Chapter 8

"THIS world is a video game that you've seen before?! I thought that the most games looked like were the ones that had horrible graphics! Like on the Atari!" Lili asked in shock, her being the first to ask a question.

"You knew about me on some kind of machine before we even met? And from another universe?!... Do other people know about the Milkman?" Boid asked, still fixated on the mind control in his head.

"So is that how you were able to see into the future? Because you've seen things before you even arrived?" Frazie asked as I then sighed and answered them.

"In order, here are the answers. In my world, the year is 2022, where games are so good in quality, they look like actual people that move as such and act as such, including voice acting. And this is only one of three of those games, called Psychonauts," I said, answering Lili's question. "Yes, Boid, I did know of you before we even met, yes, from another universe, and yes, other people do know about the milkman. But like I said, he's a part of your mind that needs to be destroyed, because it's going to hurt everyone if he's left in there," I said, him gulping at that. "And no, that's not the reason. I was able to see the future before I even came here, but it was a little harder to do so unless I looked in someone's eyes for 7 seconds straight. Here, because of the abundance of Psychics, I can see even more. And they didn't show everything, and many things have changed," I explained to Frazie.

"Things have changed? What did?" Mirtala asked.

"Well, for the first thing, the brains that were stolen from the campers would've all been held captive at this asylum, not hidden by Oleander at the campgrounds. The second thing, you, Frazie, and Squeepie would've stayed at the circus and only your dad would come by after we saved the day... Mirtala, you and Squeepie wouldn't be Psychics at all, and Frazie, you wouldn't have gotten into a big blowout fight with the others in the family, because I wouldn't have convinced you to do so," I said.

"And the water curse?" she asked with a frown and a furrow in her black eye.

"This is one thing that you can't say no matter what. Like, imagine that I never explained this. It was a false memory implanted into Augustus's brain so that the world could be safe from a very powerful, very evil Psychic, who can only be powered by water. And only one man knows the exact person that needs to never touch water," I said.

"Was it someone in our family?" Raz asked.

"The person who is not supposed to touch water is related to the family of the Aquatos, but only by companionship and is very old. And the one who implanted the false memories is the founder of the Psychonauts. But like I said, NO ONE tell anyone I told you that part, because just saying this out loud is enough of an issue. Because if this particular person gets access to water? Let's just say that there's a reason Cruller got his psyche shattered. The fight he had 20 years ago was with this same exact Psychic villain, the battle being big enough to make Ford's mind go kaput," I said, Raz gawking at that.

"Wow... I think I know who it is, but I'm going to dump that memory right away. I expect everyone else to do the same," he said, everyone nodding at that... as for Boid? he looked to be holding onto his head, rubbing his temples.

"I can feel something in my brain... some kind of voice... it's telling me to release the milkman... but I don't want to..." Boid said, me not even needing to have any more excuse. I simply tossed the Psycho Portal at his forehead and rushed into his mind with Raz and Gloria. And when we entered, it was RIGHT at the Milkman's house, where we saw he was emerging from the ground, and I then held my ground against him.

"Oh no, you don't, Milkman! Your milk has expired!" I shouted at him.

"I am the milkman, my milk is delicious," he said as he grabbed one of his milk cartons and lit the fuse, me then stopping this by using Pyrokinesis on not just the milk, but also his clothes, which didn't even phase the Milkman!... But when the milk cartons exploded from the increased heat? It managed to completely blow us off the platform as it demolished the entire house, underneath, and, most importantly, the Milkman himself! We were then kicked out of the guy's mind, him looking around and then at me.

"I... can't hear the voice anymore... and I can't remember anything about... something... I feel so at ease! Is this what quiet sounds like?" he asked repeatedly before Frazie spoke for all of us.

"Not unless you consider constantly asking questions as 'quiet'," she said, him then shutting up and looking around. We all remained silent, and he then managed to actually fell asleep on the ground, me then getting the key from his grasp and using it on the gate.

"What do we do with him?" dad asked from Lili's brain.

"Let him sleep. He deserves a bit of rest after all the stress," Lili said, me smirking at that as we then went forward into the asylum, but also finding the final part of the scavenger hunt, that being the stopwatch! And after grabbing some more Psi Cards, our group then saw the front door was locked and the key wouldn't work for it.

