Daniel Heinrich knew that Clarabelle Lewis was never going to be the same when he saw that she could answer very difficult math problems without a second of hesitation. Whatever Aaron Carling did to her was beyond the limit of ethical approval for experiments with patients. Daniel Heinrich was furious and helpless. The woman he once loved so dearly was in a situation like this solely because of him and this stressed him out.
When Velika O'Sullivan first said that they had to finish this so-called battle and that she was determined the Leontes, even her ex-husband Dean O'Sullivan should be gone, Daniel Heinrich had his doubts. Now, when he saw Clarabelle Lewis right in front of his own eyes, he knew that he made up his mind. Velika O'Sullivan wanted to protect her husband and her son, and he wanted to make up for what he had done to the woman he once loved so dearly, and to set himself free.
Velika O'Sullivan was holding on to Landon Hetherington's hand, tried to calm him down, and stopped him from yelling at Aaron Carling. She didn't know that if it had been too long, more than ten years since Aaron Carling last saw Landon Hetherington and he didn't recognize his adopted son anymore, or he just simply didn't want to acknowledge the fact that his lover married to his adopted son. What a twisted plot, and maybe wrong in a way but it was too late to start over. Velika O'Sullivan wondered if Romeo Leontes told Aaron Carling about her relationship with Landon Hetherington, but her subconscious told her that her boss did.
There were times that she thought her life was a drama, a drama indeed and she could never get an end of it unless she ended it once for all. At this was a chance.
"Now, let me show you about our ongoing projects." Said Aaron Carling, without any expression on his face. Velika O'Sullivan wasn't sure this was still the same man that she once desired and lusted. He seemed cold and time aged him. Like all these years spent in this asylum drove part of him away, and all left in him was the part that others would describe as an 'evil doctor'.
He led them down through a long narrow hall, where there were no windows and all the doors on the sides were shut. Velika O'Sullivan knew this was once the residency hall, she remembered the days she lived here, hoped to get out. There was desperation in the air, depression, and fear slowly spreading across the crowd. She kept her dark eyes wide open, looking for any possible opportunities to escape. She didn't have her pistol with her, and there was a slim chance for her to get any weapon in this facility, she had to figure a way out.
She glanced at her husband, who was walking beside her, frowning. It was all her fault if she didn't fall in love with him, if she didn't insist to be with him, or if she was tough enough to leave him when he told her that he didn't mind who she was and would love her for the rest of his life, he wouldn't be here right now. He could have a better life, find a woman, and settled down, living a calm, ordinary life instead of putting his life on the thread with her.
He caught her looking at him, then he smiled at her, and whispered:
"I love you."
"I'm sorry, it's all my fault." She said, looking into his beautiful eyes, "It was my fault that you got into a position like this."
"I was given a choice, I chose to marry you, if there was anyone to blame, it was myself." Landon Hetherington squeezed her hand and smiled again.
There was a reason that Velika O'Sullivan married this man, instead of others, and it was pretty obvious.
They reached the end of the hall and there was a metal door in front of them. Aaron Carling stopped and scanned through the crowd with his piercing hazel eyes and set his eyesight on Velika O'Sullivan, then on Landon Hetherington. This was when she knew for sure, that he was aware of the situation going on. He didn't say a word, then he pulled out his card and swiped on the door.
It was a big, open room with bright light, a little bit too bright for a dark place like an asylum. It reminded Velika O'Sullivan of the lab downstairs of Griff Drug Company, only larger and more equipped. Needless to say, this was where all the test subjects resided. Then in a flash, Velika O'Sullivan thought of Dean O'Sullivan, and his terrified face when she approached him under the protective suit.
That was the first time in her life that she saw Dean O'Sullivan being terrified and she knew, that cold-blooded man was still a human.
"Here are where we test for our drug." Said Dr. Aaron Carling without much sympathy in his tone, he started leading the crowd around the room.
People in cells made of glass were staring at them as they passed by, they were all emotionless and either standing or sitting there. No tubes attached, no wounds, nothing. They dressed in clean clothes, they looked healthy, but there was something off about them that was hard to describe. They looked like ordinary people that you could pass by in the streets, only they were not.
"What have you done to them?!" Someone in the crowd yelled angrily, "Is this what you are going to do to us?!"
