Nillium Neems (8 page)

In alarm, I realized just how close I really
was to my room, spotting the corner where Derrick had led me into
an ambush. With a smile, I also realized that the room where I’d
met the Killer and dropped my journal was nearby. According to the
doctors it did not exist, meaning I would be safe from discovery
within it.

Running towards it, hoping
that it
did
still
exist for me, I laughed aloud when I saw the door. I just hoped the
Killer wasn’t still in there. I opened it and dived inside,
slamming the door shut behind me. I leaned against it, holding the
door knob still with my hand. Minutes passed by before I heard
shouting and running footsteps. They continued on past the door,
soon fading further down the hallway. I was safe.

Letting out a smug sigh of relief, I turned
to observe the contents of this mystery room, hoping that I would
not find the Killer standing there waiting, knife in hand. I was
alone.

The room was just like that of any patient,
with a bed, an empty shelf, and a small toilet being the only
furnishings. It was perhaps darker than it should have been, the
whole room having a kind of gloom over it. But if gloom was all I
faced, then I could deal with that. My whole life I had lived in
gloom.

There was no body though, no sign of the
patient whose murder I had walked in on. Not even any blood stains.
Well, the doctors did through all their lies claim I was
schizophrenic. Maybe I had imagined it? But it was no time to start
doubting myself now. If I started doubting all that I’d been
through and seen, where would that leave me?

"Do you think I’m crazy, Mousy?" I asked,
reaching up and gently plucking him off my head, bringing him down
to eye level.

He rustled. I took it as a reassuring sort
of rustle that meant he trusted my sanity. At least, I hoped that’s
what it meant. He leapt out of my hands and scampered across the
floor into a corner. I followed him with my eyes and noticed with
delight that he had found my journal.

That made me happy. Picking it up and
thumbing through it to make sure all was as it should be, I took a
seat on the bed to rest my weary feet. Only then did I realize just
how tired I was. I laid my head back, intending to rest for just a
few minutes and regain at least a little of my flagging energy. At
some point, sleep took me, my body exhausted from the day's
endeavors...

Nil, Out (out cold, ha ha ha!)

Day 63

This morning was particularly disturbing,
even considering all the strangeness that is so common to my life.
I woke up to find the odd gloom that I had noticed upon entering
the room to be thicker, almost like fog. Worse, there was a
slightly blurry human head stained into the floor, its mouth opened
in a silent scream. The head was about five feet by five feet in
width, and I suspected it was that of the patient who had been
slain by the Killer. I hadn’t been seeing things afterall.

I should have been freaked out, but I was
more sad than anything. I knelt down beside the face and placed one
hand gently upon it.

"I’m no hero," I said quietly. "I can’t stop
the Killer and avenge you. I’m just a little girl. Scared and
fragile. I’m just Nillium Neems, no one more."

The face just stared back at me. I felt it
was mocking my decision. I glanced over at Mousy who was still with
me, asleep on his side and rustling contentedly. That gave me some
comfort. I picked the little guy up.

"Wake up, Mousy. It’s time to get
started."

He let out a snort-like rustle and blinked
his eyes open, staring up at me. I saw something more than just
rodent intelligence looking out of his ever-blue eyes, and for the
first time started to wonder just what Mousy truly was.

I put him back on my head, stuffed the
Snoopy Cap over him, and headed for the door. I glanced back once
at the face on the floor.

"I’m sorry," I said
quietly, and then turned back to the door, cracking it open to peer
outside. There was nobody in sight, so I edged my way silently out.
It occurred to me with approaching joy that I’d spent the night
away from my cell. A night doing what
I
wanted to do, instead of what the
doctors demanded. My heart lifting a little at that, I set off down
the hall, not really sure what my goal was now.

Figuring I might as well head upwards, I
went in the opposite direction of where Derrick had led me before,
moving quickly. I passed my old room on the way, unable to resist
the urge to stop and look through the little window that was set
into the door.

