Nurse Fawn didn’t let go of his shoulder, even after helping him into the bed in his room. “Now,” she says, “What were you doing sneaking around like that?” The boy starts to sweat a little, his hands fumbling the soft cloth of the bedsheets. “I-I uh…I got lost finding the bathroom.” He stammers, and instantly regrets saying it. The nurse lets go of his shoulders and says with a smile, “Don’t be silly, you have a bathroom right here in your room.” She gestures to the right of his room, where there’s a small closet-like room with a soft mint colored door. Shit, how come I didn’t see that before? Nervously, he laughs a little and says, “O-Oh, right, I almost forgot about that.” Nurse Fawn leans in a little, her hazel eyes glowing from the light of the lamp on his nightstand. “I suppose I’ll have to check with the doctor about this, it’s very uncommon for a patient to be this forgetful about things.” She pats his head gently and slowly walks away from the bed. Her long nails trail on the edges of the bed and then rest on the side of her leg…but they seem to be stretching down to her ankles…both her hands transformed into long black claws with daggers for nails. She turns back to him, her face cut in half. The right side of her face is human, but her eyes are bloodshot and her freckles seem to be holes that have trickles of blood oozing from them. Her smile stays the same on her right, but her left has peeled away to reveal the black skull of a deer, and its flesh was dangling on its cheeks and in its mouth. The left eye glowed a vivid red, and stared right into the soul of the boy. He tried to blink away the vision, but it wasn’t working. There was no red light…this was real. A small laugh, deformed and dark, escaped the peeling lips of the nurse. “You look so funny-why? Is there something on my face?” she says tauntingly. Her hair was still there, clean and combed, but her body was getting thinner and sharper. She starts to walk towards him, when something banged into the door and startled both of them. The nurse turns away from the boy and her face shifts back to normal. She opens the door and rushes out, closes it behind her and locks it. The boy hurries out of bed and tries to look through the glass, but it was so tinted and unclear, all he could see were shadows. He heard rushed voices, loud screams of patients in their rooms, and slamming doors. There was chaos going on, but it all went silent after a minute or two. He steps away from the door, trying hard to think. If what I saw wasn’t an illusion…then where the hell am I really? The doorknob starts to shake, and the boy rushes back to the door to try and keep it closed. It opens a little, but the boy pushes it back. “Would you stop-it’s me!” says a voice from behind the door. The boy steps back and lets Reilynn open the door and walk through. “Wha-What are you doing here?!” says the boy with panic, “They’ll find you!” “I told you I was coming back anyway”, says Reilynn, “And they aren’t looking for me…at least, not right now-they’re after some kid from level 17 who got out.” “Level 17?” asks the boy, “How many levels are there?” “Enough to make this place a funhouse.”, says Reilynn, “I’ll explain more, but you have to come with me, they’ll be back for room checks.” She grabs his arm and tugs him away from the room, and then stops to look around the hallways. They see a vent at the end of one of the hallways, and make their way towards it.

They crawl in the vents for about three minutes before finding an opening and crawling back out. After closing the vent, Reilynn goes under one of the desks nearby and rips away the cords from the computer. The boy looks around, seeing the many papers there were in this little office they broke into. “Lock the door.” Says Reilynn, getting up from under the desk. He turns to the door, and locks it, but looks up at the name on the glass. It was backwards and illegible, but the name wasn’t really that much important as escaping. “So, why are we here again?” says the boy, turning back to Reilynn. “I’m trying to find your records.” Says Reilynn, “If I’m going to help you escape, I should at least know the number of the prescription that you’ve taken…among other things.” “Why would they keep my records here? I thought my doctor would have them in his office.” Says the boy. “After you left his office, I saw him give a file to Dr. Huneg-who has every record for every patient-including records of the nurses.” “How did you see him give the file away?” asks the boy, as he crosses his arms and leans onto one of the metal drawers. “Vents.” Says Reilynn, gesturing to the vent with her left hand while holding an empty cardboard box. The boy nods a little and turns his eyes back to Reilynn. “So…how long have you been like this?” he asks. “Um…I really can’t say…I guess…maybe when I first came to the hospital, which was about three months ago, I guess.” “You’ve been in this hospital for three months?” asks the boy, turning away and opening some of the metal drawers behind him. “Yeah,” says the girl, now opening one of the desk drawers, “I’ve gotten pretty sick of their twisted lies and routines and wanted to get out as fast as possible.” The boy turns, and looks at her, seeing her head lowered where most of her face was covered in her purple hair. She suddenly shoves the desk drawer close, and gets up from the floor. “Okay, well, bad news.” She says, “The file isn’t here.” “Then where would it be?” asks the boy, “He couldn’t have just thrown it away.” “No, too much paperwork.” Says Reilynn, “I’m guessing he might have taken it to the record room, which if I’m correct, is three floors up.” She walks to the door and pulls the desk chair with her. After readjusting the top of the chair to be under the doorknob, she turns back to the boy. “In case we get caught, it’s best to have a place to go back to that isn’t easy for others to come in.” she says, and then opens the vent. “How are you so good at this?” asks the boy. “Geez, you’re a walking question mark, aren’t you?” she says, as she gets in the vent.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

