I lay in bed, watching the shadows slowly creep further up the wall as they retreated from the rising sun. Another sleepless night, but that was to be expected.

The everlasting cloud cover had lightened ever so slightly. It was not immensely foggy, nor rainy, nor did the many factories nearby overload themselves enough to bring about a noticeable bog in the air. For once, the weather was somewhat manageable.

Eventually, my caretaker came in and I became ready for the day. When walking through the halls towards the dining room, I noticed that there was not even any need for candles. Finally, the sun had produced enough light to illuminate the entirety of the ginormous hospital.

We congregated into a line near the dining room. I could hear Emilia hum the music box melody somewhere behind me. I had gained an ally. Now for the next.

In the morning illumination, I saw that there was more than I thought stowed away in the back of the kitchen. Not just expensive cuts that had to go to a group of important people, but also a large quantity of normal food. It assuredly did not go to us, but then why would there be such a volume?

For the time being, I would have to put aside my questions. There would be no answers as I got my tasteless gruel and sat in my lonesome corner. Bradley was nowhere to be found in the mass of patients eating, but it did not matter. It was far too risky to approach him or try anything during the day, while the guards were still about.

Luckily, the patrols were practically nonexistent after they lock the patients in their rooms at night. I would have a much more gracious outcome if I were to fail at snapping him out of his drug-fueled haze.

There was but one problem… I had no clue where Bradley’s room was, and his ramblings proved to set a damper on communications. There was no use in trying the same trick I had devised for Emilia, either. Bradley did not only speak in strange eldritch tongues, but he seemed to understand no other. Any attempt at using language would fail, which made locating his room extremely difficult.

The same problem also stood for Price and Hughes. At the very least, I knew Bradley was in the same crowd of people I was a part of. I had not seen the other two at all, though. Not even a glimpse.

I had to find out which rooms they were being kept in, and it seemed as though my only choice was to figure it out myself. I knew there had to be a registry, but where that was located was an entirely new challenge…

After finishing my meal, we were all brought to stand. One by one, the caretakers had us form a line. I had assumed we would be shepherded into the cramped lounge once more, but that was surprisingly not the case. The doors and windows were open as they were on most days, only this time it was not raining, and the patients were coerced through them into the courtyard.

I took in the enormity of the patchy grey sky and the wet courtyard. I felt as though it had been forever since I had been let into such a wide-open space.

As expected, the gates were locked shut. It wouldn’t be hard to climb them, but I had resigned myself to freeing the others… And even still, I needed to know what had happened before I could simply run away. There was a lingering shadow in the corner of my eye. A face that watched me, just out of my vision. Every time I turned to look at the shadowy black thing, it moved in conjunction with me. The blackness would grow, and the visions would only get worse if I did not find answers. Running would only lead me to become consumed by the madness. Deeper was my only option.

We were set free to roam the courtyard, and I had but one objective on my mind.

From the crowd, I followed Emilia’s humming until I had her within my sights. Her melody slowed as she also caught sight of me. With a nod, I signaled that we should find a seclusive spot to talk.

Past the crowds of mindless people, we moved to the side yard. There were many shrubberies and few windows. A good enough place for a brief conversation, and an important one at that.

Emilia was the first to speak. “What is it?”

“I have something I need to ask you…” As I spoke, I looked upon Emilia’s face. Where she had always seemed happier and healthier than my surroundings, she had become just as pale, thin, and broken as the rest of us. Dark circles appeared under her eyes just as my own. We were all devolving and turning weaker the longer we lived in the festering hole that was the hospital. We needed to work faster… That started with finding the others… “We need to get Bradley back to his former self next, but there is no way of telling where his room is.” And there would be no way to find his room. If it weren’t for Emilia that was. “You used to work as a caretaker here… There has to be a registry of the patients and their rooms, right?”

