Three days earlier.
"Welcome to New Hope Mental Hospital and Rehabilitation Center." A sweet yet mechanical voice announced as Vixen was escorted into the white spacious room.
She trembled and shivered in cold fear. Whatever she saw before she arrived would haunt her for the days to come.
"Hey doc, you got another patient." One of her two escorts said to the lady behind a counter.
She was a middle-aged woman who always seemed to be too busy to give anyone any attention. She stopped scribbling some notes on a pad, laid out some paperwork and bluntly asked, "Name?"
The young man rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed at not having the answer to the question. "None that I know, ma'am. No ID, no record, and no recognition for this one." He replied as respectfully as possible.
The lady only rolled her eyes at the lack of information. She finally lifted her eyes to peer down at the new patient. "Jane Doe. Age: approximately twenty. Height: Sixty-eight inches. Ethnicity: Caucasian. Hair: dark brown. Eyes: blue. Gender: female. History: not applicable. Symptoms: mental trauma, paranoia, and fatigue. Anything else I should add to the report?"
The second, much older, escort gulped nervously before answering. "Eye witnesses say she looked like if she was being pursued by something."
"Alright." The woman sighed and finished writing on the form. "Send this to the head doctor." She handed the form to the second escort and continued with whatever she was previously doing.
"Will do, ma'am." He turned back to the girl. "Let's take you to your cell, young one."
On the way to her cell, they passed by multiple patients. More like inmates.
Each unfortunate soul she passed was escorted by an armed guard. But that wasn't the only thing she saw. Only she could see the grotesque creature resting upon almost every patient's shoulder, whispering a message into their ears and hissing at the girl when they caught her sight.
Such mischievous little creatures, barely the size of an average fist if one was to coil themselves into the fetal position. Each hand having five claws, each foot with three talons. Two horn-like ears, bat-like snout with two long fangs from the jaw. Torn leather wings, spaded-tip tail, a slithering tongue, boney limbs, and an overall, scaly, slender body. Their whispers were more like screeching hisses.
The sight of their blood colored scales always struck fear into the girl's heart. But what chased her today was far more horrific than these little creatures.
"Here's your cell," the sorrowful sound of the first escort's voice brought her back to reality, "and here's your uniform." He handed her a white jumpsuit folded neatly in his hand.
She hesitated for a moment before snatching the jumpsuit and turning her back on them. The two escorts turned their backs to her out of pity to provide her with what little privacy she would get for the last time.
After she finished changing into the jumpsuit, she didn't bother to let her escorts know and just slowly walked to a far corner, slid down the cushioned wall, and held herself close in defeat.
"Let's go." The second escort whispered to the first. "Toss her clothes in the incinerator. I'll go turn in her form to the head doctor."
She was alone in her corner for what felt like hours. She didn't care to move from where she was. She remained seated with her arms wrapped around her legs and her face buried into her knees as she attempted to cry herself to sleep.
A gentle bone-chilling breeze blew into the cell and caused a ripple of fear to run down her spine. She shuddered in response and soon realized that the room shouldn't even have such a draft. She dared to lift her head and open her eyes.
The room was at chilling temperatures, causing her to pull herself closer to keep warm. The sound of a child's whimpering caused an ominous feeling to swell in her stomach. Her heart madly pounded against her chest as she saw a set of bloody footprints approach her.
She quickly buried her face into her hands to hide from the incoming terrors. But to her surprise, a soothing voice whispered to her.
"Do not be afraid." He said, "I won't hurt you."
She wanted to scream in fright but the voice was not like the familiar hissing and screeching from the monsters that would usually torment her. No, instead, this voice spoke gently in her mind. "Who are you?" she asked as soon as she settled her nerves.
"My name is Joseph Carter." The voice replied gently.
"How are you speaking to me?" her voice slightly cracked in show of her timid situation.
A small moment of hesitation passed before Joseph answered.
"My mind is connected to yours. Everything you can perceive…so can I."
"How did you know I was here?"
"Watchers tend to follow newcomers. I connected to the one following you and once it approached you, I jumped from its mind to yours."
