Chapter 6: DeAundre's Inquisition

After the Events from the night before, the children felt it wasn’t a good idea to head out into the hallways again. Emily and Hannah were more quiet than usual; they kept to themselves and read books or laid in bed. Alice felt awkward the entire time. She spent majority of the next morning lying in her bunk, staring blankly at the wall. Occasionally she would glance to the small window beside her bed. The morning seemed bright and cheery; the air lifting the scent of winter, and with winter came times of celebration. However, Alice felt that the sun was mocking them with the way it danced its rays across the asylum yard. How could it be happy? Their friend was hurt because of them.

Ian spent the rest of the night in the Nurse’s office. At morning, when DeAundre came in to check on him, Ian was found topless and sitting backwards on a chair with his arms propped on the top of the seat’s back. His chin was nestled comfortably on them. DeAundre occupied another chair and watched as the nurse applied a cool cream onto Ian’s back. She paid special attention to the red welts stretched along his skin, causing the older boy to wince at the contact.

“No more playing around past bed time,” said the nurse. She capped the cream bottle and stuffed it away into a nearby cabinet. Ian remained on the chair and closed his eyes.

“I know,” he replied. “It won’t happen again.”

The nurse nodded. “I know it won’t. Otherwise I’ll be telling your father,” she said. She knew good and well, as well as Ian, what would happen if Mr. Gale found out there would be trouble and Ian was usually too well-behaved to have to get in trouble over one mishap. “How are the girls?”

The boy tilted his head to the side. “Fine. I was the only one who got hurt.”

“Well that’s good. And you?” The nurse looked over to DeAundre. The little boy sat up at attention, his hands fisted in his lap.

“I’m all right,” he said. “Thanks to Ian!”

Ian eyed him.

“That must have been some mighty rough-housing,” added the nurse. She pulled out an extra shirt for Ian and handed it to him. “Don’t go overboard next time, do you hear me?”

The blond took the shirt and tugged it onto his body. His fingers rose to brush back his messy hair. “Thanks,” he muttered. Ian then rose from the chair and headed out of the office with DeAundre trailing behind.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” whispered DeAundre as soon as they were out of sight.

Ian replied with a soft ‘mm’ and kept walking. The younger boy said nothing more and followed his friend down the hallways and into the main building.

The both of them entered the large, empty cafeteria. “Looks like we’re early,” said Ian. He went to one of the tables and sat down. The cafeteria ladies were preparing for breakfast. DeAundre saw them, smiled, and marched over to the food line. Barely standing high enough to see his food options, DeAundre happily pointed out his favorites and one of the cafeteria ladies gladly obliged with a warm smile. She filled up a paper plate for him and gave him an extra biscuit. DeAundre thanked her and headed back to the table where he sat across from Ian. Where Ian’s feet pressed firmly against the floor, DeAundre’s swayed back and forth above. The young boy bit into his biscuit and handed the other to his friend.

Ian looked up and to the biscuit, and when DeAundre countered his reaction with a smile, Ian smiled also and took it.

“I’m sure that the others are okay,” said DeAundre with a mouthful of bread. Crumbs spattered from his mouth and fell onto the table. Ian rolled his eyes and went to go get a napkin; when he came back he handed one to DeAundre.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he said. DeAundre suppressed a giggle.

The room began slowly filling with the rays of the sun from outside. They stretched out along the tiled floor and began casting brilliant glows upon all that they touched. Ian had to shield his eyes from the penetrating glare. The younger boy in front of him finished his biscuit and bit into a piece of bacon. After swallowing his food, he said, “It’s so bright outside and it’s supposed to be winter! How weird is that?”

Ian replied, “We’ll probably have a mild winter this year. Last year it got so cold we couldn’t go outside. There was so much snow we couldn’t even open the doors…”

“I remember,” said DeAundre. “My parents went on a skiing trip and couldn’t take me along because I was too little,” he paused and then laughed lightly. “I think I still am! But I remember all the snow. My babysitter and I would go outside and build snowmen.”

“Any forts or snow fights?” asked Ian.

“Nah,” said DeAundre. “We just made snowmen to keep us company.”

Ian finished his own biscuit just as the large doors to the cafeteria opened. Girls and boys gradually poured into the large room and formed the main line to get their breakfast. Ian and DeAundre, from the large crowd approaching them, spotted Emily and Hannah. DeAundre waved to them. Hannah and Emily saw them and joined them at the table.

