-On Hiatus- The Great Escape || Ben Hargreeves x Reader

Chapter 3

You stood under the steaming rain of shower water as you combed through your clumped, wet hair with your fingers. You were quietly relaxing, feeling your tense muscles slowly loosen. You washed off any remaining Shampoo products on your hair and let the bubbles run down the drain. When you finished you turned off the shower, wrapped a towel around your body before stepping out of the stall.

One of your roommates, Bianca, was standing in front of the mirror on the opposite side of the showers. She was brushing her teeth when she noticed you walk out and she turned to you. "Hey roomie!" she said before spitting out the foam of bubbles that had accumulated in her mouth. Some of the bubbly foam still remained at the corners of her mouth but she didn't mind.

"Hey" you greeted her with a small smile and a nod as you walked to your bag next to her on the sink. You took out your fresh dry clothes and went back into the stall to change. You could hear Bianca gargling as you put on your underwear and then your sweat pants. She spat on the sink before turning the faucet knob and splashed some water on her face.

Pulling your shirt down to waist, you hung your towel on your arm before stepping out once more. Bianca was cleaning up her toiletries as you wrapped your towel around your hair. "Y'know, if you want, you can walk around the facility before lights out." Bianca said. You looked at her with an interested expression. "They usually let us roam for an hour before bed. You should definitely see the garden out back. It's small but it's got some charm." she smiled and you thanked her before you both walked out and headed to your rooms, making small talk along the way.

Once inside you saw your other roommate, Gian, dancing and swaying while lying on her bed to the music that was coming from her gigantic headphones. When she noticed you come in she paused her cassette player and greeted you both. "Bianca, Newbie." you chuckled at her hyper attitude. "Hey, Gian." you waved as you made your way to your bed. "Liking rehab so far?" she asked jokingly. She turned belly down as she propped herself on her bed. You arranged your things as you hummed. "It's pretty nice so far. Not at all what I expected to be honest... " you trailed off, unsure if what you were about to say was going to be offensive for them.

Bianca looked at you, "You thought this place would be a hell hole crawling with mumbling crackheads and angry junkies." you nodded meekly, worried that you may have pushed the wrong buttons. You were taken aback when you heard Bianca and Gian laughing instead of shouting angrily at you.

"I know how you feel." Bianca said. "When I first met Gian she was going to steal my kidney and sell it for some cash." Gian laughed harder, "Man, you were such a pussy back then, Bi." she said wiped away a tear. The two began to bicker playfully as you just smiled and listened. Laughing every once in awhile when they roasted each other.

The door suddenly opened and another girl walked in, she looked rather tired and grumpy. "Hey, Joey. Back from kitchen duty I see." Gian beamed but Joey didn't answer and went straight to bed, turning on her side to avoid eye contact. "Oof, not a good shift I'm guessing." Bianca mumbled to Gian and Gian nodded in agreement. She played her cassette player once more and she quietly mouthed the lyrics as she happily snapped her fingers to the beat.

Bianca turned to you, "Why don't we go to that Garden I told you about?" she said. "I'll show you around too while we're walking." she walked to the door and you followed her.

The hallway was dim, save for a few wall lamps and lights coming from the lower crack of the doors. Your feet quietly squeaked as they made contact with the tiled floor, that was the only sound you could hear other than your breathing. Bianca broke the silence when you reached the red double doors. She explained that this was the cafeteria, it was at the center of the building and how it separated the male ward and the female ward. You continued to walk while Bianca told you some of the rules and regulations of the place. However, you felt a bit anxious as you went farther and farther away from your room. You two were the only ones out and about and you couldn't help but feel like this was not allowed.

Eventually you started to see other patients as well, most of them were playing Foosball in a small room, others were watching, while some were just wandering in the hallway. You saw a familiar man storm out of his room and angrily marched to your direction. Panicked, thinking that he was coming after you, you stopped and flinched as he approached you but nothing happened. You turned to see his retreating figure stomping away from you.

"That's just Klaus. Don't worry he's harmless." Bianca said, noticing your distress. You nodded slowly, still looking at him as he had a hissy fit in the distance. "C'mon, we're almost there." Bianca began to walk once more and you merely followed.

Bianca stopped in front of a door that looked out of place to the rest of the building. This building had modern architecture and furniture but thus door looked like it was going to lead you back to the 1940's or something. You opened the door and flashes of lights suddenly met your eyes. You stared in awe at the simple beauty of it. Bianca wasn't kidding when she said it was a small garden. A line of rose bushes were following the walls to the red bricked metal fence on the other side, vines and such were crawling up the walls, and three hardwood beaches surrounded the small bird bath that was the center of it all. There were four yellow lit lamp posts that were in the area and they were connected with colorful fairy lights

"Wow." you smiled. "This is amazing." you stepped out as a gust of wind blew through your hair. "How come no one else is here?" you asked, confused why no one else would want to spend their nights in this serene place. Bianca shrugged walking next to you. People around these parts don't really like the peace and quiet." she explained. "You. I thought you would like it though." she smiled before patting your back and walking back inside. "You got 15 minutes till lights out." she said, grabbing the door handle. You looked at her, "Aren't you going to stay with me?" you asked and she shook her head. "When I first saw you you looked liked you had a lot on your mind. I may not know you all that well yet but I think you need some alone time to recollect your thoughts." she closed the door.

she wasn't wrong. You did have a lot of things on your mind, a lot of thoughts and unresolved turmoil you've been trying to push down for years only to explode into your unhealthy habit of drinking and smoking that had cost you your old life. You sat on one of the beaches and sighed. You looked at the bird bath and watched as the colors of the fairy lights gently danced on the waters surface. The air was quiet and all you could hear were the hums of crickets and the rustling of branches blown by the wind.

The quiet didn't seem to last when you suddenly heard the crunching of twigs behind you. You snapped back and scanned the area. Nothing was out of the ordinary other than a faint orange glow you could see in the bushes. Smoke started to emit and from the smell you could tell that whoever was in there was surely smoking a joint right now.

Quietly, you got up and grabbed a rather big rock beside on the ground beside you. You tiptoed over to the bush and raised your weapon in the air. You pushed down the branches that covered the mystery smokers frame and you were taken aback as the angry man from earlier screamed at the sight of you. You stumbled backwards, dropping your rock.

"Jesus Christ, you can't just do that to someone." he exclaimed as he stood up. He looked at you and paused. "Oh hello." he blinked. "Haven't seen you around here before."

A.N.:
Hehe, yass you finally meet Klaus my 2nd favorite Umbrella Kid next to Ben, Ben will always be my Umbrella Bae. I might write a Klaus x Reader book in the future when I finish this one and maybe, just maybe, Klaus x Reader x Ben because I'm a piece of human garbage. uwu.

Anyways, thank you all for your support for this book. We're almost at 200 reads! I honestly can't believe it and we're still only on the fourth chapter! Huhu ya'll make me so happy.

See ya'll lovelies in the next one. Byee.