The farther South they drive, the more rural the area becomes. The sun sags in the sky behind a patch of dreary, twisted clouds, and there are no cars for miles. The isolation pushes Valerie that much closer to Nicolas.
Eventually a small town comes into view, and just as Valerie goes to exhale a sigh of relief, she notices just how dilapidated the town really is. A 'Welcome to Chaumont' sign is suspended from a sun-damaged awning of an empty building, the words almost weathered away completely. Behind that building sit a crooked line of others, all boarded up in their own unique way, forever holding the countless, untold memories of the lost residents.
At the very back Chaumont Hospital stands there, towering over the other buildings as if it were the one in command. The decrepit white paint is fractured in multiple areas, deteriorating more and more as the days roll by, revealing the deep red of the crumbling brick beneath it. Its windows, only some lucky enough to have their glass intact, gawk down at the two lone vehicles, showing off the black rectangle of darkness in which they all contain. Oddly, this hospital is the only building that did not have its windows boarded up. Instead the place is drenched in graffiti , most illegible , and the rest reading words only that of a delinquent would write. This facility, in comparison, made Saint Pont look like an innocent child who means no harm, and it sent crippling shivers throughout Valerie's entire frame.
Nicolas is holding his gun close, ready to shoot anything that moves. He glances to Valerie, "This it? Is this where that psycho kept you?"
Valerie is motionless. Never did she see the exterior of the building Christophe took her to, but just by the sickening vibe this building is giving her, she knew this was it. She nods, "C-c'mon, Nic.."
Creeeaaaak.
Nicolas pulls the front door open, hazy sunlight filtering inside. His eyes dart around as his pupils widen up, desperately trying to see in the swallowing darkness of the hallways. Valerie is pushed up against his side, immediate familiarity hitting her in the face like a lead pipe. With a jolt and a gasp all of her fears resurface, and an image of Christophe's senseless eyes flash through her mind. Her breathing picks up and she collapses to the ground, "Eliot.."
"Valerie!" Nicolas whips around to face her, "Are you alright, love?"
"Y-yes, fine-"
Suddenly the muffled sound of a baby crying erupts from above the ceiling. Nicolas freezes, looking up, "What th-"
At that Valerie rips away from his grasp, "Eliot!" she calls, dashing forward with widened eyes, tiles cracking and breaking away from their grout as she speeds over them.
"Val, wait!" Nicolas shouts, zipping after her, "You've got to drive slow! These floorboards will snap!"
She pays no attention to Nicolas, too fixated on Eliot's cry, and she stops short in another room, frantically looking around for anything that can lead her up. A single window shines light onto a decaying wooden ramp and she heads right for it.
"Val!" Nicolas shouts again, but he's too late. The ramp caves in under her weight and with a squeal of terror she grabs onto the end of some large object. It's the only thing holding her and, using all the strength she can muster up, she yanks herself up to the next level. She watches, panting heavily, as the ramp tumbles to pieces below her. When she lets her grip off of the object there's a snap and then a creeeeaaaak as it falls as well, laying with what is left of the fallen ramp. Dust flares up from where it lays, creating a thick, dark cloud between her and Nicolas. Valerie just ripped a door off of its hinges.
"Don't worry, Val.. I'll find another way up. Just..don't move okay?" Nicolas says with alarm in his voice. He turns, rushing off to find another way up.
As Nicolas disappears Valerie stands in place, her entire body shaking and recovering from the scare. Her mirrors twitch in the quiet, the sound of the child gone now, and she swallows over a lump in her throat, "I'm going to piece my family back together..," she shakily repeats, "H-he's going to regret what he's done.."
She leaves her spot at the top of the ramp, rolling right through the empty frame where the door had been, and into what used to be the hospital cafeteria. A familiar scent wafts faintly throughout the room. Valerie freezes, pupils shrinking.
Blood.
Suddenly a rustling is heard behind the kitchen counter, quickly silencing. Valerie can feel her heartbeat quicken at the center of her undercarriage, "N-Nicolas..?" She slowly creeps forward, choking on her own breath, sweat droplets forming behind her side-view mirrors as she winds her front-end around the counter.
"Don't hurt me!" screams a voice, jolting Valerie backwards. She gasps at the car in front of her, her eyes wide and in utter shock. "Celine? Celine! You're alive!?" Valerie squeals in surprise. Despite the situation she is in, she actually cracks a smile. Her best friend was alive, "I knew it.. No one believed me.. But I knew it.."