“How are you feeling?” asked Hannah as she looked to Ian.

He replied, “Better. The nurse took care of me.”

“…That’s good,” added Emily with a solemn nod. Ian looked to her; he didn’t have to ask. She continued, “I’m so sorry you got hurt because of us…”

Ian swallowed the small lump in his throat and shook his head. “Better I get hurt than any of you, right?”

Emily gasped. “Wrong! It’s not good if any of us get hurt. Hannah and I should have stayed in our room; it was because of us that you two came out, right? Am I right?”

Ian paused. DeAundre looked between them after he saw Hannah frowning with shame. “Hey now,” he said. “We’re all okay and that’s what matters.”

The group eventually nodded in agreement. A few moments passed and a figure came walking in their direction—it was Ian’s father. He stopped at their table and placed his hands on his hips. “So…I heard about what happened.”

The group froze and refused to look up at the man.

“Ian.”

Ian bowed his head. “It was an accident.”

Mr. Gale frowned, “…I’m glad you’re okay.”

The boy’s eyes widened slightly. He finally looked up to his father, “Who—“

“Ms. Morgan told me everything,” he answered. “When you’re done here we’ll need to talk.” Mr. Gale looked to his son with a stern look, which was reciprocated with a silent ‘okay, dad’ expression from his son. Emily and Hannah looked to each other and gulped. “And you two,” added Mr. Gale. “Ms. Morgan would like to speak with both of you.”

“Do…” started Emily, “…Do we have to go now?”

Mr. Gale shook his head. “She’s talking with Alice.”

- - -

“Alice, speak to me,” said Ms. Morgan. The woman sat across from the younger brunette. They were in a cramped room, the door closed and probably locked. Ms. Morgan sat with her hands out stretched and holding Alice’s. “Please…I need to know what’s going on.”

Alice, who had gotten up a few minutes before, was heading to the cafeteria when Ms. Morgan found her and took her to the room where they were sitting in now. A horrible, wrenching feeling wiggled around in her gut. The young brunette frowned and lowered her head, breaking the eye contact they had barely held for even a second. “I’m scared,” Alice finally said. “No one was supposed to get hurt. I don’t even know how Ian could have gotten…”

“Wait, Alice.” Ms. Morgan squeezed the little girl’s hands. “Start from the beginning.”

Alice paused…and then finally let out a long sigh. “The beginning…from before I came here?”

“Yes,” said the woman, nodding.

Breathing in, Alice began: “Well, it started a year ago…Sometimes I’d see a man in one of the asylum windows when I was walking home from school. He looked really lonely and it made me sad. In art class, I started drawing him. The last time I saw him, he actually moved…so I told my mom. She told my dad, and then I think they got a call from someone at school, and the next day I was moved here.”

Ms. Morgan nodded, her eyes softening slightly. When Alice looked to her for approval, the woman said, “Please continue.”

“The first day here, I met Emily and Hannah. Emily dared me to stay in that room…Room 136.” Ms. Morgan rose from her spot, scowling.

How dare her!

Alice quickly grabbed her wrist. “But please don’t get mad at her! I…I was the one who went inside. And…while I was in there, there was something in there with me. I’m not sure, but I think it started attacking me, and then that man came. Sipiyu came. He got rid of whatever that thing was.”

With the same expression remaining on her face, Ms. Morgan sat back down. “Do you know what was attacking you?”

“No,” Alice replied, shaking her head. “It was…a monster of some kind. It looked slimy…very distorted. It twitched when it moved…but Sipiyu came and…I think he killed it.” Alice paused a bit before pulling out her dream catcher. “And then the next time I saw him, he gave me this and said I could use it against those things.”

Katherine’s eyes widened. It’s the dream catcher…

“He said if I pulled the strings, the enemies in the room…if weak enough…would disappear. I think maybe their soul returns to wherever it came from.”

“I…I see. Can I…hold it, Alice? I promise I will give it back.”

The little girl looked to the woman before cautiously and slowly handing the pale item to the waiting hands. It, however, stayed on the string around Alice’s neck.

Ms. Morgan ran her fingers over the smooth texture of the bone frame. She then traced the stretched skin and fine white hairs making up its intricate design in the center. Alice watched her inspect it, occasionally glancing up to her mentor. A few moments later she could see tears welling up in the corners of the woman’s eyes. “Ms. Morgan…?”

