Blackness. Overwhelming nothingness. Waylon was screaming, trying to figure a way out of this blinding blackness.

He could hear a voice screaming for help, and suddenly, he was back in the lab, typing on keyboard, a man banging on the glass in front of him and screaming for help.

With the same face as the Groom.

And he was falling, running, being chased, screaming. Things floated around him, torturing him with fear and pain.

He looked through a door in a courtyard, and watched a man walk by, stop, and lock gazes with Waylon.

And it looked like the Groom.

Waylon was in an attic, voices swirling around in his head, "A gift for the groom."

"Here comes the bride,"

"Here comes your bride Mr. Gluskin,"

"What a fucking idiot, delivered his own self to Gluskin's hell."

Waylon wanted this to stop, his heart was pounding as he descended into darkness, sewing tables and bodies and blood and mutilation...Screaming and writhing and helplessness...

"Darling!" A face in a door. Running, hiding, terrified. Waylon began to cry, wishing away the variants, the darkness, the fear...

" Oh, Darling...don't cry.."

The Groom was behind him.

Waylon opened his eyes, squinting against the dim light streaming through a small dirty window in the middle of the room. His head was pounding, and it felt like he had a bump on the side of his head. He fingered it gently, wincing when his finger brushed over a particularly painful spot.

Waylon glanced around the room from his lying position. It was small, modest. It looked like a small office that Gluskin had dumped a few blankets and pillows into. Waylon was lying on a small mound of them, behind an overturned desk that acted like a small room divider. He cautiously peered over it, only to find the room empty and the door closed. He sighed with relief, thankful that he was not back in Gluskin's workshop, thankful that his nightmare was just that...a nightmare, and thankful that maybe he had a chance of escape now that the Groom was gone. So he decided to get up, and take a look around. As he stood, he found the pain in his leg had lessened considerably, and he stretched his aching and sore limbs before glancing down at a pressure he felt on his lower calf. It had been bandaged as well. It had to have been Gluskin. He silently thanked Eddie for sparing him any infection or further pain, before heading to the door. Maybe, if Gluskin was gone, he could get out. Go back to the door to the male ward. If it was still unlocked. But Waylon thought that maybe this was easy...a little too easy. And he doubted that Eddie had been so careless. As he opened the door slowly, he listened, but did not hear any heavy footsteps or humming. The halls and rooms near him seamed to be empty, and eerily silent. So he stepped out.

He didn't know how he had gotten there, or even what floor of the vocational bloc he was on, but he guessed it was NOT the first, which held the gymnasium, and many windows and blockaded doors. He did know however, that Gluskin's workshop was on the second, and the sewing rooms on the third.

So he was either on the third, or on the same level as that horrible operating room...the second.

Waylon looked back and forth down the hall, going over everything with a keen eye, with nothing looking very familiar. So he decided to try going right. As he walked down the hall, he passed more words written on the walls, and the occasional blood splatter. And then he passed a room with a bunch of sewing tables. So it was the third after all. Waylon was silently thankful.

His suspicions were confirmed when he heard the music from earlier playing faintly, coming from further down the hall. The hairs on Waylon's neck stood on end as the music drifted into his ears, and he turned and walked briskly the other way, past the wedding dress he had seen earlier, trying to get away from those rooms. When he came to the elevator, he stopped. Maybe he should try it?

Waylon pressed the button for Down, and waited as the elevator came up to meet him. As he stepped inside, he glanced up at the elevator's roof, only to see the hole that his leg had been in earlier. He chuckled to himself, shaking his head, and trying to forget the horrendous pain that it had caused, but it didn't stop the twinge in his leg as he remembered it.

The elevator doors opened again, this time on the first floor. He was surprised that he hadn't seen nor heard from the Groom since he awoke. He counted that as a silent blessing as he walked on, stomach rumbling loudly. He saw the doors to the gymnasium that he had been thrown through earlier. They were closed now, and probably locked again. He didn't want to go through them again. Not now. So he went through the door on the left.

It opened into the kitchen.

Waylon sighed almost in joy, and as much in releif. It was fully stocked, and there was plenty there to soothe a hungry stomach.

Waylon went excitedly through the stocked shelves, looking for something to fill his demoralizingly empty belly. He kept sorting until he found a pop top can of peaches.

"Oh fuck yes!"

