Wind rattled the glass of the narrow slit window. She pulled herself to her feet and stood, tip-toe, on the edge of her cot to see outside. Dark clouds obscured the stars and the moon, but she could see the tree tops whipping to and fro in the wind — storm coming.
Nellie stepped down from the cot, pulled it aside, and knelt down to feel for the loose brick. She needed to get to her report and record everything she had seen. Whether the vision had been drug-induced or not she would leave to consider at a later date.
She groggily pulled the folded papers from the hole in the wall and spread them on the floor in front of her, along with her trusty crayons. Putting a red crayon to the page, she tried to press down to write, but the crayon slipped from her loose fingers and rolled across the floor.
Nellie reached through the fogginess that enveloped her mind, which was no doubt due to the recently administered drugs. Wait …
She picked up the pages and held them close to her eyes, trying to see in the scant light. These were not her notes. These were pictures. She opened her eyes wide and flipped through the folded pages.
Where once her words had been, there now were illustrations. And not just any drawings … these were from the same hand that had wrought the pictures in Alice’s corridor … in her dreams.
Roughly sketched, in pencil, was an angelic Dorothy standing before a lion, a scarecrow, and a tin man.
The next sketch depicted the horrific tin creature that had held her captive just hours before.
Dorothy Gale of Oz
The Tin Man
Had she drawn these in a drugged state? Her morbid curiosity led her to turn the page and examine the next disturbing drawing: a cat demon chimera emerging from … a doorway?
She reached for the next set of folded papers, and paused. There, on the floor before her was a trail of fresh, red blood.
Nellie held her breath and followed the trail … it led to her stomach. She cried out, looking at her dress and all around her body. The blood was smeared down the bed, across the floor, and out under the door.
Nellie’s door was being unlocked. The door itself began to open with a creak, casting a shaft of eerie green light across the floor and over the trail of blood.
The silhouette of a young girl stood framed in the doorway, instantly sending an icy-cold finger of fear down Nellie’s neck and back. She froze.
But it was a different little girl’s voice that spoke.
“The bad men are coming.”
“Rose? Is that you?” Nellie crawled toward the open door.
Meeeeeoooooowwwwrrrr …
Rose breathed in sharply and turned toward the mewling sound.
“Oh!” She turned away from the door, and then the sound of her small, bare feet pitter-patted down the hall. “I can’t let them catch me!” she puffed, her voice echoing back down the hall to Nellie.
“Rose! Wait!” Nellie cried out, scrambling to get to her feet and follow the small girl. She stumbled into the hall and held on to the wall. Patients in the adjacent rooms were all asleep; no doubt enjoying their narcotic slumber. She briefly wondered if they weren’t all part of a nightmarish landscape wherein a lion, a tin man, a scarecrow, a witch, and a terrifying little girl could haunt them no matter where they tried to hide. Or, perhaps, the drugs had made them so numb that they couldn’t dream at all.
Meeeooowwwwwwwww …
A cat’s mewling pulled Nellie from her hazy inner dialog and drew her attention back to the hallway in front of her. She hadn’t seen any cats on the island before, but she supposed it was possible that a staff member had brought a pet to Bedlam and it had somehow gotten loose.
Rose giggled from somewhere nearby, perhaps the main common room. Nellie turned the corner, treading softly. She slipped along the wall and glanced toward the asylum entrance just in time to see the little girl with the brown curls dart in front of the main door.
Meeeeeoooooowwwwrrrr …
The cat’s voice drifted to Nellie from down a hall. She imagined a small tabby cat brushing against a table leg in the common room, quizzically calling for someone to kindly place a saucer of cold milk on the floor, please. Nellie tiptoed toward the asylum entrance in the main lobby and passed in front of the great, gold looking-glass.
CRAAAACCCKKKK!
She splayed flat against the wall. The high-pitched cracking of glass sounded as though a window had just shattered. She glanced all around, but the windows were all as they were before. But it hadn’t been a window after all. It was the looking-glass.
