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"LAURENCE, YOU SAID THAT Lino isn't here yet, right?" I asked father Laurence, and this perverted-looking priest narrowed his eyes in suspicion but nodded his head anyway.

     "Then grab a ladder and a hammer downstairs, quickly. We're going to break a ceiling and look for answers. We might be his precious horsemen, but we don't need a rider to be able to run forward, don't you agree?" I then asked him.

     Father Laurence doesn't say anything and just stares at me like he heard the most ridiculous thing in the world. I know he rejected my suggestion of running away, but we should at least do something about the situation we're in. We can't just blindly follow Claudio until all the patients are dead.

     "Look, we're not going to do anything crazy. We're not even going to run away like what I mentioned to you before. We're just going to look for answers, and these answers are what's going to help us when shit goes down. Don't you think we should at least have some dirt on our master?" I asked him, making Laurence scratch the back of his head. I could tell that he was now thinking about it. I just need a little more push.

     And besides, other than Adie, he's the only one I can trust here.

     "Fine, let's say I do what you're asking me to do, but how about the other employees with their stupid gas masks? What if they rat us out on the master, what then?" Laurence asks back, and honestly, his concerns were reasonable.

     I'm not entirely sure who the other employees are, and even though they treat us like we're their boss, they're probably still a lot more loyal to Claudio. Wait, not even probably, they are much more loyal to Claudio.

     "I can make a distraction," I say when I suddenly had this crazy idea that may or may not work.

    "Distraction?"

    "That's right, a distraction. Lino's bedroom is on the other side where the patients are, right? I'll head to the top floor and distract the others while you go to his room," I explained, and Laurence looks at me for a quick second before massaging his temple, almost like he couldn't believe that he was willing to follow my crazy plan.

     "And what if it's locked? Have you thought of that?" Laurence asks next.

     "Oh, that's tricky. Lino has all the keys, so if it's locked—" as I was talking to Laurence, I suddenly stopped when I felt this suffocating presence standing right behind us. Father Laurence must have felt it too because his eyes ended up widening as the two of us stared at each other in surprise.

     He nudges my side, so I cleared my throat and slowly turned around. I thought it would be Lino, or maybe even master Claudio, but when I turned around and saw that it was actually Adeline, I released a sigh of relief.

     "Oh, it's just you," I say as little Adie approaches us, crossing her arms and then pouting, signaling us that she was upset about something, probably because it took us so long to join her at the dining table and she had to sit there alone.

     "Sorry kid, your butler here was spouting shit. You must be hungry so let's go," Laurence says instead. He was about to leave and head to the dining room, but I grabbed his arm and immediately stopped him. "W-Wait, I have an idea," I say as I looked back at Adeline. Laurence didn't know what I was planning, so when I asked Adie the question, he immediately looked back at me with disbelief.

     "Adie, do you know where Lino hides the keys?"

     "Bishop! Are you crazy?!" Father Laurence immediately says, grabbing my arm and pulling me aside so Adie won't hear us. "You're going to include this creepy kid in your stupid plan? What's gonna happen if he tells the master?"

     "How? She's fucking mute!" I answered back, making the two of us glance back at Adeline before looking at each other. "And besides, we can trust her. Among everyone in this manor, the three of us should stick together."

     "And why is that?"

     "Lady told me," I answered.

    Laurence was confused for a second, but then his eyes widened as he shouted, "Lady?! The fucking patient?!"

    I ignored Laurence's exaggerated remarks and just walked up to Adeline again. Adie knows Lino longer than us, and Lino is actually quite fond of her too. She must know where Lino's hiding his keys, especially since she's always at the greenhouse with him.

     "You know where it is, don't you?" I ask.

    Laurence shakes his head in disapproval while Adeline continues to stare at me, probably because she's observing me. She and Winter get along, and I feel like it would help if I pull Winter out, but with everything that's going on, I have this gut feeling that that might be a bad idea.

     "Adie, please, you gotta help us. We just want to know more about master Claudio," I then begged. Adeline continued to stare at me blankly, and Laurence was about to walk away, but then she slowly nods her head, and my excitement grew in an instant.

     "Great! Please help us find it, okay?" I say before looking back at Laurence. "You come with Adie and get everything that I need. You got that?"

    "Can you be more of a pushover?" Laurence asks back, but he takes a deep breath and did what he was told. Adeline also came along with him, and the two finally went out to start the secret task. I don't know how much time we have left until Lino and master Claudio arrives from the hospital, but we can't waste any more time.

     I ran to the third floor where the remaining patients were. Most of the nurses were there, supervising them. Pacific was outside the recreational area playing cards alone. It made me feel a little heavy inside since he used to play it with Lady, but now he's gone too.

     Pacific sees me, but he ignores me entirely. I then ran to Wednesday's room, and when I opened the little window on her door, I saw her sitting on her bed, her ankles chained up like last time. I was about to call out to her, but then this female nurse suddenly pushes me away from the door. She says something really fast that I wasn't able to catch it on time, and then she immediately closes the window so I wouldn't be able to see Wednesday anymore.

