Chapter 16

As Red Dragon had feared, natural sleep provided no resilience against the nightmares she had so far held at bay with the Headmaster's hypnotic sleep. She had not wanted to sleep at all, but with her legs paralysed, she had no way of moving into a more uncomfortable position to prevent this from happening. The only good outcome of her punishment was that her bottom was very sore, and this pain was keeping her awake. Unfortunately, her efforts to avoid the attacks of the plants had exhausted her, and after a while she was unable to fight off the rapidly growing drowsiness, eventually succumbing to sleep. The nightmare struck with a vengeance.

She was standing in front of her house, paralysed with horror at the sight of her grandmother and dad lying in the driveway, their eyes staring lifelessly upwards, the side of their heads red with the blood that had poured from the fatal gunshot wounds. Again she watched helplessly as her sister struggled to free herself from the men who held her, fruitlessly fighting for her life. She ran, hoping to save her sister this time, but as before, she was too late and she watched helplessly as the life faded from her sister's eyes. Her rage burned stronger than it had before, and she leapt for the men, claws extended, even before they had time to reach for their weapons. She slammed into the first man, but this time did not stop when she dealt the fatal blow, instead she continued to slash and claw at the man, losing herself in the savagery that rose within her. She raised a hand as she felt something drip down her arm, finding streaks of red slowly trickling down towards her elbow. Blood, it was blood from her claws. Not just her claws, her hands were entirely soaked in blood. A surge of horror welled up within her and she screamed in fear and denial, she had become the very monster she had feared she would.

That scream brought her violently awake, and she nearly fell off her bed. She was still partially gripped by her nightmare, unable to break away from the image of her blood-soaked claws and hands, the revulsion she was experiencing from that image becoming too much. With a moan, she vomited over the side of her bed, beginning to shiver from the cold sweat that soaked her pyjamas. Her door was flung open, and one of the whitecoats rushed into the room, evidently they had heard her scream. Red Dragon had no idea how they had come so quickly, they must have been guarding her door. Seeing no-one else in the room, and with no other cause for her to scream, the whitecoat seemed puzzled. Then they spotted the pool of sick by the side of her bed. Turning to another whitecoat who had also entered the room, she gave an order to him, in the flat emotionless tone that all the whitecoats spoke in.

"Inform the Director that the girl is unwell."

As the man left the room, the first whitecoat stepped closer to her. This turned out to be a mistake. Still entangled in the fear and horror produced by her nightmare, Red Dragon lashed out at the whitecoat, seeing her only as a potential enemy. As the whitecoat leaned back slightly to escape her claws, Red Dragon suddenly saw an opening and attempted to get as far away from her as she could, using her arms to haul herself over the edge of the bed and onto the floor. Once there she closed her eyes and rapidly curled herself into a ball, whimpering with fear, and hoping that the person in her room would leave.

Hazily, she became aware of other people entering her room. As one of them approached her, she curled up tighter, shivering with a combination of cold and fear. For the first time since she had woken from her nightmare, the creature made its presence known. More concern than it had ever demonstrated before and an almost paternal affection filtered its way into her awareness and slowly began to push aside the fear and confusion from her nightmare. As that confusion receded, the people in her room started to become identifiable. She kept her eyes shut, but their scents reached her easily. The dusty odour of paper and the sharp tang of ink, the whitecoats must be from one of the offices. Then the pungent smell of disinfectant and a strong mixture of chemicals, a scent that was unique to only one person. The Headmaster was clearly the last person to enter her room.

The Headmaster had been extremely irritated that his work had been interrupted yet again by something concerning his disobedient charge. He was very tempted to ignore his whitecoat's report and return to his work, yet he knew that would not be possible. If the child was unwell, he had to make sure that the cause of this was identified and eliminated. He needed her in perfect health for his plans. Reluctantly he strode into her room, stopping in the doorway as he took in what had been happening. There was a pool of vomit by the side of her bed, and the girl had somehow got off the bed and onto the floor. Clearly she must have used her arms, as he knew that her legs were paralysed, and would remain so for a few more days. The Headmaster moved towards her in order to examine her condition for himself. As he did so, she curled up more tightly than she had been, whimpering softly, although at present the Headmaster did not know if she was doing this because of pain or some other reason. As he reached out a hand towards her, she hissed and started trying to back away from him, her progress hampered by her immoveable legs.

As the Headmaster moved forward again, Red Dragon became determined that he should know how dangerous she was and backed away again, finally managing to stutter out what she wanted to say.

