Spiderweb - 149 Escape, Go

Juan paused, unable to answer her question. “Pathetic?” Juan asked, “What’s wrong with coming back to somewhere you were once in?”

Mrs. Cloud stared down at her, her eyes blank. Slowly, by the words she heard, she started to lose motivation. Motivation in keeping this conversation alive, keeping herself sane, and keeping Juan alive.

Juan, feeling like the one who looked at her was unconvinced, continued. “Let’s think about it,” she said, “You kept me in that building for so many years, my body is basically imprinted into the mattress in my bed. My chair fits perfectly to my body due to years of accommodating it, everything in that cell has a touch of me in it. Even my cellmates, the other 4 will remember my presence. I’ve been seeing most of their faces every day for 10 years now, you know.”

Mrs. Cloud gave no reply, her eyes darkening.

Juan flinched. Her time was running out, she could feel it. “Think about the image of your company,” Juan proposed, to which Mrs. Cloud’s hand twitched. “What would they think about you letting out a prisoner into the world by yourself? Wouldn’t that completely ruin your image? Tear you to shreds if I go to the police and tell them of the things that you’re doing?”

“Tell them about what?” Mrs. Cloud asked, “how I’m feeding you? Providing you with a roof? Bathing you?”

“No. About how you assaulted me just now,” Juan snapped back. She pointed to the places on her body that were throbbing. “My arms, my side that is bleeding, my legs, my stomach. Everything that you hit that hurts me currently and would probably be a month worth of recovery.”

Mrs. Cloud stared at Juan, unamused.

Her lips move a little bit before she shuts them and then opens them again. “Are you… threatening me?” She asked very quietly, her voice barely over a whisper.

Juan didn’t know how to respond, freezing in her spot. But… she had noticed the quivering of Mrs. Cloud’s lips. She felt a slight rush. It was a rush of confidence, the feeling of finally being under control, having something going right for once in a pool of wrong.

One right never fixed 6 wrongs.

Her side throbbed, her body ached. Her confidence slowly dwindled. She was reminded of her position, where she was in the hierarchy. Her permanent position. Now trying to salvage whatever was left of her confidence, she wanted to yell out a confident yes, chuckle and smile, and ask if Mrs. Cloud was scared. How it felt to be scared now, how it felt to finally be in her shoes. The words would leave her mouth.

Maybe because she knew they weren’t hers to say. Not to someone so high above her. It was never to reach the ears of Mrs. Cloud.

The only difference was that her’s was a little more on the side of anger. She was a little push away from snapping.

Juan was not aware of that. How every little thing she did, how long it took her to answer a question, how he loved to look at the ground, or even how she acted was slowly pushing Mrs. Cloud off the edge again.

It just made it all the more fun.

Round and round the two went, circling each other silently, annoying each other, lying to each other, smiling at each other. It was so toxic, those two, yet the cause of the corruption didn’t seem to realize it was her fault. She didn’t seem to realize how wrongly her words were coming across and how close she was to pronounce her death.

She never did.

“You are…” Mrs. Cloud muttered, standing up from her seat slowly. She was out of it. Completely out of touch with her environment, spiraling down the staircase to madness but still ever so aware of her environment. Ever so aware of the little movements Juan made. Her eyes turned to her secretary and then back to Juan.

“Do you think they’re going to listen to you?” Mrs. Cloud asked, turning to Juan.

“What?” Juan replied.

“Do you think that after you run over there, fall on your knees and beg, that they’re going to believe you?” Mrs. Cloud asked, her face remaining completely blank. She had lost all reason to smile, anger, or joy. There was nothing there now.

She locked eyes with Juan. “Do you think that you, some raggedy dressed woman who crawls into their office half-alive would be listened to?”

Juan flinched as she looked into Mrs. Cloud’s eyes. It was like she was looking at a mirror, her face reflected straight at her. She was no longer looking at the eyes of a human but rather a mirror that reflected the figure of the one in front of it. It was a slightly terrifying feeling as the mirror didn’t reflect how she looked on the outside but rather how the person wielding it, saw her.

In her reflection was an ‘S’ shaped mammal with scales decorated with gold and brown hints sprinkled on its body. It was a snake.

Juan shuddered, her expression darkening as she saw the person in the mirror. It was disgusting. She looked away, rejecting its reflection.

“Yes they will,” Juan replied. “A victim is always correct until proven incorrect.”

Mrs. Cloud stared at her, her eyes not blinking since the last minute. “That goes for sexually assaulted victims. I’m sure I did nothing like that to you right? I have a husband after all.”

Juan chuckled, “A husband that you barely spend time with? You barely see him anyways, you don’t even trust him. You expect me to believe that you wouldn’t do anything to me?”

Mrs. Cloud chuckled, her lips not curving into a smile in the slightest. They remained in a thin line, barely moving only to say a word. “You said it yourself. You’re something they most likely have not seen before. You expect them to trust someone like that?” Mrs. Cloud giggled, sending shivers down Juan’s spine as she didn’t smile, her eyes remaining completely blank, reflecting Juan’s twisted figure. “You think they will just take you in right? Once they look up your name on their system, then you’re most definitely going to lose all credibility you have. You’re a killer. Murdered the one you swore to love forever, through thick and thin, through wealth and sickness. You think they’re still going to trust you after that?”

Juan couldn’t form a reply to that. Her lips couldn’t form the right reply, they didn’t even want to form a reply. They quivered.

Mrs. Cloud paused for a moment before gasping dramatically. “And let’s not forget your history. When they search up your name, my asylum is going to come with it. There you will be, Juan Hanes, a prisoner at Croissance Asylum! Sounds like an amazing discovery don’t you think?” Mrs. Cloud muttered, her tone very monotone but holding her sense of mockery. “Now not only do they know you killed someone, they know you escaped from an asylum. Does that make you seem trustable in ANY way at all?”

Juan flinched. It didn’t.

Mrs. Cloud nodded her head after Juan was done reflecting. She turned to her secretary and pointed at the open inner wire-based gate. “The gate is open though. You should still definitely try and make it out, if you don’t, who knows what’s going to happen to you here, right?”

Juan looked up at the open gate, her heart skipping a little. It was really open. Open for her to run straight out of and into the world outside. Her mind, once bent on staying inside, switched as soon as they saw the open gates.

Mrs. Cloud chuckled when Juan gave her a wary stare. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to stop you, go straight ahead.”

Juan flinched. Her eyes staring at the gate. She was hesitating, her past points running through her head as she stared at the path to freedom. ‘What do I do?’ Juan thought to herself as she looked up at Mrs. Cloud, locking eyes with the blankness in her eyes. It was no use. She couldn’t tell if she was lying or not. ‘I could go right out these doors and just live my life outside of this hell. I could forget about my past and start over from the bottom, find a new family, or live well while plotting to bring her company down to hell.”

Juan eyes the gates. ‘Everything is right in front of me… Yet.. why does it feel like I’m not supposed to run out of this hell. Why does it feel like I’m supposed to stay.”

Mrs. Cloud let out a long sigh as she looked down on Juan. “I’m not going to force you. I hate making people do things against their choice so therefore, I’ll give you a few minutes to bask on it,” Mrs. Cloud muttered as she turned around and walked towards her secretary. “I’ll be waiting for you in my car in the parking lot. When you’ve decided, come to me and I’ll drive you through the gate and drop you off outside.”

Juan looked up at Mrs. Cloud, doubt in her eyes.

Mrs. Cloud smiled, her eyes flipping to normal and her smile more genuine than any of the others that she had given. “I promise.”