It was exactly as I had left it. The Book
sat back on the shelf, the Pocket Watch right below it. And look!
There was that stupid clock, up on the wall above, surely telling
the wrong time. I almost laughed aloud at how much that clock had
angered me. It seemed so small and pathetic in its tiny defiance of
me, the worst it could do being to get the time wrong.

Not able to help myself, I turned the door
knob. I almost leapt back in shock when it opened. My door was
unlocked...

Smiling now, I walked inside, careful not to
shut it behind me just in case it decided to lock itself, and I
wandered over to my little shelf. I picked up the Book and my
Pocket Watch, wishing that I had pockets to put them in. The Book
was weird, but it was mine and I was happy to have it back. As it
was, I would just have to hold my reclaimed possessions.

I turned to leave, knowing it was foolish to
dawdle. But glancing back once, taking in that space where I had
spent most of my life just one last time, I saw the hole in the
wall. The one Mousy had discovered what seemed like years ago and
where I’d felt something hard and smooth within.

Stepping quickly to it and plunging my hand
inside, I rummaged around and felt it brush against that same,
strange object that it had before. It was like a pipe, though it
didn’t feel as smooth as metal and was somewhat sticky to the
touch.

Gripping hard on it, I twisted it this way
and that, attempting to pull it loose. Not only did it prove
difficult to fit through the hole, but whatever stickiness covered
it seemed to hold it in place as if it were glued to the innards of
the wall. Gritting my teeth, bracing both feet against the wall, I
tugged with all of my might and felt it start to loosen.

Breathing hard, I sat back to rest for a
moment. Mousy rustled encouragingly. Heartened, I reached back in
and pulled once more. There was a pop as the object broke loose
from its bonds. I turned it around a few times until it was at the
right angle to fit through the whole.

Pulling it out, I can’t say I was surprised
when it turned out to be a human leg bone. Sticky with some kind of
gunk that looked suspiciously like dried blood, the bone was yellow
with age. It was like some gruesome remnant from a pharaoh’s tomb.
The blood, if it was blood, seemed to still be in the process of
drying. I held it in front of Mousy for inspection, and he looked
just as perplexed as I was.

"Why are there bones in the walls?" I said
quietly to myself, turning it this way and that.

There was a rustling within
the walls. But Mousy was out here with me, which meant it was
the
other
sort of
rustling. The kind that I never wanted to hear. I looked down at
the hole to see Derrick worming his way out, at one moment small
enough to fit in there, but rapidly growing back to his normal
size.

With a shout of rage I swung at him with the
bone I still held, but he was too quick for me and scurried around
to the other side of my bed, so that it stood protectively between
us. The bone shattered harmlessly against the floor, sending its
remnants in all directions.

"How dare you show your face back here!" I
screamed at Derrick, raising my fists.

He hissed at me in annoyance.

"I am not here to play games," he gargled at
me. "I am here for repentance, to atone for my betrayal."

"And how do you intend to do that?" I asked,
circling the bed towards him. I lunged. Derrick was a speedy fellow
and dodged deftly to the side, somehow making his way up the wall
and perching atop my untrustworthy clock. His legs dangled down in
front of it.

"I will show you a way out," he said,
holding up a hand for me to stop. "A way to freedom."

"Don’t lie to me, Derrick!’ I replied,
though he paid little attention to my anger. He almost looked smug,
staring down at me. At least that was, until Mousy bit him.

Forgotten by both of us, Mousy had made his
own way up the wall to the clock. He’d latched onto Derrick’s foot
with all of the strength that his tiny form held, making the
bogeyman howl in pain. Derrick tumbled down from the clock and
landed in a heap on the floor.

I walked over to him and placed one foot
almost delicately on his chest. My hand, seemingly of its own
volition, found its way around his throat.

"Tell me everything that you can, Derrick.
Every word of help you can speak or you’re dead."

He just whimpered in reply, small green
tears running from his eyes.

"Well?" I asked, tightening my grip.

"No fair!" he gurgled, and I realized that
he was more angry than scared. "You’re not playing fair!"

I tightened my grip further, until the
little monster whimpered.

"Alright,
alright
, what do
you
want
from me,
my sweet?"