"K-keep a-away f-from m-me! I-I a-am a-a m-monster!"

The Headmaster frowned, and then responded to this statement in a scornful tone of voice.

"Monster? Why do you refer to yourself in that way? It is an emotive, unnecessary term. You are a hybrid, that is the correct term to use."

Red Dragon shook her head at this. "I-I a-am. I-I h-have s-soaked m-my h-hands i-in b-blood." The Headmaster did not reply, as he was puzzled as to what she meant. The only time she had got blood anywhere near her hands was when she had killed the men at her house. Even then only her claws had blood on them, not her hands. As he pondered her words he examined her condition. Abruptly, he came to a very unwelcome conclusion. Her refusal to sleep, her current condition and her curious words were connected; she had obviously experienced an extremely unsettling dream. This also meant that the current situation she was in had been triggered by his actions, it seemed that she would not have dreamt at all if he had used hypnosis to send her to sleep before he had left her room.

He scowled, extremely irritated with himself. He should have been more vigilant, but his anger with the child over her blatant disobedience had clouded his judgement. He resolved that he would be more attentive in future, whether he was angry with her or not. Noticing that she was shivering, he saw that her nightwear was soaked with sweat, and her bedding was in the same condition. If he did not remedy this now, she would become dangerously cold.

Swiftly, he ordered one of the whitecoats to fetch dry nightwear and bedding, and ordered the remaining one to clean up the carpet next to her bed. Throwing open a cupboard door, he pulled out a neatly folded blanket, quickly wrapping Red Dragon in its warm folds, preventing her from retreating any further from him. Not that she didn't try. She hissed at him again, struggling to free her arms from the tightly packed cocoon of the blanket, but the Headmaster had wrapped her so tightly that she could barely move. The whitecoat returned with what the Headmaster had requested, and began to change her bedding. The female whitecoat approached Red Dragon, and the Headmaster knew he must reduce the terror that she currently felt about those around her, as this was the only way she would allow the whitecoat to get close enough to assist her. Right now he was quickly running out of patience, and swiftly hit on a rapid and effective solution.

Lifting her cocooned form from the carpet, he quickly dumped her into the arms of the female whitecoat. Red Dragon snarled in surprise, tensing slightly. After a few moments, when it became apparent that the whitecoat was not threatening her, she started to relax. Seeing this, the Headmaster gave what he hoped would be the last orders of the night.

"Change her into dry nightwear, and then put her to bed. Ensure that you add extra blankets to her bedding. When you have finished, resume guarding the door. If she somehow gets through the door, restrain her and take her back into her room. Then you will send the other guard to inform me what she has done."

Determined not the repeat his earlier mistake, the Headmaster removed his glasses, intrigued to observe an expression of relief crossing Red Dragon's face, as she saw what he was doing. He also knew that he must verbally acknowledge his lapse of judgement to Red Dragon, as she could end up assuming (incorrectly) that he had deliberately wanted her to suffer through a nightmare. If that happened, he might begin to lose the loyalty she currently held towards him, and he would not be able to regain it easily, if at all. The Headmaster cleared his throat uncomfortably, and began to admit the mistake he had made.

"Even though I am still angry over what you did, I must apologise. It was not my intention for you to experience a nightmare. You have my word that I will not allow the same thing to happen in future. Now, are you ready to sleep?"

Now that she knew she wouldn't have to worry about more nightmares, Red Dragon now welcomed the idea of sleep, as she felt utterly exhausted from everything that had happened tonight. Nodding wearily, she finally completely relaxed. The Headmaster motioned for the whitecoat to carry out her orders, and Red Dragon gripped at the whitecoat's arm through her blanket as she was carried towards the bathroom attached to the her room, with the whitecoat snagging the dry set of pyjamas along the way.

When the whitecoat emerged again with Red Dragon, the second whitecoat had resumed his post outside Red Dragon's door. Efficiently, the whitecoat manoeuvred her into bed, adding the extra blankets and also resuming her post at the Headmaster's nod. Leaning down slightly, the Headmaster captured Red Dragon's weary gaze. As he began his usual soothing speech, he made a mental note to begin researching suitable alternatives to hypnosis that would provide Red Dragon with a dreamless sleep. He was no longer prepared to waste his time in this fashion unless it is absolutely necessary. Red Dragon felt a great amount of relief as the now familiar drowsiness began to engulf her. Now she could finally forget her fears and the events she had dreamed about, even if it was only for a few hours.

