Everyone in the hospital was in a state of panic. We all had the same stage directions.

Olbert had already come into my room around half an hour ago, and all of us were roaming around with no idea of what we needed to do. None of the doctors were around, so there was no need for discipline of any kind. Quite a few patients tried to run away from the hospital. While some were successful, others died on the spot. Maybe the difference was in some hidden objective that they were supposed to finish in the story.

A lot of people started breaking the barricades that the windows had on them. Light rushed in and illuminated the entire building. It felt like I was seeing this place for the first time. And now, instead of looking like a rundown building, it looked more like an overgrown one. I had never noticed the multitude of small plants that were growing all over the place. It was like one of those post-apocalyptic places that were usually shown in shows and films.

I muttered the same thing, which made Olbert question the meaning of it. There was no time to explain to him what films were, so I just told him that we had a lot of illustrations of places like these. Imaginations of what it would look like if nature took over in the absence of humans. He lost interest after that. From his perspective, it probably wasn’t right to be thinking about photos from my original world when every person in the hospital was scared due to the vague, ominous direction we had.

Nobody broke character. Some people were clearly sweating and stressed, but they were sitting in their beds and shouting at other people to calm down and shut up. That one man I had seen on my very first day was still reading his book, while his teeth chattered and his body shook.

“What do you think she’s going to do?” Olbert asked me.

“I don’t know. Fight the doctors, maybe? Make them stop.” I answered.

He shook his head, “No. She won’t be allowed to do that. If they’re going to summon a demon, then it will be summoned for sure. Otherwise, there would be no point to this whole narrative.”

“Murphy’s Law.” I muttered under my breath.

“Who is that?”

“Someone from my previous world. He…” I couldn’t remember. Who was he again?

“I thought you didn’t remember anything from your previous world?” Olbert remarked.

“Yeah. I don’t.” I spoke.

And yet, I remembered films and shows. And a while back, I had thought of speakers. Had I just lost the people I knew? But then again, I hadn't personally known whoever Murphy was supposed to be. And yet, I had the feeling that I had known information on him. Something to do with a story I read sometime long ago.

Olbert shook his head and spoke in a hurry, “We, uh, don’t have time for this. We need to focus on what’s going on.”

Right, there was no telling what could go off-script. I was way too careless with all of these words.

The entire building shook all of a sudden. A few people started shouting. I grabbed a nearby bed and controlled myself. Olbert fell down, but caught hold of the bedpost. A second later, it stopped. Some dust fell on us from the roof.

The man with the book put it down and looked around, taking long breaths, before picking it up and starting to read again. A second later, his expression changed to one of calmness.

The demon was going to be summoned in the basement, according to all the evidence we had. And in the underground, the basement was right below the cafeteria, which was the area which Sylvia had told us to steer clear from. Then, it was safe to assume that once it appeared, it would destroy all of those places in one go. If we had had time left yesterday, maybe we could have given other people Sylvia’s warning. But now, we had no choice but to let people go where they went. That too, just because of the small chance that we might die if we did that.

“We can’t just stay here.” Olbert said, “The demon will clearly be summoned soon. We need to move to the basement and stop those doctors!”

He was contradicting himself. Didn't he just say that there was no stopping them?

“And how are we supposed to do that?” I refuted, “Sylvia knows how to fight, so when the time comes, she will do what’s necessary.”

“She can't stop it!” Olbert shouted, “We need to do that ourselves if we want these people to live. Those doctors need to be stopped, no matter what.”

Was he alright? Maybe he had some other, new stage directions. Or was he just...

“I’ll kill them if I need to.” Olbert fumed, “I can handle my father later anyways!”

And then, he ran.

There had been no hesitation in his voice, as if he did not mind what he was saying at all. But that didn’t make sense. He wasn’t like this in reality. On top of that, as far as I was aware, even he had originally gotten the same one-word direction as the rest of us. He didn’t need to go that far to act it out.

I ran after him, towards the basement.

When I got to room number nine, he was pulling the trapdoor.

“You can’t be serious. You would never kill them.” I told him, “We don’t know how to fight like her. All we can do is wait!”

“I’ve waited, Ryworn.” Olbert said as the trapdoor started to go up a little. Sylvia had opened that thing on her own. How could he not understand the difference between us, even when it was so obvious?

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He continued to shout and speak, “I’ve hid in my house, ever since all of this began. My father kept talking about peace, and I kept nodding my head. I still do, yes. But he died. And I thought I would keep his ideas alive. So, even when I was thrown into this place, facing the first actual theatre of my life, I held on to him. But how much longer am I going to keep thinking about myself?!”

I had been thinking it was a part of his character. That he had been fluctuating due to stage directions. But right then, once he finished speaking, his right hand fell to the ground, bleeding. The place where it had been cut, was covered in red. He had just been punished. For speaking the truth.

He shouted and pushed the trapdoor open.

“Kill me if you dare.” He looked up before directly jumping down.

Once I heard the sound of him hitting the ground, I ran to the entrance to look down. He hadn’t fallen on his feet, but he used his remaining arm to push himself up, and started running inside.

I went down the ladders to follow him. I knew I would be hurting him by doing this, but I needed to stop him before he killed himself doing something stupid. It didn’t matter if he felt bad about all these people. There was nothing he was going to be able to do if he did not have the strength for it. He was the one who had told me to keep living as repayment. How did he think he could throw himself away like that?

By the time I got to the end, he had already turned the corner and moved towards the second door which led to the main summoning chamber. I went after him, and when in the changing room-like area, saw that that door had already been opened.

I pushed it once more and ran in.

Olbert was standing right at the edge of the small flight of stairs which led down to the symbol. I went and stood right behind him.

