Nillium Neems (13 page)

"Less what?" I asked, cocking my head
sideways in question.

"Less than the Director."

I grinned. I couldn’t help it, for I saw
where this conversation was going.

"Is this an I help you and you help me sort
of thing?" I asked.

His eyes glittered again. They reminded me
of blinking Christmas lights. One moment dead, the next bright and
shining. But only for a second.

"Bring Siegfried and all of his followers to
the Director’s office. Kill him, and I will ensure you leave Atrium
unharmed."

My grin faltered.

"Is this more of a ‘let’s be buddies while I
lead you into a trap’ sort of thing?"

Once again that creepy glitter. Like the
sparkle off pirate’s coins. Pirate’s coins soaked in the blood of
dead men.

"Just bring him there. I will distract the
Director. Thanks to my efforts, he believes you are hiding on the
second floor right now. All of his efforts are concentrated there.
I cannot promise you will remain completely unmolested, but your
journey to his office should be relatively free from encounter.
Good luck, little Neems."

He turned to leave, seeming to float instead
of walk away from me. Stopping a moment, he turned his head back to
glance at me one last time.

"What is it you want, Nillium Neems?"

I thought about it for a moment. What did I
want? Peace, I guess. Hope. Happiness. An ending to all of this.
Yes, that was it. I nodded to myself.

"An end."

The Ethereal Vulture stared at me for a
moment. He gave me that creepy, sharpened smile again.

"I think I can give you that, Nillium
Neems." and he floated away, down the hall and out of sight.

I felt Mousy shivering up on my shoulder. I
must admit, I felt like doing the same myself.

"Come on, Mousy. Let’s get moving."

Less than a minute later we reached the room
where I’d last seen Higgins. I opened the door and darted in,
anxious not to be caught. Once I was in however, I felt hesitant to
proceed. People had died for me in here.

I saw the squashed remains of the Mushrooms.
I knelt down beside them and ran a hand through the remnants. Tears
welled up behind my eyes and I let them flow without shame. The
little guys had helped me a lot and only been squished for their
efforts. A few teardrops dripped off my chin. Glancing up, my eyes
met the dead gaze of Hammy. He too had counted on me, and I felt
like I’d let him down.

I think I would have collapsed into a puddle
of tears at that point, but a sharp rustle from Mousy alerted me to
the fact that we weren’t alone. I followed his gaze and met the
terrified eyes of Dr. Higgins, crouched in a corner where I’d last
seen him. He was so scared he hadn’t moved in all this time, for I
don’t know how many hours.

"Higgins?" I said quietly, walking
cautiously towards him. He flinched and held up a protective hand.
His eyes seemed a bit glazed and I don’t think he even saw me for
who I was.

"Please don’t hurt me," he whispered. His
voice sounded raw, broken.

"I’m not going to," I said soothingly as I
could manage, crouching down beside him. I thought I would hate
him, but it was hard to hate a creature as wretched as this. I just
felt pity for him.

He whimpered like a kicked dog.

"Dr. Higgins, I can stop the Tormentor’s. I
can kill the Director. But I need your help."

"
Why?
" he wailed, his eyes unclouding
and seeming to see me for the first time. "Why is this happening?
What the
Hell
is
happening?"

I put an arm on his shoulder, surprising
myself as much as I surprised him.

"The Director is angry because I threaten
his control. I don’t know why or how, but I’m different from the
other patients. I can see him and his Monsters for what they are.
But you need to help me, Higgins, if I am to stop him"

"I’m sorry, Nil," he replied, on the verge
of sobbing. Whether it was fear or sorrow, I wasn’t sure. Probably
a mix of both.

I thought back on how he had treated me, all
of his tortures flooding my mind. But I didn’t feel anger for any
of it, not now. He was broken enough.

"It’s okay, Higgins. Dr. Higgins. Just give
me the help I need and all is forgiven."

He laughed at that. His laugh was too
high-pitched and sounded demented.

