Ahead of Sister Mary Eunice, Dr. Arden kept his brisk pace. Mary Eunice held back, letting him feel like he'd gotten away, knowing there wasn't a place for him to hide in Briarcliff. It was her domain.
Even with the small distance she'd allowed him, Arden was gone when she turned a corner. Mary Eunice paused, not sure where he had gone. The spacious lobby didn't provide many practical exits unless Arden had decided to run. The only way out that seemed plausible was the door to the chapel, which stood open a crack.
Mary Eunice frowned. Was Arden really stupid enough to think that he could claim sanctuary? Even if his soul was sufficiently clean for God to shield him, no place in Briarcliff was God's anymore. Confidently, she burst into the chapel, pushing the doors open so wide they slammed into the walls on both sides.
Her furious steps wavered, almost stumbling, as her eyes adjusted to the dim candlelight. Monsignor Howard and Sister Jude glared intently at her from the altar. On the altar was an aspersorium filled with water, already blessed judging by the taste of the foul air around it, and a small bone. Jude was clutching her rosary, and Monsignor Howard held a silver aspergillum. Wrapped around his shoulders was a purple stole.
Planning to storm out of the church, Mary Eunice whirled around to see Arden pushing a thick beam of wood through the handles of the chapel door. He sprinkled it with holy water before turning back to calmly return Mary Eunice's gaze.
Mary Eunice gave a short bark of laughter. "Pathetic," she announced with a smirk. "The tainted Monsignor wants revenge for his defilement, but knows he's not strong enough. So he brings along a mental patient and a Nazi for help."
"You're the one who was trying to escape a second ago," Arden pointed out.
"Well it looks like you've got me right where you want me now," Mary Eunice replied. "So go ahead. Amuse me."
"Isn't this a lucky coincidence," Thredson said, moving forward, keeping the distance between them constant as Lana tried to back away. "I was just heading out to find you."
Rummaged in her purse, Lana focused on Thredson and prayed she didn't stumble as she walked backwards. "You're right, this is lucky," Lana stammered, false bravado throwing the thinnest façade over her fear. Finally her hand fell on cold steel in her purse and her fear melted. Her features hardened as she pulled her small revolver out of the hand bag. "A final interview would make a great addition to my story."
The gun twitched to Lana's right, indicating a door. Reluctantly, Thredson opened it and went in. Lana followed him into the asylum's boiler room. In the paltry light provided by the pilot light in the furnace, Lana kept the gun's aim steady and reached again into her purse, slung over her shoulder. She set the large tape recorder she retrieved on the ground and flicked the switch.
"Now," she said, as the reels on the tape recorder began slowly spinning, "Remember to be totally honest. This is gonna be read about worldwide."
Down the hall, the guard couldn't believe what he was seeing. Despite his uncertainty, the monster that he told himself couldn't possibly exist kept advancing.
"Stop right there!" he tried, his gun shaking.
The thing only moaned in response. It didn't sound human, but it didn't sound like an animal either. All the guard knew was that the thing was completely unnatural.
"I will shoot!" he warned again, despite his doubt that the creature could understand.
With a yell as incomprehensible as the noises the thing in front of him was making, the guard pulled the trigger. The creature's shoulder exploded, a fountain of black blood splattering against the wall behind it. It let out an inhuman howl and raced forward.
The guard pulled the trigger again, hitting the thing in its thigh. It stumbled, more blood sliding out of it, before reaching the guard, grabbing him by the neck and squeezing. Its strong hand easily shoved its long, dirty fingernails through the guard's skin, burying them deep in the guard's trachea.
Thick red blood drowned the thing's fingers and sluiced over the guard's uniform, spilling on the floor. The guard kicked in a last attempt to fight, his feet slipping in the puddles of his own blood. Effortlessly, the thing wrenched the guard to the side, flinging him like a ragdoll into an open fuse box.
Electricity flooded the guard's body, overriding every neural impulse and instantly ending his pain. Sparks shot out of the fuse box as it also died.
Darkness fell over Briarcliff.
The power failure made no difference in the chapel and the boiler room, but the common room was plunged into sudden darkness, only lit by the thin moonlight streaming through the windows. The normal din of the muttering of the patients increased in volume as whispers became shouts and shouts became screams.
As Briarcliff's patients began panicking, Kit stayed seated, wondering what was going on. Although the atmosphere was generally chaotic, the overall movement was towards the exit until three guards blocked the way.
