"What do you want?" Elmer demanded. He could hear Louis starting to moan slightly, comforting him with the knowledge that he hadn't lost his last remaining parent anyway. His dad had told him to protect Lona. He had to.... He forced his mind to focus on that, to try to clear enough for him to manage that one thing anyway. If anything happened to her, if anything happened to his father.... "What do you want?" he demanded again. He could see now that the old doctor had a syringe, one that definitely didn't look very sanitary, and he was holding it up in a rather threatening fashion. "Go away! Leave us alone!"
Gottreich didn't speak, just laughed slightly at Elmer thinking
that he could actually order him to do something and expect to be obeyed.
The boy was a bigger fool that Paul was. Honestly, the young were just so
idiotic these days. Perhaps he would dispose of this one as well after
finishing the woman. He was much too stupid to be allowed to live, much
like his brother.
"I told you to get out of here!" Where were Hook and Chris?
Although Elmer would die before he let this nutty looking doctor touch Lona
or his father, he knew that physically he was probably too weak to put up
much of an actual fight against him. "Get out of here! We didn't do
anything to you! Leave them alone!" Elmer looked around frantically,
searching for something, anything, that he could use as a weapon.
"Step aside, boy, if you want to live a bit longer." Gottreich said with a condescending look as he continued forward. He had used a bit of the drug on the boy's fool father but there was more than enough left to finish the woman off as well.
"No!" Elmer moved forward, weaving but determination keeping him
on his feet as he shoved at Gottreich, grabbing for his hand, trying to
knock the syringe away. His eyes widened at how cold the doctor felt,
deathly cold. Was this one of Mrs. Druse's ghosts, perhaps? But he had
thought that the ghost she kept talking about was some little girl and....
"Idiot!" Gottreich tried to shove Elmer away, anger building. Who were these people to try to stand in his way? Did they not know who he was, who his family were? How could they think that their feeble attempts to stop him could have any hope of success?
"I won't let you hurt them! Go away!" Why wasn't Hook coming back
already? This man, ghost maybe, was strong, unnaturally strong, and Elmer
could feel his strength fast fading as he tried to push him back, to knock
the needle away from him. He didn't know what was in it but he was sure
that it wasn't anything good. His fingers slipped as the man started to
gain the upper hand over him but.... Elmer closed his eyes for a moment,
not sure that he could do this before releasing his hold, grabbing up for
the barrel of the syringe and squeezing as hard as he could. The needle
looked old, maybe not plastic like current needles. Maybe....
Fool boy!" Gottreich shouted as somehow, the needle shattered in their hands, glass falling to the floor, sinking into Elmer's palm. He shoved Elmer away, sending him crashing into the wall and landing by his fool of a father's side. As much as he hated to, it seemed that he would have to use cruder methods now. He reached out for Lona, his hands starting to wrap around her throat.
No...." The room was swimming even more now but Elmer struggled against it, trying to get to his feet. His palms were throbbing from the cuts but.... "No, leave her alone!" He was suddenly somehow upright and lurching towards Gottreich once more. Over his dead body was Lona going to be hurt! He wouldn't allow it!
Before Gottreich could touch Elmer once more, could push him away again, suddenly a loud roar filled the air as Antubis and Blondi both came through the wall.
Elmer abruptly sat down on the floor, shaking his swimming head,
not sure that he wasn't a little further gone than he had been thinking as
he watched the scene in front of him. There was Otto's dog and then
something else.... He shook his head, trying to clear it. Wasn't that
the thing he had seen in his dream once, the thing with the big teeth
and.... It seemed that the old doctor was afraid of the creature, though,
or at least backing away as it swiped at him with long claws. Surely that
meant that whatever it was, it was friendly. Well, friendlier, anyway.
Antubis growled once more as Gottreich vanished through the wall.
Out of the two, he would definitely prefer dealing with Paul over his
master. The boy was more of a nuisance but Gottriech.... The old doctor
was a deadly threat. 'Want to tell me what happened?' the anteater asked
as he came over to Elmer, poking the young doctor with his snout.
"Ummmmm...." Did that anteater just talk? Elmer looked at Antubis
in shock and puzzlement followed a few seconds later by acceptance. Okay,
a talking anteater probably meant that he had just lost his mind but he was
willing to go with that. The talking anteater seemed like the only thing
available for help at the moment, after all. "He did something. He was
trying to hurt Lona and then my dad...."
Elmer felt fear wash over him as he remembered his father and what
the doctor had done. "Dad?" he called anxiously as he struggled to pull
himself up, blood dripping from the cuts on his hands. "Dad?" he could
hear Louis moaning. Why wasn't he answering him? Elmer glanced over at
Lona, wanting to go and check her, but knowing that right now his father
needed him more. "Dad?" Elmer's eyes widened with shock as he dropped to
the ground by his father, saw the bruises that were now covering Louis's
arms. "Dad?" he reached out, gently touching his father's shoulder,
trying to wake him up fully. What had happened? What had that doctor done
to his father?
'Warfarin.' Blondi called as he raised his nose from sniffing the
remains of the syringe. 'Where does he keep getting that stuff, anyway?
You would think the humans would guard the pharmacy a little better.' It
really didn't say much for hospital security that Gottreich kept strolling
off with drugs, something that worried Blondi more than a bit, seeing as
his human was supposed to be in charge of such things.
Warfarin? Did the dog just say that what had been in the syringe was.... Elmer felt almost overwhelming fright washing over him now. His dad had been.... And Lona? Did she get injected to? "Dad, please wake up!" Elmer called frantically for his father. No, this couldn't be happening! He could lose both of them. "Dad!"