A Life Internal - A Fable

Part 7

(Previous chapter was updated at the time that this was posted as well)

In the blackness that followed, Blake saw many things. The old man's face cackled madly at him while faceless FBI agents chased him relentlessly. Slowly the agents began to take other shapes, terrifying senseless shapes, not at all human. He asked himself constantly: Am I dead? Is this what hell is like?

He ran and ran through the blackness that swam about him for what seemed like an eternity before light began to creep into his vision. It became brighter and brighter and slowly a picture faded into view. It was a ceiling with a bright light fixture directly centered in his field of view. He now realized that he could not move and wondered if he indeed even had a body to move. Maybe he was just a spirit trapped in this place where he now found himself.

"Mr Blake? Oh...so good of you to join us at last, I was afraid that maybe you had slipped too far under and we would be finished before you awoke." A familiar voice...where had he heard it. A phone...Blake remembered a phone.

"I'm afraid its slightly difficult...It may be hard for you to focus or speak back right now as we had to sedate you...the drugs were rather strong I'm afraid, but quite effective."

Was he a Doctor? If he was he didn't sound like his usual physician, Dr Miller. Maybe an associate. Well, in any case, he was in good hands, whatever was wrong would be taken care of. Indeed the man even said that he was nearly finished.

Something began creeping into Blake's mind, only a small voice, but a coherent one.

Not right...something's not right here.

"As I was saying Mr Blake, the drugs are very effective, alas I'm sure your feeling their side effects as I speak now. I imagine you are quite disoriented, don't fret though, it will pass."

Not right...what's not right here?

Blake felt a odd feeling in the pit of his stomach, a tingling, strange very strange and it only seemed to add further to the nagging in the back of his mind.

NOT RIGHT!

Blake again tried to move, the realization now dawned on his that he was strapped down.

"Hmm...I don't know that I can get it all, Mr. Blake...but I promise you that I will do my absolute best."

A phone, why was he thinking about a phone? It was right there...there was a phone...in a hospital; room. Now it was there, the hospital, the child he had brought there, the monsters he had encountered and the one human voice that he had heard since his arrival there, the very voice he was listening to now. So he was a doctor, maybe he understood what was happening here. Thank God he had found him when he had.

NOT

But...what if...

RIGHT!

What if he was not what he sounded like...

Wrong

Blake now lifted his head, thankfully it didn't seem strapped down. He craned his neck to look about the room.

WRONG!

It was definitely a medical facility, no doubt about that. Medical tools were located all about the room, all very neatly kempt. As his gaze moved around the room he caught a gaze of the source of the voice he had heard and it looked human. A man, about 5 feet tall. He wore surgical scrubs and a mask, also he had goggles over his eyes, possibly to magnify his work. It was hard to see his face, but he looked human enough to Blake. So what's not right here.

ALL WRONG!

That was when Blake saw the work that needed magnified. The Doctor had Blake's briefcase sitting next to him. It was now nearly empty, though the question of where it had gone was answered when the Doctor picked up one of the remaining bundles of cash and with delicate grace inserted it into the incision that Blake could now see in his own stomach.

"As you can see, Mr Blake, everything is going to be just fine." The voice from beneath the surgeon's mask was as deliberate and calm as ever, almost soothing.

It was then that Blake started screaming.

"Now...Mr Blake...please do calm yourself."

Blake screamed and struggled against the straps that held him down, they were so tight that he couldn't move at all.

"Mr Blake, I will not ask you again...if you cannot be civil, I will have to put you under again."

Blake was hysterical now, logic had left and he was not hearing anything as he struggled frantically.

"Very well then, Mr Blake. You leave me little choice."

There was a quick pain in his forearm and that was it, the darkness from moments ago fell again.

The darkness again began to swirl into light as Blake opened his eyes. This time he found himself in a white room, the walls were padded. The realization that he was in an isolation cell for mental patients now dawned on him. His stomach, he saw as looked down at it, had a large bandage over whatever wound lie behind it. Slowly he crawled into a corner of the room and hugged his knees into his chest. What the hell had happened...where was he? What kind of place is this?