There, dead center in the once perfect, framed piece was a ghastly crack. Nellie searched the room for the cause. As if in answer to her question, lines began to draw themselves into the mirror. One after the other, letters appeared, as if invisible, clawed fingers were scratching them into the glass from the other side.
The letters were difficult to read,; they were backwards. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the caterpillar locket. She opened the tiny catch with her fingernail and popped it carefully open. Turning to look into the mirrored surface of the locket, she saw the words reflected:
Pressed to the glass behind the words, a demonic, twisted face stared back at her, pushing and contorting, smearing grisly filth on the glass in its efforts to squeeze through the crack in the mirror. Nellie gasped and snapped the locket shut. Spinning around to the mirror, she was prepared to face whatever awaited. Yet now there was nothing in the mirror except her reflection. The words, demon — gone.
Nellie leaned against the wall, pressing her temples with both palms and squeezing her eyes shut. Was this the drugs? The line between reality and fantasy had become so thoroughly blurred that she did not know whether or not to trust her own eyes.
Meowwwwwww …
Nellie looked toward the sound and caught a glimpse of Rose’s dress as it disappeared around the corner. “Rose!” she called out softly, and hurried after her. The door to the basement steam tunnels stood ajar. Nellie slid to a stop before she reached the door. It creaked open a bit wider.
“Rose?” she called out again from the doorway and then peered down the stairs. The little girl’s faint giggle answered from somewhere in the darkness below. She put her foot down on the first creaky stair, and uttered an inaudible curse. Down each step she crept, descending deeper into the bowels of Bedlam.
BANG!
Nellie spun around to look to the top of the staircase where the door had just slammed shut, but found no one there. Most likely an orderly on the night-shift had passed by and noticed the open door. But that soft sound of laughter — was that the orderly — or something else?
On the bottom stair, she reached out her toe and felt for the floor beneath. Yes, there it was, cold and dirty. She pressed her bare foot flat onto the basement corridor floor. There was faint light down here, cast by the occasional flickering light bulb. Creosote dripped from the walls, creating unsettling patterns that resembled faces and creatures.
Was that a burst of laughter? Or just the wind? Nellie's breathing quickened as she trod through the dim corridor.
MEOWWWW!
Had the cat followed her down the stairs? Or were there more cats in the basement? Nellie spun in circles, frantically glancing about in the darkness. She backed into the pipes that lined the corridor wall, and they moaned in protest.
Wait … the rust dripping from the pipes … this was all very familiar … .
And there it was, at the end of the corridor, just as it had always been in her dreams. The vault. And, in front of it, the unmistakable figure of Alice. The light bulb above the vault door flickered, providing just enough light to make out the grisly details of the face that was partially obscured by the stringy gnarls of hair.
Her red eyes peered up at Nellie.
“You found me, Nellie. Just like I knew you would.”
Nellie stared in horror, unable to move. This wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t a hallucination. Her feet were glued to the floor, yet her limbs were electric with fear.
“Where — where’s Rose?” she whispered.
“They were going to kill her,” the raspy voice replied. Nellie realized that Alice’s lips did not move. She could somehow hear Alice’s voice inside her head.
“You should thank me,” the voice continued, “I’m keeping her safe for you.”
A menacing growl emerged from the darkness, somewhere behind Nellie. She glanced fleetingly over her shoulder, unwilling to turn her back on Alice. Something human-like moved in the shadows. “Who are you? Show yourself!” she called out forcefully, over the tremor in her voice.
In the darkness, Nellie could just make out the outline of something that stood on two legs. The thing hunched over and twisted back and forth, writhing and stretching.
“He will in just a moment,” the voice in Nellie’s head replied. Nellie looked at Alice again and saw the corners of the fetid, red lips curl upward into a sort of smile.
Nellie looked back to the form, which had begun to shake violently. It staggered toward her and into the dim pool of light, revealing remnants of a human form, its skin blistering and peeling away as something under the skin pushed its way out.
“Come join us.” Alice held up a hand and beckoned Nellie toward her. Her lips still did not move; her chin hung close to her chest. She looked up at Nellie through blood-red eyes and grinned. Nellie could see her pointed, crimson tongue running over the jagged edges of her broken teeth. “We can all play together.”
