collapsed into a puddle of tears at that point, but a sharp rustle from Mousy alerted me to the fact that we weren’t alone. I followed his gaze and met the terrified eyes of Dr. Higgins, crouched in a corner where I’d last seen him. He was so scared he hadn’t moved in all this time, for I don’t know how many hours.
"Higgins?" I said quietly, walking cautiously towards him. He flinched and held up a protective hand. His eyes seemed a bit glazed and I don’t think he even saw me for who I was.
"Please don’t hurt me," he whispered. His voice sounded raw, broken.
"I’m not going to," I said soothingly as I could manage, crouching down beside him. I thought I would hate him, but it was hard to hate a creature as wretched as this. I just felt pity for him.
He whimpered like a kicked dog.
"Dr. Higgins, I can stop the Tormentor’s. I can kill the Director. But I need your help."
"Why?" he wailed, his eyes unclouding and seeming to see me for the first time. "Why is this happening? What the Hell is happening?"
I put an arm on his shoulder, surprising myself as much as I surprised him.
"The Director is angry because I threaten his control. I don’t know why or how, but I’m different from the other patients. I can see him and his Monsters for what they are. But you need to help me, Higgins, if I am to stop him"
"I’m sorry, Nil," he replied, on the verge of sobbing. Whether it was fear or sorrow, I wasn’t sure. Probably a mix of both.
I thought back on how he had treated me, all of his tortures flooding my mind. But I didn’t feel anger for any of it, not now. He was broken enough.
"It’s okay, Higgins. Dr. Higgins. Just give me the help I need and all is forgiven."
He laughed at that. His laugh was too high-pitched and sounded demented.
"You mean like pumping you full of experimental drugs just to see what would happen?" he said, the sarcasm overriding his tears. "Using you and every other patient as test subjects, a way to get our new line of drugs passed by the FDA? And hey, if a few patients died during testing, who cared? You’re all just crazy anyways."
I had known the drugs they were using weren’t standard issue. What I’d read in his office had confirmed as much. But it still hurt to hear him admit it.
"That’s right," he continued, taking my silence for an answer. "You were our guinea pig. You and all the rest. Atrium Pharmaceuticals was going to be leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else, since all of our patient trials could be done for free. Using you people. A little unofficial testing is so... cost effective." Then he broke out laughing again, his laughter devolving into sobs that shook him to the core. "And I went along with it," he muttered through the sobs, "every single bit of it, I went along with."
"So... is that the Director’s purpose for this place?" I asked. "To use it as a testing ground for a new drug company?"
"N-no," Higgins managed, shaking his head emphatically. "T-that is only a minor bonus for him. What his main goal is I don’t know. Just that it’s d-darkness, darkness and shadow."
He was quiet a moment, and then continued.
"I-I can f-feel him, p-prying at m-my mind. T-trying to get in."
"And transform you like the others, into one of his Tormentors?"
He nodded, head bent downwards, too overwhelmed with emotion to speak any further. I grabbed him by the chin and turned it upwards.
"I can stop the Director if you help me," I said quietly. "I need you to tell me where his office is. How do I get there from here?"
Higgins nodded, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. He soon had something resembling his normal austere composure.
"A-alright. I’ll help you how I can. From here take the hallway to the right. G-go down it all the way, take another right and there will be an elevator. Take it to the third floor. You’ll be in the west wing. Go straight until you reach the library. Through the library and you’ll be at the executive offices. It is there that you will find the Director."
"Thank you," I said, getting up to leave. "Will you come with me, Dr. Higgins? Help me beat him and together, we can end his reign."
He shook his head in the negative.
"No, Nil. I will stay here. It’s only a matter of time till the Director breaks through and I become just like the others. I am resigned to my death. It is the fate that I deserve."
His decision seemed to give him some peace and I could see that there would be no convincing him. I left him like that, huddled fearfully in a corner, waiting for the end to come.
