✖ Chapter 11 ✖

        I MAY OR may not have taken advantage of having a little freedom. I'd see a guard from behind and focus on them until they slumped to the floor, either unconscious or dead, I didn't really stick around to see which. Not to mention feeling the burning sensation in my palm from the electricity made me feel practically invincible. 

        Rounding a corner, I skidded to a halt before I could slam into the guard in front of me. Struggling for a moment, I narrowed my gaze on him until he fell to his knees. He sputtered something incoherent, waving one arm and grasping his throat with the other.

        "Me... jackass..."

        Releasing him from my intangible hold, I tilted my head. "Daniel?"

        He gasped, heaving in breaths. "Yes, you moron! God, there's so many awful things I could call you right now."

        I held my hands up, then helped him to his feet. "I'm blaming my paranoia."

        Daniel grunted, letting out a deep breath. "Fair enough. Remind me again to never get on your bad side."

        I smirked before ushering him down the hall at a quick pace, making sure we didn't fall behind schedule.

     Though this place is absolutely cruel and horrendous, it wasn't my intention to let other prisoners out. For one, many of them truly were insane and belonged in a madhouse. Maybe a less gruesome one, but one nonetheless. And secondly, I wanted to slim my odds of running into an ex-enemy aka my Oscar, my ex-bully.

        I didn't need any unnecessary fights when I was on the road to freedom. Albeit, with my luck, my freedom never lasted very long. However, I intended to demolish that routine the minute I would be able to. If that meant offing Cecilia, or anyone that got in my way, so be it.

     Slipping around another corner, I could hear Daniel's breaths coming out in pants as he struggled to keep up. I wanted to make a snide remark about him being out of shape, but he was soon grabbing my shoulder and forcing me to stop.

        "Daniel, we don't have time-"

        "Angry Hulk dude... five feet... away," he panted, hunching over with his hands on his knees.

        After I rolled my eyes at him, I looked to see what he was rambling on only to see Gunner standing in the middle of the corridor, blocking our path. His hands were clutched into fists, his chest heaving up and down, and his eyes held a wild flare to them.

        "Angry Hulk dude," as Daniel said, was an understatement.

        But there was something different about him now. Not only did he have scars from his previous meltdown all over his face and arms, but there were rugged movements in his small steps towards us. It clicked that part of him was still being controlled, still being monitored.

        "I know," he muttered out, his words slurring and sounding practically inhuman.

       Taking a step back, I held my arm out in front of Daniel to take him with me. Gunner did not have his entire sanity nor his mind under control. Whether he ever had is a mystery, but a mystery for another time.

         Gunner's eyes blazed, his voice shifting to a shrill yell. "I know what you did!"

        "You're going to need to be a lot more specific," I said without fully thinking it through. Talking back to a maniac with sarcasm wasn't my best idea.

        Gunner had lunged at me then, my body and Daniel's barely making it out of the way. He was on his feet again in an instant, seething as his eyes pierced into mine. Daniel's guard disguise was flickering, almost like his nervousness was messing with his concentration to hold the guard's identity any longer.

        Being this close to going out those doors, now was definitely not the time for Gunner to throw a tantrum for whatever stupid thing I might have done. Yes, there are many ignorant things I did in the past, but he needed to know that that small talk (and possible wrestling match) could wait.

        I tried to subdue his violent actions with my nifty mind trick, attempting to make him choke and yet he merely faltered for a second. He was too strong being controlled by someone else, and they sure weren't going to let him break easily.

        "Gunner," I said quietly, trying a new tactic. "This isn't you. You don't want to hurt us."

        He ran his hands through his hair, nails scraping the skin as if he were still struggling to fight off whoever had him under their thumb. His head snapped back to glare at us - me - and his head twitched in the most awkwardest, savage way. He was yelling again, screaming almost about how he knew what I did.

        He dived for me again and I managed to grab the back of his neck and slam him against the wall, attempting to keep him in wall place. He was quick to spin out of my grip, pushing my shoulders with such strength, I fell and slid across the linoleum. 

        "Uh, Daniel!" I called. "Now would be a great time for a fire-breathing dragon or something!"

        I rolled over just as Gunner went to pin me down, hardly missing him once again. I got to my feet in time to duck a punch, coming back with my own. I grabbed the side of his neck again, this time drawing the heat to my palm and Gunner cried out, yanking away with a burn mark fresh on his skin. I felt a pang of remorse, knowing he wasn't in control of himself.

        He managed to get me on the ground again, his hands pinning my wrists down and his irate eyes glaring into mine. "I know what you did," he repeated in a snarl, sounding more insane than angry.

        "Care to give me a brief explanation?" I murmured, struggling under his surprisingly tough grip.

        "You hurt her!" he yelled, spittle flying from his lips and I mentally gagged. "I know you hurt her and that's why I must stop you!"

       I opened my mouth to speak, then remembered my first time meeting Rose, having her struggle for breath as I accused her of being a spy. That was the only time I had hurt her. The first and only time ever. But I didn't argue, instead looking over at Daniel for moral support.