"How do we get in?" Raz asked.

"Well, maybe look for another route? Every evil villain base has a back entrance, right?" Squeepie smirked, me smiling at that.

"He's right, you know?" I smirked with a giggle as we then found the garden and busted our way through, only to see the very sad woman in the form of Gloria, who was looking at her 'audience' and bowing gracefully to them under the spotlight.

"Oh, thank you, my lovely audience! Would you like another encore?" she asked, me seeing that she smelled absolutely horribly and that her dress was even filthier than I thought it'd look, with even flies being on it.

"You poor thing," Frazie said, getting Gloria's attention, which I had to make sure she was in the light, so I produced a small bit of extra light from my hands.

"Oh, are you my new client?... Why so many? I told them I could work with others, but this is ridiculous, haha!" Gloria said, me looking at the others and seeing that some were disgusted, some concerned, and others, like Squeepie and Mirtala, were a bit frightened.

"Uh, miss? How long have you been here?" Mirtala asked.

"Oh, far too long, darling! I've been acting for decades and I... I... OH WHO AM I KIDDING?! I've been stuck here at this crazy nuthouse for ages! And I can't stop acting for no one!" she shouted, me seeing something happen both to her mind and her vice when she had that outburst. The first one was her... and the other side sounded strikingly similar to the voice of a little girl.

"Why were there two voices there?" dad asked from Lili's head.

"I think I can sense an alternate persona inside her head!" Frazie said, me looking at her and then at Gloria. She was right, it was a second personality! But unlike myself and my family members, it wasn't from another person being in her head. It was because of her being so tortured in her life, that she had two sides of who she was. One side was her positivity, which was her as a child, and the other side was her negativity, in the form of her adult side.

"Yeah, and I can sense that there's another person in there," Gloria said, me looking at her in confusion before I delved deeper... and I gasped. The other person that was in there? It was in the form of one of the bitches that bullied me in high school, on the same side as Mitsy... that is, until the final prank, which she ditched them and tried to warn me. She got off scott free from the whole situation, but still felt guilty. And she was stuck in the brain as the voice of reason between the two, aka Becky. And she wasn't doing too well, between the negativity and positivity in the poor woman.

"Looks like we're going to help her," I said.

"Are you sure? We have to save Pinoko, right?" Raz asked as I looked at Gloria again and she looked at me with tears in her eyes. For a brief moment, just three seconds, I saw that the girl in question, Jenna, was in control, before then getting sent back into the mind.

"Yes, I'm sure. I have to save the person trapped in her mind. If we can do so, it'll assist in the future, I promise," I said, the others nodding as I then put the Psycho Portal on her head and looked at the circus family members.

"Raz, I'm going to try something different this time. For this instance, it'll be me and your siblings. I'll go back in your mind when I finish business," I said with seriousness.

"Uh, okay? I don't know what's going on... but it seems like fun to have circus performers in my play," Gloria said as me and the circus trio went into Gloria's mind. And when I did, I smiled at how I got exactly what I wanted, that being my mother and my little sister joined me in the mind, which is when we got to see the woman that I'd befriended for only a year after the years of high school abuse.

"Ugh! What are you doing in here?" asked the vocie of Jenna, her approaching from the side with a headset on her head and a big clipboard in hand.

"Uh, nothing?" Mirtala asked, cuing the laugh track to be played... or not, as I saw that the figments of the audience were replaced by real audience members. Sure, most of them looked like Gloria NFTs (copied and replicated with slight alterations), but they were still an audience. An audience that laughed at Mirtala's joke. But Susan? She hugged me on my body tightly, me smirking and stroking her on the back, as she was just the same height as I was.

"Ugh, even a kid can see that this production isn't happening... ugh, listen, I need help. Like, a lot of help! But I don't deserve it, as you know," Jenna frowned as the critic spoke, me seeing that it was actually in the form of an adult Gloria, not Jasper.

"You can say that again! Encore! Best act I've seen in decades! HA! HA! HA!" the nasty adult version of Gloria laughed in sarcasm as Jenna growled at him and stomped her foot.

"Just ignore Assper. She's just a critic. A critic who's 100 percent right, but we can't focus like this!" Jenna groaned as I looked at her and held my hand out.

