1999

14. His Love

Y/n burst onto the eighth floor, her feet pounding against the tile as she sprinted down the empty, eerily silent halls. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her heart thundering in her chest as panic surged through her veins. The fluorescent lights above flickered, casting long shadows down the corridor, only amplifying the dread that curled in her stomach.

She found an empty room and darted inside, slamming the door shut behind her and locking it with trembling fingers. Her back pressed against the door as she slid down to the cold floor, her breath shallow and uneven. For a moment, she couldn't move. Couldn't think. Her heart pounded in her ears, and her entire body shook.

Finally, Y/n forced herself up, staggering over to the hospital bed. She collapsed onto it, burying her face in her hands as the tears flowed uncontrollably.

How did this become her life?

The sobs came in waves, choking her, as if the weight of everything that had happened crushed her all at once. Her mind was racing, flashing between Klaus's lifeless body, the sound of gunshots, and Five's twisted grin as he called her "my love."

She glanced down at her hospital gown, spotting tiny flecks of blood. Klaus's blood. The image of him getting shot in the shoulder, his body jerking from the impact, played over and over in her head. She saw him bleed, felt the warmth of his blood splatter on her.

She let out a broken scream and tore at the bed, grabbing the pillows, throwing them across the room in frustration. She picked up anything she could get her hands on—pillows, a tray, whatever lay around her—and hurled them against the walls. The crash of objects hitting the floor didn't drown out her sobs.

Her mind was a whirlwind of despair and fury. This whole goddamn hospital was a death trap. The whole town was a nightmare she couldn't wake up from.

She stood in the middle of the room, trembling, surrounded by the mess she had made. No matter how much she threw, it didn't change the reality. The front entrance was still the only exit. Five was going to track her down and find her eventually.

This town, this hospital, everything—it was a complete and utter shit show.

Y/n sat on the floor of the hospital room, her back against the cold, sterile wall, her breathing slowing but still shaky. The room felt suffocating, the white walls closing in on her as her mind spiraled. She wiped her tear-streaked face with the back of her hand, her breath hitching. The adrenaline was still there, pulsing through her veins, but there was something else now—a sense of inevitability that gnawed at her.

She had to come up with a plan. But how?

Her mind was a battlefield of conflicting thoughts. She had to escape. That was the most obvious truth. But Five was out there, hunting her, and no matter how much she loved him, no matter how deeply his twisted soul had embedded itself into her heart, she knew he wouldn't stop until she was his. Or dead.

Y/n squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to focus. Escape. That was the goal. She couldn't just sit here and wait for Five to burst through the door and kill her—or worse, take her away again. But her thoughts betrayed her, circling back to the one thing she couldn't escape from: she still loved him.

How could she love a man like that? After everything he had done—killing her friends, her family, destroying her life—why did her heart still ache for him? Every time she thought of his smile, the way he called her "my love," it sent shivers down her spine, but it also made her chest tighten with longing. She wanted to scream, to rip that feeling out of herself and be free of it. But it clung to her, no matter how hard she tried to push it away.

She stood up and paced the small room, her hands shaking as she ran them through her hair, pulling at the roots. Her thoughts raced in a whirlwind, crashing into each other, each more chaotic than the last.