by A. I. Nasser
“Because of Kathrine,” Alan blurted. “Don’t you get it, Debbie? If there’s even a chance this theory’s true, that my sister may actually still be alive, then I need to do everything I can to find her.”
Deborah’s head sank. “Alan, it’s your subconscious,” she whispered. “You have to stop blaming yourself for her death. You know she was offered. There was nothing you could do to stop it.”
“I know,” Alan replied, lifting Deborah’s head up so he was looking directly at her, “but it’s not that easy. You weren’t there, Debbie. You didn’t see the way she looked at me when that monster pulled her away, the way she screamed my name and begged for my help.” Alan could see the tears well up in Deborah’s eyes. “It was my job to protect her, and if she’s in that corridor somewhere, if there really is a way to get her back from wherever Copper Tibet’s taken her, then I’m going to do everything I can to see it through. Do you understand?”
A tear raced down Deborah’s cheek, and she quickly brushed it away. He was right in more ways than one, and she knew that if she were in his place, she would have probably done the same. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that lingered within her every time she thought of him going to sleep.
“What if you don’t wake up?” she asked, finally voicing her concern.
Alan smiled. “I thought you didn’t believe in any of this.”
“I’m serious, Alan,” Deborah said. “Let’s say it’s true, and that this corridor you go to every time you sleep actually exists somewhere. What happens if you don’t wake up? I don’t want to lose you again.”
Alan pulled her closer and hugged her, pressing her warm body to his. “Then I’m going to have to make sure you’re there to do that for me.”
Deborah wrapped her arms around Alan’s neck and squeezed.
***
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Alan opened his eyes to the pulsing red light and the endless corridor of closed doors. The woman in red stood tall before him, gazing down in disapproval with a stern frown that made him feel small.
“I’m here for my sister,” Alan whispered.
The woman’s lips curled upwards into a smile that seemed more manic than friendly. “Then you’re here to stay.”
Six Months Ago
Deborah waited for her mother to leave before finally getting up from her seat and walking out of the hospital room. The building was quiet this time of the night, and she pulled her coat tighter around her body as a chill raced through her.
Her mother’s words raced through her mind and the story was almost too ludicrous to believe. All she knew for certain was what she had seen, and that was enough to keep her awake for weeks. She knew she couldn’t go home; not now. The doctors had no idea when Alan would wake up, or if he would wake up at all. She didn’t believe it, refused to, and knew that it would only be a matter of time.
She walked down the hospital corridor to the vending machine a few doors away. The nurse’s station was empty, and even though Deborah was tempted to ring them so she could be sure she wasn’t completely alone, she decided against it.
The fluorescents above her flickered for the briefest of instances, and something other than the familiar smell of detergent seeped into her nose. She frowned at the strange smell, as if something had been forgotten and had begun to rot, and decided that there was probably nothing to it.
She dropped a coin into the vending machine, pressed the numbers on the dial and waited as the mechanic coil turned and pushed a bag of peanuts forward. She bent down to get her snack, and when a hand touched her back, she jumped back with a scream.
Her eyes darted back and forth across the empty corridor, her breathing intensifying and her heart racing in her chest. She felt a chill race down her spine, and without a second of hesitation, raced back to Alan’s room, leaving the bag of peanuts behind.
Chapter 9
Alan ran.
He had never run this fast before, never this aimlessly, but then again, he didn’t really have any choice as to where he could go. The doors to his sides flashed past him, his feet pounding against the corridor as the red light seemed to wrap him in. He could hear the woman in red behind, the fluttering of her dress like a soft wind as she chased him.
Alan didn’t dare look back.
This was a mistake. This was a horrible, horrible mistake.
Alan had no idea what he was going to do, only that he could not stop. He had no idea how long he had been running, but he knew if the woman were to catch up with him, it would mean the end. Just now, he wished he had listened to Deborah, every inch of him praying for her to sense his trouble and force him awake.
There’s no way out.
The assertion threatened to drive him mad. If there was a way out of here, it would be behind one of these doors, and he would need much more time to go through them, let alone find out how to open them in the first place. He couldn’t do that if every time he woke up here, he was either locked in the darkness of his own cell or face to face with the woman in red.
There had to be another way. He had escaped here before. He had to remember how, and he wouldn’t be able to do that as long as he was running.
A gentle rumbling started to sound around him, and for a split second, Alan could almost feel the ground below him vibrate. He pressed on, attributing the notion to the fact that he was probably getting tired. The rumbling intensified, though, and soon enough, the vibrations grew from soft shudders to an intense shaking. Alan tried to keep his balance in the chaos and was suddenly flung against the wall, his head slamming against the cold surface as the world around him spun in and out of focus.
He pushed away, his head throbbing as he staggered and tried to run again. Hands grabbed him by the collar and stopped him, slamming him against the wall again as large chunks of stones fell from the ceiling and crashed in the place he had occupied. The woman in red stared directly at him, her eyes blazing in fury.
“He’s back!” she hissed at him. “Now you will never find your sister.”
