Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Cemetery Drive
Chapter 4.You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Mental Hospitals
0 reviewsRunning from doctors, being stuck in a basement with someone you only just met, hiding, opening a door with an auto-lock... how would you handle it?
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Ah, finally, this is the chapter that's actually a normal length! ¦) ¦D ... ~KilljoyBandit
Chapter 4 - You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Mental Hospitals
“Oh, you're here. I was wondering if you're still in the Social Hall freaking out.” Gerard sounded amused and grinned at Frank.
“Is this like one of the medicine giving things they always put in movies about mental hospitals?” Frank was still panicking.
“Yeah, but as long as you don't swallow any of the meds. Just promise that you won't.”
“What? Why? They're just trying to help us?” Frank pointed out.
Gerard's expression grew serious, and his amazingly green, honest eyes displayed nothing but true horror, one that Frank was sure he'd never seen before. He lowered his voice and looked around. “I don't think you know what they do to guys like us in mental hospitals. Don't take the pills they give you, do you understand?”
Frank swallowed and nodded, taking a step forward as the line leading to the window where the nasty, old nurse he met before was giving out boxes of colourful drugs moved along.
“How do I hide it, though?”
Gerard opened his mouth wide, probably wider than any normal human being ever could, and stuck his finger in the space under the bone of the jaw. He then pulled it out, dragging out a long trail of saliva, making Frank nauseous at the sight.
“Hide 'em there and they won't find them no matter how well they look.” He instructed, wiping his hand on his shirt.
“Uh... o-okay... erm... ew...” Frank took a step forward again as the line moved.
“Uh-oh! Guess I'm next.” Gerard laughed, grinning widely. He took a step backwards, then spun around to face the grumpy nurse.
“How are you on this fine day, Paula?” He grinned, posing like an idiot in front of the small window. But, an idiot in a good way. A funny idiot.
“Gerard, don't you try anything today, after this afternoon we're all keeping an eye on you, little brat.” The nurse, Paula, warned.
“Love ya too, Paulie!” This time Gerard made his voice sound passionate and serious, as he tilted his head all the way back and tipped the pills into his mouth.
“Now show me that you swallowed them. Do I have to ask every time?”
“Uh, you gotta say the magic sentence! Say 'Let me see your pearly whites.'” He whispered in a cheerful tone.
“Shut up, and let me see your damn pearly whites!” Paula ordered, getting redder and redder.
“That's not very nice. Try again!” Gerard said in a little kid voice, jumping up and down at the last two words.
Paula sighed, clearly holding back the urge to split Gerard's nose down the middle. “Let me see your pearly whites! There, happy now?”
“Hmmm...” Gerard showed his teeth in a large, fake grin.
Paula said something into a walkie-talkie-like thing attached to her shirt, and a few seconds later, Dr. Martinez appeared.
“I was just around the corner. Gerard. How nice to see you again. What's the problem this time?”
“Tell that little twirp to open his damn mouth and let me see that the swallowed his pills!” Paula screeched.
“Ouch! Offensive much?” Gerard joked around, playing on Paula's nerves.
“Gerard.” Dr. Martinez said sternly, looking down at the boy.
Gerard rolled his eyes and sighed, then opened his mouth.
“And tongue.” Dr. Martinez ordered, and once Gerard had shown his that he had 'swallowed the pills', he added, “All clear, now go Gerard, and try not to cause too much chaos.”
As Gerard walked away, Frank stepped up and tipped three pills, a red one, a pink one and a grey one, into his mouth, hiding them just as Gerard instructed.
After the nurse checked his mouth, he started towards where Gerard was waiting, but Mr. Martinez put a hand on his shoulder, making him jump and spin around.
“Hey, you're a good kid, as it seems so far. Do me a favour, don't get tangled in anything with Gerard. He's dangerous.”
Frank simply nodded, as the pills started slipping out from behind his tongue and would be visible if he opened his mouth. He then walked towards Gerard, whose hand was full of slimy, wet pills.
“Ugh, what did he want? Whatever, spit 'em out and come with me!” Gerard instructed and dragged Frank down the corridor, so Frank decided to keep his mouth shut about what Dr. Martinez had said. Instead he let Gerard drag him thorough a labyrinth of corridors until they reached a dead end, and a silver door.
