Nillium Neems (11 page)

The normal flow of time returned to the room
and Siegfried’s scalpel slammed uselessly into the Skeleton’s
torso, who lashed out in reply with a hooked claw. It nearly tore
Siegfried in half, sending him flying across the room and slamming
into a wall beside me. I staggered over to him and threw both arms
around him, trying to lift him back to his feet but lacking the
strength.

No longer was Siegfried present, for I saw
the kindly eyes of a dying Hammy staring back at me.

"H-he showed me... everything!" he gasped,
choking on blood. "I felt Siegfried’s presence... and let him take
me! Go, Nil. You are the only... shot we’ve got!"

"I love you, Hammy," I said, voice choked
with tears. I’ve never been quite so sad in my life, nor cared so
much for another person. "You were always there for me when others
weren’t. I love you..."

I doubt he heard my last words, for he was
already falling backwards, eyes glazed over with death. The
stricken, wonderful, kindly Dr. Henry Flagham, my friend Hammy,
breathed his last.

I didn’t have much time to mourn though, for
I felt the Twisted Puppet’s wooden hand grasp me from behind by the
hair. He yanked backwards till I fell hard onto the floor. I heard
the hiss of burning skin and realized it was my own as the
Scarecrow’s purple sweat dripped on me. The Tormentor stared down
mockingly at my prone body while the Twisted Puppet stood beside
him.

The Skeleton that had once been Dr. Sirius
was a little ways off, standing before the door so as to block any
easy escape. As to where the Green Ooze had slimed off to I had no
idea.

"Are you going to kill me now?" I asked,
realizing with sadness that I was at their mercy.

Puppet and Scarecrow laughed, while Skeleton
remained silent, apparently as emotionless as he had been in
life.

"You don’t realize," said the Scarecrow’s
right head, while the left just hissed, "that you are already dead,
Nillium Neems. You have no life. You have nothing. Just a
purposeless little entity existing solely to annoy us."

"And though your fear is
sweet to us," the Twisted Puppet added, "it is time for this
annoyance to cease. For it is rare the Director himself must
personally intervene, but you have gone too far.
This must stop
." and
with that said, he launched a fist down towards my
head...

Which was caught! Caught by a hand formed of
Mushrooms that sprouted from the floor, the very same fungi that I
had met before, who had led me away from my dungeon cell. It was
then that it occurred to me that although Hammy was dead, Siegfried
was still around, watching over me.

"
Cover your ears, Nil,
" he spoke in a
whisper. Just after I did so, still lying prone upon the ground,
the Mushrooms unleashed their screaming wail, filled with anger
instead of anguish.

All four Tormentors screamed in agony and I
knew this would be my only chance. Hauling myself to my feet, I ran
for the door, the squish of Mushrooms behind me as I knew not what
Tormentor attacked them.

Of course, the Skeleton still blocked my
path, but he had been fazed enough to allow me to duck under his
legs and take off running down the hallway. It hurt and I couldn’t
run well because of my injuries, but I really didn’t have much
choice. So I staggered along as best I could.

I didn’t even bother to try
and sort out all I had learned while I ran, for I was obviously
caught between two supernatural forces. The spirits of the former
patients led by my apparent father, Siegfried, versus whatever
sick-minded demons from Hell the Tormentors were. Stuff like that
can be a bit overwhelming for a young girl like myself. I vowed to
God or whoever might be listening, that when I finally came upon
the Director him and me were going to have some
words
.

Only seconds passed before I heard a
clattering behind me, tiny claws scrabbling against the tiled
floor. I turned as I ran to see what evil was overtaking me, and to
my utmost joy it was my Snoopy Cap!!

Happily bouncing along as it caught up to
me, I slowed to pick it up, wondering if perhaps it had developed a
spirit of its own. Clamping my fingers around its brim, I lifted if
off the ground, Mousy dropping out from beneath it beside my foot.
I plucked him off the ground and brought him up to my shoulder, so
happy that I kissed him atop his rodent head. I then put the Cap
over my head and new determination seemed to flood through my
being.

