Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...
The sound what mocked him for a hours now, began to be more and more annoying. He was in the kind of situation you see in classic IF novels, weird situation. Set of black screens filled with blinking slash, waiting for a command. For example: Examine room – you can't open your eyes. Open your eyes – you can't open your eyes. Listen to the sound. And so on... back and forth, eternally.
It was a clock, second hand echoed in his ears, that and humming of unknown set of devices. How did he get in this kind of situation?
Rubber thing with needles stabbed through his whole body, provided a liquid medicine of some kind, but he could feel just the coldness... Hoses, the so called 'rubber hell', jigsaw, transparent rope, umbilical cord... Sense? When he tried to lift his right hand, it didn't do anything, however it was impossible to move anyway.
Something leather, maybe.
He tried left hand, kept going, only to get no reaction at all. There was no stress, he was too calm. Numb legs – No matter... in and out. Check lung capacity. Do it over and over again. Wheeze. Back and forth.
I am able to breath, at least.
Calmness disappeared, the world was invisible. Or his eyes bandaged. World was wrapped in bandage. Why was he in hospital, why he couldn't see. He searched in his memory drawer. No answer. Nothing. No, less than nothing. Oblivion.
Tik, tack, tik, tack, tik, tack, tik, tack...
Whoever invented that ticking thing, had his own asylum visits spent already. Why it was in hospital anyway? Is this hospital?
Something changed.
Why that sound changed?
Tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak...
Suddenly it seemed more like a gun, clicking, emptied. Maybe his brain modulated the sounds around him to made him remember the last moments before this. Sousuke braced himself for upcoming headache, steeled his memory, tried to clean it from that fog of oblivion. Dragging rag, back and forth. Some images what didn't make any sense appeared, no sense at all. Like flipping in an album of stranger's family. Then the pain invited itself. Thousands of needles started to stab his head, but not from outside, from inside the brain. He never felt that intensive pain, not in his brain at least. Brain has no pain sensors.
Tak, tak, tok, tak, tak, tok...
The frequency of the clicking was more and more distant between the clicks. Maybe its not a weapon, something else. Tension grew up in his body. A device on his middle finger. Monitoring of heartbeat or blood pressure. Something pointless like this, swelled his brain to the last cell. He needed to stay cool, think about current situation.
I can't... remember... why hospital?
What happened?
Suddenly his leg moved by instinct, pain grew with every click of that machine, brain thoughts set in soldier mode, head was spinning - they pumped him with something. Just a moment ago, he was calm, and now stressed as never before. The wearing effect of...
Sedatives.
His body started shaking, it was moving at last. Arms, he tried then after some effort lifted his left hand, no problem, that hand wasn't bound, another machine was there, not really sure what, maybe some kind of monitoring system on pressure again. Maybe not. He unbound it, felt the warm of lights in the room. Mind played tricks. Sharpness of that light may burn my eyes out. His arms still trembled and fingers slowly approached the fabric on his eyes. The motion stopped.
He was afraid of what he could see.
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...
But the sound of the clock was far more dangerous.
He removed the fabric.
White, the burning white, shaped into color of green, the same color when someone shoved flashlight into his eyes. It blinded him, but even in that state he jumped and twined around the room. The room itself didn't give any opportunity to focus. His eyes were half-closed, covering from the light. Sousuke walked around the room and wasn't able to lean himself onto the wall, he grabbed a table with some instruments, some of them fell with the strength he put in it. He sat again, onto his bed.
Why am i here? What the hell happened? And why is that number echoing in my head! 62343
Tick 6, tock 2, tick 3,... and so on... In an endless Vicious circle.
Number of clicks on that clock, what my subconscious counted?
Am i here for 17 hours now? He calculated.
His mind concentrated again.
Where is my gun!
But more importantly.
Is Chidori ok...?
It's just like Interactive Fiction, Examine becomesX, Look becomesL, Inventory becomes Inv Simplified to fit his needs. It's all Up, Up, North, North...
It's like IF, expect this is reality.
Sousuke unbound all the hoses and devices what doctors or whatever they were, stabbed into him. His body, not him, arose and moved to the door, the handle was cold, cold as death. The same death what somehow overlooked him.
In the corridor, some doctors and nurses walked , fitting they day-night shifts eternally, he needed a cover. Sousuke needed something to wear. His eyes focused, and like holy grail, wardrobe stood before him. Let's get out of here.
When he was done, he opened the door again, it seemed that the shift ended or something.
An opportunity to escape. I won't leave a good review about this hotel.
But before I leave, there is one more important thing to do. He left the broken clock behind him.
Sousuke headed towards one of the fire exits and opened door, the beam of light blinded him...
Then pain.
And dark.
The endless sweep. Melting wall. Solvable meaning. Self who can explain. Smoothness of changeable permeability. Transitioning time. Observation life and execution function. A pinky-less hand. Headless eyes. Rolling carpet. Once. Twice. Three times. Back. Forth. 777 cages. Burst balloon. Unfulfillable promise. Unprotectable law. Death contract. Poison and honey. Sedatives. Red and afterbirth. Mercury lamp and bug light. "Stop..." Light refracting to countless dimensions. Swimming fish, singing at the ocean bottom. Tools, tools, tools. Towards endlessly reproducing stars without meaning, without will. Better than wishes. Another only me. Unraveling deep sea. Contradictory that appears from microscopic organisms. Detailed view of a quark. Rejection of everything. Formless form. An embryo within a hearse. He cursed and celebrated their existence.