The woman brushed the tears away with her sleeve. “Oh—it’s nothing.” She set the dream catcher back down and brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. “Alice…”

“Yes?”

“Take very good care of this,” finished Ms. Morgan. “It is very important to…Sipiyu. He must trust you a lot to let this be in your care.”

“How do you know it’s important to him?” asked the younger brunette as she grasped the item.

“Because one day, ten years ago…I, too, was almost given this.”

- - -

A dark figure lurked from the high tower up above. He shifted over to a small window and pressed against it with his rough palms sliding against the opaque glass. Cold eyes stared through strands of black, tangled hair and out to the empty street below. Just a few feet away lay his weapons; a pair of cleavers covered in chipped, dry blood. His eyelids drooped down. His gaze bore down at the tumbling red and golden leaves.

“Good day, dark one,” chimed a voice from behind. Sipiyu scowled and swiftly turned around. In one fluid motion he took a cleaver and jarred it into the wall of stone where a translucent figure stood. The blade did not pierce.

“How sad,” said the white figure. His creepy grin widened before he slid past the dark figure and took a seat on a crusty wooden bench nearby. “Nice place. It looks like it needs a little bit of dusting but otherwise your interior design sense is boosting with—“

“Shut up,” said Sipiyu. “Get out.” He faced the figure with his blazing stare.

“I’m not welcome? Well, I suppose I won’t tell you what I came to tell you—I’ll leave it as a surprise for you.”

Sipiyu scowled. “What is it, Veyerus?”

The white figure wiggled with glee and looked to the other man with narrowed eyes. His devious grin couldn’t hold back the news much longer. “I gave those ghouls permission to attack the children.”

The grip Sipiyu held on his cleaver tightened.

“Now, now—You won’t have anything to worry about if you can slay them all off.” The reaction Veyerus received tickled his fancy. “What? No overflowing pride anymore? I thought maybe you thought protecting just the girl was easy enough, so I gave you the duty of defending the rest of the children. Maybe not all of them—that would be gruesome. Could you imagine all the innocent blood spilled?”

“Are you done?” Sipiyu swung the blade at Veyerus’ head, but the white entity remained in his place as the blade swooshed through.

“It’s no use,” he said, smiling.

“The children have nothing to do with this,” said Sipiyu.

“Oh?” Veyerus tilted his head to the side a bit. “Then I should keep this to you, little Alice, and Miss Katherine…?”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I dare not.” Veyerus’ eyes narrowed again. “She’s suffered enough from your hatred—I don’t need to give her more pain unless I have to. I’ll stick with the children…that should be a good enough workout for you.” The white entity twirled a tentacle of hair around his long, skinny finger as the dark figure in front gritted his teeth.

“Well,” started Veyerus, “I suppose I’ll be heading back now. Catch you later.” Then he was gone as quickly as he had appeared. Sipiyu stabbed the cleaver into the bench where Veyerus had sat.

“You...” he muttered and let the blade go as he sunk back against the opposite wall. Sipiyu raised his hand and observed it. “Why did I let him do this to me…?”

- - -

After being sent out of the room by Ms. Morgan, Alice hurried down the hall to the cafeteria. Just as she had gotten there she noticed that they were getting ready to leave for recess. She spotted her friends and ran towards them, shouting to get their attention: “Hey!”

Ian saw Alice first. “Alice…how did it go?”

“Ms. Morgan’s so confusing,” panted the brunette. “There’s so much about her that’s tied in with you-know-who, I just know it!”

Hannah peeked over Ian’s shoulder. “What do you mean? Did she tell you something?”

“Never mind that now,” said Alice. “Let’s get outside before we get in trouble.”

They all headed outside with the rest of the children, but instead went to the grassy area off to the side of the playground. The girls formed a small circle as they plopped down into the dewy grass; Ian and DeAundre played a few rounds of football with an abandoned ball they had found.

“So,” Emily began the conversation. “Tell us what Ms. Morgan told you.”

“…She said that she almost had this dream catcher,” replied Alice.

“But that was Sipiyu’s,” said Hannah. “So she definitely has a connection to him.” The other two nodded.

“I think they have a past,” said Emily as she raised a finger. “She’s always around somewhere when he comes up.”