        Daniel was still flickering in a weird way, looking to me himself but still flashing as the guard every blink or so. I could see he was shaking, but his eyes were closed and he were inhaling and exhaling slowly.

        "This isn't the time for yoga, dammit!" I didn't mean to yell at him, but the punch that had just struck my jaw hurt like hell.

        When he came for me again, I flipped us over, getting to my feet as he scrambled to do the same. I gripped his shoulders and brought my knee up in his groin, knowing man-to-man that it hurt more than words could describe. But I took that to my advantage by laying a couple more punches on him, just enough for his lip to split and his nose to crack. He had fell face-first to the floor, leaving me a brief moment to regain my breath.

        Then he was on his feet again.

        "You've gotta be shitting me," I grumbled.

        But Daniel had finally stepped in, taking the shape and strength of... Popeye? 

        I watched with parted lips as the human version of Popeye beat the life out of the crazed man in front of us. It was almost hysterical to watch, and yet it amazed me how he even came up with it. I was expecting something a bit more... deadly.

        Taking advantage of Gunner on the ground again, I quickly snatched off the keypad of the empty cell next to us, the door slipping open. Daniel (Popeye?) dragged Gunner's limp body into the cell and I pulled a few wires before the door closed. Breathing out a sigh of relief, I heaved a hand through my hair.

        "Popeye? Really?" I looked to Daniel.

        He snorted, shifting back to the guard. "I saved you, didn't I?"

        "It was the spinach, wasn't it?" 

        Daniel punched my arm. "Oh, get over yourself."

     I laughed before reality hit, the sound of more footsteps pounding our way. Daniel and I continued our sprint, weaving through hallways as I tried to remember the way out of this place. 

***

        It took six more unconscious guards to find Megan and Aiden, who were exiting out of a hallway labeled "ISOLATION PUNISHMENT". I shook off the thought of what kind of terrible things happened down the hallway.

        "All right, which way to the exit?" I asked Megan, praying she knew the answer since none of us thought to get a map of this maze ahead of time.

        Megan pointed her finger. "That way. It's the way the staff takes to the backdoor, which is a plus since all the staff are out looking for us right now."

        "How come none are pouring out of that hallway?" asked Daniel, pointing to the door Megan and Aiden recently emerged from.

        Her cheeks seemed to have flushed, but it was difficult to tell with the red alarm blaring above us still. "Took care of them," was all she said.        

        So we continued running towards the exit, the lack of guards running about leaving us all wary and paranoid. I couldn't help but to continuously look over my shoulder, afraid they were preying on us rather than looking. 

        It was too eerie for every hall to be empty of guards. Some of the patients were banging on their soundproof glass doors, but we passed by them as if we hadn't seen them. I was grateful we couldn't hear their cries of agony. I've heard enough misery in my day to last a lifetime.

        Daniel shifted back to his self, informing us that being a "bald, ugly macho-man" was pointless since there was no one to explain our whereabouts to. I was too busy gnawing on my bottom lip, an anxious habit of mine as he spoke.

     "This is too weird," said Megan, our run slowing to a walk. "There should be guards and staff hounding the hallways."

        "Exactly," I muttered. 

        She looked over at me, bright eyes shining. "You think this is a trap?"

        "Definitely gives off the vibe as one."

        Daniel said, "So what do we do?"

        I shrugged, pursing my lips. "We play the players."

        So we slipped into a supply closet that Megan informed us had a set of stairs leading to the roof, almost like an attic. I asked her how she knew this, and she simply replied with, "Had a forbidden relationship with a guard once. He sold me out." I didn't question her any further by the look of hurt that flickered across her face.

        I climbed the set of stairs first, pushing the carved out flooring shaped like a door out of the way. I carefully poked my head out, trying to see over the slope of the roof. There was an icy breeze that whipped past, a storm lurking nearby.

        Then I saw exactly why the hallways were so empty - Evelyn and her entire staff stood out in front of the main entrance. Her guards at the ready, she seemed confident enough that she would lure us back inside and to our cells - or worse, more torture sessions. The pleasure she found in watching others suffer was sickening.

        Muttering profanities under my breath, I climbed back down. "Definitely a trap. She's got about hundred guns alone pointed at the main entrance."

        Megan groaned, Aiden rubbed his forehead, and Daniel said, "What a torture-loving, puppy-molesting, human form of Satan!"

        I didn't even bother questioning it.

        "So what do we do?" asked Megan. "Hide out and hope they give up?"

        I shook my head. "We could go out there and attempt to fight them all off, but I don't any of us have healing abilities for a bullet through the heart."

        Everyone fell silent, the breeze being the only thing heard from the still open door above me. I tried to contemplate our best options, whether to go out and face them, risking our lives and all, or do as Megan said and pray they give up so we can escape out of the supply room.

        But that's when I heard it. That faint, familiar voice that sent chills down my spine, my heart shattering with the words fleeing her lips, the crackle of lightning following right after.

        "Harry! Harry, help me!"

        Rose.