Beyond Control

Chapter 1

The sound of the bell echoed again, loud and ominously breaking the silence of the dark hallway as footsteps followed up behind the fading echo and the sound of the shut door. Step by step taken in a nonchalant way and the rattling sound of chains echoed in the dark, forcefully sending chills down the girl's back as she saw the silhouette of the tall man enlarging as she hid behind the boxes of supplies in the storage room. Her arms were trembling against the side of the box, hardly retaining the balance in her as she leaned towards the cardboard of the box gradually.

There were still tears in her eyes, though she had raised her hands to rub them off, they kept streaming down her cheeks as the thoughts in her head turned into a storm of frustration. She tried to recognize who the man was, but she couldn't think of anything related to her current situation. If given a chance, she would scream for the assistance of any nearby adults to interfere and save her life, but she couldn't. It wouldn't even matter if she did, as she had already seen more than one suspicious-looking man roaming around the building and felt their glimpse on her occasionally.

She flinched violently as the man began whistling and humming a song like a lullaby which felt nostalgic to her, fearlessly taunting the girl with the constant high pitched tones. The man began clicking his fingers and matching the clicks with the song sung in a whistle, nonchalantly turning the calming lullaby into a horror themed music.

She attempted to get a look at the man's face, hoping to find out that this is all just a strange dream which she'd constantly get. She had no idea what the man wanted out of her, since she'd already felt this feeling of being followed a while ago. The man wears a formal dark colored suit, a golden watch strapped on his wrist which indicates that this man is no casual kidnapper.

She thought of her mother, one who had laid on the hospital sick bed for months, sick and ill, who fought the illness for such a long time with her eternal support. Till this day, she hadn't recovered from it after so much money spent on the treatment. The doctor had talked about her mother's condition with her and discussed the continuation of the treatment since they are running out financially as they speak.

Before the man stepped into arm's reach, she pushed herself up and leaped to her feet in an instant. The man noticed her, he expected it, but he did nothing to stop her except from watching her with his hands tucked in his pocket. He watched as she sprinted away from his sight and burst out the door energetically, dashing down the hollow hallway of the hospital sprightly and fearfully.

The girl had been walking through these hallways for months, she'd recognized the rooms and all the locations well, but the current incident had emptied her memories and left her as clueless as her first time she arrived here. Her gaze searched for the signs indication, one after one attempting to figure out which floor she's on just to realize that she's not far from her mother's hospital room.

When she approached the hallway directing to her mother's room, she saw light pouring out from the room. All the other rooms in the hallways are dark as the patients had already moved out after their recovery, but what felt strange to her is the fact that she couldn't remember if she switched the lights off before she left her mother's room.

She's afraid to walk into her mother's room but she's even more frightened to go home alone when she just saw a few men following her without obvious reasons.

She wanted to fetch her phone from her mother's room which was why she came back a second time and how she realized that she's being followed. She needed it, she won't get away from these creepy followers if she doesn't have access to any communication device.

She looked down at her tears stained clothes, the old shirt she wore was soaked in sweats. In the meantime, she hesitated, she knew that she didn't have much time to make a good decision but she had to think.

Then, she took a step forward.

It'll be fine, she thought.

She raised her lengthy skirt off slightly above her knees as she walked to prevent any noise being made.

When she got nearer to her mother's room, she peeked a head in from the opened doorway. At the same time, she heard something else, a deep voice of a man speaking.

"Crystal."

Someone called her by her name.