by Kristen Rose
There is a knock on the door. Jennifer stops writing, turns and stares in the direction of the echoing wood. Her heart is pounding. She slowly gets up and moves towards the locked door; she hesitates, reluctant to open it. Before her mind is made up about whether or not to open it, she feels something hit her feet – a note. She picks it up carefully and reads.
Jenny, it’s Mike and Dave, open up!
She crouches down onto the ground and looks under the door, observing two sets of feet poking out from two pairs of white pants. She gets up and calls through the door,
‘Guys, is it really you?’
‘Yes,’ Dave’s voice says.
‘We’re here to help you.’ Mike’s voice follows.
Jennifer unlocks the door and opens it, revealing the two men. ‘I told you guys that I didn’t need your help.’ She is annoyed.
‘Well ... we couldn’t stand sitting around waiting for ... you know.’ Dave responds, tilting his head.
‘... for you to be killed.’ Mike finishes. Dave shoots him an evil glance.
‘Well, we had to do something. Besides, your help doesn’t seem to be here.’ Dave stares down either side of the deserted corridor.
‘I know.’ Jennifer’s eyes tear slightly. ‘What do you intend to do anyway? Hang on,’ her eyes light up, ‘how did you even get in here? Only female patients can get through the door.’ She places her hands onto her hips.
‘Well, those guards weren’t kidding when they said they were going to sedate the other guards. I walked out of my room just before and found the guard who patrols our ward lying on the floor, fast asleep.’ Dave says.
‘Yeah, and I stole his key card.’ Mike flashes the white card, a smile on his face.
‘I see ... So, what are you going to do?’ Jennifer asks.
‘We’re going to hide you.’ Mike says, excited.
‘Hide me? How?’ She tips her head back disbelievingly.
‘Well, the guy who is going to kill you will most likely come here to do it. So, we figure if you’re not here then he can’t kill you. And if he can’t find you, then he really can’t kill you.’ Dave explains, pleased with himself.
‘Wow guys, that’s such an ingenious plan.’ Jennifer says sarcastically, crossing her arms and leaning into the door.
‘Well, do you have any better ideas? Or would you rather just sit here and wait for this guy to axe you.’ Dave shoots in a whisper.
‘Peter said to wait here.’ She seems disheartened.
‘Yeah, but don’t you think he’d be here by now?’ He questions, folding his arms.
‘Maybe he got held up.’ She defends, looking away.
‘Held up? Come on, he’s not coming Jenny. Let us help you.’ Dave pulls her away from the door.
‘Yeah.’ Mike agrees. ‘We’re two very strong and capable men.’ He says, proudly bulging out his flat chest.
‘Sure.’ The word comes sceptically out of Jennifer’s mouth. ‘Well ... I suppose you’re right. I mean, he’s had the whole day to get here.’ She takes a look down the empty corridor, half hoping for him to appear suddenly. ‘Where were you guys intending on taking me?’ She looks back at them, sighing.
‘Well, we don’t have a set destination. See, when this guy comes and realises you’re not here he’s gonna go and look for you. If we went somewhere and stayed there then eventually he would find us. I think we should just walk around, really carefully, until morning.’ Mike says smiling, clearly impressed by his own idea.
‘That is the worst idea I have ever heard!’ Jennifer snorts. ‘What if we run into him?’
‘We use ... this.’ Dave pulls a gun out of his back pocket, flashing a grin.
‘Shit! Where did you get that?’ Jennifer cowers back into her room.
‘The unconscious guard. I thought it might come in handy.’ He tries spinning the gun in his fingers but loses his grip. It lands on the carpet with a soft thud.
Simultaneously, Jennifer throws her bedroom door in front of her for protection and Mike flings himself to the ground, protecting his head with both hands. Nothing happens. Dave laughs.
‘The safety hatch is on. I’m not going to try to twirl a live gun. I may be schizophrenic but I’m not an idiot.’ He bends down and picks it up.
