AN:
First off, thank you for the review bipolarity. That made my day.
Once again, if anyone finds spelling errors, PLEASE TELL ME. I can't fix them if I don't know that their there. I do have someone proof reading, but sometimes things are missed. Some errors in the last chapter have been fixed.
Anyhoo, this chapter was fun to write.
_)(_
Ch2: Dream a Little Nightmare
Somewhere, deep under the vast expanse of the New Mexican Desert, is Psychonauts' Headquarters. The facility is a sprawling expanse of twisting corridors and rooms, so obviously unplanned that even the very materials from which they are made vary wildly from one area to the next. The oldest sections, made of brick and concrete, are located closest to the surface. The cold, stark metal hallways of the latest expansion are located far enough from the entrance that a tram system had to be built so that agents could get to their many meetings on time.
In speaking of which, on the 23rd of June, 2007, somewhere down in that subterranean labyrinth, Agent Razputin Aquato held an emergency meeting in his office.
Space was so tight in the cubical sized room that there was only just enough to fit all four of its occupants. The only light came from a small lamp competing for desk space, and losing, with fast food wrapper and stacks of paper. Proudly displayed above the desk hung a certificate proclaiming that Raz's had passes the entrance exam to become an agent (barely, because he'd "failed to follow protocol during the hostage scenario"). On the grey walls were a handful of photographs, mostly depicting Raz and Lili hanging out together, in cheap plastic and metal frames.
Raz sat in his standard issue office chair, facing agents Oleander, Milla, and Sasha. The boy, like his hair, had grown an inch or two since the day he'd first joined the Psychonauts, and his uniform was still slightly too big for him. At the moment he was carefully planing his next move, choosing what he was going to say and how he was going to say it. The other agents were being nicer than most people would have been, waiting patently for him to speak while he sat there and twiddled his thumbs.
Okay, Oleander was glaring impatiently at him, but the others weren't.
Why was he holding a meeting at 6 in the morning? After that first dream-vision... thing... that he'd had just over two years ago, he had been plagued by nightmares involving Dr. Loboto. At first, it had happened only once and awhile, but lately.....
Almost every night now he would wake in a cold sweat, head reeling, with the impression that someone was delicately probing away at the edges of his mind. The nightmares would always start out like a normal dream, but then everything would fade out, replace by visions of that crazed madman inflicting serious injuries on him with all manners of dental equipment. He'd not had a good night's sleep in days and was reaching his wit's end. He needed to tell someone about it.
'Might as well get this over with.' He thought. Then he cleared his throat.
"I keep having these nightmares. It's dark. Really dark. I can't see anything. I'm sitting in a chair, like the kind they have in a dentist's office, and I'm strapped down, and I can't move my head or anything. Then the light comes on, and Dr. Loboto is standing over me, grinning like the madman he is. He's covered in blood. Like, completely covered in blood, not just a little. He starts talking to me, but I can't figure out what he's saying, because his voice is all distorted and stuff." Raz paused. "He sounded like he was miles away and underwater."
Sasha raised an eyebrow.
"Anything else happen?" Sasha asked.
"Well, most of the time he takes out this drill and slowly starts moving it towards my head. Then I wake up."
"I'm assuming he turns it on?" The Coach grunted.
"Yes, he does. It makes this horrible high-pitched whining noise." Raz said, still fidgeting.
"Well, I don't see why this had to be an emergency meeting if all you wanted to do was tell us about a few bad dreams." The little man grumbled.
"I know." But last night, something else happened. Instead of pushing the drill through my head, he stopped and just started laughing. Then he said something, but this time I could here it. He said 'That look on your face is priceless.'."
Raz looked down at his feet. How was he supposed to say this? They'd think he was crazy.
'Spit it out Raz. It can't be that bad...'
"I just have this gut feeling that he's still alive."
Raz nervously squirmed in his chair a little. The adults just stood there, staring at him.
Coach Oleander was the first to speak.
"I for one am glad to say that there is no way in he-"
"Morry!" Milla snapped.
"-ck that Loboto survived that fall."
