Rabbit Hole

One Is In Danger.

TW: STRONG REFERENCES TO SUICIDE

I always knew it was dangerous there.
But the morning the confirmed it was still something I could never have seen coming.

Morning comes, and I instantly head to the main room. Is Mark there? Is Lloyd? Are both of them there, or neither? As I arrive there, I look around the room. A worker who I presume is Wilfred, Kat, Pat, Bill, Amy, Liv... that's it. Neither of them are there. My thoughts run wild, then Wilfred starts talking:

"Hi. As you might notice, a few people are missing at the moment. Well, one of them just hasn't woke up yet, but one isn't feeling too good at the moment, so they won't be with us this morning.". After the small anouncement, he leaves the room.

He doesn't reveal who, but one of them are safe. So, who made it? While nobody else is there, I decide to try and introduce myself to the others, and I walk over to Bill and Amy?

"Hi-"
"What do you want?" Bill instantly replies.
"Huh?"
"You've never talked to us before. Why now?"
"Oh, Lloyd's currently missing, so I need someone to talk to."
"Why us?"
"Because I don't really know you yet, I'm not trying to trick you or anything, if that's what you're worried about."

After that, he starts to calm down, but he's still on edge.

"Ok then. How are you?"
"A bit concerned at the moment."
"Same here. For Lloyd or-"
"For both him and Mark."
"Why Mark?"
"I heard him last night. He sounded panicked, and now he could be missing."
"I think they'll be fine," Amy suddenly joins in, "if anyone can recover from something, it's him."
"Have you been here long?"
"I was one of the first, with Lloyd and Mark. I never really befriended them though, they were too paranoid."
"And I'm not?" Bill suddenly interrupts.
"Ok, you are too, but you're panicked in a good way. I think I've been here about three weeks. Hopefully I'm out soon."
"Maybe we never get out. Maybe we're stuck here forever. Maybe we die. What if we die-"
"Bill, calm down. It'll be fine." Amy tries to calm him down, and it works.
"Yeah, maybe I'm overthinking-" he pauses, suddenly looking behind me in horror.
"Bill?" I ask.
"Amanda, i think you need to look out for-"

"Hey!"

oh shit. i forgot about Liv. Amy and Bill both back away, leaving me to face her alone.

"I'm still not over what happened yesterday."
"You really took that personally, didn't you?" I fire back. If she's gonna go after me, I'm not making that easy.
"What right did you have talking to me like that?"
"What right do you have talking to others like that? Also, you fired first."
"Don't use things you don't understand. You've been here two days. I've been here weeks."
"I think I got enough of the situation yesterday."
"You can think all you want, that doesn't mean you're right."
"Oh believe me, I know that people hate you as much as you act like you hate them."
"Oh, you're talking about Lloyd, aren't you?"
"How'd you guess?"
"There's only one person here who'd openly admit that. You really got to know him the last few days."
"What are you suggesting?"
"It seems you both caught each other's eye yesterday, is it so much of a stretch to suggest-"
"Ok, Liv. First off, it wasn't like that. Second, I don't even like boys."
"Wait, you're a lesbian?"
"Yeah. So not into Lloyd. At all."
"Ok, right. But do you have your eye on anyone else-"
"I just got here, how would I know that yet?"
"So there's a potential-"
"Liv, I don't want to get into this right now."
"Ok then, I'll point out the obvious, Lloyd's nowhere to be seen this morning."
"Neither's Mark."
"Yeah, but Mark's late up every morning. Lloyd's a shock. You sure he didn't do anything in the night?" She's not going there.
"He's fine, Liv. He wouldn't-"
"I've known him my entire time here. Something's happened to him."
"He's alright."
"If I didn't know better, he's probably tried to throw himself off the roof in the night."
"Liv, stop."
"We're gonna go out in a few days and find his body or blood stain on the pavement."

I can't do this anymore. This has gone too far. In a blind rage, my hand forms into a fist and-

A loud siren goes off and the entire facility is bathed in red lights.
We all go quiet and I hold back the punch I was about to throw, and we over hear something from Wilfred.

"Shit, he's at the pool? I'm on my way."

Everyone in the room looks at each other, and in a rare moment, we're all thinking the same thing.

We all sprint for the pool.

I'm still not quite sure where it is, so I hang back a bit. On the way past the door, I notice it's been left open a crack, and a faint pink light peeks out through the gap. I don't have time to investigate though. I need to know if Lloyd and Mark are safe.

As we get to the pool, the shutters are down, and all of us are stuck with no idea what's happening, until Kat runs to a poolside window. We all follow them and see Clyde standing on the side as the pool cover goes to block off the water, as someone's standing on the edge, but their face is obscured, and the voices are muffled, so I can't tell who it is as they argue.

"Get away from the edge-"
"DON'T FUCKING TRY THAT. YOU'RE LYING TO US, ALL OF US!"
"We're doing all of this to protect you. We just want what's best for you-"
"Don't fucking bullshit me. You think we all haven't heard that shit before?"
"We aren't like those who hurt you."
"How the fuck could THAT have been out of love?"
"You'd have understood if you let us finish."
"What is there to understand?"
"Just let us help you."
"I won't let you take away the one thing I've known."

At that moment, the figure falls back into the pool as the cover closes, trapping them under the water.

"Shit. SHIT!" Clyde panics as he runs to try and open the cover. The noise suddenly increases as everyone adds a reaction to it:

"Oh my god!"
"He'll be ok, right?"
"Did he jump in?"
"No, he was pushed."
"It didn't look like we was pushed."
"We can't tell."
"No, no, no! Come on! Why won't it go back!"
"How long can he survive under there?"
"Try to open it!"
"Just cut through the cover!"
"Is the button broken?"
"The button won't open it."
"It'll work out. He'll be fine. He has to be."
"Is he stalling?"
"He's trying to open the cover!"
"Uh, they've stopped moving."
"Oh no."
"He's just unconscious."
"He'll be fine."

The cover finally moves. The figure is revealed, face down in the water, perfectly still.

Clyde pulls them out and checks the pulse. Nothing.
He's trying CPR to resuscitate him.
He's still covering the face.
I still don't know who's in danger.

I hear fast footsteps coming down the hallway towards us.

It's not a worker.

Clyde gets up, and I hear him call out two words.

"He's dead."

The figure rounds the corner.

It's Lloyd.

He stands there horrified, and only lets out a single word:

"Mark?"

And everything clicks into place.
Mark is dead.