“Why don’t you all just give it a rest?” The girls paused and looked up to see a tired Ian. With the football under his arm, he stood with his shadow cast over the bunch on the grass. “Really—someone got hurt because we’ve been snooping around. Let’s call this quits and just go back to normal.”

“But—” Emily started.

“It’s okay,” said Alice, placing a hand onto her friend’s shoulder. “You and Hannah should go talk to Ms. Morgan…she also wanted to see you guys.”

Ian chided in after kicking the ball towards DeAundre, “That reminds me—dad’s got to talk to me, too.” The ball bounced through the grass along the uneven earth before being kicked back to Ian by DeAundre’s small foot. The older boy stopped the ball’s path and looked to the girls. Hannah and Emily stood up and dusted themselves off. Emily said, “Well, I suppose we better go, then. Let’s hope nothing else weird happens for now.”

“Mm,” added Hannah, and the two set off back towards the main asylum building. Alice, Ian, and DeAundre watched them.

“…Alice.”

The brunette turned to look at DeAundre. “Yes?”

“I want to talk to you about your dream catcher,” replied the young boy. “Is that okay?”

“I don’t see why not,” replied the girl. The two sat down across from one another as the older boy, Ian, practiced kicking the ball vertically with the side of his foot.

DeAundre sat up and started his interrogation, asking, “So, what is it made out of?”

Alice held up the dream catcher so that DeAundre could get a better look. “I think it’s made out of bones and hair, and there’s a piece of skin in the center,” responded the girl, moving her finger from the outer edge to the center piece. The boy sitting across from her leaned in and squinted his eyes. They traced the fine hairs that held the structure together; they were also interlacing to create the center design.

“Wow,” he said. Moving from the hair, his eyes settled on the frame. “Yeah, those definitely look like bones…”

“And the center?” asked Alice.

“Looks like old skin, kind of like animal hide, but…” DeAundre rubbed his chin and sat back. “Animal hide looks different.” Alice’s eyes widened. “Do you think it could be human skin?”

“Come to think of it,” started DeAundre, “the bones look like human bones, too. If that’s the case, then there’s no doubt that those hairs are human, too.”

A tingling sensation rippled down Alice’s back. She gulped.

“Ooh, scary,” said Ian. “If it’s old than it’s possible, right?”

Both Alice and DeAundre tilted their head at Ian. “Wait a second,” said DeAundre, “I thought you lost interest!”

“I did.” Ian grabbed the ball and sat down next to them. “Just offering some of my…senior knowledge, you know?” He laughed and DeAundre lightly popped his hand across Ian’s shoulder. Alice smiled.

As Ian settled down, he continued, saying, “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, though. I doubt this thing was made recently.”

DeAundre nodded. “I agree,” he said. “The marks on the bones and the texture of the skin leave us to believe that it’s quite old—ancient, even. I’m curious about its powers…”

“Let’s leave it alone,” said Ian. He stood again.

“Ian?” asked Alice.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

The blond blinked for a moment before grinning. “No problem, Cunningham.”

Out away from the rest of the children stood the two mentors. By order of the Council, the two of them were to be with the children at all times. Mr. Gale slipped his hands into his jacket’s side pockets and let loose a sigh. “It’s starting to get cold---we’ll have to talk with Marty about back-ordering winter boots for the kids.”

Ms. Morgan stood beside him, her arms tucked against one another upon her front. She remained silent.

The silence was almost too much; Mr. Gale looked over to Ms. Morgan and frowned. “Oh come on, you look prettier when you smile.”

“Don’t flatter me, Alex, please,” replied Ms. Morgan. She looked away with a melancholy expression. Her eyes rested on the two approaching figures in the distance. “I’m so worried for them.”

“I understand,” replied Mr. Gale. His eyelids fell slightly as the cool autumn wind brushed through his aging hair. “…But you’ve got to be strong, Katherine. For the girls, okay?”

“Ms. Morgan!”

Emily and Hannah jogged towards Mr. Gale and Ms. Morgan before coming to a slow walk, and then finally, a stop beside the two adults. “Ms. Morgan,” began the blonde, “you…wanted to see us?” Hannah looked up as well.

The woman nodded. “Yes, come on, let’s go over here and talk. Mr. Gale,” said Ms. Morgan, looking to her coworker, “if you’ll excuse us.”

“Of course,” replied Mr. Gale as he gave a small nod.

