Chapter Nine
Sitting alone, Lewis kept his gaze ahead at the book that his friend had left him. All around him the day room was full of his fellow doctors, nurses, and even a few patients. He paid none of them any attention, however. Instead he just sat there silently, eating his lunch and reading to himself.
When he had first walked into the crowded room he thought that he might have to eat his lunch in his office, as that would be the only place he would find the solitude that he needed. Luckily, there had been a free table near the room's back corner, providing him with the perfect environment to eat and still focus on the work at hand.
Unlike before, the cafeteria had more to offer than wilted salads and graying meat. From what Lewis had heard, one of the patients had gotten violently ill from a meal and a transfer to the town's medical hospital, Alchemilla, had occurred. Before any of the local journalists could even come searching for a story the hospital's director had implemented a new stocking policy with the local grocery store. Those in charge at Brookhaven were always quick to stamp out anything that might jeopardize their otherwise pristine records, and they now believed that the matter of the food's freshness at Brookhaven could be put to rest.
It was their determination that had kept the murder of Cassie an otherwise low-key matter. Death was a rare occurrence for those that worked within Brookhaven's walls, especially a death that was not of some progressive disease. Cassie's death had been such an unexplainable ripple that could have quickly gotten out of hand, yet it hadn't. While the fact that a mystery without any clues quickly fades from the public's short attention span had factored into the story's quick demise, Lewis couldn't help but to wonder whether Brookhaven's PR department had put a little work in with the local journalists to help put the story to bed quicker.
It wasn't his place to wonder such things, however. All Dr. Lewis had to do was focus on his job and let the rest of the pieces fall where they may. By putting the matter of Cassie's murder quickly behind everyone, Brookhaven's higher-ups hoped to get the minds of their staff back on work and off any lingering thoughts they might have harbored for the poor girl. This plan seemed to have taken with everyone, except for Dr. Lewis. No amount of work or lack of discussion on the matter would have put his mind at ease, as he was now completely absorbed in her death and the subsequent events he had been forced through in the wake of her death.
Those events began to involve more than just him, however. Working in a small mental hospital in a small town such as Silent Hill, allowed for rumors to be spread fairly quickly. Word concerning what had happened between Dr. Lewis and Christian during their last encounter was being passed along. In the wake of Cassie's murder those working at Brookhaven had kept a fair distance from Dr. Lewis, believing that he needed some time to recover from such a gruesome ordeal. Their fears and doubts concerning him were just beginning to be pushed aside, until this latest information had been passed along.
While no one outside of Dr. Lewis and Dr. Sampson knew for sure what had happened, people seldom look for the larger and more complete answers. Someone had begun whispering how Dr. Lewis had nearly killed a patient, and was no longer fit to be a psychologist at Brookhaven. That whisper had quickly become rumor, and that rumor had quickly spread to everyone's ears. There was apprehension in each of them now about approaching the solitary doctor, and for that reason they left him to eat his meal alone.
Completely unaware of any of these facts, Lewis continued to pick at his meal as he read through the history book that his friend had left him. Despite the fact that he was unaware that there was a reason behind his colleagues' hesitation to join him for lunch, in this moment Lewis didn't care. He saw this solitude as the chance to focus solely on the matters that were troubling him, and to hopefully bring about at least some resolution to those matters.
While Lewis understood why his friend had left him this book, he just couldn't help feeling that there had to be something more. Learning the history behind one word uttered by a mad man hardly explained the reasoning behind its use. He knew that if he were to ask any of his other colleagues for help then none of them would. Being one of the most unstable patients in Brookhaven's history would allow Christian to continue on without anyone caring what his motives might be.
Exhaling some air, Lewis just wished that his friend had given him more to go on. Randy might have made a notable attempt to help him understand what was going on, but he still felt as though only the tiniest step had been taken. And it had been a step that had left Dr. Lewis even more confused than before.
Since he had read the small passage about the husha ritual, then Lewis had gone over his encounter with Christian a hundred times. There had to be some clue, some other small hint as to why Christian had used this particular word. He could find none. Nor could he find any clue when he thought about his meeting with Christian after the mental patient had attacked him. There just had to be something, he could feel it.
Focusing on the book since he had found it on his desk several days ago, Lewis could almost recite the entire history of Silent Hill. From the days of the Abenaki tribe, to the colonial settlements by British explorers, all the way through the Civil War days when Silent Hill had been known for a prison camp for Confederate POWs. Lewis had it all crammed into his brain, and yet none of it was useful.