I started running again, already breathing
hard, but there was no way I was giving up now, not now that I had
my Snoopy Cap. The chase was on!

Minutes passed as I ran, and I began to
wonder why they didn’t seem to be catching up to me. Sirius’s
threat of ever-watching security cameras came back to me, and it
occurred to me that they were probably just doing things the smart
way. Camp-ing out somewhere while somebody kept track on the
cameras, just waiting for the opportunity to lay an ambush.

So I did something I hadn’t
done in a long, long time. I knelt in prayer. I prayed for God, if
there was a God, to strike down my foes with thunderbolts. I prayed
for Him to give me a solution. I prayed for Him to guide me to the
Director and somehow, someway, help me kill that monster. I prayed
for everything that might help me, so that I could stop this evil
and finally have a
life
for the first time since I was born. But most of
all I prayed for light. Light to banish the gathering darkness,
take away the monsters that tortured me in this endless night, and
bring forth a new day full of peace and safety.

None of those things
happened. I felt let down. Wasn’t God supposed to listen to your
prayers? Maybe he only listened to your prayers if you were a good
person. Which I’m not fully sure that I
am
. Or maybe it just took time. Time
that I didn’t have. Whatever the answer, I took a few deep breaths
and started running again, figuring that I’d better take out the
security cameras first so I might make it to the Director’s lair
undetected. I had only a hazy idea of where the camera room was,
though I knew for sure it was on the first floor. Which
conveniently, according to Siegfried, was the one I was on. I
continued running, stopping briefly to catch my breath whenever I
dared.

Alarms were going off all over the building
and I heard the sound of running footsteps in the distance. Either
wardens or Tormentors, I wasn’t sure. The footsteps grew closer so
I slammed open a door and dived inside, hoping they’d pass me
by.

But as you should know by now, my Bookish
Friend, luck is never on my side. I was in a room full of doctors,
all turning to look at me in surprise upon my entry. They started
to spasm and shake, features turning strangely glassy as they began
to transform not into Tormentors, but into Monsters. Which I guess
was a slight improvement...

Not wanting to stick around, I dived back
out of the door, colliding with two wardens who had been running
by. We all hit the ground in a tumble but I reacted quicker,
kicking out with a foot and catching one of them on the chin. The
second grabbed at me, wrapping his hand around my arm until I bit
him. Hard. He screamed in pain and I took the chance to scramble to
my feet and take off at a fast hobble.

I glanced back to see them too transforming,
no longer rolling on the floor in pain, but with those odd,
seizure-like movements that heralded a transformation. They were
turning into those same, glassy-looking Monsters like the rest of
them.

The wardens and doctors fortunately seemed
slower in Monster form, but I was none too fast myself at the time.
We were about evenly matched in speed, though at this point I was
outnumbered twelve to one, a whole swarm of the creatures having
gathered in pursuit behind me.

A chilling thought occurred to me as I
continued to flee. Unless the Director himself was in the security
room watching every single video screen with unflinching diligence,
then the fact that his minions transformed almost instantly upon
spotting me meant something worse... He could see whatever any of
them could see. I did not like that thought.

As much as I disliked it though, I couldn’t
keep up the pace much longer. My breath had grown ragged and my
legs were on fire. I made it to the nearest door, almost collapsing
against it before wrenching it open. Staggering inside, I slammed
it shut, feeling desperately for a lock of some kind. To my utmost
delight, my hand met the hard metal of a deadbolt which I promptly
slid shut. The door was locked.

My pursuers piled into it behind me, shaking
the frame with the force of their impact, but it held fast. I
smiled and at last turned to survey the room I was in, hoping there
might be another exit.

It was at that moment that I had an unusual
mixture of both good and bad luck. Good: I had inadvertently
wandered into the security room, one wall full of TV screens
displaying what each and every security camera throughout Atrium
could see. Bad: Not only was there no other exit in the room, but
there were also three surprised looking wardens, already starting
to spasm with the telltale signs of a forthcoming transformation
into a Monster.