Mousy and I followed the directions of a dying man, more determined than ever to stop this. We found the elevator, not encountering any enemies, and I pushed the button for the third floor. I felt a sense of anticipation as the elevator rose. In my mind, it seemed to go on for a long, long time, rising towards a destiny unknown. It humbled me. To think that there was this big world out there, with big designs by evil characters like the Director. And here was small little me, standing up to them.
"Do you ever think there’s more than this, Mousy?" I asked.
He rustled. If I had been expecting some deep insight from him, I wasn’t going to get it. But maybe that deep insight had to come from within. Somewhere deep inside my heart. I just wish I knew what it was.
The elevator ‘binged’ and the door slid open. We walked straight down the path that was offered, following Higgins directions. The library doors reared before us, massive things on ball bearing hinges. I gave them a gentle push and they swung soundlessly open, revealing the cavernous space beyond.
Walking inside, I found it hard to believe that such a library had been constructed for the patients of Atrium. I had certainly never visited it, nor even heard of it. I suspected it was the Director’s personal little sanctum, built only after the death of Siegfried.
There was a hushed feeling, as in most libraries, when I padded across the richly carpeted flooring. Words like grand and antiquity surfed through my mind as I took in the vast space before me. Spiral stairs leading to a second level, twisted columns with ornate sculpturing, curved arches. It had it all. Without even looking, I knew that nothing as obscene as a paperback novel from the New York Time’s bestseller list would be found here. All of the books were hardcover, old, and probably very expensive.
I was so taken with it all that I almost didn’t notice the thin little man who stood by the door on the far side of the room. He looked like a butler or servant of some kind, dressed all in black, probably in his fifties. His polished brass skin marked him as a Tormentor and gave him the appearance of a well-dressed statue.
"Hi!" I said cheerfully, waving at him. "I’m Nillium Neems. What’s your name?"
He gave me a curt bow in reply.
"I am the Treasurer of Atrium Psychiatric Ward and personal aid to the Director. I was instructed to await you here in case you made it this far."
"Well, obviously I have. So what’s with this place, Statue Man? The Director must have expensive taste."
Another bow, a certain elegance to his movements. At least the guy had class.
"It is the Director’s personal little treasure. He never need leave Atrium with this here. For in this place, he has access to all the world. The poetry of Robert Frost, the witticisms of Mark Twain, the wisdom of Plutarch. He can travel to any continent in the world through this room."
I frowned in thought.
"So you’re saying that he’s a reclusive old man who reads a lot and has no idea how to live outside of Atrium?"
The Elegant Statue just gave me a weary smile.
"Why do you continue to resist us? You are so weak, so small, so you use words against us, to fight us, to make fools of us. Why? How can you possibly imagine that will achieve anything?"
He had a point and it really did make me think for a minute. Why did I keep fighting when I was fighting an impossible battle against monstrous entities? It wasn’t something as noble as the wor
ds ‘because someone has to’. But maybe it was something close.
"Hope." I said. "Hope is why I’m not giving up. I never asked for this life, nor anything that has happened. And I have hope, that if I don’t give up, I will win."
The Elegant Statue seemed to consider my words for a minute, and then nodded, accepting what I’d said. He then spread his arms to encompass the room we stood in.
"This room has a second purpose, Nillium Neems. It is the Director’s sanctuary, but it is also the gateway. The only way to reach his office is through this library."
I let my gaze travel around the room, taking it all in. Then back to the Tormentor who stood before me.
"So?"
"If you wish to enter his office, you first must pass safely through the gateway. If you can, of course."
And with one last polite bow, the Elegant Statue stepped lightly backwards through the doors, closing them behind him and leaving us alone. Mousy hopped down from my shoulder, landing upon the ground and standing by my side, sniffing the air.
Seconds passed and nothing happened. Mousy looked up at me questioningly. I shrugged.
"Well, there doesn’t seem to be-" and then something shot out from behind a book shelf so fast it was a blur. I think it was reflexes alone that saved my leg as I leapt sideways, rolling as I hit the ground and coming to my feet. There was no sign of our attacker.
Glancing briefly down at my leg, I saw a hot trickle of blood dripping down the side. I hadn’t even felt it cut me, but there was a deep