He had to begin considering that Christian, being the insane man that he was, had chosen the word at random. Lewis had to consider that the only explanation behind Christian's actions was that there was no explanation. Despite everything, Christian had not seemed that far gone to Lewis during their encounter.
There had been a calm and collected way about the man, and other then what he had said, he had appeared almost sane. If he did choose some word at random, then why choose one that made any sense at all? Why choose one that actually had some substance outside the confines of this small hospital and had meaning to the town, if even it was the town's past?
No, Christian had a reason for all of this. He had a reason for sending him the note, for what he had said to him, and for attacking him in the fashion that he did. Deep in his gut Lewis knew this, and knew that his trained instinct couldn't be wrong in this case. Still, it exhausted him. Feeling completely stuck and alone he just sat back in his chair and placed his hands over his eyes, blinding himself to the fluorescent glow and letting himself slip fully back into his mind.
"Hello," suddenly came a soft, feminine voice to Dr. Lewis' ears as he sat there trying to sort things out.
The word startled Lewis for a moment, as even in the bustle of the crowded room he had managed to find a piece of quiet for himself. Not only did the word itself startle him, but also the fact that it had been directed towards him. Although he was oblivious to the rumors being passed around about him, he did know that those around him were making fewer and fewer attempts to associate with him. He could certainly understand any reservations that his colleagues might have about him, and in a strange way he was glad for it.
Pulling himself back into reality, Lewis found himself sitting in his chair and staring back upon one of the last people he expected to approach him. After nearly falling out of his chair, he couldn't help but to feel some shame over being caught off guard. Instead of focusing on it any further, Lewis decided to simply focus on the girl in an attempt to sort out her purpose.
"May I?" the voice continued on, as it's owner grabbed hold of the vacant chair set across the table from him.
"Actually, I'd rather be left…." Lewis started to object, but let his words trail off as the young girl sat down anyway.
Sitting across from Dr. Lewis, the girl sat there for a moment without saying a word. Her silence was replaced by a smile, which only furthered Lewis' curiosity about why she had sat down.
"Why were you sitting alone?" she suddenly and simply asked of the doctor.
Taking in the young girl's face, Lewis suddenly recognized her as the nurse that had helped after Christian had attacked him. "I'm kind of working on something," Lewis replied back, gesturing towards the book that lay open on the table.
"I see," Michelle quietly said after taking a quick glance at the book.
There was another pause as the two just sat there looking at each other, both of them with a waiting expression. Neither of them chose to speak, and the world continued to drift on, until Lewis decided that he couldn't hold back his tongue any longer.
"Really, if you don't mind," he said as he gestured back towards the book, trying to make it apparent of how he wanted to get back to his work. This tactic seemed to be lost on Michelle.
"I just wanted to make sure that you're alright," she said back with a gentle manner.
"That I'm alright?" Lewis couldn't help but to questioningly spit out.
"Yeah." Michelle sat there for another moment with a kind smile, until it struck her that Dr. Lewis hadn't a clue as to why she might be concerned. "I mean, after you were attacked by that patient."
"Oh," Lewis muttered as the whole event surrounding Christian's attack on him and the recovery afterwards in which Michelle had been involved with replayed in his mind. "Yeah, I'm fine Michelle. Thanks for your concern," he added as a hollow afterthought.
"Of course, Dr. Lewis." There was another pause where Michelle seemed to do nothing but sit there and smile, until she spoke again. "I'm a little surprised though."
"Surprised? Surprised by what?"
"Oh, just that you didn't take any time off after that whole ordeal. I would have thought that after being attacked like that then you would want to spend some time away from here."
Lewis had to sit back and think on that for a moment. Ignoring the fact that Michelle was talking about one circumstance in a growing line of several, he had to wonder why he had continued to show up to work day after day. Not so much was this wonder about being attacked by Christian, but by the gruesome murder of Cassie. He had not missed a single day of work. While it was true that his workload had dropped off for a while after the girl's unexplainable death, he had still dragged himself into Brookhaven day after day. No one had specifically told him that he couldn't take some time off, and were he to ask then they probably would have been sympathetic enough to allow a brief vacation. Still, he had shown up every morning and continued to do his job as though nothing had occurred.
