Chapter 19
“Where the fuck are the cells, Sheila?” I growl through a clenched jaw.
I hold her down over the counter of the nurse’s station, with one hand around her throat, and the other holding my now bloody shank in a threatening position just over her face.
“I don’t know,” she whimpers.
“Other than Dr. Martin, Dr. Halstead is the only one who knows, and he is not here today.”
That fucking psychopath is crazier than both Alexsander and myself.
He does experiments on patients in the basement, including lobotomies.
There’s a reason the medical community hasn’t performed certain procedures since the mid-twentieth centuries.
Like Dr. Martin, I don’t think he has any interest in helping anyone.
It’s more about satisfying a sick urge to hurt people.
I’m not different, I guess, but at least I’m honest about it.
I never pretended to be interested in anyone’s healing.
I jab Sheila in the throat as she tries to scream. Her mouth opens, but nothing comes out, and then she’s dead.
“We still don’t know anything,” Heather says, with a frustrated expression on her face.
Turning to her, I grin, and shake my head in disagreement.
“I have a suspicion. Let’s go,” I say, as I step back from Sheila’s dead body.
She didn’t tell us in words, but she did give me a clue.
I think it’s in the basement, on Halstead’s side.
There are tunnels down there, and I’ve never taken the time to investigate where they lead to.
I’ve always assumed they led to the outside, but now I’m not so sure.
I guess we’re about to fucking find out.
As we walk through the hallway, the other patients stare at me with a mixture of curiosity, and fear, when they spot my hands and arms covered with blood.
Nobody says a word, because they don’t want to be part of it.
Darren looks the longest, but when he notices my expression, he quickly averts his gaze.
I walk over to Mike, and tilt my head as I speak to him.
“The elevators are to stay open. We’re going to the basement. I assume I don’t need to explain what happens if you disobey me.”
“Is this about the girl? Dr. Martin and I have a deal, so I can’t help you.”
I slam my fist into his chest, knocking him into the wall behind him.
“What’s the deal?”
He alternates between coughing and groaning, but finally answers my question.
“I get to fuck her.”
Pressing my shank to his throat, I stare directly into his eyes.
“Nobody fucks her but me.”
He arches an eyebrow, but is careful not to move.
“Since when? Alexsander has been fucking her constantly. He said she’s his fuck doll to pass around.”
I swallow hard at the memory of him saying the same thing to me, as an unfamiliar feeling of guilt washes over me. I’m not opposed to sharing under normal circumstances, but I won’t share her. Not anymore.
“The thing that sucks for you, Mike, is I don’t actually need you to fuck with the elevators for me. I’ll just take your pass after I kill you.”
I plunge my shank into his throat like the others, before he has a chance to respond.
Heather stares at me, taking in every kill.
If she thinks I’m a monster like most people do, she doesn’t say so.
Mike’s body slides down the wall and hits the floor.
I lean over him, yanking his badge for the elevator off his belt, grabbing his stun gun and baton, just in case I need them.
I don’t honestly know what I’m going to find, once we get to the basement.
It’s entirely possible that Bianca is already dead.
I don’t know why that bothers me so fucking much, why the thought alone causes my chest to tighten, and I don’t have time to unpack it right now.
“We’re going into the tunnels,” I say to Heather as we step into the elevator.
“I don’t know what’s in there. Probably rats, and filth. If you want to stay behind, now is the time. Once I get in there, I’m not leaving until I find her. I won’t escort you back to safety.”
She places her hands on her hips, and stares up at me with a scowl.
“You call this place safe? I’m tougher than I look, Raven. My life hasn’t been unicorns and rainbows, okay? I can handle whatever it takes to get out of here, with Bianca.”
I hit the button for the basement, and grit out the words I really don’t want to say.
“She might not be alive.”
Heather responds as we walk through the open doors.
“Yes, she is. I told her we’d find a way out of here, but until then, she had to survive. She promised me. So don’t tell me she might not be alive. I refuse to believe that.”
I walk to the end of the basement where Halstead works. I know where the tunnels are. I’ve just never had a need to go in there. It’s a small closed space. I was never curious enough to investigate. It would take someone like Bianca to make me even consider it.
I warn Heather, “I don’t like small spaces. Don’t touch me while we’re in there. It could be dangerous.”
She doesn’t ask why I’m such a fucking nut job, and I don’t take the time to explain it to her. It’s not information she needs.
I open the door that leads to the tunnel, step inside, and immediately hit my head on the ceiling.
“Fuck.”
Getting down on my hands and knees, I crawl through because, at six foot five, there’s no way for me to walk through here.
One hundred. Ninety-nine. Ninety-Eight. I say in my head, because I’d hate for crazy Heather to know I’m also fucking insane.
She walks beside me, because she’s much smaller than I am.
A squeal from her stops my counting, as I see her jump from a couple of rats racing away from us. As we move further into the tunnel, the floor has an inch of water that smells like rotting flesh.
I stop and turn to my left, spotting crazy fucking Heather on her knees, and is she petting a goddamn snake like it’s a cat? This bitch really is crazy. The rats scared her, but not the slimy snake.
“We need to keep going,” I bark, and she sets the snake back down. It slithers away as I shake my head at her.
“How will we get into the cell? It’s got to be locked?”
I keep sloshing through the water, not having a definite answer.
“Someone will have a key. I’ll kill them for it. They’re going to die, anyway.”
She walks a few steps and then stops.
“How many people are you going to kill?”
I chuckle softly as I spot an end in sight.
“Heather, none of the staff will survive. Only Halstead, and that’s only because he isn’t here today.”
“What about the patients? Are you going to save them?”
I let out an annoyed sigh, because she’s beginning to piss me off.
“No, Heather. The only reason you’ll be spared, is because Bianca would want me to get you out of here.
Everyone else is on their own. Don’t get any ‘save the fucking world’ ideas, because I’m not playing.
This is for Bianca. She is my fucking endgame.
Nothing, and no one else, means a damn thing to me. ”