Nillium Neems

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