      "I need to go inside," I insisted. "I have to speak with her. Doctor Giovanni has given me permission," I then lied.

     The woman looked reluctant, but then I heard her say the words, "Good luck then," before finally opening the door for me.

     I stepped inside the room and removed my mask. Wednesday immediately looked in my direction, and the moment she saw my face, she instantly got up from the bed and smiled. "Nana," she says as she runs towards me to grab me. But when she was only inches away from where I was standing, the chains stop her, and her sweet expression turns into complete anger.

     "These darn chains!" She shouted. "I'll rip my legs out if I could!"

     "Calm down Wednesday," I tell her, and Wednesday quickly turns her head to me and smiles again, her teeth looking a lot more terrible and rotten compared to the last time I saw her.

     "How are you doing?" I asked, turning my head to see the nurse looking at us through the little window on the door. I cleared my throat, and then I looked back at Wednesday and took a step closer. When she was finally able to grab me, Wednesday takes my hand and pulls me in for a hug. The gesture surprised me, but I smiled and hugged her back.

    As we broke free from the hug, Wednesday takes my hand and leads me to the bed so the two of us could sit on it. "You visited. I'm glad," she sweetly says, and I couldn't help but swallow this hard lump in my throat. These are criminals. These are criminals. I repeatedly told myself, but the more I say it, the more I become unsure.

     "I wanted to know if you're alright. Have the nurses been treating you well?" I then ask, reaching out to her and removing the hair on her face so I could tuck it behind her ear.

     "They have, but some would curse at me. I don't really understand them, but I could tell," she answers.

     I was about to ask her how she was feeling, but then Wednesday asks me, "Have you seen Lady anywhere? I wasn't able to find him this morning."

     "Lady? Why are you looking for Lady?" I ask back with my brows furrowed.

     "Well, Lady takes care of me sometimes. She brushes my hair too," she explains, which is a surprise because I never expected them to have that kind of relationship. "Lady's like me. He told me his mother loved to dress him up and make him look pretty, and she even made him into a proper lady, but that made the men in his town desire him, which was why they raped him. They thought he was a woman," Wednesday explained to me, and the normality of this conversation is what made me feel uneasy.

     These people experienced all this and got their dignity and self-decency crushed, making them the monster that they are now. Wednesday, Lady, and maybe even Oz...the law labeled them as crazy criminals, but the law and our fucked up system are what really made them criminals in the first place.

    "Wednesday, you see, Lady...he...he died," I finally said.

     For a moment I thought Wednesday would look sad, but her expression didn't change, and that lack of emotion was what made me feel bad for her.

    "There's nothing we can do then," she simply says.

     "Do you even know that you might follow him too?" I then thought to myself, but I quickly brushed that away, glancing at the nurse who was still watching us before looking back at Wednesday. I don't really have time to chat with her now. I know Autumn would also like to speak with her too, but I'm here on a mission, and I can't waste my time getting closer to a patient.

     "Wednesday, I actually came here because I needed your help," I finally tell her with a lower voice so the nurse outside wouldn't hear us. "Do you think you could help me distract the nurses?"

     I didn't know how Wednesday would react, just like how I didn't know how she'd react to the news of Lady's death, but then the look on Wednesday's face suddenly changed, and the atmosphere in the room became different; almost dark.

     "You're not nana, are you?" She asks, making me widen my eyes in surprise. I wasn't expecting her to notice, but I wasn't really trying to lie to her either, but before I could even defend myself, Wednesday suddenly puts his hands on my neck and starts strangling me.

     Her strength was incredible as she pushes me down on the bed, tightening her grip on my neck as she goes on top of me. "Where's nana!" She shouted. "Let her out!"

     I tried to push her away, but thankfully the nurse outside alerted the others and they immediately went inside and grabbed Wednesday away from me. I got off the bed and started coughing, holding onto my neck which felt like it was burning. The nurses tried to put Wednesday down while I continued to catch my breath. This isn't how I intended this to end, but the plan worked somehow, so while the nurses were busy with Wednesday, I ran off and went straight to the opposite hallway where Lino's room can be found.

     Just in time, I saw Laurence and Adeline standing outside his room. Adeline was trying out a bunch of keys, while Laurence was holding onto a toolbox.

     "Where's the ladder?" I asked as I ran to where they were.

     "What happened to your neck? What kind of distraction did you make?" He asks me instead, but I didn't answer him and pointed out the missing ladder again.

     "I didn't have time to fucking steal a ladder. Do you know how big that thing is? I'll just carry you on my shoulders. That would still work anyway," he insisted, and I just sighed and nodded my head. I guess we could work with that.

     "How is it, Adie? Found the key yet?" I then ask, and Adie shakes her head while she continued putting the keys in the keyhole one at a time. I couldn't help but feel uneasy as I looked around the empty hallway.

     "Can you go any faster?" Laurence then says.

     "Stop pressuring her."

     Adeline tries her best to search for the key while Laurence and I stood as lookouts. But after a while, we could suddenly hear footsteps coming from a distance, and that finally made the three of us panic.

