CHAPTER XIX:
spies on the run

( March 1986 )

      TO SAY CLEODORA WAS CONFUSED WAS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. After blanking out while Nancy and Robin questioned Victor Creel on how exactly he ended up in the asylum, somewhere down the line, she realized he didn't even have any eyes. What made it worse was the fact that right when she became aware of her surroundings he was beginning to have a mentally unwell breakdown right in front of the three girls.

      "Victor?" Nancy carefully beckoned, "Victor?" she repeated.

      "Was he everything you hoped him to be?" a voice called out with the echoing sound of double doors opening wide. Anthony Hatch, along with two guards had come to visit the three undercover girls.

      Cleo's eyes widened confused but knowing enough that they had most likely gotten caught in their lies. "What the hell is going on?" she mumbled to neither girl in particular.

      "You spaced out?" Robin whisper shouted fully aware of Cleodora being notorious for spacing out for minutes on end and coming out of her head completely confused.

      "It's not like I do it on purpose," Cleo whispered back.

      "I just had a very interesting conversation with Professor Brantley. Perhaps we should discuss in my office while we wait for the police?"

      "YOU'RE NOT LISTENING. OUR FRIEND IS IN DANGER," Nancy attempted to reason with Anthony.

      "Do you really expect me to believe anything you say at this point?" Hatcher seethed while guiding the girls through the asylum with guards following behind them.

"It's the truth!" Nancy attempted again.

      "You are free to tell your sob story to the police," Hatch's irritating voice had been bringing back the anger Cleo had held during the pep rally but all she could do was stay silent for Robin and Nancy's sakes. Her big mouth tended to get her into situations that she couldn't get out of and she didn't want to pull the other two girls down with her.

      Robin slowed for a moment beside a few patients that had been listening to music from a record player. The guard behind her mumbled a, "move along," pushing her forward.

      "Don't touch me," Robin pulled her arm away.

Already irritated, Cleo put herself between the guard and Robin, a small shove at him to push him back a bit so she could trade spots with her friend. "Keep a distance, dickhead," she said with a glare. Disregarding that she most likely couldn't do much against him, her solution was to keep them apart before he could put his hands on Robin again and Cleo would lose her temper.

A lightbulb had gone off in Robin's head, Cleo had seen it by the way her head shot up and she pulled Cleo closer to Nancy by the wrist. "Victor said the night of the attack, everything went on in the house, but he made specific mention of music. He said music was playing. And then, when we asked him about the angel, he started to hum. Say nighty-night and kiss me, hold me tight..." Robin mumbled a sped-up version of the song.

      "Dream a Little Dream of Me," Nancy added.

      "Yeah, Ella Fitzgerald." Robin nodded.

      "The voice of an angel," Cleo contributed.

      "Hatch said that music can reach certain parts of the brain that words can't. So, maybe that's the key, a lifeline," Robin theorized.

"A lifeline back to reality." Nancy turned her head quickly around to scan over the two guards and Hatch walking ahead of them. "I think we can beat him."

Robin's eyes widened, "what?"

      "To the car," Nancy elaborated.

      "As in running?" Cleo's eyes did the same.

      "Okay, I'm warning you right now, I have terrible coordination," Robin quietly said. "Took me six months longer to walk than all the other babies."

      "Just follow my lead," Nancy mumbled and then she was off.

      "Oh, we're really doing this!" Cleo panicking said while darting right after Robin and Nancy.

      "Oh my god!" Robin said while kicking off her shoes to make her running more efficient.

      "Watch it, those are projectiles!" Cleodora shouted while tripping dodging one of Robin's shoes.

      "Cinderella, you dropped your shoe!" a nearby patient called after the running girls. The three of them continued to run, Robin living up to her claim of lack of coordination, Cleo stumbling and tripping at any chance she could get, and Nancy being the only normal-looking runner as they neared Nancy's car.

      Rushing to get into the car, one of the guards had caught up to them which caused Cleo to rush to push down the locks on both of the doors in the backseats.

"Go, go, go! Nancy drive!" Cleo and Robin both rushed out while panicking slightly. Nancy eventually did get the engine running and sped off leaving Pennhurst in the past.

"You really are a weird runner," Nancy joked with Robin. "And I'm never making you run again because you're sure to face plant at some point."

      "Gee, thanks Nance," Cleo sarcastically said with a grin.

      "Robin! Robin, this is a code red! Code red!" The walkie beside Cleo had Dustin Henderson's voice shouting through it and Cleo rushed to give it to Robin.

      "Dustin, It's Robin. We copy," she said into it.

      "Finally! Please tell me you guys have this figured out!" Dustin desperately said.

      Cleodora slouched back into her seat, adrenaline still coursing through her, "why does it always have to be a code red? This is gonna bring my asthma back."