The door had a silver, metal handle, and a keypad with numbers next to it.
“Here, hold these!” Gerard exclaimed as he hurriedly dropped his pills into Frank's hand, saliva still dragging from them, and turned to the keypad on the door.
He typed some numbers carefully. Frank watched over his shoulder as he typed 1, 2, 3, 9, 8, 7, 0, 8, 5, 2 and moved away from the door.
The numbers that lit up made up an odd sort of symbol. It was two horizontal lines where the 123 and 789 were on the keypad, and one line down the middle of that, starting from the middle of the top line and going through the bottom line, represented by the 2580.
Frank confused himself trying to explain it in his head.
The door beeped quietly and Gerard began talking a mile a minute.“Okay, now go in there, down the steps, but be careful because there's no railing. Then go right, not left, right, don't make the mistake I made once. After you turn right, walk straight ahead until you reach a trash chute. Lift the lid, then throw the pills into it and remember to press the green button that lights up. Please do not forget the green button. We can't get to the light switch without another code which I don't know yet, so it's gonna be dark-”
“Wait! Why do I have to go down there?” Frank yelped.
“Because I have a tracking device.” Gerard held up his arm, which had the metal cuff Frank had noticed before on it. “And it sets off an alarm in the Main Control Room if it comes near sensors, like the ones they have at the bottom of those stairs.”
“Okay, well, erm... So... down the stairs, right, straight ahead, trash chute, green button, back, dark. Got it!” Frank repeated the main points of what Gerard had said and gave him a thumbs up.
As frank walked further down the cold, stone steps, he was plunged deeper and deeper into darkness. Darkness that suffocated him, smothered every inch of his skin in tar, tugged at his bare throat.
“Remember! Right! Not left! If you go left you'll get electrocuted and the alarm will go off.” Gerard's voice reached Frank at the bottom of the stairs in the form of the echo, sending shivers down his spine, which was already stiffened by fear.
Frank gulped once again and turned right, making sure it was, in fact, his right, and not the deadly left.
He walked ahead, counting his steps for future reference.
Gerard was still on the lookout at the top of the stairs.
Suddenly a loud clash disturbed his thoughts of another escape from the mental institution, shattering the silence.
“You 'kay, Frank?” He called down into the pure darkness, his voice echoing against the metal walls of the basement.
After a few seconds of deafening silence, Frank's quiet groan surfaced from the depths of doom, sending relief through Gerard's ears, into his brain, and pushing a small relieved sigh past his lips.
“Frank?” Gerard's voice was genuinely concerned now.
“I think I found the Trash chute...” Frank half groaned, half whispered.
“Yeah, the trash chute kinda sticks out of the wall. Sorry if I didn't mention that before. Look, maybe this wasn't the best idea. Sending you down there, I mean. I mean c'mon, you're new here, and straight away I'm putting you in danger.”
“It's really okay, I think I must have been a real clutz before I lost my memory. And I guess I still am one. I just walked into the trash chute and winded myself, but I'm fine.” Frank replied, squinting in pain.
“If you're sure... just make sure you open it, put the pills in, close it and press the green button.” Gerard called.
So Frank did exactly as he was told.
The darkness was so deep, it was really unusual. The light from the open door just up the stairs didn't even reach halfway across the room, which was just weird.
Frank's anxiety was beginning to kick in, his heart beginning to race, his breaths getting short and shallow. He was beginning to lose control at the thought of who - or what – could be lurking in the darkness that swallowed him whole.
His knees were getting weak and trembling as his hands darted about frantically, trying to find a way to open the rusty trash chute.
There! His hand rested on a small handle. He pulled it up with all his strength, lifting the ancient cover and throwing in the handful of saliva-coated pills he'd been holding this whole time.
He slammed the heavy metal cover of the trash chute down. It let out a much louder clash than he'd expected.
“Frank! What the fuck? Be quiet!” Gerard panicked.
“I'm sorry! I'm really trying! I didn't mean-”
“Shit!!” Gerard yelled, now being loud himself, as the metal cuff around his left wrist let out a rhythmic beeping noise.
“What's going on?” Frank's eyes widened as he spun around to face the stairs.
