I wrote this and the previous two chapters in a massive binge session. As I am writing this note, it is 4:33 am.
Aya entered her room alone. Jonny had taken position at his stand. She noticed the cat had migrated to the top of her bed, and was sleeping soundly. She noticed it looked slightly better than before. Its wounds were present, but far smaller than before.
She set the books on the floor and quietly turned the pages, not wishing to disturb the cat. Snowball hopped down, and headed over to the food dish near his bed.
Most of their contents were notes written in the Doctor's incomprehensible handwriting, accompanied by gruesome photos of dead subjects. Two in particular caught her eye.
One was a tall boy with messy blonde hair. One of his eyes had been removed and had a separate picture. That boy from earlier. Of course! I must have seen him when he was a patient! That's why I know his voice! But why his specifically? I don't remember the others.
The other photo was of a young girl, about Aya's age. She had dirty blonde hair that reached down to her neck, and emerald-green eyes, though the life had drained out of them. Her lower body had been messily cut open with a chainsaw. A teardrop fell onto the page. Aya didn't know why, but seeing this girl made her very sad. She felt like she knew her somehow. Like they had been close before. She shut the book and moved on to the next one. She had to focus. She had to save Father. At that thought, another wave of sadness washed over her. She realized once more that all of this was to save the man who killed these people.
As Aya flipped through the second book, she found a note next to a diagram of a dead human. Code memo it was titled. It had a series of hints written on it. For Father's safe.
Aya pocketed the note as Snowball hopped back over to her. She placed hm back into her pocket, and stood up. Just then, she noticed a horrifying figure standing next to her. It looked like a young girl with short blonde hair. Her body was emaciated, and she had no clothes to speak of. Her skin was the same corpsey color as the rest of the subjects. Most notably, her eyes were missing. The subject grabbed Aya.
"MAMA… MAMA… IT HURTS… HELP ME…" The girl sounded pained as she spoke. "H E L P".
Aya suddenly found herself in the Lab. She saw the girl, alive this time, and strapped to an operating table. Maria stood over her, while her father prepared a syringe full of a strange liquid.
"I wanna go hooome! I wanna see mamaaa!" The girl pleaded for help.
"Don't worry, I shall take you to her, once this is all over." Maria lied through her teeth.
"Nooo! I wanna go now! Mama! MAMAAA!" The girl was crying now.
The Doctor walked calmly over to the table. "Don't fret. Everything will be fine. We just wish to test this medicine. It may hurt a bit… But not to worry. You'll soon feel such relief."
"NOOOOOOOOOO! MAMAAAAA!"
"Stop…" Aya could hear the patient struggling, the life slowly draining from her. "Stop! I don't want this!" She wanted the visions to stop, she wanted her father to stop, to let the girl go, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn't move. She fired every neuron in her brain desperately trying to do something, anything. The patient continued to struggle, more rapidly this time, until her movements ceased entirely.
"STOOOOOP!" Aya snapped back to the present, her arms jerked forward, finally responding to her brain's commands. She shoved the girl to the ground.
The girl moved pathetically on the ground. "Mama… ma… ma…"
Wait a minute. Aya recalled the crying woman in her father's room, and the description she gave her. "Collina?" The girl glanced, for lack of a better word at Aya. "I… I know where your mother is."
The girl seemed to look hopeful. "Please, I want to see mama." She suddenly vanished, leaving behind a pendant. Aya scooped it up, resolving to take it to the woman.
Meanwhile
Jonny stood ready at his post. It felt good to finally relax. One disadvantage of the soldiers was their short energy span. They needed to regularly recharge less they lose consciousness.
Suddenly, he heard a crash from down the hall, past the archives. He looked toward the noise and saw what appeared to be a ghostly woman pushing a cart. She'd knocked over a pole blocking off the end of the hall. Jonny crept slowly towards her, giving a nod to Jerry. Jerry nodded back.
The woman vanished, leaving the cart behind. There was, upon closer inspection, another gem on the cart. He picked it up and pocketed it. He'd give it back to Aya later.
Suddenly, he was tackled from behind. The girl from before slammed into his back, and began pounding on his prone body. He turned over, and braced his arms to absorb the blow. He looked aside to his rifle, now on the ground beside him. He reached for the barrel and brought it up to the face of the woman, taking several hard punches to the face in the process. He pressed it against the side of her head, and rolled on his side, reaching for the trigger. He braced himself for the noise as he pulled the trigger, obliterating her skull. The woman vanished without a trace. Even her blood disappeared along with her.
Jonny groaned as he got up. He touched his scalp and noticed it was bleeding. He heard panicked drumming in the distance. "I'm alright, Jerry, don't worry. Hat slag just got the drop on me is all." He made his way back to the stand.
Aya heard the shot ring out and bolted out of her room. There she saw Jonny limping pack to his stand.
"Oh my God, are you okay!?"
"I'm fine, mum, just a bit dinged up is all." He took his place back at the stand. "A few minutes 'ere and I'll be right as rain." Was it really that simple? "Oh, right, here you go." He tossed her the gem he'd found. "I dunno what these're for, but they seem important somehow."
Aya pocketed the gem.
Footsteps echoed from downstairs, followed by the voice of Reggie. "Oy! What the blazes is goin' on 'ere!?" He appeared on the steps, revolver in hand.
"Nuffin, Corporal, just a ghost is all. I got 'er."
Reggie sighed and marched back to his post, grumbling. "I swear to bloody Christ, I don't get paid enough for this."
Aya bid Jonny goodbye and returned to her father's room. There she saw the visage of the mother. She walked over to her and, with some trepidation, handed her the pendant.
"This is her pendant" the mother spoke, eyeing it with sentimentality.
Suddenly, Collina approached from behind. "MAMA…"
"Collina!"
"MAMAAA!" Collina and her mother embraced, disappearing as they did. They left behind another gem, which Aya pocketed, still processing all that just happened.
Aya turned her attention to the safe. She opened the note from earlier.
1. Chandeliers in Entrance Hall
2. Chang. Room Hats – Bathroom Planters =
3. Red Dolls in Doll Room
4. Barrels in Cafeteria.
Aya groaned in frustration. Why did her father have to make it such a hassle? They'd just finished barricading the Doll Room, too. There were four chandeliers, she knew that much, so she dialed in four for the first number. The rest was going to be a real pain.
Wait, that's right, the dolls! I remember the dolls! Aya realized. She had played with those dolls more than enough times to remember that there were fewer with red dresses. There were eight, precisely for that reason. So that's why those dolls were hidden behind the curtain. Aya dialed in the third number. Now she needed the other two. She sighed, well, it's something at least. Let's get this over with.
Come on, we all know Alfred has to have TERRIBLE handwriting.