AHC2 Vampire Asylum
Page 17
"What did you do to him?" the beast asks as he helps me up.
"I might have introduced him to the concept of food," I reply, dusting myself down as Dronigan tries to force himself through to us. "I didn't think it'd cause any damage."
"Dronigan doesn't have the right kind of mind," the beast replies. "In many ways, he's still very naive, and he can't control his desires. When he sees something he wants, he's filled with an unstoppable desire to get it as soon as possible. I've kept him in balance for years, and now you've ruined everything!"
"Feed me!" Dronigan screams, as the lattice begins to bulge under his weight.
"He can't get through, can he?" I ask.
"The defenses have never been tested like this before," the beast replies. "I can't make any promises, Abigail. All I can do is close the gate."
"And just leave him out there?"
"What else would you have me do?" he continues, turning the winch and starting the slow process of swinging the doors shut. "He's insane! If I let him through, he'll destroy everything, and we'll be his first meal! You've seen what he's become, Abigail! We have to stop him at all costs, even if we're forced to sacrifice our own lives in the process!" He pauses for a moment, as if he can't quite comprehend the danger that we're facing. "This is all getting out of hand," he adds. "I was a fool to think that I could contain the madness. I stayed down here, hiding from my responsibilities, and now I've put us all in danger!"
"Stop!" Dronigan shouts. "Let me in! You have to feed me! If you don't, I'll block your dreams forever! You won't even have nightmares! Every night, you'll try to sleep and it won't be possible! This whole place will become a garden of dead souls, deprived of even the slightest relief, unless you let me in to feast!" Before he can say anything else, the doors slam shut and his voice is drowned out, although he can still be heard trying to break his way through. It's hard to believe that anything could hold him back forever.
"Now what?" I ask, turning to the beast.
"Now I need to decide what to do," he replies wearily. "This is all getting out of hand. If Dronigan can't be trusted, it's only a matter of time before Tor Cliff falls. Dronigan will rip through the patients' dreams, and then he'll have no choice but to head off and look for more victims. His appetite will be insatiable, and he lacks the kind of mind that could ever discipline itself."
"Maybe I can talk to him again," I reply. "Maybe I can -"
"There's only one option," the beast says firmly, interrupting me. "I suppose I always knew this day would come, Abigail, but now I see that there's no way around it. We're going to have to get everyone out of Tor Cliff, and then we can try to seal Dronigan inside for the rest of time. It's not going to be easy, and I'm not even certain it can be done, but it's the only chance. If we don't at least try, Dronigan will cause damage across all seven worlds."
"So how do we get people out of Tor Cliff?" I ask. "Just a simple evacuation? Can you open the cell doors and find a way to get them to safety? If they make their way through the forest, where will they end up?" I wait for him to reply, but he seems to be lost in thought. "Can't we just do that?" I continue. "I know it's not ideal, but it's a start. Can't we just open the cell doors and let them all go free?"
"No," he replies. "It's going to be far more difficult than that. Tor Cliff was built to house a man who couldn't be allowed to live anywhere else. If the asylum is to be abandoned, then I have no choice but to finally order an end to Dr. Cole's life." He pauses for a moment. "And you, Abigail, are going to have to be the one who kills him."
Chapter Six
Felix
I wait for the right moment.
Spiders are crawling all over my body, as if - having landed on me - they're now determined to explore this strange new country. Hundreds of spiders, with thousands of legs, are swarming across my face, my chest, my arms and legs, and all over the floor of my cell. There are so many of them, I can even hear them moving: a hushed chorus of clicking, brushing and scratching as they make their way along the side of my neck and past my ears.
I have my eyes open, and occasionally one of the spiders stops on the edge of an eyelid, and for a moment the creature seems to peer down at me. I can't help but wonder if, in its tiny mind, the spider is contemplating the darkness at the center of my pupils. Whatever might be going through its mind, however, the spider always moves along fairly quickly, and I wait for the next, and the next, and the next... I imagine I must be quite a mystery to them and, in a way, I take their attention as a compliment.
And then, as suddenly as they arrived, they're gone.
They make their way from my body and begin to crawl into the cracks in the wall. It's as if, all together, they've decided that they no longer need to examine me, and they have some other task to be getting on with, something that demands their attention. I wait in silence as the last of them crawls from my skin and scuttles across the floor, and then finally I'm left alone again.
"I heard them again," the old woman says eventually. "They'll come for me one day. They must know that I've noticed them, and they won't like the fact that I'm warning people. They'll probably come and kill me in the night. I wouldn't be surprised if they slice my neck open with the tips of their sharp little legs."
"Enough," I say firmly, finally feeling as if I can no longer take her prattling.
"Just wait," she continues, sounding extremely pleased with herself. "You'll see. I'll be found dead in my cell one day. I'm too important for them to let me live. I know too much and they can't allow me to expose all their plans to the -"
"Enough!" I shout, my voice filled with more anger than I could ever have anticipated. I swear to God, I can almost feel the stones of the air vibrating all through the cell.
Silence.
"Finally," I mutter, glad to have silenced the old hag.