"Alright people, calm down and sit tight," the guard in the middle said, his arms raised. "I'm sure this is just a temporary problem."
Predictably, that did nothing to placate the mob of lunatics, who barely heard the guard over their own cacophony. Some still tried to push for the door, while others turned on themselves.
Kit stood, raising his voice to be heard over the noise. "Everyone just sit still and give them a chance to figure this out," he called, hoping the patients would hear reason if it came from one of their own. This had no effect, and the push continued towards the door. Terrified, one of the guards pulled his gun, pointing it at the horde. The other two followed his lead.
Unheeding Mary Eunice's glare, Monsignor Howard turned to the crucifix that dominated the front of the chapel and tranquilly looked up at it.
"All-powerful God," he started, "pardon all the sins of your unworthy servant."
"I don't know, Monsignor," Mary Eunice interjected with a snort. "There might be too many, even for Him."
Trying to disregard the nun's jeer, the Monsignor grew louder to drown her out. "Give me constant faith and power."
"Even here He has none."
"So that, armed with the power of Your holy strength…"
"Where was that strength when I climbed on top of you?"
"I can attack this cruel evil spirit in confidence and security."
"How's that working out?" Mary Eunice asked, mocking him. "Are we feeling 'secure' yet?"
Monsignor Howard dipped a hand into the aspersorium and turned, silently, to stride towards Mary Eunice. Behind him, the voice of Sister Jude filled the hush: "sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua…"
His hand shining with holy water, the Monsignor made the sign of the cross. Although he was still a few feet back from Mary Eunice, she staggered back half a step, as if struck weakly. After that, she steeled herself, refusing to budge, even as the Monsignor moved closer.
When he was within a foot of Mary Eunice, Monsignor Howard reached out a hand, anointing her forehead with a drop of holy water. "I exorcise you, Most Unclean Spirit!"
"Aw, after all the fun we had?" Mary Eunice smirked. "Timothy, I'm hurt."
"All Spirits! Every one of you!" he called over the sound of Sister Jude's constant chanting.
Mary Eunice tilted her head to the side in an expression of mock concern. "Are you sure this still works if you just follow the script? This isn't some everyday possession by some minor league demons who can't pull it off on their own." She glowered defiantly. "This is the big one."
"In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ," the Monsignor thundered, enraged. "Be uprooted and expelled from this Creature of God!"
Throwing back her head, Mary Eunice only laughed in response.
Despite moving in all directions, the mob of patients overwhelmingly pushed forward, into the barrels of the guards' guns. Kit's eyes grew wide. This was not going to end well unless someone stopped it. He shoved through the crowd, pressing forward through the flailing limbs.
After taking a few blows, the swell of bodies thinned, then opened in front of Kit. Stumbling out into the small no-man's land between the patients and guards, he spread his arms wide, trying to encompass the crowd and hold them back.
"Please!" he yelled desperately, barely able to hear himself over the mad shrieks of the horde. "Everyone needs to calm down now!"
All the guards saw was one of the lunatics clawing his way forward, extend his arms outwards and start screaming incoherently at them. His gun shaking, the guard in the centre pulled the trigger at what he saw as the most severe threat. Blood burst out of Kit in a small splash that splattered against the faces of the nearest two patients. The sound echoed through the small space, silencing every other noise, and every patient looked up, their faces a mirror of Kit's shock and pain.
Agony flooded to Kit's shoulder, where the bullet had grazed him. His hand immediately went to the spot, clutching it. At the same time, it felt like every nerve in his body migrated there, so that his entire capacity for pain was clustered around his open wound.
In hot tendrils, the pain spread outwards, snaking through his whole body. Kit doubled over with a groan, wondering how this shallow gash could hurt so much. As the ache throbbed though his heart, he realized he had felt this before. It had started the same way, at one locus, before spreading out until he couldn't imagine anything but blind agony.
But this couldn't be the same. When that had happened, he had been in Dr. Arden's lab, his heart stopped by poison. Curling on the floor, Kit was sure he was dying. Maybe he had been weakened by his near-death experience, and now shock had given him a heart attack. A small wound like he had couldn't be doing this to him.
Every part of him pounded with agony, sensation pushing outwards against his skin. The feeling raced along every vein, every capillary, overwhelming him until he felt like he would explode.
And then everything went black.