“They heard us, they're using my tracking device! They're gonna lock me in and inject all those drugs into me again if they find out I was even in this part of the building!” Gerard was now looking around like the maniac he was, his face displaying sheer terror.
“Oh man, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! Oh, God! What do I do?” Frank started pacing back and forth, his eyes tearing up at the thought of losing a friend so quickly, and also getting stuck down in this basement for who knows how long.
By that point they were both pacing back and forth, panicking and close to tears.
Step, step, step, step, step, step...
The sound of about three sets of footsteps echoed down one of the corridors.
Fuck, fuck, FUCK!
Gerard's thoughts were all over the place as he did the last thing he should have done, but also the only thing he could do.
He lunged for the silver door, and shutting it as quietly as he could before racing down the steps.
One thing he forgot about completely was that these steps had no railing. He took a wrong step over the side of the stairs. A mistake which sent his plummeting down to the cold ground below.
On the way down, he swung his arms wildly, and his left arm hit the side of the stairs. Pretty hard. Although he didn't feel any pain, just the impact.
Ready to have half of the bones in his body crushed after making contact with the hard ground, he curled up in a ball. But what he felt at the end of the fall wasn't concrete, or the crushing of bones, or anything like that.
Opening his eyes immediately, he looked at whatever broke his fall. A mattress.
“How the fuck-?” Gerard wondered, flooded by relief. He looked up at Frank, and could just about make out the outlines of his face, panting and out of breath.
“That's heavy shit.” Frank sighed.
“Did you put this here?” Asked Gerard.
“I'm the one who made all this noise and made them find you. So when you fell I had to catch you. Besides, this mattress was leaning against this wall, all I did was push it to the ground...” Frank pointed out, feeling guilty about the whole situation.
“Yeah, but, I'm the one who caused this shit. It's just that, this is the only way of getting rid of the pills without them being found. You can't even flush anything down the toilet without getting busted. They're so controlling!” Gerard complained angrily.
“Well, I guess it's what they get paid to do.” Sighed Frank.
Silence poured back into the small room like toxic gas, summoning the curse that was the suffocating darkness.
Who knew how long it lasted – seconds, minutes – before its was shattered by Frank's sudden realisation.
“Wait? Aren't they tracking you with that metal cuff on your wrist?” Frank's eyes widened in horror as he looked at Gerard's now equally terrified expression.
“Fuck! I can't thank you enough for reminding me!” Gerard jumped to his feet and snatched his left wrist with his other hand, only to notice that the cuff was gone.
“What? It's gone? How?” He stammered.
Frank, being Frank, took a step to the left at that moment, only to have his heart lodged in his throat and his pulse skip as he went flying backwards, and landed with his back against a wall, grateful that he ducked his head before he had the chance to his it on the wall.
Both of them stared for a while, eyes wide in shock. Then, out of nowhere, a flash filled the room. Then another. And another. And soon a dim light flickered on.
The boys continued to stare for several moments, before Frank couldn't hold it anymore and started laughing, At first silently, putting a hand over his mouth, and closing his eyes, leaning forward against his will as his stomach muscles spazzed in fits of laughter. Laughter that became louder and louder, until Gerard couldn't hold it either, and joined in, sending a cloud of spit into the room as the laughter took him by surprise.
“I should not be laughing right now!” Gerard choked whilst wiping tears of amusement from his eyes.
Frank found that he'd landed in a cardboard box when he fell, and failed to get out, which only made them both double over more.
Just then, Frank noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Still unable to breathe, he pointed it out with his finger.
Gerard turned around, still doubled over with tears streaming down his face, not knowing what to expect. But then he saw it. The metal cuff that lived uncomfortably on his wrist before, was now lying on the floor, smashed into the tiniest pieces.
Hyperventilating, Gerard managed to stop the laughter before it suffocated him, and knelt down beside the tiny pieces of debris that were previously the only obstacle, the wall between him and freedom.
Frank finally scrambled out of the box, and, steady on his feet once again, walked over to where Gerard was kneeling.
“You know, I can't tell if this is good or bad, but judging by the expression of your face I'm guessing it's good.” Frank smiled.
