Silent Cries ☾N.H.S

18| the changing

❝ she's all alone, and that's not right. ❞

// tate from american horror story

A/N: whoop whoop, an update! guys guys guys i'm taking a while because i have a new story out titled fragile, and yeah, i'll start updating it in october, you should check it out!

☾18☽

The weird thing about mental institutes at night, are that they are oddly silent. I could hear my ragged breathing loudly over my scuffling feet, and at the moment, it was scaring the shit out of me. What if a deranged monster came out of a door and ate me? Then again, I was dead...

"Walter." I stopped, and grabbed his wrist right after I heard a terrifying scream far off. "Did y-you hear that?"

"Of course I did, I'm not deaf," he said, staring down at my hand.

I guess it was my brain trying to scare me more than it was necessary. I mean, I was a ghost, shouldn't I be the one doing the scaring. What a shame I was to ghosts nationwide.

Suddenly, Walter stopped in front of a dark red door, large and mysteriously carved. "We're here," he muttered, surprising me by taking my hand in his.

"Wh-why do we have to hold han-" I was interrupted by Walter who shushed me with his finger to his mouth, and bit his lip nervously.

He lifted his free hand, and knocked, a loud echo following it down the dark corridor we just came from. Looking back at it one last time, I saw that the dark was so pitch black that you literally couldn't see the lamp's light a few feet away- the darkness swallowed it.

"W-Walter," I said, my jaw clenching in fear as I saw a shape emerge from the darkness, the only thing visible was their outline. Tall and muscular.

"Shush," Walter said, putting his finger to his lips, and knocking once more, the figure sidestepping closer. I shivered in my boots, and pinched Walter until he turned to look at me. "What?" He asked, concern now plain on his face.

I opened my mouth but no words came out, instead a familiar voice sounded from the abyss of darkness, belonging to the figure, "hello."

The man stepped forward, his black suit was the same shade of shadows he stood in; his eyes and hair were a medium shade of brown, like dirt left to dry out in the sun. "I see you've come back, Walter."

I paid no attention to what was being said, and instead held my fist up to him. "What is my therapist doing here? What are you doing here Mr. Payne?"

He shook his head, and sidestepped past me to unlock the large red doors. "Come inside quickly," he said, ushering us inside with one last look behind him before he closed the door, locking it several times, and sighing in relief.

His whole room looked soft, and old, like those books you find at the library that are brown, cracked with age and when you close them, dust flies out of.

"There are some dangerous ghosts out there, I don't know how Walter brought you here- a half human," he said, sitting down in a deep brown chair.

Mr. Payne meant my changing from being alive to dead. "How is it dangerous, would they eat me?" I shivered as I spoke.

He rolled his eyes. "No, they would probably suck out all your remaining life, and that would really cause you pain. That's why these ghosts are locked up here in this mental institute which is just a prison for horrible ghosts."

"Didn't Walter go here?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"Yeah," Mr. Payne answered, "but that was back when it was an asylum, and most of these ghosts weren't here yet."

"Okay, okay, okay," I said trying to catch my bearings, "but then how do you know all this? Don't tell me-"

"-I'm a ghost," he said cutting me off with a smirk.

"You're kidding," I gasped.

"Nope. I'm even older than you and Walter."

"And what- you were expecting us?" I asked, my hand tightening in Walter's.

Mr. Payne smiled. "Of course," he said. "Walter was my assistant for decades, I let him leave the institute to capture Carter, who had escaped. I also let him go to find you and fall in love so both of you could stop lingering," he said smiling cheekily and looking at our intertwined hands, "I see that you're both almost free."

"What do you me-" I stopped, and looked down at our hands than back up at Walter who was staring sheepishly at me, and begging me with his eyes to keep quiet.

Suddenly my whole body was filled with pure rage. We didn't stop here so that he would help me find Niall. Walter stopped here so that he could show Liam, his "boss" or whatever that he was doing a fine job of getting me to love him. Liam Payne didn't know that we weren't even close to breaking the lingering.

"And what about Carter?" I asked Walter angrily, my fingernails digging into his palm.

Walter squinted at me. "Well, I would've caught him if you hadn't distracted me," he said.

"I never distracted you, you were just too weak and let him slip away." I glared at him.

He snorted, and opened his mouth about to retort something, but then saw Mr. Payne staring at us skeptically. Walter stuttered, "I-I was distracted by you, you're lovely."

"You dirty suck up," I whispered when he yanked me to his side. "You stinking piece of-"

"Here's your room key," Liam Payne said, not hearing my dispute. "Walter will only stay with you for one night because he's going back to find Carter."

"Thank you, Liam," Walter said.

I was shaking. I was so angry. He dragged me through the shadowy hallway, but this time I was not afraid because I felt almost as dark as the corridor.

Once he opened the rickety old door to a room deeper into the asylum, I looked at the remodeled single queen bed, and large space that lead to the kitchen and bathroom. It all smelled like stale farts.

Walter closed the door warily. He turned to me, scratching his neck nervously, he said, "just how mad are you?"

I clenched my eyes shut, and imagined my shabby clothes changing. When I opened my eyes I was wearing black opaque tights, platformed combat boots, a skintight black dress that ended just above my fingertips, and a long, black cape draping over it all made out of velvet that's tips brushed the ground. The cape had a hood that was made of out of black lace.

"Wow," Walter said, "you're really pissed."

When I looked down I saw black ink travel along my skin. And it hurt like hell. Like my whole body was being stabbed with needles. There was black henna on my right palm, and then when I looked down at my wrists- planets, crescents of the moon, galaxies, and beneath my opaque tights I saw more smaller tattoos, three dimensional shapes, words, and sketches of featureless faces. I screamed in agony.

"Halo?" It was like Walter was saying my name for the first time. "Halo? Halo? Halo?" His deep voice seemed to grow slower and quieter. His voice was familiar, like I had heard it in another lifetime.

I blinked tiredly, I was now laying on the ground. I thought of Walter lying to me this whole time, and taking me here just to please his boss, Liam, and not even caring that Niall was out there dying.

"You're just as bad as Carter, you know that?" My eyes dragged down on me, my whole body feeling like it was being torn apart piece by piece.

"I know," Walter whispered, tucking a blanket around me, and pulling me into his warm chest just as I got sucked into the darkness.

☪

A/N: I AM NOT OKAY, HAS ANYONE ELSE WATCHED AMERICAN HORROR STORY BECAUSE SUDDENLY ALL I SEE WALTER AS, IS TATE waddafuq

ALSO, COMMENT WHO YOU THINK THE NEW CHARACTER IN THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE? (;