When Dr. Lewis made no reply to her comment, Michelle decided to press the topic even further. "Don't you think some time away from here would do you good, Dr. Lewis?"
"Maybe" he softly replied back. Taking in her question, Lewis forced himself to consider it for a moment. With everything that had been going on then he could more than justify a break from work, yet for some reason he still didn't feel as though he had the right to. "No," he simply added after he took a moment to weigh the decision in his mind.
Michelle sat there for a moment, letting his words sink into her being. After her mind had its fill then she couldn't help but to ask, "What about a wife, a family? Don't you have someone to go to and push your cares of this place away, at least for a little while?"
Lewis' gaze had begun to wander back onto the history book lying on the table, until Michelle had asked these questions. Staring at her, he noticed how nothing changed about the girl, and she obviously had no clue as to the impact that these questions made on him. After hesitating for a moment, deciding whether or not he should actually respond, he decided that if he could give Michelle a few answers then maybe it would encourage her to leave, so that he could get back to his work.
"No, no I don't have a family," he muttered. With a quick swipe of his tongue across his lips they were wet once more as he added, "I have a wife, but no children."
"Why not?" Michelle continued, letting her kind smile put even further emphasis behind her question.
"Well," Dr. Lewis started. It was not something that he had given a whole lot of thought towards, especially in recent days where Brookhaven had consumed so much of his life. "I guess it all goes back to my first wife. She had never been much into children."
"Your first wife?" Michelle asked as though this offhand fact surprised her, and yet the look on her face told an entirely different story. Nothing seemed to change about Michelle's expression, as she just sat and stared on.
"Yeah, I was married to a completely different woman when I first got to Silent Hill then I am now." Adding a sigh, Lewis thought back to those first days in Silent Hill, back to when Felecia had been a part of his life. He couldn't help but to miss those days, even though he knew in his heart that the best part about them was that they were over.
"What happened?" Michelle curiously pressed.
"Well," Lewis started as he rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. "It was your classic case. Boy meets girl in college. Boy falls in love with girl and asks him to marry her. Girl accepts and follows boy to small town. Boy throws himself into his work, causing girl to be unhappy until she leaves." On this sentiment the doctor took a long sip from his coffee mug, grimacing slightly as his taste buds reminded him that the mug indeed held coffee, and not anything else that might otherwise help his emotional state.
"That's sad," the young girl simply replied.
"I guess so," Lewis muttered as he took another sip from his mug. "But it isn't as though her leaving was the end of the world." Inside Lewis knew this statement was far from the truth. When Felecia had left him, the entirety of his world had been shattered. Having lost so much in losing her, Dr. Lewis had slipped into a drunken haze that had nearly cost him his job, his life, and most importantly his sanity.
"And then you met your new wife here in Silent Hill?"
Letting his mind focus on thoughts of Felecia for a moment, Lewis nearly missed Michelle's question. When the question did register in his mind then he simply replied with a nod of his head and a faint yes.
"Tell me about her," the young girl asked as she anxiously looked at the doctor.
Opening his mouth, Lewis started to tell of how he had met Janice at the park one afternoon when one of her 2nd grade students had innocently asked him if he would like to join their picnic. Before he could get a word out though, his mind suddenly kicked back in and he couldn't help but to wonder why Michelle was asking so many questions. Looking back at the young nurse who sat across from him, he voiced this question aloud.
"I'm new here," she innocently replied, "and I want to get to know as many people working at Brookhaven as I can."
While Lewis could understand this answer, he just couldn't accept things at that. "If that's the case, Michelle, then why aren't you talking to anyone else? Why are you only sitting here and talking to me?" he asked in a much harsher tone than he intended.
Despite the rude tone that Lewis had used in asking these questions, and despite the fact that she should have been offended by that tone, Michelle just calmly sat there and smiled as she tried to answer the doctor's questions. "Because you looked lonely. Because you looked like you needed someone to talk to," she flatly said.
This wasn't quite the answer that Dr. Lewis had been expecting from the young nurse. Actually, he didn't know what he should expect from her. Having only met her briefly once before hadn't given him a proper chance to form an impression about her, and because of this then he should not have been surprised by anything she did. Still, with all of the recent events and all of those around him that had made their ignorance of him to be a new pastime, Lewis found Michelle's sentiment to be hauntingly odd in such a rundown and depressing place.
