The light from the lamps did little to make her feel safe, so once she was free of the tangle of branches and leaves in the forest, her footsteps only grew quicker. She finally dared to glance behind her after she’d passed a cabin or two, allowing herself to slow slightly when there was no sign of anybody following her. As she reached the pool, she let herself stop completely, leaning against the chain link fence surrounding it and fighting to catch her breath, eyes scanning the forest, jumping as the light above the pool flickered and died with impeccable timing.
What was going on? Was it some kind of a prank? Mina did have a weird sense of humor, but this seemed a little much even for her, not to mention she’d had to have gotten help from someone else equally warped. Maybe it had been one of the boys… She knew that made more sense than Mina actually getting killed and hung from the trees.
No, she was just being silly, falling for the prank like a sucker. She shook her head, laughing quietly as she straightened herself up, stepping away from the fence and starting to head down the path to the main building. If her partners in crime weren’t lurking about, Mina could just stay in the tree the rest of the night – maybe that would teach her a lesson.
Something caught her attention at the corner of her eye, making her turn her head just a touch, just enough for her to see the pool. For a moment, it looked normal, until she noticed a darker patch of water.She turned further, following it, watching the spot get larger and larger, until at last she saw the person there, floating face down, fully dressed, the darker color seeming to eminate from them. The light flickered back to life with a dull hum.
“Shit,” Patti said under her quickening breaths. “Shit shit shit…”
And then she heard a sound behind her. She turned, backing away right as a baseball bat clanged against the fence in front of her, wielded by a wiry middle aged man with thick glasses, whose expression changed from anger to shock as she watched.
“I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed, lowering the bat quickly. “I thought you were…”
Patti kept backing away. “Stay the hell away from me,” she warned, reaching into her pocket, as if there was something there that would help her, rather than just lint. Her eyes darted back towards the pool.
“I don’t know who you are, but…”
And she never found out. She had her ideas, of course, but there had never really been time for a proper introduction.
“He was a psychiatrist,” Jolene interrupted. “H-He was from the asylum. He came to the main building, told us all to be careful, but some of them… Some of the counselors went out to help the kids…”
Patti didn’t need to hear what had happened to them. She’d seen them, strewn across the lawn like confetti. “He was lying,” she told Jolene. “That thing didn’t come from any asylum, and neither did he.”
“I didn’t kill that poor boy,” he said. “I don’t have time to explain, nor to escort you to safety. Take this and go to the main building. Barricade yourself in with the others.” He handed her the baseball bat, though she shied away from his hand at first, then hurried off into the night.
