Page 90 of Two for Joy

“You’re a mad man.” Paul croaked.

Romeo looked at Thomas. “Get out and close the door behind you.”

He held up his hands, backing away. “Okay, I’m going.”

“Make it a bit faster.”

“What the fuck are you doing, Romeo?” Paul said.

“I’m gonna get out of here.”

“You’ve trapped yourself in here, there’s five officers out there, two in reception, two outside the front and more in the carpark.”

“Thanks for telling me where they all are…”

“You can’t get out of here. You’ll make things so much worse for yourself.”

“Tell me, Paul, how could I possibly make things worse for myself? I’m in a maximum-security prison for killing four people … four out of five.”

“I’ve—I’ve got a family.”

“And if you knew me at all … you’d know that means nothing to me.”

“Romeo—”

He tightened his hold, Paul struggled, clawing at his arm, then he stiffened, and went lax.

Not dead, but choked out. As much as the monster in him wanted to kill, he pushed the need aside, promising he’d rectify it later. Their priority was finding Chad.

Romeo dropped Paul’s heavy bulk in front of the door. If they wanted to get in, they were gonna have to smash the door into his back.

The scanner was the perfect height for a climbing frame. He jumped on to the gurney, then clambered on top. Romeo heard the first oomph of the door and watched as Paul jolted forward under the blow.

Romeo pushed on the panel of the ceiling, put everything into it until the rectangle lifted, then he slid it across.

The medical A-Z didn’t just have a section on concussions and strokes.

It had a section on the scanners, too.

They needed to be located in a quiet area of the hospital. They had a specially made shield floor, a specially made suspended ceiling, one that Romeo was about to escape through. They wouldn’t know which way he was going to crawl, it was thick, vibration softened, they’d have to guess which room he’d end up in.

The door smashed open just as he lifted himself through the hole in the ceiling. It creaked under his weight, but he only needed it to hold long enough for him to crawl to the next room.

A waiting room, he realized when he fell through the ceiling panel in front of a lot of stunned people.

He took off down the corridor, brushing the dust off his bright orange jumpsuit. He didn’t follow signs to the exit, that’s where they’d have expected him to go, instead he rushed down the corridors, up and down the stairs and along the walkways to get to the cancer ward.

He was getting looks, but most people backed away from him when they saw him running. Clearly a convict, and clearly a balloon for a face. He imagined he looked terrifying, no longer his handsome self, but looking more like the monster within.

There were shouts behind him, demands of him to stop, give himself up, but why? They didn’t give him a reason. What could they threaten him with?

The carpark was near enough deserted. He could see the sirens lighting up the sky, hear the commotion on the opposite side of the hospital. Romeo looked out across the unlit fields. They’d always been his escape when he’d killed his victims, and running across them filled him with comfort, a familiar feeling.

He was going home, not to the farm, but to Chad.

Romeo was going to save him.

He just needed to work out who had him first.

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