"You bastard!" Shadow shouted so loud that his voice cracked, realizing his suspiciouns had been correct. He was afraid and the persons in his mind were forcing their way to the surface one by one like seals taking turns breathing through a hole in the ice. "Make it stop! Now!" he begged, his voice taking on a higher range as he slipped into another mind. He still believed that all this blood, and even the ringing in his head was coming from the clown. Or at least he was hoping it was, because that meant it could go away. He let out a cry of agony and bit down so hard on his hand in hopes of the pain clearing his head that blood began to trickle down his fingers. He opened his eyes. Everything was still the same. "Gotta keep trying," he murmured in a new, rougher voice, pulling his hair, clawing at his own face and arms, even hitting his head against the wall at times, all the while subconsciously following the voice of Sodom.

He had to leave. He had to. In less than an hour this place had gone to hell. Unfortunately he hadn't heard the man's warning about the trolley and, with his eyes screwed shut to prevent seeing anything more disturbing, he collided with it and flipped head over heels across the floor. When he was sure nothing else was going to send him flying, he opened his eyes and began to hoist himself up, but slipped in a puddle of red. The air escaped his lungs again and he looked up to see where it had come from to discover he was eye to eye with a wide-eyed corpse of a nurse, blood still pouring slowly down her gaping throat.

That was the last straw. Shadow stared at the poor woman and then down at his hand that was covered in her blood. It took a few seconds to process but once it did, everyone knew. He screamed as loud as he could and jumped to his feet and began sprinting, only being slowed by a final slip on some blood that was on his boot. The ringing didn't matter, the mess in the halls didn't matter, what mattered was getting as far as was physically possible from that body in the hall. Why that particular one, Shadow had no idea. He turned down any random corridor he could find. But all the doors just led to rooms, rooms, rooms. Shadow began to find it hard to breath. Finally he found a door that seemed to have an unusual amount of light coming through it and he ran faster than he had this whole time. Bursting through, into the open lawn of the hospital, he fell to his knees and the fight for breath became a fight to hold back tears. He crawled the rest of the way to a hedge by the side of the building, dragged himself behind it to hide, and finally let out the wrenching sobs he had been holding in.