‘Have you ever fired a gun before?’ Jennifer’s angry face asks when she appears from behind the door.
‘Yea ... no.’ Dave shakes his head.
‘Hey! I think I have.’ Mike shouts from the floor.
‘Shh ... Can you be a little bit more quite? Tracy is a light sleeper and the last thing we want to do it wake her up.’ Jennifer scolds.
‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Dave agrees, cringing.
‘Okay.’ Mike whispers before hauling his long body up off the ground with his thin arms. ‘Hey, I think I have.’ He whispers once he is standing again.
‘What do you mean you think you have?’ Dave stares at him, eyes squinting.
‘Well, Horace, one of my personalities is an army lieutenant. He should be able to fire a gun right?’
‘He’s not an army lieutenant,’ Jennifer rolls her eyes. ‘He only thinks he’s an army lieutenant. I doubt he’s actually fired a real gun before. He just walks around holding onto an imaginary one.’
‘Yeah, but, I reckon if you gave him a real gun he would know how to fire it.’ Mike defends.
‘Fire it, sure. But I doubt he would hit what he was aiming at. Anyway, what’s your point?’
‘Well, I’m Horace, right? I mean deep down a part of me is Horace.’ He crosses his hand over his chests to emphasise his point.
‘Yeah, I ... I guess so.’ Jennifer shrugs.
‘So, in theory, I can fire a gun.’ Mike says simply. ‘All I have to do is channel my inner Horace.’
‘And has that ever worked before?’ She leans back into the door frame.
‘Well,’ Mike scratches his head, ‘I’ve never tried it.’
‘Okay ... well, in that case, my advice would be ... don’t!’ Jennifer’s whisper elevates.
‘But ... what if the murderer comes?’ Mike’s eyes widen.
‘I don’t know, just … we’ll worry about it when the time comes.’
‘Hey, what does this murderer look like anyway?’ Dave asks, turning towards her.
‘Well ... he’s tall ... blonde ... and quite ... muscular.’ She looks down at the ground.
‘Wow, he sounds hot.’ Mike comments, nodding his eyebrows.
‘Yeah,’ Jennifer shifts her head back up, glaring, ‘real hot – for a murderer!’
‘I guess we better get going, it’s a quarter past eleven.’ Dave says glancing at his watch. Jennifer reluctantly pulls herself away from the door frame, leaving the door half open.
The three of them begin walking towards the end of the ward, Dave leading the way with long strides. Mike tip toes slightly behind him, his hands raised cautiously as he carefully tries to place each foot on the floor without making a noise. Jennifer plods along behind them, her arms covering her chest protectively.
The corridor is lit up dimly by small lamps running along either side of the walls. The three of them appear as ghostly shadows, making their way to the large glass security door at the opposite end of the ward. The two elevators that allow access to the visitors’ entrance are still. They gaze through the glass, observing a second guard lying unconscious feet away from the security booth in the corner. Mike pushes forwards and shifts the swipe card to the door, unlocking it. Dave turns the handle and stealthily leads them into the small foyer. Jennifer walks directly over to the guard lying on the floor and kneels down beside her.
‘This is the guard that goes up and down my ward at night.’ She says, turning the middle aged woman with auburn hair onto her back. Her arms flop firmly onto the ground. ‘Poor thing, she’s really nice.’
‘Yeah, when you’re not insulting her.’ Dave grins, high-fiving Mike.
‘How would you idiots know, you’re never in my ward?’
‘No, but she com
es into our ward a lot at night. She keeps everyone up half the night sobbing to our guard about stuff you’ve said to her before bed time.’
‘Oh.’ Jennifer looks away from them and into the guard’s peaceful face.
‘She must’ve been heading into our ward when the sedative took effect. Anyway, we can’t afford to waste time, let’s get going. I thought it would be safer to use these elevators,’ Dave explains, ‘because if I were a murderer I would want to use the patients’ elevators and the staff entrance. Not this visitors’ ones.’