Celine, however, did not look nearly as happy. She's chained to a metal bar that's built into the cement wall of the kitchen, dry blood caked all around her face and windshield. Her pupils are very small, and she looks like she hasn't eaten a decent meal in weeks, "V-Valerie..p-please be quiet. He'll hear you-"
A door slams open and Celine goes silent, lowering so far down on her wheels that her underside looks like part of the floor. She covers her mouth, motioning with her eyes for Valerie to hide, but Valerie isn't quick enough. As she goes to bolt she's frozen by the all-so-familiar, petrifying gaze of Christophe Peugeot.
"Long time, no see, Valerie," he sneers through his teeth, that terrifying twist of green visible in his iris. Valerie feels her throat close up. She can't speak.
"Cat got your tongue?" he chuckles eerily as he rolls around the kitchen counter. He's dragging something with him: a gun. Nicolas' gun.
When Valerie sees the gun she panics, words beginning to tumble out of her mouth like an avalanche, "N-no..you let him go! He has absolutely nothing to do with this!"
"Oh, but I think he does. He is part of your precious little family after all," Christophe growls. He slides a tire under Valerie's chin. When he feels how much she is shaking he grins, "I love it when you give me that look.. It turns me on."
Celine looks between the two as Christophe's tire moves down Valerie's fender. She manages to get a few words out, "C-Chris..don't.."
His grin vanishes and he narrows his eyes at Celine, his eyes piercing right through her. He snarls, the yellow of his teeth showing, "Hush, you. You're especially lucky I have kept you alive all of this time. I'd kill you if he'd let me, but he fucking loves you so much. Ridiculous!" He whips back around to face Valerie and his grin returns, "I see that you haven't changed one bit.. So beautiful.. Though I see they fixed that dent I gave you last time. A shame," he shoves her roughly onto her side, her roof scraping against the grimy wall of the counter. She squeals in terror, covering up as much of her underside as she can with her wheels.
Chris gently runs what is left of his treads down her abdomen and across her scar. His grin widens, "But now you've got this scar.. As you may recall, I do not like a perfect woman.. I should have never let him leave you on the side of the road, but he honestly thought you had passed on during that C-section! How silly of him. Now that you have returned, we can finally finish where we left off."
Valerie's rpms rise, so many things racing through her mind. Him? Who was he? But as she feels Chris' treads touch lower and lower she remembers something she has now that she did not have the last time: The power of her engine. She revs high and shifts into first, wheels spinning in Christophe's grasp. The Peugeot inhales roughly and backs off, dropping her back onto her wheels, which grip at the tile and propel her forward. She skids to make a quick turn out of the door, but Christophe is close behind, his revs vibrating right through the floor. He uses his nose and violently shoves her rear-quarter panel, causing her rear tires to lose traction and slip on the fallen pieces of the rotting ceiling. She slides sideways, and with a crunch she is violently stopped by a cement panel. A painful grunt escapes her lips.
Christophe brings a wheel over her chest and applies pressure, holding her with so much of his weight that she can no longer speak, and as she gasps for air he brings a syringe out from under his wheel well, shoving it in her face. "The Doctor…he may be the weaker of us two…but he always leaves me some kind of present," Chris says, his voice low and gravelly. His grin stretches as he pants from the chase, his decaying breath hot against her fender, "You play hard to get.. I like it..but this is just getting preposterous now. I have got to make sure you stay put.."
"You twisted bastard," Valerie sneers, choking on air. She twitches and shrieks in pain as he stabs her underside with the syringe. Her consciousness is immediately ripped away from her and the darkness sifts in.
Buuuuzzzzzz.
Her sense of sound is the first thing to start coming back.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The more she listens, the more she remembers. Her eyes shoot open, only to quickly shut again, a bright white light positioned directly in front of her face. Valerie groans and goes to move, but there's a clank and her wheels won't budge.
She's chained to something.
"Chris. Chris, please," she begs, trying to open her eyes again. She squints and looks sideways.
Darkness.
It's completely silent all except the buzzing of the light bulb, and that's when panic sets in. She tugs fiercely at the chains with all four wheels, tears seeping out and down her hood.
"My name is not Chris," growls the Peugeot, as he rolls into the small circle of white light.
