"Good morning Amanda. Were you able to sleep?"
Jake looked at his wife, lying on her side on the bed. She didn't respond. It had now been a full two days since she'd experienced whatever it was at Midwich that had made her unresponsive in catatonia.
Unfortunately, their only member with any sort of medical expertise whatsoever was Claudette, and her experience was barely anything at all. She'd had no clue of what could cure her and had been near tears when she saw Amanda and admitted that she didn't know what could help her.
So Jake had stayed with her, talking to her, hoping that his words would reach her and break her free. He had sat her against the shower wall and washed her yesterday, before dressing her and carrying her to the couch. She was like a breathing doll. That and her occasional blinking remained the only sign that she was still alive. When they went to bed, he had to close her eyes, and he wasn't sure if she actually was sleeping or just lying there with her eyes closed as he laid next to her, wide awake and terrified until finally passing out for a few hours from exhaustion.
When he'd woken both mornings, he'd found her lying on her side where he'd left her, with her eyes open and staring into the sunlight. Since it was a new day, he undressed her, lifted her out of bed and let the shower water wash over her as he rubbed soap over her limp body, and his own, before he toweled himself off, then her. He dressed her in pajamas and laid her on the couch on her side before sitting on the bed and watching her.
This wasn't working. Nothing was working. She was catatonic and no one, not him, nor anybody, knew what the fuck to do to help her. He'd brought her back here to save her life, and it had, but for what? To spend eternity in this immobile, uncommunicative state? What kind of a life was that for her? She couldn't stay like this. He had to find the way to sure her.
The only saving grace, if there was a saving grace to be had, was that they had no need to use the bathroom, or eat, or drink. He'd have taken care of whatever he needed to do to clean her, but he had no idea how he'd be able to feed her or get her to drink anything in the state she was in.
He found himself weeping again, as he had done so often the past two days. how could he not? His wife, the vibrant, wickedly funny, woman he wanted to spend eternity with had been broken under his nose and not only was everything that he'd been doing up to now NOT helping, but he still didn't have any clear idea what could.
The Entity's fog had stayed away. It hadn't spoken to him, but neither had been approached by the fog to enter into a trial since the disaster of Midwich. It may not be speaking to him, but it seemed the Entity, which had been consistently fair to them since there return, also knew something was wrong and was leaving them be while Jake tried to find the way to help her.
"How's the patient?" Ash was looking at him from the doorway of the cabin, eyes hopeful that maybe something had changed finally. He'd been by every few hours over the past two days, but his face quickly fell again when he saw Amanda's form laying in its usual immobile position on the couch.
"We've got an idea," Ash said, with a trace of hope in his voice. "It's not a great idea, but it's an idea. I'm going to take Nea, since she's good at stealth, and we're going to try to sneak through the trial areas until we get to Lery. I know there's that office in the center of the building, and I'm pretty sure there's medical books on the shelves. It's a gamble, but maybe we can find one that has information on catatonia, and what we can do to treat it, and bring it back here."
Jake felt a mix of fear and hope. It was possible they'd find a book, but based on the Doctor's clothing, and the state of the medical equipment in the building, the recreation of Lery was from an institution that had been active in the 1940s, maybe 1950s at best, which was also the same time period the Doctor would have been practicing in. Would a medical book have any details on treatment that weren't based on medical information from an era nearly 70 years in the past from their own? If they did find treatment ideas, would they be practices that were still used in modern medicine for people afflicted by this? How much more medical insight had been gained regarding the treatment of catatonia that they didn't have in the 1940s or 50s? But on the other hand, what other option did they have?
"I'd invite you along, I know you'd want to come, but there's no way you should leave her alone. We can handle this. We're going to go in a few hours. We've already told everyone that if they end up in a trial before we go, to try and grab a book, and then try to escape with it from the trial. The plan is if they get there and get it, they're going to let whoever the killer is kill three of them quickly, and then the fourth person with the book will try and quickly escape with the hatch. Everyone who has learned it is carrying the Left Behind skill today so they can make a quick run to the hatch if they get to Lery and get the book."
