AllFreeNovel
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United, but separate, we storm through the asylum, our frantic footsteps echoing off the sterile white walls. I’m too impatient to wait for the lift, so I run along the corridor to the emergency stairwell and take the steps down to the pool.
As much as I want to find Kayla, I really fucking hope she’s not down here. I’d dread to think what state she’d be in if she was.
It’s quiet as I pad across to the pool area. Everything is still. The water is inviting, not murky and foreboding like it was the other day. They must have put something in the water, or a gas in the air, that made everyone else hallucinate or trip. Bones and I have talked about it since and it’s the only explanation we’ve been able to come up with. The staff here are not strangers to playing with substances all in the name oftherapy.
There’s an eerie silence, but the space is empty. I still check the changing rooms, showers, and toilets. Try the emergency exit, but it’s locked. Search the deserted gym.
I’m a little relieved that she’s not here, but I’m more anxious than ever to find her. I make my way back up the stairs, my heart pounding with every step. The adrenaline is coursing through my veins from the rush of fear that comes with the possibility of losing someone I care about. It’s a relatively new feeling, but I did feel it when Hatchet was trying to drown himself too.
As I reach the top of the stairs and push open the door to the first floor, there’s a faint noise from down the hallway. It sounds like a muffled cry, and hope leaps into my throat. Could it be Kayla?
I break into a run, sprinting down the hallway towards the noise. It’s coming from one of the therapy rooms. I skid to a stop outside the door, panting and out of breath.
I hesitate for a moment, my hand hovering over the doorknob. What if it’s not her? What if it’s someone else? But I can’t afford to wait. I twist the knob and push open the door.
The room is dark, with only a faint glow coming from a small lamp in the corner. There’s the noise again, louder this time, and my heart sinks. It’s definitely not Kayla, but a radio that’s only tuned to static.
Feeling frustration rise, I grab the damn thing, yanking it from the socket and throwing it at the opposite wall with all my strength.
Where is she?
Why have none of the others text to say they’ve found her?
I take a deep breath and try to calm my racing heart. Maybe I missed a room. Maybe she’s in a place no one has thought to check yet. Or maybe someone has taken her and is keeping her hidden. The thought makes me clench my fists in anger.
I continue my search, moving quickly down the hallway and checking every door, every room, every hidden corner. Most doors are locked, but a few are open and I search each one thoroughly, but Kayla is nowhere to be found. A fresh wave of panic surges through me, and my grip on reality slips even further, just as it has so many times before. Never like this though. never this strongly.
Footsteps behind me make me whirl around, but it’s just Honey, his blond hair pulled back in a messy bun and a concerned look on his face.
The tension in the air is palpable, our anger and desperation boiling over.
“Anything?” he asks.
I shake my head, feeling defeated. “No. You?”
He shakes his head too, lips pressed together in a worried frown.
We tear through the open rooms of the hallway like a pack of wild, rabid animals, overturning furniture, smashing windows, and screaming Kayla’s name into the darkness, until we come to the end of the floor.
My phone beeps at the same time as Honey’s, but he gets to it first.
“It’s Snow. Says the chopper’s missing.”
“Fuck!”
“Do you think she ran or was taken?”
“She wouldn’t know how to handle a helicopter,” I tell him, feeling confident in that at least. It’s a pretty specialist skill, one none of us have, hence Valentine always taking us to the mainland for our missions. “And why would she run?”
That’s rhetorical. I absolutely don’t want to consider the answer to that question any more than I want to consider the possibility that someone hastakenher.
“Maybe she’s on a mission? And Valentine’s taken her to the mainland in the helicopter?”
I shake my head. We’ve never done individual missions in all my time here.
“We need to alert Seytan. She can tell us if Kayla’s absence is sanctioned.”
“And if it’s not?”
