Sara shuddered when Marc touched her and spoke to her. "She might as well have at this point if she's not already." She said quietly, "If you want to know what I know, we need to go somewhere out of here, where they're not listening." She knew those words made her sound crazy, but she trusted Marc to believe her. She hoped he believed her.

Dia moved to gently cup Benjamins' face before she frowned and glanced towards the bedroom doorway. "Ari and I... Felt something weird happen." She said quietly, "We don't know if they've... taken her away but, something isn't good." She said, "Ari, come here!"
Ari moved to gently poke her head from the doorway as she looked around. She felt... Ill, something was wrong, her body felt like it was collapsing in on itself.
"Can I... Stay in the bedroom?" She asked, her voice wavered slightly, "I'm not... feeling the best?"

Marc examined Sara for a moment and then nodded. "Okay, this way."
He supported her as he would with other patients. As he had supported Carol when he brought her to and from her room. He still couldn't believe she suddenly had been transferred, there had be no communication about it. And now Ray, it was strange. And Simon too, he had worked here long enough to know Simon, and even like him, and Simon had been a patient who was very unlikely to ever leave this place, but for some reason he had. This place was supposed to be an end station for people with chronic, untreatable or unmanageable mental illnesses, it didn't make sense for anyone to be transferred or go home, as usually patients were transferred to this place.

With these thoughts in his head he opened up an empty room and went inside. "We can tell people we are preparing this room," he told Sara. "What do you know?"

Benjamin turned to Ari when she spoke. "Of course," he said and stepped forward. "What do you feel?"
The thought that she was new to having a body crossed his mind, maybe she was simply tired or hungry and didn't realise it? Or had she experienced it through Ray?

Sara breathed in as she leaned against the wall, trying to gather herself with everything she knew.
"This place isn't as it seems." She said with a small breath in, as if she was wounded, "I don't fully know the story either. But it's not trying to help people." She didn't look at Marc, she just hoped he believed her.
"Benjamin isn't crazy." Sara explained, "Ray wasn't crazy, I'm not crazy. Its just what Vivian, my aunt, wants you to think."

Ari gave a weak smile as she felt a shiver through her body, "Kinda... Floaty?" She said, looking to Dia. Dia watched her carefully before walking over to her and offered to take her hand, Ari's palm passing right through hers.
"Ari." Dia said with widened eyes, "I'm so sorry."

"I... I was hired to help people, I..." Marc scratched his head. "This is a mental institution, it's registered as one." He paused. "Although, a couple of asylums in the past did do shady things. To be fair, I guess it's not that far-fetched to consider this one might be, but I'd be really disappointed. I really thought I came here to help people."
It was disappointing to think this could be one of those asylums. Something dawned on him. "You know, in the past, sometimes people did tests on the insane. I thought that was long being us, but... but, what if..."
That was a thought he'd rather not finish.

Benjamin blinked. Ari was starting to be translucent again. He still saw her, but he could tell she was losing her physical shape. Ari's hand passing through Dia was the beginning of it. Did that mean Dia would return to being a spirit as well? He hoped not, but if that happened, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
He felt for Ari, but at the same time this was an opportunity. Could he ask it of her so quickly? Better not, maybe she needed a moment to come to terms with it. So he stood back and watched Dia and Ari for a moment.

"I was told we were helping too." Sara said quietly, crossing her arms as she closed her eyes. "Vivian is lying about something to all of us. When I was moved here, things just got worse with my 'illness'. Like I was haunted by something just making my mind much worse." She continued before she shuddered, "The medicine only shut down my normal senses, I still had the horrible feeling of something looming over me. It felt like I had a sleep paralysis demon with me all the time."
She shook her head as she looked up to Marc quietly, "Benjamin isn't insane. Ghosts are real. Ray is- Or, was... Had? People living within her body."

Dia frowned towards Ari gently. "Its okay. You're not fully disappearing. You're still here with us- With me." She said, trying to calm Ari down as she watched Dia carefully.
"Will... Will you disappear?" Ari asked in fear, "If Ray is-"
Dia shook her head, stopping Ari from talking. "We don't fully know that." She said sternly, "But... I think I'm going to be fine. I don't feel any strangeness. I just feel... Solid, real."
"Like all those years ago?" Ari asked, Dia chuckled and nodded.
"Like all those years ago."

Marc nodded slowly without saying anything. What Sara told him made him think about other people that just didn't seem to improve, or react to the medicine like they were supposed to. That was something he could look into, but if he did, then what? What could he do with any information he got?
He decided it didn't matter, something was going on and patients weren't getting better. That was an issue that needed to be solved.
"Let's check the medication list," he suggested.