Alan tried to break free of the vice-like grip, but the woman only slammed him against the wall again, harder this time and enough to make his teeth rattle. He gripped her arms, using every ounce of strength inside him to pull her hands away, but it was like trying to move a wall. Her grip was strong, her arms as stiff as stone, and she was not going to let go.
“You fool!” the woman screamed, her face suddenly changing, grotesquely twisting and turning with the pulsing light around her as the corridor shook uncontrollably. “You could have ended this! You could have saved them all!”
Alan felt his feet leave the ground, the woman lifting him up with ease before flinging him across the corridor and against the opposite wall. He fell down in a heap, the taste of blood in his mouth as he desperately tried to stay out of the way of the falling stones. He looked up at the woman as she floated towards him, her hands reaching out to grab him again as her face cracked and began to fall apart. Alan stared in horror at what looked out at him from behind the pieces.
“You will die here, Alan Carter!” the woman screamed, her voice a screeching sound that pierced his ears and echoed in his head. Alan pressed his hands against his temples, trying to shut out the sound of her screaming, desperately scurrying away from her reach.
Something opened behind him, and before he knew what was happening, a hand grabbed him by the nape of his shirt and pulled him back and away. Alan kicked out as he felt the woman’s claws grab his ankles, trying to stop his escape, but she was too late as his invisible savior pulled him into a room and slammed the door shut.
There was no shaking here, no falling stones, no rumbling. Only silence, and a dim bright glow of fluorescent lights that were a calming contrast from the horrors outside. Alan lay back, panting, and closed his eyes as he tried to calm the shaking of his body. He didn’t know where he was, but for now, he felt like he could relax.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to ge
t here, Carter.”
Alan recognized the voice instantly. His eyes snapped open, the world around him slowly coming back to focus, and stared directly into the face of the man who had saved his life.
Daniel Cole smiled down at him. “Welcome to hell.”
***
Fiona Bright knew something was terribly wrong the minute her deputy stormed into the station and made a bee line for her office. His face gave him away before he even opened his mouth, and Fiona felt every muscle in her body tense with anticipation.
“You have to see this,” the deputy said, closing the office door behind him and instantly taking control of the computer on her desk.
She watched him open a browser and quickly type in the URL, YouTube’s homepage quickly filling her screen as he continued typing in the search bar. She felt something turn in the pit of her stomach, already dreading what she would see. If it had gotten her deputy this worked up, then it would definitely be a disaster.
Fiona instantly recognized Stanley Turk’s face on the thumbnail of the video her deputy clicked on, and as the video loaded, she immediately recognized the look on his face.
“My name is Stanley Turk, and I am making this video in response to the ineptitude of the Melington Police in finding the man or woman who kidnapped my daughter.”
Fiona froze in her seat, her heart pounding like a jackhammer in her chest as she watched. She noticed how her deputy stared at her, waiting to see her reaction, the scowl on his face mirroring the fury that was slowly building up inside her.
“This is not the first case that the Melington Police, led by Sheriff Fiona Bright, has ignored. There have been many cases of missing children in the past six months that have gone unsolved, and several others that have been mysteriously covered up in the past years as well.”
Fiona paused the video and stared at her deputy angrily. “Where the hell is he?”
The deputy stepped back and shook his head in frustration. “At home? I don’t know. I came to you as soon as my sister sent me the link. It’s gotten over a thousand views already, Sheriff.”
Fiona stared at the face of Stanley Turk, fuming as she tried to figure out her next move. She had to get this video pulled, but there was no telling how many questions that would bring up. She cursed Rachel Adams for letting things go this far. Things had been a lot simpler with the blood bindings; it was much easier to tie up loose ends.
“Who’s handling Stanley Turk’s case?” she asked, drumming her fingers on her desk.
“Alexandra Bail.”
“Call her in here.”
The deputy started to leave, then stopped and turned back to Fiona. “How did he even get this information?” he asked.
Fiona Bright’s entire body shook in frustration. She knew exactly who was behind all this.
***
David Whelm hung up his phone, tossed it on his motel bed and punched the air in victory. He had his story, and oh, what a story it was going to be.
Stanley Turk’s video was spreading like wildfire, and not even twenty-four hours had passed since they had uploaded it.
“God bless social media!” he cried out to the empty room.
He had called his contacts in New York the second Stanley’s video was live, and soon enough, Twitter, Facebook and every other sharing platform he could think of was spreading the news. He could always count on word of mouth when it came to missing children and police corruption; and Stanley Turk’s video was juicy enough to feed the minds of every conspiracy theorist and nut job out there.
As soon as word spread throughout the town, he was already getting calls from the other families. His plan had worked. All they needed was a familiar face to tell them the same thing he had, and who better than a single father whose daughter’s disappearance was being ignored by the local authorities? Stanley Turk was drawing them in like moths to a flame, and all David had to do was stick around and make sure he recorded the show.
This was turning out much better than he had hoped. Melington was going to give him the story of his career.
***
Alan knew where he was.