Pushing the young girl's sentiment to the back of his mind, Lewis pictured that day in his mind. He was spending some time away from the office at Rosewater Park, just enjoying the view. It was early spring at the time. The schools in Silent Hill were just about to close down for the summer, and Janice had thought to take her class to the park for a picnic; as sort of a year end celebration.
Closing his eyes, Lewis could almost feel the wind blowing off of Toluca Lake as he recounted the event to Michelle. The park's lookout had always been a special place for him. It was one of the first places he and Felecia had visited when they had moved to Silent Hill those many years ago. After she had left him, then he couldn't help but to frequent that same spot, as though by being there he could regain some sense of Felecia, and everything that he had lost along with her.
As he recalled the day, he remembered that there were a lot of people visiting Rosewater at the time. A far larger number than typically visited the park during the day. This rush of people had been caused by the fact that the park had been closed for a full week beforehand, but for what reason Lewis could no longer remember. Details like that didn't seem very important to Lewis. What was important about that day was meeting her, meeting Janice.
Even though Lewis had visited the park on almost a daily basis, he had never given the other visitors much notice. In this place he was alone amongst the crowd, and that had never been a problem for him. On that day however, fate was not about to let him remain content in his solitary gazing across the lake.
Things started out innocent enough. There he stood as from somewhere behind him he could hear the shout of a woman, calling out for some lost child. That child had ended up at Lewis' pant leg, full of curiosity about what he was doing. With a kind smile he had tried to give the young boy an answer that would satisfy his curious nature, until the woman had finally stumbled upon the two. Scolding the child for leaving the group, Janice had attempted an apology, only to have it and the matter pushed aside by Lewis' smile and a wave of forgiveness.
Before Janice could pull the young boy back to his class group, he couldn't help but to break away from her long enough to ask Lewis to join their picnic. At first, Lewis had politely refused. He was content to remain there, gazing out across the lake, as the rest of the world around him enjoyed life. The young child was insistent though in Lewis joining them for a bit to eat, believing that he had now befriended the man and could excitedly introduce him to his peers.
There was so much longing set into the young boy's pleas, that he hadn't manage to stay resolute for long. Finally, after he had began to doubt his own attempts, the boy asked Janice to convince the psychologist to join them. At this suggestion she couldn't help but to blush a little, which ended up encouraging Lewis that an afternoon's break from the lookout would do him some good.
During the picnic, Lewis had stayed near Janice as he tried to learn more about the kind woman that had caught his eye. Several of the students kept his attention though, asking him all manner of questions and pleading that he join in on their games. It was something that he hadn't expected upon entering the park earlier that morning, but he couldn't help but to oblige the kids for a while.
"So, you do like kids then?" Michelle broke into Lewis' retelling with.
Staring off into the past, Lewis thought about the question for a moment before replying. "Yeah, I guess I do. I've always liked helping kids, helping them to get onto the right track."
"Is that why you took Cassie's case? To help her out?" The young nurse coldly asked.
Recounting the day in which he had met Janice; Lewis had slipped into the past and had slipped away from what was going on. He had only halfway been paying attention to Michelle when she had asked her questions. When what Michelle had asked finally did hit him, Lewis shot forward in his chair.
"What did you just say?" Lewis asked as he stared at the girl intently.
"I was asking if your love for helping children was the reason that you take so many cases dealing with young people," came Michelle's reply as she smiled at him once again.
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess that's true," the doctor replied almost dumbfounded. He could have sworn that the young nurse before him had just mentioned Cassie's name, but he couldn't be completely positive. Everything that had been going on in his life had left him so exhausted lately, making it hard for him to give much focus to anyone or anything. Wondering if it was this exhaustion, or because he had become so absorbed in his past, had caused him to believe that Michelle had mentioned Cassie's name, Lewis just sat there in wait for whatever question the girl would come up with next.
There was another pause as Michelle stared at Lewis as though she was expecting something more out of him. Many of the people that had flooded the day room earlier as they ate a meal had left. Their lunch breaks were over, and they had no choice but to return to whatever dull job put money into their pockets. Left alone and in near silence, Dr. Lewis looked over the girl and took every feature of her in.
Dark black hair fell from the top of her head nearly to rest on her shoulders. Her emerald eyes stared back at Lewis intently, almost as though they were judging him, as he took her face in. Michelle's skin was a very creamy white, with just enough hue so as to not make her look pale. And it looked soft to Lewis as well. The girl's skin was so young and free of the worries that take over one's appearance as the years fade away behind them.
