Chapter 5: Bury the Hatchet...in your Head
For the next few days after getting the note from the mysterious nurse, Freddy pondered over whether to heed its words or not. On one hand, he wanted to get out of this hell hole more than anything and now it would seem the bitch in the mask was giving him a golden opportunity to escape. On the other hand, complying with the note meant having to play nice with the assholes that got him trapped here in the first place, Jason and Michael. Freddy's blood boiled at the mere thought of them and whenever he would happen to spot either of them during the day, he had to fight off the urge to grab the nearest blunt object and smash them over the head with it. He could tell by the hate in their eyes that they felt the same.
That wasn't the only problem Freddy faced either. Even if he managed to escape Black Rose, there was still the matter of his lost powers. He knew of no way to get them back and as wanted as he was, trying to find said way would be very difficult, even without dead weight holding him back. But in this same train of thought, Freddy always came back to the same conclusion that none of that would matter. Because the fact was, this was the only chance he had to escape and while he wasn't sure how long the nurse would be keeping this offer open, he knew it wouldn't be forever.
That's why, 5 days after the health check-up, Freddy swallowed his pride and roamed the halls in search of the silent killers he hated. He didn't have to look for long as he found them in the rec room, a place full of books and movies where prisoners with good behavior were allowed to spend their days.
(AN: You know what, just assume this place is like Green Dolphin Street Prison from Jojo. Makes my job easier)
Sitting across from each other with a chessboard between them, was Michael and Jason. They seemed to be engaged in more of a staring contest than the actual game in front of them, only moving a piece every few minutes. Nevertheless, the fact that they had managed to agree to a game of chess despite being bitter rivals was amazing, even if it was helped along by the death collars on their necks. Lying on the floor alongside the table, scribbling all over an adult coloring book, was the man who sat at Jason's table the other day. From the sound of his child-like humming, Freddy could tell he was the man who sat next to him on the bus.
"I wonder if he's Bubba?" He thought. Pushing that thought aside from the time being, Freddy walked into the room and coughed loudly into his hand to get the other's attention. It worked and all three men turned their sights to Freddy. "Greetings bitches! Happy to see me?"
The man with the colorful paper mask simply cocked his head in confusion but Jason and Michael darkened the glare in their eyes. Freddy returned the favor, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that if it weren't for these fucking collars on their necks, they would have already painted the room with each other's blood as soon as Freddy had announced his presence, the poor retard more then likely getting killed in the crossfire. Nevertheless, Freddy walked up to the table and continued speaking.
"Look assholes, I have something important to say and I think you'll be interested so let's stop the bullshit and cut right to the chase!" Freddy reached into his pocket and removed the note which he then placed on the table for the others to see. "One of those masked nurses put this note in my pocket a few days ago and after looking deep inside myself, I decided my desire to get the fuck out of this shithole and get my powers back was greater than my hatred for either of you bozos. And while it's true you can't talk, I know you both want the same thing I do. So how about we let bygones be bygones an-
Freddy was interrupted by Jason's fist smashing into his face, the force strong enough to knock him against the wall. The bridge of Freddy's nose was broken in two and blood leaked from both nostrils as the former Springwood Slasher slid down the floor. Taking a moment to gasp for air, Freddy groaned and held his left hand over his nose, his right pushing against the wooden floor to help him back to his feet. "What the hell Voorhees? I'm trying to make peace here Oh shit!"
Freddy narrowly dodged another punch from Jason and then had equal luck with a kick from Michael. His luck stopped after that and as the man with the coloring book watched on, the two silent killers ganged up on Freddy, their punches and kicks hard enough to send the former dream demon back onto the ground
"INSURGENT BEHAVIOR DETECTED! CEASE IMMEDIATELY! FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN DEATH!"
At once, Jason and Michael ceased their assault, allowing Freddy to once again get back on his feet. "The fuck was that for assholes!? Here I am offering you a way out and that's the thanks I get?" Michael and Jason remained still as if waiting for something and Freddy found himself waiting as well, although for what he wasn't sure. That something, as it turned out was Michael getting behind him, grabbing his arms and holding them back. "Myers!? What the fuck are you doing?" Freddy growled. He got his answer when Jason landed a blow into his gut, one that was restricted so as not to outright tear a hole into Freddy's body. Another fist hit Freddy's jawline and yet another landed on his flank. Again and again, Jason continued to deliver blow after blow to his nemesis who was unable to fight back aside from a few lucky kicks. It wasn't long before the collars proclaimed their warning once again.