“Good? GOOD? You think this is good??” Gerard exploded, much to Frank's surprise. “This is the best thing that ever happened to me!” This time Gerard was screaming in the most cheerful tone that Frank might have ever heard, if only he remembered his life.
Gerard jumped up to his feet and put his hands on Frank's shoulders.
“THANK YOU!” He screamed, shaking Frank back and forth. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!”
“What for?” Frank uttered.
Gerard let go of Frank's shoulders and looked at him seriously. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Yeah, I seriously don't know what I did.” Frank responded, also putting on a serious face, though his eyes were arguing against it, displaying amusement and worry at the same time.
“You made the noise! You made noise and I fell and the cuff broke and it's thanks to you because you made the noise!” Gerard was hyperventilating once again.
Frank wondered if this was one of his 'issues'. Going completely hyper-active like that over tiny things.
“But aren't you the one who made me come down here?”
Gerard frowned at the point he'd made himself just a few minutes ago.
“Who cares? You still made the noise!” He jumped up and down wildly, grinning.
Frank remembered how Gerard asked him if he was schizophrenic out of nowhere like that before. Maybe he should ask his of this kind...
“Are you by any chance hyper-active?” He blurted before he had the chance to run the words through his brain. He bit his lip as soon as he spoke because he wasn't sure if it even made sense, or was appropriate or whatever.
“Something like that. I don't know what it's called, though.” Gerard's voice was childish and cheerful, and he finally seemed to belong in this mental hospital since before, when Frank saw him bite that doctor.
Footsteps on the floor above them were what snapped him out of it.
Frank's eyes shifted towards the door. He could hear the sound of buttons on the keypad beeping.
Immediately he darted for the light switch he'd discovered before when he fell, then grabbed Gerard's arm and they both ran towards the space under the stairs, kicking a bunch of empty boxes towards it so they could hide behind them.
The longer beep alerted them that the door was about to open, and it did/ Two sets of footsteps walked down the stairs, towards the secret light switch where Frank had fallen.
The light flickered, then lit up the room once again, and through a space between boxes, both of the boys saw Dr Martinez, but the other person's face was out of sight.
“Are you sure the signal showed that he was here?” Asked a female voice which Frank didn't recognise.
“For the first few seconds after we heard the noise, yeah, but after that it started flickering all over the screen. The red dot that represents Way showed up in the Main Control Room, then the Social Hall, several corridors, a few people's rooms and then disappeared off the monitor completely.” Dr. Martinez replied to the woman's question.
For a second Frank looked over at Gerard, who was leaning against the wall under the stairs and quietly splitting a piece of cardboard in two. But he had no time to ask what he was doing that for because the female spoke again.
“Do you think he broke the tracking device?”
“I wouldn't be surprised if he had, he's an insanely smart kid, despite his... issues.” Dr. Martinez spoke again.
Looking over at Gerard again, Frank noticed he'd turned the piece of cardboard into a thin piece of brown paper by peeling away layer by layer.
“What the hell are you doing?” Frank wrinkled his forehead.
“You'll see...” Answered Gerard, biting his lower lip in concentration.
Frank wasn't exactly satisfied with that answer, but he decided to wait and see.
He must have missed something because as he turned around to continue listening to the conversation, the light suddenly went out and he heard footsteps going up the stairs.
Before he could do or say anything, Gerard darted out from under the stairs.
Frank, shocked, motioned for his to stop, mouthing something, but it was too dark to see anything.
Silently like a cat, Gerard crept up the stairs, right behind Dr. Martinez and the mysterious woman. As the door was about to close, he put the piece of paper between it and the wall. The handle clicked and the door was closed.
“Turn the light on.” Gerard ordered.
Doing as instructed, Frank asked, “What was all that about?” His forehead was still wrinkled and his eyes full of confusion.
“Well,” said Gerard. “Before the door was locked. Without a key, we couldn't get out unless someone typed the code and opened it from the other side.”
“Yeahh... and?” Frank still didn't get it.
“If you put something between the keypad and the frame, the door can't lock itself automatically..” Not breaking eye contact, Gerard smiled, pressed the silver handle and the door swung open. That guy was a genius.
Gerard then bit his lip. “Now all we have to do, it get rid of the footage on the security cameras!”
