Chapter 7 - The Midnight Escape
Rachel watched in sheer, paralyzing horror as Thomas hurled Marcus across the hospital room.
The heavy man crashed violently into the heavy medical cart, instantly falling unconscious upon impact.
Thomas turned around slowly, his chest heaving as if he were breathing in the ambient fear in the room.
The dim emergency lights flickered, casting horrific shadows across his bruised face.
He looked down at his own hands, seemingly surprised by the monstrous strength he had just displayed.
Then, his cold, empty eyes locked onto Rachel, who was still cowering on the hard floor.
"We have to leave this place right now," Thomas commanded in that strange, hollow voice.
"You need to call the police, Tom!" Rachel pleaded, pointing at the bleeding man on the floor.
"No police," he snapped back aggressively, pulling his blood-stained hospital gown tightly around himself.
"The things that followed me... they know where I am now because of him."
Before Rachel could ask what he meant, the hospital room door swung open again.
Lorraine and Madison stood in the doorway, staring completely shocked at the destruction inside the room.
"Daddy, you're standing up!" Madison cheered, completely oblivious to the unconscious man bleeding on the floor.
Thomas’s expression instantly softened at the sound of his daughter's innocent voice.
He walked over to Madison, moving with a strange, gliding grace that did not seem entirely human.
He scooped the little girl up into his arms, holding her tightly against his cold chest.
"We are going on a trip, little bird," Thomas whispered into her hair.
"Wait, you can't just take her!" Rachel screamed, scrambling to her feet to stop him.
But Lorraine grabbed Rachel's arm, pulling her back with surprising force.
"Look at his eyes, Rachel, look at what is inside him," Lorraine whispered, utterly terrified.
Rachel looked closely and realized that the pupils of Thomas’s eyes were completely dilated, swallowing the hazel iris entirely.
He did not look like a man anymore; he looked like a vessel for something ancient and unforgiving.
Thomas walked out into the busy hospital corridor, ignoring the shouting nurses and security guards.
Anyone who tried to step in his path was violently shoved aside with a casual flick of his wrist.
He carried Madison down the emergency stairwell, disappearing into the raging thunderstorm outside.
Rachel broke free from Lorraine and ran after them, her heart pounding with maternal desperation.
She burst through the heavy exit doors into the pouring rain, frantically searching the dark parking lot.
But Thomas and her daughter were completely gone, swallowed by the dark, stormy night.
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She knew exactly where he was taking her.
He was going to the one place he had always promised to protect.