"INSURGENT BEHAVIOR DETECTED! CEASE IMMEDIATELY! FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN DEATH!"
But Michael and Jason did comply, the former releasing Freddy and allowing him to once again drop to the ground. Freddy spat out all the blood that had accumulated in his mouth thanks to Jason's punches, a single tooth joining it on the floor. "Oh I see," Freddy growled as he tried to get back on his feet, prevented from doing so by the pain in his sides and chest. "You assholes found out the cooling period for those damn collars. You can't kill me but you can beat the fuck out of me right until those collars turn on and then you wait until they shut their fucking traps, wait until the cooling period starts, and then come at me again."
Jason confirmed Freddy's theory by kicking him against the wall. There was quite a bit of force in that one and Freddy thought for sure he was going to lose a lung this time. "You'll give you this much, Hockey Puck, you and Captain Kirk aren't as dumb as you look." Michael and Jason ignored Freddy's compliment completely, marching up to the downed burnt man with the intent to trample him underfoot. Before they could get to Freddy however, the other man with the coloring book suddenly stepped in their way, squealing and waving his hands.
Both silent killers momentarily stopped their march forward, looked at each other in confusion, and then back to the bulky man defending Freddy. The man's squeals were completely unintelligible to anyone in the room but from his body language and the way he helped Freddy to his feet, it was clear he wanted the violence to stop.
"Saved by a retard." Freddy thought miserably. "Can I sink any lower?"
The man ran to the table and picked up the note that Freddy had left on the table and enthusiastically showed it to the silent killers, jumping up and down and pointing his finger at it. Despite his apparent lack of intellect, it seemed he was able to understand what Freddy was trying to get across and as he had no past with the burnt man behind him, he seemed to be on board with the idea. This much Freddy was able to understand.
"But why? Does this asshole think he's coming too? Who even is he?" Freddy glanced at the discarded coloring book that the man had left behind, scribbled on the top left corner of the open page was a word that Freddy wasn't able to make out completely, all he could tell was that it began with the letter B.
"B..." Freddy turned back to the man with his note and tapped him on the shoulder. Once he had his attention, he asked him: "Your name wouldn't by chance be..Bubba would it?" The man all but confirmed Freddy's suspicion by giggling and nodding ecstatically, clapping his hands and moving his feet up and down. "So this retard is that Bubba bastard the nurse was talking about? Why does she want him of all people?"
Freddy looked back up toward his rivals from last year and remembered the one thing that united all three of them. They were murderers. Predators of human beings that lurked in the shadows and left nothing but carnage, horror, and grief wherever they went. "Is it possible..." Freddy pondered as his gaze fell back onto the dancing man before him. "Is this tub of lard like us? A killer?"
Bubba continued to laugh and even blew a raspberry at Freddy.
"Could have fooled me." Freddy groaned under his breath before directing his attention back to the other two slashers. "Alright, alright." He brought his hands up. "I know I caused both of you jackasses a lot of grief last year and while I can't and won't apologize. That fact is, you have every right to hate me. I sure as hell hate you too."
The cooldown period for their collars had long since passed but neither Jason nor Michael made a move. For whatever reason, much to Freddy's relief, they were actually listening to him. Bubba was listening as well, his eyes fixated on Freddy like he were a very charismatic politician who had already won his vote just by speaking.
"But I can also guess you hate it here every bit as I do! The food stinks. These collars are a pain in the ass!" Freddy briefly tugged at his own collar as he said this, letting go before it could sound its distress call. "And the bitch running the joint is an even crazier psycho than any of us combined." Freddy never thought such words would escape his vocabulary but they did and they left a sour taste in his mouth. "The point is, we all wanna get out of here and this nurse, the one with the question mark mask, might be our ticket out of here."
All three of the other killers stared blankly at Freddy. It was clear to him that he was the only one out of these four that could actually talk and he sighed heavily before continuing. "Now I know what you're thinking. How the fuck are we supposed to trust some bitch who gave a random piece of paper to the asshole who invaded our dreams? Well, I suppose you can't completely. It's pretty sketchy to me too. I'll admit that much. But I don't exactly see any of the other staff going out of their way to help us escape. Do you?"
Michael and Jason looked at each other while Bubba cocked his head to the side with a confused grunt.
