Break the Rules!

A break on Thursday

The kid looked around, uncertain, and suddenly was sure that William was close by and watching their every move.

"Can you... take a look if someone is here?", they asked slowly.

Christen nooded and he stood up and went to the entrance. He explained what Maran had asked him to do, and suddenly two voices chimed in, Castim arguing over why they would do that and Emem asking if she could help.

In all of the chaos, no one paid attention to Maran anymore. If they would have, they could have seen that William entered the stage from behind the curtains and then stood over Maran, who was completely defenceless.

He placed his foot on their throat, signalling that if they made a sound, he'd snap their neck. Then he whispered:"I'll stay close, but they won't find me. They never do."

And then he left again.

Maran wondered if they were going crazy. But no matter how they looked at it, nothing that had happened made sense unless William was real.

Suddenly, Christen and Ivey came back and sat down next to Maran. Ivey had apparently locked the door so that the others stayed outside.

"We've checked everywhere", Christen said.

"Whoever was here left already", Ivey finished.

Maran took a deep breath and then came up with a story of what had happened.

"I was sitting in my office when I heard something click and I checked the cameras to see if the animatronics were ok. They were alright so I stood up to check the doors. Those were fine too, but then suddenly this guy grabbed me and started to hit me. When I fought back, he took out a knife and you can see what happened then", the kid started. Then they took a short break and continued:"I think he wanted to steal something, but when he noticed that he wasn't alone he went to attack me. He didn't take anything with him in the end."

Christen and Ivey shared a concerned look, then Ivey asked:"What did he look like?"

Maran took another deep breath and nearly broke down crying. Then they said:"He's got brown, short hair and blue eyes. He's about as tall as an animatronic and was wearing black gloves, a purple shirt and black dress pants."

Ivey stood up and called 911.

Christen asked:"What happened the nights before?"

Maran managed a wincing smile and replied:"That was before coming here."

A few minutes later, police and ambulance showed up. Castim now argued with Christen, as to why the officials were let in but he wasn't.

That went on, until an officer wanted to talk to Christen. Cecile and Emem called the school, to announce that both kids weren't going to be coming today.

A doctor looked Maran over and decided that they were going to come to the hospital. When asked who they wanted to be coming with them in the ambulance, they asked for Emem.

And so they drove to the hospital, whilst Christen and Ivey were still talking to the police and Cecile left Castim standing and hoped in the car to be at her kids' side.

Emem and Maran were talking in the back of the car, arguing.

"Why would you want to keep working there?", Emem hissed.

"Because it's my job! And even though it sucked the last few nights, I want to keep it. I'm hoping he'll get bored and leave me to do my job ok!", Maran shot back.

"You know he won't. What happened today, anyways?", Emem asked.

Maran shook their head and fell silent. Emem waited a few minutes for them to say something, but nothing came.

"Did he threaten your life or what's the matter?"

"Much worse", Maran confessed," he threatened yours. And I won't stand for that, so I won't tell you what happened"

Emem fell silent and held Marans hand for the rest of the trip.

In the hospital, Maran fell asleep. The policeman that showed up didn't like that, and so whilst two doctors attended to the kid's wounds, Emem told the officer that they had told her everything on the way there and she was going to answer all the questions she could.

Cecile also had an interview with an officer, about her husband and what happened that the kid hadn't been home in a few days.

She and Castim were brought to the police station for further investigation. In the meantime, Emem did everything she could to get herself and Maran, who was still asleep, dropped off at her flat.

She had to wait for two hours until someone was available to get them home. Maran slept the whole time, and when someone came to pick up the two, it already was 1 pm.

On the way to the car, Emem carried Maran. As they went down into the garage, the girl thought that her mind was playing tricks on her.

William stood there, on the staircase. Emem noticed and recognized him immediately. He smiled at her, then his gaze fell onto Maran. Emem hugged her best friend closer to her chest whilst hurrying to catch up with the nice worker that was going to drive them home.

They carefully put Maran in the backseat, their head resting on Emem's lap. A few minutes after the left the ground of the hospital, the girl asked:"Did you notice the guy on the staircase?"

The worker glanced at her through the mirror and asked:"You mean the one with all purple clothes?"

Emem sighed and said:"Yeah. I thought I was just seeing things, he looked like a ghost."

The guy laughed and replied:"Many people at the hospital look like that."

Emem smiled and nodded:"I guess so.."