Okay, so I have one thing to say to everyone who was bugged to read this. STAY AWESOME!! ¦)
P.S. The smiley's watching ya! ¦))
Chapter 4 - You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Mental Hospitals
“Oh, you're here. I was wondering if you're still in the Social Hall freaking out.” Gerard sounded amused and grinned at Frank.
“Is this like one of the medicine giving things they always put in movies about mental hospitals?” Frank was still panicking.
“Yeah, but as long as you don't swallow any of the meds. Just promise that you won't.”
“What? Why? They're just trying to help us?” Frank pointed out.
Gerard's expression grew serious, and his amazingly green, honest eyes displayed nothing but true horror, one that Frank was sure he'd never seen before. He lowered his voice and looked around. “I don't think you know what they do to guys like us in mental hospitals. Don't take the pills they give you, do you understand?”
Frank swallowed and nodded, taking a step forward as the line leading to the window where the nasty, old nurse he met before was giving out boxes of colourful drugs moved along.
“How do I hide it, though?”
Gerard opened his mouth wide, probably wider than any normal human being ever could, and stuck his finger in the space under the bone of the jaw. He then pulled it out, dragging out a long trail of saliva, making Frank nauseous at the sight.
“Hide 'em there and they won't find them no matter how well they look.” He instructed, wiping his hand on his shirt.
“Uh... o-okay... erm... ew...” Frank took a step forward again as the line moved.
“Uh-oh! Guess I'm next.” Gerard laughed, grinning widely. He took a step backwards, then spun around to face the grumpy nurse.
“How are you on this fine day, Paula?” He grinned, posing like an idiot in front of the small window. But, an idiot in a good way. A funny idiot.
“Gerard, don't you try anything today, after this afternoon we're all keeping an eye on you, little brat.” The nurse, Paula, warned.
“Love ya too, Paulie!” This time Gerard made his voice sound passionate and serious, as he tilted his head all the way back and tipped the pills into his mouth.
“Now show me that you swallowed them. Do I have to ask every time?”
“Uh, you gotta say the magic sentence! Say 'Let me see your pearly whites.'” He whispered in a cheerful tone.
“Shut up, and let me see your damn pearly whites!” Paula ordered, getting redder and redder.
“That's not very nice. Try again!” Gerard said in a little kid voice, jumping up and down at the last two words.
Paula sighed, clearly holding back the urge to split Gerard's nose down the middle. “Let me see your pearly whites! There, happy now?”
“Hmmm...” Gerard showed his teeth in a large, fake grin.
Paula said something into a walkie-talkie-like thing attached to her shirt, and a few seconds later, Dr. Martinez appeared.
“I was just around the corner. Gerard. How nice to see you again. What's the problem this time?”
“Tell that little twirp to open his damn mouth and let me see that the swallowed his pills!” Paula screeched.
“Ouch! Offensive much?” Gerard joked around, playing on Paula's nerves.
“Gerard.” Dr. Martinez said sternly, looking down at the boy.
Gerard rolled his eyes and sighed, then opened his mouth.
“And tongue.” Dr. Martinez ordered, and once Gerard had shown his that he had 'swallowed the pills', he added, “All clear, now go Gerard, and try not to cause too much chaos.”
As Gerard walked away, Frank stepped up and tipped three pills, a red one, a pink one and a grey one, into his mouth, hiding them just as Gerard instructed.
After the nurse checked his mouth, he started towards where Gerard was waiting, but Mr. Martinez put a hand on his shoulder, making him jump and spin around.
“Hey, you're a good kid, as it seems so far. Do me a favour, don't get tangled in anything with Gerard. He's dangerous.”
Frank simply nodded, as the pills started slipping out from behind his tongue and would be visible if he opened his mouth. He then walked towards Gerard, whose hand was full of slimy, wet pills.
“Ugh, what did he want? Whatever, spit 'em out and come with me!” Gerard instructed and dragged Frank down the corridor, so Frank decided to keep his mouth shut about what Dr. Martinez had said. Instead he let Gerard drag him thorough a labyrinth of corridors until they reached a dead end, and a silver door.
The door had a silver, metal handle, and a keypad with numbers next to it.