"You mean like pumping you full of
experimental drugs just to see what would happen?" he said, the
sarcasm overriding his tears. "Using you and every other patient as
test subjects, a way to get our new line of drugs passed by the
FDA? And hey, if a few patients died during testing, who cared?
You’re all just crazy anyways."

I had known the drugs they were using
weren’t standard issue. What I’d read in his office had confirmed
as much. But it still hurt to hear him admit it.

"That’s right," he continued, taking my
silence for an answer. "You were our guinea pig. You and all the
rest. Atrium Pharmaceuticals was going to be leaps and bounds ahead
of everyone else, since all of our patient trials could be done for
free. Using you people. A little unofficial testing is so... cost
effective." Then he broke out laughing again, his laughter
devolving into sobs that shook him to the core. "And I went along
with it," he muttered through the sobs, "every single bit of it, I
went along with."

"So... is that the Director’s purpose for
this place?" I asked. "To use it as a testing ground for a new drug
company?"

"N-no," Higgins managed, shaking his head
emphatically. "T-that is only a minor bonus for him. What his main
goal is I don’t know. Just that it’s d-darkness, darkness and
shadow."

He was quiet a moment, and then
continued.

"I-I can f-feel him, p-prying at m-my mind.
T-trying to get in."

"And transform you like the others, into one
of his Tormentors?"

He nodded, head bent downwards, too
overwhelmed with emotion to speak any further. I grabbed him by the
chin and turned it upwards.

"I can stop the Director if you help me," I
said quietly. "I need you to tell me where his office is. How do I
get there from here?"

Higgins nodded, taking a few deep breaths to
calm himself. He soon had something resembling his normal austere
composure.

"A-alright. I’ll help you how I can. From
here take the hallway to the right. G-go down it all the way, take
another right and there will be an elevator. Take it to the third
floor. You’ll be in the west wing. Go straight until you reach the
library. Through the library and you’ll be at the executive
offices. It is there that you will find the Director."

"Thank you," I said, getting up to leave.
"Will you come with me, Dr. Higgins? Help me beat him and together,
we can end his reign."

He shook his head in the negative.

"No, Nil. I will stay here. It’s only a
matter of time till the Director breaks through and I become just
like the others. I am resigned to my death. It is the fate that I
deserve."

His decision seemed to give him some peace
and I could see that there would be no convincing him. I left him
like that, huddled fearfully in a corner, waiting for the end to
come.

Mousy and I followed the directions of a
dying man, more determined than ever to stop this. We found the
elevator, not encountering any enemies, and I pushed the button for
the third floor. I felt a sense of anticipation as the elevator
rose. In my mind, it seemed to go on for a long, long time, rising
towards a destiny unknown. It humbled me. To think that there was
this big world out there, with big designs by evil characters like
the Director. And here was small little me, standing up to
them.

"Do you ever think there’s more than this,
Mousy?" I asked.

He rustled. If I had been expecting some
deep insight from him, I wasn’t going to get it. But maybe that
deep insight had to come from within. Somewhere deep inside my
heart. I just wish I knew what it was.

The elevator ‘binged’ and the door slid
open. We walked straight down the path that was offered, following
Higgins directions. The library doors reared before us, massive
things on ball bearing hinges. I gave them a gentle push and they
swung soundlessly open, revealing the cavernous space beyond.

Walking inside, I found it hard to believe
that such a library had been constructed for the patients of
Atrium. I had certainly never visited it, nor even heard of it. I
suspected it was the Director’s personal little sanctum, built only
after the death of Siegfried.

There was a hushed feeling, as in most
libraries, when I padded across the richly carpeted flooring. Words
like grand and antiquity surfed through my mind as I took in the
vast space before me. Spiral stairs leading to a second level,
twisted columns with ornate sculpturing, curved arches. It had it
all. Without even looking, I knew that nothing as obscene as a
paperback novel from the New York Time’s bestseller list would be
found here. All of the books were hardcover, old, and probably very
expensive.

I was so taken with it all that I almost
didn’t notice the thin little man who stood by the door on the far
side of the room. He looked like a butler or servant of some kind,
dressed all in black, probably in his fifties. His polished brass
skin marked him as a Tormentor and gave him the appearance of a
well-dressed statue.