"How? How can you do so much? How can you know so much?" An idea popped into her mind causing her to shudder at feeling suddenly vulnerable. "Are you reading my mind?" She couldn't help but think that all her memories, her past, could be accessed by such a stranger.
"This place is not what it seems. My abilities have been given to me. And no, I can only read what you'd allow me to read." He paused to see if more questions came up. "This place is a laboratory. They use the…patients…as test subjects for their alchemical research."
The hesitation in his voice sparked her curiosity. But what intrigued her more was the sudden mention of alchemy. "Isn't alchemy an ancient science?" she finally asked.
"Yes. But not forgotten."
"And what did you mean by 'patients'?!" she demanded. Her fear slowly fading into anger.
Her outburst didn't seem to faze him but his calm voice only annoyed her more than helped her. "They bring the criminally insane here."
"I am not a criminal! I didn't do anything wrong!"
"I never said you did. A lot of patients here didn't do anything wrong, yet an excuse was made for the public to believe so. The people that run this place will stop at nothing to bring innocence with extraordinary gifts."
That last bit angered her far past comprehension. "You think this is a gift?!" She lifted her head from her hands with eyes wide with anger, hoping that what he said about being able to perceive what she perceived was true. For what she saw was a room no longer pure white, but drenched in blood as if a massacre occurred while she was unaware of it.
"I see," he said after a while of taking in the whole scenery, "but please believe me when I tell you that others have it far worse than you."
She buried her face back into her hands and began sobbing at what she had to see. "What do you want from me?" she finally asked.
"It is not much of what I want but it is more of what we need." He paused to see if she had anything else to say but only heard more whimpering. "We need to escape and I know how but I need to see what you see in order to do so."
"What's wrong with how I see?"
"You are only allowing yourself to see the surface of the nether world. I need you to see more than just that."
That's not what I meant. But what is this nether world? She thought to herself.
"We need to escape before they merge the nether world with our world. In order to do that, I need you to see the nether world completely for what it is."
Did he just read my mind? "And just how do I do that?"
"You have to let yourself see it. The watcher should still be in your cell. Try to see it for what it really is."
"I'll try." She whispered. She lifted her eyes to see the cell has returned to its normal appearance. She looked around for a while until her eyes finally landed on a set of small, bloody footprints circling the center of the cell.
"There." Carter whispered in her mind. "Concentrate."
She followed his words and focused on the footprints constantly fading and reappearing.
"Try opening your senses to the other world." Carter advised.
She continued to concentrate, straining her eyes to remain focused until she suddenly shut them tight.
The sound of a child's whimpering reached her ears. She perked up at the sound and looked back at the spot she was focusing on. Watching the cell waver and transition to its hellish form gave her chills but she tried to focus none the less.
After a moment, she saw a small pillar of ashes burn into the wind to reveal a small horrific figure. It appeared as a corpse of a child with eyes melted shut, razor sharp claws for fingers, and talons for toes.
"That's it. You're getting there." Joseph whispered encouragingly. "Now stop it."
"How?" She said, but her voice didn't sound like her own, it was warped into the sound those terrible creatures made when they spoke.
The creature turned to face her direction. "Did you hear that?" It hissed to itself. No longer whimpering and sobbing like it was. "She can speak like us."
"Remain quiet, Vixen. But don't stop looking." Joseph whispered calmly. She only nodded in reply.
The creature began to stalk toward her. "Can he hear us?" It stopped for a while before continuing to approach her. "Can she see us too?" It leaned over to sniff her. The thing was so close, she could practically smell its foul stench
"I need you to hold its head firmly and don't let go. No matter what. Do you understand?" Carter waited for a reply but sensed none.
Without a thought or hesitation, she slammed her hands around the creature's head with a vice grip. It screeched and struggled against her grip. The pitch of its cry was enough to deafen her ears and cause her grip to waiver.
"Carter!" She cried in pain.
"Let go!" he shouted in her mind.
When she did, the creature collapsed onto the floor. Its screech became a simple cry as it began to shrivel into ashes.
"What did you do?" she asked as she stared in shock.
"I…I don't know." Was his reply.