"Wait," he pauses as if to fully collect all of the information that I'd given him, "So you see things that aren't there?"

"No," I correct him with a stern look, "I see my old friend. Her name is Betty."

He stares me down as if to see if I'm lying and Mary-Sue looks down at her hands on her lap, her mouth agape as if she wants to say something.

Without moving my head, I look to the left, the right, then into his eyes again, trying to figure out what's going on with him. He lets out a soft chuckle, "I don't buy it. There's no way your friend can get in through the walls."

I roll my eyes and they immediately land on Bobby by the door to the office. He's eyeing the room with the door wide open, but when he sees us he smiles, "Mary-Sue? Your mother's here to talk to you and your cousin."

We all, except for sleeping Anna, look at him as he speaks. Cody and Mary-Sue give each other confused looks before simultaneously standing up and walking toward him.

Austin comes in through the door to the halls, then makes her way to the windows, "Five minutes before shower time everyone."

Anna sits up slowly, then rubs her eyes. I do the same with her back to help wake her up. Peering around to make sure that no one is eavesdropping, I lean over to whisper in her ear, "Cody and Mary-Sue are cousins and Cody said that we'll be out soon. He called his sister and she called their cousins."

I go over what transpired earlier and I can see her lips curling up into a wide smile, or at least as wide as she can muster up.

"Annabelle," Austin speaks while walking toward our table. She leans against it, her eyes trained on Anna. "Time to get that masque off."

I look at her, then at Anna. "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," I say with a smile.

I watch as Austin helps her from her seat, then holds her hand while walking toward the halls.

***

I meet Cody and Mary-Sue in the recreation room as always. His hair is neatly combed and hers is in rag curls again. We sit on the sofa in front of the window with me in the middle, him to my left and her to my right. Anna decided to sleep in after breakfast.

"Oh, we were going to tell you what our mom said last night," She speaks with over-excitement clear in her tone. The happiness subsides with a frown towards the end, "But you left."

I furrow my eyebrows. "I thought that you two are cousins."

They give each other confused looks, ones that make it seem as if they'd just seen each other for the first time. He clears his throat before turning to me, but she stares down at her fingers.

"It's a long story," he says while playfully rolling his eyes and faking a smile, "Anyways, she got our cousins, Edward, Frederick, and Finnegan a shot in. Edward is eighteen, so he'll be working here. Fred and Finn are eleven-year-old twins. They'll be patients."

Betty walks through the closed window and stands in front of us with her hands on her hips as he continues speaking, "Nice. The inbreds have a plan."

I glance at her with knitted eyebrows, "What's an inbred?"

I return to them, their facial expressions displaying horror. Cody stands up and Mary-Sue does the same, but without a word, they walk away. Betty laughs sinisterly, "Look at you. Scaring away your only friends."

I stand up to face her toe to toe. My expression is blank, "You don't exist. You're merely a figment of my imagination."

Mary-Sue

Like the other kids, Cody and I are hanging out in the dirt field behind the building. They're playing chase, but he and I are sitting on the steps watching them. There's a shed to the far left that's chained with a key lock. Barbed wire fences surround the area, but a gap in the right corner is wide enough to fit a small child. It appears as if someone's spent decades digging in front of it to burrow their way underneath.

I nudge him with my right arm, staring at the tiny hole. He stops scratching a stick against the concrete slab steps long enough to glance at me, then towards the hole.

His eyes grow wild with excitement. "Is that—? "

I cut him off with a confident smirk, "Indeed it is. When they get here, we need to make it out of here fast." He watches my eyes as I speak, "Just us like old times."

I may be selfish, but right now we need fewer liabilities if we're ever gonna make it out of here alive. Melody is delusional and Annabelle is, well, a kid. Kids cry and get lost, which is what might hold us back from tasting freedom.

"How do I know if you're being genuine," he narrows his eyes at me, "For all I know, this is your way of getting my help, so you can leave us here to die."

I guess he has the right to feel skeptical. This situation, it's similar to the one back when he and I were thirteen.

July 4th, 1928

He and I dash out of the candy store with a burlap sack of candy over both of our shoulders. I'm wearing a puffy sky blue dress, white tights, and Black shiny shoes. My hair has rag curls and a matching bow in the center of my head.

His jet black hair is combed thoroughly and he's clad in a brown tux with leather shoes. The wind is strong, but our will to escape is much stronger; No amount of wind or yelling coming from the store clerk can stop us.

"Stop those thieves!" he yells out from his door.

Cody and I have successfully dodged speeding cars and made our way across the street. We continue running with two tall boys behind us, them trying to catch us for the reward money that I'm sure Mr. Clarkson promised.

While running, I peek over my left shoulder at them. They're getting tired, so I'm obviously going to use that to my advantage.

"The tree house!" he yells out, making me return my gaze to him.

This narrow path is lined with dingy white picket fences, that are guarding oak trees, and is paved with pebbles and sand, so we can hear the scratching of their feet behind us. Our tree house is close by.

It takes us not even five minutes to lose them in our dust because for average-weight men, they're not in good shape; thankfully, we make it to the gate.

We rush inside and as he bolts the door, I take a seat on the bed.

I rummage through my burlap sack, he drops his next to me, then runs around to lock every entrance. Candy corn, juicy fruit, peanut brittle, and tootsie rolls. Candy corn is just as gross as peanut brittle, yet he still took it.

"Cody," I speak without taking my eyes off my half-filled bag, "I told you I don't like candy corn."

A loud crash makes my head shoot up, I stare in the direction in which the noise came. Slowly setting the bag down on the pillow, I stand up with shaky breaths. I cautiously walk towards the noise and when I see that Cody is face down on the floor of the kitchen, with a dark-haired boy hovering over him, my eyes grow wide.

The vandal has a rifle in his grasp and a smirk on his face. Luckily for me, he doesn't see me, so I take the opportunity to run towards the exit. I fumble with the knob before finally getting it open.

The anxious gush of wind flows in and sweeps my hair off my shoulders, causing my curls to flap vigorously. I ignore it and take off down the path on which we'd come, bumping into my mom after fifteen minutes of running.