“Let’s get out, then!” answered Noah.

They reached out for the only door in the room. As soon as they opened it, they felt a familiar sensation of displacement.

“Again… it’s happening again!” whined Jacob.

Everything went dark. Noah lost sight of his friend. All went quiet, save for a constant rumbling in the distance. It sounded like the muffled noise of a fishing boat’s motor with its pitch distorted.

He tried to reach out for a surface with his hand, hoping to find a wall, or better yet, Jacob. But there was no solid matter within his reach and, after thinking about it for a second, he realized there was no solid ground beneath his feet either. It did not feel like he was falling or floating. He wasn’t underwater either, he guessed, since his movements were not slower. Besides, he could see himself clearly, as if he had a floodlight that somehow managed to illuminate only himself without revealing his surroundings.

Confused, tired and sick, he remained motionless for a while. A few seconds passed, and he heard the same sound from when he woke up: a deep thump echoing from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Just like before, it was slow at first, steadily increasing in intensity, in cadence… and proximity.

He was losing control of his own emotions. “What is going on?” he asked out loud, almost yelling. His throat was getting tight and dry. He forced himself to clench his hands into fists to fight whatever was coming at him, but his arms were numb and his legs were twitchy. His whole body was telling him to run, but there was nowhere to go and no way to flee. He felt it in his bones, in his very soul: he was going to perish.

The melody of carnage surrounded him. And then… silence.

A voice spoke. He recognized it to belong to the same person that had been laughing earlier. “What’s this, Noah? You want to escape?” it asked mockingly in an irritating shriek.

Unable to utter a single word as his whole being was petrified in a mix of fear and confusion, he did not respond.

“Oh, no – no, no, no. That won’t do at all. You see… there is nowhere for you to go. Nowhere I can’t find you”. The voice then burst into a laugh, simultaneously freaky and disturbing due to the sheer amount of noticeable insanity.

An obscure veil fell over Noah’s eyes. There was nothing but silence. His mind drifted, almost as if he was sleeping, fleeting in a wholly different realm, in Morpheus’ embrace - yet something was different. The nightmares were calling, knocking on the gate of his mind, slowly squeezing through the cracks of his psyche. The darkness was in, nested comfortably within. And then, he felt it: the inescapable stress that seized him, that mental burn present when one is under pressure.

A hand touched his shoulder, then shook him. As soon as he opened his eyes, the nightmares left. Jacob was leaning over him, somewhat more relaxed than earlier. They were still in the same room; Noah could see Jacob shiver and wince as his gaze came across the chair he had been earlier.

Noah walked through the open door once more. There was no reason to stay any longer, and he was anxious to get away as quickly as possible. Jacob dragged his feet as he followed.

“Are you sure it’s alright to just walk out?” questioned Jacob.

“Are you kidding?” answered Noah angrily. “You’d rather stay here?”

“Well, what if — what if he gets angrier because we try to escape? He said he...” He lowered his voice. “He said he would always find me.”

Noah wanted to slap some sense in Jacob but, through a tremendous effort on his part, held back. The boy was already gravely injured and probably didn’t have all his mind anymore. Still, his obvious lack of sense of self-preservation was beyond irritating. Noah took a deep but quiet breath and tried to reason with him.

“Listen, Jacob. This man is obviously evil and cruel. If he can do all this to you, there’s no telling what he could do next. If we stay here, we’re at his mercy and I don’t think he has any. If we try to leave, maybe there’s a chance we can get out. Our freedom is worth taking the risk. Besides, you need a doctor. Come on,” he said as softly as he could force himself to.

Jacob nodded. The two walked out of the room and advanced through a hall, soon splitting in multiple paths. The building was dull-looking, evidently under-maintained. The stony walls were mossy; the hallways were poorly lit and it reeked of feces. Otherworldly sounds could be heard continuously: some guttural, eerie groans; cries of pain, cries of fear.

They walked in a direction they picked at random until they noticed two taller men a few meters ahead. The first one was a bald man in his forties, dressed in gray washed-out pants and a white straitjacket with its sleeves torn. He was intimidating to look at: more than just being large, his eyes had a certain madness to them, as if there was a glow found in normal people that had been extinguished in his. His stare was directed at nothing in particular, yet turned in their direction. His eyes were always open, never blinking.

The second man wasn’t as scary but looked even stranger. His face looked like a hamster that had been crushed by a steamroller; small, contrasting with his tall height. He, too, wore dirty hospital clothing, but the extra pee stain in his pants added to his filthiness. His eyes were unfocused, each looking in a different direction, fleeing each other even as they moved in sync.

The four of them stood still for several uncomfortable seconds. Then, the bald man spoke.

“This way. The master wants you to meet someone," he said.