"Anything that you can give me that might
help," I told him smugly. "Anything and everything."

Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good
about myself at that moment. For once in my life, I wasn’t the
victim and actually had some measure of power against one who had
caused me harm. Derrick stared up at me with his beady little eyes.
Mousy made his way down from the clock and sat on the floor beside
me, eyeing Derrick warily.

"Who is Siegfried?" I asked him, loosening
my grip just slightly so that he could respond. "What role does he
play in all of this?"

Derrick’s face clouded with annoyance.

"You ask me of
him
?
That
fool?"

"Yes, Derrick. Who is he?"

Derrick spat in disgust.
The spit landed right on my arm and then actually
moved
off and down to
the floor, crawling away into a corner. I tried not to pay it any
attention.

"Siegfried and your little mousy mouse are
nothing. Worms. Fools with a hopeless dream and a useless cause.
Forget them, my sweet."

I hit him across the face. Hard.

"Call me ‘my sweet’ one more time, and it
will go very hard with you Derrick."

He whimpered again. I couldn’t tell if his
fear was real or if he was planning to wriggle away somehow. I
tightened up my grip just in case.

"Don’t hurt me," he choked out. "Please,
waste no more time on thoughts of slugs and mice. We must think of
escape. Nillium Neems, the Director of this place, this heart, this
Atrium, cannot be slain. Siegfried’s cause is hopeless and will
lead you, lead us, only to death. Death, and worms, and rot. We
will escape, escape, together you and I. That is the way, the only
way, the way."

I stared hard into his mean little eyes. I
saw a lot of things in there, a lot of wickedness, but I also saw
truth. The maniac was sincere. He wanted escape as bad as me. In
some way or another, he was as much a prisoner as I was.

"If you want my help to escape, why did you
lead me right into the Wardens hands last time?" I asked.

Derrick smiled, a twisted, rotten little
smile.

"I could not resist! Escape was my want, my
way, my wish, but... it was too tempting. I could not help
myself."

My eyes narrowed and Derrick realized he’d
said just the wrong thing.

"But, but I will not betray
you this time," he blurted out quickly, tripping over his own
tongue. "I will not, will not,
will
not. We will escape together, freedom, freedom at
last."

I opened my mouth to reply, but was
interrupted when the door opened. The Hooded Man stood framed in
the doorway, hooks dangling from their chains and resting on the
ground. He then started towards us, left foot limping.

Cackling with mad glee, Derrick slipped out
of my grip and headed for the door, sidling around the Hooded Man.
He almost made it before one of those deadly hooks tripped him up,
dragging his prone body beneath the Hooded Man’s cloak.

I watched in paralyzed terror as Derrick’s
screams rent the air, so loud it was like nothing I’d heard before.
I don’t know what the Hooded Man did to him beneath that cloak, but
as he finished and began walking once more towards me, what was
left of Derrick trailed out behind him. And it was not very
much...

I picked Mousy up from the floor and shoved
him through the hole in the wall, so that at least he might be
safe. I then turned back to face the Hooded Man.

"I know what you are, Tormentor!" I said
frantically, searching for something, anything that might slow down
this abomination. "Siegfried told me all about your kind."

The Hooded Man didn’t even break stride,
walking till he had me cornered against a wall. He reached out a
pale hand towards me, stroking my cheek and whispering of death.
Fear overcame me, stark, raving terror. Lines of a poem I’d written
long ago, came back to me, a poem that I wrote to give me courage
against the fear.

Who is the Hooded
Man
/
that
monster with his chains
... One of his
hooks snaked out, wrapping around my ankle...
Whisperer of death
/
till no life yet remains...
It tugged hard, yanking me off my feet...
A stranger in the dark /
the sum of
all our fears..
. I struggled up, dazed,
but was knocked once more to the ground...
No weapon can assail him
/
neither sword nor pleas nor tears...
My head hit hard as I fell and my vision
swam...
An unstoppable assassin
/
a Tyrant if you
will...
Fear was all I felt, so much
fear...
No one left to stop him
/
no one left but
Nil...