Ms. Morgan placed a hand on both girls and led them over to another patch of grass, and then sat them down for some one-on-two. Mr. Gale glanced over to them, sighed, and began walking over to Ian, DeAundre, and Alice.

“Ms. Morgan, we’re sorry,” said Hannah, frowning.

“Don’t start apologies yet,” said Ms. Morgan. “I need to know what happened, first.”

Emily asked, “What about what Alice told you?”

Ms. Morgan laced her fingers together over her upraised knee as she sat in the grass beside the two girls. “I want to know what happened from your point of view.”

Emily and Hannah looked to each other.

“Well,” began the blonde, “it all started when…I dared Alice to go into that room. You know, the one we can’t go into.”

“Why did you dare her to go there?” asked Ms. Morgan.

Emily pouted. “She was new; I wanted to see if she’d actually do it. It’s not like I was going to hate her if she didn’t do it. But she did anyway---”

“Because she thought she had to fit in,” explained their mentor.

Emily looked down at the grass.

“We were waiting for her to come back out,” said Hannah. “We even tried to open the door. But it was locked tight. We wanted to go get help, but we…didn’t want to get in trouble. And then maybe we thought she’d actually do it.”

Emily looked up. “We didn’t really believe something would happen, Ms. Morgan! Honest! We just thought she’d stay in there and come back out! We didn’t think she’d see ghosts…”

“Calm down,” Ms. Morgan said with urgency. “What else happened after the dare?”

Hannah sighed. “We went out into the hallway after hours, even when we promised to you that we wouldn’t…I take the blame for Ian’s injuries, Ms. Morgan. I had a bad feeling about something, so I wanted Emily to check it out with me.”

Ms. Morgan looked to Emily. “Is this true?”

The blonde nodded. “Yes, so I went and that’s when Ian and DeAundre heard us out in the hallway. When they came out, those ghost things started attacking…”

“Wait.” Ms. Morgan breathed in and sighed the air back out to clear her head a bit. “What ghosts?”

“They weren’t like you-know-who,” explained Emily. “They weren’t even human-looking. They were small, and had two arms… and little limp bodies that they dragged around. They didn’t have any eyes, either… and they’d attack by lunging at us. We were saved when Alice showed up with that guy. He used Chef’s meat cleavers to get rid of those…things.”

The older woman nodded. “I see…”

“Ms. Morgan?” inquired Hannah.

“Yes?”

The brunette bit her lip. “…Is Alice going to be okay?”

Ms. Morgan’s expression softened. “Of course she’ll be okay. You two don’t need to worry about Alice.”

“Are we in trouble, Ms. Morgan?” Emily asked.

“We’ll see---right now, we have more important things to worry about. I am serious when I say this, girls,” said Ms. Morgan. “I want you two to stop going into the hallways at night. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt, do you understand?”

They chided back in sync. “Yes ma’am.”

“Good.” The woman brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we can keep Alice out of the hallways. She’s a part of something bigger now, that I want you two to stay out of, okay?”

Emily and Hannah glanced to each other and then to Ms. Morgan and nodded. “We understand.”

“Good.” Ms. Morgan reached for each girl, took them by the back of the head, and brought them forward to plant a kiss upon their foreheads.

“How does it?”

Ian, DeAundre, and Alice froze and looked up to the figure blocking the sun from their small circle. Mr. Gale towered above them with his hands on his hips. His eyes keenly observed the white trinket as Alice quickly tried to tuck it inside of her shirt. “I see you three have been plotting something,” said Mr. Gale. He squatted and looked to them, “Please, for my sanity and Ms. Morgan’s, we need you to stop.”

Alice spoke up, “But Mr. Gale, I---”

“No,” he intercepted with a shake of his head. “No research, no snooping, no asking questions. And Ian…”

The blond boy rolled his eyes. “I know, ‘You know better’, right?”

Mr. Gale reached over and ruffled his son’s hair. “Good job! My words don’t fall on deaf ears after all.” He chuckled.

DeAundre shifted around a bit and then tugged the older man’s sleeve. “Sir, what’s going to happen?”

After moving uncomfortably, their caretaker raked his fingers quickly through his hair. “Well, that’s not really something you kids need to worry about. Everything will be taken care of---”

“Dad.” Ian frowned at his father. “I’m not a kid. DeAundre’s smarter than any kid I know, and Alice, well… she’s already involved. You can tell us!”

