There was something to be said about Tenboul's Psychological Institute for the Mentally Unstable.

Most knew the facility to be one of the best in the state, perhaps even in the country, its prestige known through magazines and news articles and television broadcasts. The doctors were very hands-on with their patients, the nurses were friendly and helpful, and there were quite a few success stories of complete habilitation for minor cases involving hysteria and small bouts of common mental illnesses. It was a clean, professional building with caring people opperating behind-the-scenes with the intent of helping others to the best of, and sometimes beyond, their ability.

So it was rather a rude awakening when one patient, Reyna Lacross, entered their doors several years back, quiet as a graveyard and still recovering from what looked like a head injury. The escorts that had brought her in looked rather spooked standing beside her, and when she was fully instated into the hospital's system, they were quick to depart without so much as an over-the-shoulder glance behind them.

The first few weeks proved to be very strenuous, as there seemed to be nothing wrong with the young woman. The first psychological test with their very own on-call psycologist was the only thing vouching for her stay, the doctor having written her off to be "very mentally unstable" with the possibility of harm against others. So the staff remained cautious of their curious patient, careful to give her the prescribed medications and keeping a watchful eye over her progress. Aside from snide comments and the occassional mutterings to herself, all seemed as normal as one could get with mental trauma.

Then there was the start of the Volunteer Program, and everything went to hell.

The program was approved as a means to bring in sane, able-minded people to interact with the patients in order to provide both stimulating conversation and positive energy. It had gone well for some of the other patients, but Reyna was proving to be quite difficult. She alone had gone through twelve volunteers, each never lasting more than two months. There had even been word of one woman having quit the first hour being in Reyna's presence. Reyna had adopted an almost permanent smirk the whole next week after that encounter.

For a whole year after the twelfth volunteer left, the staff kept Reyna off the program's list in fear that she would progress to more violent means in the coming future. She had already shown signs of hostility to the last few volunteers as well as some of the staff that cared for her. After the last psycological test, however, she was deemed ready to return to the program under more intense supervision.

Volunteer number thirteen was then assigned to Reyna, and all hoped that the number thirteen wasn't as unlucky as the superstitions made it out to be.