Chapter 4 - The Empty Room
Clara held her breath as Lawrence and Veronica walked into a room at the end of the hall.
She waited until the heavy metal door clicked shut before she moved from the shadows.
She rushed quietly down the corridor, her eyes scanning the faded brass numbers.
She finally stopped in front of a door marked with the number 214.
Beneath the number, a piece of fresh white tape was slapped onto the wood.
The word Leonard was written on the tape in thick black marker.
Clara gripped the brass doorknob and slowly turned it, praying it was unlocked.
The door pushed open, revealing a small, windowless concrete cell.
A single lightbulb dangled from the ceiling, swinging back and forth.
There was a metal bed frame in the center of the room with heavy leather straps attached to the corners.
The leather straps were unbuckled and completely covered in fresh blood.
Clara gasped, covering her mouth to keep from crying out.
The bed was entirely empty.
Leonard was not in the room.
She stepped closer to the bed and noticed a strange pattern scratched into the concrete wall.
It looked like a series of complex mathematical equations and structural diagrams.
Clara recognized the handwriting instantly.
It was the same exact way Leonard wrote his civil engineering blueprints.
He had been calculating the load-bearing stress of the asylum walls.
He was trying to figure out a way to break the building down from the inside.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the floor below, followed by the sound of breaking glass.
“He got into the basement,” Lawrence shouted from down the hall.
Clara realized her son had already escaped his restraints and was fighting back.
She turned to leave the room and help him, but a dark shadow filled the doorway.
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One of the men in suits from the cemetery was standing there with a cruel smile on his face.
He raised a heavy wooden baton and swung it directly at Clara's head.
