Stupid vents. Didn't the constructors even watch movies? People needed these things to be big enough to move around in. Rene continued clawing her way through the vents. The metal ripped at her skin leaving red lines up and down her forearms. At the very least, their ragged pattern matched the already red, black, and blue canvas her body had become over the past couple days. If one thing could be said about Rene it was she knew how to take a beating and keep getting back up for more. Pain was nothing but proof that she was still alive and could keep fighting. She pulled and squirmed her entire body. No better way to get one in shape than needing to contort ones body into painful positions and then use muscles you had no idea existed to straighten. Hopefully, her internal compass was correct and she was actually headed for her room. Otherwise, someone would find a dead body in the vent because she collapsed from exhaustion. That is if the scent ever got bad enough to overpower the one the asylum emitted. Yeah, if she died in here the odds were she'd never be found. With that pleasant thought in mind, she renewed her efforts digging deep. She really needed to book it back before the guards. Crap, this was taking far too long.

SCREECH!

Lights flashed in strobe and a loud siren went off echoing through the asylum. It was practically a rave up in the asylum. Excluding the music and ignoring the fact that anything even remotely fun was slim to impossible. The loud, high pitched screech bounced off the vents making it a perfect sound canon. Rene gritted her teeth and covered her ears trying to get her bearings. She felt like her ears were going to start bleeding at any second. What the hell was that? Rene's nose suddenly twitched. She knew that scent. Damn it.

No time to get back to her room, Rene needed to get out now. Rene struggled down the way heading for the nearest light and cover. The sound of feet shuffling reached her ears. There was no mistaking what was going on now. She finally managed to reach a vent cover and peeked out. She was positioned at one of the many hallways. Rene watched cautiously as dazed residents pushed their way down the corridor. There was a lot of them, far more than in a normal circumstance. Of course, today was turning out to be anything but normal for a day in the asylum. No more routine to keep the crazies in check. Despite the large number of residents, Rene didn't see any guards milling about to control the mass. So many of them, this could go very wrong. Plus it didn't help the vent was multiple feet off the ground. Ah, her old enemy stealth they met again. Here's hoping no one cares.

Rene angled herself and kicked once more digging her battered feet into the grate. It popped off flinging across the hall and thankfully not hitting anyone. Oops... should have worried about that first. Rene glanced around eyeing the stream of individuals. None seemed to particularly care about the flying object or where it came from. Relieved for once in her life for the brainwashing effects of pills, Rene let herself drop down to the floor. She remained crouched waiting for guards to come screaming with tasers buzzing at her, but nothing happened. All that could be heard was the insentient siren and steady, rhythm of patients disembarking the asylum in an orderly fashion. Really rather a miracle none were having a breakdown in the midst of the emergency. Then again, that's highly unlikely and probably the reason that Rene had yet to run into guards.

"Time to go." A male voice commanded. Rene was ripped from her position on the floor and forced into the flow.

Rene bit back a shout when she saw the man-handler. Woman-handler maybe? Whatever. It was none other than her knight in shining armor himself. And he was touching her, again. Michael's eyes were focused hard on their surroundings. He had maneuvered the two of them into the middle of the flow. Being surrounded was putting her on edge, but this was logically the best way to move unnoticed. Even so, it bothered her and went against her instincts. It also didn't help that he was still clinging to her.

"Dang it Rene, that hurt." Michael stopped and let go of her abruptly when her fist made hard contact with his bicep. He rubbed it glaring at her.

"We talked about the no touching rule." Rene hissed, "Come on we need to keep moving." She strolled away as though nothing had happened.

After a moment Michael followed and they both feel back into step with the others becoming another faceless member of the hive. "Well, I wouldn't have stopped if you hadn't hit me. Your such a child sometimes." He grumbled back. "Besides I was helping you."

"Who said I needed your help? I can handle myself perfectly fine thank you very much."

"Oh I could totally tell by the way you were curled up on the floor back there."

"I was not curled up on the floor. I was keeping an eye out for guards before moving!" Rene voice rose with anger. "If anything you drew more attention by coming up and grabbing me!"

Michael put a finger to his lips causing Rene to blush. She had let her temper get the better of her again. The sirens though continued their wailing covering most of the conservation and Rene's outburst. Not that anyone seemed to particularly care around them.

"Here I was thinking that we had finally gotten over all this crap. But no the ice princess has reared her frozen, thick head again." Michael snorted back at her.

Rene growled ready to strangle him. "I told you not to call me that."