Valerie freezes, eyes huge and pupils constricted, trying her best to look up at the psychopath in front of her, "Let us go. I-I understand you lost your family, and you may not want anyone else to have one, but I swear to god, if you do not let us go-"
He grabs her face and yanks down, slamming her chin into the metal of the table as he spits through his teeth, "Shut your pretty little mouth before I decide to sew it shut. I've had about enough of you."
Valerie doesn't cry out in pain this time, as much as it hurt. She just lays there, her chest heaving. The inside of her mouth swells right up, and she can taste the blood as it mixes in with her saliva.
As Chris keeps her silenced, he turns the light to face a small, rusty table. It's an old instrument table, and what's on top of it sends electrifying terror straight through Valerie's body. Not only were there hospital tools and a sewing needle, which are already covered in dry blood, but there lay her spark plugs. All four of them.
Christophe releases her, "I'm Psycho, for now. At least until I give myself a better name," he chuckles darkly, "It's what you always called me..so I figured, why not?" As he speaks he reverses and flicks on another light, revealing Nicolas.
The Rancho is restrained to another operating table, missing all four of his tires and his front control arms are twisted, his wheels having been brutally ripped off. He's breathing shallowly through his grille, mumbling incoherent words as he squints from the brightness of the light.
His lips are painfully sewn shut.
Valerie's engine sinks, her eyes swelling up with even more tears, "N-Nic..," she squeaks, horrified by the sickening image of her tortured husband.
"You see, Val," Psycho begins as he rolls to Nicolas' side, "It wasn't Christophe who spoke to you in the club that night. In fact, Christophe himself hasn't met you once. He's too far suppressed.. It's just me and the Doctor now! Soon, there won't even be the Doctor! Just me: Psyyyycho," he sniggers, dragging his treads down to one of Nicolas' control arms. The Rancho's breathing quickens, his pupils the size of a pebble.
"Don't hurt him anymore..," Valerie manages to plea, her voice knotted and hoarse.
"I'm the strongest," Psycho sneers with a crooked grin, "I am the result of all that depression and anger; all of the hopelessness and loss that poor Christophe had to go through. A shame…what a beautiful life he has left behind. Now it's all mine, and I can do absolutely anything I want with it!"
He grabs Nicolas' control arm and pulls roughly. The Rancho lets out a squeal of agonizing pain, the threads in his lips tearing as he wails.
"STOP IT," Valerie pleads.
"I am not doing this because I am jealous of your family. Oh, no; I can care less," he shrugs, "The Doctor…he is the ghost of what Christophe used to be. He doesn't know he is doing wrong. But me? I am just a sick silhouette of Christophe's dark side. I'm the one that always used to show up when life became too much for Chris to handle. And now that I am here all the time, it's quite clear he's given up."
He releases Nicolas' control arm before grabbing onto a large object, and there's a heavy grating noise as he drags it over the broken tile, into his eerie circle of light.
It's a sledge hammer, bloodied and caked in grime.
"Personally I enjoy the hammer," Psycho coos with a grin, "Oh, the look on their faces when they see it!" he flashes the hammer in front of Nicolas, who is now squirming in utter panic. Psycho snickers and continues, "It is so much different than when they see a blade or, for your taste…," he looks directly at Nicolas, "…a firearm. The way their bodies struggle with each hit.. It is just something so very different, and I fancy new things!"
"CHRISTOPHE!" Valerie screams
"Tisk, tisk," Psycho shakes his hood in disgust, "Now, I told you. That is not my name. How insulting."
With a sickening yelp, Nicolas' blood is sprayed all over the cement wall, the end of the sledge hammer burying its way deeper and deeper into his roof with each excruciating blow. Valerie is frozen, eyes glued to the bloody scene.
And finally, silence.
It all felt like a blur. Valerie collapses against the metal table, repeating her husband's name to herself, over and over again.
"N-Nicolas… E-Eliot...all..my fault," she wheezes.
Psycho shuts Nicolas' light and drags the hammer into the darkness, uttering words as he swims in the shadows, "If only you weren't so stupid to begin with, Val," he abuses.
"M-my family..," she squeaks, "I-"
Another light flickers on, this time revealing Celine, chained to a table as if she were Valerie's reflection. Her eyes are closed, however. Unconscious. The discomforted whine of a baby erupts from underneath her, and it brings a small amount of life back into Valerie's anguished eyes. She can see the outline of Eliot's little hood poking out from under her best friend, and only for that moment does she feel free of this enduring torment.