They head into the kitchen and Reilynn checks both the entrance and exit before she starts looking through the cabinets, cupboards and fridge. She finds a bag in one of the cupboards, and throws it onto the table. She picks out cans of peaches, a can opener, three bags of chips, a couple of water bottles and a box of matches. The boy finds a package of beef jerky in the closet, but something catches his eye before he picks it up. There was a cardboard box in one of the shelfs, and in it were twenty orange capsules full of white powder. He picks one up and examines the label and its contents. In red it says, “455 TERMINAL POWDER—WARNING: SIDE EFFECTS ARE HIGH RATES OF AMNESIA, MOODSWINGS, SEVERE HEADACHES AND CAN CAUSE BRAIN DAMAGE. IF TAKEN AN OVERDOSE—DEATH.” On the bottom of it, it says, “PATIENT 766”, in blue marker. “Reilynn,” he calls, and she looks up, “What is this stuff?” She sighs and says, “Does it say Terminal Powder and has a patient’s number on the bottom of it?” “Yeah,” he says, holding it up to her, “But, what is it? How do you-” She cuts him off and says, “It’s for us. Anyone who’s taken the pill, and hasn’t given the best results…they take the powder, and either live and get better results or die right there on the spot. No last words, no way of escaping it at all.” She stands up and grabs the bag, throwing it over her shoulder and walking over to the boy. She snatches the capsule from his hand and throws it into the box with the others. She turns back to him and says, “…this is why we have to leave…we have no future of living freely if we stay here any longer.” She shuts the closet door and walks over to the vent to open it and climb inside. The boy follows her reluctantly, but turns back to the closet for one last look. If this is really true…why was I chosen for this?

They manage to find another empty room, and climb out of the vent to take a closer look. It was a break room for the nurses and doctors to have coffee and watch the small television set up in the corner of the room. The room was brightly lit, and the quiet from the hallways made it very eerie rather than welcoming as it should be. The small table that was in the middle of the room was covered in napkins and a small piece of chocolate donut. The chairs had fallen over and everything made it seem like people rushed from the room in a hurry. Papers and coffee spills were all over the floor, so they had to be careful walking around. “Where do you think they headed off to?” asks the boy. “To find that patient,” she answers, “He’s probably gotten a few floors down by now.” “How do you know that?” he asks, “What if he was already found and taken back to his room?” “That’s true.” She says, “But if that were the case, they would have announced it on the speakers.” She walks over to the door and opens it, scanning the outside. She doesn’t even turn back to the boy; she just walks out the door and lets the soft teal light from the hallways flood into the room. “Hey, wait for me!” he calls after her, but he trips over the chair leg and loses his balance. He lands on the side of his arm and winces from the pain. He scrambles up and tries to catch up to her.

When he stumbles out the door, he stops. He sees her standing right in front of him, her back turned. She was standing completely still, as if she had been frozen in place. She slowly turns her head a little towards him and says softly, “Remember when I said…don’t hesitate to hide…” His eyes were wide, he couldn’t even muster the courage to speak. They were fixed onto the giant creature standing right at the end of the hallway. He slowly looks back to her, but her whole body is facing him, her eyes are wide and her voice is hoarse as she says, “…don’t look at it…don’t speak…don’t scream…run and hide now.”