Chapter 20: Confide

Adrian smiled as he found himself back in the hospital lobby. The lack of Cybil did not worry him, or even occur to him; as far as he was concerned, she was still looking in other rooms. Besides, there was also the picture on the wall behind the receptionist desk that had his full attention. "Hmm..."

He hopped over the desk to get a closer look at what was on the wall. A rather well drawn out map that seemed to cover every room in the hospital, from the basement to the third floor. Adrian's eyes quickly scanned the section of the first floor, and frowned- no room 105 in sight.

"Huh?" He was in disbelief. There was a 205 and 305, but no 105. Not something that Adrian had expected.

"Great.. another joke. That's really great. Frickin' priceless." He figured in retrospect that he shouldn't have been so surprised; that Sam would not have gave up his possible hiding place like that. However, there was also the wonder that perhaps there was a room 105. He looked at rooms 205 and 305. Maybe they would lead to something?

It was unlikely, but it was better than just giving up. Besides, there were other rooms that could have held clues as to a room 105. He managed to get the map out of the frame it was posted in, but it drifted out of his hands the moment he turned around.

A woman in a nurse outfit was slumped over the desk, seated in a rolling chair that seemed like it had much better days. It creaked and crackled under the woman's weight as she shifted forward in movement, and it was more than enough to get Adrian to back off.

He looked wearily at the woman, as she slowly began to rise to her feet. Adrian slowly lifted his weapon, but quickly put it back down- it was a woman... he couldn't possibly raise his weapon to her. That was his chain of thought, until the woman turned around.

It looked like she had been burnt to a crisp- her face was blackened to near ashes. Adrian quickly trained his gun on the woman, and without a second thought, he fired.

Instead of blood, the single bullet that impacted the nurse's head, caused it to explode into a rain of ashes. Black snow fluttered through the air in the wake of the gun blast, and Adrian turned his head away, to spare himself the sight of the headless body that slumped to the ground at his feet. He took a deep breath in an attempt to collect his bearings, before he promptly hopped over the desk and walked with purpose through the hallway.

The gunshot jarred Cybil awake, and much to her dismay, she found only her head movable. She was stuck, tied to a chair via some kind of red stained cloth. They tied to her wrists, her ankles, and her torso. Before she could mutter a question as to where she was, however, something spoke for her.

"Awake, miss Bennett?"

Cybil's eyes darted around the room. She was in the same room she was standing in before she got knocked out, which was a relief. But something was different about it, and that something she had immediately taken notice to.

She watched the womanly figure that sat at the desk not to far away from her. She had something in her hands, which she cradled in her lap as if it were a child. Cybil only saw what it was when the woman turned in her seat to face her, and found the vase that she had just inspected. Lips curled into a snarl, the woman who had expected Cybil to answer had spoke again.

"Alive, miss Bennett?"

Cybil's eyes narrowed in defiance. Her gun was still in her holster, if only she could wriggle a hand out of her restraints to get it.

Raven stood up, and set the vase on the desk where it once rested. "Why are you here, miss Bennett?" She looked into Cybil's eyes as she asked the question, and once again, she seemed to expect an answer. "What is your purpose? Your reason for being here..." Cybil kept quiet, and Raven's expression turned to a disappointed frown.

"I would have thought you finished your job all those years ago, on your missing person's case." Cybil's eyes widened. How did she know about that? She wouldn't have to wait long for the answer. Cybil tried to get a good look at the woman's face, but the darkness would not allow it. All Cybil could make out was the imposing silhouette that stood in front of her.

"Yes," Raven said with a smirk, sensing the confusion Cybil gave off, "I know all about you, miss Bennett. I've heard all kinds of things about you. Why come back?" Cybil gave no answer. Raven sighed. "Oh, still being silent, are we? Well, I know you can hear me, so I guess I'll just talk some more until you feel ready to exchange conversation."

"You know, I would have thought you found your purpose then, but apparently you find yourself sick with grief. You failed then, didn't you? Found the one you were looking for, just a little too late, isn't that right?" Raven snickered at the thought, but Cybil held firm and bit her bottom lip. She refused to speak, or say anything to further alienate herself for the pleasure of the woman in front of her. "You failed with Harry, too. Your whole life, you've failed, and your fate has you destined to fail. You only work because you hope that one day you won't fail and that maybe your one successful case can bring you happiness over how many times you've fucked up in life. It's too bad, though, because you'll only fuck up again. But you know that, I think. In the back of your mind, you do." Noticing Cybil still wasn't going to speak, Raven shook her head.