"I thought as much." Freddy huffed. "What it boils down to is that we have a real chance to get the fuck out of this place but in order to take it, and believe me, I hate this every bit as you do, we'll have to let bygones be bygones and play buddy-buddy. At least until we're free. So what do you say?"
Michael and Jason stared at Freddy with hateful eyes, clearly not in a forgiving mood. Bubba was able to feel the intense hatred in their glare as well for he started whimpering and hid behind Freddy. For the next two and a half minutes, the room was dead silent and it seemed to Freddy as if the whole world had just stopped. He felt nervous, realizing that, if either of the two men standing before him were inclined to do so, he could be killed faster than the collar could sound. They would still die of course but given all that Freddy had put them through, they might just be willing to make that sacrifice.
Finally, much to Freddy and Bubba's surprised delight, the two killers exchanged one more glance at each other and nodded. Freddy needed a moment to fully grasp what had just happened but once he did, his mouth reformed into one of his trademark sneers. "Very well! It would seem we're all in agreement then. And remember, no bad blood until we're out of this dump! Capisce?"
About 30 seconds passed before Michael and Jason once again nodded. Bubba, still cowering behind Freddy, had been nodding the whole time, mumbling to himself all the while. "Great! Now let's find that nurse!"
The four men made their way to the infirmary, eliciting stares from the other prisoners as they walked by. Not that the prisoners could really be blamed for gawking. After all, the sight of a man disfigured by burns all over his body leading three masked men of either great girth or stature down the hallway was an unusual one, even in a place like Black Rose Sanitarium. Once they arrived at the infirmary, the patients there gave them the same kind of looks. It was very possible that the nurses did as well, although it was impossible to tell given the mask they wore over their faces.
"Can I help you, gentlemen?" Freddy winced as the nurse with the exclamation mark on her mask approached them. Seeing her mask again, Freddy and the others couldn't but recall the incident during the health check-up where the junkie got a little too handsy and ended up paying for it with his life. It wasn't so much the man's gory demise that had Freddy shaken as was the complete 180% turn of the nurse's personality, going from helpless damsel in distress to cold-hearted bitch in mere seconds. He wasn't sure whether to be impressed or just cautious but decided on the latter as the nurse repeated her question "Excuse me, gentlemen, can I help you?"
"Um..yeah." Freddy began. "Actually, we're here to see someone in particular. Do you know where the nurse with the question mark mask is?"
The nurse remained silent for a few moments and Freddy wondered if she was going to do something drastic like pushing a button to activate the collars immediately. Instead, she simply responded with, "I believe she was sent to Cell 205 to check on an ill inmate. It's not far from here, just go left from the entrance and it should be the last cell in the hallway.
"T-Thanks," Freddy muttered as he and the masked men behind him left the infirmary. It had been quite a long while since Freddy had to fringe normal human behavior and frankly it was not something he hoped to get used to. "The sooner we get out of here the better!" He thought as he led the group toward Cell 205. As they neared the cell, they could hear the sound of a man crying in pain, begging for whatever was hurting him to stop. Once they were at the cell, it was Freddy first, then Michael, Jason and finally Bubba who peered in from the corner to see what they would see.
The nurse Freddy was looking for, the one with the question mark on her mask was kneeling over a skinny, sweaty man. Actually, to say he was skinny would be generous, he was more akin to a sentient skeleton wearing an unconvincing human costume, his brown eyes sunken in and his lips quivering nonstop. "P-P-Please s-stop." He begged, "I won-won't do it anymore. I p-promise."
"I know you won't." The nurse cooed. "Not anymore."
"Sorry to interrupt," Freddy spoke out as he stepped into the cell, surprising both the nurse and the man. "But I'd like to show the nurse something."
"I'm afraid I'm busy with a patient right now." The nurse replied. "You'll have to wait your turn."
"Oh come on! I've got company!" Freddy motioned for the other three to enter the cell with him and while there was some hesitation, they complied. The nurse stared at the group before her, slowly standing back up as she took in the sight of them. "As you can see, the gang's all here! "There's me, the badass," Freddy pointed his thumb at himself before continuing with the others.
"The dumbass!" He pointed at Jason who glared at him with his one good eye.
"The smartass!" Freddy pointed to Michael this time, the Shape not responding with anything besides heavy breathing.
"And introducing the newest member of our merry band of bitches, the lardass!"
Bubba whimpered a little but otherwise did not respond either.
