Hey, y'all. I've decided to halt work on the Negimatrix for a bit, and come up with this: My first Eternal Darkness fic. The game never truly said what happened to Maximillian Roivas before he went to the asylum, so, here's the trial that led to it. Enjoy!
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The court room was dark, illuminated dimly by the two lights hanging from the ceiling. Dust was visible, floating inexorably in the air. To one side stood the jury, talking amongst themselves about the historical trial which was to come. On the other stood none other than the distinguished Dr. Maximillian Roivas. He was weary, and the dim light made him wearier still, but in his eyes was a mad, burning fire. For he knew what he had seen, and, wether they believed him or not, he would let the truth out none the less.
At the front, the judge, he too, weary, cleared his throat, and spoke in a gruff, slightly irritated voice. "Maximillian Roivas. On the 28th day of October, one week ago, a series of inane writings concerning a "Darkness" of some kind and several sketched drawings of non-discovered, nay, non-existent blasphemous creatures were found aside a leather bound tome at your estate on Rhode Island. After thorough searching, more of these henious atroctites were found scattered around the vicinity, from this, we can only clarify that you are i-"
He was interrupted by an outburst from Max, completely out of the blue. "Insane? Some say that, but only because that you have not seen what I have seen. That is the ultimate truth! You are blinded by your own foolish judgment of the world around you, but I have SEEN beyond this world, a mere veil pulled over our eyes! A VEIL! If you could see what I have seen, you could understand, but no, you are all naive fools, clinging on to your age-old beliefs of safety in futility! The darkness comes, yet you choose to ignore your coming deaths and remain non-believers! Fools! You are all BLIND FOOLS! THE DARKNESS COMES! And you do nothing to act against your inevitable doom!" The judge looked flabbergasted briefly, then spoke again. "Because we have no proof. Your "beliefs", Doctor, are clearly false. What is this?" He shuffles through a few papers. "Creatures inhabiting people's bodies, undead corpses "risen from the grave"...what is this heresy? This is madness, Roivas, pure madness that you are raving!" Max merely laughed. "Madness is what you will be subjected to when the Darkness consumes us. And nonexistent?" He laughs again. "Fools! I saw them, those...those...THINGS, heard them plotting our destruction and their takeover behind doors locked and barred, speaking, hissing in a tongue that only the Devil himself could decipher, but I knew what they were doing, what they were saying...hissing..." He breaks down into a brief display of inane laughter. "You..do not...UNDERSTAND"
"What is there to understand, "Doctor"? We have no evidence, if any, and these ideas are so heretic as to be punished by death! We understand one thing, Doctor, which is that you are more than just insane, and your poisoned mind has no idea what it is doing!" Max cackled softly. "There...is much that YOU...do not understand...much that you WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND!" He lowers his voice to a dark, menacing tone. "You foolish creatures will never see what I have seen, for you shall never understand the truth..don't you SEE! This world is merely a veil protect us from...from THEM...the Ancients...the Darkness...that which we CANNOT understand, nor should we! A mere veil, I tell you, beyond which lie blasphemies beyond comprehension! But you choose not..to..believe me...only because you do not understand it...but I understand it! I have seen what you CANNOT SEE, And I understand it! EVERYTHING! Aretak, Santak, Redgormor, Pargon, EVERYTHING! The skies above, the hells below, and all in between is at stake, approaching its near inveitable demise! We must rise! We must FIGHT the oblivion approaching us!" He laughs, then sobs, and shouts, "DONT YOU UNDERSTAND! DAMN YOUR EYES! DAMN YOU ALL! You are all BLIND to the coming peril! Cast me away, and you will be casting away your very HOPE OF SALVATION!" He stops, panting, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. The judge, boomed out, his voice echoing around the small room. "Doctor Roivas! I will not stand to hear any more of this heretic nonsense! Your "beliefs" are false, Doctor, and we will not hear any more of it!" He motioned to the jury, who talked quietly amongst themselves once again, and spoke the unanimous decision of Maximillian's fate to the judge. "Doctor Roivas, it appears that, although this instance of heresy is beyond compare, death is not the right thing for you. As from now, you will be spending the remainder of your life in the Jefferson and Brooke Asylum." He motioned to the two men standing by the exit door, who forcefully started to pull Max out of the room. He bellowed, "FOOLS! All of you! MAY THE DARKNESS DAMN YOU!"
An eerie silence settled over the room. A silence that would hang over the place for seemingly years to come.
That night, at the Jefferson and Brooke Asylum, when the others had either left, or had fallen into tormented sleep, a shrill cry could be heard, echoing throughout the building itself. "MAY THE RATS EAT YOUR EYES! I am now lost to your cause! The DARKNESS comes! IT WILL DAMN US ALL!"
The next day...
Maximillian, wig now gone, sitting in a blood and faeces-stained cell, was mumbling inanely to himself, scrawling a message on the wall, franticly, in his own blood. His mumbling was stopped when an eerie, soft blue light illuminated the room. Max turned, and froze. Before him was the alien, floating form of an Ulyaoth guardian, its squid-shaped, claw bearing form shimmering eerily, ominously. Max, voice slightly shaking, spoke. "Strike me down, foul creature...but I warn you...the Darkness will NOT prevail...that, I can assure you"
The Guardian merely let out an eerie screech in reply, and thrust both of its claws at Max's midsection.
Outside the asylum, a heart-rendering, terrifying scream like no other pierced the night like a scythe.
An hour or so later, an asylum worker comes to run his daily check on the cells...but when he crosses Max's cell, he freezes on the spot. He is horrified by what he sees, blood staning the walls of the cell, and max's mutilated corpse lying in tatters on the floor, his blank, cold, dead eyes staring up the worker. But he then discovers something more chilling than anything in his life. Before him, on the middle wall of the cell, a message, readable, and written in now-dried blood, is clearly visible. The message it holds is so terrifying, that the worker simply flees in fright.
An eerie silence hung over the asylum. Now abandoned, deserted. But the message in Max's cell still remained.
"The darkness has come."