The Merciless Death of Jordan Virginia Masters ~Chapter 3 Off we went. I followed at Red's heels as he gingerly opened the old cell door. It creaked open for the second time in quite a while. As soon as it was closed behind us, Red turned right and began to run. "Ahh?" I exclaimed. "I thought we were safe! Why are you running?" "You can never truly know, can you?" Red said over his shoulder. "You'll have to keep up, girl!" I began to run and catch up with Red. This whole time, I've been trying to figure out what his job here was, or used to be, and how it earned him the nickname Red. He could have very well been a janitor, but how would his relatively formal clothes get within his grasp? Perhaps we was a guard. But, again, the clothes! However, if he was a guard, that could explain his nickname. Red is the color of blood. Had Red killed someone as a guard? Or had he never been a guard at all? "Hey, Red?" I said, coming back to reality. Red was not in front of me. I was at an intersection of hallways, the hallways with brick walls and birch wood flooring. I could go four ways, as I had no idea which path I came from. Red was no where to be found. I panicked. "RED! REEED!!" I shouted his name and went down the hallway to my left. From there, I started making random turns at very fork and intersection. "RED!!!!" "Girl! Girl, shut your mouth! You're bound to get yourself caught!" Red's voice was very faint, but I heard it. I began to follow the voice. I ran and ran, without stopping, towards where I thought he was. The halls truly were a maze. I noticed while running that I only saw a few other cells. It's as if these hallways were meant to confuse you, not just to provide access to the cells. How could I have been such an idiot? I got sidetracked mentally and got lost, somehow, even though I was right behind him the whole time. I took a sharp left at an intersection, and abruptly ran right into someone. I hit them with an impact, and fell backwards, landing forcefully on my behind. Oh shit... I thought. I didn't look up. I just stared at the floor, sitting there, not daring to move a muscle. I had a vague idea about who was standing over me. "Girl! Stupid girl! Where did you go?!" I heard Red. He sounded even farther away than he was before. The person standing over me was not Red. Then, the person began to laugh. His laugh was dry and crackly, like my voice was when I woke up from my coma with six months worth of a dry throat and a bad flu. When he finished laughing, I looked up. It was not a guard. "Oh, look who it is!" said the man. "What a pleasurable surprise, to see a young woman's pretty face in a huge building stuffed full of insane, dirty men! Ha!" The man wore the same apparel as I did, except it looked older and dirtier. Streaks of dried blood stained his color and cuffs. His hair was a blazing orange. He had vicious-looking yellow eyes. He was clearly a captive, but what was he doing out of his cell, too? "Ahh, that boy Purple helping you out? I swear, he may seem confident, but the boy has absolutely no trust for anyone, even himself!" the man grabbed me by the collar and, with a swift motion, jerked me up to my feet. He had so much strength in the one arm! I went from sitting to in the air to standing in just a moment. "Now, who am I, I'll but you're wondering. Well," he said, "I'm a bloody thirsty, sour, cold-hearted man. But some call me Watson. Now sweetie, what are you doing out of your cell? Is Green taking you somewhere? Where? How's Robert? How's Mary?" Watson rested his chin on his hand. "You interest me, child!" "Get away from me!" I shouted. I didn't know entirely why. But, I felt like I needed to get away. I didn't want to be around this creep anymore. I turned and ran back the way I came, but continued straight through the intersection, down the right pathway. "Alright, honey!" Watson called behind me. "But if you ever want real help escaping this asylum, you come see old Mr. Watson, you hear? I've escaped this place four times!" "I stopped short. I turned around. "Escaped four times?" I shouted to him from the far end of the hall. "I came back." he replied. I turned and ran, faster this time, arms pumping. Watson just laughed. He was clearly insane. He probably could have killed me right then, with a weapon or with his bare fists. Also, why would he come back to a place like this? "Girl! Where were you?!" Red said the moment I stepped into an intersection. Red was right there, in the left pathway. He had a relieved smile on his face. "Red!" I ran over to him and grabbed his neck with my arms tightly. What was this called? Hugging. "I'm sorry I got lost! I'm so stupid!" "No, no. It's alright." Red said, awkwardly pushing me off of him. "I just hope you didn't run into any trouble." "Well... I met Watson." I said. Red's relived expression dropped. His face grew dark. "Oh... You met him." Red put an impolite emphasis on the word him. Red clearly knew Watson, and probably didn't like him very much. I didn't. "He didn't say anything about anyone you know, did he?" "No," I said, "Though he did mention I couple of people I don't know. Robert and Mary." "What did be say about them?" "Nothing. He just asked how they were doing." "Oh, good." Red's relieved expression returned. "Let's just hope that was just more if Watson's constant blabbering. Anyways, I'm glad your here. This is the place I wanted to show you." "Where?" I asked. "Here," Red said, turning around to face a close metal door behind him, "Is my home."