Mental Asylum || PURINZ

Prologue

My breathing intensified as I crouched under the office desk and remained hidden.

I feel my heart beating faster when I hear footsteps approaching.

"It's okay, Chae. I won't hurt you" I heard her say.

"It's a promise. But cross my limits, and expectations to die."

I stood still.

I couldn't trust her.

Not after what I had seen a few minutes ago.

"You can come out now. I said I won't hurt you. You have my word." A few seconds later, when I didn't do what she said, she continued. "Don't you trust me, princess?"

I covered my mouth with my hand and watched from the surveillance images on the screens mounted on the wall as she prowled around the room away from my hiding place. She couldn't see me.

After a few months of knowing her, I realized she was more intelligent and perceptive than she let on.

"Do you want to play hide-and-seek? That's fine with me. You know, when I was little... I always managed to find the other children. Even older" she laughed softly, the same female voice with a youthful charm that I had fallen in love with, but now the same voice ran through my body with a shiver.

Something crashed loudly.

She had damaged the emergency lights, leaving the room in absolute darkness.

She was getting closer to where I was hiding.

It was good that I could still see it through the screens above because of the moonlight that filtered through the window.

As if she had read my mind, she took a stick and crushed camera one, followed by camera two and three.

"That should solve the problem, I guess. Now, you couldn't even know if I'm right behind you"

The screens became static and then turned black.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her shoes pass by me.

I held my breath and a shiver ran through my body as I wondered what would happen if it caught me.

A few minutes later, I heard that the door opened and closed.

I waited for a few seconds, attentive to any other sound in the room, but all I could hear was my heartbeat.

Cautiously, I crawled under the desk to check and fortunately, she wasn't in sight.

I let out a sigh of relief and stood up, taking a few steps toward the door.

Once I was out the door, I planned to run down the hallway and ask for help.

When I went out, I found that the lights were off.

I had seen several horror movies, and I had always laughed at the victims for being too gullible or stupid, without realizing that I could be in that situation one day... today.

My life was no better than a horror movie.

The lights flashed when I tried to walk quietly, but the sounds of my canvas shoes resounded through the empty hallway.

I heard soft steps behind me, so I accelerated the pace and folded in the corner when a pair of arms took over me.

The familiar aroma of her perfume entered my nose.

She whispered. "I caught you! The game is over, Chaewon"