“Here, hold these!” Gerard exclaimed as he hurriedly dropped his pills into Frank's hand, saliva still dragging from them, and turned to the keypad on the door.
He typed some numbers carefully. Frank watched over his shoulder as he typed 1, 2, 3, 9, 8, 7, 0, 8, 5, 2 and moved away from the door.
The numbers that lit up made up an odd sort of symbol. It was two horizontal lines where the 123 and 789 were on the keypad, and one line down the middle of that, starting from the middle of the top line and going through the bottom line, represented by the 2580.
Frank confused himself trying to explain it in his head.
The door beeped quietly and Gerard began talking a mile a minute.“Okay, now go in there, down the steps, but be careful because there's no railing. Then go right, not left, right, don't make the mistake I made once. After you turn right, walk straight ahead until you reach a trash chute. Lift the lid, then throw the pills into it and remember to press the green button that lights up. Please do not forget the green button. We can't get to the light switch without another code which I don't know yet, so it's gonna be dark-”
“Wait! Why do I have to go down there?” Frank yelped.
“Because I have a tracking device.” Gerard held up his arm, which had the metal cuff Frank had noticed before on it. “And it sets off an alarm in the Main Control Room if it comes near sensors, like the ones they have at the bottom of those stairs.”
“Okay, well, erm... So... down the stairs, right, straight ahead, trash chute, green button, back, dark. Got it!” Frank repeated the main points of what Gerard had said and gave him a thumbs up.
As frank walked further down the cold, stone steps, he was plunged deeper and deeper into darkness. Darkness that suffocated him, smothered every inch of his skin in tar, tugged at his bare throat.
“Remember! Right! Not left! If you go left you'll get electrocuted and the alarm will go off.” Gerard's voice reached Frank at the bottom of the stairs in the form of the echo, sending shivers down his spine, which was already stiffened by fear.
Frank gulped once again and turned right, making sure it was, in fact, his right, and not the deadly left.
He walked ahead, counting his steps for future reference.
Gerard was still on the lookout at the top of the stairs.
Suddenly a loud clash disturbed his thoughts of another escape from the mental institution, shattering the silence.
“You 'kay, Frank?” He called down into the pure darkness, his voice echoing against the metal walls of the basement.
After a few seconds of deafening silence, Frank's quiet groan surfaced from the depths of doom, sending relief through Gerard's ears, into his brain, and pushing a small relieved sigh past his lips.
“Frank?” Gerard's voice was genuinely concerned now.
“I think I found the Trash chute...” Frank half groaned, half whispered.
“Yeah, the trash chute kinda sticks out of the wall. Sorry if I didn't mention that before. Look, maybe this wasn't the best idea. Sending you down there, I mean. I mean c'mon, you're new here, and straight away I'm putting you in danger.”
“It's really okay, I think I must have been a real clutz before I lost my memory. And I guess I still am one. I just walked into the trash chute and winded myself, but I'm fine.” Frank replied, squinting in pain.
“If you're sure... just make sure you open it, put the pills in, close it and press the green button.” Gerard called.
So Frank did exactly as he was told.
The darkness was so deep, it was really unusual. The light from the open door just up the stairs didn't even reach halfway across the room, which was just weird.
Frank's anxiety was beginning to kick in, his heart beginning to race, his breaths getting short and shallow. He was beginning to lose control at the thought of who - or what – could be lurking in the darkness that swallowed him whole.
His knees were getting weak and trembling as his hands darted about frantically, trying to find a way to open the rusty trash chute.
There! His hand rested on a small handle. He pulled it up with all his strength, lifting the ancient cover and throwing in the handful of saliva-coated pills he'd been holding this whole time.
He slammed the heavy metal cover of the trash chute down. It let out a much louder clash than he'd expected.
“Frank! What the fuck? Be quiet!” Gerard panicked.
“I'm sorry! I'm really trying! I didn't mean-”
“Shit!!” Gerard yelled, now being loud himself, as the metal cuff around his left wrist let out a rhythmic beeping noise.
“What's going on?” Frank's eyes widened as he spun around to face the stairs.
“They heard us, they're using my tracking device! They're gonna lock me in and inject all those drugs into me again if they find out I was even in this part of the building!” Gerard was now looking around like the maniac he was, his face displaying sheer terror.
