Scott was walking too fast.

He had matched Adam's pace for a while, in a silent understanding that Adam was trying his best. But Scott grumbled with each door that refused to budge, and kept picking up the pace, and Adam was only able to shuffle after him.

The flutter in Adam's chest returned, and the hot sticky mess seeped out between his lips. He shivered and took in shallow breaths. He felt like he was suffocating, no matter how hard or how deep he breathed.

The world spun.

His knees buckled and he tumbled to the ground.

"Adam!" Scott's cry sounded far away as he rushed back to Adam's side. "A-Are you okay?"

Adam panted. He looked to the ceiling, coughing up mess, and saw a timer on the wall. He wanted to ignore it.

But he needed to know.

He couldn't see what it said. He held up a shaky finger and pointed at it. "Wh… What does it…"

Scott scrunched his brows together before following Adam's stare.

"An hour and two minutes."

Adam nodded and closed his eyes. They started to sting.

Halfway…

"What happened to you?" Scott asked.

Adam didn't want to, but he had to tell Scott. If nothing else, maybe it'd make him slow down.

"If that timer hits zero…" Adam wheezed for air. "I'm dead." He coughed. "And… And then Lawrence dies too."

"Okay, I'll ask again. What happened to you?"

Adam took in another deep breath of the poisonous air around him. "Nerve agent," was all he could choke out.

Scott gave him a confused look. Adam gulped down air, trying to elaborate. "It kills you t-two hours after you start breathing it in. I've been here for… for one."

He used to be the fast one of the two. Adam was always ahead of Scott when they walked outside, even walking backwards sometimes to really rub it in his friend's face. When they were kids they would race around, and Adam always won. Even when Adam would try to let Scott get his own little victory, both for his sake and Adam's, he would outrun him out of habit.

Adam swallowed back the metallic taste in his mouth. "I can't go that fast anymore, man."

Despite that, he had to get up.

Lawrence.

"I-I need to get to Lawrence before that timer stops. I gotta… gotta help him before it's too late."

Adam rested his forehead against the floor and breathed sharply as the world spun around him.

Scott mumbled something to himself, but Adam couldn't make it out. "Thought you were trying to get me out, like you said."

"Of course I'm gonna get you out, too." Adam gave him a shaky smile. "Y-You're my best friend."

He would always get Scott out. Save him as many times as he had to.

"You're making it sound like that doctor guy is your best friend," Scott muttered.

Jealous.

Of course Scott was jealous.

Adam shouldn't have said that.

Stupid.

He tried to brush it off. "Not really. He's just… like the dad on all the coffee mugs. 'S funny."

Although, deep down, Lawrence was so much more than that. Adam looked up to him. The doctor helped him and encouraged him in that bathroom, when nobody else would have, even if they had the chance. Lawrence was a cheating scumbag, sure, but he had plenty good in him. Good that Adam wished he could inherit somehow. Show. Adopt.

But telling that to Scott? Forget it.

No use rubbing salt in the wound.

"It's you, Scott," Adam whispered. "Just you."

Scott let out one of his grunts of approval. "Good. Need you to…"

When Scott trailed off and glanced away, Adam hummed.

Scott chuckled at the floor. "Nothin', don't worry about it."

He held out a hand to help Adam stand. He took it, but when he got heaved to his feet, everything spun around him. He started to fall back down.

Scott's arms looped around him. Adam used Scott to find his balance again.

Scott smirked. "Let's go, old-timer."

Adam quietly scoffed. He took the first few steps with Scott's supervision, and then Scott started down the hall again, much slower than before.

He was trying. It was a start. And he had to be anxious to find something. Even a few less steps at a time helped.

"Thanks for… slowing down," Adam murmured.

Scott hummed in reply.

No longer preoccupied with a lack of air, Adam's mind had room to wander. He could only imagine how long it'd been since he woke up in that shackle and lost the life he knew.

Seeing Scott reminded him how badly he screwed it all up.

He shouldn't have let stupid things distract him when he was in school. Although he'd never admit it aloud, he was smart. Definitely smart enough for the garbage they had been learning. He understood the material. But he couldn't stay focused, no matter how hard he tried. On homework. In class. Didn't matter. It all seeped through his fingers.

