Psychotic (A Harry Styles Fanfiction)

Chapter 7

"Hi," I greeted.

"Hello dear," she replied, not looking up.

"Do you need any help?" I asked.

"No," she said. "We probably won't be busy for a while, all the patients went back to their cells while the storm passes. Mrs. Hellman doesn't want any of them freaking out because of the thunder."

I nodded in response, grabbing my book off her desk. I always took it to work with me in case of boring situations like this, and I was grateful I did so.

I flipped to my previous spot and started to read, completely enthralled by the words on the page. I was sucked into the story and lost track of time, not looking up again until the strangest thing happened.

The lights flickered, everything going black then light again. Then black.

And it stayed black; the power was out.

I looked up at Lori as our worried eyes locked, but we stayed quiet; because then there was a sound. Kind of like a chain being pulled or heavy doors being opened. A mix between the two, maybe. Then somewhere down the hall a mad shouting.

The weird part about the shout wasn't the tone behind it. That I was used to, lots of patients made lots of strange noises in strained, indecisive voices. The part that worried me was the proximity of the voice. It sounded close, much too close and then faded out as if someone were running past the office door.

Which should be impossible, because the patients were locked inside their cells. The thought of anyone escaping was ridiculous, the automatic doors keep them tightly locked in.

And that's when it clicked. The doors were automatic. The power was out. And with no power, the doors won't stay locked. So the patients could now escape their cells; and I had no doubt in my mind that that's exactly what they did.

I turned slowly towards Lori, not wanting to hear her say what I knew was coming. In the dim red emergency lights I could just barely make out her features. They were worried and afraid.

"Rose?" she asked.

"Yeah?" I whispered, for some reason afraid of speaking too loud.

"I think we have a problem."

HARRY'S POV

I sat on the edge of my bed, elbows resting on my knees and hands holding my head, as if to keep it from spinning.

I couldn't believe what I had just been told, my mind was buzzing with this new information. There was three dead and skinned women in the basement of this institution. My "victims" had been skinned, and so had these ones here. The dead bodies had to have been killed recently, or at least recently enough to see that the skin had been peeled from their flesh.

I didn't quite know what this meant, but it definitely meant something. I just had to figure out what. I had to see the bodies for myself.

But how the hell was I going to do that? The bodies were supposedly in the back of the basement. Probably somewhere where they were never meant to be found. So that would take searching, it would take unsupervised time to find them; which was something I had very little of.

Hell, I can't even take a piss without a guard leading me to the bathroom, making sure I don't try to escape. Whenever I walked the halls there was always one just around the corner, a guard I mean. The only alone time I had was right now, when I was enclosed in my cell; it was just me and my beloved mattress. If only I could find a way past these damned metal bars . . .

Suddenly the lights flickered, bringing my planning to a halt as I looked up. The bulb went back and forth, dull to bright, and then shut off completely. At first I thought it was just my cell, but then noticed the darkness from the hall and the sudden raise in volume of the strange noises the patients always made.