Raz glared. "You didn't find his body when you dredged the lake. The only things you ever found were his metal claw and that stupid shower cap! For all you know he could have lived. He could be out there somewhere right now, ripping the brains of innocent people right out of their heads while he plots to take over-"
Oleander held up his hand. Raz fell silent.
"Look son, I know that it's very important to pay attention to dreams, especially nightmares. But Loboto is dead. I watched him fall, saw him bounce on the way down. Twice. He's dead, let it go."
"Oh." Raz said glumly.
Satisfied that he had talked some sense into Raz, the coach strutted out of the room on his short little legs. Milla began to follow, but hesitated.
"Don't worry about the dreams darling, you're perfectly safe here. No one who wants to hurt you can reach you while you're surrounded by other agents. Just come to me if you have any more dreams like that, okay?" She said, her voice warm and kind as always.
"I will."
She turned once again to leave. Sasha, who had some how left the room without anyone noticing, collided with her as he walked into the room, nocking his sunglasses askew. They stared at each other for a minute, and Raz couldn't help but to grin a little when he saw how red Sasha's face became.
"Sasha! I'm sorry, I didn't see you leave." Milla said, reaching up and fixing Sasha's sunglasses.
"No, I- I should have been paying more attention to where I was going." Sasha stammered
"No, I should have!"
This went on for about five minutes before they stopped and Milla, still apologizing profusely, left. Finally, Sasha shut the door turned to Raz.
"Razputin, I probably should not give you this...." He swept aside some of the garbage and set a large file on the desk. "But I find that knowing more about a threat, perceived or real, often helps ease the mind."
Raz picked up the file. It was stuffed full of papers and held together by two thick pieces of string. Neatly stenciled across the front in block lettering were the words "CALIGOSTO LOBOTO". Raz's eyes grew wide. Was this really what he thought it was?
"This is Loboto's file? It's huge! I tried to find stuff on him, and could hardly find anything. Did you use some super secret government database which nobody knows about? Or did you spend weeks painstakingly tracking down and interviewing people?"
Raz had always suspected that there was some kind of database that had all kinds of information in it, and no one had ever told him about it. It was frustrating, yes, but he'd known he'd hear about it sooner or later.
"Both. Their wasn't much to be found."
"This isn't a lot?" Raz said, confused. The file he was holding had to weigh at least five pounds!
"You can fill boxes with the files I have on most people. That's all that exists on Dr. Loboto. It seems that most of his records were destroyed when Lake Oblongata was created, and whatever information there was in the asylum was incinerated in the fire, obviously." Sasha turned and looked Raz strait in the eye, or as close to that as possible through his sunglasses. "Read it later, we have somewhere we need to be right now."
Now it was Raz's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Where?"
"My lab. You need to have a psychological examination done, preferably as soon as possible. These nightmares you are having could be symptoms of fatigue, or possibly work related stress. We can't afford to have another melt down, not so soon after Agent Pascal."
"Oh man. Wait a minute, you were only gone for a second! How did you...?"
Sasha smiled slyly.
"I'll tell you when you're older. Now, if you would follow me..."
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Hours spent hooked up to a brain tumbler revealed no symptoms of insanity or weaknesses in Raz's mental defenses, and Sasha let him leave. Raz had secretly hoped that something would turn up, even if it did mean a mandatory suspension, because it would have started an investigation. If he was right, and he was almost certain that he was, then it would have lead the Psychonauts strait to Dr. Loboto's front door.
Wherever that might be.
His bunk mate- What was his name, Louis or something?- had already left for his shift by the time Raz had arrived at his tiny room. It was late, around 23 hundred hours, but Raz wasn't tired.
He had research to do.
He climbed up to the top bunk, his bunk, and yanked the privacy curtain shut. After flipping on the reading light, he reached into his messenger bag and pulled out Loboto's file. He hastily slipped the string off it and began to leaf through it, talking to himself the entire time.
"Birth certificate, No..... High school transcript, nope... Loboto was arrested for speeding on his 20th birthday. Well, that's interesting... Collage transcri- Wait a minute. He went to college to become a brain surgeon, then switched to dentistry before completing his degree? Why would he do that? I mean, if he was obsessed with brains and stuff all along... Hey, newspaper clippings...."