He grabbed his own head and hit the wall.
And then all the meaningless things were.
Gone.
Sedatives?
Sousuke got himself into the state of temporary placidity. The effect of sedatives disappeared. But was it for good?
He walked a lonely streets, dark and stormy streets, he was lost. Rain fell instantly and directly at his head, he was wet, tired and lost. He would ask or find someone to help him find his path home, but the state of his memory and mind were... well, bad. And of course there wasn't anyone in the rain
Now,I walk in the rain.
Falling droplets of blood. Still growing, rotten tomatoes.
"Shut up!"
Then...
...gone.
Chidori...
His thoughts betrayed him.
Just how did I put myself in this condition?
He realized that path was familiar, his apartment probably was near, he turned right and understood that his place was right before him. Sousuke turned around and examined situation at her apartment.
Still some light.
-
"...Yeah and he disappeared again, not like it's anything new of course..." Kaname said into the shining thing in her right hand.
"...exactly...yes, it's normal, but three days? Isn't there any law about report someone missing." She answered the mobile.
"Anyway, he will appear sooner or later, just don't worry too much about him."
"Good night to you too, and don't forget to bring me that notebook tomorrow!"
Kaname replied and the person on the other line remembered the time Sousuke forgot. She then put the mobile aside and was about to go sleep, that call came from nowhere anyway. Strange noise appeared, like footsteps of some kind, she moved towards the direction of it. There was nothing to worry about. But when she turned, someone who was wet and looked like a piece of garbage stood there. He panted hard.
"W-who, are you!" She yelled and tried to run.
"..." Still pouding... ro...tten...
"Moron, there is no danger expect you!" She shouted.
Rotten tomatoes.
"Negative, my actions are always well planned to be peacefu..." He tired to say.
"PEACEful! When did this chance hit you!" But she of course hit him.
His landing was perfect, on the floor it made a crush as he interacted with it.
"...six...two...three...four...three..." Sousuke said in a while.
Rotten tomatoes.
She calmed down a little and asked.
"What does it mean?"
"Don't know." Was the simple reply and he stood up.
Alittle shady thing dropped out from his pocket, none of them recognized it.
"Where were you all the time anyway?" She was getting her calm self again.
"It was a longer time span?" He asked looking questionable.
"Yes it's exactly three days since youdisappeared." She answered.
Three days? Three tomatoes.
His brain started to hurt again, Sousuke grabbed his head and was moving around like some crazy psycho, Kaname watched him for a while and when she got herself enough courage, she grabbed his head and cradled it against her chest, this act had a most unpredictable reaction. He calmed down immediately. Sousuke sat. She sat beside him on the couch.
"What happened?" Her very calm and sweet voice get through his brain.
"I don't know... I just can't..." Head filled with pain.
Decaying cabbage.
"Just tell me."
She embraced him in order to get the answer, he felt like if something clicked in him, that clock again. Sousuke hugged her too, it was a attempt to help him.
Kaname could be left like that for whole lifetime, she felt a moment of his weakness as her chance to see his human self.
When his hands hang down, she looked at him. That stare was soldier stare again, he stood up, picked up the shady thing and she understood, that it was a mobile. Sousuke sat beside her again,fullconcernedat that little machine. He pressed the button, the screen with PIN login appeared.
"It needs a PIN..." Kaname suggested a visible fact.
Sousuke pressed a few buttons and the logo screen what proved the entry appeared.
"What was it?" She asked him.
"Six, two, three, four and three." For a unknown reason this number was written in his mind.
Sousuke entered the Short Message Service. Few messages were labeled as, the project start, the project progress and the project cancellation.
He quickly understood that his clothes what he hadwasn't exactly his. He entered the first message.
4/21 16:02
Now is the day, you will grab him after the guys will
shoot him down with their tranqs, understand?
The word traqs must refer to somekind of tranquilizer gun, or there were more of them?
4/21 17:45
Is situation ok? I wanted to start the exploration
today.
He opened another file.
4/21 19:29
The project is scraped we picked a wrong guy this one
has a wrong color of eyes, i must use the same as mine.
So that was it, some crazy man hired a team of hooligans and one man to pick the body, gave them a tranquilizer guns, then loaded him with some kind of sedatives and tried to cut outhis eyes in order to repair his. That must be some crazy author.
Sousuke hit the ground with the mobile, it almost exploded.
"What a craziness can spread." He said and looked over to Kaname, she was still recovering from the shock.
Was I sleeping?
Have I slept at all?
Die.
Die.
Die.
Three - Rotten tomatoes. Still pounding ripped out hearts. The same. The same. The same.
Hospital. Hospital. Not hearts. Tomatoes. Not hearts. Those were tomatoes.
No project. Projection of mind.
Not hospital. Not hospital. Not hospital.
Tools, tools, tools...
It was.
Asylum.
Decaying tomato.