1906 [h.s.]

seventeen

"Are you telling me that people just get murdered in this place?" I asked, shocked.

"I never said such a thing" he replied. "People disappear. Things happen."

"Do you have anything to do with this?" I subconsciously moved away from him, hitting the back of my legs against something, that made a faint metallic sound.

He gave me a weird glance, completely ignoring the sound. "You think I do?" He shook his head, the shadow of a smile on his lips. "Why would I hide if that was the case?"

I reached behind, my fingers grazing against something that I could only recognise as a bed. "Is the staff involved? Is that what you mean?"

"I mean nothing" he answered shortly. "Weird things happen here. Don't trust anyone."

"Not even you?" I leant against the bed frame.

He gave me a sour smile. "I'm not mad. Besides, you need me."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's true."

The silence fell over us for a few minutes.

"I don't understand."

He glanced at me in the mild darkness, not saying anything.

"I mean" I continued, "I feel like you know much more than you let on. But you won't tell me anything. Why won't you tell me anything?"

"There's nothing to tell" he only replied, shrugging.

I stood up, standing right in front of him, that was between me and the door. "Liar."

He didn't falter. "What do you want me to say?"

"The truth."

"What makes you think I know it?"

"Do you?"

He looked down. "I don't."

I took a step back, and when my hand hit another cold metallic frame I realised we were in a room with beds.

"Who was here?" I whispered to Harry.

"Don't know. Whoever was here, is now gone."

I nodded, sitting on one of the beds, but standing up right away when I noticed the mattress was wet. "There's something on here" I hissed. "It's wet."

I saw his shadow sit down against the door, partially covering the electric golden light coming from the little crack between the floor and it.

"What is it?" I whispered to him, even though part of me really didn't want to know what I had just sat on.

"Don't know. Smell it if you're curious." Was the lapidary reply.

I glared at him even though I knew he could hardly see me. "That's gross." I took a couple of steps forward and sat down in the middle of the room. I sighed, looking around to spot as many details as I could, letting my mind imagine the rest. As my eyes adapted to the darkness I was able to make out two beds, on each side of the room, and a door right in front of me. I turned around as I remembered I had hit something there, noticing another bed. I almost crawled towards it to discover what the wet spot was, but then I decided against it, as I realised that, honestly, I didn't want to know.

The darkness in the room, contrasting the small shard of light coming from under the door, was starting to become overpowering. I closed my eyes, imagining to be alone in there for a second, wondering how it felt to be locked inside for days, with no light, and no way of getting out. If someone wasn't already mad before, they probably would've become after a similar experience.