Closing my eyes, I realize that I'm beginning to slip into the very first folds of sleep. A whole new kind of darkness wraps itself around my body, and I find myself praying that perhaps Nurse Silk will appear to me once I'm able to dream. Leaving my physical form behind, I let my mind drift beyond the walls of the asylum, and I see the cold, bare forest waiting for me.
"What are you doing here?" a dark, gravely male voice asks. "I didn't invite anyone to join me."
I turn and see a large shape nearby, hidden by the shadows. I feel as if I recognize him, and yet at the same time, I'm quite certain that I've never seen him before. His form shifts a little, remaining hidden but clearly vast and powerful, and although my first instinct is to attack him, I can't help feeling that I'd be ripped to shreds.
"I didn't tell you it was safe to come out," the voice continues. "You don't get to dream unless I give you permission. Not anymore. Not until I get what I want. That's the new deal around here."
"Where is she?" I ask.
He laughs.
"Where is she?" I shout. Looking over my shoulder, I spot a dark figure in the distance, between the trees. It's her, it has to be, but I find myself unable to go over to her.
"Until I get everything I've asked for," the voice continues, "I'm removing your ability to dream. All of you in that place... Staff, patients... You're going to have to make do without the riches of my world, until you grant me the riches of yours. That seems only fair, doesn't it? After everything you've taken from me..."
I turn to him, and finally I realize that I'm in the presence of Dronigan.
"I've been too kind for too long," he adds. "I've let you escape your cells each night and dream of faraway places, of freedom. No more. None of you shall dream again until the beast of Tor Cliff has relented to my appetite. Until then, you can suffer without the respite of escape, and I assure you, a dreamless life is one that isn't worth living."
"But -" I start to say, before I feel myself returning to the cell. "Wait!" I call out, desperate to find some way of seeing Nurse Silk again. "I'll give you anything! Just let me be with her! Tell me what you want and I'll find a way to help you!"
"I'm in no mood for mercy," he says darkly.
With a sudden start, I sit up and find myself back in my cell, breathing heavily. I put a hand on the back of my neck and realize that I'm sweating profusely, and when I get to my feet I'm overcome by a feeling of helplessness, as if all the energy has been drained from my body. That voice in my dream was like the voice of horror itself, reaching out and taunting me, and yet something tells me that it existed outside my own mind. I stagger to the door and peer out into the corridor, but there's no-one out there, and no sound other than the silent hum of the asylum's daily rhythm.
I need to find a way to dream again. I need to see her face.
Chapter Seven
Abby Hart
"He's focused entirely on his work," the beast says, watching as I try to brush creases out of the nurse uniform I'm wearing. "He's used to new nurses appearing from time to time, and I doubt he'll look at you twice. By the time he realizes anything's wrong, you'll be close enough to finish him off."
I stare at myself in the mirror. To be fair, I don't look too bad in the uniform, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that I can fool anyone up at Tor Cliff. The beast seems to be totally convinced that I can do it, however, and he's adamant that he can't be the one to kill Dr. Cole. Given the circumstances, and with Dronigan still trying to break through the gate, I guess I don't have much of a choice.
"I should have done this years ago," he continues. "I knew it was the only solution, but I kept putting the moment off because..." He pauses. "I heard stories, of course," he adds eventually. "Some of the nurses used to tell me about the things that went on up there. I even saw a few of the corpses once the experiments were over, but somehow it was hard to believe that my old friend could possibly have been responsible for such atrocities. I never quite believed that his brilliance could have become so warped and twisted."
"How do I do it?" I ask, turning to the beast. "How do I kill him?"
"Dr. Cole is a vampire, like the rest of us," the beast replies. "Killing him is not the work of a moment, but it can be done. The most effective method would be to drive an object through his heart and then ensure that it remains in place. It wouldn't be a permanent death, but if we can ensure that no-one is able to reach his body and remove the stake, he will never regain consciousness. At least that way, he won't suffer."
"Seems kinda old-fashioned," I point out, not exactly relishing the prospect of driving a stake through anyone's heart. "Are you sure you don't have any garlic kicking around?"
"Please," he continues, "don't joke about these things. The man was, and in many ways still is, my only true friend. We worked together tirelessly for years, and I still blame myself for not being able to hold his mind together. He was always so much better than me, and in many ways I feel that my only real job was to support him. I failed, but I can still do one final thing for him." He pauses, and I can see that he's struggling to hold back more tears. "I don't want him to suffer," he adds. "When you do this, you must make sure that you're quick. If he knows it's happening at all, he mustn't have time to be scared. We must at least try to give him that moment of kindness."
"Are you sure there's no other way?" I ask.
"I've tried all the other ways," he says wearily. "That's why I built Tor Cliff in the first place. Now, finally, I must accept that perhaps it was always meant to end this way. By trying to help and protect him, I merely prolonged his agony and allowed him to fall even further into madness." Making his way over to one of the desks, he picks up a short golden dagger and presents it to me. "Use this," he says after a moment. "Just make sure that once you've pierced his heart, the blade is not removed."
