Asylum

Chapter 3

The alarm goes off as I make the yellow bird soar into the pieces of wood on my phone. I sigh and shut it off. I turn on my flashlight and begin to look around. Might as well start on the first floor. I peak around the wall, but don't see anything. Why would I? It's just a hall. I go to the first door and open it. It looks like a large office. There are papers scattered around the room. I look around every piece of furniture, but find no one. There is another door in the room. I open it to find a small closet with one coat left in it. Nothing here. I head to the next room, but the door is locked. The rest of this wing consists of the same thing. Either locked rooms or empty offices. In the middle of the hall is a divot that leads to an old, scary elevator. No way in hell am I going anywhere inside that.

I make my way to the end of the hall where I find a small staircase. I take it up to the second floor. This area consists of rooms on both sides, with a hallway in the middle. There are a few empty wheelchairs along the way. Most doors have small windows on them. I see the elevator in the middle, and across from it seems to be a bathroom.

I walk into the first room. It has a bed with the blankets still on it. There is a desk with a chair on one side. There is a bookshelf against the wall. I check under the bed, but see nothing. There is a door along one of the walls. I open it to find a toilet, sink, and Iris. She lets out a squeal as I open the door. I easily tag her.

"Gotcha," I smile at her.

"Dang it. Who else have you found?" she pouts.

"Just you. Sorry," I shrug. "Why don't you take the rooms on this side, and I'll take them on the other."

"Okay. If I find anyone, I'll scream to you," Iris says.

"Sounds good," I give her a high five. We split off as I go to the room on the other side. The room on this side looks the same, just flipped. I try to open the door, but it won't budge. I look around in the room through the window, but it doesn't look like anyone is in there, so I go to the next room. 

The door on this one opens. I enter and shine my light around. I head forward and the door shuts behind me, making me drop my phone. I turn around to look, but someone shoves me against the wall and begins kissing me. I try to push them off of me, but they are very insistent. I look up at their hair and realise it is Steven. I try to push him off of me, but he takes my hands and pins them above my head. He tries to shove his tongue in my mouth, so I open it to let him in, then bite down hard.

"Ow. What the hell is wrong with you, Lucy?" He asks as he pulls away, holding his hand up to his mouth.

"What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you, Steven? We are not together anymore. You have proven that you can't be trusted and I will never be with you ever again. If you can't respect that, then don't talk to me ever again," I whisper yell.

"Seriously?" he scowls at me.

"Seriously. I'm totally fine staying friends with you, but we will never have a romantic relationship ever again," I walk over to check out my phone on the floor. Thankfully no cracks. "Now come help me find everyone else."

"Fine," he says in a very nonchalant tone. I look up at him and he doesn't seem too bothered by what I said. Typical. He probably expected it. I roll my eyes and try to put it from my mind. As soon as we walk out the door, I hear Iris scream. I go running in the direction I heard her. Brad runs out of the men's bathroom, followed closely by Iris. 

"Get him!" she shouts at us. She continues to chase him, and Steven follows. He quickly covers some distance as they run down the hall. I hear footsteps behind me and turn around to find Kenji running to the stairs on the opposite side of the hall. He looks back at me then runs full sprint away. I let him go. I figure Steven or Iris might get him as he runs from one end to the other. 

I walk into the women's restroom next. Along one of the walls are filled with shower stalls. Some of them have curtains still on them, while others are missing it. The other side of the room has three larger stalls with bathtubs in them. Again, some have curtains and some don't. I move back the curtain on all of the shower stalls, but find no one. I move on to the tubs. I start on the side furthest away from the exit. As I move the curtain on the first one, someone runs out of the one closest to the door. 

"Candace!" I call after her. I start sprinting out of the exit and see Candace standing there defensively. She sees me and backs herself up against the wall. As I walk out, I see Iris standing near the doorway to the hall. I slowly block Candace off from running down the other way. She begins to creep towards Iris, trying to find an escape route.