The older man looked to the three of them and contemplated telling them. He could always hold back some of the truth and tell them what was safe for them to hear, but then again, nothing really could be safe at this point. He finally let out a long, decisive sigh and began:

“The Council had a meeting the other day. Ian and Alice, you know this already.” They nodded. “Well, it was decided that we’d have the entire estate---the main building, the dormitories, the library, everything else---be blessed by a priest and purged of,” he lifted his fingers to mock quotations, “’evil’. Now, we’re not entirely sure that this thing is ‘evil’, but whatever else there is could be.”

“Wait… so there’s more?” asked DeAundre.

Mr. Gale thoughtfully rubbed his chin. “Not so much as more, but… well, hmm… how do I explain?”

Ian leaned forwards on his palms. “You mean there’s possibly something more, and whatever it is could be evil, but the ghost that Alice has been seeing isn’t evil, right?”

“Well…” replied Ian’s father.

DeAundre thought about it. He looked to Alice and then back at the grass. He thought aloud, “…or maybe…”

The other three looked at him.

The boy’s eyebrows drew together slightly. “…Or maybe the ghost that Alice has been seeing is another kind of evil.”

Alice sat up. “He’s not evil!” she exclaimed.

DeAundre nearly fell back and quickly replied in defense, “No no! I didn’t mean that he was a bad evil! But maybe--possibly--! Alice, he certainly looks evil!”

The brunette sat back with a humph.

Ian and his father both hid a laugh. Ian then poked Alice’s arm, “You’re certainly on the defense for the guy, huh?”

The girl withdrew with wide eyes and rosy cheeks. “N-No!” she stuttered. “I’m not!”

Ian’s grin nearly turned into a fit of laughter before his father promptly shoved him over into the grass. The boy fell back with a thud and let out a half-hearted laugh. DeAundre giggled lightly while Alice tried to hide the smile picking at the corner of her lips.

“He’s a boy, forgive him,” said Mr. Gale. He then stood and dusted grass from his clothes. “Katherine looks finished with the girls… it’s almost time to head back inside.” He slipped his hands into his coat pockets and began to walk away. The three kids stood from the grass to follow the man. Alice jogged off towards Emily and Hannah while Ian ran off to join a group of boys that called for his attention. DeAundre, about to follow, stopped when his caretaker called him. Mr. Gale said, “Hey, DeAundre.”

The boy stopped and looked back to the older man. “Yes sir?”

“You know,” began Mr. Gale, “The library doesn’t close until fairly late… I hear they have some good books in there.”

“Uh, sir… why are you telling me this?”

Mr. Gale continued. “And there’s this section, I do believe…” The man brought a finger up to his mouth and pondered a moment or so. “What was it, a section with old files on the asylum?”

The young boy’s eyes widened.

“Well, let’s get back inside.”

DeAundre watched as Mr. Gale continued on towards the main asylum building. He slowly fell in line and hurried after the man, taking note of the information he had just received. Mr. Gale called to the other boys and beckoned them with a wave of his hand. The girls also followed when Ms. Morgan followed suit.

- - -

Bath time usually followed after recess, but today the schedules had changed. The mentors of the children delivered the news: They would be switching bath time with a break where the children would return to their dorms while the bath room was inspected. After the past events occurred, the children’s safety became an even higher priority. Mr. Bucanon, the Council’s head member, had made the decision to inspect the rooms the children would be occupying for a large amount of time. The news of Ian’s injury had reached him and that was enough to put the old council member on eggshells. Now that these entities could attack the children, he wasn’t about to let it happen again.

The girls had settled back into their room; Alice sat with Hannah and Emily as the two close friends played a round of tic-tac-toe. She watched them battle it out with black markers for two or three more rounds before she got up and walked over to the small window. The brunette pressed her nose to the cool glass and curiously peeked outside to the road below. Their dorm looked out over the ominous road that connected the asylum with the rest of the town. Alice hardly saw any cars pass by that road and soon began believing that only the one black car crossed the paved bridge to and from civilization.

Alice then caught the sound of Emily’s groan.

“They can’t be serious---checking the entire bath room? I stink! They need to hurry up!” she whined, and then flopped back on the floor. Hannah adjusted her glasses and cleaned up the tic-tac-toe board. Emily watched and allowed the seconds to tick by.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

“…Somebody say something!” the blonde exclaimed.