I turn the dagger over in my hands, feeling its weight and trying to get used to the idea that I'm going to use it to kill a man. Sure, I've killed in the past, but always in anger or out of a need to defend myself; this, by contrast, feels so cold-hearted and calculated. Despite everything that the beast has told me, and despite my own experience of Dr. Cole's ways, I feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of murdering someone in cold blood.
"All you have to do," the beast continues, leading me to the small door at the far end of his office, "is make sure you're in the same room as him, and wait until the other nurses have left. If they realize what you're trying to do, they'll do everything in their power to stop you. Over the years, he's gained their loyalty, and I have no doubt that some of them would even die for him. Ensure that they're out of the room, at the very least, and preferably nowhere nearby. Then, you merely sneak up behind him, aim carefully, and push the blade into his back, making sure to puncture his heart. Once he's dead, you can use his private telephone to contact me and let me know that it's time for the next stage."
"And what is the next stage?" I ask tentatively, even though I'm fairly sure that I won't like the answer.
"The evacuation of Tor Cliff," he continues. "The removal of those poor, unfortunate souls to another location, where they can be truly cared for. While that's happening, I shall also let Dronigan enter these chambers, so that I can bring the asylum crashing down to bury him forever." He looks up at the ceiling for a moment. "If Dronigan is true to his word and withholds all dreams and nightmares from the residents up there, it can't be long before their madness becomes unbearable. Even the most ravaged mind can take solace in dreams, especially in a place like this."
"Let's get this over with," I reply, opening the door and stepping into a small room with a stone spiral staircase that I assume leads back up into the main part of Tor Cliff.
"Be quick," the beast implores me. "I'll be waiting for you."
Figuring that there's nothing left to say, I slip the dagger into my pocket and start making my way up the stairs. Even step feels heavy, and I still can't shake the feeling that cold-hearted murder is against my nature. Then again, I guess it might be a good idea to put aside my moral concerns and just do what's necessary. Enough people have suffered at Dr. Cole's hands, and I can worry about the impact on my conscience later; for now, I just need to find the guy and put this blade through his heart.
Part Six
The Ghost at the Door
Chapter One
Felix
They always scream, but it's worse this time.
This time, it sounds like they're already dead. They're moaning louder than ever, shrieking for help even though they must know by now that no-one gives a damn about them. I don't know how many other patients there are at Tor Cliff, but their voices call out in a kind of choral wail, begging for mercy.
No-one's coming to rescue them, though.
No-one's coming to rescue any of us.
"Hey!" I call out, keen to get the old woman's attention. "It's me! I need to talk to you!"
I wait for a reply, but there's no response from the cell next to mine. After all these years of her incessant nattering, why has she chosen this moment to finally shut her mouth? I've endured so many crazy theories and wild ideas, to the extent that her voice has become a kind of background drone, but now I actually need to ask her something.
"Talk to me!" I shout, keen to ensure that I can be heard above the wails coming from nearby cells. "I need to talk to you!" I wait again, but there's still no response. "I'm sorry I didn't pay attention earlier," I continue, "but I was wrong. Please, I think you can help me, and maybe I can help you too!"
"Let me go!" a male voice shouts from one of the other cells. "I can't stand it anymore! Just let me sleep!" I hear the sound of him rattling the bars on his door, but no-one's going to come and help him. Whatever the hell is going on in this place right now, it's as if something or someone is trying to torture us all by denying us the one thing that actually gives us any comfort: sleep.
"Please!" I shout, hoping against hope that the old woman might finally reply. "I need to ask you some questions! I'm sorry I ignored you earlier, but right now I need your help. You've been here longer than anyone. I need you to tell me how to get out of this cell! I know it can be done!"
"Madeleine LeCompte got out," replies a man from a different cell. "Two or three nights ago, she found a way and they haven't brought her back."
"There's probably nothing left of her to find," the female voice replies. "If she got more than a few meters from the building, she probably ran straight into Dronigan, and I doubt that ended too well."
"Dronigan's not real," shouts a voice in the distance.
"Isn't he?" the female voice asks. "Then who decided to keep up from sleeping? Dronigan's the one who welcomes our thought each night and pulls our minds out of the cells. I almost slept earlier, but suddenly I sensed him pushing me back into my head, denying me the chance. It's as if he's decided suddenly that none of us can sleep again. I guess it's his way of making sure that we all lose our minds, and to be fair to him, it's working pretty damn well."
Taking a step back from the door, I try to work out what to do next. The old woman has been silent for too long, and I'm starting to worry that something might have happened to her. Meanwhile, I'm withstanding the lack of dreams better than anyone else here, but I know I'll crack eventually. If I can only see Nurse Silk again when I'm asleep, then I have to find a way to change Dronigan's mind and stop this siege. It won't be easy, though; something seems to have angered him, and I doubt I have anything to offer that might calm him down.
"Alright!" Nurse Fletcher calls out, her voice getting closer as she makes her way along the corridor. "Everyone settle down!" She stops outside my door, and after a moment I hear the lock being turned. "I hope you're not going to give us any trouble, Felix," she continues as she slides the door open. There's a long silver dagger in one hand, and several orderlies are flanking her, just waiting for me to try something. "Dr. Cole wants to see you," she continues. "I think he's had an idea for a new experiment."