Warning: This chapter will be strong (it will have a slight mention on suicide) and not for all audiences so be cautious while reading it.

     Ace stayed the night. I wanted him to share a room with me but he got the one on the far end of the hall. It's the first night where I feel alive, with blood pumping in my system. I don't feel groggy and off.

     The only problem? I feel too alive. I can't sleep. And sleep won't come. So I stare at the ceiling and imagine myself soaring wide and off to the distance, past Hendrix's house, past my apartment, past buildings, past my job, past the Store, past the fields, and past the wall that keeps everything locked. If only I could go out there and see the world. My world, as flawed, scarred, and forgotten as it is. There's no use in pretending how bright and colorful it once was before it got stained with sins and more blood than there are oceans to count.

     There's no use in pretending. So why am I still here, stuck in a mansion when I could be outside these doors? I need to run. I feel stripped from the one thing that brought me the closest thing I had to happiness.

     I can't live like this! I can't breathe like this any longer!

     I need to do something, anything other than this suffocating feeling that only seems to grow and grow and grow and I fear it'll burst with fury and resentment toward the Hendrix's family. Which sounds absurd since all they've ever done is try to help me. But at the same time, it feels like they're making everything worse. Way worse.

     I can't hide away just because someone tried to hurt me, I can't hide. I can't. I just can't. This I'm certain of.

     I can't hide because there's no place to hide here. No place.

     I toss my covers aside and slip on my socks. The shoes are too nosey. And I need to be as soundless as invisibility can get me in order to pull this off. 

     But right when I cracked open my door, my semi-thought-out plan was interrupted by low distant noises. I couldn't decide if they were wails of suffering or gnarling of unintelligible sounds put together to make all that ruckus or from pleasure.

     I shake my head at the last thought as I shut my door and tip-toe down the hall and knock on Ace's room.

     He cracks it open and I barge in.

     "Are you up for an adventure?" I prompt.

     "At this hour? Always." he yawns as he plops down back to sleep, his head hitting the pillow.
     "Come on. There's no time for your sarcasm!"

     He wiggles his body deeper into the cushions so I do the only things my brain process as a liability on my part. I get under the covers with him and plead.

     "Sky. Your feet are fucking cold. Get off."

     "No, and aren't you the least bit curious about what's hidden in the doors? Don't you find it odd that no one actually has been here and talks about it? I heard someone was here... a woman, but no one would tell me her name...."

     "Maybe coz theirs nothing to talk about." He retorts.

     "What if there is? There used to be a woman who cleaned but she left to be a surrogate mother. What if—"

     "Let me guess, you think Axel or Felix is the father?" He interrupts. "I thought you didn't have a thing for either. Especially not Axel."

     I don't say anything because what is there to say?

     "Oh my gosh. You like him, Sky!"

     "What? No... I... I heard noises so maybe something is up."

     "What kind?"

     "I don't know... like screaming but not quite."

     "You don't think...."

     "Yes," I add.

     "That's not your business, Skylar."

     "Ughh!" I turn my body to the other side away from him and pull the covers to me.

     "Ace, I just don't get why he's cold to me, and then it's like I'm something to be treasured and I want to be certain of whatever it is I'm feeling. What if it's all a faux and it's just because he saved me? And I'm just not right. Do you think I'm mad?"

     "You know he's like 30 something, right?"

     I nod, my stomach twisting in too many knots to think clearly.

     "So he's like twice your age which means he's done it multiple times."

     "Done it with like a person or donated his—"

     "You know it's both"

     I grab the pillow from behind him and start attacking it with my punches.
     "Why does it bother you so?"

     "I'm coming..." I pant, "to terms that I'm nothing but stupid."

    "Girl, you're not."

     "I never want to have kids," I exclaim.

    "But you have to. It's the law."

     "I'll kill myself then." I shut my eyes wishing to take the words back but it's out. And cold and frighteningly loud and real that it scares me.

     He stops. Everything does. Even my heart. It's like my body is in anticipation of what's to come. Like it's a war that I have to win somehow.

     I muster all my courage to say what's been in my heart for ages now, "Just because it's the law doesn't mean it makes it right."

     He exhales long and silence settles before he says. "I've always wanted to say that."

      I turn to him, "Really? So I'm not mad?"

     "No, You're not mad. Or maybe we both are." He cracks a grin and I lean into him, my head on his shoulder.

     "I like this new Sky. The one who speaks her mind." He turns to me, "The night suits you."
"I guess it does."

