Arbatian Mental Institution

Ch.12 Guards

The young girl peers around a corner from behind a wooden table leaned at an angle, she holds her mouth closed afraid another whimper will escape involuntarily.

A tear rolls across her speckled nail polish on a trembling finger. Lenny kicks more furniture around yelling in all directions.

"Last chance before you really piss me off. Trust me you don't wanna do that. You will find out my punishments are worse than anything you ever had. Come on now! Shit!"

The girl shudders as Lenny continues to kick and swing at things in-between yelling. He turns to a corner away from her and begins to creep towards it. A table set up with a cloth over it draping down with enough space underneath for a kid to hide.

He crouches down with his stick preparing to swing. She realizes it's her chance to escape and begins to run as fast as she can.

She passes him as he turns around screaming for her to stop. Her emotions collide, she wants to cry and scream. She wants to fall to the ground and beg for mercy but she her body won't allow it.

She runs as fast as her weak legs can take her. She trips losing her balance slamming into a wall. She regains her stance with Lenny's threats as a motivation. She sees Mrs.Cranston as she shrugs her shoulders turning away from her. Why would she let me go?

She runs past her and pushes the doors open expecting them to be locked. They swing open and fresh air hits her face, there was nothing she craved more at that moment. She begins to hurl herself down the ruined steps with a small rejoice in her soul.

Lenny comes running down the hall and halts as Mrs.Cranston holds a hand up.

"She's getting away! The fuck are you doing?", he shouts.

Calmly she responds, "Love, let the guards take care of it. We haven't used them in a while. Let them have some fun shall we?"

Lenny spits and grunts while turning away, "Fine let them do it. But the next one that tries to escape is mine. He pushes two doors open after unlocking them and disappears into another room.

Mrs.Cranston sits down in her chair and adjusts her vest. She creases out the wrinkles and reaches under her desk. She pulls out a small horn, a yellow hint from old age with carvings in it.

"Dr.Arbatian you might just be the craziest man out of all them, but damn it did you think everything through.", she inhales softly and blows into the horn.

The sound carries outside past the large black doors. The doors rattle as the two angels start to shake. The walls tremble as the statues creak and groan. One grabs the door and pushes its hand against ripping itself off, the floor cracks under it's heavy weight as the foot lands. The second one follows landing on the ground in a heavy thud, a vibration waves across the building.

Their rusted bodies twist and snap, they look at each other for a moment before walking down onto the ground. It cries under their weight.

The girl runs past brushes and tree shrubs, the muscles in her legs burn as she tries to make her way back to Mooncrest, her hometown. In the dark there's no telling where she is though. She feels like giving up, maybe finding a spot to sleep for the night and continuing in the morning.

She drags her feet to a secluded spot thinking she's ran far enough to stay ahead and plops down on the ground. She thinks of how nice it would be to lay down and release the pressure from her legs when she notices something.

Nothing but silence in the woods, as if all the animals have become quiet suddenly.

Looking for any sign of danger she hears a loud crackling noise. She rolls over narrowly avoiding an enormous tree hammering onto the ground. Dust and leaves drift into the heavens.

Her chin pressed against the hard ground she feels her body fill with small vibrations. She pulls herself up coughing on the dust, her body still consuming the grounds vibrations sending them trickling down her spine. Horrified she picks her head up to see two monstrous angels made of bronze.