Maleficium: Duo (Devil's Playground 2)

“Come.” Mel grabbed her hand and all but dragged her from the cell of a room.

I moved out of the way so that they could exit. Almost instantly, less than three seconds of her being free, an alarm began to blare. I grimaced, slightly hunching my shoulders as it blasted through the air above our heads. It reminded me of the old fire bells from school. The jester’s voice carried over top of it.

“Residents please remain calm as Vesania will now be entering lock-down mode. For those seeking to gain another batch of some good old Helios, please bring me those responsible for releasing the girl in room four on the second floor.”

The overhead lights flickered to a dull red color, signifying the code she’d called. One by one, the doors surrounding us began to slide open. There wasn’t time to utter another word to each other.

We had to go.

“This way.” Grace grabbed hold of mine and Mel’s hands, pushing us to run in the opposite direction we’d come from, yelling, “Help Mo!” at Dion.

“What about Selena?”

“She’s not here anymore!” Grace yelled over the alarm.

I wanted to ask where she was then, but instead asked where we were going, blindly following Grace down another hallway.

“Away from the nurses. They carry tranquilizers. Found out when they put me in the jacket.”

Patients began to fill the halls, some running right by us, others completely out of their minds. I narrowly dodged around an old man that made to grab me, shoving him back into the room he’d just come out of. I glanced behind me in time to see Dion curse and shove another, sending her spiraling into the wall. Morrigan was doing her best to keep up, but her pace was still off. Dion was damn near carrying her with one arm.

Coming to a split at the end of the hall we were in, we had to choose which direction to go.

“This way!” a man with tussled brown hair suddenly called out from the right.

I looked him over and saw he wasn’t dressed like any of the other patients. He was donning an outfit like Dion’s, but a different color. He wasn’t alone either. A man with long black hair pulled back in a ponytail was with him.

“Hurry!” he yelled before disappearing through another set of metal doors.

“Do we risk it?” Mel asked.

“That door should lead to stairs,” I replied.

I jumped to the side as another patient bolted by us, whirling around when I heard Dion yell for help and Morrigan scream. A woman was climbing him like a tree, her gnarled hands clutching at his face.

“I got em! They’re--!”

Her victorious claim was cut short with a pained yelp. Grace grabbed her wildly gray hair and ripped her away from Dion, who promptly smashed her in the face with the palm of his hand. The woman dropped to the floor yelling incoherently.

We left her there and hauled ass to the metal door the two men had went through just minutes ago. It led to a landing, thankfully one that wasn’t stopping us from going downward.

It didn’t take long for the door to slam open behind us. A quad of four crazies yelled obscenities and followed on our heels, eager catch us. We sounded like a small stampede, the pounding of our shoes competing with repetitive blaring from the alarm.

I lost my footing and nearly fell fast first the remainder of the way down. I was caught by none other than Morrigan. She didn’t let me go until I was all the way back on my feet. If we weren’t running for our freedom, potentially our lives, I would’ve taken a second to thank her.

The end of the steps came into view, and I was caught off guard when I realized that the two men who called out to us were waiting at the bottom.

“Come on!” the brown-haired guy stressed, waving his hands frantically.

I had so many questions.

Mainly, why was he helping us?

Was he helping us?

We were about to find out, I guess. No one stopped and objected to it. He and his companion ran ahead of our group, leading us down another hall filled with junk.

I used that to our advantage.

I dropped back and shoved an abandoned meal trolley at a patient that had broken away from their group and gained on us. The man or woman slammed right into it, doing a small flip headfirst onto the floor. Their blunder caused a slight chain reaction, a few more tripping over them.

We took a sharp right and arrived at another metal door. As soon as it opened outside air poured in and seemed to wrap us in an embrace, dragging our physically exerted bodies into the night.

The door slammed behind us, a lock clicking into place and the alarm ceasing. There were thuds from the other side as our pursuers attempted to follow.