The Brink of Eternity

Chapter Six: The Labyrinth Was Created With Only One Exit

Jude p.o.v:

Sometimes all it took for things to rapidly go in and out of focus as the train closed in on you was one second.

One second, one movement, and one result without you even noticing.

The breeze that came from the window did feel like a train was speeding by, yet that was all it felt like. Shivering cold, but without any oxygen.

Kai said Nathan was coming on Friday, exactly three days away.

I didn't think there had been, in the history of humanity, someone that healed enough to be admitted out of a mental institute three days after they had a relapse.

My mind turned into a train of thoughts itself, throwing ideas left and right at 100mph yet every single one hit a dead end.

Being admitted out was not an option. Running away was not an option. Hiding till he left was not an option. Transferring to another institute was not an option.

It was like life was purposely trying to build the walls closer and closer so the room got so tight I couldn't breathe.

But that's how life always was, so I decided to grab a hammer and pave my own way out.

Pain shot up my arm and I looked down to find my palm still holding on to the acorn a little too harshly. And that was when I realised I was going to have to leave Kai if I left this place.

Kai, Hazel, Adam, the garden.. there were so many little things that made this place feel like home to me.

Life's sledgehammer wrecked me before mine could make a crack in the walls it built around me. They got even tighter.

I lied down and looked up at the ceiling.

The bright shade of blue helped calm me down and I mentally took a step back.

First option was to escape, and for that I'd need an unguarded exit. I mapped the place out in my head as good as I could've and tried to think of any accessible way out.

The most obvious exists were the front and back gates, but both had two armed guards at all times.

My second option was the old building where I could've hid and ran off with anything they shipped in or out, like the big taco truck on Tuesday. But the building had a camera on every corner of each of the three floors.

In the end I was left with the forbidden section which required a key card to enter and was a couple floors away.

Not all the nurses had a key card, but I happened to know one that did.

Stealing his card and using it might've been the absolute worst thing I could've done to Kai, especially after he'd been so nice to me. But my mind could not think of any other way.

Though to say I didn't feel guilty would've been a massive lie, and I hated those.

The ideas ate away at my brain further and further, I tried looking out the window, people-watching, making shapes from the clouds, yet nothing would tear my mind away. So I just ran downstairs to the common room.

I found Adam and Hazel by the window. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Hey Jude," Hazel smiled at me sweetly. "Nothing much, just chatting."

Adam was studying the ceiling like it held all the secrets to the universe, so I let him be.

"Where'd they take you Adam?" Hazel had other plans apparently.

I thought he hadn't heard her by the immense time it took him to reply. "Do you ever think of life? How one small action could create such a monumental change?"