Go inside

Leanne took a deep breath and stepped forward before easing the door open wider. As she prepared to move inside she was suddenly grabbed from behind. A hand clamped over her mouth to prevent her from screaming and she was dragged backwards into the hallway, her muffled cries for help going unheard.

She was taken further away from the room and pressed up against the wall. As she looked up at her attacker she saw the bespectacled face of Dr Seward. His hand was still covering her mouth but as she stopped fighting the medic cautiously released her.

“What… What are you doing?” questioned Leanne, a little flustered.

“You can’t go in there,” replied the doctor. “It’s dangerous! He’s in there, waiting for you!”

There was something odd about the doctor’s behaviour, even more so than usual. He was agitated and his eyes darted nervously back towards the room she’d almost entered. “Who’s in there?”

“I… I cannot same say his name. Or he will hear me and then he’ll come for you!” The doctor was scaring Leanne with his weird responses and the way he was anxiously hopping from foot to foot. He barely looked at Leanne and seemed more preoccupied with staring back the way they’d come as though waiting to be interrupted at any moment.

“But Abbie’s in there,” replied Leanne. Her own anxiety growing by each second she spent with the doctor. “We can’t just leave her.”

“Then she is already gone,” answered Seward. “If she was even in there to begin with.” Leanne fell silent. What did the doctor mean by that? Was whatever this terrifying thing was capable of imitating Abbie’s voice? The doctor’s next words scared Leanne even more. “You can’t trust anyone. She might be one of… ‘his’. She might be trying to lure you into a trap for him. That was my task after all.”

“What… What do you…?” Leanne’s eyes were wide as she stared at Dr Seward. She didn’t know if she wanted to finish her question, let alone receive an answer. “Doc…” Before she could finish her next question, she was abruptly cut off as the medic suddenly turned his attention back to her.

“I’m no doctor.” he continued sadly before sliding his glasses from his face. “No-one is who they say they are in here.” Leanne didn’t know what to say. She stared silently at the man in front of her as he gazed at the floor beneath his feet. “I… I can take you. Lead you out of here. Get you somewhere safe. Away from… Him.”

The doctor, or whoever he was, was even more disturbing now as he seemed highly agitated. He’d told Leanne not to trust him, or anyone for that fact, and now was asking if she wanted him to lead her to safety. She didn’t know who he was anymore. And then there was the repeated mentions of this mysterious ‘him’. As she looked at the strange man she wondered what she should do.