“Oh man, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! Oh, God! What do I do?” Frank started pacing back and forth, his eyes tearing up at the thought of losing a friend so quickly, and also getting stuck down in this basement for who knows how long.
By that point they were both pacing back and forth, panicking and close to tears.
Step, step, step, step, step, step...
The sound of about three sets of footsteps echoed down one of the corridors.
Fuck, fuck, FUCK!
Gerard's thoughts were all over the place as he did the last thing he should have done, but also the only thing he could do.
He lunged for the silver door, and shutting it as quietly as he could before racing down the steps.
One thing he forgot about completely was that these steps had no railing. He took a wrong step over the side of the stairs. A mistake which sent his plummeting down to the cold ground below.
On the way down, he swung his arms wildly, and his left arm hit the side of the stairs. Pretty hard. Although he didn't feel any pain, just the impact.
Ready to have half of the bones in his body crushed after making contact with the hard ground, he curled up in a ball. But what he felt at the end of the fall wasn't concrete, or the crushing of bones, or anything like that.
Opening his eyes immediately, he looked at whatever broke his fall. A mattress.
“How the fuck-?” Gerard wondered, flooded by relief. He looked up at Frank, and could just about make out the outlines of his face, panting and out of breath.
“That's heavy shit.” Frank sighed.
“Did you put this here?” Asked Gerard.
“I'm the one who made all this noise and made them find you. So when you fell I had to catch you. Besides, this mattress was leaning against this wall, all I did was push it to the ground...” Frank pointed out, feeling guilty about the whole situation.
“Yeah, but, I'm the one who caused this shit. It's just that, this is the only way of getting rid of the pills without them being found. You can't even flush anything down the toilet without getting busted. They're so controlling!” Gerard complained angrily.
“Well, I guess it's what they get paid to do.” Sighed Frank.
Silence poured back into the small room like toxic gas, summoning the curse that was the suffocating darkness.
Who knew how long it lasted – seconds, minutes – before its was shattered by Frank's sudden realisation.
“Wait? Aren't they tracking you with that metal cuff on your wrist?” Frank's eyes widened in horror as he looked at Gerard's now equally terrified expression.
“Fuck! I can't thank you enough for reminding me!” Gerard jumped to his feet and snatched his left wrist with his other hand, only to notice that the cuff was gone.
“What? It's gone? How?” He stammered.
Frank, being Frank, took a step to the left at that moment, only to have his heart lodged in his throat and his pulse skip as he went flying backwards, and landed with his back against a wall, grateful that he ducked his head before he had the chance to his it on the wall.
Both of them stared for a while, eyes wide in shock. Then, out of nowhere, a flash filled the room. Then another. And another. And soon a dim light flickered on.
The boys continued to stare for several moments, before Frank couldn't hold it anymore and started laughing, At first silently, putting a hand over his mouth, and closing his eyes, leaning forward against his will as his stomach muscles spazzed in fits of laughter. Laughter that became louder and louder, until Gerard couldn't hold it either, and joined in, sending a cloud of spit into the room as the laughter took him by surprise.
“I should not be laughing right now!” Gerard choked whilst wiping tears of amusement from his eyes.
Frank found that he'd landed in a cardboard box when he fell, and failed to get out, which only made them both double over more.
Just then, Frank noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Still unable to breathe, he pointed it out with his finger.
Gerard turned around, still doubled over with tears streaming down his face, not knowing what to expect. But then he saw it. The metal cuff that lived uncomfortably on his wrist before, was now lying on the floor, smashed into the tiniest pieces.
Hyperventilating, Gerard managed to stop the laughter before it suffocated him, and knelt down beside the tiny pieces of debris that were previously the only obstacle, the wall between him and freedom.
Frank finally scrambled out of the box, and, steady on his feet once again, walked over to where Gerard was kneeling.
“You know, I can't tell if this is good or bad, but judging by the expression of your face I'm guessing it's good.” Frank smiled.
“Good? GOOD? You think this is good??” Gerard exploded, much to Frank's surprise. “This is the best thing that ever happened to me!” This time Gerard was screaming in the most cheerful tone that Frank might have ever heard, if only he remembered his life.