     "Alright, give me that," I say, grabbing the keys from Adeline's hand and checking the keys myself. Adeline and Laurence stood closer to me as the footsteps got louder, but after putting in this particular key, something clicks, and the door finally opens.

     I immediately opened the door and Adeline and Laurence practically ran inside. I pulled the key out and closed the door, and as soon as it was closed, I pressed my back on it and instantly sighed in relief.

     "We're never doing this again," Laurence says, panting heavily because of the adrenaline rush too.

     "It was a thrilling experience though."

     After calming myself down, I looked around Lino's bedroom. It was very similar to my own bedroom, but the windows weren't covered like mine was. There were also a few plants around the room, and then there were a couple of notebooks on his desk. Before I could even stick my nose into it, Laurence was already all over the notebooks and checking them out. Even Adeline was curiously standing close so she could see what they were.

     "Looks like they're notes about stupid plants," Laurence says, looking uninterested as he skimmed through the notebook. "I thought it would be like a diary that would reveal his secrets, but they're all just boring plants. How anticlimactic."

     "Well he is our gardener after all," I say.

     "Well, you won't see me having a ton of cookbooks in my bedroom now will you?" Laurence sarcastically asks back, and all I could do was roll my eyes in annoyance.

    I joined the two of them and grabbed a notebook as well. Like what Laurence said, these were just notes of some plants and even different effects of rare-looking flowers. My best bet is that these are the plants that Claudio is using to make his plague.

     "Maybe I should just grab some of these flowers and shove them inside Claudio's mouth so he'd choke on it," I say out loud. The room instantly becomes quiet, so I looked at Laurence and Adeline who were looking back at me like I said a forbidden word. They just stared at me in surprise, so I ended up laughing at their reaction. "I was joking, come on. It's not like killing him would solve our problems, right?"

     No one laughed at my joke, so I just sighed and brushed it off. "Have some humor people," I tell them before putting the notebook back. I intended to place it on the desk, but since I wasn't really looking, I missed it and dropped the notebook instead.

     Laurence laughs at my clumsiness, and I just cursed and picked it up on the floor. But as I grabbed the notebook, I suddenly saw an old photo on the floor beside it. It was probably in between the pages of the notebook.

     "What's that?" Laurence asks, and so I picked the notebook and the photo up to check on it. "Is that Marcelino when he was younger?" He then asks next.

     "Looks like it."

    "Wow, he doesn't have a scar in this photo yet. And who's this beauty? Don't tell me that was her girlfriend," Laurence says, and the three of us just stared at the picture. After a while, I finally placed it back inside the notebook and got back to business.

     "Anyway, we should stop wasting time. Put me on your shoulder so I could reach the ceiling," I say, and Laurence puts the toolbox down and groans before bending his knees so I could sit on his shoulders.

     "This plan of yours better be worth it Bishop," Laurence says as I got on his shoulders. He slowly stood up and stood his ground, and then I stretched my arm and finally got to touch the ceiling. I was touching the surface of the ceiling so I could feel if something was uneven. I was even knocking on it so I'd know if it was hollow or not.

    "Can you move around," I say, and Laurence ground again and did what I was told.

     I don't know if Oz was lying to me or not, but I have high hopes that there's really something in here. It would be such a waste if there wasn't though.

    "Anything yet?" Laurence asked while tightly holding onto my legs so I wouldn't fall off.

    "Wait, move closer to the bed," I then say, and Laurence slowly moved to that spot. I continued touching the ceiling while Adeline followed us, looking up as well in anticipation. "W-wait, I feel something," I finally say. "Adie darling, can you hand me something like a knife, or just anything sharp."

     Adeline nods his head and runs to the toolbox. She pulls out a cutter and then hands it over to me. "Thank you," I say, and then I touched the ceiling again before tracing something with the cutter until I eventually cut a square on the ceiling.

    "There," I say as Laurence gently put me down.

    The three of us stared at the ceiling and looked at it. 

     "Is that...an attic?" Laurence finally asks, and the three of us looked back at each other like we just discovered the most shocking thing in the world.

     "Imagine if there are dead bodies," I say as a joke, but Adeline suddenly looked freaked out, so I decided not to say anything about it anymore.

    "So, do we just open it?" Father Laurence then asks.

     The three of us looked at each other for one last time before looking back at the ceiling. We didn't really know what was right above us, but without saying a word, I could tell that Laurence and Adeline felt uneasy about it too.

     "Well, we'll never know unless we try it out, right?" I asked, and Laurence takes out the hammer from the toolbox and nods his head in determination. "We're already here so let's dive into it now. You ready Bishop?" he then says, handing me over the hammer. I didn't say anything and just nodded my head back. Laurence lowers himself as I sat on his shoulders again. Using the other side of the hammer, I forced open the attic door. After a few more pulls, the door eventually opens.

     Adeline, Laurence, and I moved aside as an entrance reveals itself to us, and then a ladder instantly drops. Dust was everywhere, and when we looked up, we were welcomed by nothing but complete darkness, almost like we were finally going inside the mind of our crazy and sadistic master.

     "Well then, ladies first."

to be continued...