Lily could feel the pressure building in her head continuously, ramping higher and higher, and she didn't have a release valve. No way to get past it but to endure, but for the first time she was fully realizing how afraid she should have been to leave the safety of the wards. She'd put on a brave face for the sake of the others trapped with her, but truth was, she didn't know what exposure to residuals on this scale would do to her in the long run, and she was suddenly chilled by an atavistic fear that she, too, would be driven insane like the inhabitants haunting the place.
She watched Charlie's lips moving as she helped Niamh up through eyes slitted with pain, but couldn't hear what she was shouting over the noise in her head; terrified sobbing, begging, and pleading mixed with rough voices snarling unbelievably foul obscenities. "Rip out your guts for a noose," demanded one voice with a clearly manic glee, the rough growl sounding as if through damaged vocal chords. It hit Lily like a push between the shoulder blades, staggering her forwards and almost to her knees as she reached the landing with the others, gasps for breath just shy of sobs of her own. She held it back, knowing none of them could afford to lose it until they were free of the place. "Why are we stopping?" she asked, voice louder than it needed to be to combat the noise in her head.