bedrooms and backgrounds

"Good boy." She praised him, leading him through the house giving him a brief rundown of the house and herself. "My husband and I met in college seventeen years ago if you can believe it." Vinny couldn't, the woman barely looked thirty. "We were both studying psychology, I was studying developmental psychology and he studied criminal psychology." They passed a series of wooden doors all, vinny presumed, led to rooms. None of which appeared to be his, through some he could hear music or talking. "After college, we married, oh. he's the sweetest man you'll just love him, then he landed a job with the FBI as a profiler. He helped track down and predict the movements of some of the worst criminals. We felt so bad for them."

"Bad? They're crooks."

Mrs. langer stopped and turned to vinny. "But think of what they could have been if someone helped them before the tipping point?" She turned, starting up a second set of stairs. "That's exactly the question I asked my husband that lead us to building our lovely home. Our aim is to prevent misguided souls such as yourself."

"You think I'm at the tipping point?" the stairs began to smell vaguely of baby powder and he could faintly hear soft music playing at the top of the stairs.

"Oh yes, or near enough. You're what my husband calls a career criminal. He's studied your records, in and out of juvenile detention since you were twelve for theft, sale of stolen goods, larceny, but you were smart. Once you turned eighteen you wised up and your crimes were less overt. You put together a crew of your own who would do the things that would land a sweet boy like yourself in prison with hardened criminals. Ones who didn't shy away from **** like yourself."

"I'm not afraid of ****!" vinny spat in defense of his pride.

"Oh sugar, of course you are. But that's why you're here. Like I said, you're smart vincent." Mrs.Langer placed her hand on the door, pausing for a moment. "I feel I should warn you, some of our guests are not as adverse to harming others in their previous lives as you were. So I suggest you treat them as kindly as you've treated me thus far. Understood?" Vinny gulped but nodded. "Good."

Mrs. Langer opened the door to what was a converted attic. It looked like a child's playroom complete with changing tables and cribs. In one corner was a bucket of stuffed animals next to a rack of oversized children's toys and a small bookshelf containing fairy tales and coloring books. On the floor was a giant mat where three adults snuggled under a blanket. Two of the men sucked their thumbs while the third sucked softly on a bottle of half empty milk. "Aren't they darling?"