Secrets In The Shadows

Chapter 7: Escape is Futile, Death is not

Its 9 am in the morning and I've already successfully escaped the hospital.

.....Well....almost successfully escaped the hospital.

I peer around the corner, scouting the area for nurses or doctors. The entire main lobby is empty except for the secretary at the main desk and the patients in chairs waiting for help to be administered.

When I awoke this morning, I told my brother I wanted to go for a walk, sadly my request was denied. He said it didn't make any sense to go outside since in just a few hours I would be released.

So I decided to go outside anyway. After he left to get my hospital breakfast, I put on the clothes he brought with him from the house and left my room, heading towards the hospital grounds.

Glancing around once more, I make a run for it and casually speed walk through the lobby and out the door. I resist the urge to run and yell. I pull out my phone to check the time and almost immediately it starts to buzz with Hunter's number.

I decline it and see its 9:15. I'm supposed to be released at 10 am today. I start thinking about Tress and if she's okay when suddenly I slam straight into a brick wall. Hands grab my shoulders to steady me before I fall.

Hands? Great, I run into a person. Just great.

"Huntress? There you are! Your brother just called me and said you were gone, he's worried sick!" I look up and see Maddox. He looks like he hasn't slept and...afraid. I gently shake his hands from my shoulders and cross my arms defiantly.

"I'm fine! You and my brother have no reason to be worried. I've been gone for 15, 20 minutes max! Whats the big deal?" I stare him down. The expression on his face morphs from one of terror to understanding. "You don't know, do you?" he asks me.

I squint at him, trying to see if he's the one in need of medical assistance. "Know what Maddox? What's going on?". His hands grip his hair tightly and he starts muttering to himself. "You don't know. Of course you don't know, you've been in the hospital since yesterday. God". He lets out a long breath of air.

This Maddox is different from the one at school. This Maddox is scared, something has him terrified. What could've happened in the last 24 hours to make him this way?

I swallow my growing fear and grip his bicep. " Maddox. What. Happened?" He looks in my eyes and says in a whisper, " Its Ashley. She's been murdered" .