‘Nice thinking Sherlock.’ Jennifer says, getting up from the ground. ‘Say, what if someone is watching the monitors, won’t they see us?’ She puts her hands on her hips.
‘Maybe, we’ll just have to hope that guard is asleep too. I thought the second floor would be a good place to go seeing as it’s mainly offices.’ Dave walks towards the elevators and presses the down button on the wall. It takes half a minute for an elevator to arrive and the three of them board it. Dave once again leads the way followed closely by Mike and reluctantly by Jennifer.
He presses the button for the second floor and the elevator descends. When it arrives, the doors ding open lighting up a deserted and eerie corridor. The three file out.
‘I think we should stay here for a while, it’s pretty deserted.’ Dave’s voice echoes around the corridor. The elevator doors close, leaving them in darkness.
‘What, just stand here in this pitch black corridor?’ Jennifer asks angrily.
‘How about we go to the group therapy room?’ Mike suggests. ‘He’ll never look there first.’
‘Yeah.’ Dave agrees. Together, the three of them slowly begin to shuffle down the dark corridor.
‘Man, I can’t see a thi ... argh!’ Mike lets out a girlish scream before thudding to the ground.
‘Mike, are you okay?’ Dave asks, bending down and extending his hands out in the darkness, trying to locate him.
‘Yeah, I just tripped over something.’ Mike picks himself up off of the floor. The three of them squint, allowing their eyes to adjust to the darkness, trying to see what Mike had tripped over – another guard. ‘Hey, this guy has a torch.’ Mike picks up the torch, turning it on. A narrow fluorescent light shines down the corridor highlighting their shadows. ‘Neat.’
‘Maybe that’s not a good idea.’ Jennifer puts her hand over the end of the torch, de-illuminating the corridor. ‘If someone’s here they’ll see the light.’ She says.
‘Yeah, turn if off Mike.’ Dave agrees. Mike shrugs and turns the torch off, making sure, however, to keep a strong grip on the ‘on’ button. They continue walking slowly in the direction of the group therapy room, their eyes finally adjusting to the darkness, allowing them to see a faint grainy outline of the corridor. When they arrive at the therapy room, Dave pushes forward towards the door and turns the handle. It stops sharply when it hits the lock.
‘Damn.’ He curses, jiggling the knob up and down.
‘Here, just use the key card.’ Mike shoves the plastic card in his face
‘I can’t! All of these doors are locked with ordinary locks, can’t you see that? I completely forgot.’ He puts his hands to his head. ‘The key card is no use, I need an actual key!’ Dave says. ‘We can’t hide in any of these rooms.’ He begins to take in short panicky breaths.
‘Oh well.’ Jennifer sighs. ‘I guess we’ll just have to go back.’ She begins to turn away.
‘We can’t go back! That’s suicide.’ Mike says, grabbing hold of her.
‘Why did I listen to you two? I should’ve just stayed and waited for Peter, there’s no way he’s going to let me die. He’s probably already apprehended Marc, you know, got him before he even entered the building. And here we are, a pack of psychotic idiots running around a deserted mental hospital for absolutely no reason.’ Her words accompanied by sharp waves of the arm.
‘Who’s Marc?’ Mike asks curiously.
‘The murderer! You know, the guy we’re trying to avoid.’ Jennifer stares at him, her angered face unidentifiable in the dark.
‘Oh, right ... of course.’ He laughs.
‘And if that’s the case then there’s no point sneaking around.’ She concludes.
‘But, what if it’s not the case?’ Dave asks. ‘Then this is our only option.’ The three of them are silent. ‘Hey, I just had a great idea!’
‘What?’ She turns to face him, still annoyed.
‘We take the elevator down to the first floor and leave the hospital, then we hitch hike to the nearest police station.’
‘We can’t leave!’ Mike turns towards him.
‘Why not?’
‘Because ... we’re not allowed.’ He says simply.
‘So? We have a key to unlock the door and legs to walk out of it. Of course we can lea….’
Ding.
The elevator in the middle of the corridor glides open.