"Are you two still connected to Ray?" he asked. "Like, do you know if she's in pain or alive?"
They needed to find her, but where could she be? As patients they only had limited access here. There was even an entire garden only staff could enter, how cruel was that? He tried his best not to think of that place, he missed the outdoors enough already and didn't need his mind preoccupied with that.

Sara was shaking by the time she had finished talking to Marc, she expected him to just- blow her off. She watched him slowly nod before he started to speak.
"I...I don't know if they'd let you." She mumbled slightly, "If anyone sees me in this way they'll... They'll try to reprimand me and definitely not let me follow you around like staff."
She trembled, this felt like the start of a panic attack, but she held on as much as she could, she didn't want to break down in front of Marc.

Ari and Dia looked to Benjamin as he asked if they were connected to Ray, they looked towards each other silently before Dia looked back to Benjamin with a frown.
"I'm... Not sure." She said softly, "I can't exactly feel her and Ari becoming a ghost again is... Worrying to say the least."

"Right," Marc said. "I will check the medication list and the files. Maybe you can try to find Benjamin and let him know I want to talk to him after dinner."
There was a lot he needed to look into, and he hoped he could find some clues. He rubbed the back of his head, here he was believing a patient, but he had to admit things were happening that didn't add up. And it was time he started looking into them.

Benjamin turned to Ari. "If you really are turning back into a ghost... you are the best person to try and find Ray. She has to be here somewhere. There are many closed doors I can't go through, but you can. We can't help Ray if we don't know where she is."
The more he thought about it, it sucked for Ari she losing her solid form, but it could be a blessing for Ray. If it wasn't too late.

Sara gave a small nod to Marcs words, her panic was starting to show now, her hands started to tremble. She couldn't really start to speak anymore, she was scared that if she opened her mouth, nothing would stop the sobs that were forming in her throat from falling out and into the air.
She was strong, she had to be, she didn't want Marc to think she was as weak and feeble as any other patient here. She turned to go find where Benjamin was as Marc went to do his research. She hoped that he wouldn't raise suspicion, she didn't want him to get in trouble from things she told him. She also didn't want Vivian making his life a nightmare the way she did hers... However it was that she was able to.

Ari looked to Dia before looking to Benjamin with a small nod. She didn't want to come to terms with her losing her physical form, but she was glad Dia kept hers. She tried to breathe in, but of course, no air moved as she did so; it was odd, maybe she got too used to having her solid form back from then, but now she was back to being incorporeal.
"Okay." She said with a nod, "Just point me where I need to go." She looked to Dia, who gave her a gentle smile to her friend.
"You've got this Ari, I believe in you." Dia added gently.

While Marc got lost in the files, Benjamin continued his conversation with his companions. He pondered Ari's question, but had to shrug in the end. "Somewhere normal patients can't come," he told her. "I don't know where Ray is, but she has to be somewhere. Somewhere behind a locked door and I'm pretty sure there is a kitchen in the basement, maybe down there somewhere?" He had an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, I really don't know where you can go."

Down in the basement, one of the staff entered the room where Ray was being kept to check her vital signs and take a blood sample. They monitored her closely for any changes and noted all the effects they could see. They had learned to administer a smaller dosage of the experimental tranquillizer after the last patient they had here.
"Are you awake?" the nurse asked. "How are you feeling?"

Ari tilted her head slightly and nodded. "I can check there." She said before she looked to Dia, "Be safe." She said to her former-spirit friend before she turned and held her breath. She wasn't entirely sure she'd be able to walk through walls anymore, how did ghosts do it? It was so natural before, but now that she had been solid... Maybe she wouldn't be able to anymore?
She took a step back before she stepped forward, passing through the wall as she tried to 'hold her breath' before she continued to walk around, trying to find where she could go.

Ray opened her eyes lazily, giving a small grumble as she looked towards the nurse. She didn't bother replying to her words as she looked away slowly with a small breathe outwards.
Where... was she?

When Ari left, Benjamin turned to Dia. "I guess, all we can do now is wait."
He sat down on the bed, leaning against the wall and he closed his eyes. Suddenly he opened them again. "Maybe we can do something. We need an exit strategy, an easy way out when we found Ray. We have to leave this damned place." He got up and went to the door, but paused there. "Dia, do you think you can find a key somewhere, dressed as you are?"

The nurse examined Ray. "How do you feel?" she asked again, keeping a close eye on her for any non-verbal clues as to how she was doing.

Dia hesitantly nodded at Benjamins' words, looking away from the wall that Ari left through as she looked over towards Benjamin. "Do you think they'd allow me to just walk around?" She asked, "Surely the staff here know each other well?" She asked with a frown, "Marc noticed me pretty quickly and the things I said gave myself away that I wasn't a newbie."

