Nillium Neems

front of them and shielding me from them. "I’ve talked to this girl many times and she is not evil! She is not insane! She does not deserve what you are about to do to her. A lobotomy is a crude and barbaric method of ‘treatment’ that has been banned in more than one place across the world. You can’t just tear into someone’s brain!"

  Sirius held up a hand for his minions to halt. It was obvious that he was the head doctor here. He then waved the same hand questioningly at Hammy.

  "Go on, Dr. Flagham."

  Hammy took a step towards Sirius, taking courage from the fact that his words seemed to have effect.

  "Nillium Neems is a sweet and logical girl. She suffers from schizophrenia, a disease which causes hallucinations. Hallucinations that she can see and hear, things that she believes to be real. But that does not make her insane. She is a young girl, Dr. Sirius. Only twenty years old."

  "Twenty is old enough to commit murder, Dr. Flagham. And there are worse things in this Ward than a mere lobotomy. I would be thankful that a lobotomy is the extent of the treatment I recommend for her. I could suggest something more... severe to the Director of Atrium."

  Hammy colored with anger, taking another step towards Sirius.

  "Nil has told me, Dr. Sirius, about these ‘monsters’ that she sees. Though she does see hallucinations, I am half-inclined to believe that those monsters she fears are here in this very room!"

  "Only half-inclined?" interjected Dr. Higgins, stepping up beside Sirius and raising an eyebrow. "Really, 'Hammy' you always were one for half measures. I’ve spoken to Sirius about your ineptness as a doctor on several occasions. He has always replied that you seem to do a decent enough job for us to keep you around. But now I’m hoping he might see things from my perspective?" he added, turning around to raise that questioning eyebrow towards Dr. Sirius.

  Sirius pursed his lips for a moment in contemplation, his eyes flicking from me to poor Hammy, who still stood protectively before me, trembling a little with rage and perhaps fear.

  "Dr. Flagham?" he asked, voice monotone. "I will ask you once. Are you with us or are you against us? Atrium Psychiatric Ward offers many lucrative opportunities for a dedicated doctor. You could go far..."

  "I am against you," replied Hammy. I would have cheered if I could, for he said it without a note of hesitation, though his voice shook. "I do not like the way you do business here. I do not like the way patients are treated. I do not like the way that shock therapy or a lobotomy is always the answer, instead of trying to show a little kindness. I quit. And if you dare to harm poor Nil, then I will take this up at the highest level. I will see to it that you all get your just rewards, including the Director himself!"

  Dr. Higgins went red and took a few angry steps towards Hammy before Sirius held up a warning hand.

  "I am a fair and reasonable man, Dr. Flagham. Thus I’m willing to give you a chance to further explain yourself. Why do you feel so strongly about this girl, this ‘Nil’ person? What does she mean to you?"

  Something in Hammy’s countenance changed and I saw fear no longer present on his face. He seemed to stand a little taller, and the look of righteous anger he speared Sirius with made him seem like an entirely different man.

  "I will tell you what she means," Hammy began, his voice coming out with a thick English accent. It was the voice of Siegfried. "Nillium Neems is the only hope this hell has for a future. The only hope that you all have. For we are done with being tormented, done with the sick experiments and the death and the fear that pervade this place. You are corrupt and evil men, but you do not realize, even in your villainy, that you are influenced by something far worse. You are controlled by a demon incarnate that uses horrors like the Hooded Man as mere play things, sating itself with the terror the Tormentors invoke."

  "Who are you?" asked Higgins. "What kind of nonsense are you speaking, Flagham, what game are you playing?"

  "Dr. Henry Flagham is still here," replied Siegfried, " and was kind enough to willingly let me confront you all. For he is starting to Believe. My own name is Siegfried Von Nillium, former director of Atrium Psychiatric Ward. Dedicated to helping the mentally challenged since I founded it fifty-one years ago, this was once a blessed place. As is known in the records of this Ward, assuming that you haven’t destroyed them, I died in my office of a heart attack."

