Chapter 6: Digging and Drilling
Stan screams in frustration as he throws a tool into the metal of the portal, it echoing in the room with a metallic clang sound.
"Why is this so damn hard!?" Stan screams as he reads the journal for what seemed like the billionth time. The he remembered that his twin said that he already hid the other two… Stan face palms himself. "God damn it, Stanford… really!?"
He lights himself a lantern and puts on a light jacket to go out into the spring night air. In one hand he had the lantern and in the other he had a shovel that he had found. Twigs snapped beneath his feet as he walked into the woods, only the dim light of the lantern illuminating his path. He figured that he would look for some dirt areas, thinking maybe that Stanford would've buried the other two journals.
Once he found a suitable dirt area he started digging. Eventually he had to strip off his jacket as the physical work of digging was making him sweat. He dug for hours, only about digging six feet deep holes, figuring that his brother wouldn't bury them too deep. Stan would find odd things like totems and even empty boxes, but he tosses them aside, not particularly caring. He checked his now filthy watch, the time being about five in the morning.
Stan growls and starts filling up his holes. Once they were filled he took the lantern and made his way back to the house, his jacket slung over his shoulder. He makes it to the house and takes off his muddy boots and left them by the front door, him grumbling as he blew the flame out from his lantern and continued to the bedroom he claimed. He only got about three hours of sleep, his alarm going off that he needed to get up and open his store.
With a groan he gets ready with his shower and getting dressed, placing his fez on his head. He drank a few cups of coffee to wake himself up and he opens the store by nine. He waits behind the counter, waiting for any customers. It wasn't unusual for him to be terribly tired from working all night on the portal, but today he almost fell asleep multiple times.
But it was worth it, he had to get his brother back. He had to make up for what he had done all those years ago…
His day felt long as customers came in and asked for tours. Stan did his stores as positive as he could, but because of his lack of sleep his fuse on annoyance was a lot shorter. A few times he wanted to kick everyone out and call them every terrible name under the sun, but he knew he couldn't do that. After the day was done and he was able to close up the store, he crashed on the chair he had set himself up in the living room, him snoring away until an alarm he had set up woke him.
Stan groans, his eyes bloodshot with no sleep. He then grabs the lantern and the shovel once again and hikes out into the woods to repeat what he had done the night before.
I will get Stanford back… I need to get him back…!
It was all he can think about the next few nights that he dug in the woods.
Ford and Layla were running through what looked like an industrial area of the dimension they were in.
Both had dropped off their bags off at another one of Layla's secret alcoves and were running through some alleyway when the woman suddenly stopped. Ford barley stopped in time, him almost bowling her over. She was much smaller than he was and was a lot faster than him, but he could still knock her down without a problem. She was stopped in front what looked like a back door to somewhere.
"So… what the hell is this place?" Ford impatiently asks her as the dark haired woman began scaling the wall. His brown eyes widens as he adjusts his glasses. "How… are you doing that?"
"Shh, Ford!" Layla chastises, a finger to her lips. She was about halfway up the wall. "I'm better at climbing apparently…" she was referring to when Ford could barely climb up a simple rope. She makes it to the top and disappears for a moment. The door then opens and she stood there panting as if she had been running. "Alright, come on in, we have to do something before we can actually go steal my father's research."
Ford follows her in the large building, it looking like some kind of factory. Their footsteps echo in the building, Layla looking through random looking papers that she came across with. She does a dark grin and grabs Ford's hand, leading him into a certain room that all it had was a chair with straps at the armrests.
"What the hell is this!?" Ford demands, gesturing to the chair.
"Sit in it," she orders.
"WHAT!?"
She then proceeds to push him into the chair, the straps enclosing around his wrists. Around Ford's ankles something wraps around, holding his legs in place. He struggled but he couldn't budge, Layla just rolling her eyes.
"Have you ever been possessed by Bill Cipher?" Layla asks him curiously. "Like he had taken over your body for a certain amount of time?"
"Yes, multiple times!" Ford growls, his brown eyes hard and filled with anger as he stares her down. "Now let me out of this damn thing!"
She shakes her head. "No, I need to make sure that you won't get possessed unwillingly." She says, Layla then taps her head, a soft clang can be heard. When she notices Ford's eyes widen she explains, "My father used to get possessed by Bill as well. The night my father sent us here he put a weird helmet on my head… it drilled a small hole and coated the top part of my skull with a lightweight metal."
"Your father drilled your head!?" Ford screams. "Your own father!? He didn't give you and kind of anesthetic or something!?"
