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Chapter 8 - A Mental Institution ?

{ Jude in Sidebar }

The loud, sharp banging from the door interrupts my deep thinking. I stride over to the front door and yank open the handle to be greeted by Jude and Glaze. Jude is wearing the same outfit from yesterday except the once perfect black stripes are now smudged and very faint. On the other hand, Glaze appeared clean, wearing a new outfit and her hair falling down in slight waves. I gave both of them a small smile and stepped aside to let them in. Jude strolled in and went straight to the fridge as if this were his own household. Glaze took smaller steps as she cautiously walked into my home, examining what she stood in. I watched her carefully as she wandered over to the photo frames that hung on my wall. She turned to me and looked for permission, I stepped next to her.

‘That was my Mother and Father.’ I stated looking at the photograph. My Mother’s green eyes were full of life and her toothy smile was bright. Her long brown hair was put into a big bun on top of her head. My Father on the other hand had a very serious expression on his face; nothing ever seemed to make him happy.

‘Hey let’s get to business.’ I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to see Jude with his face stuffed with anything and everything of food. Glaze began to walk and turned around, ‘You coming?’

        ‘Alright lets search this up on the internet.’ Jude yelled happily grabbing his laptop out of his backpack. After waiting for the electronic to turn on Jude quickly searched up the coordinates and waited for the answer to appear on the brightly lit screen. After a few seconds the words “WATERWAYS MENTAL INSTITUTION” appeared. The three of us shared the same confused expression on our faces.

‘…A mental institution?’ Glaze wondered out loud.

‘…Yeah…’ I replied. We all stared at the screen until Jude made the move to search up the unknown words. The laptop moved from the table and onto his lap as he investigated for information. He finally spoke, ‘Waterways Mental Institution used to be a mental institution for the mentally unwell, it shut down twenty-three years ago after a bunch of patients went missing…’ We all sat in silence for what seemed like forever, staring at the dimly lit screen.‘What do we do now?’ Glaze demanded. I blinked my eyes and moved my head closer to the laptop, just to make sure what I am seeing is the truth.‘I guess we go there now.’ I looked to my friends to see their facial expressions. I saw neither hesitation nor questioning in their eyes, just a firm nod of determination and excitement. I grabbed my phone of my oak coffee table and walked out of the room with my friends following me.

        ‘I am literally shitting bricks right now.’ Jude spoke, trying to fill the empty space in my modern Land Rover. Glaze gave a small giggle, shook her head and stared out of the window. My hands clutched the steering wheel tightly, my knuckles turning a ghostly colour of white. Numerous thoughts flooded into my head thinking of what could possibly occur in this situation. The negatives outweighed the positives.‘I can’t do this.’ I mumbled and did a sharp U-turn in the direction of my home. My safe home, that would not the damage the memory of my parents.‘Dylan, you dick my head,’ Jude stated massaging his scalp, ‘Turn the car back around, so we can figure this shit out!’ It was if I couldn’t hear neither of them and all of a sudden I was parked in front of a church, with Jude pacing outside of the car.‘Dylan…Dylan, it’s ok to be scared.’ The feeling of warm flesh was placed on my now bone-like hand. I turned to see Glaze massaging soft circles into my knuckles, slowly causing them to lose grip on the steering wheel. I turned back to her to see an angelic smile spread across her face.‘If you don’t want to do this, that is completely fine. No one here is trying to force you into anything. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this anymore, we can go back to your house and go to school tomorrow acting as if this never happened.’ Her soft brown eyes were full of honesty and care. I knew no one was making me do this, but I wanted to.                                                                                               ‘Get Jude back in the car so we can go.’ I smiled. She grinned and yelled for Jude to get back in the car.