The symbol was growing brighter than ever, in a much darker red. In the middle of it, lay three dead doctors. There was no injury on their body other than a large brown spot on their necks. Sylvia lay on top of a fourth man, choking him with one hand, while another one glowed orange, pointed towards the wall to her right, where the fifth doctor was suspended in the air, surrounded with a similar orange haze.

“You-” Olbert was panting, with his hand covering his injury.

She turned to us as soon she heard his voice, and panicked.

The hold she had on the fourth one got a bit loose and he pulled himself up a bit, pushing her off of him. Sylvia turned her attention back to the fight, and made sure that the fifth doctor did not get away too.

The fourth one hurried to one of the walls and got to a small crate that was lying there. He pushed the top away and revealed a long dagger with gold engravings on it. He took it and turned towards the girl, who had all of her attention on the fifth doctor.

Both of her hands, now together, were shaped as if she was choking someone. The orange glow had moved. Now, it was concentrated only on his neck, and was much darker than before. I kept looking, but Olbert jumped down the stairs and ran towards the fourth doctor, who was running towards Sylvia with the dagger raised. Olbert pushed him down and both of them fell down on the floor.

The doctor pinned below Olbert tried to get him off, but it did not work. Olbert’s hand was on his neck, while his knee held his chest down.

“Stay there.” Olbert grunted.

The doctor raised the hand which had the dagger and pointed it towards Olbert, who had no remaining way of stopping it. I started to run forward, intending to help him out. But then, instead of stabbing the one who was on top of him, the doctor threw the dagger towards Sylvia, who was still focused on the fifth one. The dagger flew and hit her thigh. She shrieked, and let go off her magic.

The fifth doctor fell down and started to cough.

The one pinned down started to punch Olbert on the shoulder, but it did not seem to be working.

Sylvia pulled the knife out of her thigh, wincing. Then, before the fifth one could do anything, she walked up to him, and stuck it in his throat. His eyes widened, and he gasped for air. His coughs continued as she pulled the knife out again and turned to Olbert and the last remaining doctor.

“Thanks.” She whispered as she limped over to them.

The newly dead one fell down to the ground as blood gushed out from his neck; his eyes still open. The blood was flowing down the floor, and into the symbol, which made it shine even brighter in that direction.

“No!” The doctor croaked, looking at the blood, “It’s too…”

Once Sylvia was beside him, Olbert stepped aside and took deep breaths, crying a little. She bent down and stabbed the man in the heart. Then, she kicked the body aside with the knife still lodged in, and sighed.

“You covered yourself well.” She looked at Olbert, panting.

He nodded with a small smile.

They had stopped the doctors. Saved the hospital.

But it was Olbert who had said that there was no way to stop them. So, how was this possible? Judging by the actions he had just taken, that had been the 'Olbert' side of him speaking. It had been the script, which is what needed to be followed. But even though there were more doctors who could always come and help out, it was obvious that Sylvia would have killed all of them anyways, even without our help. How was it going to work, then?

Something had to happen. Olbert had invoked Murphy’s Law. And he was right. There was no way this could be allowed.

“Now, get out.” She looked at the symbol below them as she stood up.

“Get out?” Olbert asked, “I mean, the danger is over, right?”

She turned to him and raised her eyebrows, “Are you serious? You need to run, and quick. The ritual is complete.”

“C-Complete?” Olbert whispered, using the crates behind him to push himself up.

“Yeah.” She said as she gestured towards the door, “So, get out before the demon appears. I’ll be right behind you. First, I need to make sure that the summoning goes off without problems.”

“Shouldn’t you be stopping it?” He asked.

“They were the ones stopping it.” She pointed to the doctors, “I was the one who started it.”

“What?” He whispered.

This wasn’t good. I should have expected something like this. Maybe she was the twist villain. I got between her and Olbert. It was better if we left and tried to run instead of getting into any kind of confrontation.

Sylvia explained, “They would have taken around three or four more days to finish the summoning. I ended it prematurely. The demon will be much smaller and weaker than it originally should have been.”

“You’re going to let those people die.” He looked up.

Sylvia sighed and bent down to touch the symbol, “Yeah, but if I didn’t, then everyone would. I’m giving you a chance to run and live, so take it. I don’t have time to waste on conversations like these.”

“Yo-” Olbert bent down and pulled the knife out of the doctor’s body. He raised it stepped towards Sylvia. I stopped in him in his tracks, but he shouted at her.

Unfazed, she kept her hands on the symbol and closed her eyes. A second later, she looked up and sternly declared, “It’s coming. Just a few seconds. Stay here if you want. But once more, I’d recommend getting out.”

She started for the room’s exit.

Olbert shouted and tried to push towards her with the knife.

“Calm down!” I shouted in his ear, “For now, we need to get out.”

He did not reply. I looked down to see that he was in tears. His screams soon turned into loud crying.

I pulled him towards the stairs, and he soon gave up on all aggression, and started slowly walking on his own. I still made sure not to let go of him. All three of us got to the top of the stairs and looked towards the symbol. Sylvia told me to get behind her and start running. I pushed past with a thanks, while Olbert continued to glare at her while sobbing.

Just before I turned, I saw four black fingers slowly come out from the symbol. They were long. Almost enough to get to my knees. And then, the thumb and the palm started to come up. The room lost its red glow and went dark.

“Right. Time to leave.” Sylvia said before turning and walking.

The hand, now completely out, grabbed the wall and tore into them as the arms started to slowly follow.

I also turned and started to leave towards the stairs.

As we picked up the pace, paired with the sound of breaking and crumbling rocks, was a loud, spine-chilling roar.