The Merciless Death of Jordan Virginia Masters ~Chapter 5 Red and I were ready to leave. He knew nothing of my past except for what he had described earlier. A mystery, he called me. Red got the information from a particular source, a thick book, really, that all employees of the asylum were allowed to get their hands on. He didn't even know where I was born. Apparently, the book didn't have much information on anyone, but it had even less on me. Some people had close to no information at all, including that Watson guy. "Alright, girl." Red said. "We ought to get going. Hiding in a closet won't get us anywhere, except starving in a balled-up heap on the floor." "Wait," I said, "What do you eat here?" Red smiled ominously. "That's a secret." he said. He must have noticed the shock on my face because he countered it with, "Oh no, it's nothing repulsive. It's not cannibalism, either. Don't be getting too excited." Excited? Before leaving, we grabbed from his room anything that could prove useful. A box of matches, his deck of tattered playing cards, a small satchel full of who-knows-what (not food), a blanket and a dirty, rock-solid pillow from Red's bed, and a few metal chips. Red called them 'coins'. He said that at the asylum, there was a device called a 'telegraph' on the ground floor. However, a device was hooked up to it. You would need to feed the device a certain amount of these coins in order to use the telegraph. Red slung the satchel over his shoulder and the blanket over his arm. The coins, matches, and cards went in his pocket. He handed me the pillow to carry. Before we left, I noticed that Red took the framed picture of him and Callie. It looked very realistic, but I didn't know if someone had found a way to capture the view from real #life, or if it was a painting. Red put the picture in his satchel. Red approached the door. "Masters?" he said. "Uh- What?" I asked, surprised at the fact that he was about to ask me something. I had been asking most of the questions up until about now. "What do you like most about this place?" Red's question took me completely by surprise. He's been talking about the asylum as a horrible place from the minute it had been brought up. Now, what's this about a 'favorite' thing? "Well, I have a good view out my window," I said, "And I guess I look seeing the stars at night." Red considered this for a moment. He nodded. "You do know that you'd be able to see your stars better if you were outside, right?" "Oh, of course I know!" "Just checking." he said. "Also, remember that lower floors don't have windows so escapees won't do any jumping. If we manage to get down a few floors today, you may not see your stars for a very long time." "... I understand." I said. Although, it's not a big deal. The stars won't be going anywhere. Well, neither will be the ground floor. That's when I realized something. "Red?" I asked. "Why are we leaving so suddenly?" "Well," he said, "I... Never mind. Forget it." He waved his hand at me. "It doesn't matter. What does matter is getting out of this place and claiming freedom. Now," he put his hand on the doorknob, "Are you ready to go?" • • • One tiresome hour later. I've been racing as fast as I can after Red through the maze of hallways. Left, left, right, left, straight, right, straight, left, straight, left, left, right. I made sure to stay close at his heels the entire way, as not to cause a repeat of last time. After that solid hour ended, we went down one last bare hall. At the end was a short stairwell. "That was easy." Red said calmly as I struggled to catch my breath. "Not a single guard. Remember girl, there's less security on upper floors. Not only is there almost no reason to guard up here, but many guards are just too lazy to commute to such a high floor. It takes a while, even with a map permanently ingrained in your head." "Do you have a map ingrained in your head?" I asked. "Not anymore. We just got lucky on this floor is all." Red said. Before going any further, he brought up another quick topic. "In case you didn't know, we're on the top floor right now. Why they put you up here is beyond me. Perhaps the employees ran out of rooms. What ever the case may be, it's time for your first conscious step on floor nintey-three. Care you descend?" "Gladly." I said. I took up his un-expecting hand into my own, causing a yelp of surprise to escape his mouth, and sprinted down my first flight on steps, towing Red along behind me. I'm making progress. I'll get out of this asylum soon. I've got a friend to help me. However, is he really a friend? Why is he helping me? Did leaving so soon, or at all, benefit him other way I'm unaware of? My momentum carried forwards down the steps, at what seemed to be a million steps per each mind-blowing second. My heart raced at the sane pace. Here it comes. The final step. I can even see the floor of floor ninety-three! My bare foot slapped down on the last step, but didn't do so quite right. Suddenly, my head was crashing through the wooden floorboards. My vision went red, and faded slowly, painfully, into black. My ears were ringing, but the sound died away, along with the color and my consciousness. I tripped.