The Headmaster smiled in satisfaction as Red Dragon surrendered to the sleep he had created. This way he would have a few hours before he would need to deal with anything else that involved her, a reprieve he appreciated, as he could continue his work without any more interruptions. Swiftly exiting her room, he turned off the light before relocking the door behind him.

After a total of two days, SPLAT had developed a plan to scout the building that Lloyd had identified. They would have Ingrid, Harvey and Mandy acting as lookouts, and they had all been assigned strategic positions from which to observe the progress of the remaining SPLAT members. Lloyd, Ian and Dinah would be the ones attempting the actual scouting, as they would be the most focussed and follow the plan, while it was possible that Ingrid or Harvey could be impulsive and deviate from the plan at a bad moment. Lloyd had felt it was best to leave Mandy behind, because she was the one who could easily soothe Ingrid or Harvey if the need arose, and their lookout positions were not so far away from each other that she could not help if they needed her. It had been decided that they would attempt to stay away from the main entrance; as if they were spotted, it was likely the Headmaster would be informed. As he was now aware of how many times they had defeated his plans, he was sure to be on the lookout for any sightings of them. Lloyd suspected that he might have circulated their descriptions to the staff inside his laboratory.

The place that he was scouting was an entrance marked 'Staff Only', that was located around the side of the building. He did not dare to actually test the door, as he feared his endeavours would be noticed by the staff. Instead he was crouched deep in a bush, watching the entrance, hoping that he would be able to gain information from what the staff did if they used this door, as well as from what they might be carrying. After staying in the bush for twenty minutes, he had seen two staff members with white coats enter the building, but as they were carrying nothing, he could not determine anything from them. Nor did they do anything that he could gain information from. The only other person he had seen was Rose, which had been both worrying and depressing. She was clearly as vulnerable as Dinah to hypnosis, if the Headmaster had managed to hypnotise her into being loyal for a third time.

If he raised himself slightly, he was just able to make out Ian's scouting position, on a tree branch that hung close to the back of the building. With his long limbs, it was a lot easier for him to use the tree to scout from than it would be for Dinah. Dinah was on the opposite side of the building, using bushes for cover, just like Lloyd was doing. As Lloyd turned back to look at the staff entrance, he heard a sharp snap, and a muffled yelp. Snapping his head round, he saw Ian getting sheepishly to his feet at the foot of his tree and he rolled his eyes. The idiot clearly hadn't been careful enough and had tried to get to another branch without testing it first. Luckily, the branch he had been on had not been too high, so he hadn't been hurt. Just as he was beginning to relax again, a very loud, sustained alarm came from the building. Lloyd was half-hoping it was a fire alarm, but he highly doubted it and was horribly afraid it was some kind of intruder alarm. Clearly Ian's fall from the tree had been seen.

His suspicions were proved correct when some men and women in white coats rushed around the side of the building from the main entrance, and the staff entry door also opened, revealing more white-coated staff members. Lloyd gave up all attempts to hide and immediately employed his plan for the worst case scenario. Instead of heading to his right, deeper into the bushes that were planted to the side and behind the building, he ran left, straight onto the pavement at the front of the building and along the street. He knew that he had the advantage, and would easily be able to lose any pursuers that were sent after him. He would take the back streets for fifteen minutes before making his way to the SPLAT shed, where they had all been told to meet if anything went wrong.

The last two days had been terrible for Red Dragon to endure, and what made it worse was the knowledge that she herself was to blame. The part of her punishment she hated the most was being locked in her room. Even though her room was plain, she actually liked it as it was her own space to control. However, this fondness was rapidly diminishing the longer she had to stay within the same four walls. The tantalising glimpses of the corridor she saw when the whitecoats brought her meals to her were tormenting her every time she saw them. It was at these points in the day that the longing to be outside her room was the strongest, and when she promised herself to think things through more before she did anything.

The pain from the first part of her punishment had almost faded, but her bottom had been very sore for almost an entire day, reminding her of the Headmaster's anger every time her backside came into contact with anything. This also served as a further reminder not to be so impulsive. She had been right to fear being spanked by the Headmaster as he had used his full strength, and even being spanked over her clothes had been very painful, to say nothing of how much worse it had been on her bare skin. Red Dragon desperately hoped that she never gave him cause to spank her again; it had been an experience she had no desire to repeat.

Red Dragon was very startled when her door was unlocked in the afternoon, hours before her dinner was due to be brought in. The Headmaster walked into her room, with Rose reluctantly following. Silently he pointed to Red Dragon's desk chair, and Rose sat down, avoiding everyone's gaze. Red Dragon had no idea why the Headmaster had brought Rose into her room, but knew that he would not have done so just so she could have someone to talk to. This was confirmed when the Headmaster began to explain why Rose was there.