"Yeah, yeah whatever firecracker."

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. Rene glanced at Michael. His face was hardened, defined under the flashing lights, with a grim set line on his usually smiling face. He seemed tense and agitated.  If anyone would have been enjoying all this chaos, she was sure it would have been him. Maybe, he was upset he wasn't the cause of all the commotion. That cocky attitude of his did like to be the center of attention. She shook her head angrily. She didn't have time to worry about some guy's wounded ego.

"So that was you wasn't it? The one who caused all this racket." Michael inquired lazily giving her a long side-glance.

Rene stared down at the ground wishing it would open up and swallow her. "I have no idea what your talking about."

He laughed running a hand through his hair. The laughed sounded forced and hallow in her ears. "Sure you don't, because people who have no idea what's going on just happen to come tumbling out of  a hole in the wall."

Rene gritted her teeth resisting the urge to hit him again. "Would you shut up, you idiot. You have no idea what's going on right now."

"Of course not," Michael grinned wickedly "Just like I have no idea how a small fire was started in an empty classroom causing this convenient evacuation that works rather well, if I do say so myself, for creating a crowd to hide in."

She froze. "You didn't."

Michael gazed at her solemnly, "Didn't what exactly? After all I'm just some annoying idiot right? A guy who loves a good joke by poking people's buttons. What was that you called me before, Mr. Sunshine?" He gave her a wink and turned away diving deep into the group out of her sight.

The residents ebbed and flowed around Rene. A rock in their path but little more than a deterrent, not a real obstacle. Nothing worth notice. She was ignored while she stood there in her stupor. That...that...she struggled to grip the scrambled, drifting thoughts that encompassed her mind. How was she supposed to feel about this? If what he said was true, that he actually started this fire to help her... what did that mean? Why did he? How did he even know? Crap, crap, crap. This was why she hated people just when she started to like them they went and did something stupid to piss her off. She sighed. She should probably be grateful and yet, where did he get off. Sure they teased and joked about the whole fairy tale crap about princess and knight, but it was a game. They were players each facilitating a role. Rene had made it clear she did not want recusing. She chewed on her lip. Crap.

"Keep it moving."

Rene's eyes flitted behind her nervously. Guards had finally arrived to wrangle the patients out of the building and away from the fire. What abundant concern shown for the reason they were being paid. Rene started weaving through the crowd working to put distance between herself and the guards without drawing too much attention. As the crowd traveled down the hall, Rene took in her handiwork. Random bulbs were out causing shadows to envelope and flicker over the passing patients. The flashing lights from the fire alarms made the overall effect reminiscent of a haunted house. The thought made her heart clench, not only from the fear of her own nightmares clawing out of her her mind to haunt her, but also for the other patients. She hadn't been lying when she said couldn't guarantee other people wouldn't end up hurt. It still didn't make the truth of her part in it sit any better with her. An insane mind could summon far worse demons than ever conjured by the asylum even if the asylum was the reason the person had that ability in the first place.

Besides the lights nothing much had obviously changed, not visibly anyway. She could feel it though. The atmosphere was tense and the guards were on a short fuse. Nothing to do but wait and watch as the pieces fall where they may. Tick, tick. Time was present these days, undeniably so. Each heartbeat and breathe brought the passing of time. She had become part of the passage of time instead of a bystander. Each encroaching moment seemed to mean something important while each one that fleeted past caused a sense of foreboding. Perhaps it was the fact that her clock was finally running to and towards something, that caused her entire being to be consumed by hours, minutes, seconds. That could be nothing more than musings of a crazy person though. Whatever the reason, she was glad for it. She was no longer lost in a void of infinity. 

The sunlight stung her as she exited the asylum and the sharp contrast without the wailing alarms left her ears ringing painfully. Blinking rapidly, she took inventory of her surroundings. Once outside residents were spreading across the yard into their designated "safety areas" based on floor and gender. Safety areas being used very lightly here given the fact all the patients were still caged by the fence. If there was an actual emergency, there was no way that even half would end up surviving. Rene began weaving her way over to her spot. She kept one eye on the asylum. Smoke could be seen curling up into the air from the roof, but there were no flames. The situation must be under control. She felt a bit disappointed. She didn't want the asylum to burn to nothing but ash and memories which she could dance on, not right now anyway when a true fire would have eaten them all too. However, it would have been nice if there was a little more damage and mayhem. The fire's smell drifted on the wind to her again. She traced small circles on her temples working to ground herself. The whole situation was threatening to bring that night to the surface again.

