If These Walls Could Talk (American Horror Story Asylum FanFic)

Chapter 18

My feet struggled to find traction on the grass outside but I was thankful to finally feel the dirt beneath my feet once again.

I continued to run until I reached the street, where I hoped that someone sympathetic would be driving and pick me up.

I got my wish when I turned around and saw headlights coming towards me. I held my hands up and they screeched to a stop in front of me.

I ran around and opened the door, quickly getting in.

"Drive, please!"

My heart was pounding through my nightgown and I could feel my blood pulsing in my veins.

The driver started the car back up and I sat there catching my breath until I thanked them.

"You didn't give me much of a choice."

What?

I turned towards them. "What did you say?"

"I said. You didn't give me much of a choice. You stood in front of my car and then just hopped in. Typical woman."

He sounded resentful and I began to feel uneasy.

"I-I'm sorry. I just had to get away from him."

"Fight with your boyfriend? What did you do?"

"What did I do? He almost killed me."

I felt the car start to speed up, the tires screeching underneath us.

"Can you please just bring me to the nearest newspaper office?"

He barked out a laugh. "So, you just think that you can get into my car and tell me what to do? A woman, telling a man what to do and where to go and who he's allowed to see?"

"Can you please just let me out? I can walk to the office."

"You want to jump out of a car going fifty miles an hour? Be my guest."

I turned to face him head on. "What did I ever do to you?"

He looked at me. "What did I ever do to her, is more like it. All those years, wasted! She dragged her ass out the door like the bitch she is. I should've had her euthanized, the whore."

It was then that I smelled the alcohol on his breath and noticed the open bottle sitting between his thighs.

"Please. I'm sorry that happened to you but that's not my fault."

He smacked his hand hard on the steering wheel and I turned to look in the rear window for the lights of another car but instead I saw the woman from before, her lips still a shocking red in the dark of the backseat.

"No. Not now. Please."

She inclined her head towards the driver and I turned back to see that he had pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket and was waving it around in the air.

"Everything's going to end tonight!"

"Please, don't!" I yelled.

The car sped up even more and I watched the stick in the speedometer start to shake as it climbed further and further up the numbers.

He took the gun and put it into his mouth, sending a bullet through his brain and out the back of his skull.

I screamed and reached for the steering wheel that his now limp hands had let go of but it was too late.

The car crashed and I hit my head hard, immediately passing out.

***

"Annabelle? Annabelle, wake up."

She groaned in her sleep and rolled over.

"What do you want?" She mumbled sleepily.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. I acted like an ass and you didn't deserve that."

She sat up, the strap from her nightgown slipping off her shoulder.

"You woke me up to say that you're sorry?"

"Yes. And to tell you that I'm going to put this story to rest. It's not worth it if it means losing you."

"Oh honey..."

She moved over to the middle of the bed and patted the spot where she was sitting a couple seconds ago. "Come here."

I lay down and she wrapped her arms around me, holding my body close to hers. Her voice moved my hair, tickling my ear.

"I'll admit, I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to go on that first date with you. My father was a journalist and I remember the dozens of scrap sheets of paper that used to litter the house, including my parents' room. My mother used to berate him about it all the time, to the point where they began to sleep in separate rooms each night until my father died. My mother died soon after."

She took a deep breath and continued. "I promised myself that I would never do what my mother did. In a relationship, I would never get upset over the other person's passion. And your passion is journalism, same as my father's was. I want you to know that no matter what, I would never leave you and I will never stop loving you. The things that bring you joy bring joy to me too. Do you understand?"

I clutched her hands in mine and nodded my head, uttering a quiet yes.

"Good. Now go to sleep. I promise I won't let go."

***

The second my mind began to swim back into consciousness, I could feel the pain.

My whole body throbbed and ached and I could vividly remember what had given me that pain in the first place. My eyes struggled to open; my lids feeling like someone put weights on them. Eventually, I got them open but immediately wished that I could crawl back into my dream with Annabelle.

Sister Mary Eunice stood over me, a smile on her face.

"You're awake."

"I can't be here."

"You're lucky you're alive! The driver died in the accident but the ambulance got to you just in time. They brought you here when they saw that we had been searching for a missing patient."

"No...please, just let me go."

"Why on earth would we do that? You're right where you belong." She smiled widely, displaying her shiny teeth. "In Briarcliff."