I looked up as Harry stood up, giving him a confused glance as he offered me a hand.

We'd been there for a few hours already, that we'd spent in silence while we waited for time to pass.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, not understanding what he was getting at.

"Midnight is coming" he said quietly, the hidden meaning behind his words sending a shiver down my spine. "I don't know what will happen, but if it will not work out for me, I would like to do something still" he continued fast, making me understand that he'd probably thought of that for a while, glancing quickly from my face to his hand.

I felt a weight on my chest at the mention of what I knew was probably about to come, but nodded, clearing my throat to make sure my voice wouldn't have broken while I spoke. "Sure" I said, eager to do all I could to help him, taking his hands and letting him help me to my feet. "What do you want to do?"

He glanced at me in the mild darkness of the room we were hiding in. "It's almost midnight, so the lights will be turned off soon" he said quietly.

I frowned, even more confused than before. Why would he tell me something like that? He knew I already knew. "And?" I asked, hoping he would've clarified.

"My whole life, I played it safe at best. If it truly will all end tonight, I would still like to do something wild" he simply said, stepping past me and wrapping his fingers around the handle of the door.

I widened my eyes when I realised what he was about to do. "Wow, so you just decided to give them a reason to keep you locked up in here?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my words.

He just shook his head, pushing down the handle and slowly opening the door. He glanced into the pitch black outside, making sure nobody was around, before walking out of the room, dragging me with him from our intertwined fingers.

I stepped closer to him, grazing his arm, as he started walking to our right, the faint sound of his hand brushing the wall being the only thing I could hear in the deep silence surrounding us. We walked for a while, my heart beating fast inside my chest as I tried my best not to think of what would've happened if we'd met a guard.

"Against the wall, fast" Harry murmured into my ear all of sudden, and I was fast to comply, just in time to avoid someone that rushed past us.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to get over how close we'd been to being discovered, before following Harry, that had pulled me lightly forward as he'd gone back to walking. I kept my eyes shut, discovering that it made me way less nervous than staring into the darkness surrounding us, walking close to him for not more than a few minutes.

"Open your eyes" I heard him say all of sudden.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, realising that we'd stopped, and slowly opened them, discovering that Harry was standing in front of me, closer than he'd ever been. I stared at him in the faint moonlight coming from the windows on our left, trying to understand why he'd taken us there.

I looked to the side, finding out that, as I'd supposed, many large windows were on my left. I stared at the full moon through the glass, inadvertently stepping away from Harry, in amazement. I'd never seen the moon there before. I looked at the small circle of light outside, that was enlightening the perfectly cured gardens outside, putting my hand on the glass. A little smile curved my lips as I realised that it was exactly the same as how I'd often seen it from the window of my room. It should've been obvious, considering that it was indeed the same, but there, surrounded by a completely different world, it seemed somewhat odd, as if I hadn't expected to find such a constant between the two periods of time. Looking at it, in the complete darkness of the asylum, I felt as if I was back at home.

I heard the sound of someone clearing his throat, and I turned around fast, just to discover that Harry was standing in front of me, a few steps away from me.

"Will you grant a dying man's last wish?" He whispered to me, offering me his hand.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Will you dance with me?"

I looked around quickly. "Are you kidding? That's crazy! What if people come?" I hissed at him, trying to keep my voice as low as possible.

"That is why I said I wanted to do something wild" he replied, looking at me as if he'd just stated the obvious. He sighed when he realised he hadn't managed to move me, glancing down for a quick second before looking at me again. "In less than an hour I will join the others that disappeared. Please, I don't want to... go without having truly lived for at least once."

"You know you'll be back here in twenty-four hours" I replied.

He blinked, looking away from me. "What if I won't be? What if this time I won't manage to follow you?"

I glanced at him, he was nervously playing with the hem of his perfectly white shirt, an anxious look in his eyes, mixed with something else. Fear. He was scared. I took a deep breath, thinking of how it must've felt to know that there was a high chance I wouldn't have reached midnight, my eyes widening as the weight on my chest became heavier.

"I will dance with you" I said faintly in the end, taking his warm hand with my cold one and stepping closer to him.

He gave me a little smile, raising his arm to make me twirl. "I will be honoured."

I closed the distance between us, putting my hands on his shoulders, feeling my heart drop when I felt the faint warmth under my hands. I looked up all of sudden when a pair of hands suddenly came to rest on my waist, blinking fast as I felt wetness in my eyes.

