I felt warm. It was a new feeling in my current life. It could only mean something was wrong as for the last three months the weather had grown colder and colder. I hadn't been offered anything to protect my body from the weather. I felt my forehead and moved my limbs. My forehead wasn't overly hot and neither were my libs sluggish.

'So, not fewer.' I thought. Overall I was feeling just a little groggy from a bad night of sleep on a hardwood board fastened into a wall, but I didn't know where the warmth was coming from. I turned from my left side to my right side throwing the linen sheet I was under away, and felt light hit my closed eyelids. I peeled my eyes open to stare at a black hooded figure. 'figure. I don't know but I am going to call it that till I know better. the figure was at most 6 feet away from me behind the cold iron-barred door.

The figure was targeting a spotlight from a lantern at the door lock with their left hand, and the figure's right hand was twisting something that glowed silver under the spotlight. "Click click Click" a sound came from the lock and soon a "SShining came from the poorly treated hinges as the door opened.

I hunted for a face under the figure's hood, coming to a null as I didn't find anything resembling a face under the black hood. "Come!" I heard the distorted command from the figure as if speaking through something solid. "We haven't got time to fiddle about!"

'WE?' I thought to myself: 'When did I become part of your WE, and where are you taking me?' just as I thought this I heard the scream from above.

"Out, LeT mE oUt, leT uS oUT ...!" the scream came from upstairs, from the ground floors, where the visibly insane were kept. Those kept for the show. I know this as the wardens have walked me through the halls during visiting hours to meet Dr Holmes. now the screams were different desperate even as if scared of something then I understood the reason why I was warm. 'Fire, there is a fire at the asylum!' I yelled in my mind. my eyes enlarging in fright as I remembered the burning of my mother's laboratory.

Just so the figure grabbed hold of my wrist, yanking me to move and breaking me from my thoughts by saying "Move!" And so we were moving. the pace being set by someone else gave me time to study the figure again 'The hand is Small for an adult!' I thought at the figure moving before me, a small figure as a whole, for an adult comparing the figure to people I remembered meeting.' After finishing the thought, The figure stopped, and I almost walked into them.

"We have to get away from here quickly." said the figure as though speaking to someone else. They turned towards me and said, "Hold this." Trusting the lantern in my hands, a second later they bend down to take hold of my right leg and throw me over their right shoulder into a fireman's carry. holding on to my right hand that holds the lantern. after this, She picks up in a sprint through the empty halls. 'She.' I figured out her gender when my leg came to rest against something soft.

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'Empty?' this thought sticks with me as I still remember a couple of days ago when I was escorted to meet with Dr Holmes the cells at the left side of the hall were full. There are always patients here. There is always someone annoying enough in their families for the rich to send here. Now though the cells were empty. "How are the cells empty?" I ask.

"Last of the real patrons were removed before, they threw the fire spirit into the building." Came an answer from the figure and command. "Now be ready to come down we have a door that I need to open." I was about to answer but before I could, I was thrown to the ground. "Shine the light at the lock." Came another command from the figure. 'I still had yet to up with a better thing to call her.'

I shone the lantern spotlight at the lock while The figure took out a silver object from their pocket. At first glance, it looked like a key, but it lacked any teeth to fit into a lock. However, upon inserting it into the lock, the object seemed to transform, molding itself into the right shape to fit the lock perfectly.

After seeing the lock open with a click I got out of my stupor and asked her the question that had been bothering me for a time now. “Who… who are you?” I ask as she turns to look at me, I catch finally a glimpse of her face or so I thought at first. What I saw was a bone-white mask covering her face fully.

"A friend." came an answer from the unmoving mask of a face "I'm a friend of your mother's Cassandra. You can call me Em. Your mother called me that. The answer chilled me down to the bone. My mother disappeared over three years ago and I haven't seen anyone my mother would have called a friend after that.

"Come we need to move through the tunnel before the smoke moves down here and suffocates us" I was startled at this and Em guided me to move before her saying "You have the lantern." Now my head swam with thoughts, 'about my mother and why she disappeared. Who is Em and why did she wait so long to come and be removed from the asylum? Why start the fire/Who started the fire? why was I left at my cell, when everyone else from the floor had been moved? And where is this tunnel leading to? '

"This is the way they move out the dead patients it leads to a building by the riverside. We will well see the fire from there " Came an answer to my last thought from Em.

"I don't want to see the fire," I answer to Em.

"That's a naive answer. A good answer but a naive one, you'll have to see the burning to know that you won't be back it'll help with the scars." answered Em straight back at me.

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Now at the end of the tunnel, I already see the glow of the night sky through the bars of the gate and stop to stare at the still-flowing river of Arhar after my time at the asylum I wasn't sure I would get your of there.

Em moves before me to open the final door to my freedom and I can't do anything other than cry. Cry for the freedom I thought I lost After I searched for my mother's relatives when she didn't return home after a week, but now I am free.

after letting me cry for my freedom for a while Em came to me and said "Don't doze off yet you will have to see the fire still." so I let Em guide me up the bank next to the small building the tunnel connects to and finally gets me to see the asylum burn.