He had let his dreams drift further and further away, to the point where they were now completely unreachable.

Something that he regretted every single day.

Maybe none of this would have happened if he lived the life he hoped for every night as a kid. He wouldn't have pissed off one too many people, and he would be helping animals instead of breathing in toxic fumes.

In the bathroom, he had told this to Lawrence. Outside of his mother, the doctor was the most supportive of Adam's long-abandoned dreams.

Lawrence had just tossed him the picture of Diana. At first, it reminded him of the siblings he had always wanted but never had.

But the more he looked and the more they talked, he thought about all those missed opportunities. Anything would've been better than the bathroom, but that felt like something special.

"I remember I wanted to be a vet. Really, really wanted to be a vet. Then I saw the grades you needed to get into it, and I pretty much knew it was a pipe dream."

Just like Scott had always told him.

He had looked back down at the picture of Lawrence's smiling daughter. The girl had her whole life ahead of her. He saw the optimism, the unbridled potential that he had seen in himself, once upon a time.

He frowned.

He had so horribly ruined his own chances.

Lawrence shook his head. "What garbage. I've seen kids with brain tumors who've completed high school from a hospital bed."

Meanwhile, Adam had dropped out despite knowing that he could have done it. "Then they got further than I did."

There was a silent beat. Adam gripped the photo a bit tighter, being careful to not leave any creases. He couldn't ruin what Lawrence had left of his daughter.

He refused to ruin something else. Between his grades, dropping out, being an amazingly bad test-taker, and all the things he had done with Scott…

"Yep, I think I can safely say it's too late to become a vet."

He had said that same thing to Scott multiple times, and he was always met with a grumble of affirmation. Adam had readied himself for Lawrence to give him that same agreement. Something about hearing others agree, though, pushed him further from that dream every time.

But Lawrence had surprised him then. Even made Adam smile in their own personal hellscape.

"It's never too late."

That's something Adam kept telling himself while trailing behind Scott. His heart was pounding against his ribs. It felt like his brain was about to either explode, melt, or fade away. Didn't matter what came first.

But maybe, somehow, it'd be alright.

It's never too late.

Adam smiled and whispered under his breath, "We are going to get out of here."

Something else the doctor had told him.

And he would find a way to prove him right.

Soon, Adam saw a door further down the hallway adorned with red writing.

Adam pointed. "Look."

Scott paused before running over to the door. Adam shuffled after him as fast as his body would let him.

"Ready?" Scott asked him.

After Adam nodded, Scott threw the door open.

They looked around the new room. He didn't see any huge death machines or guns, which was a good sign.

"I think this is my favorite room in the house," Adam muttered. "Nice and cozy."

The room was pretty small. It was dull, just like the entire rest of the house, and the boarded-up windows gave it an eerie vibe. The space had a strange green hue hanging in the air.

Adam saw a small table. It looked decrepit, its plain brown surface fitting in perfectly with the rest of the room. On top of it were thrown-around newspapers and mugshots. They all detailed crimes and arrest records.

He only needed one glance to know who they belonged to.

Scott.

Aggravated assault, burglary, vandalism.

All the cases were on the table in front of Adam, staring at him.

He knew about these. Every single one of them.

And he let them happen.

He had told Scott that it was wrong. That he was hurting people. But Scott always told him that he was being annoying and thinking too hard. That Scott just wanted to blow off steam. And he'd make a point to ask why Adam assumed it was any of his damn business in the first place.

And Adam would shut up.

Apathetic. Pathetic.

Yeah. Sure looks like it, doesn't it.

There was one more paper, a note, on the table. Adam's name was written on it in bold.

He chuckled nervously and looked at the camera. "Damn, I'm flattered, really, but you've gotta cool it with the love letters."

He unfolded the paper and furrowed his brow.

No cryptic phrases. No memory meant to surface.

Instead, one simple question, with a meaning clear as day.

Do You Really Trust Him?

He scrunched his brows together.

Of course he did. Why wouldn't he trust the person who helped him when they were kids? Who wouldn't trust the one person who ever gave some semblance of a damn about him?

He read further down the paper.