Raz picked one of the bigger clippings out. A mugshot of Loboto grinned up at him from the yellowing paper. Whenever this was taken, Loboto had already had both of his eyes... replaced....
Raz shook his head. It was only a picture of the guy, and he was getting the chills just looking at it.
"No! I am not afraid of Loboto! Ok. Got that out of my system. This looks like an article on Loboto's arrest...."
Madman Responsible for Local Disappearances
Dr. Caligosto Loboto, DDS, was arrested last night for the suspected disappearances of 17 locals, ages 16 to 64. Only one body, that of auto mechanic Louis McNeal, 40, has been found. Few Details have been released, but sources at the local coroner's office have informed us that McNeal's Body had been brutally mutilated. Most of the injures sustained shortly before death had been inflicted to the forehead and mouth. His teeth and brain were missing and have not been located.
It is believed that Loboto, who operated the Shady Creek Dental Clinic, selected his victims at random. Most of his patients walked away unscathed. Some have even complemented his skills as a dentist.
One such patient, Mrs Mary Burninggate, informed us that she had been going to him for years. "He was a bit of a strange man, but he always did such a good job with fillings, and when my oldest needed to have his wisdom teeth pulled we went there of course. We couldn't afford to go to anyone else. When I first met him, he looked normal. But it seemed every year or so he'd have an accident, and then he'd just replace what ever part he lost. Honestly, my youngest kept asking him if he was turning into a robot!"
Others, such as Gerald Teglee, wished that there was someone else in the area. "I always felt a bad vibe when I was in there. Honestly, he scared my only son, Edgar,-
"So, Edgar knew Loboto when he was a kid? I guess his mind must have been so scrambled by that breakup that he forgot about it."
-so much some times. But without the money and time to drive all the way down to Burkly when someone had a tooth ache, he was the only choice.
Dr. Loboto was born here in shaky claim in 1916-
"Wait, WHAT?! He can't be 90 years old! He looked about as old as Sasha! This can't be right..."
Raz quick pulled out the birth certificate. Well, it was the correct date. Caligosto Loboto, born to Isabel and Pippin Loboto on the 31rst of January, 1916....
Hands shaking, he put the papers back into the file.
"But.... How is that even possible?"
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Lili stood in front of Raz, smiling. She looked beautiful in her deep blue summer dress, and with her long hair let down from its pigtails, she was downright stunning. Like always she was wearing just a touch of makeup, but today she had swapped lip gloss for delicately applied pale pink lipstick. The small silver locket that he had bought her for Christmas hung on a thin chain around her neck, its engraved oval catching the light of the setting sun.
Raz glanced down at himself. He was wearing his best suit, but it seemed so ragged and old compared to her dress. There was a single long stemmed rose in his hand, all of the thorns carefully trimmed off so he wouldn't accidentally hurt her.
They were in a golden meadow, standing in the shade a large oak that was the only tree around. In the distance colorful circus tents could be seen, and the sounds of happy people drifted faintly across the open space. A picnic was spread out on a thick quilt next to them, and Raz could smell the delicious scent of fresh bread and fruit.
He held offered her the rose. She took it and sniffed it delicately, enjoying its sweet scent.
Then, they drew closer. Raz could smell her perfume, not over powering like Kitty's, but subtle, like a soft aura of pleasant floral smells that hung in the air about her.
He wanted to say something, but he wasn't supposed to talk. It was strange that they were taking advice from Elka for something, well, anything really, but it worked.
Their green eyes locked together. They leaned forward, lips parting. Raz hesitated for a moment. Lili gave him a look.
The birds were chirping so loudly above them, Raz just had to say it. He didn't care that it might ruin the moment, or that it was stupid or cliché, he had to say it.
"Lili, I-"
Silence. The words vanished before he could say them.
It was as if time had stopped for everything but him. At first, Raz was angry, (this was, after all, going to ruin his date with Lili), but then it hit him:
This was a dream. And that meant...
The familiar wash of darkness came over everything, completely black like India Ink. He had the feeling that something was wrapping around his waist, dragging him backward through the nothingness.
"No no NO!" Raz cried in frustration. He didn't want to go through this again, he didn't want to see Loboto, and he did not want to have that drill shoved into his eye. It actually hurt!
