MADNESS

11. I needed this

NOAH PIERCE

[10 minutes ago]

Mariah started screaming and attacking the guy in front of her. The people at the other tables started panicking too because noise and the chaos, which eventually resulted in the whole room yelling. They stood up, started crying and shouting at Mariah, at the guards and at each other.

Agitation.

I've never seen so much agitation in one room in my entire life, there's not one person in here standing still apart from me, the mute and deaf people. I'm sitting down on the sofa I usually sit down on, watching everything. I picked this corner since I got here, just like it here.

More guards enter the door quickly to come and help sedate half of the room and hold down the others. There's so many guards in here and for nothing, the chaos is still raging on effortlessly. I'm only going to be watching, if I moved a finger, they would sedate me too.

And I was watching, until I saw someone with the corner of my eye.

A blonde guy has just left the room by himself. I've seen him before, he's stared at me for a while today. It made me feel uncanny, not one of my best experiences. I don't understand why he did it. But what I do know, is that he's a patient, so he's not allowed to leave this room until the guards take him.

But the guards are too busy trying to keep everything down.

An idea sparks in my head immediately.

I don't know who you are, but thank you blonde guy, I might have a nice shot at escaping this nightmare of an asylum.

I stand up, walk among the others while faking being alarmed so that I can fit in. Not over the top, I don't want to be pinned down to the floor. I continue on walking until I swiftly push the doors cracked open and immediately sprint out of the room into the hallway.

I can't see the other guy that left and maybe that's a good thing, maybe he's keeping some other guards busy so that I can do my thing here successfully and fuck off. I run across the hallway, but the only doors I've seen so far are cells', if those even count, the ones to the storage rooms and the canteen. Why is the canteen room open?

Anyway, who cares, I have to keep running.

I know where the main entrance is, but I can't go there, I know for sure there are guards in front of the asylum. Fully armed ones. I need to find something else, like a back door.

Wait. Shit.

I'm on the first floor. I need to get to the ground floor in order to get out, that would be the easiest way. In case of getting chased and caught, I would gladly use a window and something to hold onto that reaches the ground. Or is at least at a decent height for me to jump.

I turn a left, only to realize the hallway continues. How long are the hallways in this place? Jesus. I would've done some cardio before if I knew I had to run a marathon inside of this building.

Where are the sta-

I slower my walk at the sound of a high pitched scream that's definitely not coming from the main salon, but from another hallway that connects to this one. It sounds really familiar, but I can't quite put my fingers on it. I don't know who it belongs to and I can't risk checking and getting caught. I need to do what I need to do: earn the actual life that I deserve.

My steps come to an abrupt halt when the scream turns into a recognizable voice.

"Please don't hurt me. We can talk about it."

Sydney.

Reflexively, I start walking faster in the direction of the sound, but then I stop once again. I've just found the fire emergency door that has stairs on the other side. I can escape if it's unlocked, this is my only chance to freedom.