A fur-like body broke through the creature’s human skin with a sickening pop. Wet, pulpy layers of adipose and skin fell away.
ROWWWWRRRRR!
Claws pushed through the fingertips of the human hand, splitting the skin and exposing mangy, gray-and-black, striped fur. The long, sharp teeth jutting from the feline countenance chewed and gnawed the human finger exteriors away from the paw and spit them into a bloody pile on the dirt floor.
“Dear God…” Nellie whispered.
The giant cat emerged almost completely from its rotting flesh cocoon in the shadows.
“No, silly. Not God. It’s my friend, the Cheshire cat!” Alice grinned and rolled her red eyes. “He wants to play with you.”
A high-pitched scream rang out from the corridor behind them. “Rose?” Nellie cried out, unable to mask her terror.
“She’s with me, Nellie” Alice’s scratchy voice spat. Nellie looked back at Alice who now glowered at her and pointed down the corridor. “Open the doors.” Her hands dropped lifelessly down to her sides and she grinned with wide, scarlet eyes, her head cocking suddenly to the side. “Come on Nellie. We’re waiting.” Alice drifted backward, melting through the vault door into nothingness.
“Alice?” Nellie said, her whole body trembling. “Alice?”
An unnatural, shrill howling caused Nellie to turn and face the creature in the shadows again. The howl sustained its high note for a few moments before shuddering and dropping into a deep, guttural growl. She could, see by the beast’s silhouette, that the hackles on the back of its neck were rising. The sounds it was emitting were those of a cat that is tensed to attack.
“Nice kitty.” Nellie moved cautiously toward her only escape route: the space between the wall and the enormous feline.
RrrrrreeeeeeeEEEEEOOOWWRRRR!
The cat leapt out from the gloom, its enormous fangs bared and its murderous claws extended toward Nellie’s throat. Nellie’s movements were pure survival instinct. She ducked and crouched against the wall just in time for the giant, cat-like demon to fly past her and slam into the vault door. It shook its massive head back and forth and scrambled to stand upright.
In the light, Nellie could see that this was a human-shaped beast with a feline head. When it turned back toward her, she stared directly into eyes as black as death and its lunatic ear-to-ear grin full of colossal, razor-sharp, metallic teeth. Blood and pus dripped from open wounds on its side; its diseased skin was covered in burns and infected boils. Its face a mask of death, its body a moving disease, its maniacal grin — this was surely the essence of madness.
The Cheshire cat swung its head and shoulders toward her as it readied for another pounce. Its black eyes rolled and it resumed its deep-throated growl, as it tensed to spring. Saliva spewed from the corners of its monstrous mouth.
Nellie sprang from the floor and sprinted as fast as her shaking legs could carry her down the corridor.
The cat demon threw its head back and yowled, the force of its powerful voice rending Nellie’s ears. It dropped to all fours and sprang forward, leaping down the corridor after her.
Nellie had never run as fast as she did now. In mere seconds, she arrived at the bottom of the stairs and leapt up the steps two-by-two toward the light that shone under the door at the top of the stairs. The cat yowled again and leapt toward Nellie, claws extended. The tips of its claws sliced cleanly through the skin of her calf as she bounded to the next stair. She felt a sharp pain, but such was her terror that it didn’t slow her gait one bit. She kicked open the basement door, destroying the lock, and slammed into the opposite wall, panting.
“HEEELLLPPPPPP!” she shrieked, as she sprinted at break-neck speed toward the front desk. She just had to find people — it didn’t matter who. But something tackled Nellie from the side and knocked her down, falling upon her and cracking her head against the black -and -white tiled floor. For Nellie, everything instantly went black.
Nurse Ball, clad in a nightgown and robe, hovered over Nellie, who was lying, sprawled and unconscious, on the Seclusion Room gurney. Nurse Chiu applied pressure to the small cut over Nellie’s eyebrow. This injury, from Dr. Carandini’s vase, had almost healed over, but now blood trickled from the reopened wound.