Hannah sat down on the bottom bunk and folded her hands in her lap. She said, “Like what?”

Emily slapped her hands over her eyes. “I don’t know! Anything!”

Hannah looked puzzled. Alice drew back from the window and sat back down on the floor next to Emily. “Well, what do you want us to do? We can’t really go anywhere,” said Alice.

“I know,” whined Emily. “I know, I know. I’m sorry, guys, but this is torture!”

Hannah and Alice exchanged glances and sighed. Before they knew it thirty more minutes had passed--though it seemed more like an eternity--and a knock at the door came. Emily bolted from her spot and whipped the door open. “Y-Yes?!”

Katherine nearly doubled backwards. “Goodness gracious! What’s the rush?”

Emily leaned forwards, saying, “Are the baths ready? Please tell me they’re ready, Ms. Morgan!”

Katherine looked curiously over to Hannah and Alice, witnessed the bored expressions on their faces, and began chuckling. “Don’t tell me your games lost their excitement…”

“How many rounds of tic-tac-toe does it take to get bored? Well, we definitely know now!” replied Emily. She leaned against the door and gave a half-hearted sob as she thought back on so many rounds of tic-tac-toe… So many countless rounds…

“Well, good news,” said Ms. Morgan. “The bath room is ready, so you’ve got five minutes to get over there. But I want you girls to get business done and then head out for dinner, okay?” Emily ignored Katherine past the news that the room had been ready, so she bolted out of the door and nearly knocked the woman over. Hannah and Alice jumped to their feet and hurried after.

“No lingering, you hear me?” Katherine called after them.

“Yes, Ms. Morgan!” they chimed, disappearing around a hallway corner.

The girls made it to the bath room and instantly immersed themselves into the steamy, aroma-filled atmosphere of the room. Emily, who in one fluid motion threw off her garment, jumped into the bath first. She let out a happy, content sigh and went for the soap. Hannah followed next, slipping into the bath so that she could get used to the hot water, and Alice de-tangled herself from her robe before she joined the other two. All three relaxed in their designated corner before they took turns washing each other’s hair.

“This is much better,” said Emily, a smug smile plastered on her face as Hannah scrubbed her scalp and lathered shampoo into her hair. “I was seriously starting to wreak in there.”

Alice blinked curiously and said, “I couldn’t tell.”

Hannah leaned over and whispered, “You wouldn’t have wanted to.”

“Hey!” exclaimed Emily. “I’m not that bad!” She smacked the water’s surface with her hand and sent a few splashes over in Hannah’s direction; Hannah giggled and curled away from the onslaught and then finished washing up Emily’s hair. The dark-haired girl then took a bottle of shampoo and patted Emily on the shoulder with it.

“My turn?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah, yeah.” Emily took the bottle and washed Hannah’s hair. Other girls around the large bath took turns scrubbing each other’s hair clean from recess. Most of everyone had finished cleaning and washing off by the time Alice finished rinsing her hair out. Hannah and Emily cleaned up and went to leave the bath.

“Alice, come on!” said Hannah, moving to grab a towel to dry off. Emily wasn’t far behind.

“Yes, I’m almost done!” replied Alice. She took a bar of soap and quickly began to wash herself. Most of the girls had exited the bath room and the workers had begun cleaning up after them.

“Alice!” Emily said, placing a hand on one hip.

“Just go without me,” the brunette said. She rinsed herself off and left the large bath to grab a towel.

Emily and Hannah sighed and waited at the large doors. Alice quickly dried herself off and found herself a clean robe to throw on. She was ready to meet up with her friends when a hushed whisper floated past her ear. “Huh…?” She turned around and stared back into a thick patch of steam that remained hovering from the hot bath. Alice couldn’t take her eyes off of it as they studied the floating mass until it felt as though something else moved inside of it. Alice took a few tentative steps forward and cautiously stuck out a hand…

“Alice, let’s go eat now! We’re starving!” Emily grabbed the outstretched hand and tugged the girl away. Alice stumbled along after the blonde. Hannah followed them.

The figure within the steam continued to shift ever so slightly. As the steam began to clear, a white figure appeared, pressed up against the damp bath room walls. Long, spider-like fingers were tracing soft, intricate, playful patterns in the condensation. The figure turned, facing towards the closing doors. Black, empty eye sockets narrowed ever so slightly before the white figure grinned.