Ash screamed without sound. He was falling into a pit of horrific nightmares, all of which shrieked and laughed and cried at his arrival. A maelstrom of images flashed before his eyes. A blazing house. A car crash. An old crone laughing. Ghoulish children. Pyramid Head. Eyes. Legions of monstrosities.

And at the centre of it all, the girl who said her name was Alyx.

Ash fell into her well-like eye, a light blazing behind it growing brighter and brighter and…

"He's waking up! Easy now…"

Ash hazily saw a nurse shining a light into his eyes. His unrestrained hand swiftly hit her in the face before he realized she had a face.

"What was THAT for?"

A gloriously familiar voice broke Ash out of his half-asleep stupor and woke him up for real. He was out of the burned building and inside a pristine white hospital room. Fluorescent lights shone down on him like rays from heaven. He was lying on a bed that, at the moment, felt softer than a cloud. Ash shook his head clear and turned to see who he had accidentally hit.

The nurse had long blonde hair and an old fashioned nurse's outfit, with a white dress and red cardigan. Her face was a thing of beauty after the faceless creature. She smiled reassuringly. "Hey…it's alright now. You're Ok."

Ash wheezed to get his breath back. He was Ok. He was Ok. Ok. Ok.

"Ash, are you okay?"

Ash turned towards the voice. It was Misty, his old friend. He smiled again, and she gave a smile of relief back. It was beautiful.

Pikachu, his best friend since the beginning, hopped into his lap. Ash suddenly wrapped the Pokemon in a tight hug, happy beyond belief to be alive and with his friends. Pikachu had the breath knocked out of him, but he didn't complain. The nurse watched the touching scene with a smile.

"Oh, thank goodness." Misty breathed. "I was so worried…"

Ash didn't respond, still clutching Pikachu.

"Ash? Hellooo?"

The boy looked up. "Oh, hi Misty."

The girl's face became enraged. "'OH, HI'? Do you know how scared I was? I thought you were going to die!"

The thought made Ash snap to attention. "What do you mean? What happened?"

The nurse explained, restraining Misty. "She found you in Markus' home…what was left of it, anyway. You were unconscious and bleeding from a bad cut to the face…" A thought struck the nurse, and she grabbed a mirror from a shelf nearby. She handed it to Ash to see for himself.

Ash blinked in shock as he held the mirror to his face. Staring back at him was a boy that looked just like him, except for a long, straight scar going through his left eye. The stymied boy touched his face gingerly. Sure enough, a line could be felt. His hand stayed on it for a minute.

"Um…luckily there wasn't anything else except a bruise on your head. But for some reason, you were out for a day and night."

"I've been out that long?"

"Yeah…it was a good thing we got to you fast enough."

Ash just kept staring at the scar. How was he going to explain this to mom? He ran his finger over it several times to make sure it wasn't some Halloween novelty prank. No. The scar was real.

Pikachu tapped the unresponsive boy on the chin. "Pikabee?"

Misty cleared her throat. "Well, you're okay, that's good. So, we should get going. I don't wanna spend another day in this crazy town!"

The red nurse turned to her. "Well, I need to give him a quick checkup and sign some paperwork before he can go, I'm sorry."

"Ugh. Just as long as it's fast! If I have to spend one more night here, I'll go insane."

Just then the door opened. Brock, May and Max walked in nervously to see Ash sitting up and staring at a mirror. May was holding a flower that had been picked apart while she had been waiting.

"Ash! Oh, thank goodness."

"You're alright!"

"Hi guys." Ash replied airily without looking away from his scar.

Max blinked. "What's with him?"

"He's a little shell-shocked, I guess." the blonde nurse explained. "I think he'll be fine now."

Brock breathed a sigh of sheer relief. Then he went right up to the nurse in the red cardigan. "Oh thank you SO much, Lisa! You've saved my friend's life, there must be some way I can thank you!" Lisa stammered as Brock took her hands in his. "How about a movie? A walk in the park? A candlelight dinner! I just HAVE to thank you saving AAAAAH!"

May had grabbed the irrepressible Brock by his ear and dragged him away from the nurse, Lisa. "I'll thank you by keeping him away from you."

Lisa chuckled nervously. "Thank you…"

"It was Alyx."

