Page 62 of Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

“She’s prone to self-harm.”

After injecting the drug into her bloodstream, Mr. Wolf returned the used needle to the nurse and crouched back down. He placed his hand on her arm and spoke to her in a coaxing tone. “Come out, come out, wherever you are. Only you can end this nightmare.”

“I see she’s back in solitary confinement.”

“She is,” he confirmed. “She attacked one of the nurses last week. Bit his finger off.” His stern eyes met mine. “Can you see now why we keep her drugged?”

I swallowed thickly, looking back at the girl whose head was drooping.

“How will she ever find her way out of her own psychosis if you keep her sedated?”

“Trust me, Miss. Steele. We’ll know when she wants to resurface. But for now, she fights me. She’s where she feels the safest, playing pretend inside her head.” He rose to his feet, and the nurse unshackled her from the table before leading her out of the room.

Mr. Wolf showed me around the hospital, introducing me to patients, some more lucid than others. “As you can see, we offer only the highest care here at Haverton Psychiatric Asylum.”

“And the patients you receive stand little to no chance of rehabilitation?”

He nodded, leading me down a spiral staircase. “Most patients you’ve met today will spend the rest of their lives here. Out of sight, out of mind.”

“What about their families?”

“Most of them have none.”

Suppressing a shiver, I ascended the last step, looking around the sterile hallway. The palpable grief, horror, and despair in the air seeped into my pores.

“These are our solitary confinement cells.” Mr. Wolf swept his hand around the bolted doors.

“How many patients are here now?”

“Three,” he said, walking over to the one nearest to us. His eyes met mine as he pulled it open, and I peered inside the empty padded room. I suppressed the shiver that ran through me when my eyes skated past him to the door at the far end. I didn’t even have to ask. Instinct told me that Skyler Burns was in there, slowly withering away inside her mind.

“Now that you’ve been for your inspection, I hope you can see why continued funding is necessary.”

As we walked back upstairs, he continued talking, but I didn’t hear him. My thoughts were elsewhere, and the moment I stepped outside into the cold winter air, blinking against the harsh bright light, I breathed a relieved sigh.

There were some places where tangible evil lurked. Places so dark your soul recoiled.

Stepping on the gas, the gravel crunching underfoot, I watched the estate grow smaller in the distance. One last shiver ran through me and I tore my gaze away from the rearview mirror. The girl’s words echoed through my mind, “He’s coming. The wolf is coming.”

EPILOGUE TWO

MR. WOLF

Nighttime had settled on Haverton Psychiatric Asylum, draping it in shadows and fog—my favorite time to hunt.

Sliding the heavy bolt aside, I entered the padded room and secured the door behind me.

The pitch-black room flooded with light, making my favorite patient scramble back with a startled scream. She bared her teeth like a feral animal and her white, dirty dress pooled around her waist, exposing her pale legs.

“Someone’s happy to see me,” I chuckled when she hissed at me. Skyler Burns was dangerous enough to require shackles day and night. My cock liked that a lot. It liked subduing the monster hiding inside that sweet little package.

She screamed when I launched myself at her and flipped her over onto her stomach, gagging her with the bite shield. I secured it behind her head and tore her flimsy little panties off before undoing my belt one-handed, holding her in place with my hand at the back of her neck. She was too drugged up to put up a real fight, her movement sluggish, her cries vicious but soft.

Covering her body with mine, I rammed my cock inside her tight little cunt, snarling into her ear, “I told you that you couldn’t hide from the wolf. Now be a good little girl and scream for me.”

The End.

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