1906 [h.s.]

twenty-two

"Time to go" Harry said all of sudden, and I looked up at him.

"Already?"

"One hour to midnight. It is now or never" he replied quickly, standing up and checking his trousers for any dirt, turning around.

"They're clean" I told him, and he gave me a weird glance.

"I wonder how you'd know it."

Realising that I had basically just let him know that I had looked at his bottom, I blushed, and didn't say anything.

"It happens to the best of us" he added, succeeding in making me even more embarrassed.

Why was he so...? I couldn't find a word to describe him. I would've said annoying, but it couldn't quite do it. He was polite, but was he kind? It didn't look like it. It kind of seemed like he had a short temper, but it was quite impossible to know that, given how poised he always looked. He wasn't afraid of saying what went through his mind, but wasn't mean about it. He was bold. In an exclusive early twentieth century gentleman version. What the fuck. He drove me crazy. I couldn't understand what went through his mind, and I didn't like that. I would've thought he was weird, if it wasn't that, coming from two different centuries, it was obvious that there were some noticeable differences between us - not only behaviour wise.

"Come on" he said, carefully opening the door and glancing outside in the hallway.

I sighed and stood up, stepping closer to him. "What if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing will." He exited the room and I followed, staying close to him.

As we walked down the corridor I realised that nobody was in sight. It was as if the whole ward was completely empty.

"Where's everybody?" I whispered to Harry.

He turned around to glance at me. "Female Ward. The blackout is there in this moment."

I nodded. "I get why you were saying it's easy, then. But when we'll go back won't the lights in the Female Ward be on again? There will be people around."

"The kitchen is empty at night. We will wait for the Male Ward blackout there." We reached the main door of the Male Ward and he pushed it open. "Careful. People might be in the common room."

As we exited the ward Harry slowly closed the door, trying not to disrupt the eerie silence of the room. We carefully walked between the tables and chairs to an open door at the back of the room.

"Literally nobody is around" I whispered in surprise, and Harry gave me a harsh glance.

"We don't want to attract people" he hissed.

"Alright, sorry" I said rolling my eyes at his behaviour.

We reached the half-hidden door and Harry carefully pushed it open, inviting me to go inside.

"Careful" he whispered, "something's on the floor."

I moved to the side, looking attentively at where I was putting my feet.

He slid inside, closing the door behind himself.

"What now?" I whispered to him, but he just motioned me to stay silent.

Harry stepped closer to me. "We are in the middle of the Hospital. We will attract more attention if we make any sound" he whispered into my ear. "Follow me" he said taking my hand and walking between two shadows I couldn't quite recognise.

I glanced around in the darkness when his hand left mine, but it was too dark for me to make out anything more than the outlines of furniture. My breath hitched when I heard a scratching sound somewhere behind me.

"It's me" I heard Harry's deep voice whisper in my direction and I nodded even though I knew we couldn't see each other.

The last note of his voice echoed all around, making me realise that the room we were in was rather big. In fact it had to be, considering the number of people of the asylum.

"Here" Harry murmured, suddenly way closer than before, putting something in my hands.

I touched the rough and mealy surface of the object. "What is it?" I whispered to him.

"Bread."

I took the piece of bread he had given me and divided it before starting to eat it in silence.

"Drink something" Harry said after a while, passing me a bottle of what I supposed was water.

I took off the cap and drank a bit, discovering that it was water indeed, before closing it again.

All of sudden I heard the familiar sound of steps coming from somewhere not too far away from where we were standing. "Fuck" I hissed.

"Silence" Harry whispered to me. "They won't come inside unless they hear something."

After some seconds the steps faded away, just as fast as they'd come around, and I allowed myself to breathe in again.

"We will have to stay here for some more time" he said next to me.

"How much longer? This place is creepy, I can't see anything" I replied truthfully. To be honest, there wasn't a single room inside the asylum that wasn't profoundly creepy, but there was something about not being able to see in a place in which I was most likely surrounded by crazy people that unsettled me way more.

"The lights will be on soon in the Female Ward" he told me, "Twenty minutes after they will be off in the Male Ward. That is when we will move."

"Twenty more minutes? That's a long time" I sighed. "Can I sit on the floor?"

"Don't."

"You're right. I bet that this place is really messy. I don't even want to think of how dirty everything is in here."

"You have made some daft choices for someone who doesn't like dirty things" he commented, and I looked at where his voice came from.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him, resentment in my voice.

"Are you aware of the fact that you willingly entered an abandoned hospital?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "I don't want to talk about this right now, Harry."

He didn't reply, and for some seconds we stood in silence.

I uncapped the bottle and drank some more, before closing it again. I tapped against the glass of the bottle, starting to grow a bit uncomfortable holding it. I extended my hand until I touched one of the outlines next to me, noticing that it was some kind of counter.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, sensing the movement.

"Just putting down the water" I replied, putting the bottle down on the counter. With the only exception that I put it too close to the border, and before I knew it slipped from my grasp and shattered loudly at our feet.

"Bloody hell!" Harry hissed at the sound as I heard some voices come from outside.

He grabbed my hand and rushed behind one of the counters and the wall, hissing at me to stay down as the sound of steps came closer. All of sudden the door was opened, and I saw the outline of a man stand in the doorway.

"Who's here?" He asked to the silence.

Harry took something from the counter and threw it in the middle of the room, the loud sound echoing between the walls.

The man stepped further into the room, and Harry took it as his chance to stand up and rush out of the door, his fingers wrapped tightly around my arm. Luck wasn't on our side though, because we accidentally knocked down an empty bottle on the ground, making our presence known to the man.

"Patients escaping!" He shouted, running towards us.

Harry pushed me forward, knocking down a chair behind him hoping to slow down the man. "Run!"

Without needing him to tell me twice, I took off in the direction of the Male Ward.