"Hi!" I said cheerfully, waving at him. "I’m
Nillium Neems. What’s your name?"

He gave me a curt bow in reply.

"I am the Treasurer of Atrium Psychiatric
Ward and personal aid to the Director. I was instructed to await
you here in case you made it this far."

"Well, obviously I have. So what’s with this
place, Statue Man? The Director must have expensive taste."

Another bow, a certain elegance to his
movements. At least the guy had class.

"It is the Director’s personal little
treasure. He never need leave Atrium with this here. For in this
place, he has access to all the world. The poetry of Robert Frost,
the witticisms of Mark Twain, the wisdom of Plutarch. He can travel
to any continent in the world through this room."

I frowned in thought.

"So you’re saying that he’s a reclusive old
man who reads a lot and has no idea how to live outside of
Atrium?"

The Elegant Statue just gave me a weary
smile.

"Why do you continue to resist us? You are
so weak, so small, so you use words against us, to fight us, to
make fools of us. Why? How can you possibly imagine that will
achieve anything?"

He had a point and it really did make me
think for a minute. Why did I keep fighting when I was fighting an
impossible battle against monstrous entities? It wasn’t something
as noble as the words ‘because someone has to’. But maybe it was
something close.

"Hope." I said. "Hope is why I’m not giving
up. I never asked for this life, nor anything that has happened.
And I have hope, that if I don’t give up, I will win."

The Elegant Statue seemed to consider my
words for a minute, and then nodded, accepting what I’d said. He
then spread his arms to encompass the room we stood in.

"This room has a second purpose, Nillium
Neems. It is the Director’s sanctuary, but it is also the gateway.
The only way to reach his office is through this library."

I let my gaze travel around the room, taking
it all in. Then back to the Tormentor who stood before me.

"So?"

"If you wish to enter his office, you first
must pass safely through the gateway. If you can, of course."

And with one last polite bow, the Elegant
Statue stepped lightly backwards through the doors, closing them
behind him and leaving us alone. Mousy hopped down from my
shoulder, landing upon the ground and standing by my side, sniffing
the air.

Seconds passed and nothing happened. Mousy
looked up at me questioningly. I shrugged.

"Well, there doesn’t seem to be-" and then
something shot out from behind a book shelf so fast it was a blur.
I think it was reflexes alone that saved my leg as I leapt
sideways, rolling as I hit the ground and coming to my feet. There
was no sign of our attacker.

Glancing briefly down at my leg, I saw a hot
trickle of blood dripping down the side. I hadn’t even felt it cut
me, but there was a deep gash all the same. Mousy was turning his
head back and forth, searching for where our enemy went.

The faint thump of a knocked over book
hitting the ground alerted me to imminent attack, and my eyes swung
towards the source. There it was, coming out from behind another
shelf, sinuous, whip-like, and unearthly fast. In sheer panic I
kicked out a foot, catching it under the head as it rose to bite
once more.

To my delight, the blow sent it flying
backwards, hitting a wall and falling to the ground in a coiled
heap. I picked a heavy tome from the nearest shelf, and walked over
to finish the creature.

It was... a worm of some kind, a deep purple
in color. Five, maybe six feet long, multi-segmented, each segment
of its body like joined together rings. Wiry bristles covered its
body, which I assumed were used for locomotion. The strength of all
of them pushing at once would explain its great speed. Five small
tentacles sprouted from its face, framed by two huge mandibles
which must have been what cut me.

I raised the heavy book, ready to bring it
down upon the Purple Worm and end its monstrous life. Of course,
then it spoke to me. In Warden Copley’s voice.

"Please..." it gasped, "don’t kill me. I did
not... want to become this!"

I hesitated, book ready to strike. Copley
was a vicious man who had always treated me badly. But no man
deserved to become one of these monsters. He uncoiled slowly, as if
badly hurt. And then lunged, mandibles opened wide and taking me in
the ankle. I went down hard, the thud of my fall muffled by his
laughter as he struck me again.