Chapter 13 - THE SECOND WALL
The Westhaven Institute had been abandoned for decades.
The building was a shell. Windows broken. Walls covered in graffiti. The smell of decay and dust.
Thomas led me through the corridors. Past empty rooms. Past rusted beds. Past walls that seemed to breathe.
"Here," he said. Stopped in front of a door.
It looked like a closet. Small. Wooden. Unremarkable.
But when Thomas pushed it open, there was no closet inside.
There was a staircase. Going down.
"Where does it lead?"
"To the rooms between the rooms. Where Vale kept them."
I followed him down. The stairs creaked. The darkness swallowed us.
At the bottom, there was a hallway. Doors on either side. Dozens of them.
"Each one is a cell," Thomas said. "Each one holds a person Vale wanted to forget."
"Are they still alive?"
"I don't know. I haven't been back."
I reached for the nearest door. Turned the handle.
Inside was a small room. A bed. A chair. A single lightbulb swinging from the ceiling.
And on the bed, a man.
He looked up when the door opened. His eyes were empty. His mouth moved. But no sound came out.
"He's been here for fifteen years," Thomas said. "Vale erased him from the world. No records. No family. No name."
I stepped closer. Looked at the man's face.
And then I recognized him.
May you like
The patient I'd pulled from the wall eight years ago.
The one I'd thought I'd saved.