"Physical pain is only temporary," Psycho explains, as he brings a wheel up to Celine's fender. He slams her across the face, and with a shriek her eyes shoot open, pupils darting about her windshield.
"Emotional pain, however…to know that you're the reason your family is torn to pieces.. ," he lifts the hammer, positioning the head right against Celine's roof, "..That pain is with you forever."
"Please..," Valerie croaks.
Hnmf!
Psycho is shoved backward, dropping the hammer at Celine's side, as if some invisible force just bluntly hit him in the face. He shakes his hood violently, snarling, "No! You won't take over. Not now!"
"T-the Doctor," Celine utters, "H-he's trying to protect me.. He's going to change.."
Valerie looks at Celine, "P-protect.. you?"
"And Eliot."
"But-"
"The Doctor thinks Eliot and I are his lost family. It's the only reason we're both alive-"
Clink. Clang.
Celine's shackles fall to the fragmented tiling as the Doctor quickly releases her. He looks up at her with solid blue eyes, just like the nurse described what Christophe's used to be, "T-there you go, honey. Now..go..quickly.. He'll be back soon."
She does not hesitate. Even without her sparkplugs Celine is decently quick. She pushes the Doctor out of the way and releases Valerie, keeping Eliot tucked safely under her front wheel well, "Run!"
Valerie stumbles off of the table, her vision spinning and her mind delirious. Celine zips right out of the room, but Valerie stops at the doorway, staring blankly at the patch of darkness where Nicolas' body lay. Tears build up and drip down her fenders, "Ni-"
Her mind becomes fuzzy and she collapses, hyperventilating. When Celine feels that her friend hasn't followed, she whips around and gasps, "Val! COME ON!" she darts over to her and grabs her wheel, yanking her onto her tires, "He's changing back!"
Celine kicks in a door and drags Valerie inside before slamming it shut. It's a small room, only big enough to hold the two vehicles, plus an empty desk sitting opposite of the girls. The darkness is sucked away when Celine rips open the old blinds, revealing a single, large window at the back of the room. Dust fills the air, drifting aimlessly as it floats down towards the girls' hoods. Celine glances out of the window and pulls in her lower lip, "We are four stories high-"
Slam.
A door nearby is smashed open as Psycho lurks the hallways, "Vaaaalerie. This seems awfully familiar, does it not?"
Valerie can barely keep herself quiet, her sanity draining away. She wheezes in between staggered, shallow breaths, "N-Nicolas…I killed him..my fault.."
"Val, you need to pull it together.. We can get out of this," Celine whispers, "J-just be quiet, okay?" She brings a tire over her friend's mouth.
There's another slam, and the girls' both flinch. Valerie squeaks under Celine's treads, eyes closed tightly.
"C'mon, ladies. I wanna' show you my new toooy," he cackles, his voice growing louder.
Celine drags Valerie closer to the window, her heart racing in her chest. She glances out again and to the ground. Below them is a single patch of dead grass and overgrown weeds.
A deep rumbling of a small engine erupts outside of their door just before it is smashed in, torn right off of its hinges. Psycho is standing there with his twisted grin. He's even more terrifying in the light, his yellowing paint stained with splatters of blood and blotches of grunge. That horrible green in his eyes is prominent, completely encasing the innocence of the blue.
"I am finished playing dollhouse with the Doctor. You're both mine now, and I want to do something a little more…adult-oriented," he pulls a chainsaw into view, the engine rumbling, "You see this here? I have been saving it for you especially, Celine; for the day I take over this body. And that day is today." He pushes down on the throttle and the bloodcurdling drone of the chainsaw fills the room. His grin widens across the corrosion of his bumper, "Now..allow me to tear into those pussies."
Celine takes a very deep breath, and without any reluctance she grabs her friend's wheel and squeezes Eliot as close to her body as possible, "Sorry, Psycho, but we've had just about enough of you too." She jumps out of the window, broken shards of glass ripping at her underside as the three of them plummet towards the ground.
Psycho lunges after them but slams on his brakes right at the edge, "You won't get far!," he snarls through his teeth, "Without engine power you're stuck here," and with that he vanishes back into the obscurity of the forgotten hospital.