Midnight ☆ L.H (au)

twenty two

3:50 am - ANASTASIA BYNES

As I walk down the familiar hallway, I feel an odd sense of deja vu. The sights and sounds of the place are strangely familiar, yet there's something dreamlike about the scene.

My bare feet shuffle the carpet below as I look around, almost confused. The goosebumps litter my skin, a chill running up and down my spine like an hourglass that never stops turning.

"Hello?" I call out slowly.

My voice seems to echo out through the building and I cautiously look around. The voice doesn't belong to me anymore and I don't recognize who I am.

Where the fuck am I?

The walls are a plain white, each door marked with a numbers in black. The fluorescent lights overhead cast a harsh glare, and the smell of cleaning products hangs heavily in the air.

I have the sensation that I've been here before, yet I can't shake the feeling that there's something off about this place.

"Anastasia?." I hear my mother's voice call for me in the other direction. My feet seem to move before I make up my mind and I start walk towards where I came from.

Every door I pass on either side of the hallway is the same, metal and cold. As my fingers trace the doors for any sign of life being them, I shiver to myself.

The sound of a buzz obnoxiously ringing is faint and I can almost find myself wincing as I approach the door the sound is emitting from.

I try to open one of the doors nearby, desperate to escape the torturous hallway, but all of them are locked tight. As I continue to try the handles of every door I pass, I can hear a faint but heartbreaking sound coming from beyond the door - the sound of a child crying and screaming.

My heart clenches with anguish at the sound, and I want nothing more than to help the child, but I know that I'm powerless.

I force myself to walk away, turning my gaze towards the other end of the hallway.

That's when I spot someone. At the end of the hallway opposite of me, there stood a figure.

My heart is pounding, my breathing is fast and shallow. I strain to see who it is, but all I can make out is a face completely obscured by a mask.

What the hell?

I narrow my eyes, furrowing my brows and slowly turn to walk away.

Loud footsteps seem to head my direction as I avert my gaze back to the first door I arrived from. The figure seems to pick up the pace as I hear their desperate breaths as they begin to run towards me.

I try to turn around and run, but it's too late. The man is right behind me, his hand reaching out and grabbing my hair, his fingers digging into my scalp. I cry out in surprise and fear, trying to pull away, but his grip is stronger than I could have imagined. His arm reaches up to grab me by my shoulders and he shoves the cold metal into my stomach.

The ear piercing noise shattering my eardrums and forcing me out of my sleep.

A gunshot.

I jump awake, clutching my stomach and crying out. As my chest rises and fall quickly, I wipe the sweat and tears from my neck with the blanket. I was drenched.

Against my better judgment, I fell asleep on the couch. After my little "episode" with Calum, I made myself something to eat and cleaned the mess from the floor.