"Since the both of you have caused me some trouble, I have decided that it is beneficial to keep you in the same place. That way I do not have to be distracted by the speculation of what further complications and damage you could potentially cause. Rose will be assisting you in your studies on the creature, until one of my staff retrieves her."

At this point the Headmaster paused, and both Rose and Red Dragon shivered as the Headmaster aimed a menacing glare at the two of them.

"I have reservations at placing the two of you together, after what occurred last time. If I discover that you have been fighting with each other, you will both be punished, no matter who started the feud again. Am I understood?"

Both girls managed a somewhat shaky "Yes, Sir" in reply to this question. Even if they had not patched up their differences, not even Rose would dare to disobey the Headmaster on this issue. Giving a satisfied nod, the Headmaster left the room. After he had gone, Rose was clearly confused about why she was still in bed, and enquired:

"Are you alright, after what happened? Surely your gunshot wound would have been healed by now, unless there were complications?"

Red Dragon blinked at Rose, surprised that she had not been told what had happened to her a few days ago. Formulating a reply, she mentally cursed the Headmaster. She was certain that he had deliberately not informed Rose about her condition, so that she would have to remind herself about how stupid and dangerous her actions had been. Gritting her teeth slightly, she ground out:

"My gunshot wound is already healed; there were no problems with that. What did happen was that I did something stupid, and now my legs are temporarily paralysed. I won't be able to use my legs again until next week."

She nearly groaned aloud when Rose predictably asked, "How did your legs get paralysed? And you keep fidgeting, are you in pain?" Again mentally cursing the Headmaster, she glared at Rose for a few moments, before the answer spurted from her in a rush of growled words. As she reached the part where the Headmaster had carried her back to her room, she abruptly cut off her own narrative, spluttering slightly, her face going red. Rose, displaying her characteristic lack of patience, said sharply:

"Go on! What happened?"

Glowering, and cursing the Headmaster for a third time, Red Dragon snarled,

"He spanked me ok! He warned me what would happen if I went to that area without him and put my life at risk, and he punished me in the way he threatened he would. Now you know why I'm fidgeting, there's still a bit of a sting. Now can we get on with some work?"

Rose clearly wanted to ask her some more questions, but her obedience to the Headmaster's orders overcame her curiosity. The two of them worked almost happily together, the tension which normally appeared when they were in the same room had now completely vanished, now that they were almost friends. Red Dragon was finishing a comparison of her claws and the claws of the creature, when she suddenly caught the sound of a number of hurrying people. She frowned, her hands stilling on the keyboard of her laptop, glancing in a puzzled manner towards the door of her room. Rose blinked, looking up from the report she had been skimming through.

"What's the matter? Is there something wrong?"

Red Dragon answered in a very distracted tone of voice, setting the laptop on her bedside table and still frowning at the door.

"Can't you hear that? There's something going on. Must be something big, there are loads of people."

"Hear wha-"

Rose's question was cut off as they heard people running past the door. She blinked, and then moved towards the door, intending to open it and see what was going on. She was almost there, when a sustained alarm, ear-splittingly loud, made her jump. While the alarm had startled her considerably, Rose was horrified to see the effect it had on Red Dragon. She was thrashing on her bed, her eyes screwed up and her hands clamped to her ears, howling in pain. Rose was unsure what to do, but it was obvious that the alarm was too loud for her. She remembered that Red Dragon had heard the people outside her room a number of minutes before Rose had, which meant that her hearing was clearly a lot more sensitive. Before she could make up her mind what to do, the door opened and a whitecoat entered the room. Before he could do anything else, Rose begged:

"You have to turn the alarm off! It's too loud for Red Dragon, it's hurting her!"

Hearing Red Dragon's howls, the whitecoat immediately left the room. Rose gave a sigh of relief as the alarm was silenced a few moments later. She immediately moved towards Red Dragon, glad to see that she wasn't thrashing anymore, as she had been afraid she might have hurt herself. She was startled when the door was flung open, and the Headmaster strode quickly into the room.

The Headmaster had been in the Security Room, watching the progress of the intruders on the feeds from the cameras, when a member of his staff had suddenly rushed into the room, immediately switching off the alarm. The Headmaster had been very surprised, as his staff never interfered with security measures once they had been set. He suddenly became alarmed, as only one thing was programmed to override all other orders, and that was a threat to Red Dragon. Before he could demand what had happened, the whitecoat had reported what Rose had told him. The Headmaster had instantly headed to Red Dragon's room, annoyed at himself for not recognising that the alarm could potentially harm her, as he had set it up before her accident.

