ADDISON

"What is it all you vile humans say? That you're scared to die?" She giggled maliciously with an insane grin plastered across her pale face.

Nolan and Addison shared a wary look. Whoever this girl was, she was crazy. They needed answers, and they certainly weren't going to get any from a maniac! They didn't have much time before their killer found its next target...

The first murder had been brutal enough. Addison's mind flashed back to the mangled, bloodied body. Who could do such a horrifying thing?

"Well?" The girl asked with a maddening but curious look in her eyes.

"Well what?" Addison huffed impatiently.

She didn't understand why Nolan was wasting such precious time on someone who would no doubt lead them nowhere closer to justifying their murderer. There were so many more important things to do than answering insane questions from an asylum escapee.

Addison had no doubt that Nolan knew how crazy this girl was, but, for some reason, he still persisted in talking to her.

"Are you scared of dying?"

The girl was more creature than human. She moved with what seemed to be an urge to twitch or fidget every couple seconds and she kept biting her bottom lip, hard enough that it was now covered in a thin layer of dark red blood. She wore scraps for clothing and kept fingering a thin, silver chain that hung loosely around her neck.

"ANSWER ME!" She suddenly screamed when Addison and Nolan remained quiet. She shook and twitched faster as she stalked toward Nolan.

He stumbled back in surprise until she had him with his back against the paper-covered wall of the abandoned office.

"STAY!" She screamed at Addison, who had started to move to help her friend.

Addison froze, afraid of the consequences of moving. For all she knew, this lunatic could snap Nolan's neck and kill him before she could take even two steps.

Leaving Nolan trembling against the wall, the psychotic girl scrambled on her knees and slid her hand under a metal file drawer planted near them.

Nolan watched her, his mouth slightly drifting open as the lunatic drew out a long, gleaming knife.

"Don't!" Addison yelled as terror filled her.

The deranged girl pressed it to Nolan's throat, who whimpered and tried to shrink away, but she only pressed him harder against the wall.

The knife cut slowly into Nolan's dark skin, drawing blood. Drops of the red liquid slipped off the edge of the knife and fell on his shirt, staining it.

Addison couldn't move. She couldn't even breathe too deeply. Even from where she stood, she knew that if the knife went any deeper, Nolan was dead.

A few, long seconds as everyone stilled felt like a lifetime of terror. Then the maniac's eyes shifted to the blood on Nolan's now dotted-red shirt and abruptly took a step back, shaking and muttering to herself. She slid to the floor with her back against the wall and rested her head between her knees.

Nolan slowly retreated from the wall, but instead of making the rational decision of walking away and towards Addison, towards safety, he cautiously took a step closer to the girl and crouched down in front of her. She didn't look up.

Instead, she stared straight forward, her eyes gazing a little to the right of where Nolan was. Nolan moved to sit next to her with his back against the wall once more.

"What is this idiot doing?" Addison muttered under her breath, watching him and the girl tensely. Neither had spoken.

"Are-Are you scared to d-die?" The girl was trembling violently as she spoke from the dusty floor. Addison watched Nolan's expression change as he met the girl's eyes.

"Yes," Nolan whispered.

The girl shifted her gaze to Addison. Addison, who was expecting her to have a wild and uncontrolled look in her eyes, was surprised to find the girl's expression was sharp, but miserable and afraid.

"And you?" She asked, and Addison blinked and quickly echoed Nolan's answer.

If he was truly going to succeed in getting information out of this girl, no matter how crazy she was, Addison wasn't going to be the one to mess it up.

"I'm not." The girl's eyes were wide, as if she surprised herself with her own answer.

"Why's that?" Nolan's voice was patient and kind, unlike the goofy and joking tone Addison was used to hearing.

"I'm not scared to die... " She paused to glance quickly around the room, acting as if she hadn't wanted anyone else to overhear, though Addison, Nolan, and her were alone in the room.

Nolan wisely didn't press. The girl looked like a spooked animal, likely to scatter any moment.

"I'm scared to live." As soon as the words left her mouth, she gasped, as if her own words shocked her, and buried her head in her lap again.

Addison frowned, "you're scared to live?"

Nolan shot her a warning look before turning back to the girl. "What do you mean?" He asked, but the girl just shook her head before scooting away from him.

Addison felt like screaming in frustration. They had been there for almost an hour, and hadn't learned a single thing from their source, if you could call this lunatic a source.

"Oh, just tell us what you know, you maniac." Addison snapped, and she scrambled away and disappeared into the shadows.

"Addy!" Nolan stood in an instant and glared at her. "What was that about?!"

"Oh, shut up! She wasn't going to tell us anything useful!" Addison shifted uncomfortably under Nolan's frustrated look. Her annoyance started to fade as a defensive feeling began to set in.

"She could've! Now we will probably never know! You might've just scared her away for good!" Nolan's eyes had hardened into a rage and hurt that Addison didn't understand. Why did he care for this girl?

"What is wrong with you, Nolan?! She's literally an asylum escapee! She's insane! Why are you even trying?!"

"You wouldn't understand." He muttered with still a touch of anger in his sharp eyes.

With that, he slipped out the door of the office and disappeared into the shadows of the dark hallway.