"Michelle, how old are you?" Lewis asked as he realized how young the girl now seemed to him.
"Why I'm eighteen of course." The sweet tone in the girl's voice helped to add to Lewis' feeling about how young she was.
"Eighteen?" the doctor repeated, showing with his tone how skeptical he still was by this admission.
"Yes, of course I'm eighteen, Dr. Lewis." Michelle said with a continued smile. "If I wasn't eighteen, then I wouldn't be here now would I?"
"Why do you say that, Michelle?" Lewis asked after pondering the girl's question for a moment.
"Because the internship program here doesn't allow for anyone to be younger than eighteen years of age." As Michelle continued on she pointed to a name tag that had been clipped onto her white uniform, indicating her role at Brookhaven. "And if I'm not an intern, then what else would I be doing here?" she added.
Finishing the last of his coffee, Lewis gave this some thought. The girl that sat across from him still seemed a little out of place to him, but Lewis had to admit to the fact that he could be wrong about her. It wouldn't have been the first time he had so quickly misjudged someone, especially a woman. Maybe it was the fact that he was getting older, and as his youth disappeared behind him he was more inclined to believe everyone else was that much younger. Whatever it was, Lewis decided it wasn't important.
Letting the matter over her age fade behind them, Michelle decided to once again ask a question of Dr. Lewis in an attempt to learn more about him. "So why did you become a psychologist anyway?"
Pushing aside his empty coffee mug, Lewis leaned back in the plastic cafeteria chair before answering. "Well, I've always wanted to help people, help them overcome their problems, you know? People say that the world can be a dark and dreary place, and if I can help people out of that mindset then my life can have some purpose I suppose."
"Have you ever been like that, Dr. Lewis? Feeling like the world is a dark and dreary place? Without any hope, without anyway of coping with what was going on?"
He stumbled across the cobblestone drunkenly, no longer sure why his shattered heart continued to pump in his chest.
"Erhm, no not really," the doctor replied with a clearing of his throat. "I've always been on the positive side, looking for that one ray of sunshine that always breaks through the clouds."
The sun would be up soon, and he knew that the new day would bring him nothing but more emptiness. An emptiness that he had to find a way to fill.
"Not even after that patient attacked you?" Michelle asked sympathetically. "If something like that had happened to me, then I don't know what I would have done."
In his being Lewis knew that his statements about staying positive no matter what was nothing more than a lie. He had faced demons before, and they had nearly destroyed him those years ago. Ever since he had seen Cassie's murdered body those demons had threatened to come back, lingering just on the edges of his consciousness in wait for the perfect moment to strike. Brookhaven was full of people that knew just how fragile he was; so for Michelle to seemingly buy into his fabrications didn't make a whole lot of sense to him.
"Are you okay?" asked the young girl as Lewis stared off into some other world.
Opening his mouth, Lewis began to reply with some other lie to put her mind at ease. Then something hit him, and he closed his mouth at the thought. This whole time that Michelle had been sitting there, asking her questions, Lewis had been responding to them without much hesitation. He knew nothing of her, and yet he had poured his heart out as though the two had known each other for years. As this realization came over the Brookhaven doctor, then he felt something come over him that could only be described as creepy.
Ignoring the feeling for a moment, Lewis decided that it was time to turn the tables on the conversation. "So, why are you here at Brookhaven, Michelle?" he asked trying not to be rude about it, but not quite succeeding.
"I'm an intern here," she replied simply as she once again pointed to her nametag.
"Yes yes, you're an intern." There was some slight frustration in his tone as Lewis decided to ask, "But why are you here? Why did you decide to be an intern at this hospital?"
"Oh," the young nurse replied as she suddenly realized what Lewis had meant by his question. Her expression changed in the moment before she gave her reason. A smile still came from her face, but somehow it was different. It wasn't the same smile that she had worn during their conversation thus far. "I'm here to help."
As before, this answer was not quite what Lewis was expecting. Nor did he find it particularly helpful. Instead of pressing the issue further, he just decided to ask a different question. "Did you grow up here in Silent Hill then?"
Michelle's face returned to its normal appearance, kind smile and all, as this question was asked. She seemed to consider the question for a moment, before responding with, "Why is that important?"
