1906 [h.s.]

four

"What do you mean?" I asked him, but he ignored me, preferring to look outside again.

Somehow, the light of the moon had been killed by a dark cloud, and it had started to rain. The drops assaulted the seemingly breakable glass of the windows violently, and bent the old and uncultivated plants of the cloister.

"What are you doing here?" He finally asked.

"I've already told you. I'm searching for a way out" I snapped back.

"I meant, in the Hospital."

"Oh. Just a bet with some friends. Turns out I should've listened to the tale instead."

He seemed confused. "What tale?"

"The one of the asylum? Don't you know it? How it was abandoned in 1909 and all" I explained fast, not wanting to waste time on what was obvious.

"Abandoned?"

"Don't you know?"

"Not at all."

"Oh okay" I replied, and took a look around. Because the moon had been hidden, it was now almost impossible to see anything but the man in front of me, everything else being surrounded by the darkness. "And you?" I asked him. "Why were you admitted? Are you crazy or something like that?"

The look on his face hardened. "That is not something you should be asking."

"I'm... Sorry?" I turned on the flashlight again, just to see what was going on around us. Being in the most complete darkness was starting to make me uncomfortable, considering the place we were in.

He sighed, and looked outside. "The rain has started to fall. You should find a way out now."

"It'll be a challenge, it's so fucking dark, I can barely see anything."

He glanced at me. "It should be around 11 o'clock now, you have one hour."

I automatically checked my phone at his mention of the time to see if he was right. For once, my phone revealed itself useful and, despite there not being connection in that place, it still managed to show me the time. I stared at it, my eyebrows furrowed, when I realised that he was indeed right. "Why's the connection..." I started to say, still confused as to why it wasn't there, considering it had seemed to be working just fine before I entered the building, but I didn't continue the sentence, knowing that there was nobody that could've replied.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noticing that I was upset.

"There is no connection. It's as if we were out of the world or something. It has never happened before" I explained, still staring at the screen.

"We are" he simply said.

"What does it even mean? It's raining outside, for fuck's sake. We aren't." I hissed at him.

"We aren't outside though, are we?"

"What kind of bullshit is this?" I snapped, glaring at him.

"Pardon?"

"I'm going outside. And you're coming with me 'cause I don't wanna get lost and you seem to know your way around here."

He said nothing, but didn't oppose to my not so requested request, settling for walking next to me, a little sardonic smile on his face.

We walked through the many corridors I had already met, reaching the front door in no time. I glanced at my phone, turning on the screen to check the time, letting out a nervous sigh when the battery went down a little more. 11:20pm. How had it already got so late? I said the time out loud so that Harry, standing sceptically behind me, could know it as well.

"You have forty minutes to find a way out" he simply said.

"Why only forty?" I asked, staring at the way the rain was hitting the glass of the door.

"If I were you, I would get out of here before midnight."

I turned around, looking into his dark green eyes, barely lightened by the dim grey-blue light coming from the dusty glass of the door. "Why?"

"Because at midnight, it'll be too late."

"What do you mean?" I asked, but the little smile found its way on his lips once again, and no word came out.

"You know this place though, don't you?" I asked again.

"I suppose I do."

"You can help me to get out, can't you?"

"Pet, there is no way out."

"You just said there was!" I exclaimed, frustrated, putting my phone back into the back pocket of my jeans.

"There should be. But there simply isn't."

"You seem strong enough, just open the damn front door" I replied, glaring at him.

"The door is not just closed, haven't you understood? It won't open. It never will" he replied.

"There must be a way out of this place!" I blurted, getting into the office close to the door, determined to find some kind of information.

I reached the library, and started to observe it to see if there was some kind of official paper that could've helped me. All of sudden, a letter and a word caught my attention. An "S" engraved on a shelf, and a binder called "Patients". I turned around, I was alone. He hadn't followed me into the room. I carefully took it, not wanting the sound of it sliding on the wooden surface of the shelf to be too loud, crouched down behind the desk, and opened it. Inside, there were two folders, called "Male" and "Female". I ignored the second, putting it aside, and opened the first. There were many papers, all similar to the one I had found in the Male Ward. I wondered what was it doing there, since all the others seemed far away from it. I flicked through them all, not paying much attention to them, until I found the one I was interested in. I glanced at the doorway once again, just to make sure he wouldn't have come in, and then I started reading. It was a simple paper, with no picture, but the name written at the top in neat black letters was unmistakable.

EASTMOUNT PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
Project Black Widow

Patient n. 384
Name: Harry Styles
Date of birth: February 1st, 1883
Date of admission: March 20th, 1905
Date of death: -

Additional Information: Disappeared on October 6th, 1906.

"Are you done trying to find a solution?" I heard his voice from the doorway, and I threw the binder under the desk as silently as possible.

"What?" I asked, standing up.

"It should be around a quarter to midnight. We have to go" he said.

"Why?"

He seemed slightly annoyed by all my questions, but he didn't let it show too much. "Trust me, you don't want to be here after midnight" he told me, and walked away.

Not wanting to be left alone, I couldn't help but follow him.