I lifted myself up on my tiptoes, wrapping my arms around his neck, inadvertently gripping the thin fabric of his shirt. "I won't let you die, I promise" I said in a choked whisper into his ear, feeling my voice break.

He was taken aback by our sudden closeness, but wrapped his arms around my waist all the same, gently rocking us from side to side. "I know you will try" he replied, "but nobody knows what will happen."

I gripped his shirt tighter, feeling my breath falter against his skin as I realised how true his words were. I widened my eyes as the sudden fear of finding myself alone after midnight struck me. "Promise me something" I whispered, knowing that he would've heard me anyway.

He hummed. "What is it?" He asked lowly, one of his hands travelling, from my shoulder, down to my lower back in a soothing way.

"Promise me that, whatever happens, you won't leave me alone" I said, feeling a sudden wetness travel down my cheek. I lifted my hand and brushed it away, not wanting him to know.

"I promise I will try. One way, or another" he replied, a shiver running down my spine as I realised what he meant.

I nodded, detaching my body from his. "We should probably go" I said, glancing away from him.

"Most likely" he replied, taking a sudden step back, as if he'd realised just in that moment how close we'd been.

"Yeah..." I started to say, but shut my mouth when I heard the sound of shuffled steps coming from somewhere behind me. I turned around fast, discovering that a covered, hunched figure had just entered the corridor, leaning heavily against the wall. I looked up at Harry, that seemed just as confused as I was.

We waited patiently as the figure reached us, unsure on who it was, but knowing it wasn't anybody who worked there for sure.

"Uh what?" I asked when it got close enough for me to realise that it was a woman.

She was covered in a long, tattered and dusty blanket, her claw-like fingers against the wall, helping her to stand up. Her other wrinkled hand was gripping the hem of her dark blanket, making sure it wouldn't have slipped off her head. In the dim light I could see a large scar run down the left side of her face, her eye on that side damaged and milky. I widened my eyes as I recognised her as the woman I'd found under the bed in my room on the first day. A shiver ran down my spine. How had she got there? But more importantly, the nurse had said she never got out, so what was she doing there?

"You don't know me, but I know you" she said lowly, her voice shaky, her fingers closing around her blanket in a harsher way, to the point that I feared that her long nails would've cut the paper thin and almost transparent skin of her palm.

I gave her a bewildered look. "What?" I asked confusedly. How could she know me? We'd never even talked.

"You are just like them" she said, warily pointing her slender finger towards Harry. "You don't belong here. They put them there, but they don't belong here!" She gave us a spirited look. "They don't belong! They don't belong!" She shouted, making my eyes widen.

"Madam, may I ask you not to shout?" Harry asked her quickly, realising that she would've attracted people to where we were standing.

"They don't belong! Don't belong!" She shouted, her voice shrill in the silence of the asylum, as if he hadn't heard him at all.

I widened my eyes when I realised that someone seemed to be walking into the hallway. "Harry" I said slightly nudging him, pointing at the figure that had just walked in.

Before we could do anything, the figure started walking towards us fast. "Patients out of room! Guards!" He shouted, making my eyes widen.

I turned my head towards Harry fast. "Harry-"

"Run!" He whispered, gripping my wrist hard and starting to run towards the electricity room.

All of sudden the lights went on again, nurses starting to pour out of rooms to run after us. Despite the shortness of my breath, I started running faster, knowing that it was only a matter of a few minutes before the midnight would've stricken.

We entered the corridor that ended in the electricity room, my muscles burning but relief already starting to was through me. We were almost there. I looked back when I suddenly felt someone grasp my arm, my eyes widening in panic as I realised that the first doctor had got a hold of me.

"Harry!" I choked out, feeling myself being pulled harshly towards the end of the corridor. I gave a hard shake, managing to make the doctor lose his grip on me, and went back to running, giving Harry a grateful look.

I almost fell when I felt a sudden pain in my leg, managing to catch myself right before. Harry looked at me, realising what had happened quickly.

"Keep running!" He said, pulling me harder and forcing me to ignore the cramp.

I nodded and looked up, realising that we were almost there, I could see the door at the end of the corridor. All of sudden I felt myself being pushed forward harshly.

"Get in, I'm behind you!" Harry said quickly, and I nodded, even if I doubted he would've noticed.

I started running even faster, knowing that I would've probably risked having a stroke after everything would've ended, but not caring. I finally reached it, pushing the door open hard and running in, barely managing to stop myself in the middle of the room before everything went white, a sudden loud sound resonating between the walls.