Three strangers, Bentley (Anton Yelchin), Matthias (Freddie Highmore), and Hana (Imogen Poots) are selected for an "innocent" social experiment where they are to experience their worse nightmares and impossible dreams. Placed in an empty asylum, th...
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The three of them followed the man in the button up shirt down another hallway. This time, the hallway led upwards where small light bulbs hung from the ceiling. The man did not speak to them except when he wanted them to hurry up, or to take a left or a right.
Hana moved closer to Bentley, wanting badly to grab his arm, but she kept to herself and reminded herself she shouldn't attach herself to someone she barely knew.
Matthias walked behind them, hands in pockets and eyes observing every groove, crack, or marking in the walls. It was on purpose he lagged behind, as he wanted to disappear into the shadows and investigate the place all by himself. He knew Bentley and Hana would do fine as long as they stayed together. However, he was also aware the owner of the asylum knew the place better than him and could easily trap him or rearrange the place without him knowing.
Bentley looked over his shoulder, eyeing Matthias. "Hey, Matt--,"
"Don't call me Matt."
"Okay, Matthias, where do you think he's...where do you think we're going?"
The man ahead of them replied in a flat tone, "You want to know why you're all here?"
Matthias perked his head and hurried up behind the other two. Breaking in between the two, he said in a tone Bentley and Hana had never heard since they had met him: scared. "Why did you bring us?"
"Excellent question, Matthias. Like most bizarre experiments, some started out trying to do good. Such as, finding a cure for cancer. Or, trying to stop criminals, or, well, something with a point. But here, at this asylum, we lure the smartest young adults in America to do stupid things."
Bentley exhaled a shuddering sigh. Closing his eyes, he said, "We didn't want to do this. You threatened us and said you'd kill our families and exploit us and destroy our lives. We-we didn't know," he opened his eyes and glanced over at Hana and then at Matthias, "we thought the experiments would be simple, safe, why can't you kill us now?"
"Simple, Bentley, so simple. Killing is easy. You are all alive and breathing and burning with fear that it'll be a loss to just kill you without seeing what the human mind is capable of before death."
"You're sick," Hana trembled, "why haven't you been caught?"
"Caught? This used to be an old theme park, that transferred to a haunted house, to now, my torture asylum. It's a cursed place and no one wants to come here. People of your intelligence are too far above to know about this place. 'Word on the street' says this place is owned by sad, sad people who come here to die a special way. Let's just say, it's a slaughterhouse run by me. The people who work here are people who want to belong, but not to a normal crowd."
Matthias reached down and squeezed Hana's hand. He was afraid, but didn't know how else to hide it except in the one female he felt he could trust.
"Why would you do this?" Bentley inquired, stepping forward. "Why haven't anyone--,"
"Anyone killed me? Bentley, who would kill me? No one cares about me. I didn't make friends, my family all died. I didn't kill them, but, it was a car accident and I became an orphan. Tragic, isn't it. But you all should relate to me somehow."
"Relate?" Hana scoffed. "We couldn't relate to you at all."
"You're right. You're not murderers, but twisted enough somewhere. Bentley, you're so tender and fragile, yet, you know you've thought of ways to kill those who've ignored you, put you 'in your place,' the girls who didn't go out with you, the parents who pushed you to succeed, but not for you, and on and on it goes."
Bentley shook his head. "No, I'm not insecure. You're just messing with my head because that's what you do. That's what I've realized you do. You can gather enough information and make up a story that could fit with anyone. Just change the name and they'll think you know them better than they do. But I'm not your puppet. I'm not an orphan, I belong to a family that thinks I'm on some stupid internship but I'm not. I'm...here."
The man smirked and rested his fists on his hips. "You're so smart. I thought I had you. But there's one thing you won't be able to fight face to face." Without a warning, the man lunged forward, grabbed Bentley firmly by the shirt collar and spun him into a choke hold. "Death? Can you fight death?"
"Let him go!" Hana shrieked.
The man laughed and reached down to a canister on the floor, one that was hidden by the shadows. Holding it up, he looked at the other two and said, "Hope you can find some water." Locking Bentley firmly, the man poured gasoline all over him before gripping him by the jaw and dumping the liquid down his throat.
"Stop it!" Hana rushed forward with Matthias behind her. She pulled her fist back to strike the man before the side of the canister slammed against her face, sending her to the floor.
Matthias ducked and tackled the man's legs, knocking the three of them to the ground.
The man took out a lighter and lit the end of Bentley's shirt. Yellow and red roared up to the ceiling, giving the man enough time to scramble away and disappear down another hallway.
Jerking his jacket off, Matthias smothered the fire out, stopping it from travelling any further on Bentley's body. "Stay here, buddy. Hana, make sure he vomits this all up. He could die."
Hana ran forward and knelt down beside Bentley, who was a coughing and retching mess. "Wait, are you going to follow him?"
"Yes. Stay right here."
"No, Matthias, you can't. Stay with us. He'll trap you. You don't know where we even are."
"He won't kill me. Not yet. Stay here, okay?" Matthias gave her a small smile before vanishing down the same hallway he had last seen the man run down.
Bentley, panting and breathing unevenly, said in a raspy voice, "Hana, go stop Matthias. He can't go alone."
"But then you'll be alone. Matthias will be fine. We can't split up. Here, put his jacket on and we'll go after him together. Can you get up?"
"Yeah."
Hana helped up Bentley off the floor and buttoned up the jacket Matthias had lent to him. Draping his arm around her neck, she supported him long enough until he could walk by himself.
"What if we get lost?" Bentley asked.
"I don't know. But we'll be fine."
Just after those words, the light bulbs above them shattered and all went black.