The nurse continued to stare at the men for a few moments more. Then she reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a scalpel, much to the confusion of both the killers and the inmate. Before anyone could even begin to question why she had such a dangerous medical instrument on her person, the nurse nonchalantly dug it into her patient's neck. His eyes widened with terror and as soon as she had pulled the scalpel out again, he grasped at his brand new wound with both hands, trying in vain to keep his blood, his life from gushing out. Had it been anyone else besides Freddy and his uneasy companions, the nurse would most likely have been questioned aggressively about what she had just done and why. Instead, he and the other killers watched in silent interest as the man slowly bled to death in his bed, his eyes rolling back and his arms going limp and falling to his sides.
"Impressive." Freddy cooed as he walked up to the nurse. "But aren't you afraid of getting in trouble with that crazy bitch Vivian?"
"I'm not worried about that old hag." The nurse replied, all semblance of responsibility and concern for the sick and ill gone. Carefully, the nurse reached for her mask and pulled it off her face, her emerald eyes matching Freddy's glare without so much as a flinch. "After all, the only reason I'm in this hellhole is for you guys."
Teddy had found himself standing before Vivian's workspace. Not the private study where they had celebrated the beginning of Project Cain not too long ago but her real workspace, the one Teddy was always afraid to go in. He had only been inside this room two times before and both times, his eyes were assaulted with horrifying imagery that he still, even now, was struggling to get out of his head.
The first time had been an accident. He had only meant to ask Vivian a question. That question was lost to the sands of time once his eyes fell upon the mangled corpse of a cat and dog laying on the table at the center of the room, their intestines intertwined with each other. Vivian claimed she was testing the capability for organ transfer between the two species and while Teddy knew this to be a lie, he could never bring himself to ask her the truth. Especially when, as he was leaving the room, he happened to glance at the corpses again and realized, upon seeing the rise and fall of their chest, that he had only thought they were corpses.
The second time Vivian had called Teddy into the room via intercom, demanding that he dropped what he was doing, which was watching Seinfeld in his office, and come immediately. Of course, he was hesitant, given what he saw the last time he had entered that room but when Professor Vivian Malachite called you to her office, you simply had no choice but to comply. Teddy knew this fact like the back of his hand and so off he went. Once he had entered the room, instead of a real-life version of CatDog, a jar containing a premature fetus sat on the table.
Strapped to a chair about 10 feet away from the table was a man, one of the original inmates of the Black Rose Sanitarium. Teddy knew him as Angelo Jose, a devout Catholic man who had earned himself a place inside Black Rose's walls for stalking and killing childfree women in his hometown. Apparently, he offered them the chance to live before finishing them off on the promise that they would marry him and bear his children in repentance for what he considered their devious lifestyles. When they inevitably refused, he slit their throats and left their bodies outside their houses to be discovered by horrified relatives. He was known as the Bloody Angel in his hometown because of this but here, inside Black Rose Sanitarium, he was nothing more than an inmate. Actually, given that he was now bound and naked in Vivian's office, it was more accurate to say he had lost his status as a human being completely and was now simply a guinea pig. This fact became clear to both Angelo and Teddy when Vivian walked up to the table and placed a Gladstone bag next to the fetus.
"Y-You wanted to see me, Professor?" Teddy's voice trembled as Vivian opened the bag, the various sharp instrument glistening in the light from the ceiling above.
"I need your help in prepping the subject for surgery." She explained calmly without looking at either man.
"W-W-What s-surgery?" Teddy whimpered, his mind already knowing the answer.
Vivian turned to Angelo, mentally taking in the gagged man before her, his eyes wide with terror and sweat peppered all over his nude body. With a sadistic grin and a scalpel in her hand, she turned to Teddy and said. "Implantation."
That was over six weeks ago and now Teddy stood here again, this time of his own volition. Just a few nights before, on Vivian's request, Teddy had solved the puzzle box she had given him. He wasn't sure what he expected to happen once he had solved it, aside from nothing happening since, as far as he believed at the time, it was nothing but an old puzzle box. He certainly didn't expect his office to remodel itself or for a terrifying man with pins hammered into his skull to try to make him "taste his pleasures." The vivid memory of that man...no...that thing grabbing his tongue and jamming one of its filthy pins through caused Teddy to shake all over. If he hadn't managed to undo the puzzle when he did, that thing would have gotten its wish and taken Teddy back to its own realm, what his fate would have been after that was beyond Teddy's imagination. All he knew was two things. That it would have most definitely not been pleasant and that it was all Vivian's fault.