You're Smarter Than That

Adam grumbled and looked back at the camera. He crumpled the paper up.

"The hell does that mean?" Adam shouted as he started to wind up to throw the paper.

Scott turned around. "What was it?"

Adam stopped short and put the paper behind his back.

He had thrown plenty of clues just like this back and forth with Lawrence. He never knew, the notes might prove useful before long.

"Oh, nothing." Adam smiled as he put the paper in his back pocket. "Just cryptic shit about games. The usual."

Scott chuckled and turned around. Adam frowned.

'Do you really trust him?'

Why would the note say that? Did Lawrence ever say—

"Yo!" Scott exclaimed, making Adam jump.

He let out a sigh. "What?"

"Check this out!"

Adam followed Scott's voice, stopping short when he saw what Scott was crouching over.

The puppet.

The damn puppet was there, looking right at Adam as it sat perched on its trike.

He eyeballed it as it gave him that condescending smirk, like always. It was only a matter of time before it laughed at him, too, its cackles echoing off the walls and ricocheting back into Adam's ears.

The puppet freaked him out here even more than it did at his apartment.

It was following him.

He hated that damn puppet.

"Isn't it cool?" Scott asked, a huge grin on his face.

Adam didn't like this. Why did it keep moving? How did it always know where to find them next?

"Stay away from that thing, Scott," he ordered. Although, with his quaking and croaky voice, it didn't have much bite.

Not that Scott ever thought Adam had bite.

The singer scoffed. "What? He's adorable."

"That thing is not 'adorable.'"

"Adam."

"Scott."

Scott rolled his eyes and got closer to the puppet.

Lessons. Scott always tried to teach Adam lessons. And this was probably going to turn into another one.

But Adam knew this puppet. Was terrified by the thing. They needed to get away from it. Why didn't Scott get that?

Maybe he just misunderstood.

'You're smarter than that.'

"I'ma call him Frank," Scott murmured.

"Frank?"

Scott hummed in agreement.

Adam scoffed. "Why?"

Scott shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Cause I said so?"

Adam only stared at him.

He's not serious.

"Frank's hurt," Scott mumbled while pointing at dents in the puppet.

They made Adam smirk. He had put all his strength into hammering into it in his living room. At least there was some proof of that.

"Mhmm. From when I whacked the fucker with my bat."

"You've met Frank?"

Adam rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips. "Frank was in my apartment when some lunatic drugged me and took me to the Bathroom of Death. So yeah, I'm familiar with Frank."

Scott smirked. "Badass," he drawled.

No. No, it was not 'badass.'

Scott stood. "Sounds like you and Frank have some talking to do." He slapped the puppet across its white, disgusting face. "Go ahead."

Adam side-eyed Scott.

"Really?"

"Go ahead. You'll feel better."

There was a huge difference between beating up the intruder when he was healthy and in his apartment, and beating it up with the little energy he had left.

The puppet had come back, despite his efforts back home. It would be a waste.

Adam shook his head.

Scott's lips curled up. "C'mon, it'll be fun." He gave Adam a soft punch on his good shoulder. "It'll make ya feel better."

Adam raised his eyebrows and slowly looked at the puppet.

This is so fucking stupid.

"Please," Scott asked while flashing him an exaggerated smile.

Adam sighed. Scott wasn't gonna let up.

May as well blow off some steam.

Just like when they were kids.

Adam curled his hand into a fist and brought it back.

He thought about the bathroom and all the secrets it held. He thought about everything that the place represented. All the lives that were lost and the hopes that were shattered.

And he punched the puppet off its tricycle.

He thought about how badly he wanted to be out in the halls, looking for Lawrence, and not here, beating up a damn puppet that didn't know better. He thought about how fast his heart was racing already, and all the energy he was wasting on a fucking puppet.

And he swept the tricycle out from under it. He raised it above his head and beat the crap out of it. He raised and lowered the tricycle. Visions of Zep appeared in his head, on the backs of his eyelids.

He threw aside the trike and snatched the puppet up by its neck, gripping as tightly as he could.

He thought about his mom. His dad.

About the last thing he had said to them.

Adam had driven to their house, head down as he trudged up the steps to their front door. He was playing with his keys before he knocked.

