american asylum

chapter eight :: room three (matthias)

Matthias remained seated at the table, his hands folded, head bowed just low enough for his eyes to land on the floor ahead of him, and his feet crossed beneath him.  Unlike the other two, Matthias was not taken to a new room, for his room was in his mind.

The door opened, being the first sound Matthias had heard since Hana was taken from him, and the man in the button up shirt walked in.  He was holding a folder and his face was expressionless.

"What did you do with the other two?"  Matthias asked, lifting his eyes slightly.

The man sat down across from him and smirked.  "Why didn't you say their names?"

Matthias looked back and forth, searching for a reply.  "What do you mean?"

"Their names.  You referred to them as 'the other two.'"

"Because they're are two of them."

There was silence.  The kind of silence that made Matthias realise he was under an interrogation.  And not just an interrogation, but the one where the victim and the suspect was himself.  He hated explaining himself, and he knew the man in the button up shirt was well aware of that.  To speak about his motives, his own criteria for survival, and his past was the worse type of torture he could experience.

"We have you on tape shoving Hana against the wall when she challenged you."

"She didn't challenge me," Matthias questioned through a tight jaw.  "I do have issues, everyone does."

The man in front of him smirked and flipped the folder open.  "We've researched you, Matthias.  We know what makes you tick, the buttons to press, and the branches to break. Though you are extremely smart, analytical, and surprisingly aren't phased with death or gore, there's something that you are running away from."

Matthias remained silent, his eyes know locked on his captor.  "Of course.  I can tell you everything about myself, too.  I'm not afraid of me -- I know the demons I can't shake."

"Yes, but the demons know you better.  You were sexually abused by your father for six years, bullied through school, subject to harassment at your first job by your female boss, rejected from the military because of your unpredictable temper, you were almost turned down from your school if they hadn't discovered that you're a prodigy.  However, you are determined not to let your past define you, but we know that isn't true."  The man closed the folder and eyed Matthias.  "Anything I've left out?"

"You have," Matthias replied before standing straight up and flipping the table hard enough to knock the man backwards in his chair.  The edge of the table smashed against the captor's neck, giving Matthias the perfect advantage to continue pressing the edge of the fragile throat.   "Here's what you left out," Matthias said calmly, "at the age of fourteen, I killed my father by pouring gasoline on his body while he was asleep--,"

"I can't breathe!"  the man stammered, his arms and legs flailing around.

"I lit him on fire and left.  I planned it to make it look like my Mum did it.  She hated him, too, so she was the perfect suspect.  Afterwards, I lived with my grandparents, who sent me to the school.  I didn't mean to hurt Hana, I'm not going to let anyone hurt them.  They're my responsibility  now.  You, my friend, have given me the chance to really rid of my past by making sure those two come out alive."  Holding the table harder against the man's throat, Matthias leaned down, close enough to whisper into his ear, and said, "You forgot to lock the door on your way in."

With those final words, Matthias crushed the man's throat with the table, tossed it aside, and walked towards the door.  Taking a deep breath, he swung it open and stepped out.  He was sure security would be coming to find him in at any time, then again, why didn't they stop him while he was killing the man in the button up shirt? 

Matthias headed down a hallway, drumming his fingers on his chin.  He didn't understand why he wasn't stopped.  Did security want him to kill the man in the button up shirt?  Was there someone eviler to take his place?  Heightening his pace, Matthias broke into a run, not knowing where he was going, except that somewhere, the hallway would take him to Hana and Bentley.

Up ahead, Matthias spotted a Y in the hallway.  Coming to a skidding halt, Matthias looked to the left and then to the right.  They looked the same and there was no feeling inside of him that was telling him to go a certain way. 

"Dammit."

"Are you lost?"  came an eerie voice behind him.  It was strangely familiar.  As if that same voice had spoken to him just a few moments ago.

Matthias closed his eyes, counted to three, and looked over his shoulder.  There, dressed in a starched button up shirt with khaki pants and black shined shoes, was him.  "I...you...you're dead."

"Do you believe in the afterlife?"  the man said, opening his hands up and spreading them apart in a religious mock. 

"No, I don't.  But I do believe in twins."  Matthias turned around fully, tucking his hands in his pockets.  He tilted his chin up and smiled a small smile.  "Clever.  You sent your twin in and I killed him.  That would've worked on someone else, not me."

"Matthias, Matthias, Matthias.  You're so clever.  How did you know?"

"The one who came in to talk to me had a limp and he didn't lock the door behind me.  You also didn't have anyone to stop me, which means, you wanted me to get out."

The man chuckled and clasped his hands together.  "You're so correct.  Now, let me tell you the next step since you're picking up on this so fast.  To your left, is Hana.  To your right is Bentley.  If you rescue Hana, you'll have your eyes gouged out...slowly.  You rescue Bentley, we'll gouge Hana's eyes out.   The choice is up to you, unless you find another way.  Good luck, and welcome to the second level!"

Then, without a warning, a loud blaring sound lit up the tunnel and a timer projected from a lens somewhere from the ceiling, shined on to the wall in front of him.

30 minutes.

15 minutes for each.  That is, if Matthias found a way to save both of them without either getting harmed.