     At night, every night, my thoughts swirl within not letting me sleep and bringing the dark thoughts and monsters to mind. But not just that, it makes me less uptight and more willing to do disastrous things. I'm starting to wonder if this has been the real me all along.

     I close my eyes. 

     "I've always felt the real you was hidden somewhere. They really done you bad huh?" Ace begins. 

     I don't have to reply because he knows. He knows. But I feel like I have to say something so I do, "I think Axel has some weird fascination over me or something and I've been too drugged these days to even comprehend because some days it's like he cares about my well-being but it could just be the drugs playing with me...seeing only the good and hiding the bad kind of thing."

     "What kind of drug?"

     "I don't know... something for my leg. It works well because my leg feels great. But enough about me. Tell me about you. What don't you like about the system?" I dare to ask.

     "You're right to say some things are off. People have gone missing and we haven't seen any monsters in a while. Don't know why. And about having kids." he turns to look at me, really look at me, "I feel the same way."

     I squeeze his hands, "Who even wants to subject someone into our world? It's vile."

     "Sky."

     "Yes."

     "Be careful, please." 

     In an instant, I'm transported back to the field of Bachelor Buttons with Carson. The same words he whispered to me, careful. What is there to be careful about?

     Everything! My mind screams.

     "Hey, you okay?" Ace words pierce my thoughts.

     I flutter my eyelashes, "Of course. And I will. And you too okay? Now can we please go and explore?"

     He nods rubbing his eyes as he gets up from bed and drags me along with him, "You're so pushy and whinny. Ugh, it's rubbing off on me."

     "You know you love me." I beam.

     "No, no I think I love..." he stops and looks at the ceiling, "you know the chief at our station."

     "You mean Emily?" I laugh, "Of course you do."

     "She makes the best soups."

     "And I make the best friend."

     "About that...you don't." he bring his fingers to his lips, clearly hiding a smile.

     I smack his arm.

     "No shoes." I point out, "We're going out soundless."

     "Got it."

_

     We tip-toe are way down the hall and it's as if I never heard the noise, to begin with. Everything is silent, waiting. Everything except the vents that make whooshing sounds.  

     "You sure it wasn't that." Ace points above, holding his laughter.

     "No." I roll my eyes.

     We make our way down the stairs and to the music room where a low melody is playing. I tip-toe to the door and that's when I hear it. A cry of pain. And the melody that was playing stops.

     I turn to Ace and we exchange looks. I know he heard the cry too so we rush past the closed doors before we get caught.

     We round the corner as the doors to the music room burst open and someone walks out muttering profanities under its breath. And heavy determined footsteps echo on the tile floor to the same beat as my heart.

     I make myself as small as possible as I try to blend in with the wall, but curiosity takes the best of me as I steal a peak.

     Felix. Felix Hendrix.

     I suck in a breath then release it once he's too far gone.

      "We have to follow. He's clearly going towards the noise." I point out.

     "Who? I didn't know they played music. Do you think whoever he is plays? Or if it's a recording?" Ace asks once we're reached the living room. 

     "I don't know," I whisper.

     We continue on even though I lost sight of Felix. Everything feels illegal like we're breaking in, every sound we make intensifies my anxiety. Even our breathing. 

     Sweat beads in my hands and I have to wipe them continuously on my shorts as we make our way to the kitchen. 

     "You thirsty?" I whisper.

     Ace nods and I return with two glasses of iced water. I lean on the wall outside the kitchen as I take my sips while Ace sits on the floor.

     "Who do you think was crying?" I ask once I finished my water and placed the glass back.

     "The dead."

     My face pales and I know he can't see it because of the dark but I know he sensed my reaction because he continues, "It's probably nothing. Just--" he doesn't finish. 

     The crying begins again, painfully so. I begin to follow it without thought past the kitchen, down a flight of stairs as Ace begs me to stop, but I can't. I go down another flight of stairs into a room where the cries vibrate and pulse.

     And then it stops for a second before starting again. 

     I was wrong. It wasn't crying. It was wailing and moaning and screeching all into a horrifying sound that vibrates inside my bones and my teeth begin to clatter and I fear I might cry.
The sound, it screams of pain and endless torment.

     What are they doing down here? Who are they hurting? What are they hiding?

     "You ready?" I question.

     Ace's eyebrows are twisted in confusion and something else as he nods.

     I inch forward, my hand on the knob. I inhale as I twist it. The hinges of the door groan and squeak in protest. The noise bounces on the walls amplifying it so loud everyone must surely hear it. 

       "It can't be." I whisper, the chills returning.