Ann could hear the drums pounding, so loudly that they seemed to rattle her brain. No matter how she covered her ears, the sound still made its way through. She stumbled through the darkness, struggling to cover her ears against the noise while keeping a hand out in front of her.
“Help me!” Keith’s voice called out, sounding surprisingly clear despite the drums. “Help me.”
“I'm coming!” Ann was yelling but couldn’t make out her own voice. Suddenly, she tripped over something and landed flat on her face. Looking up from the floor, she found herself staring into the eyes of a giant black lizard. Ann screamed and pushed herself away, but it simply hissed at her and then made its way farther into the darkness. On her hands and knees she pushed forward, eyes darting back and forth for more lizards.
“Keith!” she shouted again, still not hearing her own voice.
“Here, Ann, I'm here. Save me please,” Keith pleaded.
Abruptly, the ground underneath Ann seemed to tilt forward and she slid face-first down a hill. She tried to dig her hands in to gain purchase but fell faster and faster into darkness. Then, just as quickly, she was underwater. No, this wasn’t water, but something thicker, like oil. Ann struggled to right herself and get her head out of the liquid, which turned out to be shallow. She found the ground with her hands and pushed herself up. Bursting out of the goo, she gasped, trying to recover lost air. She clawed at the gunk, trying to clear her face and eyes, panic rising. She found that she could stand, the stuff just reaching her waist.
“Well, if it isn’t little Ann!” The voice was almost Vanessa's, although somehow deeper and more terrible. “You aren’t looking for this, are you?” It was Vanessa, a monster version of her. Her head was human but her body was that of a black-scaled demon. Giant bat-like wings protruded from her back, and in one giant talon she held Keith by the neck. “Give us a kiss, lover,” Vanessa said and raised Keith's head to hers. He did not resist, and just lay where he was. They kissed. “I told you before, Ann. He’s mine. However, because I'm a nice person, I did bring some friends for you to play with.” At her words, huge black snakes leapt up out of the black goo, coiling themselves around Ann. She screamed and tried to pull them away. She tried to wade forward but a snake had wrapped itself around her legs. Ann bucked forward and then managed to right herself, regaining her balance. She ripped off snake after snake, until one finally pinned her arms to her sides. Ann kept screaming, trying to break free, but its grip was like iron. Another snake had gotten around her neck and for a moment, locked eyes with Ann. Then it dove into her mouth, sliding its way down her throat.
Ann woke with a start, sitting up in bed. Sunlight filled the sparsely decorated apartment, giving everything a clean, pure look. Glancing around, she was stunned to find that she was in Keith's apartment, totally nude. Keith's sleeping body was next to her, his naked back showing clearly in the tangled sheets. A feeling of pure joy filled her heart. Everything was alright now. It had all been a strange dream.
“Oh Keith, honey,” she said, tugging at his arm. “You would not believe the dream I just had.”
He didn’t respond. With some effort, she rolled him over to face her. His eyes were open and completely black and there was something dark and sticky oozing out of the corner of his mouth.
For the second time, Ann awoke with a scream, falling off the couch. On the floor, her body spasmed as her mind again tried to take in her new surroundings. Her eyes darted around the room. She was at Lizzie’s place. Safe at Lizzie's place. She heaved a huge sigh of relief and tried to stop trembling. A nightmare double feature.
It was still dark out and the clock showed 5:00 am. Ann was covered in sticky sweat and found 2 large clumps of her own blond hair in her hands. Ouch. She spent a few moments on the ground, trying to control her breathing. The nightmares of the past few weeks were getting worse. Always in the dark, with the drums, and always with those black snakes. What had that last part been about, in Keith's apartment? That had seemed so real. Which was worse, the nightmare or what had gone down at the hospital? Did that even really happen? Now she seemed unsure. Had Vanessa really started to turn into something else? Had there really been some kind of monster in that locked room? Looking back now, it was hard for her to believe. Something had happened though. She was convinced that whatever horror was at the hospital, Keith was involved. She needed to rescue him. Of that at least, she was sure.
Finally she stood, her mind made up. Her head hurt from the drinking the previous night, but not as badly as she had thought it might. Her stomach hurt too, but felt less like she was going to be sick and more like some muscle had tied itself up in a knot. She would find Keith and get to the bottom of this, even though it meant going back to that hospital. She shuddered at the thought but did not change her mind.
