Nillium Neems
attributing it to Hammy since he usually does stuff like that and seems to be the only doctor who actually cares. I’m sure they’ll take it away from me soon enough, but for the time being it’s kind of nice.
I heard the chink of something hitting the metal frame of my bed and looked up to see Derrick sitting on the end furthest from me, his grotesque feet dangling in the air as he read through my Bible. I don’t know what a bogey man looks like, but that’s the word that comes to mind whenever I see Derrick. He’s skinny, warty, and a bit shorter than me. I know he can fit down tiny holes when he wants to. That’s how he gets inside of the walls.
"Well?" I said, after staring at him for a moment. He continued reading for a minute longer, at last placing one long finger in the book to mark his spot and closing it.
"I come with intentions of peace, my sweet," he whispered in his gargly voice. "I mean you know harm..."
"You have nothing I want, Derrick. Just go away."
" I have nothing you want, this is true. But I can help you achieve what you want, if you will let me."
"Meaning?" I replied wearily. I was not in a mood to deal with this little freak today.
He gave me a wide, toothy grin. His teeth were small but sharply pointed, ideal for eating children probably.
"You want freedom. So do I. I will help you achieve yours, if you will help me achieve... mine."
I didn’t even bother to respond to that one, just rolling over and trying to get back to sleep. I knew that Derrick wouldn’t harm me while I was sleeping. He was a strange and dangerous creature, but I’d come to know his ways well over the years.
A rustling from beneath the bed reached my ears, and I opened my eyes again to see Mousy climbing up and onto my hand. That alone made me feel better. I liked Mousy. He rustled briefly and then looked at the door.
I followed his gaze and then opened my eyes wider still in alarm when I realized the door was open. The door to my room, the door to freedom, was opened before me.
"Did you do that?" I asked Derrick, who had an evil grin on his face.
"Freedom for us both," he whispered, hopping to his feet and heading for the exit. He stopped in the doorway and gestured for me to follow. Knowing in so many ways that it was a bad idea, I took Mousy in one hand, my journal in the other, and hopped out of bed. Donning my Snoopy Cap, feeling its reassuring weight upon my head, I left my room.
I didn’t have much of a plan. Be stealthy and make my way upwards was about the extent of it, since there was too much security on the ground floor. I’d try to find a way out via the roof or something. I glanced at Derrick who led the way a few steps in front of me, the book held tightly in one hand.
It’s eye was so bright it glowed through the book cover, lighting our way like a torch. The hall was already well lit though, and I feared the book’s glow would only draw attention.
"Derrick," I hissed, walking quicker to catch up with him. "You opened the door and everything which is cool, but what’s your plan from here?"
He only smiled, speeding up the pace and rounding a corner in the hallway. I had an awful premonition of doom as I lost sight of him. I continued another step or two anyways before Mousy rustled warningly, stopping me in my tracks. The hurried click of footsteps against the hard, polished floor reached my ears, and I knew I was about to be caught.
Panicked, not having many options for hiding spots, I dived through a random door and hoped no one would be in there.
As my luck would have it, not only was there someone in there, but I was just in time to witness a murder. Yay. My first impression was of blood. Blood everywhere. There was a patient lying on a bed attached to the wall in front of me, with a large man standing over him, stabbing downwards with a dagger.
The Killer must have been at least six feet tall, and was so grossly muscled, that he looked inhuman. Though I suppose the glowing red eyes that he turned upon me helped with that assumption.
As he rose to his full height, the blade in his hand dripping blood and hissing like a snake, he roared at me. Then he charged, dagger raised above his head. In horror I noticed how it twisted and writhed like a snake, growing longer as the Killer drew near.
It takes a lot to make me scream, but I screamed in fear nonetheless, diving through the door I had entered and out into the hallway. I slammed right into the doctor whose footsteps I had heard, knocking us both to the ground, and he too screamed as the Killer bore down upon us.
Rolling to the side, I heard the ringing sound of the dagger as it struck the floor where I had lain. Scrambling to my feet and away, I turned to see it whipping and flailing through the air like a scorpion’s tail as it searched for a target.