"Rene!"

Rene spun to see Cassie waving her arms frantically while jumping up and down. She raised one hand briefly in acknowledgment before walking over to join her. Cassie vice-gripped her in a hug that threatened to rearrange her organs. Rene waited it out as patiently as possible.

Cassie eased the hug, but remained gripping Rene's shoulders. Her eyes darted all over Rene taking in her disheveled appearance. "What happened to you? And what are all these scratches on your arms? Also, where are your shoes?"

Rene shrugged dropping her gaze. She brought up an arm forcing Cassie to let go completely. "It's no big deal Cass."

"No big deal? Have you seen all the nuttiness going on today? Do you have any idea how scared I was when I couldn't find you? I thought for sure someone had cornered you and was dragging you off to the chair! And then you show up looking like you've been rolling around in a thorn bush that then mugged you, yet you say it's no big deal." Cassie exclaimed. Her eyes shone with emotion.

Rene shifted from foot to foot redistributing her weight while trying to think of something to tell Cassie besides the truth. She rubbed her left arm self consciously. She was incredibly uncomfortable under the scrutiny and lying was harder when you cared about the person. Rene started chewing on her bottom lip again.

"Never mind." Cassie whispered.

Rene's head shot up surprise written all over her face. "What?"

"I said never mind. I can see it in your entire body. It's screaming that you're getting ready to lie. If you're not going to tell me the truth I don't want to hear it."

"Cassie, it's not like that...I want to tell you the truth it's just that." Rene sighed "I can't."

Cassie leaned in close to Rene's face grabbing her shirt to bring Rene down to her lower level. "We both know that's a load of bull. You're not telling me because you don't want to. I don't know why, since we've shared basically everything since day one, but you don't. Can't has nothing to do with it."

"Fine," Rene shoved Cassie's hands off and stood to her full height, using it to her advantage to glare down at the feisty pink-head. "I won't tell you. I refuse to. Because it's for your own good that you don't know what's going on."

"Who are you to tell me what's for my own good? I thought we were all in this together. It was supposed to be us against them. We all fought or we all fell together!" Cassie's friendship lesson had started to cause a scene with multiple eyes now focused on them.

Rene tried to shush Cassie nervously. "Now is not the time for this Cass."

Bodies were pushed aside as Danny emerged from the throws. He darted his eyes between the two of them taking it in. A frown graced his face and his eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "I thought I heard both of your pleasant voices singing. What the hell is going on?"

"What's going on?" Cassie laughed, "What's going on is Rene here..."

Rene put her hand over Cassie's mouth quickly. "Rene here is being her usually lovely self and Cassie is being her usually over reactive self." Rene replied.

Cassie's muffled cries leaked through Rene's hand coming out as nothing but pure nonsense. Danny raised an eyebrow. He was definitely not buying it. Rene pleaded with him silently. Her eyes motioning to their growing audience. The numb had been drawn in by the commotion, hungry for emotion even if it wasn't their own. They reminded her more and more of zombies every day. Even worse, those still functional had started to take notice joining the throng. They had crazed look in their eyes that cried for action. They wanted a good show and somewhere within the chaos were guards most likely thinking the same thing. Especially considering it was Rene who was the cause of the drama. Danny gave the slightest nod that he understood. "Alright break it up everyone go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

Rene kept her hand on Cassie's mouth waiting nervously. Slowly, the residents dispersed. The zombies shuffled off back into the programmed response. A couple of the aware ones sneered at Danny angrily for ruining their entertainment, but eventually they too left.  A wide circle had formed around the three. It was like they were back in their bubble, just the three of them versus everyone else. That was only an illusion though. Things had changed and it was Rene's fault that they did.

The tension was physically threatening to suffocate Rene from the weight. She dropped her hand and took a step away from Cassie with her accusing eyes. She was surprised Cassie hadn't bit her or something. Rene took a shuddering breath and tried to roll out her shoulders preparing for the fight that still hung in the air. She froze when she saw Kristy's psychotic smile at the edge of the circle. Their eyes met. One heartbeat, two, three, four...and Kristy slipped away into the sea. Rene shuddered. She turned to talk with Cassie and Danny, but found herself alone in the bubble. All alone, that's what she wanted wasn't it. She didn't want her friends to be hurt playing the game. She was the one who had decided to force them off the playing field. Unfortunately, it didn't make it hurt any less. Minus two friendly players on the board.