"I just thought…" As Lewis tried to explain himself he couldn't help but to pause, not quite understanding what was going on in the girl's mind. Still, he decided to try again. "I just thought, that since you were asking so many questions of me, that it would only be fair for you to answer a few of my questions."
Again, the young girl seemed to think about the statement for a moment, before simply saying, "Why would you care about anything concerning me?"
Sitting there dumbstruck, Lewis began to open his mouth in response, until a sudden noise from across the room broke his thoughts, and pulled his attention away from the young girl.
The day room was now vacant save for Lewis and Michelle. This absence of others had allowed for a layer of stillness to fall upon the room. It was a stillness that the room was beginning to enjoy after being so crowded during lunch, and it was just as upset as Lewis when the doors flew open and in rushed one of Brookhaven's white coated doctors.
"Terry! Terry!" the doctor yelled out as he ran across the room towards Dr. Lewis.
When his colleague approached him, Lewis turned away from Michelle to take in the man's worried face. "What is it Keith?" he asked Dr. Brennerd, afraid at what might have caused the normally subdued man to act so hastily.
"It's….Dana," Brennerd said as he struggled to catch his breath. "You need to……come quickly…."
When Lewis heard the patient's name, his concern instantly kicked in. Dana was one of his favorite patients, and if something were to happen to her then that would be something he just couldn't handle. Especially in the midst of so many other personal tragedies.
"What's wrong?" he frantically asked of his fellow doctor.
"Just…..come…..quick….."
Glancing back at Michelle, Lewis couldn't help but to feel guilty at leaving her. She had been kind to him, and given him the chance to think about something other than what was beginning to consume his life. To abandon her just as things were starting to go somewhere in the conversation for him frustrated him, but a slight nod from the young nurse only gave permission to leave things as they were for the moment.
Quickly gathering his things, Lewis followed Brennerd out of the day room doors, and down the hall towards Dana's room. Despite further coaxing, Dr. Brennerd refused to say anything further on the matter. This didn't give Lewis much of a chance to prepare for whatever he was walking into, although when he saw for himself what the situation was then he knew nothing could have prepared him for it.
Maneuvering past a physician and a pair of nurses, Lewis entered Dana's room. Holding back any nausea that bubbled up in his throat, he looked over the fragile form of Dana, trying to ignore the coating of red that surrounded her.
"What happened?" he asked as he knelt by Dana.
"Iii don't know, Dr. Lllewis," one of the nurses shakily replied. "I came to gggive Dana her lunch, and she wasss like this."
Taking Dana's thin arm in his hand, Lewis looked over the crimson cuts that ran across her skin. For a moment he just stared at them in silence before he felt like he needed to take his attention away from them. There was just something too familiar about the whole situation, and Lewis didn't want any part of it.
Stepping back from Dana's body he decided to ask the physician for a diagnosis. As a mental hospital, Brookhaven only had two medical doctors on hand. Dr. Hunt was one of them, but this man was someone he was unfamiliar with. "Is she going to make it?" he couldn't help but to blurt out.
Checking over her vitals, the doctor replied over his shoulder. "She's lost a lot of blood. But if I can stabilize her quickly, then the facilities at Alchemilla should be able to help her recover."
At the doctor's urging, the two nurses helped to lift Dana's lax form onto a stretcher and out of the room, leaving Dr. Lewis alone to just stare at the aftermath of Dana's attempted suicide.
He didn't understand it, no matter how much he thought about it. Dana had never shown any sign of violent or self destructive behavior. Certainly she hadn't appeared suicidal in the least. But as Lewis stared at the bloody sheets that she was lying upon moments earlier he just couldn't shake off the feeling that something was very wrong. The scene replayed eerily similar to the same one in which he had found Cassie in, and he just couldn't rid himself of the disturbing sense that he found coursing through his being.
Looking over the scene one final time something struck him. Moving his gaze off of the sheets onto the dusty book clutched in his hand, Lewis suddenly remembered the question of what blood had been used to scrawl out the misspelled note. Suddenly it became important to him that he figure out where exactly the blood had come from on the note. As he exited the room only a quick flash of something struck his mind before he left, determined that he would now put the pieces of what was going on together, no matter what happened.
There was blood everywhere. It didn't matter to him though, he didn't care at all. No, what he cared about what finishing his task, of filling his being's need.