I ran forward and grabbed the nearest one,
slamming his head into the wall before the transformation could
complete. Rather conveniently, it knocked him unconscious, just
leaving me two foes to deal with instead of three.

Both who remained began grinning at me in a
strange, unnatural sort of way, as if their expressions were just
pasted on to an otherwise emotionless dummy. The door behind me
shook once more as the darkness without closed in.

"Why do you follow the Director so
willingly?" I asked, stalling for time. "What can he really offer
you?"

They didn’t reply, slowly walking towards me
until my back hit the wall. Apparently they savored fear just as
much as Tormentors did.

"Unlock the door," one of them said, his
voice sounding just like the falsity portrayed on his face. "Unlock
the door and you live."

"Are you truly going to let the Director
control your every action?" I asked, still trying to stall until
some saving strategy occurred to me.

The one who had spoken reached out a hand
towards me as if to strangle, but he never got the chance. Mousy
launched himself from beneath my Snoopy Cap like an angry bullet of
fur, teeth bared. He latched onto the Monster’s hand, rustling
angrily as it shrieked in agony. I took the moment of distraction
to leap at the second Monster, bearing him to the ground as my
hands wrapped around his throat.

I squeezed with all the strength I could
muster and was rewarded by the crackle of breaking glass. I
realized in alarm it had come from the Monster I held. His very
features seemed to crack. I just squeezed all the harder, watching
him shatter beneath my fingers. Features cracking, cracking,
fractures running up and down his entire body. Then in an instant
he shattered, collapsing into nothing more than a pile of glass.
Mirror glass. It cut my hands but I hardly noticed. I was already
rising up to attack the other Monster, who was wildly banging his
hand against the wall trying to knock Mousy off.

Charging him at the knees, we both went to
the ground, an oomph escaping from him as his head rapped against
the hard floor. I knelt on top of him, grabbing him around the
sides of the head with both hands and repeatedly bashing it into
the floor. Two strikes and he cracked, and I was smart enough this
time to leap backwards before he shattered completely.

I glanced briefly at the third warden, but
he was still unconscious and still human. Now I only had to deal
with the dozen monsters that were pounding the door down. Aren’t I
the lucky one?

Figuring I might as well at least destroy
the camera system before giving things up as hopeless, I looked
around for a suitable bludgeon with which to destroy it. A small
brief case sat innocently in one corner. How it got there, who
knows, but it seemed solid enough. I took it up in both hands and
turned to the control console beneath the monitors.

It was sturdy and made to be durable. A few
whacks made that clear soon enough. So I just broke the screens
above it instead. Even if the controls were in perfect working
condition, the screens would be at least too wrecked for anyone to
see what I was up to.

The pounding on the door increased in fury
and I figured either more Monsters had joined the group, or they
had found some better, more effective battering ram.

"No one’s home," I muttered, turning back to
survey the monitors. With a shrug, I started bashing them in, one
by one. It was as I neared the completion of my task that I
hesitated, for I had reached the screen that showed this very
room.

It showed two piles of glass from the slain
monsters, the third unconscious and human. That was as it should
be. But what made me hesitate was the fact that neither I, nor
Mousy, appeared to be on the screen.

Confused, I looked around until I spotted
the nearby camera, tucked into a corner of the room. I waved my
arms around and stuck out my tongue, making certain I was directly
beneath the camera. Still, the monitor did not show me. Neither did
it show Mousy or even my Snoopy Cap. Now I knew why the Tormentors
hadn’t caught up to me. I wasn’t visible on the cameras!

Intrigued and more than slightly disturbed,
I bashed the last two screens just in case and then started to
search for some kind of exit. The door shook again, but they didn’t
seem to be having much luck.

Mousy joined me in the search and it was
only moments before I heard a rustle from him. I stepped over to
where he stood and followed his gaze upwards to a small vent in the
ceiling. Probably an air-conditioning vent, but it was just my
size.