Page 2 of No Quarter

She walked out of the room, trying to avoid staring at the demonic eyes around her. The hustle and bustle of the communal room soon faded to a distant hum as she walked the corridors of Elmwood.

Away from the noise, the hallways of the retreat were almost peaceful. The lighting wasn’t as harsh there. It was softer somehow. But the walls still felt sterile, even with their occasional pastoral colors, and the floors appeared lifeless and shiny.

Gillian didn’t like the way the floors caught the light and threw it back at her.

She looked down as she moved along the hall, the polished floor reflecting back a warped shadow at her.

What is that?She asked herself as she looked at it, frightened.

Panic ran through her blood. The shape looked just like the demon eyes staring at her in the communal room.

The real horror for her was that she knew it was her own reflection.

Am I a demon too?

The thought chilled her to the bone. Her heart began to race, and she knew then that she would soon be spiraling out of control. Her thoughts would turn, convulse, and, inevitably, she would end up strapped to her bed with a needle in her arm.

“Treatment,” she whispered out loud. That was what the doctors called it. But she felt like a pin cushion, and that the needle was just there to make the lives of Elmwood’s staff easier.

To keep her blank.

Sedated.

No longer an embarrassment for her family.

A nothing. An empty vessel.

It was no life for a young woman.

Gillian tried not to look down at the shape on the floor reflecting up at her, instead she focused on the route ahead. Just a few simple steps and then around a corner. Then a few more, one slippered foot in front of the other, all the way to room 43.

Her room.

A place where she could finally be safe from the eyes of the demons. It was her one sanctuary.

As she turned a corner, steadying her breath, voices swirled in her head again. But this time, they were not kind. They were not describing a trip down memory lane.

No, this time the voices were warning Gillian. They felt something in the air.

Demons, they said.They’re going to get you.

Gillian walked by an orderly in the hall. For a moment as he passed, she felt his piercing eyes. She saw out of the corner of her vision a bleak light shining from the man’s eye sockets. Cold and lifeless, a blue light shining.

Her pulse raced.

They’ll get you soon, the voices said in her head.

Moving faster now, Gillian felt the panic coming. The dread of the things in her head. The pain of the voices when they got out of control.

She suddenly felt as though something was behind her. In her mind, she pictured a tall, blackened creature with claws, looming over her ready to tear at her soul.

And then she felt the thing’s damp breath on the back of her neck.

She sprinted.

She ran as fast as she could down the corridor, speeding up each time she heard the thudding footsteps of the creature behind her, now almost within reach.

She imagined its claws reaching up to tug at her hair and pull her back into oblivion.

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