[ WP ] A police officer releases a criminal sociopath each night from prison to clean up the streets .

I always preferred the night shift. Most guards felt to uneasy to work at The Sphere at night. They could n't handle the maniacal cackling of those deemed too `` disturbed'' for the overcrowded prisons. Ha, more like the robust laughter of the well connected as they played cards in their cells and talked about how lucky they were that their neighbor's cousin's girlfriend was an assistant DA and got them out of Gen Pop in the big house. Oh sure, we occasionally got the truly insane. A person so deranged that putting them in a prison with thousands of other criminals would be too dangerous... for the prisoners. We kept them in Holding Block 42. Well not `` them'' but rather `` Him''. We only had one right now. He checked his self in one night - no name, no record. He just walked right up and asked to be admitted. We thought he was innocent enough, tall and broad shouldered but nothing we thought as being dangerous. The lady at the front desk called it in, like she should, and couple of us guards were sent to escort him to Dr. Valaria's, like we are supposed to, but we had no flippin' idea. The guy is a beast - a total monster. We passed through the general population `` bay''. A place where the normal patients can lounge about watching TV or hanging out. Buddy Boykins was there. His Uncle owned Boykin Steel and was one of the richest fuckers in the City. Good old Buddy had been caught red handed molesting the neighbor kiddy. They found something like 5TB of kiddy porn on his hard drive. The bastard got sent here so he could be `` cured'' of his illness. I guess part of that curing process was watching Judge Judy and eating chocolate pudding. Jack ass deserved what he got. 
 
 The stranger cured buddy all right. Before we knew what happened, us guards were in a heap on the floor and Buddy was having his eyes gouged out by his own pudding spoon. Of course we tried to pull him off but not before the stranger broke Buddy's scrawny neck. the'POP' was sickening. I will never forget Buddy's face - mouth open, pools of blood where his eyes used to be, and the stranger just standing over him. The rest of the patients scattered during the assault. The stranger just kept walking toward Dr. Valaria's. 
 
 He could n't leave his cell after that. We let him alone for 5 minutes the first week to shower. A couple of Buddy's friends had slipped in the shower to exact their revenge. The guards outside the shower room never heard a thing. Buddy came out and thanked them for letting him shower before calmly walking back to his room. They did n't find the bodies until the cleaning crew came through 30 minutes later. All dead, their necks broken and eyes gouged out. 
 
 Even the guards were scared of him. There was young Antwan Yokes - just hired straight from the academy two weeks ago. Most of us knew he was Don Trolly's lackey, sent there to make sure the Don's boys were taken care of, but the kid did good work - even if he was sliding a few joints to the patients and making a little side cash. We were understaffed as it was - at least he was n't fucking them. Occasionally he was tasked with taking the dinner trays to the solitary cells - we all were from time to time. The trays are slid through a slot in the patient's door. Antwan did n't see the stranger when he brought his tray to the cell, at least that's what we think. We found him sometime later hanging from the railing by his tie - neck broken and eyes popped from their sockets. This guy, I'm telling you, has no mercy for criminals. 
 
 He's never bothered me, no sir. I occasionally stop by his bunk for a chat. He's real smart, that one. He likes to read so I might bring him a book from the library. He stopped me once. Asked me how I could tolerate it - the crime. I did n't tell him about Daisy, but I think some how he knew. Daisy was my daughter. I say `` was'' for a reason - some thugs... they... well... she's gone on to a better place let's say. She had never hurt no one. I was supposed to take her home that day too, God knows why she decided to walk. And speaking of God I have a bone to pick with that `` all-mighty'' bastard myself. 
 
 Some how I knew that the stranger knew about Daisy. It got to the point where the other guards were so scared of him that they refused to even be in the same room. He just gave off a strange vibe, ya know? Like... we knew he could kill any of us whenever he wanted. The more I thought about it, the less he scared me. He only seemed to hurt scum bags. Once Old Man Jenkins, the patient that mops the floors for us, wondered into the shower room while the stranger was in there. When we realized what had happened we rushed in expecting to see Jenkins in a pool of blood without his eyes and his neck broke. When we got there Jenkins was sitting on a bench watching the stranger mop. Did n't harm a hair on his head. I could have sworn that was it for Jenkins, but the Stranger never touched him. Come to think of it, Jenkins was another self-commit. Had never committed a crime that we knew of, just could n't take life and was afraid he would hurt himself or someone else if he was n't institutionalized. 
 
 I spent 3 more weeks watching the stranger before I told him about Daisy. He never batted an eye or said a word. I turned to walk off but he stopped me. He told me he was ready to leave. I do n't know... something came over me. I unlocked his cell door and stood there, half expecting to have my neck snapped. He walked by me and right out the cell block door. I sat in his room crying the whole night. My life was over - I let a maniac loose on the streets of the biggest City in the lower 48. Early the next morning, before the sun came up, I was shaken awake. I thought it was a guard and I made ready to fess up to letting the stranger go, but instead I stood face to face with a nightmare. He held a blood covered fist out to me. I knew what it was before it ever hit my palm. You would be surprised how much emotion one can convey with just their eye. Sure facial expressions sensationalize your feelings, but they can be falsified... faked to make you believe a person feels something they really do n't feel - like a cheating husband lying every night about how much he loves his wife while he fucks his secretary every day for breakfast. The eyes though... windows to the soul ya know. The eye he gave me was brown streaked with red veins and permanently frozen in terror. I knew this eye... I had seen it before at a trial. Daisy's trial. This eye looked down on my daughter as she... 
 
 I asked him where he got it - like I did n't already know. He just crawled back into his bunk and stared at the ceiling. 
 
 I stood in the doorway for a few more minutes looking from him to the blood covered eye in my hand before I left. I threw up in the Guard's latrine before I left - the eye went down the drain with my puke. 
 
 I knew the next night I would be back to unlock his cell.