She found that she had no pants on and was wearing one of Lizzie's shirts. Lizzie was taller and broader than she was, so the shirt made for decent pajamas. She did not remember getting undressed, or much after the restaurant.
“Step one: find pants,” she said to herself, “Can’t save ex-boyfriend with no pants.”
After gathering her clothes and spending some time in the bathroom cleaning up, she found Lizzie in her computer room. Lizzie's ears were covered by large headphones. She jumped when Ann tapped her on the shoulder.
“AHHHH!”
“Sorry. It’s just me,” Ann raised her hands in front of her, fending off Lizzie’s defensive slaps.
“You scared the shit out of me!” she said, tearing off the headphones and sending a few more slaps her way. “How are you awake? You had enough booze last night to kill an elephant.”
“Ah, come on. I wasn’t that bad.” Ann shrugged.
“You were. I thought I was going to have to hold your head over the toilet all night. You really aren’t known for holding your liquor, you know.”
“Well, I'm fine. Hungry, actually.” Then, in a softer voice, Ann said, “Thanks for listening last night. I must have sounded like a crazy. I owe you huge.”
Lizzie smiled. “Yes, yes you did. And I charge extra for getting drunk bitches undressed and ready for bed on my couch.”
“You charge? I thought you paid extra for that.”
“Bitch. See if I tell you what I learned about your monster doctor.”
“OK, ok, I'm sorry. Thanks for that too.” She gave Lizzie a little hug. “Did you find anything?”
“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Lizzie grunted. “So first, this deadbeat of an ex-boyfriend of yours. I checked in on all his credit cards, no activity this week. Though for him, that’s not all that strange. He must live in that hospital. Also, no bank activity and he’s only been back to his house once.”
“How do you know that?” Ann broke in.
“I hacked the security cameras outside his apartment like 3 months ago. You know, just for fun. Thought I might get some embarrassing shots of you begging him to come back. ”
“Ouch. Now that was uncalled for,” Ann shook her head.
“However, this one night, you should probably see.” Lizzie brought up a screen, showing the parking lot outside Keith’s place. A black Nissan pulled up and Vanessa Black stepped out of the car. She was dressed in an evening gown, dolled up like she was going on a date.
“What day was that?” Ann snarled.
“That was Saturday night. She looks pretty human to me. I mean if you were a demon, wouldn't you fly or teleport or something?” There was a mocking tone to Lizzie's voice.
“Um, yeah right. Maybe she’s trying to stay undercover or something.”
Lizzie gave her a long hard look. After a moment she turned back to her screen. “On to demon woman.” She started again. “Let’s see, 5'10”, 36 years old, divorced, no kids. I have less info on her recent life. I know she's been at the hospital all week, except the one evening I have her on film.” Lizzie sighed.
“It’s pretty obvious to me that she and Keith have a thing going on. Other than that, I can't really say. Look, Ann, there’s nothing odd here.” Lizzie's voice became soft, gentle. “Maybe the other night between you and Keith was a goodbye and now he’s moved on. It’s a really shitty way to go about it, but the guy was never the most…” she paused, searching for the word, “tactful.”
“And so the whole monster in the hospital thing was?” Ann asked dryly.
“Well, maybe the patient you talked to got the idea of demons into your head, like a suggestion of sorts, and later on, when you had your little break...”
“Break? Like a breakdown? So now I'm crazy?” Anger began to boil up and out of Ann. Some of it was directed at Lizzie but she knew a lot of it was focused on Keith and herself. She glared at Lizzie, who put her head down, and let out a long sigh.
“Yes, well, just a little.”
“What?” Ann shouted.
Lizzie put a calming hand on her arm. “Look, you took this whole break-up thing really, really badly six months ago. You've been depressed ever since. I think…” Lizzie paused. “I think you need help.”
The rage came to a boil inside Ann. “Fine,” she stammered, “I've lost it. Poor crazy little Annie’s gone and lost her boyfriend and now she’s seeing monsters. No, okay? Just no! I saw something, I’m not nuts, I didn’t have any sort of a breakdown, and I was so over Keith!” She was shouting now. “There’s something going on and I'm going to get to the bottom of it, without your help.” She turned and stormed out of the room.
“Ann, wait...” Lizzie called, but Ann was done waiting. She ran out of the house, not turning back. She was doing a lot of running out of places lately. She might have to look into that.