Ash's voice, flat and full of fury, made everyone in the room turn to him. His teeth were gritted in a snarl and his eyes held a blazing hatred.

"Alyx. Alyx did this. She's working with that…Pyramid Head thing and some maid…nurse…they did this to me, they kidnapped me and…" Ash snarled with such fury Pikachu was frightened off his lap. "The next time I see them, I'll…I'll…GRAAAAAGH!"

CRASH!

Ash blinked. The mirror was lying facedown on the bedside table, broken into pieces. He groaned. Seven years bad luck.

Everyone just stared at him for a moment, surprised by the outburst from the normally friendly Ash. Then Lisa smiled again. "Maybe you should rest. You've been through a lot."

Ash sighed in agreement as Pikachu returned to his lap. "Ok. But we're getting out of here today, I'm sick of this place."

"Yeah. A lot of people have already left." Lisa suddenly remembered something. "Listen, I'll grab my kit and give you one last checkup, and then you can leave." Lisa nudged her way to the door, and left the children in the room.

"You sure it was Alyx?"

"Oh yeah. It was her all right. She was there when she told the nurse 'do it' and…"

"You mean Lisa?"

"No! Not Lisa. She had black hair and…some sorta mask…that freak from the butcher's was there too…"

"Ash, start over. What happened?"

The boy calmed down and started at the beginning: the maid in the room, the hospital table, Alyx in the blue dress, Pyramid Head holding him down, the faceless nurse, the scalpel. When he finished the story with him waking up here and the scar, everyone paused in thought.

"It's weird, alright."

"Why would Alyx be working with Pyramid Head?"

"Something else is funny, too. If they wanted to kill you, they wouldn't leave a note telling us to hurry. Why would they go to so much trouble to give you a scar?"

"BECAUSE THEY'RE PSYCHOS!" Ash answered angrily. "Violent, insane maniacs! Alyx, Pyramid Head, the nurse…they're lunatics! Why else?"

"Well…"

Lisa suddenly walked in with a tray of plastic instruments and a slight smile. "Just a quick look-over, then I can release you. Ok?"

"Ok." Everybody sighed.

Lisa did the cursory checkup. Blood pressure was normal as expected, same with temperature, heartbeat was good, eyes were alright, tongue was pink…

"Hey…" Lisa shined her tiny flashlight into Ash's open mouth.

"Whah?" Ash asked without closing his mouth.

"Just keep it open, please." Very carefully Lisa took a pair of plastic tweezers and inserted them into Ash's open mouth.

"Lihah?"

"Hold still for a sec…"

Ash didn't understand what exactly Lisa was doing inside his mouth. Then he felt a tug on the inside of his cheek. Lisa pulled harder.

"LIHAH!"

"Easy…"

Whatever Lisa was pulling out, it finally gave. Ash settled down and put his hand on the cheek Lisa had ripped something out of. "Whah was that?" He mouthed.

Lisa smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." In the tweezers was a small white plastic case covered in tape and saliva. Everyone looked at it funny.

"What's this?"

"What was it doing in my mouth?"

Lisa set the thing down. Then, slipping on some gloves, she removed the tape from the mysterious tiny case. Then, picking it up, she popped the case open. It was a portable USB drive, very well protected.

"Um…anybody have a laptop?"

Nobody in the room did, but Lisa suddenly remembered where hers was and went out to collect it. She came back with a black laptop with a picture of a trucker on the back. Turning it on, the curious group inserted the USB drive.

On the drive were two files. One was titled 'Historical Celebration of Kalville'. Another was simply titled 'WATCH'.

Lisa clicked it.

In the dead of the night, there was a door. Plain. Unremarkable. Nothing to look at really. The only reason it could be seen was because of the camera's night-vision capabilities.

The doorbell rang.

A weary Markus trudged up to the door. He recognized who it was, although the camera didn't see him.

"Dakos? It's after midnight! What's this about?"

"Nothing…"

BLAM

Markus, now with a bleeding hole in his head, fell to the floor with a frozen expression of shock on his face.

"Except killing two birds with one stone. Well, killing one and baiting the other, anyway."

The killer stepped in and sure enough, it was Dakos. "This'll get her attention." He muttered before producing a canteen of gas.

Utterly unaware that a hidden security camera was watching him, and that days later, a very shocked group of people would be watching.