He popped the top, draining it's contents into his mouth hungrily. When he was finished he decided it would be better to hide the empty can, and so he pushed it under a counter, and went to the sink, hoping it had running water. When to his delight, it did, he lapped it straight from the faucet.

He splashed some more on his face, and washed his hands, watching a few days worth of dirt and blood and injury flow down the drain.

He sighed, and felt oddly lighter.

Now all he had to do was make his escape. The main entrance couldn't be that far...

And that's when he heard it. A creak. Like the sound you hear when a metal door is opened. He went toward the kitchen door, opening it slowly, and peering out. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Was it the Groom?

He stepped out into the hallway, heart pounding in his chest and breathing quickened as he felt the familiar fear curl inside of himself. The gym doors were still closed, and when he tried them his suspicions were confirmed. It was locked. So he went right, heading back toward the elevator and the door to the male ward. And that's when he saw it. The door to the Male Ward...was open.

It was extremely odd, and Waylon eyed it peculiarly. Waylon did not think that Eddie would be careless enough to leave any doors Waylon could possibly use to escape wide open. That just wasn't like Eddie. And Waylon had never gotten the chance to open it. Or was it open on purpose? To trap or test Waylon?

Waylon walked toward it, eying it suspiciously. And then he heard it. A whirring sound. The familiar sound...

Of a spinning handsaw.

"Meat!" It was Frank. Waylon's heart jumped to his throat, and he wanted to vomit. A scream ripped itself from Waylon's closing throat, as he slammed the door to the Male Ward hard enough to shake the hinges as Frank's emaciated form came barreling towards him from the hallway.

"Feed me, feed me, FEED ME!" Frank was screaming.

Waylon turned to run, and he could hear the cannibal's footfalls behind him as he tried to think how Eddie had gotten downstairs without using the elevator. Then he saw the stair well. He ran toward it, running into the half open door and slamming it open.

Waylon screamed again as the whirring got deafeningly loud. He ran up the steps two at a time, trying to get away from Frank as fast as he possibly could as the footsteps got closer. His foot slipped at the second floor landing, and he fell on his hands and knees, before scrambling back up and started running some more. He was terrified, his heart was thudding in his ears, his breathing ragged, and he didn't know what to do. He wanted this to end, he was so scared and he wanted it to stop, he wanted Frank to go away. The one thing that terrified him more than the Groom. So he screamed for someone to help him. Anyone.

"Eddie!" The scream ripped itself from his throat.

He called for his Groom.

"Eddie!" Waylon scrambled faster, slipping again, scraping his shin on the stairs, before bursting onto the third floor. He wanted to get away. He looked frantically both ways, before choosing to go right.

"Eddie!" Waylon ran through the halls, screaming blindly for the Groom, envisioning Frank chewing on his bones; ripping his flesh from his body, hot tears threatening to spill over.

"Eddie! Please!" He was pleading now, for Eddie. For Eddie to come and save him.

He knew his Groom would fight for him. Protect him. At least he hoped. The tears began to spill as he ran even faster.

"EDDIE!" He screamed as loud as he could, his own voice echoing and deafening to his own ears as it echoed throughout the hallways.

And just as he rounded a corner, the Groom appeared out of the door way to the sewing rooms. Eddie looked surprised, confused, and just a little frightened as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Darling? What-"

Waylon ran straight into him, nearly knocking them both over winding Eddie as he gripped the Groom's waistcoat tightly, burying his face into it and sobbing into Eddie's large chest, body shaking horribly.

Eddie wrapped his arms protectively around Waylon, one hand resting on the back of his head, holding his face to Eddie's chest, the other on his back. Eddie rested his chin on Waylon's head, breathing in deeply.

Waylon could hear Eddie's heartbeat, beating just a little faster than was normal, his chest heaving with startled breaths.

Waylon begun to hear a soft rumbling in Gluskin's chest. And he realized that Eddie was humming gently.

"Darling?" Eddie looked down at Waylon now, putting a hand under his chin, and tilting Waylon's head up to meet his eyes. "Whatever is the matter?"

Waylon swallowed, looking at Eddie with pleading eyes, burying his face back into his chest, taking in his scent, hands cramping from holding his waistcoat so tight.

"Please...Eddie..." Waylon murmured into his clothes, tears still coming in forceful sobs as he rubbed his face back and forth on Eddie's clothing as he shook with the force of his terrified sobs. Eddie looked confused, rubbing circles into his Darling's back.