"You owe me a lot, miss Bennett." Raven turned and took the vase from the desk. She then set it in front of Cybil, allowing her to get more than a good enough look at it. "You owe me a lot."

Adrian ran up the stairwell to the second floor. It wasn't exactly a race against time, but Adrian sure didn't feel the same way. The rotted wooden stairs proved to be a hassle to him on the way up- his stomping feet crunched through some of the termite abused surface, and scratched away at Adrian's ankles through his black jeans. He trudged on, however- the pain had been blocked out long ago, and he was going to find what he was looking for no matter what the cost.

"What? I owe you what?" Cybil broke the silence, out of sheer frustration. She was tired of being put through the mind games that Raven dealt her, and the mind games that the whole town had dealt her, for that matter. "Come on, what did I do that makes me owe you? I owe you shit."

Raven looked at the blonde haired woman in shock. "...You cursed.." Raven tried not to smirk, but she flashed a smile anyway. This didn't last long, though, as she went right back to talking. "Yes, you do owe me. You owe me enough to succeed in doing one thing for me."

Cybil stared at Raven, nothing more than puzzled. "What? What do you want from me?"

Adrian made it to the second floor, and it quickly became obvious that he wasn't alone. A group of women in bloodied nurse uniforms were limping slowly in his direction. And the one in the front of the group had a steel pipe clenched in its right hand. Before Adrian could react, the 'woman' swung it at him.

"I want you, to tell Adrian, that I need to speak with him." Raven spoke every word with devotion- as if some kind of dark intent was behind each syllable. "I need to speak with him over something very important." Every word came out of her mouth almost as though she was talking to a little child. "And if I don't get to talk to him, something very bad is going to happen."

Cybil stared back at her attacker in bewilderment. "What is so important that you have to say to him?"

Raven thought about the question, before she smiled a sinister smile. "Well... we can keep it between us. As long as I get to be the one who tells him. Okay?"

"You either tell me and expect me to relay everything to him, or you tell me nothing."

Adrian took the full on hit of the blunt pipe right in the ribs. He coughed and clutched his stomach, before he grimaced and pulled his gun out of his pocket. He backed away just in time as the abomination swung at him again. It missed and stumbled towards him further, only for Adrian to send it to the ground with one, two, three, four nine millimeter rounds. Adrian took a deep breath, before he looked up and found that he wasn't out of the woods yet; there were three other nurses waiting to attack.

Raven frowned, and dismissed Cybil's remark with a shrug of the shoulders. "Have it your way." She turned to leave, but then she stopped suddenly. "Oh." She turned and pulled something from her kimono, and left it in Cybil's lap. "It'd be a pity to leave you empty handed, however. I suppose I can trust you to give that to him for me. That should fill in enough gaps in my darling's head." Raven undid the strap on one of Cybil's wrists, which allowed Cybil to untie herself and examine the item more closely. When she let the meaning of the object sink in, Cybil looked up for answers.

"Where did you-" she cut herself off upon the realization that Raven was gone.

Adrian tackled one of the women to the ground, and did not hesitate as he pounded in her face with his right hand. The two nurses that stood above him almost looked indifferent as he bashed away on the nearly rendered helpless figure, before her death spasms finally stopped.

He stopped his bloodied fist as he raised it in the air, and looked down at what he had been hitting- what was once a pretty face, had been tarnished with red rivers and black bruises. Adrian almost looked deep into his soul to question why he had struck the woman, until he was brought out of his trance by the other two uniformed women.

He was grabbed by his hair and pulled to his feet. The woman then began to choke the life out of him, while she turned him around to face the other woman nearby. Adrian, in gasping breaths, stared in horror as the woman pulled a gun from underneath her skirt. That revealing made Adrian struggle all the more to break free. And just as he did was when the BLAM sounded.

Adrian hit the floor in heavy breaths, before he scampered away from the twosome on all fours. When he turned to look at them, he found that the one that tried to strangle him had fallen over from a stray bullet to the stomach. Adrian sighed in relief to find no bullet hole turning him into swiss cheese. However, he was not in the clear yet.