Ray hesitated before she groggily looked to the nurse, she was still vaguely affected by whatever they gave her. She was groggy and slow moving, and it took a moment for her to attempt to form a sentence. "Where... Am I?" She asked after a moment, "Head... heavy."

"Well..." Benjamin began. "Not everyone is equally observant. I know through what way I got in, but I don't know how to unlock the doors. So we need a key. Everyone who works here can leave the building. Maybe we just need to steal someone's cardkey? But then we need to keep it hidden until we find Ray. So..." He paused as he thought about it. "Maybe we can just look around for an easy target for now."

The nurse nodded and wrote down the time she woke up and the symptoms she displayed. "Very well, dear. You are in special care, you are really ill but we will make you better, okay?" She smiled and closed her file. "I'll return in an hour with some food, take some rest."
After this, she left Ray to herself.

"Cardkey..." Dia uttered softly as she nodded, crossing her arms as she was starting to think quietly. "Do you think that Sara would have a Cardkey?" She asked after a moment, "Maybe she could say she lost hers and get an extra?" She tilted her head, trying to wrack her brain for memories of what she'd seen while being confined to Ray's body.

"Really... Ill?" Ray asked after a moment, she hesitated as she looked down to her hands before she nodded groggily as the Nurse left. She moved to lie back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, her head was spinning and she couldn't really think or remember anything correctly.
For some reason the name Benjamin rang in her head, what was that name from? Did she know someone called Benjamin?

Ari looked around as she stepped through different walls, trying to find different things. She stopped at the garden room and stood there for a moment, taking in the look of the area before she shook her head and continued to move around before she got to Vivian's office.
She stopped moving for a moment, this wasn't something she was expecting. This room felt wrong, the woman sitting at the desk, felt wrong.

"I don't know, but I don't think she has one," Benjamin said. "She is a patient who is allowed to help if I understood correctly, so I doubt they would have given her a key." He crossed his arms as he thought about it. "Shall we go for a walk? Maybe we can see someone who is careless with their key."
He had seen staff before, but he hadn't paid much attention to where they kept their card keys.
"We can also prepare the best escape route while we're at it," he continued.

Dia frowned at his response, nodding as she listened carefully. She let out a small sigh before she nodded. "A walk might be good." She said quietly, "I'm worried for anyone to question me, but it would be a good idea to get a better look at everything, and a better look at the staff." She continued as she moved to stand up from the bed quietly.

"maybe we'll run across Marc again." She said after a moment, unsure if it would be a good thing or not for them to do such a thing.

Benjamin nodded to show he had heard Dia, but he wasn't sure what to say. Maybe they would run into Marc and he had mixed feelings about that. He had to admit Marc was one of the nurses who listened and he had an actual conversation with him.
"If we run into him, we could try talking to him," Benjamin said. He noticed another nurse, but didn't spot any keycards. There probably was some kind of policy about keeping them safe as this was a closed-down institution.
"I hope she'll find Ray..." he muttered. "We need to get out of this place.
A worker cleaned the floor, she too didn't have any obvious keys on her.
"Do you suppose we can have someone call Marc? Would there be a reason for a patient to request a specific nurse?"

Dia walked alongside Benjamin as they walked, looking over to everyone they passed. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to check the keys or keycards on anyone else around them. "Maybe the higher ups have them..." She spoke out loud before she looked over to Benjamin as he spoke.
Would they let him request Marc? Surely they'd be able to... Right?
"Possibly something about being more comfortable with dealing with a specific nurse." She said with a small frown, "There are a few male nurses, so you could ask if you could see Marc because you'd rather a male nurse and Marc is the only one you trust?"

"Possible," Benjamin said in responce to Dia's first comment. "Maybe the lower employees are let in and out when their shift starts or ends. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case." If all else failed, maybe they could get a key by force, but then they'd need to have an exit strategy ready. He listened to what Dia said about requesting Marc as they walked to where the staff usually entered and left, he frowned at the white door. It made sense. "Okay, I will request Marc," he said. "I will go to the common room, maybe you can go ahead to my room. I'll talk him into going there."

Benjamin went to the common room and approached one of the nurses.
"Excuse me, Marc is working now, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"I may be experiencing side effects and I want to discuss them with him first."
"You can talk about that to me."
"Ah, well, you see..." Benjamin glanced down to his crotch, "I kinda would prefer another man to discuss it with."
After an exasprated sigh, the nurse called Marc to the common room.

Marc, who had been busy going through files, answered the call and made his way to the common room, where he heard about Benjamin's request. He nodded and walked with Benjamin to his room.