Jake nodded at him gratefully. "Thank them all for me, will you? It means a lot that they'll try to do that for us. It means a lot to me, and I know it would mean a lot to her."
Ash patted his shoulder reassuringly. "She's a fighter. We just need to figure out what we need to do to help her fight the way she needs. We're gonna get her back from this."
And he was gone. Jake raised Amanda's legs and sat on the cushion, draping them over his lap like she so often did when she was ali...
He stopped himself before he could finish the thought "Alive." She was alive, she was just...Gone for a bit. "Please let us find something," he quietly begged into the air. He stroked her ankle as Amanda breathed and stared into space beside him.
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The Entity had been busy. It didn't like when things were thrown out of balance, especially when those things could have been prevented.
Of course, it had been able to figure out during its torture of Krueger what had been done. And while could maintain a presence everywhere, that didn't mean things could not happen while it was distracted, as it had been that day. Until now, nothing out of the ordinary had happened, because the killers were maniacs, but knew their place. Krueger had been the first to step out of that place. If it had been focusing on the trial as usual, rather than the punishments, it could have stopped what was going on immediately, but it hadn't been. It had gotten complacent. It had punishments to dish out, and it enjoyed doing so, and so it had ignored this particular trial at the worst possible time. It's complacency had let it to believe that it was just another trial, and thus it didn't need to pay attention.
While cruel and fair, it felt a responsibility of keeping things just so for the survivors it sent to slaughter. It believed in fair chances, and that the killers, while remaining more powerful, were still beatable. It had prided itself on the fact that while the survivors died to feed it sometimes, they died fairly, and had the tools available to avoid dying if used correctly.
But this situation, in the Entity's realm of thinking, had been a failure. And the Entity did not like being a party to failure. Worse, it sent a horrible impression to the rest of the survivors who had witnessed Amanda's return. It had made them question how powerful it was, if one of the killers had been able to torture one of the group to catatonia. They now worried if hits, hooks, and Moris were the only things they had to fear in the trials, or if the killers were now unrestrained in their powers and would render them all into the same state that Amanda was currently in.
It made IT...Look BAD. That was the long and short of it. It enjoyed the fear and respect it was given by the survivors, and the deviance in the normal structure of the trials had made them lose their respect for it. They were hostile, not sure if the Entity had allowed it to happen, or if it had happened under its nose. Either way, it didn't matter. They'd become sloppy and fearful, often hiding rather than completing objectives for fear they would meet a fate similar to Amanda's because the Entity had suddenly changed the normal rules, or would let the situation happen again because it wouldn't be able to prevent it.
Amanda hadn't been physically hurt, but whatever had happened to her, the survivors knew, had to be worse than any physical pain they had experienced up to now if it could make her a limp, unresponsive shell. The mere fact that it was HER that was in the state she was in had also had a profound impact on the remaining group.
Amanda and Ash were the two of the group who seemed the most unflappable. The most daring, the most brave. Seeing one of the pair limp and broken terrified them. It scared them even more because they knew that whatever had been done to her had to have been extreme in order for her to have been affected as strongly as she had. If it had been Ash instead of Amanda, their fears would have been the same. There was an air of invincibility about the pair, even if they often were sacrificed in a trial themselves. They knew when they got back to the camp, both Ash and Amanda would be raring to go and ready for the next battle. Sacrifice in a trial was merely a minor hurdle and they would be anxious to have the chance to humiliate the next killer they faced to make up for it.
It could have offered them reassurances, but it had decided that allowing one survivor the ability to speak for it was a better choice to maintain its God-like quality, rather than deigning to speak to the survivors directly itself. But due to this unexpected complication, the one person who it had chosen to speak for it was the one who had been damaged and broken, and could not speak at all. It could have selected another, but that would have been another humiliating concession that due to its failings, it had allowed the survivor it had chosen to give it the high honor of being able to speak for it be rendered an unfunctional mute. No, the honor of the selection would remain Amanda's own, and it would let her speak for it upon her recovery.
