Page 91 of No Asylum Here

I pulled it out. No service. Of course, because what was the chance that there were cell towers all the way out here?

My hope was sinking fast like a hot stone through butter. It settled in my gut like lake sediment and made everything heavy. My feet ached, and my calves screamed with pain.

Right about now, that voice would have been welcome company. While my veins were darker than ever, a sign it was still inside me, it made no move to show itself.

I’d been walking for hours. There should have been a town by now. A passing car. A bird overhead in the sky. Anything.

The sky got darker as night fully covered everything.

With every agonizing step, it grew darker still, until everything was so black I could barely see a foot in front of me.

Even on moonless nights, I’d never seen or heard of a murky night so thick. It was unnatural. With every step that took me further away from St. Bartholomew’s, the blinder I became.

Uncertainty wound my muscles tight, and fear began its slow descent over my mind.

Where the hell was I supposed to go?

It was so dark, I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to. I was trapped in a void of nothingness, with only the crunch of gravel under my feet and the roar of my pulse in my ears.

I hated how my mind wandered back to Mal. And I hated how I missed him already. I missed him most in my nightmares. At least with the darkness in my head, I wasn’t alone.

I walked until my phone told me it was morning, but the sun never came. I walked until each step felt like I was stepping on nails, and my throat burned with thirst.

When my legs eventually gave out, I welcomed the cool grass against my face.

And as my eyes drifted shut, I prayed to anything that cared to listen to let him be waiting for me in my sleep.

Dreamless unconsciousness gripped me, and I lay there in complete darkness. He wasn’t here.

I was alone now, regardless of whether my eyes were open or closed.

“Dr. Beckett…”

I woke up with a sob in my throat. I blinked, the darkness still consuming me, even though I was fully awake now. Movement in my periphery had me sitting up.

My voice came out paper-thin, like I’d seen a ghost. I was seeing a ghost.

“L–Lauren?”

I got to my feet and stumbled after her. “Lauren, where are you going? W–wait!”

Chapter Forty-Two

Tuesday

I wasn’t sure where Lauren was leading me. A way out, hopefully. Though it didn’t make sense why the ghost of Lauren Hawkins—or whatever this was—would help me. Still, I allowed myself to hope.

“Lauren! Please… I’m sorry. I’m s–so sorry.”

She stopped and pointed to a headstone in the distance.

I turned my phone, casting the light on dozens of other gravestones—the asylum cemetery. Why had she led me here?

There was no sign of Lauren anymore. I was alone again.

Only two percent of my phone’s life was left, and it was my only source of light. I fumbled through the suffocating murk blanketing everything.

A silent scream caught in my throat when the ground fell out from under me with my next step. I tumbled down into the earth, the open grave I’d fallen into swallowing me.