Aaron Carling ignored that comment and kept walking, he seemed so calm that it almost scared Velika O'Sullivan. As she was in her thoughts, Daniel Heinrich touched her arm. She looked at him and saw that he was trying to imply something to her but she didn't quite catch it.
"I have a plan." He moved his lips so she could read, "I know this room, Henderson gave me a hint."
"What?"
"Cover me. 30 seconds."
Before Velika O'Sullivan could react, Daniel Heinrich already started moving towards the back of the crowd, and she had to do something before Aaron Carling discovered that Daniel Heinrich was missing.
"Hey Dr. Carling, I have a question." She said, stepped right in front of her lover, so he wouldn't turn around to the crowd.
"What is it?" Aaron Carling frowned, yet remain calm.
"Have you ever given a thought of those who you ran tests on?" She said slowly, with emptiness in her dark eyes, "They may have families, children, or they were students who were trying so hard to reach their goals? Have you ever thought about it?"
"Why would that matter?" Said Aaron Carling coldly, didn't look into her eyes, "My job is my job."
"You are not the same Aaron I once admired." Velika O'Sullivan whispered with sorrow.
"And you are never Logan Klein." He said in a flat tone. But she could sense that he knew who she was married to and that hurt him. The whole trip he didn't even look at Landon Hetherington, pretended that they never knew each other.
Before Velika O'Sullivan could say a word, the room suddenly went dark and the alarm rang, it made a very loud sound and then all went silent, like the world stopping moving.
Then, the sound of glass doors opening disrupted the deadly silence.
Instinct told Velika O'Sullivan to ran and this was the chance for her to escape, but she didn't know what to act, in the dark she grabbed Landon Hetherington's hand and whispered: "We have to go."
Then the next second she felt someone held onto her arm with a strong grip, she tried to shake it off and then she heard:
"This way, let's go."
It was Daniel Heinrich, of course, he was up to something and Velika O'Sullivan hoped that he knew what he was doing. This wasn't the moment to ask what on earth had just happened, this was the moment that she had to put her faith into her partner in crime.
Daniel Heinrich lead them quietly across the room and they moved in complete silence. The world seemed like it's in silence and darkness, no one made a single sound. She didn't know what Aaron Carling would react and how he would deal with a whole room of people, but everything was in complete quietness and even the sound of a needle dropping on the floor would be amplified to the point seemed like an extreme noise.
She didn't know how long it was until she felt Daniel Heinrich's grip on her loosened, and he whispered in her ear:
"Ready?"
She squeezed his arm with her other hand to signal yes and held her husband's hand even harder. The sound of Daniel Heinrich entering some sort of code came through and seemed ridiculously loud, and the next second she knew, the door opened and he pulled her through it within a flash.
The light outside in the hall almost blinded her but she was still holding onto her husband, when she finally got used to the light, the door behind her was once again, closed.
It was a different hall from the one where they came from, she wanted to say something but Daniel Heinrich signaled her to be quiet. He finally let go of her arm, his strong grip left a red mark on her pale arm but she could care less about it. Daniel Heinrich was leading at the front and they were following him. Nothing in Velika O'Sullivan's memory about Valentine reminded her of this hall like it never existed before, or it was newly renovated after she was gone.
She didn't know where she was going, but she sensed danger. There was no way for them to somehow escape safely without some sort of fight, she just knew. It was oddly safe until this moment and this gave her chills, she could sense something was coming.
They stopped in front of another door, which had a keypad on the handle. There was a sign on the door said: Isolation unit, authorized personals only.
Daniel Heinrich paused, and turned around, he said in a low but firm voice:
"Inside there are dangerous subjects, they might be very aggressive, and entering this room will trigger the alarm since the code Kyle Henderson gave me is for calling insecurities, he doesn't have the authorization to enter this room. We have less than a minute to get through. This room was built on the edge near the hill, if we get through the window, we would be able to escape this asylum. I'll be at the front, Hetherington stays in the middle and Velika, you are at the back, sounds like a plan?"
Velika O'Sullivan nodded, so did Landon Hetherington.
Daniel Heinrich punched in the code, he had his hand on the door handle and gave them a solemn look before he turned it.
The moment he pulled the door opened, the sound of alarm disrupted the eerie serenity, then the smell of the room almost drove Velika O'Sullivan out of her sanity, but she quickly positioned herself and followed Daniel Heinrich and her husband into the room.
A minute, they only had a minute between life and death.