Even though it had been silent for the past two days, the Entity hadn't ignored them as Jake had thought. It had entered Amanda's mind repeatedly. But while its powers to heal were extreme, it was unable to start the synapses of her brain that had seemingly ceased. However, it managed to see what had happened to her, from her memory.
Amanda's ultimate phobia was snakes. The "zombies" of her former victims were just to fill her mind with her not-so-deeply-buried guilt. After wearing her mental defenses down using the "zombies" to unearth the guilt she carried deep within her about having let them die, or from killing them herself, Krueger had finally broken those defenses completely and stretched her senses to their breaking point by ending the nightmare in absolutely the worst way Amanda could have possibly imagined: With her being put in a pit of what terrified her the most, and letting her senses feel what it would be like to be killed from the repeated bites and injections of poison from the teeth of venomous snakes. The nightmare snake bite to her tongue had been particularly effective.
Because of how real the nightmare was that Krueger had created, her last thought before her mind had shut itself down... A move, the Entity realized, was defensive, was complete and utter terror that she was being killed by the one thing on Earth that she'd feared most. Her senses had even had the sensation of the repeated injections of the deadly venom coursing through her veins. If her brain had not shut itself down when it did, the Entity suspected that even as young and healthy as she was, it would have triggered cardiac arrest. It would have literally scared her to death.
While she would have simply been restored in her bed had that situation occurred, her mind did not know. The nightmare had been so real and convincing that her mind truly believed she had exited the realm, had been placed in that house, and was truly being killed, so it had taken the only course of action it could: It pulled the plug entirely.
It understood everything, yet it was still angered. It was a God. A creator of worlds. It could keep the survivors unaged, it had the power to resurrect them infinitely. Even if it wiped the nightmare from her memory, as it had already considered doing, the damage had already been done. It had the power to instantly cure her. It knew that clearly. But it had never understood what made the human mind function, nor had it bothered to learn. It had simply known when selecting their world as possessing the correct participants for the trials that they would be suitable fighters in a battle with the killers it selected. Since it remained unfamiliar with the inner workings of the human brain, it didn't know where to concentrate its powers, and unless it spent time learning how human brains functioned, its immeasurable powers would be useless. It needed to find a solution that would fix her more quickly than learning the mental anatomy of humans. Time was wasting.
That was why the trials were engineered the way they were. Surely the survivors had picked up on it. They were repeatedly sliced by chainsaw blades, and struck in the head by clubs or sledgehammers if that was the particular weapon of choice of the killer they were facing. Often the blows to their heads were strong enough that it would shatter their teeth or skulls, and most certainly kill them instantly, or scramble the intricate brains and turn them into limp forms like Amanda was currently...If the Entity's powers had allowed it to be so.
But it didn't. While it never took the time to understand their brain's inner workings, it knew they were important to their function, as well as their bones. It was why the only injuries the survivors ever faced were bleeding wounds. It was no use having a trial with a survivor that had broken limbs or a broken neck or back. It would take too long for the survivors to heal, and a cripple was useless.
It was also of no use to allow the survivors to have their skulls crushed in and their brains damaged. They would again be of no use after sustaining such a blow in the trials, so their skulls and brains remained completely undamaged no matter how brutal the blow. The Entity, up until now, had believed it had thought of everything. Brains and skulls were protected, and the only injuries were easily treatable cuts and slashes to the skin.
But Krueger had managed to penetrate the Entity's safeguards. It had managed to break Amanda's brain with surgical precision, without even a glancing blow to her head. The Entity felt humiliated that a mere killer had bested it, and made a mockery of the steps it had carefully planned out and put into place to make sure the survivors remained completely functional until they were sacrificed, or Moried.
It had placed Krueger, or what was left of him, in one of the punishment boxes that it created for Pyramid Head, and left him to be tortured by the spikes in the basement of one of the houses in the currently dormant Haddonfield trial realm. It had not yet decided what to do with Krueger, but it had not ruled out banishment from this realm, as it had threatened. It had decided to allow Amanda input in his fate, once she recovered, since she had been the recipient of Krueger's actions. While her input would be considered, Krueger's fate would be decided by the Entity alone. After all, it had issued a warning after his manipulation of the survivors outside of the trial. Krueger had been twisted the warning during a trial, while knowing what he was doing was against the rules. The Entity was not a being to cross.
