"It's a pleasure to meet you, Emma" he said with a little smile. "How are you doing?" He continued ironically, and I snorted at his behaviour.
"Can I sit down?" I asked him glancing around in the room surrounding us, the darkness that deep that I barely saw him nod.
"You can, as long as you do not fall asleep" he replied, stepping back to give me a little room.
I frowned. "Why shouldn't I fall asleep?"
"I would have to wake you up if you fell asleep" he simply replied, sitting on the floor as silently as possible.
"And that would be a problem because...?" I asked, but he didn't reply, just signalling me to shut up as we heard the sound of steps coming from outside.
"I don't fancy being murdered by a girl inside a storage room just yet" he said when the steps went away.
"But I'm tired" I replied glancing at him. "I haven't slept in I don't even know how many hours."
He sighed. "You're allowed to sleep. I will wake you up when the time comes."
• • •
"Emma. Emma!"
I opened my eyes at the faint whisper, blinking a few times when I was met by the darkness of the room.
"Emma" he called me again, and I turned around, barely seeing the outline of his face a few inches away from mine. "You need to wake up" he added shifting a bit closer to me, his smell hitting my nose.
I breathed in from my mouth even though it wasn't too strong. It wasn't a perfume, but it wasn't a bad smell for sure. He just smelled clean, with a hint of something that was just him.
I sat up better against the wall. "What?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice as low as possible.
"It's ten minutes to midnight" he replied, moving away. "You have to change your clothes, or else they will stay here, and it could potentially be a disaster."
I hummed. "What could be a disaster?" I said, and he gave me a weird look.
"Wake up please. We don't have a lot of time" he replied standing up and retrieving my clothes, throwing them to me. "I will turn around."
I stood up grabbing my clothes. I looked at him to make sure he really had turned around, even though I didn't really think he would've not. He seemed too kind to engage on that kind of stupid games. I took off the dress I had been forced to put on and put my clothes on again, instantly feeling warmer.
"Done" I said, and he glanced at me, nodding slightly before taking the dress I had left on the floor, folding it and putting it into the wooden box he had found it in.
"Now what?" I asked him, leaning against the cold wall again.
"We will wait until we cannot hear anybody walk outside, and we will go to the room" he simply replied leaning against the opposite wall and sliding down a little bit, making me realise how tired he actually was.
I wondered when was the last time he had actually slept, because something told me he probably hadn't closed an eye for the past 24 hours at least.
"Are you tired?" I asked him, and he nodded.
"A little, but it's fine. I will not fall asleep" he just replied in a deep whisper.
"So" I said again, wanting to talk more to him. "Now that we're on a first name basis, what about you tell me what landed you in this place?"
He instantly opened his eyes and glared at me. "I am a murderer" he said slowly, studying my face.
I gulped, pressing myself against the wall behind me a little more. "Are you serious?"
"No. I only wanted to show you that sometimes it's best not to know" he said closing his eyes again. "Stop asking me that question. You will not get an answer."
"Why?" I asked again, making him sigh in annoyance.
"Why what?" He asked, keeping his eyes closed and bringing his knees to his chest.
"Why don't you want to tell me?"
"Do I need a reason not to want to tell private information about myself to a stranger coming from the future?" He replied, effectively shutting me up. "We should go now" he added standing up and waiting for me to do the same.
I stood up and went to open the door, but he stopped me, one of his hands in front of me.
"You need to know that we will not manage to reach the room without being seen" he said, "I tried many times unsuccessfully."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him, a deep feeling of worry starting to settle inside my chest.
"Only one thing. If someone sees us, run." And with that he opened the door.
We walked out as silently as possible, my shoes in my hand to avoid making any noise. Harry pointed at a door a few feet away from where we were standing, on the opposite side of the corridor.
"There" he mouthed, letting me know that we should've hidden in there.
We got there fast and he closed the door, shushing me as we heard a few voices coming down the corridor. I closed my eyes, waiting for them to go away, too nervous to pay attention to what they were talking about. As soon as we didn't hear them anymore we walked out again, and he directed me to the next room.
We went on like this, hiding from room to room when people were coming, until we reached the start of the long corridor that I recognised as the one that ended in the electricity room.
As we were hiding in a room, two people stopped right in front of it, talking lowly to each other.
"Where is patient 384?" A masculine voice said all of sudden, and the number rang a bell in my mind, even though I couldn't really remember where I had heard it.
Harry tensed up next to me as the reply came, and I turned to look at him curiously.
"Who?" Another man said.
I heard an annoyed snort. "Patient 384. Project Black Widow, the name is Harry Styles."
My eyes widened in realisation. It was Harry's number.
"Oh" the other man replied. "Damned if I know. What's the urge?"
"It's his turn tonight" the first man said, and for some reason his words sent a shiver down my spine. What was he talking about?
I heard a laugh. "The great day has come for him as well, then? That is good. He was starting to become way too difficult to handle anyway."
"You tell me. Do you know what he did yesterday? He attempted to stab Marcus with a fork. A fork. Can you believe it?"
"Did he manage to do it, though?"
"Don't know, but Marcus is not here today. After that, he also attempted to run away. He managed to escape the Patient Ward, almost made it to the main gate. That is why we moved his turn to today, we cannot handle him anymore."
"It's almost midnight, let's go get him" the other man said, and then we heard the sound of steps going away.
I had so many questions, but with a single glance Harry shut me up before opening the door. "Let's go" he whispered, and we walked down the corridor.
"Hey!" I heard a shrill voice shout, and I turned around to see a nurse walking our way. "384, don't move" she said, but Harry started walking back slowly while looking at her, ready to sprint.
"Doctor! I need a doctor!" The nurse started shouting when she realised that he would've not listened to her. "Patient out of room! Doctor!"
Not really knowing what to do, I did the only thing that came to my mind to shut her up. I threw a shoe at her.
"What in heaven's name!" She hissed covering her nose, where the shoe had hit her.
I bent down to take the shoe before turning around and sprinting to the door at the end of the corridor with Harry.
"Get in!" Harry shouted, opening the door and pushing me in, following suit and shutting it right after.
"Why this room?" I asked him, trying to catch my breath.
"Something happened in here. Will happen" he simply replied, not bothering to say more.
"What happened?"
"A test gone very wrong" he only said. He turned his head towards the door when a sudden crashing sound was heard. "Hide in the back of the room. I have to block the door" he added quickly, giving a nervous glance towards it before gesturing towards a hidden spot behind a bookshelf.
I nodded, quickly rushing in that direction, pushing my body against the wall, sitting down to make sure nobody would've been able to see me and hiding my face between my knees.
Then, all of sudden, a white light blinded me and my scream was muffled by a loud, almost deafening sound.