… Wow, it's been a while since I started this. I kinda quit working on it when some stuff started going on, and then I couldn't think of anything to write in it (a lot like the novella/video game I'm writing/designing that this is based on – I haven't worked on that in a really long time either). Uh… I barely remember what my original intentions for this story were, except for some small pieces of dialogue I saved somewhere, but I'll come up with something. There's another story I haven't touched in like a bazillion years that I want to finally finish the first chapter, but it's a really cheesy idea, so this comes first… hopefully.
I guess this story won't be an all-out comedy, but it will be something I've never done before – a serious story with strange and sometimes really retarded dialogue… like if you took a bunch of idiots and put them in a horror movie…like "Scary Movie" or "I Know What You Did Last Friday the Thirteenth". I hope something makes someone laugh somewhere along the line…
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Chapter 2: Queen's English
Barry just stood there, staring across the room at them in disbelief, still trying to process what had happened since the night before. They hadn't noticed him, despite the door closing loudly behind him, apparently too engrossed in a quiet conversation as they looked intently out a row of three large, rain-streaked windows that had been nailed shut.
Barry headed slowly toward them, not knowing exactly what to say.
"Jill, are you deaf and peripherally blind?"
Jill turned sharply, a slight smile spreading across her face when she laid eyes on him. "Barry, you're here, too?" she whispered in a relived tone.
"What's going on?" he asked, and Jill motioned for him to sit down next to Birkin, who scrutinized him in silence, with a somber expression.
"Not too loud," Jill said quietly, "Try to be inconspicuous…"
Barry took the seat next to Birkin, leaning forward and taking on a hushed tone. "How did you get here?"
"I don't know." Jill shook her head. "The last thing I remember, I was about to enter my apartment building…"
"I was on my way to the bar to talk to Chris," Barry informed them. "What about you, Will?"
"That's 'William' to you," he grumbled, looking back out the window. "I was leaving the lab."
"Isn't that kind of weird? We were all going someplace, then the next thing we know we're in a mental institution," Barry mused to himself, and Jill gave him a funny look.
"'Kind of'? What the heck are you taking?"
"That reminds me," Barry said suddenly, completely disregarding what Jill had just said. "Did anyone explain to you why you're here?"
"No, but some badly bleached-blond guy told me that I'm not right in the head," she replied, "Which isn't true."
"I don't know about that," he chuckled, "But the blond guy is a psychiatrist."
"Are you implying something about my mindset? Did you call me 'peripherally blind'?" Jill said, getting to her feet and crossing her arms in a piqued fashion.
But he wasn't paying attention. As soon as he had uttered his last sentence, he became aware of something that hadn't been there before, something that definitely shouldn't be there; a creature that, although logic would clearly say that no such thing could exist, it was very real to him.
This something appeared to have the physique of a black panther, but the tail was bushy, the ears looked feathery… And on closer inspection, there were no facial features whatsoever except for a pair of dog-like orange eyes that gazed constantly straight ahead. It paced along the wall at the opposite end of the room, its large paws treading heavily on the white tile. But no one seemed to notice it…
"Did you just go catatonic, or something?" Jill questioned, waving a hand in his face, and he shook his head slowly.
"You didn't see that?"
"See what?" Jill looked at him oddly.
"That black thing across the room," Barry said, staring at the spot where it had been.
Jill observed the room, seeing nothing in particular that was black. "What are you talking about?"
"Never mind," he said, shaking his head again and dismissing the whole incident, although it still bothered him. "What are we going to do about this mess?"
"What are we supposed to do? We're stuck in a mental ward, Barry," Jill said quietly, eying the charge nurse at the desk who was busy scribbling.
"We don't belong here, and that means we shouldn't be here, and if I know anything at all, that logically means we should leave," Barry explained to Jill, who just rolled her eyes.
"Well, duh, but how do we leave?"
"I don't know. Any ideas, Will?"
Birkin continued to look out the window, his expression becoming rather irritated. "If I did, I wouldn't be sitting here, would I?"