So while the survivors had been wracking their own brains for ideas of what to do, so it had toiled, using its massive intellect to consider solutions the same way Jake had been doing with his feeble meat brain. Eventually, it had the answer. While it may not understand the brain, the Entity had brought a person to this realm who did. While it's powers were infinitely stronger, this person's powers were precise to the situation at hand.
It amassed its presence at Lery, and eventually found the Doctor, standing almost dormant in the basement of the building.
"Dr. Carter."
The Doctor's wide eyes and frozen grin swept the room. A visit from the Entity not immediately after a trial was like a visit from a king from his castle. The Entity never just dropped in to engage in cordial banter. This unannounced visit definitely had to do with something major, a situation of potentially grave importance. It thought words to the Entity, saying, "Entity. Your presence here is a complete surprise, based on my most recent performance in the trials. What is the important matter that brings you to me realm?"
"As you well know, you remain highly regarded by me for your performance. I am coming to you, because I need you to do something for me, and call upon your experience. Upon completion, I will hold you in an even higher regard than I do for what you have already done to earn favor from me."
Carter's smile remained frozen. "I of course serve at your pleasure. I assume this has something to do with my medical experience. To what do you need assistance with?"
The Entity responded, "Are you familiar with the human condition of catatonia? Have you treated a patient with such an extreme state that they no longer function normally?"
Carter nodded. "I've treated many patients with the disorder through the use of Electroconvulsive therapy, with moderate success, until of course I used it for torture and murder. Several of them were in the state in which you describe, and when I was not actively attempting to use the treatment to destroy their minds and kill them completely, I had very positive results in those cases." It was a statement made with no guilt or remorse.
"Due to certain circumstances, one of the survivors is currently in that severe state of catatonia, in which they have lost all mobility, or even the ability to be alert. As you were once a specialist on the disorder when you were human, I wish to call on your experience in an effort to treat and cure the survivor in question," the Entity explained. "I will of course provide all of the materials that you will require in order to make the treatment a success. The curing of this survivor is of key importance to the balance of this realm. The survivors must be shown that this was a single occurrence that will never be allowed to happen again, and that I have taken the proper and necessary steps to rectify the unfortunate situation."
Curious, Carter said, "How did this event occur? The hunting in the trials, the damage we inflict, even to the new survivors, it is something they are able to cope with. What event could have taken place that would have made a survivor slip into such an extreme state of catatonia, as you describe?"
The Entity said, "A killer known as Freddy Krueger has the ability to manipulate people's nightmares. It was an ability I forbade him from using. He took an opportunity while I was distracted to put the survivor in a sleep-state, and create a nightmare to attack her mind that focused on both her guilts, and her extreme phobia. Her mind shut itself down in a defensive act due to the extreme terror it was bombarded with. I have not studied the human mind, and while I have attempted to rectify the situation myself, my lack of knowledge on exactly where I need to focus my abilities has prevented me from repairing the situation myself. Rather than keep making attempts that could potentially harm her, I have reasoned that the most effective thing available to cure her of the affliction is to allow her care to be conducted by someone who has experience treating the condition in her former realm."
"Tsk, tsk. The human mind is a fragile thing. It's amazing what can happen that makes it shut itself down completely," Carter said, with an air of his former medical professionalism. "Who is the survivor in question?"
"The short one. She is quick, and difficult for you all to catch during the trials, because of her speed and cunning," said the Entity. "The female with the long brown hair."
If Carter's face had the ability to change expressions, it would have done so. "The female who often does the trials while not wearing shoes on her feet?"
"That is correct. The female's name is Amanda."
Carter's thoughts to the Entity changed to hostility. "I will NOT treat that one. She does not respect my power! She mocks my abilities! In the last trial I hunted her in, she escaped and made a joke about my power before she blew me a kiss! And the way she dresses, with her body in revealing clothing like some sort of a harlot to tease and manipulate a weak-willed man...It's improper. Perhaps in this state where she can no longer behave in her unseemly manner will be an improvement to the realm. "
The Entity swarmed him, and Carter let out a gasp of pain through his permanently clenched teeth. "You will do as I say. I will force you through pain to do so if it becomes necessary."
