Three Hearts Left Intact

Chapter 49: Terrible Desire

From her view close to the ground, the ceiling light swung back and forth illuminating a small corner of the room occasionally. Through its patterned timing, Kaila could finally see her. Lain was sat on the cold cement floor, arms chained up over her head and one wrapped around her torso causing her to stay sitting upright.

Her hair stuck to her face, the mixture of blood and sweat prevalent everywhere. Her eyes were dark. The once calmly brown soaked eyes were turned as black as night. Her face was red, not only from the blood left on it, but from how furious she was.

Right as the light swung in the opposite direction, sending this part of the room into darkness, Kaila felt her body getting weak. She couldn't see the Hound hidden behind the wall, but from the open doorway she heard a loud snap followed by a weak squeal. The room was too dark to be able to see what had happened, but upon the snap, Kaila could see Lain silhouette tense up.

The light swung back and she saw the deed. A baton cane swinging down hitting Lain's side. First right, then left, repeating constantly. The noise was too much to bare. Lain barely even made a sound as each strike came down. She barely even twitched. Her stance never gave in, she tensed and released her muscles during her small moments of a break.

Covering her ears Kaila had enough of the noise. She wanted desperately to scream and get the attention of the Hound away from Lain, but she'd risk getting sent back to Lauren. She looked ahead of herself seeing a the vent running straight as far as the eye could see. Putting her hand through the vent she wrapped her small fingers looking at the woman who didn't move as a baton came swinging down.

"I'm coming back for you..." Kaila whispered under her breathe as tears came streaming down. It was one thing to hurt knowing Lain was being hurt in the facility, but to see it with her own eyes...Kaila wasn't prepared for it. Every inch she moved away through the tunnels all she could see was flashes of Lain.

She could see the baton coming down slowly and cutting along the skin, seeing Lain's aching face. Kaila tried dragging herself through the vents, 'I can't give up. Not now. Not while I'm so close. Lain's right there, I just have to find a way to get to her.'

The journey was long and seemed endless. There were no exits out of the vents. Kaila had traveled far and out of the corner of her eye, with all the shouting and screaming going on from other patients, Kaila could see an opening. There was no gate blocking the exit, just a bunch of boxes in front of it.

Pushing the boxes lightly, Kaila paused listening for any mention of their movement. When there was no sound following after, she pushed again a little harder before pausing and waiting to hear if there would be any noise that followed. She repeated this until the boxes were completely out of her way. Climbing out she ducked behind them, peaking out from behind a box, she could see nobody in sight.

Taking a few deep breathes she celebrated that fact. Looking around at her surroundings she noticed that all the walls were covered by empty boxes. Row after row they filled the room. "Where am I?" She whispered, still fearful of someone hidden behind a box.

As she attempted to step out from behind the box, her legs gave into her. She collapsed on the floor feeling a sense of pins and needles running all over her body. Her legs were asleep and her arms had bruises from where she would drag her body forwards. Sitting up, she tried shaking her legs awake but the horrible feeling stuck.

Taking a second to gather her bearings, Kaila finally felt her legs. She could move them once again with ease. Standing up and walking around the room she could see that some boxes had labels on them.

"Helmets...Vest...Badges..." the list went on and on as she walked through observing them all. Stumbling upon one with the label "Syringes" she opened the box seeing stacks of rows of newly packaged syringes. 'This must be some kind of storage unit.' She thought.

Continuing to look throughout the room, Kaila noticed a camera in the far corner. Pausing in her tracks and moving behind a tall tower of boxes her breathing picked up. Keeping close to the boxes she looked over her shoulder seeing the camera panning towards a different direction.

Using this opportunity she snuck around to another row of boxes hiding when the camera panned back. She waited and continued moving to the other side of the room this way. When she was directly underneath the camera she stood up.

Looking behind a small pile of boxes of different sizes, Kaila saw a door. She breathed quietly waiting for the camera to face away from her as she quickly ran past and down under the boxes.

'Almost there' she smiled. But a thought hit her mind. What to do after she left this room? 'Back in D5 I had Mary who told me where the coats were to blend in, but if I go out like...' she looked down seeing Lauren's clothes she had stolen, 'this isn't going to cut it.'

Remembering a box from earlier, Kaila groaned knowing she would have to go backwards. Taking time to carefully maneuver around the camera, she made it to the box labeled "Helmets".

Quickly opening it, she grabbed one from inside seeing that it was the exact helmets the Hound was wearing earlier. "It's a good a plan as ever I suppose." She shrugged putting it on over her head.

Getting back to the door she breathed in building up confidence as she walked out. The hallways were covered in maroon felt and weren't as bright as the old department, which Kaila was thankful for. The simple darkness would play out in her advantage.

Looking around she noticed nobody was around. Doors were shut and talking could be heard in the distance only. The small girl began walking in what she believed to be the opposite direction she came from in an attempt to retrace her steps. But with the countless number of turns and reversals she didn't have a clue.

Deciding on a path she went for it. For a most part it was empty. The only real thing sticking out was her. She traveled through the halls with her chest out and back straight hoping her confidence would prevent anyone from asking questions if she encountered them.

But that burst of confidence vanished as a herd of marching could be heard coming her way.
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Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off