Emilia looked to the distance and thought to herself, trying to recall anything like what I had described. After just a brief moment, she responded. “Yes, I believe there is. Although…” She grimaced. “You won’t like where it is…”

Foreboding comments such as those rose a grave feeling deep in my gut, but I assured the both of us out loud, “There is no other way. Just tell me.”

After she sighed, Emilia confirmed that I, indeed, did not like where it was. “I’m afraid it’s in the staff quarters… On the wall next to the door, right next to the beds…”

That was not good. Not good at all. It was easy to sneak at night when there was no one patrolling the halls at night, but walking right into the hornet’s nest was something else entirely. “Staff quarters? They live here? How many?”

Emilia shrugged. “They changed it so the nurses and others could stay overnight just a few days before our incident… When I went in, there had to be at least a dozen beds…” She put on a fake smile, feigning optimism. “They most likely aren’t all filled though.”

I believed that to be far from the truth. After seeing the fumbling and low-class guards, I could tell these people were not very well off, especially with how poor the world had become in recent years... If the hospital offered free lodging, then I bet that every one of those beds would have a body in it. In any case, no matter how horrible it was, I saw no other way. Trying to find Bradley, Price, and Hughes in the mess of others would be like finding a needle in a haystack. “I see…” Was all I said as I pondered what Emilia had just told me.

Emilia began walking back towards the courtyard, knowing that our conversation would have to be cut short or the guards would notice our absence. But just before she fully left, she spoke one last sentence. “Go through the lounge, through the kitchen, and then go through the hallway. Two doors down on the right and you’ll find it.”

I nodded as she returned to wandering about the courtyard. Following soon after, I decided that I needed to gather more information before I planned for the tumultuous journey ahead.

The courtyard was mostly a way to get the many people out of the hospital while the caretakers cleaned whatever needed to be cleaned. There was not much to do other than wander around the cold and muddy yard.

In the corner, though, I saw a small patch of flowers and shrubberies. A small garden, and the person tending to it was none other than my own mother.

I walked towards her, questions stirring in my mind. As deeply as I wished to know how she knew to give me the music box, that was not the pressing matter I had in store. I would have to figure out how to help Bradley next, and I had no clue how to pull him from his dissociative state. If she could give me advice on how to free Bradley, then I could look past the cryptic esotericism in her talk.

She was kneeling next to a bed of daisies, thin and wilting despite her best efforts. I kneeled beside her, getting my white trousers soaked in the cold mud. She did not respond or react, knowing who I was simply from my gait.

Once a moment or two had passed, I spoke curtly. “How did you know to give me that music box?”

Continuing to blindly feel for weeds and pluck them, my mother responded. “You were going to find your friends, weren’t you? I thought it was a pertinent time to give back what she had lent me, simply as that. You give me far too much credit than I deserve, my son.”

I pondered that for a moment, then rejected that proposition. “No. You knew it would help her… How?” I was not forceful in my pressing, but I certainly was not going to move on without an answer.

Halting her weeding, my mother sat up straighter and sighed. “There are some things, Theo, that one cannot explain. You are not yet prepared to hear all of the truth.” That was not the answer I had hoped for. What does she even mean by ‘all of the truth’? What part of the picture did I not yet see? Before I could reply, though, my mother slowly turned to me. Her face lingered just beyond my left shoulder. It grew deathly silent before she finally whispered. “Why is it here?”

The horror on her face led me to look at whatever was just beyond my vision, yet when I turned there was nothing there. Nothing but that shadow in the corner of my vision.

Looking back to my mother, I noticed that her line of sight had moved towards behind me. Once again looking just beyond my vision.

I faced my mother directly, and once more she pointed herself just beyond my left shoulder. When she was once mysterious and elusive, she had just become very grounded and serious. Fear was displayed clearly on her face. “What do you see?” I questioned, trying my best to stay calm.

“You might discover the truth sooner than I expected.” She said, still unmoving. Then, in little more than a whisper, she spoke. “You’re running out of time.”