As he threw open the door, he saw that Red Dragon had curled in on herself as far as she was able, clutching at her ears and moaning with pain. Ignoring her distressed attempts to maintain the grip on her ears, the Headmaster firmly gripped her wrists in one hand, using the other to move the hair that was covering her ears. He grimaced when he saw that both her ears were bleeding, hoping that the intense volume of the alarm had not destroyed her eardrums.

Red Dragon had never before experienced the pain she was suffering now, even from her gunshot wound. She knew that she was howling, but most of the noise was drowned out by the ringing in her ears. She curled up as much as her paralysed legs would allow, clutching at her ears, hoping to block out as much noise as she could. She struggled feebly as someone pulled her hands away from her ears, unable to retrieve them as they held her wrists together with one hand. That person shook her shoulder and she reluctantly opened her eyes, startled to see that it was the Headmaster. He leaned forwards, speaking louder than normal, as he tested how much of her hearing currently remained.

"Do you hear me?"

His voice was very muffled, as if he was speaking underwater, but Red Dragon was able to discern what he asked her. She answered him with a voice hoarse from her earlier howls, speaking just as loudly as the Headmaster, as if she could not hear her own voice if she spoke any more quietly.

"I can hear you Sir, just not at all clearly."

The Headmaster looked pleased at this, glad that his Prefect had not suffered permanent damage. If she had, it would have created a great many delays to his plans. Turning to Rose, who was standing anxiously by Red Dragon's bed, he gave her some orders to relay to the nearest whitecoat she could find. Red Dragon wondered what those orders were, as she had been unable to hear them. She soon found out, as Rose and a whitecoat returned in a few minutes, carrying two glasses. The Headmaster immediately released Red Dragon's wrists, holding out the first glass towards her, keeping hold of it as she drank what was inside. Clearly he remembered how much pain could weaken her grip.

Red Dragon was glad of the contents of the first glass, as it contained cool water that soothed the damage she had caused to her throat when she had howled so loudly. Her reaction to what was in the second glass was the complete opposite. As the Headmaster held it up, she caught a whiff of the contents, recognising the scent of the pain medication she hated so much. Snarling angrily, she pushed weakly at the Headmaster's hand, her mouth clamped shut, utterly determined not to drink any of the medication. She had underestimated the Headmaster's determination however, and he immediately pinched her nose shut. She knew exactly what his objective was, and she glared into his dark glasses, determined not to open her mouth. However, eventually she had no choice, and had to open her mouth in order to breathe. Once she did so, the Headmaster let go of her nose and allowed her to take a breath, before tipping a large amount of the medication into her mouth.

Red Dragon choked and spluttered, but she swallowed enough of the pain medication to be effective in dulling the pain in her ears. She lashed out angrily at the Headmaster for his trick, unsheathing her claws. As the Headmaster had not been prepared for such an attack, he was unable to dodge, resulting in a very scratched hand. Pulling away from her, he handed the glass to the whitecoat, before examining his hand for a few moments. Letting his hand drop, he moved abruptly towards Red Dragon, who was now very apprehensive, worried about how the Headmaster would retaliate for his scratched hand. She did not have to worry for long.

Rolling her onto her side, he suddenly landed three crisp smacks on her bottom, causing her to yelp and sniffle as the Headmaster snapped:

"You do not claw me, child! Do that only to your enemies!"

Red Dragon whimpered "Yes, Sir", feeling entirely miserable. She had just endured the most terrible pain in her ears, had to drink that horrible medicine, and had just been smacked by the Headmaster. The Headmaster was pleased to observe that the girl was obedient again; clearly the discipline he had just administered was enough to remind her that he was in charge. Motioning over a whitecoat, he ordered the man to clean Red Dragon's ears of blood, and stop the source of the bleeding, if this was possible.

Leaning forward again, so that she would hear his orders, he began to speak.

"You will not be completing the amount of work I originally decided on, as your priority now is to heal. Consequently, you will rest after you have eaten your meals. You will be taking your medication-" Here the Headmaster had to raise his voice further, as Red Dragon began growling thunderously at the mention of the medicine she hated so much. "-until your ears no longer cause you pain".

As the Headmaster had now finished giving orders, he strode out of the room, beckoning Rose to follow him. Giving Red Dragon an encouraging smile, Rose obeyed the Headmaster and left the room.