He occupied his mind by looking at the exterior of the house he had so many memories of. He remembered all the times he played in front of it. All the times he helped his parents decorate for the holidays. It always seemed to bring everyone together. His parents' arguments would become spotty, for once agreeing to do a few fun things for their son. They always wanted to top the year before.

He had smiled at the door and the memories it shared.

It opened.

His mother was standing there, still in her scrubs. She had a heavy, exhausted look on her face.

But she smiled when she saw him. "Honey! Honey, come in!"

She hugged him tight, and he embraced her right back. His chin rested softly in the crook of her neck.

He had walked in and looked around. The house had the same green carpet and white walls. It was bright, homey. He loved it there.

But he hated doing this.

His dad grunted at him. Adam nodded back before looking back at his mom. "Mom, I, I'm behind on rent again and—"

"Honey…"

Adam had looked down at the fuzzy green carpet. He always focused on it during these conversations. It distracted him. Comforted him somehow.

"My landlord says I've gotta make up for last month too, and—"

His dad shot up from his spot. "I told you this before and I'll tell you again. Last time was it. You're not gettin' any more. You spent it all on that girl, didn't you?"

Adam sighed.

His ex-girlfriend. Yeah, he sure had. He took her to a punk rock concert after bringing her to dinner, where she ordered the most expensive thing she could find.

Then she ran off with Scott.

Said Adam was too angry.

"I'm sorry," was all Adam could say.

"Get out."

His mother tried to interject. As usual. Coming to his defense. "Sweetie, no—"

"He needs to get out. I can't do this right now."

Adam had looked at them with his eyes wide.

This time, his mom stopped fighting. She was now the one looking down at the carpet, and his dad was staring daggers at him.

"Dad—"

"Get out!"

"Mom," Adam's voice cracked.

Tears welled into his mothers eyes, just as green and piercing as the carpet.

After a few moments, she whispered, "Go."

And that was something Adam would remember for the rest of his life. His disappointed, defeated mother who had finally had enough of his problems.

Adam's hands scrunched into fists. "I know, I know. I'm so fucking disappointing."

"Adam, watch it." His dad crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well guys, hate to say it, but you're stuck with me. Maybe if you had more kids like I begged, at least one of them could make you proud. But nope! You're stuck with this."

Adam had turned and walked out, tears in his eyes as he slammed the door.

Didn't bother saying 'I love you' to either of them.

That was the first time he could ever remember leaving their house without at least saying it to his mom.

And now, in this moment, as he uselessly strangled a puppet, he wanted more than anything to be able to go back and fix it.

That was the last conversation he would ever have with them. He would fade to nothingness in these wicked halls, and his parents would live the rest of their lives thinking he hated him.

He didn't tell his mom—

Adam body-slammed the puppet against the wall. And then he did it again. And again. And again, and again, and—

His knees gave way under him and he collapsed to the ground, shaking.

He used the last of his energy to pound his hand against the floor.

"Fuck!" he spat.

Scott chuckled. "Damn, went a bit too hard, huh?"

"Stop!"

Adam blinked rapidly and tried to get his vision back. His head was pounding. Something oozed down his upper lip. He hurriedly wiped it.

Red was smudged across his hand.

The puppet hadn't felt a thing, and Adam was still here. Far away from mom.

Wasting away.

And it'd stay that way unless something changed. Unless he finally learned something. Unless he figured out how the hell to get out of here.

If he didn't, Adam would never hear his parents' voices again.

He would never be able to say sorry to his dad, or tell his mom how much she meant to him.

And he had caused that.

"You sure seemed to enjoy it," Scott muttered.

"I told you I didn't want t—"

Scott cocked his head and sighed before walking away.

Adam let out a quiet sigh.

He was the one who caved. The one who let Scott's trivial little pestering bother him so much.

"Scott?"

He turned, brows raised.

Adam caught his breath. "I'm sorry, just…" He looked down. "I don't know what I can handle anymore, yanno?"

Scott nodded, but still walked away.

"Sure," he said coolly.

Adam sat there for a moment, mouth open as he watched his friend go back into the hall.

Then he looked to the ground and sighed.

How could he fix this?