Carter let out his creepy giggle. "And eliminate the free will you claim that everyone is given? Forcing me is not your way. It's not fair, and you claim to always be fair. You punish if we fail in a trial, that is all. You are angered with the killer named Krueger for breaking the norms of the trial, yet make threats of changing the norms and forcing me to bend to your will in order to achieve your goal. How is that different than the actions Mr. Krueger took to earn your ire? How can you expect me to willingly treat a patient, even at your order, and who I loathe, without an incentive that is beneficial to me, rather than using the threat of harm to incentivize me? You called on me for my experience as a doctor. Doctors do not work for free," After a moment, the Entity released him.
"I have treated patients before that I did not particularly like. I can find my resolve to treat this one as well. But again, since my treating of this patient is something of a favor to you, I would swear to ignore any and all personal grudges towards her for something small in return."
The Entity considered. "Make your request, and I will consider its merits should you successfully complete the treatment."
Carter, more assured, said, "A Doctor is more efficient with the assistance of a nurse. I know a nurse resides in this realm. I have occasionally witnessed her chasing survivors when you put me in a dormant state and allow her to hunt in my realm. I wish for the nurse to assist me in the procedure. Once it is completed, I wish for her to be given the choice to remain here with me."
"The Nurse is practically feral," the Entity warned him. "What would be the point of allowing her to remain here?"
"We remain alone in our areas when a trial is not in place. Of course she is feral. She has no one to talk to. I have a strong mind, and enjoy being alone. While I savor that, the same way I savor the power of killing, it does not mean that I wouldn't appreciate having a person here, with murderous tendencies like my own, to communicate with while we wait for the next trial."
The Entity considered his words. "Allowing no contact between the killers is something I prefer to keep in place. You're more effective when you remain alone and hostile, and only view the survivors as victims for slaughter. I fear bending the norms will affect your performance."
Carter laughed between his clenched teeth. "We're murderers. I'm not looking for a relationship. I'm looking for the chance to idly communicate with someone with similar interests in slaughter as my own. She is the only other killer here that comes from a medical profession like myself. I savor the fear I create in the survivors, and from the limited glimpses I've seen of her, so does she. I'm not looking for love. Simply companionship. It will not change how I feel about the survivors. They are my prey. That is all they are."
The Entity considered. "You would not participate in trials together. One of you would remain dormant at all times during. your interaction, if she still possesses the ability to speak, would only be in the times when trials are not in progress."
"Of course. That is acceptable. As for her ability to speak, why would she use it with no one to talk to? Even if she lacks the ability, I am a skilled medical professional. I can amuse myself in helping her find her voice again while we wait for the next round of meat to slaughter. I can form a bond with her during the treatment. Again, all I ask for is that she be allowed to decide to stay. If she chooses to be alone, that is her choice, but my wish is that, in exchange for our efforts, she be allowed to make it." Carter stood, waiting for a decision.
"Your request is granted," the Entity decided. "Now what do you need for the treatment process?"
It followed Carter as he walked to the large, circular room filled with sparking electrical equipment. Carter rolled one of the pieces used for the electroconvulsive therapy to the center of the room and said, "This needs to be completely restored to its state when brand new. It is likely not what would be used in her timeline, which based on the way she dresses I'm guessing is many years beyond when I practiced, but it will work the same. 800 milliamps for between one and six seconds. The pulses will be administered unilaterally, to prevent memory loss. Depending on her response, I may increase the current, but 800 will be a good baseline to begin with for her first treatment."
"First?" The Entity questioned.
"The therapy can work immediately, but it may not. She may recover within an hour, but it may take a week of treatment before she makes a full recovery. It all depends on how badly the experience affected her. You are aware that the human brain is a mysterious piece of machinery. It's why you came to me. She is young and strong, so I'm hopeful it will only take one, but if it does not, it's normal."