"You can't get away from us," Iris calls as she comes closer. Candace pauses and looks around. I study her movement, mirroring what she does. She begins to sprint down the hall towards Iris. I follow, but she is faster than me. Iris tries to catch her as she goes by, but she misses. As she reaches the bottom of the stairs, Steven steps around the corner and grabs her. She lets out a squeal as he lifts her up and spins her around. They both laugh hard as he sets her down. I see Kenji and Brad standing in the semi-circle. 

"Didn't get either of them?" I ask Steven and Iris.

"Sorry," Iris says.

"That's okay. So we are just missing Claire, Jasper, Reggie, and Kirsten. Iris, why don't you go back to the second floor and search the rest of the rooms. Steven, you patrol around the stairs on this side in case they come running down. I'll start on the third floor. Candace, you patrol the stairs on the other side. Once you finish the second floor, come to the third with me, Iris," I delegate.

"You got it, girl," Iris says. The two of us head up the stairs together. As we reach the second floor, I pull Iris aside.

"Hey, what was that about with Steven and Candace?" I whisper.

Iris gives me a sad look. "I think Candace likes him."

"Oh," I say, surprised.

"And I think they may have done something together," she says quickly while looking down. My eyes widen. 

"Oh," I say again very quietly.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything before, but you did say that you were absolutely done with him earlier," she puts her hands on my shoulders.

"You're right. I did. We are done. Thanks for letting me know," I move from her reach and head over to the other set of stairs. 

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"Are you sure she is the one you want?" my brother asks my son Declan as the girl he chose searches the bottom floor. 

"Yes,  Uncle Arden," he replies, never peeling his eyes off of her. I can understand why he would choose her. Her movement, although cautious, is graceful. Her body glides as she moves from room to room. She fixes her glasses on her face before she proceeds to the stairs. We watch her as she goes up. Her hips sway back and forth with each step. She surely is beautiful. She walks into a room another girl went in. She carefully looks around the room and checks under the bed, but the other girl is not in there. She sees the bathroom door. When she opens it, the girl inside squeals.

"Gotcha," her voice is soft. We watch as the two of them briefly converse. They high five each other, then move on. The pink haired girl heads into the adjacent room, while she goes to the one across. A boy hid in that room. We watch as he hides behind the door as she enters. He closes the door and she drops her light. He grabs her and pins her against the wall. Declan's knuckles turn white as he brings his fist into a ball. He kisses her. She seems reluctant, but the kiss continues. The boy suddenly backs away.

"Ow. What the hell is wrong with you, Lucy?" he yells at her as he holds his mouth. 

"What is wrong with me? What's wrong with you, Steven? We're not together anymore," she whispers to him. Declan unclenches his fist slightly. Their conversation continues as I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, son. She'll be yours come morning," I say to him. He loosens up a small amount.

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As I ascend the stairs, I try to control my anger. Why would he do that? And how could she do that to me knowing about our relationship? Perhaps they deserve each other. Maybe that is just the big sign I needed to go for Jasper. He's pretty hot. Unlike Steven, Jasper works out everyday. I've often been at the gym at the same time as him. He's got a gorgeous set of abs on him. And I could stare at his bright blue eyes all day. By the time I reach the top of the staircase, I'm feeling better. I've been wanting to be done with Steven for a while now, and Jasper has been nothing but kind to me. I get butterflies in my stomach thinking about him.

This floor is similar to the first, except there are less doors. I walk into the first one. It's some kind of medical room, but the medical equipment is flipped and out of order. The bed rests sideways in the middle of the room. I can see straps hanging from the middle and bottom of the bed, with a long one in the middle. It gives me the shivers. Why did they need to strap someone to bed? As I approach the bed, I swear I see something silver move. I creep to one side, and see Claire laying on the ground. She immediately jumps up and runs for the door. I start to chase after her as she runs towards the stairs.

"Claire's coming," I yell down the stairs to Steven so he can catch her.

