4 Years

Chapter 8

Opening his eyes, Roy stood on the ocean side of the railing, his arms hooked around it, keeping him from falling. Wind blasted his wet skin and a loud car horn scared him to death, nearly making him fall. Looking to the sky, a star that hovered above him, quickly vanished into the pitch-black atmosphere.

'Come back!', he yelled.

A hand grabbed his shoulder, ripping him back over the railing and onto the walkway. His back slamming into the wet floor, Roy groaned with pain and disappointment. A police officer held him down, as two more officers moved in to handcuff him. Elbowing the officer in the face, Roy grabbed hold of the railing, pulling himself up, and tried to throw himself over. Once again, the officers grabbed him and wrestled him away from the railing, as he clung to it with all his might.

'I wanna die! Let me die! I don't want to be in this world!', Roy screamed like a madman.

Succumbing to the three officer's strength, Roy found himself once again on the floor, this time with handcuffs around his wrists and an officers knee digging into his spine, keeping him pinned to the floor. Weeping, he let his head rest on the rain soak walkway and plundered his mind, attempting to find any trace of sanity. He couldn't, and he couldn't understand why he hadn't died. He had jumped, but he didn't die and the star flying away was the icing on the cake. Maybe he was truly mad.

'Why are you doing this?! You could die!', yelled an officer.

'I want too', Roy whispered back.

Rain pelted the bridge, making the officers work fast. Roy was dragged onto the bridge's road, which was blocked off by six police cars, and roughly thrown into the back seat. An officer guarded the door this time, but Roy had no intention of trying to run anymore. An audience of people had gathered outside, leaving their cars jammed behind the roadblock, to see what had happened, but Roy didn't dare look at them. Two officers jumped into the front seats and closed their doors, hiding from the rain. Death staring Roy through his rearview mirror, the driver turned the car on and slowly started to make his way off the bridge, through the crowds of people. Looking out the window, amidst the crowd, was Scarlet, standing underneath an umbrella, protected by John. Time stopped as they saw each other and again, Scarlet held an emotionless expression, as Roy was driven away into the night.

A sharp bump in the road jolted Roy out of his daydream. Driving for over an hour, the officers wouldn't tell Roy where they were going, but he had a strong idea. The only light source came from the hauntingly, ominous glow of the radio's screen. A quiet hum, from a song that played, ricocheted around the car, making the atmosphere scarily quiet. Turning down a road, the car shook violently as the officers continued their journey down an old, abandoned gravel road. Another thirty minutes past, when eventually a massive building appeared in the distance, lit up like a Christmas tree. The first thing Roy noticed was the tall steel spiked security fence, surrounding the building, with a guard tower in every corner of the perimeter. Drawing closer to the building, Roy realised it was the asylum Scarlet warned him about. Hauntingly beautiful, the asylum reached high into the sky and security lights covered its walls, almost making outside the building seem like daytime. The officer stopped in front of the steel gates and rolled his window down so he could talk into an intercom unit.

'We have patient Roy Withers with us, requesting permission to enter the east gate', said the officer in a professional tone.

'Permission accepted. Please take Mr Withers through door 3. Thank you', replied the automated sounding voice.

Creaking open, the officers drove their car through the gates and pulled up in the desolate courtyard. A few doors entered the building and Roy found the one that said number three, contemplating what was behind it. As the two officers exited the car Roy started to panic. His door was yanked open and Roy was dragged out onto the dusty dry earth. Kicking at the officer and thrashing around trying to keep them at bay didn't work as the officer pulled out his baton and beat Roy with it. Smashing it into his ribs Roy yelled in pain but still continued to fight back. The other officer joined in with his baton and whipped it against Roy's skull splitting it open. Dazed and half unconscious someone yelled stop, the three left in a cloud of dust. Looking upside down towards the building shadows of three other men emerged from in front of the lights. Workers of the asylum. All three were wearing white lab coats and all were bald. The man in front wore sleek thin glasses and had a small scar under his left eye.