To be bluntly honest, I had no CLUE as to what was going to happen in this chapter aside from two main things. The ending I was actually unaware of until I wrote it, so I really hope you love it. I was contemplating the events in this chapter, and I can honestly say I'm SO happy with this.
I hope you guys like the new chapter, enjoy!
Oathkeeper Or Oblivion
------
Ansem scoffed his brow furrowing as he threw the paper down onto his desk. The other papers on his desk fluttered in protest as a light wind ruffled them from the force of the throw. He glared down, attempting to burn a hole in the papers with his stare, the headlines on the newspaper blaring and obnoxious.
Incidents Occur at Seventh Heaven Mental Hospital
Underneath that was a sort of sub title, another caption sandwiched between the title of the article and a black and white picture of the mental hospital itself ; Staff Freak-Out Over Black- Out?
He crossed his arms and couldn't help but read the article over for the twentieth time that day, his cheeks flushing with a mixture of anger and embarrassment at the accusations he now faced.
"Seventh Heaven Mental Hospital, a once trusted sanctuary for mental patients around the country
is now under question of it's authority and overall control of it's staff. According to
anonymous eye witnesses at around eight to eight –thirty last night the lights in the entirety of the building
began to flicker, not enough to cause alarm or raise awareness of any issues. A few minutes later and,
as a few patients bumbled around the building for "Arts N Crafts" night, the main generator was switched off.
The identity of whoever shut the generator off remains unknown.
The staff supposedly remained calm, says our eye witnesses and former workers at Seventh Heaven Hospital.
One of the doctors in the area where the main events, which prove to be more than just a simple
prank or publicity stunt, Dr. Squall "Leon" Leonhart, ordered the surrounding nurses
and orderlies to help the patients in the area into their rooms. However, as nurses and the like started
to shift around the room something strange and unexplained happened.
A nurse that had started at the Hospital not two weeks before (and chooses to remain
anonymous) entered the main lobby where the doctors and nurses were herding the patients.
At this point, the information is sketchy. Many of the staff members refuse to talk about the events that night,
however, quite a few have stated that a strange appearance of "creatures" or "shadows" wreaked havoc
on the unsuspecting staff members and patients. This created a diversion for some of the more dangerous patients to
attempt to escape, though the temporary power outage prevented the electronically locked doors from opening. A number
of other nurses and doctors say that the aforementioned anonymous nurse was acting strangely, as in screaming with no
real reason, and after her screaming the chaos really began with those strange "shadows".
A number of the staff was hurt, a few patients included and it's needless to say that the hospital's infirmary
is packed with strange injuries. One nurse claims he was lifted off the ground and thrown into a wall, though when
asked what could have done such a thing, he was unable to say.
There are currently no fatalities or very serious injuries, though the question is burning in the minds of
those who have loved ones at Seventh Heaven Hospital;
What happened that night?
The events last night are also going to reflect on a number of the head doctors at the hospital…."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. Nothing good had come from that day, it had been a wreck from the beginning when he had spilled his coffee on his lap to the "shadows" attacking his employees.
He was sure these were the same "shadows" as Kairi talked of, he had no doubt in his mind even before the night of all the commotion that Kairi was telling the truth. He wondered idly how his little experiment was going, the voice recorder he had left sitting in her room. He glanced up at the clock on the wall, sitting just above his office door. It was a novelty gift from a close friend, a gag gift that he had thought was hilarious; a little picture of a straight jacket in the center and the sleeves of the jacket (belts and loops included) were the clock hands.
He shook his head, tossed the paper in the trash and walked out the door. Demyx, one of the nurses that had been in the lobby when the "attacks" had happened, had called for Kairi because of some urgent message (he was sure Demyx had been lying when he said he had pushed Kairi in all the confusion and wanted to apologize). He had started sputtering when Ansem had pushed for further information, but to be honest he really didn't care what Demyx had to say to Kairi.
As he passed by a nurse he snatched her arm, causing the woman to jump almost clear out of her shoes, and he cracked a smile, "Ma'am, would you mind checking on my patient, Kairi, in the infirmary? I have an appointment with her soon and would like for her to come to my office today. She's visiting another nurse, his name is Demyx." The nurse nodded, smiling a little,
"Yes, sir." He let her go and turned back down the hall. A few quick turns later and Ansem stood in front of Kairi's room, her door was open just slightly and he pushed it open as though something would jump out at him. He poked his head in, looked from left to right and walked to the little nightstand where the voice recorder sat. It had long turned itself off, and he snatched it up, tossing it in his hand as he walked back to his office to charge it.
----
Kairi played with the hem of her shirt as she sat down next to Demyx. The usually perky blond was pale and quiet, circles under his eyes and a tired smile on his face. He moved his fingers a little, twitching them to the right and motioning to her to shut the curtains around the bed, as if it'd block out what he was going to say and keep it a little secret between the two of them.
Kairi sat back down a moment later, tilting her head, "How do you feel?"
He smiled a little again, "Like hell, kid. Listen, there was something I wanted to tell you." Kairi nodded, "Last night….All that crazy stuff that happened…It was real, wasn't it?" Kairi's eyes grew wide, she stayed silent with shock and he went on, "Okay…I saw those new nurses, or whatever they are, Cloud and Tifa, you know the ones that were by the craft table?"
Kairi bit her lip, "Yeah, the blond guy with the spiky hair and the lady next to him?"
Demyx sighed, "When Tifa screamed, I swear I saw her get dragged under that table, like, foot first and the rest of her right after. But the table is only like, two and half feet wide and her foot would've come out the other side if she slipped, and it didn't. She was hanging on to the end of the table for dear life, I could see her shadows in the moonlight, and Cloud tried to pull her up and ended up just knocking the table over instead."