It struck the doctor in the chest as he rose and tried to flee. He let out a last gurgled scream before it threw him against the wall, his body crumpling to the ground, leaving me alone to face the Killer. I don’t know where Mousy had gone in the chaos, but I hoped he was safe.
We stood there facing each other for a moment, until I broke the standoff by waving awkwardly at the Killer.
"Hi, I’m Nillium Neems. Um, just because you’re all... monstrous, doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Maybe we just got off on the wrong foot. What do you say we start over?"
Its dagger shot towards me and I ducked, rolling under it and unfortunately, closer to my adversary. So I kicked him in the foot. I can’t say it helped much. All that muscle kind of protected the freak and all I did was hurt my own foot in the process.
As the Killer threw back its head and roared once more, I ran, limping slightly and making small whimpering sounds. I make no claims to bravery.
I fled down the same turn of the hallway that Derrick had taken, hoping there would be a chance to lose my pursuer. Two orderlies were rushing down the hall, batons drawn, curious to see what all the commotion was about.
They stopped in surprise at the sight of me and I used their moment of distraction to my advantage, ducking between them and continuing to run, heading for another turn in the hallway.
Another orderly running this way, doors on all sides of me, a Killer and two men behind me. I was running out of options. I lunged through the nearest door, praying it was open, and found myself in Lana’s room.
The floor and walls covered in chalk drawings, she sat in the middle of it all with a pad of paper and a huge smile, creating a work of art with her new pencil.
"Thank you for the pencil, Nil!" She said happily, waving at me. "It’s my new best friend and it listens to all my worries."
"Lana, you have to help!" I shouted, pressing my back against the door, hoping against hope that my diminutive frame could hold back my pursuers.
She just stared at me, and a moment later I was hurled backwards as the door burst open. I flew through the air and slammed into the nearest wall. I hadn’t even gotten to my feet before men were all over me, hitting me again and again.
"Lana!" I screamed in pain as she just stared. After a minute she went back to drawing, as if none of us had even been there.
I’m not sure how long they beat me, it couldn’t have been for more than a few minutes. But it seemed like hours. Dr. Higgins rushed through the door after a while, stabbing me with a syringe and pumping some kind of tranquilizer into my blood stream.
Just before sleep took me, I saw Derrick crouched outside the door, just out of sight, a vicious smirk upon his evil mug. I’d fallen right into his hands. There had been no freedom, just a chance to get me into deep trouble. Shucks.
Well, I guess looking on the bright side the Killer didn’t seem to have followed me. My luck still sucks eggs.
Nil, Out.
Day 16
Yesterday set a new record for unpleasantness. After I woke up from being tranquilized, I spent the whole day strapped to a chair being interrogated. Mainly by my best buddy, Dr. Higgins, though he had the help of another random doctor or two.
They wanted to know how I ha
d escaped my room and most of all, why and how had I killed Doctor Peabody. I tried explaining that I was blameless, that Derrick and the Killer were to blame. I even told them that I had walked in on the Killer stabbing another patient to, hoping to gain some honesty points with them.
Dr. Higgins raised an eyebrow.
"You killed someone else too, aside from Dr. Peabody?"
"NO!" I shouted, exasperated. "Aren’t you listening? I’m telling you it was the Killer, the monster with the snakey dagger thing. It’s all Derrick’s fault because he lied to me. Him and the Book."
"What book?" Higgins asked mildly.
So I had to explain everything, against my better judgment. I told him all about Derrick, Mousy, the Book, my room and all the strangeness. I told him about the Hooded Man and about Monsters, there was not a thing that I left out save for the disappearing hole in my wall, which somehow I felt was for me alone to know.
It made me angry the way he patiently listened. I could tell he wasn’t buying a word of it. I had just started to tune out his voice as he began to go on about how none of what I’d seen was real, and I was mentally disturbed. My mind was just starting to focus on fish in a basket and a lake of living water for some reason, when I was brought sharply back to reality. Higgins had just said that the room where I had met the Killer did not exist. That grabbed my attention.
I’d always been accused of seeing stuff that wasn't real, but it had