"I'll get her," he yells back up to me. I move on to the next room. This room is similar to the one before, but it has weird looking medical equipment in it. I couldn't even begin to guess what this stuff was used for. I find no one here, so I move on. As I exit the room, I see that Iris is coming up the stairs.

"Find anyone?" I ask her.

"Nope," she replies. "But I was able to tag Claire. She is finishing the second level."

"You did? Nice," I smile at her. "I've searched these two rooms, but I haven't gotten to the other three yet."

"Cool. I'll check the next one, and you get the one after that," she says.

"Sounds good," I give her a high five.

"Hey, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I'm not for sure if anything has happened between them," she says softly. I hold my hands up.

"No, it's cool. You don't need to apologise. Besides, I've got my eyes on someone else," I smile at her.

"So you're okay?" she asks me.

"Definitely," I respond. I head to my next room. "Yell if you find anyone!"

"Okay," she says as she enters her room. 

"These rooms are creepy," I say as we both finish checking our rooms at the same time.

"For sure. What's with all the straps?" she asks me.

"I have no idea, and I don't want to know," I shiver. "Let's check this one together."

"You take the left side, I'll take the right," she says as we approach the door. She opens it and we both head in. I find a door on my side and open it. It leads into another big room.

"Got another room over here," I tell her. She walks over to me.

"Nothing on the other side. Let's check in here," she walks in. This room is pitch black. The only light source is our phones. On shelves on the back of the wall are jars that have strange objects floating in liquid. I get up close to them and gag as I realize what they are. They are all different human organs. One has two eyes. Another has a liver. I turn around and gag again.

"That is disgusting," I tell Iris. She comes over to me and checks out the items too. Her face quickly turns to disgust.

"Oh, God," she puts her hand over her mouth. We hear shuffling behind us and turn to see Jasper leaving the room. We both take off after him. He's incredibly fast, and there is no way we can catch him. He quickly reaches the desk on the bottom floor. Kenji and Brad give him high fives.

"Where the hell is Steven?" I ask them.

"He went to check on Candace," Brad says. I make a loud sigh and shake my head. Claire makes her way down the stairs.

"No Reggie or Kirsten," she shrugs.

My face turns confused. "We checked every room. Where are they?"

"I know where they went," Jasper makes a weird face. "They told me to tell you that they were going to find a private place for just the two of them and not to go looking for them."

"Ugh," my face changes from confusion to disgust. "So gross." 

"Ew," Iris adds. "In an insane asylum?"

"That's probably what Candace and Steven are up to right now too," I roll my eyes.

"Really?" Jasper furrows his brows. I walk over and smile up at him. I bring myself up to his body and he wraps his arms around me. "Why, hello."

"Hi," I respond.

"Are we just missing Reggie and Kirsten?" Steven's voice comes from behind me. Jasper keeps me in the hug.

"Yeah, they are off having s*x apparently," Claire's voice is irritated. "So it's down to just the right of us."

"Should we open the other half?" Brad asks. Most people agree with that idea.

"Okay. Who's it?" Kenji asks. I point to Iris as she raises her hand.

"So Jasper, Brad, Kenji, and I get the full five minutes, right?" I ask the group.

"Yep, that's right," Claire says. "Everyone else can go after two minutes. Got a timer ready?"

"Yep," Iris says while looking at her phone. 

"Let us know when the two minutes are up," Claire tells Iris.

"You got it," she replies while heading to the corner. "Aaaaand begin." The four of us take off. I go to the second floor on the side I haven't been yet. It's set up similarly to the other side of the second floor, with the elevators and bathrooms, but the one side only has one door. I decide to check that one out. I look around the hall to see if anyone notices me, but I don't see anyone. I walk into what looks like a recreational room. There are tables everywhere set up with all kinds of board games. There is a very old TV sitting on a TV stand surrounded by a few couches. I hide behind one of the couches that is close to the wall, with openings on either side. Should be a good escape route. I turn my flashlight off and bathe my skin in the moonlight.