Page 24 of Tainted Serenity

Ever since I met the doctor the last time, I haven’t looked forward to doing it again. There was something about him that made me creep out—a gut feeling telling me he wasn’t what he said to be.

With hesitant steps, I rise on unsteady legs, noticing the dust coating my dress from the basement floor. It’s like I have become one with the dirt, and I can feel it covering my body, emitting a disgusting odor. I wobble over to where Irene stands with her hands on her hips, accentuated by the wine dress that clings to her body like a second skin.

Before I have the time to reach her, she leaves the room while looking back at me as if to make sure I’m following her. Instead of grabbing me with force and dragging me out of the room like Arthur and the guards have, she walks ahead of me as if she is afraid of touching me. From the way she eyes me, her lips curling in disgust, it’s as if I’m suffering from the plague, a sickness that will infect her until she dies a torturous death.

I follow her through the corridor which is falling apart, pieces of the walls lying on the ground below, just like the corridor Arthur took me to over a week ago when he led me to the doctor’s examination room. This place is like a maze with all its hallways and secret passages leading to different places, making it all the more confusing to know where is where. How will I ever be able to escape this endless maze?

By looking inside the building, it appears to be enormous, much bigger than Grimhill Manor and Dankworth Institute combined. It is like we’re walking in an underground passage with a blanket of coldness freezing over me, and my breathing becomes more frantic. It’s so goddamn dark, and the only thing giving the passage any light are the torches hanging along the walls. An eerie glow is cast over the stones’ surfaces by the pure beam, cutting through the darkness. Despite that, I feel my paranoia growing by the minute as shadows play tricks on my mind, making me see things that aren’t truly there, and I have to fight hard not to stop in my tracks.

My mind has always been my biggest disadvantage.

The narrower corridor seems to stretch out forever, a never-ending passage like those they used during World War Two when they moved into other countries unnoticed. Irene’s high heels click against the stone floor as she walks with determined steps, the sound grazing on my nerves as if they were nails on a chalkboard. An urge within me tells me to push her down until the heels on her shoes break and her ugly little head hits the floor. Or better yet, fucking kill her and escape this place.

It won’t be possible, though. Not yet.

I don’t know how to find my way out of this maze of corridors, and by the time I would reach the end of this endless passage, the guards would have caught up to me. Irene has a damn taser tucked inside her purse hanging around her neck like a necklace, and I know she will not be afraid to use it if I try anything stupid.

The reality of my situation dawns on me, and I take a deep breath to calm the raging storm inside me.

Every cell in my body is in overdrive as I continue behind Irene, and it’s like the hair on my body stands up as an icy feeling of someone watching me takes over. My steps falter as I cast a look over my shoulder, expecting someone to stand there, but no one is. A surge of apprehension pulses through me as my eyes search the empty corridor. A heavy feeling sits in my stomach, and it’s as if the walls are stained with past sins, ghosts lingering in the walls just begging for someone to release them from the horrors that is this dollhouse.

“Keep moving,” Irene hisses through her teeth, grabbing my wrist violently before dragging me behind her, which only fuels my irritation.

We turn left, arriving at a much brighter corridor with proper lights hanging from the roof. The onslaught forces my eyes shut, having been used to only the darkness of the basement for days on end. I shudder at the thought of my isolation, my only occupation being my mind, and that is a place no one would want to be trapped inside.

Every day that goes by without Grey makes my heart slow down—a kind of torture I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Where are they keeping him?

Without thinking of the consequences, the question slips from my tongue, unable to keep it inside me.

“Where is Grey?” I demand, trying to keep my voice shaking from nerves.

Irene keeps walking, not sparing me a second glance, and still dragging me behind her in a harsh grip that will probably leave a bruise. Her attitude is going on my fucking nerves, and I am just about to bash her skull into the nearest wall when a door further down opens up.

My mouth dries up from anxiety as the doctor emerges with a kind of dominance that commands the room to follow his lead. It makes me take a step back, but Irene grabs my wrist harder, making my already sore skin hurt.

I stand still, my shoulders tensing as I take him in. He’s wearing normal clothes today, not that white coat he wore the last time that made him look more like a creepy scientist than a doctor. A white long-sleeved shirt accentuates the subtle contours of his soft muscles, the fabric hugging his upper body, revealing a hint of his physique yet maintaining that innocent appearance. A pair of black jeans sit tight against his legs, and my eyes nearly widen as I catch a glimpse of his thighs. The guy looks as if he only works out his legs; the muscles protruding from beneath the pants.

The normalcy of his appearance could fool me, if not for the fact that something is amiss about him. He produces an air of mystery that is eerily unnerving, tinged with something dangerous.

“Hello,” Irene says with a giddy tone that has me raising my eyebrows.

I observe her body language, disgust leaving a sour taste on my tongue as I watch her cheeks become flushed while looking at the doctor with wide doe eyes, a wondrous look meant for only him.

“Hello, Mrs. Grimhill,” his voice rumbles as he stares at her with disinterest before bowing his head lightly in an act of paying respect.

“Oh dear! Call me Irene.” She swats his shoulder with light movements.

I notice the way discomfort spreads through him as he takes a step back, a tightened smile plastered on his lips.

It all makes me want to chuckle at the absurdity of it all—an old woman clearly having some kind of crush on the doctor who is three times under her age. I bite my lip, stifling the smile threatening to split my lips. The doctor’s gaze turn toward me, observing me from head to toe before nodding to himself.

“Shall we begin?” he asks, taking me in with an intense expression that has me shifting on my feet.

It’s a look that reminds me of Grey, which feels like a punch straight into my stomach, a feeling reminiscent of missing. Because he’s not here with me despite promising me forever together, and I’m left alone in an unknown place.

The doctor extends his arm toward the door leading into his office. He offers Irene a faint smile, which seems to please her when she turns on her heel and walks away, the annoying heels clicking against the floor and echoing in my ears.

As I enter the room with confident steps, despite feeling worried about the appointment, I keep my head high. This room is so unlike that dreary room I was inside the last time, and I take in my surroundings with astonishment. The walls are made of stone, precisely like the corridors outside, only that these are colored a darker shade of light blue. If they had been an even darker shade, they would have matched the ends in my hair, which fades magnificently into the chestnut brown.

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