Chapter 11 - Hunted
1168 Words
Andrew tried to strike up with a conversation with Lucy for over ten minutes and was starting to get frustrated. It seemed like no matter what he said, she insisted on being silent with a blank expression on her face.
With no progress in sight, Andrew went with the one thing he hoped might crack through her shell. “I know you aren't mentally ill and are, in fact, just a normal person,” he said quietly. He stared at her intently and begged her to speak in his mind.
His persistence paid off, and a spark of light flashed in Lucy's dark eyes. Her eyes focused on Andrew for the first time, and he saw how scared and lonely she was. His heart leaped at the thought that he was finally getting somewhere with an “impossible” patient.
“Miss, my name is Andrew. I don't want you to be nervous or scared, and I swear I won't hurt you. Can you tell me your name?" Andrew asked gently.
After a long silence, Lucy shifted anxiously in her seat. “My name is Lucy,” she answered slowly. “How... Did you know I'm not sick?”
An electronic sound suddenly went off in Andrew's mind: The task has been completed. You'll be rewarded with a Usain Bolt Card and a climbing rope.
Andrew smiled. “Because I have a hunch, that's all. I'm a good judge of character, and I knew all about you the moment I saw you.”
Lucy's face contorted into one of horror, and she scrambled away from the window and towards her bed. She then hid behind it and curled up into a ball. “Don't kill me! Don't kill me!” she yelled.
Andrew was confused as to why she was so suddenly frightened, and Leo returned at that moment with a shocked expression. "Andrew, what did you say to her?" he asked.
“Not much! All I did was ask about her.”
“Never mind. Follow me back inside.”
Lucy's overreaction made Andrew a little surprised, but he felt that he was on to something. He felt a twinge of regret as he looked at Lucy's face full of pain. She had also started to grab at her hair.
Once Leo and Andrew reached Lucy's door, Leo ordered a nurse to sedate Lucy for her own safety. As soon as the door was unlocked and the nurse and Leo went inside, Lucy jumped up from the floor and shoved past them. She then bolted down the hallway and slipped out of the unit behind a nurse who was exiting.
“A patient has run away! All hands on deck!” Leo yelled. He gave Andrew a disapproving look before he took off after Lucy.
One of the biggest fears in a psychiatric hospital dealt with a patient escaping. Since most patients were violent and unpredictable, it posed a security threat for the whole building. All the units were on lockdown and sealed shut. Every security guard was on the hunt for Lucy as they began to search the hospital with walkie-talkies in hand.
The second unit was attached to the main lobby, just like the first and third units were. The front doors were locked, and there didn't appear to be anywhere for Lucy to go. Did she suddenly disappear out of thin air?
Though the search for Lucy wasn't part of Andrew's task, he still felt responsible for setting her off and causing all this. Therefore, he wanted to try and help as much he can.
While all the security guards scrambled to search the grounds, Andrew tried to think like Lucy. If she came into the main lobby, where would she go if she couldn't go outside?
When he thought that the hospital had a roof, he got an idea when he wondered if there was access to it. Sure enough, Andrew located a door to the stairwell. He started to walk towards it to see if his hunch was correct.
"I don't want to die yet!" Lucy cried out with tears running down her cheeks. She had hidden underneath the stairs that led to the roof.
“Yes, it's such a shame that someone as beautiful as you has to die. But, you can just blame it on fate.”
A man dressed in a hospital gown stood before Lucy. His eyes were black as he narrowed in on his prey.
“Who... who are you?” Lucy murmured.
"This mental hospital is really well guarded. I stayed here for so long as a patient and never found a chance until now.”
The man got closer to Lucy, one step at a time. She could feel his murderous intent in waves, and since she was huddled in a corner, she was trapped. She was nothing more than a rabbit about to be eaten by a wolf.
"I have to thank that new intern for this. If I didn't overhear your little chat, I wouldn't have known that he had spooked you. You see, I had been hiding in that unused courtyard behind your unit for a long time, just waiting for the right moment,” he added. “Imagine how pleased I was to hear that you had left your unit.”
The man reached Lucy and reached down. He effortlessly dragged her out of her corner and held her up against the nearest wall. He encircled her neck with his hands and began to squeeze.
“Don't...” Lucy rasped as she clawed at the man's hands. She felt her breathing becoming ragged and labored, and her face turned red. Under the brute strength of her attacker, she found that struggling was impossible.
Lucy gradually lost her consciousness, and everything went black. She regretted running out of her unit and giving the man trying to kill her a chance.
"Let her go!"
The sudden sound startled the man, who stared at the person who just showed up. It was the man he saw talking to Lucy in the courtyard.
“You have one second to back off, boy,” the man snarled. “Mind your own business!”
“That woman is my business. Unhand her, or face the consequences,” Andrew warned. He had a suspicion that Lucy stayed in the mental hospital for protection. Now that he witnessed an attempt on her life first-hand, he knew that Lucy had been hiding from a hitman for a long time. And Andrew had to save her.
“Consequences?” the evil man snorted in derision. “You're just one person, and everyone else is busy. What the hell are you gonna do?”
Although Andrew was nearly five foot nine, he was relatively weak. The man was an experienced killer, so he didn't take Andrew's threat seriously.
"I gave you a chance!" Andrew exclaimed.
Before the man could react, everything went dark as his body was sent flying into the air.
- Writer
