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I got in front of her.

I put myself between that light and my friend with my arms out. Then I stood there in the beam and let him see my face. Because I had heard the orders given from inside that linen cart and I knew exactly what it was worth.

I was not to be touched.

He stopped dead at the sight of us and that’s how I know it was true. The muzzle went down and off to the side, and he put his free hand out flat like a man calming a horse.

“Ma’am, please come with me,” he said calmly and I shook my head, telling him,

“I am not going anywhere with you.”

“Nobody is going to hurt you,” he tried again, like this would help. Like I would simply shrug my shoulders and say, ‘oh, well put like that, then sure, why not.’ I don’t think so.

“Move out of the way,” I demanded trying to sound far stronger than I felt and I could practically feel Roz behind me questioning what the fuck was going on. No doubt wondering why the guy didn’t just rush at us or worse, shoot us.

I started walking us both back slowly, me in front and Roz behind me with her hands in the back of my scrubs. He came with us at exactly the same pace and didn’t once try to close the distance between us. Nor did he reach for his radio, which I understood about four seconds too late. Because there was only one reason a man like him wouldn’t reach for his radio… that he didn’t need to.

Because there was already somebody behind us.

But I was too late to react, as the second I felt Roz’s hand leave my back, I spun around to find out why. And what I found was a second man who had his arm around Roz’s middle and her feet off the floor.

And Roz fought him.

She got an elbow into his face, and she got a heel down on his foot. He swore at the same time he dropped her, and she used this opportunity to push both hands into his chest, knocking him into the wall.

“GO!” she screamed at me. “RUN!”

She came off that wall and we ran. I was in front because I was the one who knew where the door was and I didn’t once look back when I could hear her behind me.

“Keep running, we are nearly there!” I shouted back at her as I finally saw the door that shut off the seclusion corridor. It was an old one. Oak, and heavy, with a proper lock in it rather than one of the magnetic ones. Because that part of the building was full of old wiring and nobody has ever gotten around to updating it.

But thankfully for us, it was standing open when I got to it.

I didn’t even question why when perhaps I should have. But in my panic, I was just counting my lucky fucking stars that I was able to get through it. As Ghost had taken my keys from me and it was only in that split second when seeing that door that I remembered he had. Well, thank God, I hadn’t needed them, as I went through it at a dead run with my shoulder and my hands and didn’t slow down.

I got perhaps twelve feet.

Then I heard Roz scream.

39

A VOICE IN THE DARK

ANNA

The second I heard my friend scream, my heart sank.

I turned around, my mouth dropping in horror as I found the door was closing and panic had me momentarily gripped in a vise. Meaning it took my brain far too long to understand what was happening. Because there it was, slowly closing and what was missing was my friend on this side of it.

It came around under its own weight the way a door that heavy does, unhurried, with a kind of mockery to it.

“NO!” I screamed the second it banged shut in its frame, the sound echoing in the empty space around me like a death bell ringing.

I got back to that door seconds too late and threw myself against it. I got both hands on the handle and yanked down as hard as I could, but it wouldn’t fucking budge!

Nothing.

Because it was an old lock in an old door that didn’t give a shit that I wanted it open to save my friend.