The woman with the pistol had registered the missed shot in her mind, and slowly turned to face Adrian once more. It was when she slowly lifted her gun once more, though, that got Adrian running down the hall and into the darkness.

'201... 203.... 205!'

He dove into the room, and closed the door quickly behind him. And the first thing he did after catching his breath was look around to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. There wasn't anything. "Son of a..."

Free from her restraints, Cybil looked at the object in her hands. She turned it around and looked at the back of it, in an attempt to find anything else that stuck out.

Adrian creaked the door open as softly as possible, and tried to pinpoint where that woman was. It was hard to cut through the darkness, but the one dim light in the hallway that worked had helped somewhat. She wasn't in close sight- if she was still around at all, she had to be at the end of the hall.

If he ran it, maybe he would get by.. but she had a gun... and Adrian could safely bet that it was still loaded. It wouldn't be smart to just run on a hunch with someone armed outside.

Adrian stuck his body halfway out of the door, and trained his gun down the hall. He fired one shot, and then another shortly after. Both muzzle blasts illuminated the hallway but only momentarily, and the short light radius didn't help much either. But if the woman was still in the area, she'd have to have heard the blasts; and she would probably wander in his direction sooner than later.

Three minutes of waiting later, and there was still no other noise that followed. Adrian tip toed fully into the hall. One step at a time, he cautiously moved forward, and he would not stop until he got back to the stairwell. And before he knew it, there it was- the door that led to the stairs had slowly squeaked open.

Adrian stood frozen in terror- he waited a few feet away from the door, to see what would emerge. But to his relief, there was nothing. With a gulp, Adrian forced himself onward, and with a final lunge he stopped in front of the open doorway with his gun pointed at the stairs that led up to the third floor. Nothing.

He smiled at his temporary safety, until something got him to turn to his left down the rest of the hall, and there it was- a shadow from behind the open door, and it was moving his way.

"Oh my God..." he reached out and grabbed the doorknob before he practically dove into the stairwell and pulled the door with him. Whether it was the woman with the gun, that pyramid head, or something else.. it was wrestling with the doorknob on the other side- and it wanted on Adrian's side of the door. Badly.

"Shit! Stop! Stop!" He yelled freely, but it wasn't to anyone in particular. He'd come to realize that whoever was trying to get to him was not going to be friendly, and wasn't going to listen to any pleads that he had to say. And that was what brought Adrian to more extreme measures.

With one hand latched in a sweaty death grip around the doorknob, his other hand placed the barrel of his Walther to the door, before he fired every last round in the gun until all that was left was smoke and silence. And when that was over with, the doorknob rattled no more.

When he reached the third floor, when he reached room 305, he dropped to his knees in exhaustion. Whatever was behind that door would either give him answers, or lead him back to square one, again. With one last ounce of strength, he leaned up to push the door open, but the door opened from the other side for him. Adrian lifted his weapon swiftly, and before he could get a glimpse of who or what was on the other side, he pulled the trigger.

Click click.

Adrian soon quietly thanked his lucky stars for his unloaded handgun as Cybil stepped into the hallway, and kneeled down in front of him. "I told you to know who you're shooting."

Adrian nodded and spoke with empty lungs. "I know, I know, won't happen again."

Cybil frowned, before she dismissed the mistake. At least they both hadn't paid for it. Cybil handed an item to Adrian, pointing at it passively. "Take a look at that. Some woman wanted you to see it."

Adrian took his flashlight and replaced it in his hand for his weapon, and used the light to see the item in his other hand. And as he examined it, his jaw slowly dropped. "Wh.. what?"

A black and white photograph, and only two people were depicted in it- but those two people, they were more than noticeable. On the left was Raven Dremora, and looking into her eyes as he held her hand, was Adrian Mason.

Adrian leaned forward, and fell into Cybil who supported him. She took his shoulders and eased him back, trying to help him regain his senses. "Adrian? Are you alright?"

The flashlight hit the floor, and Adrian rubbed his forehead. "No.."

'Oh the sweet sugar saves me

It's the room that confines me

Confines me...'

His voice led the pluck of guitars and beat of the snare drums in his head. However, as pleasant as the melody was meant to be, the headache it gave Adrian was not exactly the greatest feeling in the world. Yeah, he filled in some of the gaps, and it did not feel as good as he hoped it would.