Lunatic (l.s)

Chapter 12- Z

The walls of the asylum corridors are thick with moss and the air is dense with the smell of mould. Zayn physically cringes at the squelching beneath his boots. It’s pretty dark and hard to see if a guard was coming, actually, it was hard to even see a meter in front of him. Zayn’s mouth is sandpaper dry and his heart is beating loudly in his ears, he can hear his own heart thudding over his ragged breathing. Liam’s keys are heavy in his back pocket of his jeans, and they feel as if they’re going to burn through the fabric. Zayn focuses on listening as he walks a bit faster, there is no concept of time here, it feels like it’s been hours but it’s only been 20 minutes. The tunnels and corridors of the asylum never seem to end, with sudden left and right turns. Zayn can tell he’s near D block, because he can tell that it’s been uncared for, with the moss growing over the walls and the dirty floors, at some points there’s puddles of murky substances and Zayn’s pretty sure it could even be acidic. Every now and then there’s a big steel door that Zayn would pass, that had been barred up like a prison cell window. It only made Zayn curious as to what actually happened down here, back on the other side of the Asylum no one speaks of D block, it’s like an unwritten rule, and at least he thinks that. In the time he’s been here, he had barely even heard of D block, even Liam seemed slightly weary even speaking of it. Liam kept his summary of D block short and brief. Zayn believed it was the proper institutional side of the asylum for the patients that are locked away for their own safety and for the safety of others. Liam had explained that Harry had been here for a few times and Zayn could understand why, especially with Harry’s past. Harry had even come back a few times injured apparently, so who knows what they’d done now. Zayn freezes as he hears voices coming closer and footsteps moving fast. The clunk of the boots are all too familiar and Zayn stops breathing. There’s nowhere to hide, there’s guards about to round the corner and Zayn is in the open. Zayn looks around frantically, heart thudding harder and louder before he spots a door that hasn’t been barred.

Please, for the love of all that’s holy, let this door be unlocked. Please.

Zayn thinks to himself before quickly running towards the door and pressing on it, he closes his eyes and exhales as the door opens with ease. He slides in and closes it, and presses his back to the door, eyes squeezed shut. He breathes in slowly, and exhales quietly. It takes another 20 seconds before he can hear the boots walking down the corridor. They’re talking and Zayn strains his ears so he can listen.

“I can’t believe it actually working, Mrs Landles said that the psychiatrist report came back and he has nothing wrong with him anymore. He’s just a normal man. He isn’t…so fucking weird. I was talking to him earlier and he spoke back, without some sly come back, and he doesn’t get angry. He thinks his name is Jake, he thinks he had a wife and she died or some shit. I don’t know man, it’s crazy.  He said he wishes he could remember everything and he wants to see a picture of his wife,”

“What are they going to show him, they wouldn’t show them a picture of her you don’t think? He might remember everything, and I don’t think Mrs Landles would appreciate that, and what are they going to do once he realises he should be going home to his family…I don’t understand,”

“I think they’re just going to show him a random photo, in hopes that he just gets a bit sad and then accepts it? I don’t really know man, but I think Mrs Landles is actually going to let him on the outside world eventually, but I think he’ll be being flown somewhere out of the state, so it’s like a start over and stuff. He’ll have a guard stay with him, it’ll be like saying it’s emotional support, I don’t even know. I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but apparently if his memory hasn’t started coming back by the end of the week, he’s going to leave,”

“I would have never guessed it,”

“Guessed what?”

“The Harry Styles leaving this place, he was in here for life and now he’s had this miracle fucking experiment done and he’s normal,”