"I don't know… Would you?" the ever-oblivious Barry asked, but Birkin didn't dignify him with an answer.
No one said anything for a while, lost in thought about what to do in a situation like this.
Barry listened intently to the violin music he had heard earlier when he first came in, an almost hypnotic melody that drifted like a river from somewhere nearby. It was subdued, a nearly inaudible whisper of a waltz that seemed like it wasn't meant to be heard by anyone outside of the room that it came from. Almost cautiously, the waltz slowed to a dismal, maybe even warning reprise that came to a sudden halt.
There was a piercing scream from nearby, and the three of them were quite startled. It continued for what seemed like ages, before the ward fell ominously silent. They exchanged disturbed looks.
"What was up with that?" Jill asked, not receiving an answer.
Their gazes' fell upon a white door across the room that was unmarked, which seemed to be the most likely direction the noise had come from. After a few minutes it creaked open slowly and a man with medium-length black hair in a bloodstained lab coat strolled out, walking quickly towards the door Barry had entered through, blood dripping off of his gloves and onto the floor.
They stared as he exited, and another came out of the room where there had been screaming minutes earlier. Dr. Heilen turned and closed the door behind him and headed for the same exit as the bloody guy, glancing over at them with an affable smile on his face. The charge nurse at the desk handed him a clipboard as he passed, and swung the door open wide enough that it slammed shut when he disappeared into the corridor.
"Sinister," Birkin whispered. "… What do you suppose that was all about?"
"I don't think I even want to know," Barry responded, taking a long look at the blood on the floor.
"There's something really wrong with this place," Jill said, "Aside from the fact that we're here…"
There was suddenly a loud clatter in a small hall directly across from the corridor exit and just past the white door. They heard a door swing shut, and a tall thin man who looked like he could be in his sixties walked in, escorting someone they weren't expecting to see, but weren't entirely surprised by either. The old man led him over to the couch that was back to back with theirs and wordlessly directed him to sit down. He then muttered something to which he received a nod in reply, before leaving.
"Uh… Alfred?" Jill said, leaning over the back of the couch and trying to get a better look at him.
"You actually understood what that geezer said?" Barry asked and Jill gave him a dirty look.
"Leave him alone." She turned back to Alfred. "Are you okay? You seem… Different."
"They drugged me," he grumbled quietly.
"Well, that explains something," Barry said, kinda forgetting Alfred was right there.
"What are you trying to imply?" Alfred said, his voice taking on as much of an annoyed tone as was possible for someone with that much sedative in their system.
"That normally you'd be screaming like a gir - "
Jill kicked him in the shin, and he promptly took the hint and shut up.
"Do you remember how you got here or anything from last night?" Jill asked, and Alfred slowly shook his head.
"Nothing."
"What is going on here?" she asked herself. "We're all perfectly - "
With a glance at Alfred she re-thought her statement. " – Semi-normal."
"There has to be a reason why we are here," Birkin said, "But what is it?"
"Maybe there's something more to this place," Barry suggested, "… Or we're actually crazy… And you know what I just realized? I've never actually heard the Queen of England speak the Queen's English… or speak at all for that matter…"
The three of them just stared at Barry, probably questioning if he had some sort of chronic concussion, or if he just did drugs.
"Anyway," Jill said slowly, "All I know is we need to come up with a plan to get the hell out of here."
They sat in silence for a moment, thinking.
"Alfred, what did that old guy say to you, anyway?" Jill asked suddenly.
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Yeah, the chapter didn't really get much of anywhere, but I was trying to build onto the first chapter with… well, whatever this was. The next chapter, something will actually happen, aside from weird stuff and talking. The plot will build up, and things will happen, which although it doesn't sound very exciting worded that way, it will be – if my brain works. Which it will. Seriously.
Okay, I better stop talking like that – I sound like I'm on crack or something. It's gotta be because I'm watching Adult Swim and I'm half asleep…
Anyway, leave me a review and let me know what you think!
