The Playground - part 3

Short story based on one of my dreams

We entered into again a dull room, a bit alike those old school cafeterias. Once everyone was in, they closed the door. We were locked up like dogs, the men standing on the other side of the door with their whips, ready to attack when needed. No one seemed to mind though; they were probably used to this form of treatment. Everyone looked for a spot to sit down, and what immediately got my attention was that there were three groups of people, all sitting together. This, again, made me think of high school or college. I didn't feel comfortable barging in to one of those groups, so I just sat down alone, far enough to not interrupt but close enough to follow the conversations. They still looked at me from time to time, and I could tell they were talking about me by the way they glanced.
The door to 'the playground' opened once more, and a girl was pushed in. Immediately after they closed the door shut again, as if they wanted to prevent us from going out. Not that there was much to see, but maybe they were just afraid of us trying to run away. The girl was stared at by the three groups sitting at the tables, as she stood in front of the door. She looked around a bit, and then came walking my way.
'Do you mind me sitting here with you?' she had a very tiny voice, almost as if she was afraid to talk to me.
'Of course I don't mind, why would I?' she gave me little happy smile as I said that.
'Because most of the people here have formed groups, as you might have noticed. If you dare to barge in, you'll know you made a big mistake.'
The girl had bright red hair and green eyes. She was quite skinny, and had bruises all over her body. She noticed me looking at them.
'Oh, those …' 'I'm not proud of them, but that's what happens if you don't live by the rules.' She said while rubbing the bruises on her arm.
'What rules?'
'The men at the door… They have certain rules… If you stay here long enough you will learn them. But I hope for you that you won't.'
I could see a very sad impression on her face, and her eyes turned glass as she said those words.
'I see … it looks quite serious … doesn't a mental institution stand for curing people, not making them worse?'
'Well, this isn't your average 'mental institution' you know.' 'There are certain policies here, that's why it is so cheap in comparison to the other institutions.'
I couldn't help but getting angry at my parents. As I could understand from what this girl just told me, my parents opted for the cheapest solution, and not for the one that would be able to cure me. Not that I needed a cure, but still, it broke my heart even more.
I gave her an understanding look, and suddenly realized we hadn't been introduced.
'Sorry to be so ignorant, my name is Alice.'
'Nice to meet you Alice, my name is Raven.'
I could see she was a bit more relaxed now, she started smiling again and seemed to have forgot about her bruises which made her uncomfortable before. We kept on chatting for a while. She told me about the way things work here, what to keep in count, and what or who to watch out for.
All of a sudden there was this bell sound. I turned my head, trying to see where it came from, but I couldn't spot anything.
'That's sleepy time!' Raven said. 'Remember what I told you, keep your door open at night, it's the only time that it's allowed, and you better take advantage of it.'
I nodded, and stood up, ready to follow the crowd towards my 'dorm room'.

I kept my doors open as raven said. I don't know why I had to keep them open, but it did feel nice to see the hallway instead of feeling locked up between these four walls.
I kept staring at my ceiling for a short while, until I eventually fell asleep.
I woke up all of a sudden, feeling not at all awake, in, as far as I could, tell the middle of the night. I could hear these weird noises. They sounded like iron scraping against glass, or someone using her nails to scratch a blackboard. The noises came from the other end of the hallway. Every now and then I could swear I heard someone in pain. But the noises were too far away to hear them clearly, so I walked towards my door. I looked left and right, to see if I could spot anyone or anything, but the hallway was ever so peaceful. Those noises …. Very weird noises, I still couldn't tell what was causing them, but they seemed to come from my right. The door to the 'playground' was closed, and it was dark over there. The other end, to my right, had this dim lighting, some lamps flickered now and then, which gave the hallway a somewhat scary look.
I wanted to go and check what was happening, so I walked out of my room, towards the direction where the noises came from. I was only five steps away from my doorway when I heard this voice.
'Hide!' 'Get away!' 'Don't let them see you!'
'Hide!' 'NOW!'
I couldn't see anyone, nor could I feel a presence this time, but I didn't doubt a second that I had to do what they told me. I ran back to my room, left the door open cause I was afraid that if I suddenly closed it, it would draw attention, and crawled beneath my bed. I was lying in the dark, on the cold and dirty floor, with just enough space between the floor and my bed to see part of the hallway. I heard the noises closing in, they certainly came my way now. I kept telling myself to keep still, and just wait till everything was quiet. But those noises were closing in, and now I was more than sure that I could hear people in pain. I heard screaming, that same scratching noise, but now there was another noise mingled in too. It sounded like sticky shoes on the floor. As if someone stepped in some chewing gum.
It was awfully cold on that floor, I started shivering, tried as hard as I could to keep my body under control, but when I looked at the hallway I had a really hard time not to scream.
Something stopped in front of my door. I saw feet, with dirty shoes, old and dirty shoes. Full of blood … I could even smell it, there was so much of it … I could see a puddle of blood forming at those feet … and I could feel that whatever was standing in front of my door was looking in to my room. I told myself over and over again to keep quiet, not to move, I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't.
It started moving again, and again there was this scratching sound, and the sticky sound, which was created by his shoes dipped in blood. As it passed by I could see something being dragged behind it. But I could have never dreamt that it was human … the thing dragged a patient behind him, chained at the wrists … dragged in blood … covered in blood … her face was completely slashed open, but she was still alive … She looked at me with eyes full of pain, trying to tell me something as she was dragged passed my door. All I could do was hope that she wouldn't give away my hiding place … I saw the rest of her body being dragged past my door … what was left of it … Her clothes were ripped of, I could see her breast being pressed flat by the floor. Her entire body was covered with cuts; her ankles were tied together, as were her hands. She was 'followed' by a trail of blood, leading towards 'the playground'.