Kairi swallowed loudly, "U-Um, well…"
He shook his head, "And then that new patient, Marluxia? He was streaking down past the windows and all of the sudden he came flying back like something smacked him. And me? Kairi," he licked his lips, leaned forward and lowered his voice drastically. He hunched his shoulders and a pained look crossed his face. "I was standing next to you, and all of the sudden I felt claws on my shoulders, I have the marks to prove it. And the next thing I know, I'm flying through the air and I hit the wall. I have marks to prove that too. Kairi, my point is, I was off the ground. You can't dream this kind of stuff up. Twenty eight stitches doesn't lie."
Kairi sat back, bit her lip in thought and then said, "I….Demyx, you can't tell anyone." Demyx nodded, she lowered her voice as he had done, "Yes, those things were real. I can see them and you can't. Naminè can too. That thing that grabbed you was like a bird made from shadows. I saw it."
Demyx's eyes grew wide. Kairi knew he must have been suspecting that at least it was real, but she doubted he was expecting her to have seen what it was that had hurled him like a Frisbee across the room. (She held back a strange little laugh as she realized with crude humor that if Demyx was the Frisbee, the wall was the dog that caught him.)
A moment later and he opened his mouth to say something, just as the curtain was yanked back and a nurse said gently, "Kairi, Ansem is waiting to see you. He wants to have your next session in his office."
-----------
Ansem slid the little ear buds into his ears, tuning out the rest of the world and its intolerable noise for a few moments until Kairi got there. He had the door open, so she could simply walk in and wouldn't have to wait if he didn't hear the knock.
He held his breath as he hit the rewind button on the voice recorder, then pressed the play button. He shrugged and wound it forward, sighing as still air greeted him and he remembered the ordeal from the night before. He heard a few squeaks and furrowed his brow, hitting stop, rewinding it and then hitting play.
Silence, that gentle crackle in the air like a fire or a stray piece of paper underfoot. And then there was the wail.
That nurse, that stupid, strange, scary as hell nurse that he could tell there was something wrong with. He saw her staggering down the hallway moments before, as if like a puppet on strings, she almost duck walked down the hallway and then moved to silent shuffling. He saw her and he paused, his heart skipping a beat as he thought she might be injured, and then her head lolled to the side and he saw the whites of her eyes, the contrast of shadows against paper white skin and her mouth hanging open. Her tongue tipped up, as though trying to lick her lips, and he realized she was trying to speak as a strange gargling came from her. Most of the nurses stopped then, staring at her too, and he saw her mouth twitch and form the beginnings of the word "Help".
The second wail came in, long and mournful, and then the screaming. So much screaming, the crashing and banging and—
"Go in the Light!" an urgent, new voice for Ansem to add to the list. He could only assume it was that other boy Kairi had mentioned, Riku, was it?
"SORA!" He jumped in his seat, cringing as he slammed his knee into the side of the desk, and glanced up to make sure the doorway was clear.
There was another voice, so much more familiar and loud, filled with anger and hatred as she screamed. He recognized Kairi's voice, heard a distant thud and then a deep third voice shout,
"Insolent brat!"
He couldn't help the grin that came to his face, tired as it was, and he glanced up and jabbed the stop button as he saw the nurse he had spoken to earlier walking Kairi in. Kairi timidly took the seat in front of his desk, the nurse closing the office door on her way out instinctively.
Kairi was alone at this point, Sora had left (after their little…. "kissy-thing" as she called it) and Riku was most likely either with Naminè or back wherever he came from, sleeping in his bed. She was nervous, which she thought odd, because Sora wasn't with her. He had only attended two meetings with her, but she found she had grown used to it and almost reliant on his presence, it soothed her.
Now, she sank into the arm chair that felt much too big for her, crossing her arms over her tummy and rubbing her thumb on the scar there through her shirt fabric. Ansem cleared his throat, raised one eyebrow at the computer screen and mumbled under his breath just loud enough for Kairi to hear,
"Oh, to hell with it." he sighed, opened one of the drawers at the bottom of the desk and pulled out her file. He also pulled out the several disks he had collected from their previous encounters, and laid them on his desk. Kairi sat up a little to try and see was they said, but he was quick to pull one out and slide it into the computer.
A few minutes later and, as the computer loaded the media player, Kairi asked, "Um…Doctor?" He waved her off,
"One moment, Kairi." She felt her chest grow tight suddenly as the pixilated images of her and Ansem sitting across from each other in that Godforsaken room surfaced. Ansem hit the little play button in the corner and it sprang to life, he dragged his mouse across the timeline for the video, getting to the point he had memorized, and let it play.
"However, what you said yesterday intrigued me. When I asked who had hurt you, you said 'them'. Who were you referring to?" Kairi glanced sideways, - She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head in confusion. What could he have to show her?
"You can tell him."- Sora's voice. Crystal clear. Perfect. His voice.
Kairi put a hand to her lips and thought she felt her heart stop and drop down her chest. Her eyes grew wide and Ansem looked over at her tiredly, smiling slightly.
"I know, Kairi, I know."
Bum bum BUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
:D?
I love it. I love how Demyx's part ended up being too, I played with the idea in my head since last chapter (when he was actually going to tell her, mind you, but like I said I was pressed for time and had to cut it out and put it here) and I'm really happy with how I got him down. I wanted him to be serious rather than goofy, and I hope I got it right.
My favorite part to write for this chapter? The news article. Oh yeah, and using Tifa's bar as the name for the mental hospital was SO not planned. It just kind of happened, but I think it's cute. ^_^
Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter by Friday, okay?
Please leave a review on your way out, comments and crit appreciated!! :D