Layla shrugs. "According to him we didn't have time… but I've noticed that with the metal Bill Cipher can't get into your head unless you give him permission, or any other dream demon for that matter." She kept a head to her head, her eyes glassy looking, as if she was about to cry. She then shakes her head and goes to the edge of the room where a small silver table held multiple tools and vials. The vials were anesthetic-like medicines. "I'm going to numb you up and do the same to you, this is a special facility where some of my father's stolen research was put to use. This building is like a rebellion against Bill kind of hideout where they use this procedure on themselves to not get possessed by him."
Ford looks at her for a moment, he was sympathetic that she had to go through the pain of having her head drilled in. And if there was a rebellion…
"Then why aren't you part of the rebellion?" Ford asks, his body relaxing in the chair more.
"I was," she replies simply as she walks over with a syringe. "I ran away from it, because they're just as bad as Bill." She looks at him with her electric blue eyes, them filling with tears. "I rather not talk about it now… so hold still-" she was about to inject the liquid into Ford's vein in his neck when he shook his head.
"No… just proceed with the procedure…" he told her, his brown eyes looking warm, resembling melted chocolate. "You didn't get a choice, so neither should I."
Her mouth was agape, surprised at him saying that. She gives a small nod and goes and sets the syringe down on the table. Layla then goes back to Ford, who looked at her with a gaze that was full of trust. She slowly lowers the helmet onto Ford's head, strapping it on so it will stay, and she removes his glasses go they wouldn't get more damaged. A few buttons were pressed as she stays next to him, putting her left hand onto his arm, in a way to try to comfort him.
Ford starts screaming as something sharp begins piercing the skin on the side of his head, his hot blood pouring down, him feeling it dripping off his cheek. The sharp object then starts spinning, him screaming louder and louder as he felt it go deeper into his head. His hands were clenched into tight fists, his knuckles white as bone. Ford's body twitched involuntarily in the pain, but he tried to keep still as possible. He felt his head get heavier, the liquid metal being pumped into the wound. He screams in pain, his breathing ragged sounding, but Layla kept her hand on him, which he saw as a major comfort.
What seemed like an eternity the drill was pulled from his temporal bone, the sound of the machine turning off. Ford sat in the chair, the blood dripping from the wound, him panting as he tried to get his heart rate to calm down. Layla pushed a button with the hand she had his glasses in and the straps that were wrapped around his wrists and ankles released. Immediately he puts a hand on Layla's that was on his arm and closes his eyes, his breathing slowing down.
"Are… are you okay?" Layla asks, her voice filled with concern.
Ford raises his free hand. "Yeah I'm fine…" he whispers hoarsely. With Layla's free hand she smacks it to Ford's.
"High Six then that you're okay!" Layla gives a brilliant smile as she puts Ford's glasses back on him.
Ford's eyes glossed over as she gets up and unstraps the helmet from his head. She raises it to see his wound on the side of his head, noticing that it was still bleeding and that she needed to patch up. Ford was surprised that she actually said that to him, as the only ever person that did was Stanley, who always did it with him to be positive about his anomaly. Layla had gotten some medical supplies and patched the bleeding hole on his head, him stinging when she was cleaning it.
"Thanks…" he tells her as he gets up from the chair, him a little off balance. "The hell…"
Layla then puts an arm around his waist to keep him up straight. "It might take you a bit to get used to the metal on your skull, for it to be more top heavy." She says as they slowly walked out of the building, her locking the door behind them. "They're gonna know their equipment was used, but hopefully they won't trace it to me."
"What would happen if they do?" Ford questions, his voice still a hoarse whisper.
"Well… they'll hunt me down and do ungodly experiments on me since I am a human." Layla replies nonchalantly.
"What?!" Ford gasps. "D-did they try to do it before or something?"
"Reason why I left besides them wanting to rule the universe like Cipher." Layla admits. "Once I found out they wanted to experiment on me I ran away, I was hunted down for a few years and then they gave up."
They walked out of the industrial looking district, Layla leading Ford to the alcove where they had put their bags. She activates the hologram wall and they enter, Ford practically almost falling down since she wasn't fully paying attention to keep him upright. She helps him to the ground, a few pillows around, but not many blankets.
"I thought… we were going to-" Ford was trying to say until he was cut off by Layla.
"We were… if you had used the anesthetic." She interrupts. "But right now you're in no condition to do something dangerous. Just rest okay?" Her eyes were pleading, and Ford gives a sigh and nods his head. "Okay… I'll keep watch, okay?" another nod, and he was falling asleep when he was hearing her hum again.
He thought she had a nice sound to her…
Ford then falls asleep, his head filled with the sound of her humming.
A/N: I probably could've made this chapter longer... but I got stuck...
And I know in the show that Ford said that he personally got a metal plate installed, but I thought this would be more dramatic in a way.
Thanks for reading as always!
~Skye Hendersen~
