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