"I'm just asking her a question." He mentally told himself. "I have to! I need to know just what the fuck that was!" Taking a deep breath that seemed to last forever, Teddy used every ounce of his willpower to knock on the door.
"Come in!" Vivian's demanded in an impatient tone.
Teddy sighed and forced himself to open the door, deciding at the last moment that he was not even going to try to avert his gaze from the table of horrors as he entered the room. As soon as he was inside, he instantly regretted that decision.
Laying on the accursed table that had stolen so much sleep from Teddy's nights was yet another inmate, this one from the more recent batch, the one that came with the Points of Interest. Like Angelo before him, the man was bound and naked, his stomach cavity opened and completely devoid of innards. By all accounts, the man should have been dead by now and yet he lived, his almost non-existent chest rising and falling without any lungs and his eyes wide with fear and looking pleadingly at Teddy to save him from this Hell. Most likely by actually killing him. Vivian sat in front of the table, staring intently at the man's still-beating heart in her right hand.
"P-Professor?" Teddy squeaked.
"What is it Teddy?" Vivian muttered. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"I-I can see that very well." Teddy continued uneasily. "But I have to ask you something."
"Is it about the box?" Vivian tossed the heart carelessly into the yellow box at her feet where it rejoined the rest of the man's removed organs.
"Y..Yes!" Teddy coughed up, taken aback that Vivian was able to guess what he wanted so quickly. That made what she said next all the more unnerving.
"Since you're still here, that must mean the box was another fake." She commented mostly to herself.
"A fake? What are you talking about? What exactly was supposed to happen to me?" Teddy felt a twinge of anger well up inside him.
"That box I gave you the other day is called the Lament Configuration," Vivian explained. "Supposedly, solving it opens the gateway to Hell and calls forth beings known as Cenobites. Vivian paused briefly to pick up another organ from the box, this time a liver, and bounced it on her hand as she continued. "The Cenobites then take whoever opened the gateway to Hell and depending on who you ask, either simply take them to Hell or torture them until they follow the same philosophies they do."
"Which are?"
"Who knows?" Vivian tossed the liver back into the box. "All I know is that these Cenobites are supposed to worship pain as if it were God and therefore, are all supposed to be horribly maimed." She turned to Teddy with a slight smile on her lips. "You wouldn't by chance happen to have encountered a maimed human being after solving the box would you?"
Teddy thought back to the horrid being with nails driven into its skull that tried to drag him off to Hell but pushed those memories back inside. "No. I can't say I have."
Vivian replied with a shrill laugh that caused Teddy to jump. "What am I saying? Of course, you didn't! You wouldn't be here talking to me right now if you had!" She increased the volume of her laughter, banging her fist against the table mere inches from the disemboweled man's face. The vibrations they caused clearly hurt the man as his eyes began to water.
"You bitch!" Teddy thought furiously. "You were actually planning on sacrificing me to pain-worshipping monsters for shits and giggles!"
As Vivian happened to glance back at Teddy, she noticed a scowl on his face and slowly ceased her laughter. "Huh? Why the long face Teddy? Don't tell me your upset about the Lament Configuration?"
"Why didn't you tell me what it was for?" He demanded. "Why didn't you warn me about the Cenobites?"
"Because frankly Teddy, you're kind of a wimp and I figured you wouldn't have done it if I had." She answered without missing a beat.
Teddy gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, fighting back his burning rage toward his superior. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, he finally asked "Why?"
"I already told you why," Vivian answered.
"I mean why are we doing all this? What is the point of all this?" Teddy marched up to Vivian and grabbed her by the coat, pulling her shocked face up to his. "I wanna know what Project Cain is!"
Vivian blinked a few times before regaining her composure, the evil smile long gone from her face and slapped Teddy's clammy hands away from her neck. "Is that what all this is about?"
"I have been working under you for 5 years!" Teddy snapped. "I think I've earned the right to know what I'm working for!"
After another brief pause, Vivian sighed and walked up to a nearby bookshelf left to the entrance door. She removed an old document file from the shelf and from there, removed a rusty old key. "Follow me." She commanded with disinterest as she stepped out of the room.
"Where are we going?" Teddy inquired as he followed her.
"To answer you question you dumbass!" She snapped back, reinstalling some of the fear he had previously lost. "I'm going to grant you an up-and-personal look at Project Cain."