"Please what, Darling?"

"Please..." Waylon pleaded again, unable to get out a coherent sentence. It was all to much. Mount Massive and Murkoff and Frank everything. He just wanted it all to stop, the constant worrying and fear and everything. He wanted to feel safe again.

Eddie rubbed his back some more, mumbling sweet nothings into his ear, and shushing him gently. "What is it Darling? What do you need from me?"

"Please...save me..." Eddie was taken aback for a moment. Before pushing Waylon gently away from him, and looking at him, hands on his shoulders, ignoring Waylon's whimpering as his face became incredibly serious; an almost murderous gaze crossing his features.

"What? What do you mean, Darling?"

"F...F...Frank..."

Immediately Eddie understood. Frank Manera. The man Waylon told him about in the gym. Was he back to hurt his Darling? Eddie snorted and straightened up, squaring his shoulders as his hand delved down into his waistband and gripped the handle of his knife tightly. Well he wouldn't get very far.

"Where? Darling?" Eddie shook Waylon a little harder than he should have, "Where?!"

Waylon pointed back toward the stairs, rubbing the tears from his eyes, and shaking, trying his best to latch himself back onto Eddie, but Eddie was having none of it. "Come now Darling, show me where. You'll be fine, I promise, I'm right here. And no one will touch you when you're with me."

Eddie gripped onto Waylon's arm, and tugged him along toward the stairs. Waylon was compliant enough, occasionally whimpering when Eddie pulled a little to hard, as they made their way back to the first floor.

The door to the Male Ward was closed when they got their, bloody footsteps leading away.

Eddie puffed out his chest a bit, straightening himself again. Whoever he was, he had taken off when he had found out Eddie was headed his way. Eddie actually felt quite proud of himself, and he broke out into a rather large smile. He reached over and pulled Waylon to himself, hugging and shushing and reassuring. "Listen, Darling," Eddie started, looking into Waylon's eyes now, leaning down to be face to face with his soon to be bride, "whoever it was, they're gone. Look at me now," he forced Waylon to gaze into his eyes with a grip on his chin, "they're gone. They won't come back here again now. I promise."

Waylon nodded in acknowledgment, finally calming down. "Ok Eddie."

Eddie smiled brightly; oh how he loved it when his love said his name. It made he feel wonderful inside. And wonderful that he could finally protect his fragile Bride. Waylon was still shaking, and Eddie was worried. She should calm down. He was afraid she might faint. Women do that often when they're frightened, don't they?

He looked over toward the male ward door again, and saw the variant. Standing there, watching them from the shadow's with a scowl and a handsaw.

Jealously sparked itself into a wildfire inside of him, bubbling up like a volcano ready to burst.

How DARE this variant cast his eyes upon Eddie's Darling?!

So he wanted to send this variant a very clear message. Eddie reached over, wrapping an arm around Waylon's waist, bringing them together, every inch of them touching, making Waylon yelp in surprise. Eying the variant standing in the other hallway, Eddie kissed Waylon passionately, pressing on the middle of Waylon's back to deepen it even more, sliding his tongue across Waylon's soft lips, surprised when he was given entrance. He hoped that Waylon would not bite him as they kissed deeply. Eddie kept his eye on the unknown variant, glancing at Waylon but briefly, only to find that his eyes were closed and the tears were gone.

"You will always be safe here with me, Darling..."

Blood rushed even faster downward when Waylon began responding to him, and at the realization that his Bride was not fighting back this time, but allowing, and responding, to his ministrations.

Knowing that this variant was watching his Darling respond positively to him put his jealousy at ease, and soon his attention was ripped away from the variant, and back to Waylon. He ran a hand up to Waylon's cheek, stroking it gently, the hand that held Waylon's back now slipped forward to rest on his hip.

Waylon noticed that Eddie's breathing had picked up considerably, chest heaving, and when Eddie gripped his hip with a little force, Waylon let out an unintended moan.

Eddie was taken aback. Was that a moan? From his Darling? He moaned back in response, heartbeat picking up as he listened to his Darling's quick and shallow breathing.

Waylon's stomach churned when he felt a bulge press persistently against his stomach. Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, no, no no...

Eddie pulled away slowly, keeping his face centimeters away from Waylon, touching there foreheads, and breathing hard. Eyes locked onto one another.

"Hello, Darling."