Gerard jumped up to his feet and put his hands on Frank's shoulders.
“THANK YOU!” He screamed, shaking Frank back and forth. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!”
“What for?” Frank uttered.
Gerard let go of Frank's shoulders and looked at him seriously. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Yeah, I seriously don't know what I did.” Frank responded, also putting on a serious face, though his eyes were arguing against it, displaying amusement and worry at the same time.
“You made the noise! You made noise and I fell and the cuff broke and it's thanks to you because you made the noise!” Gerard was hyperventilating once again.
Frank wondered if this was one of his 'issues'. Going completely hyper-active like that over tiny things.
“But aren't you the one who made me come down here?”
Gerard frowned at the point he'd made himself just a few minutes ago.
“Who cares? You still made the noise!” He jumped up and down wildly, grinning.
Frank remembered how Gerard asked him if he was schizophrenic out of nowhere like that before. Maybe he should ask his of this kind...
“Are you by any chance hyper-active?” He blurted before he had the chance to run the words through his brain. He bit his lip as soon as he spoke because he wasn't sure if it even made sense, or was appropriate or whatever.
“Something like that. I don't know what it's called, though.” Gerard's voice was childish and cheerful, and he finally seemed to belong in this mental hospital since before, when Frank saw him bite that doctor.
Footsteps on the floor above them were what snapped him out of it.
Frank's eyes shifted towards the door. He could hear the sound of buttons on the keypad beeping.
Immediately he darted for the light switch he'd discovered before when he fell, then grabbed Gerard's arm and they both ran towards the space under the stairs, kicking a bunch of empty boxes towards it so they could hide behind them.
The longer beep alerted them that the door was about to open, and it did/ Two sets of footsteps walked down the stairs, towards the secret light switch where Frank had fallen.
The light flickered, then lit up the room once again, and through a space between boxes, both of the boys saw Dr Martinez, but the other person's face was out of sight.
“Are you sure the signal showed that he was here?” Asked a female voice which Frank didn't recognise.
“For the first few seconds after we heard the noise, yeah, but after that it started flickering all over the screen. The red dot that represents Way showed up in the Main Control Room, then the Social Hall, several corridors, a few people's rooms and then disappeared off the monitor completely.” Dr. Martinez replied to the woman's question.
For a second Frank looked over at Gerard, who was leaning against the wall under the stairs and quietly splitting a piece of cardboard in two. But he had no time to ask what he was doing that for because the female spoke again.
“Do you think he broke the tracking device?”
“I wouldn't be surprised if he had, he's an insanely smart kid, despite his... issues.” Dr. Martinez spoke again.
Looking over at Gerard again, Frank noticed he'd turned the piece of cardboard into a thin piece of brown paper by peeling away layer by layer.
“What the hell are you doing?” Frank wrinkled his forehead.
“You'll see...” Answered Gerard, biting his lower lip in concentration.
Frank wasn't exactly satisfied with that answer, but he decided to wait and see.
He must have missed something because as he turned around to continue listening to the conversation, the light suddenly went out and he heard footsteps going up the stairs.
Before he could do or say anything, Gerard darted out from under the stairs.
Frank, shocked, motioned for his to stop, mouthing something, but it was too dark to see anything.
Silently like a cat, Gerard crept up the stairs, right behind Dr. Martinez and the mysterious woman. As the door was about to close, he put the piece of paper between it and the wall. The handle clicked and the door was closed.
“Turn the light on.” Gerard ordered.
Doing as instructed, Frank asked, “What was all that about?” His forehead was still wrinkled and his eyes full of confusion.
“Well,” said Gerard. “Before the door was locked. Without a key, we couldn't get out unless someone typed the code and opened it from the other side.”
“Yeahh... and?” Frank still didn't get it.
“If you put something between the keypad and the frame, the door can't lock itself automatically..” Not breaking eye contact, Gerard smiled, pressed the silver handle and the door swung open. That guy was a genius.
Gerard then bit his lip. “Now all we have to do, it get rid of the footage on the security cameras!”
Okay, so I have one thing to say to everyone who was bugged to read this. STAY AWESOME!! ¦)
P.S. The smiley's watching ya! ¦))
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