Dr. Braun stood opposite Nurse Ball, folding his arms over his chest. He still wore his business clothing and lab coat, which were a bit wrinkled and disheveled at this late hour. Lost in thought, he stared down at Nellie and stroked his beard.
“She was saying that Alice was after her when we caught her.” Nurse Ball smoothed back a few rampant hairs that protruded from her sleeping cap.
Dr. Braun glanced up at her. “Where did you say you found her?”
“She had somehow gotten down into the basement.”
He paused, looking hard at Nellie again.
“Wake Dorothy up. We’re proceeding to the Electrolysis Room.”
Nurse Ball’s jaw dropped open. “At this hour?”
Dr. Braun turned to her, arms still folded across his chest. “Nurse Ball, if you have any problems with the treatments I am prescribing for my patients or the time at which I choose to administer them, you know exactly when and where to catch the next ferry. If you choose to continue to practice medicine with me, then meet me in the Electrolysis Room immediately.” He turned on his heel, pushed Nellie’s gurney toward the door, and wheeled her out into the hallway.
Nurse Chiu quietly collected the tray of medical tools and glanced up at Nurse Ball, whose mouth remained agape. Nurse Chiu carried the tray to the door, and, with a private smile, exited the room.
Nellie’s eyes fluttered. She came to and became aware that she was on a gurney, being wheeled somewhere. Cautiously, she opened her eyes and saw the hallway and a series of doorways. This was a hallway she did not recognize. The doors were all open. Peering into the room to her left, she saw a naked inmate strapped to a table. The female patient’s body was covered with small, precise incisions, each of which dripped blood into grooves on the tabletop. Next to this table, an inmate wore a leather collar that was attached to the end of a pole held by an orderly. The inmate was being forced to walk endlessly on a platform with a rolling surface. These devices were attached to a large, tangled pile of wire. Two small, blue eyes peeped out at Nellie from the mess of wires, as her gurney rolled past this doorway.
“Help me!” Rose’s voice called from somewhere in the room. Nellie struggled to sit up but Dr. Braun gently pushed her back down. The door to Rose’s room began to swing shut, and the pale face
and red eyes that stared back at her from the doorway told her who was closing the door. Her gurney eventually reached a door labeled “Hypnotic Induction Room 2.” Here was another of Dr. Braun’s bizarre rooms, filled with elaborate mechanisms.
Dr. Braun positioned Nellie’s gurney next to another, on which lay Dorothy, arms by her sides. She turned and saw Nellie, her wide, wet eyes spilling tears.
“Be brave, Dorothy,” Nellie nodded to her.
Dorothy nodded, but her head trembled and her hands shook.
Nurse Ball entered the room, still wrapped in her flannel robe. She slid a rubber bite guard into Nellie’s mouth and taped it tightly to her teeth. As the nurse secured Nellie’s arms with leather straps, Dr. Braun crossed to a control panel and flipped a switch. The machine, labeled “Dynamo,” sprang to life with a whirring, clanking sound.
He looked over his shoulder and spoke to Nurse Ball.
“Check all neuro connectors. We’re ready to go.”
The orderlies performed a final check of the table-leg wire as Dr. Braun adjusted and checked Nellie’s metal head restraint. Satisfied, he made his way to the Observation Room. Nurse Ball scurried after him, whispering. “Doctor, you know that this is exactly what sent Alice over the edge!”
“I've modified the procedure since then. Now, we are using electrical currents to create a Soul Link between the two women.”
“A Soul Link?”
“The previous experiment established the Meta Link, which allowed Dorothy to bring Nellie into her fantasy world. The Soul Link takes that bond one step further. It not only allows Nellie to enter Dorothy’s world, but also enables her to actually become part of it, essentially transforming Nellie into a tamer version of Dorothy.”
“And this will help them both how?” Nurse Ball blinked.
Dr. Braun nodded to an orderly, who, in turn, pulled a switch. Nellie’s eyes filled with a blinding flash of blue light, which sent waves of indescribable pain screaming from her head, down her spine, and out through every pore of her body. She convulsed and shrieked through the rubber bite guard, her cries echoed by Dorothy’s.
Bedlam Stories Page 11