Chapter 1
I had never before seen that much blood. Lying on the floor in front of my black fuzzy slippers is the body of a guy that has an X sliced through his stomach. To an outsider, it would look as if this was a set up suicide with the way the knife is casually sitting in his hand and how the body just so happens to be in the only little patch without snow in a field of white, but I know better after I got that first sticky note. With each new victim there is another sticky note with a clue as to where my father has gone to. The only problem is finding the sticky note. From past experiences, the sticky notes would normally be left underneath the corpse or in their ears or mouth, but this one feels different.
Two years ago, I was just an average fourteen year old guy living in Upper Hayford, United Kingdom, but a lot has changed in those two years. The changes range from my mother passing away from an unknown illness to me moving schools to get away from the constant teasing and bullying. Overall, I would say the worst change that impacted my life the most was when my father was sent to Raven’s Sanitarium. At this point in my life, I was all alone and in a dark place with the lack of parents that I had. I started to get depressed and suicidal but eventually my life started to go uphill on this crazy rollercoaster.
My grades were going up in school, I was making new friends. I was in a good place in life…but then I got the call. I was sitting in my World History class when my phone started to vibrate madly in my pencil pouch. Everyone was staring at me, since we are not supposed to have cell phones out in school, but when I saw it was from Raven’s Sanitarium the rest of the world just completely disappeared from view. I murmured something about having to go to the restroom to the substitute teacher and ran out of that room and into the bathroom wary that the phone was going to stop ringing. After calming myself down a little, I slide the bar to answer the call and mentally prepared myself for what I was about to be told.
“Hello?” I asked as soon as I answered the call.
“Hi. Yes, this is Nurse Jackson. I wish to speak to Jax Pierce,” replied the muffled voice of my father’s main nurse through the other end of the phone.
“This is Jax…is everything okay with my dad?”
“Well actually yes. You see...” goose bumps rose on my arms and my heart skipped a beat as I prepared myself for the tears when I found out I lost another parent, “we cannot find your father, Jax.” My heart stopped beating all together as I forgot to breathe.
“What do you mean you can’t find him? Raven is like a mix between Azkaban and the White House. Every time I am there visiting there are people making rounds patrolling all of the hallways and peeping through the little windows in the doors to check on the patients inside!” Panic is starting to become prominent in my voice and I feel like I am going to get caught on my cell phone in the restroom during school hours.
“I have to ask you to calm down Jax. Raven is under lockdown and there is no way that your father would be able to get out of this building without being noticed or triggering an alarm.” Nurse Jackson’s voice is droning on like there is a computer chip lodged into her vocal chords making her sound like a robot.
“Are yo—“just as I’m about to reply I hear screams coming from the other end of the phone and sounds of panic from Nurse Jackson. In the background of the call I can hear guards and patients screaming at each other, but the only element I focus on hearing is Nurse Jackson’s voice on the muffled loudspeaker saying, “Nobody panic. There has been a breach in Patient Room 14; all guards please escort the remaining patients from the commons to their individual rooms.” This was the last thing that I heard before the phone call ended with a tone that sounded like the last heartbeat of someone in the hospital.
There are a million and one thoughts going through my head in this very moment but the only thought going through my head is the number of the room they had said. Room 14—that was his father’s old room before he got transferred to Willows Wood, the right wing of Raven that hosts the older patients. Without even thinking about what I am doing, my feet start to move one foot in front of the other, until I am at my locker shoving my books into my book bag. All I know is that if my father was missing and was still in Raven, then I was the only one he would listen to and I was the only one who could get him to come out of hiding in the shadows. With that thought at the top of my mind, I rush through the main office of the school, push the wooden doors open, and run out into the crisp November air while ignoring the shouts from the office secretary.
I listen to my bike tires crunch over the leaves that are scattered all around the streets from the many trees growing nearby. Now that I have calmed down a little, I can breathe and enjoy my ride home because I know that I will have to deal with something big when I get to the Sanitarium. While it feels like my life is completely falling apart, there are people out raking leaves or out getting drunk somewhere and they are lucky enough to not have a care in the world. As I near my house, I see immediately think of a plan of action and spring right into it the second that my front bike tire hits the beginning of the small driveway.
Dangerously jumping off of the seat of my bike, I type in the garage code and pull it into its reserved location while I toss my helmet off to the side in that general direction. After digging through my book bag for what feels like eternity, I find my house keys and open the door with a violent motion in spite of my panicking mode. Immediately I stop dead in my tracks as I am halfway down the hallway. Backing up a few steps, I reenter the living room that connects to the kitchen and see that there is a little spot of light coming from underneath the doorway.
Cautiously, I approach the stained black wooden door that leads into the kitchen. Whenever I leave for school I make sure that I leave no lights on, so I know that this is not of my doing. My hand burns with nervousness as I reach out to grab the round, white handle of the door. The door creaks with the slight movement that I made when I twisted the doorknob, so I realize now that being stealthy is off the table. With every ounce of bravery that I have left in me, I push the door open and come face to face with…absolutely nothing. I walk over to the light switch near the sink and flick it off so now the only light is illuminating from the flashlight on my cell phone.
Tilting my head to the side, I strain my ears to see if I can hear any sort of noise that should not be there, but all that gifts my ears is silence. Sighing, I walk out of the kitchen and close the door behind me with a soft thud. I thought that I had calmed myself down, but now my nerves and emotions are jagged and all over the place. My footsteps creak on the wooden floors as I make my way through the living room and back to the hallway. I’m once again halfway through the hallway when all of a sudden all the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms stand up straight. There is a cold presence passing through me and I feel as if there is someone watching me. On alert, I quickly walk down the hallway and take a left in order to get to my room. I don’t think about anything other than that cold feeling when I open my bedroom door and walk inside and turn the light on. Turning around to face my room, I gasp and realize that someone has been in here.