He recognized the porcelain floors, the clean, bleach-white walls, and of course the nurse’s station where Daniel Cole was now leaning on the counter with a smile. Even the smell of it was the same; the disinfectant, a strong, lingering smell that masked the other subtle scents he knew existed.
He was in Melington Hospital, or at least a close mirror of it. There were subtle clues that made it different; how the floors slanted in areas where they shouldn’t, how portraits of Daniel Cole hung on the occasional wall, and how the fluorescent light around him seemed to be emanating from the walls themselves instead of any discernable light source.
This was Daniel Cole’s room, but for the life of him, Alan had no idea why it looked like this.
“It’s not a choice, Carter,” Daniel said, as if reading Alan’s mind. “I mean, sure, we get to do our own decorating here and there, but we don’t choose where we spend eternity.”
Alan looked at the elder Cole in disbelief. The man looked pretty much the same as he had when they had last crossed paths, but there was something about him decisively different. The superiority and overconfidence he remembered were now replaced with a blasé, laid back attitude that was a lot more alarming than what Alan was used to.
Daniel Cole laughed. “Don’t worry, I get it. It took me a while to get used to it too. Once you get the hang of how things work around here, you really start to have fun.” Daniel leaned in closer as if he were about to share a secret. “Did you know that the nurses have a running bet on how long patients have stayed? It’s really entertaining, especially when one of them tampers with the medication so she could win the bet.”
Alan frowned in confusion. For all he could see, they were the only two people around.
“That’s because we’re in the middle of limbo right now, Carter,” Daniel said.
Alan frowned.
“Oh yeah, sure,” Daniel chuckled. “I can read every thought going through that thick skull of yours. For example, I know that you’d like nothing more than to grab me by the throat and strangle me for what I did to your family.”
“You don’t need to read my mind to know that,” Alan said.
Daniel laughed and slapped the counter top. “No, I guess not,” he said. “I wouldn’t blame you, either. That was kind of cold of me.”
Alan balled his fists and fought back the urge to act upon his feelings.
“Tough guy, huh?” Daniel smiled. “Relax, Carter. Even if you wanted to hurt me, you couldn’t. You’re in my room now. You play by my rules.”
Alan jumped to his feet, and as soon as he took a step towards Cole, a sudden piercing pain raced through his body, forcing him to his knees. Never in his life had he felt such agony, the veins in his head threatening to burst with the pressure building up there, every muscle in his body suddenly tensed and cramped as his bones bent in impossible angles. It was as if someone had grabbed him and decided to twist and turn him until he could feel every bone in his body break.
Then it was gone. Alan gasped for air, trying to steady the shaking of his body.
“See, my rules,” Daniel Cole said.
Alan lay completely still, waiting for his breathing to return to normal and the pain of his beating heart to subside.
“Oh, get up already,” Daniel said. “You’re even more pathetic than I thought.”
Alan pushed himself to sitting position, leaning his back against the wall and staring at Cole with daggers.
“Now,” Daniel said cheerfully, pulling a chair from the nurse’s station and sitting himself in front of Alan, “let’s discuss why you’re here.”
Alan hesitated.
“Oh, come on, we both know it’s not a coincidence that you’re out in the corridor,” Daniel said. “I do applaud your guts, though. No one has ever done that since I came here, and I keep my eyes and ears open.” He squinted at Alan. “What’s driving
you forward, Carter?”
“Kathrine,” Alan replied.
Daniel smiled. “That’s more like it. Now, we can have a mature conversation.” Daniel crossed his legs and folded his arms behind his head. “So, you’re looking for your sister, are you? I’m surprised you haven’t found her yet. Then again, there are quite a lot of doors. Even if most of them are empty, that’s still a lot of searching.”
Alan didn’t reply.
“My question is this,” Daniel said, leaning forward. “What are you going to do when you find her? Share a room? Pretend like nothing ever happened? You do know she’s probably still a child, right?”
“I’m going to take her home,” Alan replied.
Daniel laughed, a hearty, incredibly annoying laugh. “Take her home!” he cried out. “Carter, I pulled you out from that woman’s grasp. She would have torn your soul apart.”
Alan shook his head. “I’ve done it before,” he said. “I only need to find the right room.”
Daniel stared at Alan for a few seconds, his eyes narrow slits as he cocked his head to a side. “Did what before?”
A realization suddenly hit Alan. The man didn’t know there was a way out.
Alan almost laughed. There he was, great Daniel Cole all cheerful and merry, thinking he had this place figured out, and he had no idea there was a possibility of leaving.
“Answer my question, Carter,” Daniel said through clenched teeth, his prior mood darkening. “What do you mean by, you did it before?”
“You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“I escaped, Cole,” Alan said, smiling as he watched his words sink in. “I left this place months ago. I made it out of here.”
Daniel’s eyes grew wide, his face completely white as he shook his head. “Impossible,” he whispered. “There’s no way.”
“There is,” Alan confirmed.
Daniel jumped from his seat and slid down on his knees in front of Alan, grabbing him by the neck and squeezing hard. “I’ve been in this hellhole for six years, Carter. Six years! I’ve never found a way out!”