Once again, despite his best efforts to resist, Raz found himself inside of the dental office. To his suprise he was standing next to the chair instead of strapped in it, the lights were on, and there wasn't a crazy detest hovering over him with a tool made to cause agonizing pain.
In fact, Dr. Loboto wasn't even in the room.
Like any sane person, Raz immediately began to search for a way out. There were no windows any where in the room, and the last thing he wanted to do was try the door until he knew what was on the other side. He reminded himself this was just a dream, and if he needed to get out fast, there was a brand new packet of smelling salts in his physical body's pocket. No need to panic.
Having settled on an escape route, he began a more thorough exploration of his environment. The white room was in pristine condition, and smelled ever so faintly of lemons. Almost all of the cupboards and drawers were locked, and the one's he could open contained such mundane things as individually wrapped toothbrushes and sample packets of floss.
However, one of the cupboards was empty, save for a single folded piece of paper.
Raz picked it up carefully. "Razputin" was written across the front in spidery letters, and it left him feeling slightly unnerved for some reason. He opened it and started reading.
From the desk of Dr. Caligosto Loboto, DDS.
I apologize for not being around to attend to you tonight. I've had a particularly bad day today, and I must say I'm not in the mood for anything dental related right now.
Feel free to leave the room, the door isn't locked. Just don't turn around after you open it.
"Erm.... Creepy, much?" Raz said aloud.
Raz walked over to the door. There wasn't anything else of interest in the room, and there wasn't much point in sticking around. As far as he knew, he couldn't wake himself up from these dreams until something A) killed him in the dream, or B) disturbed his physical body in the real world. He fervently hoped that tonight would be the second one.
He had his hand on the doorknob, but hesitated. He still didn't know what was on the other side, and the last two years as a Psychonaut had taught him not to blindly run into, or out of, rooms. He pressed his ear to the door for a moment, but didn't hear anything. He took a deap breath and turned the knob. There was an odd clicking noise, but the opened easily enough, gliding silently on well oiled hinges. On the other side there was a long corridor, nothing but barren walls and single green door off in the distance.
When Raz stepped though the doorway, there a loud, wet sounding thud behind him.
"Shit."
'What's the harm if I just take a quick peek behind me...?' He though nervously. This was definitely not the way he wanted things to be going. He turned around.
Raz screamed.
A corpse was slumped in the dental chair, the head so horribly mutilated that their was hardly anything left of it. Gore covered tools were scattered across the counter and in the sink, and there was blood everywhere. Gallons and gallons of blood, more than could possibly be inside of a human being, was seeping across the floor, splattered across the walls and ceiling....
Something hot and wet dripped onto his head. He looked up and, to his horror, discovered there was blood leaking out of a crack in the ceiling. It flowed across the ceiling, slowly shaping itself into letters.
I kNEw YOu WoUldn'T LiSTEn
It was the last thing Raz saw before the ground beneath him gave way. Dozens of Nightmares latched their razor sharp, serrated claws into his flesh began tearing him limb from limb as they dragged him, still screaming, under.
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The cracks were spreading.
It hurt so much.
Mind was on fire.
Pressure.
Hard sharp force digging into the cracks, making them bigger.
Mental defenses breaking down.
Couldn't stop it couldn't stop it couldn't stop it couldn't stop it couldn't stop it couldn't stop it couldn't stop it-
Wait. He could make it stop. He could wake up.
The repulsive oder of the smelling salts revived Raz as soon as he opened the case, dissipating whatever was behind the mental assault. Drenched in cold sweat and body still burning with pain, he forced himself upright long enough to turn on the light. He then collapsed, crying, into a heap on the bed, shaking from the pain and fear. He felt sick; it took all of his will not to throw up.
He closed his eyes. His mental defenses were already repairing themselves, sealing the cracks so well that it was as if they had never existed. His mind hadn't been breached. He was safe.
These definitely weren't normal dreams. Someone was using them to break into his mind, and Raz had a good idea of who it was. He'd never considered the possibility before, and he had no proof, but he was now certain that Dr. Loboto was not only alive and kicking, but a psychic.
If it was true, he was in a lot more trouble than he'd thought.
_)(_