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I walk up to the door on the left, my hand going to the knob. Glancing over my shoulder, I feel the coolness seep into the skin of my palm. “Please don’t let there be dead people,” I whisper as I squeeze my eyes shut.
“Fucking hell.” Felix comes and knocks me out of the way, opening the door.
Just as I figured, it looks like a linen closet, though it’s more of a room. Spare sheets, old pillows that look like mice have bitten through them, blankets, and other bedding supplies fill the shelves.
Felix turns his gaze to me, a smirk on his face. “Scary,” he whispers.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Asshole.” Slamming the door shut, we move to the next one. Malik goes first, his hand turning the doorknob slowly. The door creaks as it opens, and my eyes widen when I see some kind of medical procedure room.
“What the hell is this?” Malik grumbles, stepping inside and toward the chair in the center of the room. There are brown straps around the feet of the chair, as well as similar-looking straps on the armrests. There’s some kind of a headlight, or weird circular thing that hangs above the chair. It looks like the hair dryer at the salon. Black straps hang from it that would hook under your chin.
It looks scary, and fucking painful.
“What is this for?” Atticus walks up to it, slapping his hand against the strap. “Is this like a torture chamber or something?”
“I mean, it looks like it,” Levi grumbles, walking toward the wall where a tray with a ton of different handheld devices lay scattered around the top, scalpels, scissors, different sized knives, and some handheld saw thing.
“I mean, this was so long ago, so maybe this is where they had surgeries. Like a miniature hospital?” Blaire says from by the door, her hands rubbing up and down her arms. “It could be totally normal, right?”
“But why strap ankles and feet and your head to something? Like, I don’t understand.” I walk to the back of the room, where a small shelf sits. Sitting in the center is a book, and my fingers immediately brush the dusty spine. My eyes narrow as I read the title.
“The Study of Lobotomy,” I mumble, pulling the book from the shelf. I open it up, seeing scratchy pen markings on almost every page. “What islobotomy?” I ask, feeling stupid.
“So that’s what this is.” Levi sighs like he should’ve known. “They really lobotomized people in here? That’s fucked up.”
“What is it?” Piper asks.
He laughs, void of humor. “They cut into your skull, severing part of your brain, and turn you into mush.”
My face scrunches. “People do that?”
“Not anymore,” Felix says. “Shit is illegal now.”
I stare at the chair, imagining a person having their brain messed with. I remember reading through the notes of Agnes Alastair. She had a lobotomy, and from what the notes said, it did nothing. If anything, it made her worse.
My heart squeezes in my chest, and I bring my hand up, rubbing away the ache.
A rattling hits my ears, snapping me out of my thoughts. I spin around, seeing a door in the back, the knob shaking rapidly.
I take a step backward.
“It’s time to go,” Piper whines.
“Wait.” Malik puts his hand up, stepping toward the door.
“Malik, stop!” Vera snaps, latching her fingers around his wrist. He turns around, glaring at her.
“Don’t be scared, baby sister. I’ve dealt with worse.”
Moving forward, his hand reaches out, hovering over the door. He grabs it quickly, tearing the door open in one quick jerk.
I lean over Malik’s shoulder, looking around him and into the room.
It’s a small room, but no one stands on the other side.
“What the fuck is this shit?” Felix growls, stepping closer to Malik.
Malik shuts the door, taking a step away from it, and the rattling starts up again.
