot tall yet she could easily lift a person larger than herself. She spoke english well yet her voice still carried an accent when she spoke.

She was pulling a blanket up to cover the resident she had finished bathing and dressing. The woman was refusing to lie down despite the gentle guiding by her.

"Helen," She said firmly. "It's time for bed Helen."

"You, you, you, you, you, you, you," Helen kept saying and when Mary guided her to lay down again Helen stuck out her arm and pointed to the ceiling. Helen was one of many in the Alzheimer's Ward of the nursing home. Many here were too so far gone because of the disease that they required extra attention and special care. Helen could no longer articulate in a way that made sense but would just repeat one word over and over probably thinking that she was actually saying something.

"Good night Helen." Mary said as she turned off the light and was just about to step out of the room when she heard a loud bang. She immediately jumped and clutched her chest then a second later the panic subsided and she stepped out trying to find the source.

Another aide named Nancy approached her and Mary noticed the look of panic in her eyes too. Nancy was much older than Mary and she was nearing her retirement age. Nancy was about six inches taller than Mary so she had to look up to her when they talked. It never really bothered her but it did make the age difference more noticeable between them despite the fact that they were close friends here.

She too colored her hair but her's was more of a light brown than dark colored like Mary's was. She was thin despite giving birth to a daughter and Mary had wondered what her secret was. Nancy had few friends in the nursing home because of her brash nature. She was not one to temper her words but would just say what she was feeling no matter what the other person thought. This tended to leave her without many friends who found her brashness to be extremely rude

What annoyed Mary was when Nancy would talk about how fat she was despite being as thin as a pencil, as the saying goes. Mary knew she was fat but Nancy must be delusional to think she was. Mary would have given anything to look half as good as Nancy did.

"Did you hear that?" Nancy asked and her resolve suddenly returned as she looked ready to tell someone off for making a racket. The fears that were in Nancy's green eyes were suddenly replaced by her usual stolism.

"What was that? a firecracker? I nearly jumped through the roof." Mary said and Nancy nodded in agreement. Nancy suddenly sighed and rolled her eyes which could only mean one thing. It meant that Lucy was coming towards them.

Lucy was maybe half an inch shorter than Mary but Lucy seemed to have more weight on her. She had never been a mother and she had turned twenty one years old a few months ago. Even though Lucy seemed naive about it Nancy hated her with a passion. Every chance she got she tried to make Lucy look like a fool. Ironically Lucy made it easy because of how she talked and acted. She seemed to think she was an expert on everything when she really knew nothing.

Lucy's hair was a dirty blond color but it had been highlighted to make the blond color stand out more. It had been a while since it had been bleached so the roots had grown in and her hair was slowly returning to normal. She wore contacts that made her eyes look bright blue yet her original color was hazel.

"Did you guys hear that?" Lucy asked.

"No we're all deaf over here." Nancy retorted but Lucy seemed unfazed by the remark.

"That sounded like a shotgun went off." Lucy said and Nancy looked at Mary and again rolled her eyes.

"Could have been a firecracker." Mary said and Lucy shook her head.

"No it definitely was a shotgun."

"And how would you know?!" Nancy said.

"My boyfriend Tommy likes to go shooting shotguns at the range. I've gone with him so I know what they sound like." Lucy said matter of factly. Lucy always claimed to have a different boyfriend every day of the week and it seemed as if they were as made up as Lucy's stories.

"You sound like a nut!" Nancy said then turned to talk to Mary in a way so as to exclude Lucy from the conversation. "For all we know someone could have dropped something or someone fell out of bed."

"God forbid." Mary said then blessed herself by making the sign of the cross.

"Well I know I'm right and if a shotgun toting maniac comes through here and kills us all then you'll know you should have listened to me." Lucy said and she slowly started to walk away.

"And how, pray gell, will listening to you telling us it sounded like a shotgun protect us from the maniac coming to kill us???" Nancy yelled after her. "She is such a twit I can't stand it!" Nancy said then she walked off to take care of her own residences that needed her attention. Mary too decided to move on with her job and forgot about the gun shot.

Little did they know that what they heard was Peter the security guard being killed. They were too busy engaging in themselves and their dislike for each other to realize the danger they were in. Lucy was the closest in guessing what the noise really was but her reputation doomed any credibility she might have had because of all the stories she told.

No one knew of the man with a gun and what he did after killing the guard or where he went or what he really wanted. The body of the security guard would not be found until later when a worker walked by the desk to make photocopies...