Solace

Chapter Two

Louis' mum left an hour ago and Louis could surely say that he wanted to go back home. He could easily walk back to Doncaster, if only he knew which way to turn after passing the gates of the institute.

He had already thought about running away from this place, but he was scared about getting lost and did not want to attempt that any time soon. Maybe later. Maybe Louis should actually give it a try and see what happens. Maybe, just maybe.

Louis was sitting in his new room, which surprisingly wasn't at all what he was expecting. It was quite cosy, considering that the walls were painted cream, the bed was to the right of the room, a brown rug somewhere on the wooden floor and a white desk along with a chair stood opposite to the bed. It wasn't anything like his room, but it was better than prison. There was also a clock on the wall, telling Louis that it was six o'clock, and just like the lady told him when he was checking in, this was the time the dinner would be served.

He walked down the only stairs in the house and headed towards the noise. Shame Louis couldn't make any noise.

After walking around and walking into some random corridors and bumping into a few random and strange people, he found the big door to the restaurant, cafeteria, kitchen, whatever they wanted to call it.

Not wanting to socialise; because let's face it, who would want to talk to a mute guy, he sat on an empty table and was hoping that it was going to stay that way. I bet you half of the people here never even heard of sign language, he thought.

He sat there, not walking up to grab his food, just looking. Looking around and familiarizing himself with everything. It felt strange for him.

He lived in Doncaster all his life, minus the few holidays and trips to his grandparents' houses; he never stayed away from home for longer than a week. And that was about to change.

People didn't look at him, they didn't care about his empty presence and Louis was fine with that. People chattered amongst themselves, others sat in silence and some wandered about.

When Louis felt like he didn't want to sit in the restaurant any longer, he simply got up and left. No explaining to anyone on why he went, no odd looks from randomly standing up on his chair, nothing that he was ever used to.

This was different.

And Louis hated it already.

Not knowing where to go, how to go back to his assigned room, he took the same staircase but somehow ended up in a place that looked so odd, even the oddest odd person in the world would find it odd.

Turning his head left and right, looking at the walls, Louis walked true. Not having any idea on where he was going was truly making his heart beat faster, and Louis hated being put in situations like these. And if this was how his whole stay was going to look like, then Louis had to plan that run away sooner than he thought.

Honestly, getting lost in the building wasn't on Louis' agenda at all.

Shivers appeared on his uncovered arms and his wounds on his wrists began to feel a cold breeze from the corridor, freaking Louis out even more, if that was humanly possible.

Looking right at a landscape painting, something stopped him from going straight, thus Louis stumbled back a few steps, shaking his head and attempting to find out what that was. All he was hoping for was that this place wasn't haunted, that it didn't have any demons or ghosts because Louis would honestly shit his pants if that was the case.

"Shi-" he heard a croaky voice, "I-I mean I'm so sorry..." Louis finally managed to focus his eyes on the person in front of him and immediately rolled his eyes. The person stood in front of him looked so typical.