  Anger began to enter Siegfried’s voice as he continued.

  "It was actually a carefully applied ten-milliliter syringe full of air into a vein, causing an air bubble to block my heart, but hey, it was the same effect so I guess that’s all that matters. And since my unfortunate death, pathetic mongrels like you, Dr. Higgins, seem to have done your best to make a mockery of my work. The Director himself most of all. Now we, the spirits of the fallen, are done..."

  "So you’re telling me that you’re some kind of ghost?" Higgins asked incredulously. "Do you really expect me to believe that garbage?"

  Siegfried smiled thinly.

  "It is debatable what the ‘garbage’ in this room might be. But believe me or not, I am telling you all, doctors and wardens alike, that you have one chance to be saved from the evil that has you in its grasp. And she," and here Siegfried pointed a quivering finger at me, still strapped into the torture chair, "is the only hope that we have."

  Higgins opened his mouth to reply but Dr. Sirius shut him up with a raised hand.

  "Obviously, Nillium is not the only one in this room who’s hopelessly insane." he said it almost smugly, the first hint of emotion I’d heard from the man. "Grab and restrain Dr. Flagham please, gentlemen. It appears we have two patients in need of a little brain surgery."

  As the two lesser doctors stepped forward to obey, Siegfried pulled a scalpel from his lab coat and lashed towards them, a long horizontal slice followed by a quick upwards thrust. Both doctors fell to the ground dead. Siegfried then turned and slashed my bonds. I slumped to the floor, free, but lacking the strength to get up.

  "I know it hurts, Nil," he said softly, "but you have to run for our sake. Run and stop them. Stop every last one of them and confront the Director."

  "You said your name was Siegfried Von Nillium?" I asked, getting a hand under me and pushing myself up, though every ache in my body protested. "Are we related?"

  "I’m your father, Nil, slain by a power hungry fool. As soon as I clear the path you must run. The Director is on the third floor, west wing, office 33A. Two floors up from this one. Kill him. Any Tormentors you encounter, kill them too. This evil must end. Kill anyone who stands in your way. All of us are counting upon you, Nil."

  I looked at Sirius, Higgins, and the few remaining doctors who stood between me and escape. All of them looked concerned by the threat of SiegfriedHammy’s scalpel except for Sirius.

  "There are cameras in this room, Dr. Flagham," Sirius said calmly. "Security is already well aware of your actions, and I have no doubt they are being reported to the Director as we speak. Drop the scalpel and submit to us before you incur his wrath."

  I thought that Siegfried would say something defiant or brave, but instead the color drained from his face. He was scared, the weapon trembling slightly in his hand.

  "God protect you," he said quietly to me, and then charged towards Dr. Sirius, thrusting forwards with the scalpel.

  It seemed as if time slowed in that moment, the blade in momentum but barely moving as a darkness descended upon the room. I saw it more in my mind’s eye than in reality, a dark, swirling mist pouring from the ceiling and into the room. It hovered above us all, a looming storm cloud, a portent of an evil to come, before it condensed above Sirius. Pouring into the doctor, he started to quiver and spasm as if from seizure. His skin dried and flaked before my eyes, as if mummified in an instant, falling away and leaving nothing behind but a rotting skeleton. It grinned obscenely at us and its fingers lengthened into pointed claws.

  I thought for a moment that Sirius was revealing his true nature, a hidden
Tormentor all this time, but as all the other doctors started to transform as well, I knew it had to be the Director’s doing. For not only did we now face a Skeleton, but four other creatures as well, surely Tormentors like the Killer and Hooded Man.

  One doctor’s flesh hardened into wood, turning a once ordinary looking man into a sick and Twisted Puppet, like some kind of wicked Pinocchio. Another melted before my eyes into a puddle of Green Ooze, one sludgy arm reaching up from the mass. Two more fell together and merged into one, a two headed and four armed Scarecrow, purple droplets dripping down his brow like sweat. And Dr. Higgins, poor Dr. Higgins, refused to obey his master and remained himself, flawed yet human.

  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