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Athena sat on the floor for a couple more minutes before standing up and trying to tug on the door handle again. Her body was trying to shut down. Her body was in too much pain. Every inch that she moved was agonizing. She tried to open the door, but no matter how hard she shook and pulled the door handle, it would not budge. She remained locked in here with no way to escape. There was no way to tell what time it was. No way to tell if it could be night or day. There were no windows in the room to tell her whether it was night or day. 

Remembering her phone in her pocket, she whipped it out. She thanked whoever was listening to her that it was still working and turned it on. She tried to text her brother but noticed that she didn't have service. Her text wouldn't send. "Damn it!" She frustratedly hit the send button a dozen times before giving up. She roughly stuffed her phone back into her pocket. 

She turned around and looked around the room, desperate to find anything that could open the door. She ran over to the table by the chair and took the gray, rusty tray off of it. Running back to the door she tried to place the tray between the door and wall but failed. It was just too big.

"Damn it!" she screamed again as she threw the tray on the ground. It made a loud clattering noise until it lay still. She needed to calm down and make a rational decision. 

She turned back around and threw her hands down in frustration. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before she opened them again. She then remembered the knife sticking out of the wall and ran over to it. She struggled a little pulling it out of the wall, but finally, it came out. She stumbled back a little and hit the back of her knees against the chair causing her to sit down hard against it. She had a light vision of her being strapped to the chair and an electrical poker against her temple. Her breath caught in her throat as she felt electricity pulsating through her body. She screamed and tried to get out of the restraints that had snaked up around her body. Electrifying pain shot up and down her body before she was pulled back into reality. 

She shook the vision out of her head. She sat there for a couple of minutes, gathering her breath before she ran back to the door. She tried to slide the knife in between the door handle and the wall. Wiggling the knife back and forth and up and down. Athena started to pray to anyone who was listening that this would work. That she would be able to be free. 

Finally, to her surprise, she heard a small click. She pulled the knife out and slowly reached for the knob. Her hand shook as it turned, and she pushed it open. The hallway outside had a large window at one end with its blinds opened to reveal a bright, yellow, morning light.

She reluctantly stuck her head out of the doorway and looked up and down the hall. Seeing no one, she held the knife out in front of her and turned toward the stairs. A knife wasn't going to do anything against Effie, but it gave Athena slight comfort. She looked down the stairway—no one again. Looking beside her, she saw a door propped open.

Curiosity killed the cat. I'm not the cat today, she prayed with hope. Athena had always been curious about everything. Her mother had once called her too curious. That is why she joined the paper and became a reporter. She got to be curious without anyone telling her not to be also she got paid. Please, let me not be the cat. Oh, why do I have to be the curious cat?

When she was a young girl, she would get in all sorts of trouble for being curious. Mixed with her love for adventure, she would always venture too far from the house. Her mother was always a mess whenever she would walk too far. Her mother had resorted to making rules and putting locks on the door that she couldn't reach until her brother was big enough to protect her. 

That wasn't long. Athena wasn't a tall woman; she was mostly average. Her brother was able to shoot up above her by the time he was thirteen. It was then that her mother was not as reluctant to let Athena walk away from the house. 

Athena understood now after working on the paper why she was so cautious about letting her daughter out of her sight when she was extremely young and frail. 

Walking to the door, she nudged it open and held the knife in front of her. The knife shook violently in her hands. The room looked like a bedroom for a young child. By any means, a little girl from the amount of dusty, torn stuffed animals laid on and around the bed. A twin bed sat against the opposite wall and a dresser on the right wall. A dirty red, round rug sat in the middle of the room. She walked over to one wall and gasped at all the pictures that were hanging.

"Is she Effie?" she asked in a low voice while staring at a young girl standing in front of the asylum. She sure looked like the scary child that wouldn't leave Athena alone. The little girl had clean black hair running with no effort down her back. In the picture, she wore a beautiful white dress that ran down to the middle of her shins and puffy sleeves. Her smile was beautiful and full of happiness.

What happened to her?

Athena slowly let the knife drop by her side. She smiled sadly at the picture. "The poor girl," she whispered. She touched the picture, and a sound was made behind her, making her jump. She whirled around with the knife held out in front of her again. There was no one there. She growled in anger and yelled, "What do you want?" She held her arms out beside her. "Why did you lock me in that room? What do you want from me?" She waited for an answer but got none. "I wasn't the one that hurt you!"

Athena started to shake when she noticed that the room got cold, and she could see her breath coming out of her nose and mouth. 

A peal of cold laughter filled the air. Athena's breath quickened. The pictures behind Athena started to shake and fly off the wall. Athena ducked as one came straight for her head. The picture shattered as it hit the opposite wall and fell to the ground. Athena saw movements in one corner and looked over to see the little girl standing in the dark, her glowing yellow eyes staring straight at her.

"What do you want from me?" Athena asked slowly, irritated. The knife she was holding in front of her started to shake even more violently. 

The little girl smiled menacingly. "I want you to suffer as I did!" She held a syringe full of clear liquid in her hand and came toward Athena. There was some form of thick, red liquid coming out of her mouth. Athena automatically thought that it was blood. 

Athena held out the knife in front of her for protection. "Stay away or I swear I will use this!" She was trying to control her voice from shaking, but she couldn't control her body spasming. 

The girl laughed and kept coming at her. "You're just like them, aren't you? An idiot. Do you think a rusty old knife will help you against me? Ha! Guess what? I'm dead!" The girl jumped toward Athena, but she jumped out of the way and ran for the door.

She slammed the door closed behind her and ran down the staircase. Running down the hallway, she came upon the front door. To her surprise, it opened. She ran outside to her car and grabbed the keys. Putting the keys into the ignition and turning them, she heard an odd sound coming out from the engine.

"No, no, no!" she screamed. "Please start! Please start!" Tears started to stream down her cheeks. She looked up to see the little girl standing in the same second-story window as before. The girl shook her head, smirked, and disappeared. Athena tried to jump-start her car but to no avail. She ended up giving up and got out of the car. She wrapped her arms around her and shivered. "It only took thirty minutes to get here." She looked back at the house. "I'll be back for my car. I can't stay here." 

She started to walk in the direction of the gate. The sun was starting to set over the building causing a looming shadow. Athena kept trying not to look back at the building, but she couldn't help herself. She felt like she was being watched intently. She thought that she could hear movement on either side of her. 

She finally stepped onto the long driveway and kept her focus on the gate at the end. The trees seemed to stretch over her more this time. She clenched her jaw as she started to imagine the trees grabbing her and throwing her back into the house. Athena quickened her pace after that thought.

The dark movement came from the corner of her eye causing her to jump. She snapped her head over to that side but saw nothing. She started to jog towards the gate. Her brows furrowed as she noticed that she hadn't gotten closer to the gate at all. She was still the same distance as she was when she first started walking. She started to sprint towards the gate and tears came to her eyes again as she confirmed what she feared. The gate wasn't getting closer.

Athena screamed as she tripped over a root and fell face-first into the dirt. When she finally looked up, she was in front of the dark door of the asylum. Tears fell down her face as the door creaked open and a pair of hands grabbed her and pulled her into the asylum.

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Hi, everyone! I hope you liked this chapter! Please, if you did and want to let me know please comment below, or if there is something I can do to make this chapter better let me know as well. Oh! And don't forget to vote!