"I'll be willing to help, since you knew when too much was too much, unlike the one who's hurting this asylum," I said, her sighing and simply touching my hand with one finger, it having a candle in it.

"Listen, there's a phantom that roams the catwalks whenever Gloria's inner light, Bonita, performs on the stage. I'm going to ask you to go and ask Bonita to perform, but tell her that you will provide more light for her," she said, me nodding at that.

"Mirtala, you know how to use Pyrokinesis, right?" I asked, her nodding at me.

"Yeah, that's what I learned is my specialty," she smirked, me handing her the candle and pointing up to the spotlight. "Put that candle in that spotlight and light it. In the meantime, I'll go to the catwalks while the others go talk to Bonita to convince her to go on stage. I'm going to catch that phantom before he does anything he might regret," I said, them nodding as we then dispersed, me going to the catwalks and proceeding to move around, seeing the shadow of the phantom appear shortly after the spotlight emerged on the stage as well as the set arriving.

I would tell you what the kids were saying in their roles, but in the sake of good taste, I'm not going to bother, as it was just showing Gloria's past, which I knew everything about. And when I saw the phantom appear near the stage lights, I turned invisible and flew very close to him, seeing he was trying to loosen the screws on the light. I then proceeded to use my strength in mental mastery to lift him off the catwalks and simply hang above the stage while flapping his whole body to try and break free from the mental hand.

"ACK! Let me go! I'm warning you! I know kung-fu!" the voice shouted, me smirking at it. It was not only very familiar, but made me now know that Boyd and the Lungfish weren't the only ones harmed by the queen bitch.

"Let's see who this phantom really is!" I smirked as I removed the mask and cloak, revealing that it was half the darkness of Gloria's mind, and half Mitsy Skarlowey!

"Mitsy Skarlowey?!" mom gawked, but she did look at me with a smile. She was usually the quiet and shy type, even to me, but I still loved her. Her mind told me everything, and that she was grateful to see my face again.

"Well, this is a Scooby Doo moment if there ever was one," Frazie smirked widely. Yes, real world things existed in this one, what of it? I then looked at the audience with a smile. A big, wicked smile.

"Hey, audience? Maybe this pinata has candy in it! Why don't we hit it until candy falls out?" I asked, the audience immediately producing sticks and proceeding to smack the big pinata numerous times as Bonita came out and laughed at the sight before then letting out her light. And because the light was very amused, the darkness soon shrunk until it was only the size of my pinky. As in, not big at all.

"You can't hurt me anymore. I am now freed... freed from my horrible nightmare," Bonita smiled, me seeing she did look like a child version of Gloria, only with long, glowing sunlight hair. We then found the audience cheering wildly as all the collectibles joined in and proceeded to willingly get collected by me! And I do mean ALL of them! The baggage, the vaults, the figments, all coming to me because of how I helped out Bonita and Gloria! And as for Jenna, she looked at me with a smile.

"Hey, Bonita? Does this mean that I can leave, then?" Jenna asked, her smiling and nodding as I saw the darkness had completely vanished. Either that, or it was microscopic.

"Of course, Jenna. I thank you for trying your hardest to help... I am forever grateful for you and your friends," she said, me then leaving Gloria's mind and going right back into Raz's, but with Jenna joining in. And Gloria looked around and then at me.

"I... I feel so relieved... so enlightened! So... well, free! I can finally walk out of the spotlight and retire... I thank you, my friends. Here, take my trophy, as a symbol of your great deed," Gloria smiled as Jenna then projected herself from my mind and bowed politely.

"Thank you, Gloria... and you're welcome," she smirked.

"So you can have more than three people in one mind, huh? I wish I could be that tough, big brother!" Mirtala smirked widely at Raz.

"Nothing bad happened while you were in there, but it did waste about an hour. It's 10 at night now, so we need to hurry through the next part, and fast," Lili said, me nodding at her as we then grabbed the trophy and went to the next room, where we immediately saw the trio that were in the next room. And who were they? The tragedy of Fred Bonaparte, the creepy Crispin, and the quick-to-anger Edgar. We had to proceed cautiously, as we were now among the more dangerous members of the asylum residents.