Carter wheeled forward another dusty piece of equipment. "This will need full restoration as well, so we can monitor the electrical activity in the patient's brain. It's an electroencephalogram. We will need to monitor her heart rate, so the nurse will be tasked with checking her pulse regularly." He held up a pressurized cuff. "I'll need this fully functional as well, for reasons I'll explain in a moment."
The Entity expanded its mass to follow Carter to a locked door, which he opened with a key. Inside were shelves filled with bottles of dusty medicines. He scanned them, then pulled a dusty bottle of fluid from the shelf and said, "This needs to be restored. Sodium thiopental. It will serve as a muscle relaxant during the process of providing the electrical stimulation to the brain. That is why I need that cuff, to prevent it from spreading through her entire bloodstream and into both of her feet. I'll need one to be able to move and flex to monitor the seizure activity that occurs from the electronic stimuli to her brain. The muscle movement will be a visible signal her brain is not so affected that she can't recover."
He gestured to the dusty needles, glass bottles of alcohol, soiled gauze, and dirty medical tape that were resting on a shelf next to the bottles. "This too, needs to be restored, for the administration of the relaxant and to sterilize and cover the injection site." He turned. "After that, all I will need is the nurse and the patient."
The Entity set to work, making the equipment and medicine brand new again. It pulled the nurse from her dormancy, and restored both the Doctor and the Nurse to their former human appearances of Herman Carter and Sally Smithson. While Amanda would be unaware, It knew Jake would bring her, and likely stay with her during. It would be unsettling if Jake had to see Amanda receive her treatment from the pair in their appearance as it was when they hunted them in the trials, and Jake would likely be expecting at any moment that they'd pull out a scalpel and slit Amanda's throat, before they did so to his.
At first they were upset. After all, they were killers. Their horrifying appearances intimidated and scared the survivors in a trial. Carrying weapons in their human appearances was scary, but not as scary as it was in their inhuman form.
The Entity explained it was only while they performed their duty, so as not to put Amanda's meat husband in fear of them trying to murder her rather than cure her. Even if the death would remain temporary, outside of a trial, Jake wouldn't know that, the Entity told them. He'd not only be fearing about Amanda's condition, but would be in a constant panic watching the monstrous forms of the killers performing her treatment, and waiting for the other shoe to fall.
"I will restore you to your former appearance as soon as the treatment is a success. The meat Jake is in a terrifying situation right now, and the circumstances of the treatment will be unlike anything he's ever experienced here. Since I share the blame in the event occurring, I want to make this process as normal as possible to help put him at ease. I don't just want to be fair. Because if the situation they find themselves trapped in, I would say they have both earned some of my generosity."
They patted their faces, examining themselves. But they both expressed their agreement to the temporary return to their human selves. Carter excitedly explained the situation to Smithson, and what the next steps would be. Smithson was eager to participate. After he was done, the Entity quickly pulled them to the realm and placed them in the basement to stare at Krueger.
"I have been more than fair. You know my expectations. You seem to understand them. However, if any of you deviate from my expectations, my punishment will be swift and severe. The state you see Krueger in now will pale in comparison to what I will do to either, or both of you if you make any attempt at all to harm her, or her meat, and damage her further or damage him. I will rip you to pieces and repair you, just to rip you to pieces again. I will take you to hitherto unexplored realms of pain and torture beyond the comprehension of even your twisted minds. Amanda, and those that come with her, are not to be harmed from the moment they enter, and until after they leave. When you are restored to your other forms, and encounter them in a trial, THEN you can resume your attempts to sacrifice them to please me. Do we understand each other?" The Entity waited.
Carter and Smithson both nodded furiously. The still living form of Krueger barely looked like a person. They'd felt the things it did to them for failure, and the tone of the Entity's voice assured them that it would do everything it threatened and more if they even blinked at the survivors the wrong way.
"Good. Prepare for your patient."
The Entity returned them to Lery. It was about to mass itself in the survivor camp when it stopped, looking at the dilapidated state of the building. Using its powers, it made a few more changes before it left, feeling satisfied.