This was exhausting. I had about two or three different visions for this chapter and I had to sit down and figure out how far down a rabbit hole I wanted to go with it. And then I sat for the better part of a week looking at a screen and trying to figure out a paragraph to link two ideas together without sounding disjointed. It also doesn't help that I've recently been distracted by One Piece fanfiction and found some really good stuff and want to go reread all of my Shonen Jump magazines and want to create some stories for myself. Yeah, um, don't count on seeing that because I have so much I want to accomplish and I am behind on all my other works. But anyway, onto what you've been waiting to read.


Sunflowers. Children's laughter. Fire. Children screaming.

I jumped up. I was sitting in the archive room. My bag was on the table and I had been laying on it. Why was it there? What was I doing sleeping at the table? And why was the water bottle sitting out?

I checked myself over. I was in one piece after my encounter with Ruvik.

I looked around and saw a page sitting out on the table. It was a page from Sebastian's journal.

JUNE 16, 2009

WE DROPPED OFF LILY FOR HER FIRST DAY AT PRESCHOOL THIS MORNING. SHE'S A BRAVE GIRL, SHE SEEMS LIKE SHE'LL BE FINE. MYRA, GOD BLESS HER, HAS HAD A TOUGH THREE YEARS. RAISING A BABY IS A FULL TIME JOB AND SHE'S FINALLY GOING TO GET THE BREAK SHE DESERVES . . .

BY BREAK, I MEAN COMING BACK TO THE KCPD MISSING PERSONS BUREAU. THE AMOUNT OF DISAPPEARANCES HERE SEEMS TO BE GROWING. IF WE DON'T GET TO THE BOTTOM OF IT SOON, THERE WON'T BE ANYONE LEFT TO INVESTIGATE – THEY'LL ALL BE MISSING.

I EXAGGERATE, OF COURSE, BUT THER'S SOMETHING GOING ON IN KRIMSON CITY THAT NEEDS TO BE STOPPED . . . AND MYRA WILL HELP SEE TO THAT. SHE'S DAMN GOOD AT HER JOB AND OBVIOUSLY HAPPY TO BE BACK IN HER ELEMENT . . .

I tucked the document away in the correct folder.

Was it Sebastian who put me back here like this? I didn't think he would; he would try to wake me up. The nurse, maybe?

I opened my bag and started organizing everything. I took out the keys and put them on the table. Sebastian could come get them and open the lockers. I held up the map fragments to the map and they snapped into place. I didn't disappear from the safe haven though. My match stock was fine, so that was one less thing for me to worry about.

I picked up the water bottle to put it back in my bag. It was heavy and cold. Someone had refilled it. I unscrewed the lid and sniffed. There was water in it. I took a careful sip. It was plain spring water from what I could taste, unless someone had spiked it with something completely odorless and tasteless – and I could tell spring water from purified water by taste and smell alone, so I was sure I would be able to taste something that didn't belong. I put the water bottle back in my bag and shouldered it.

I walked out to the reception. The nurse wasn't there, but I could hear her and Sebastian talking in the cells. Also, the gramophone was playing in the corner: "Clair de Lune." I went over and signed the log. After I did, the nurse walked into the reception area and Sebastian followed after her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, you?" I asked.

"Yeah." He looked around reception. He frowned and looked over where the missing person posters were normally. "Was that portrait always there?"

I looked above the bulletin board and saw a family portrait had been added. Sebastian and I walked over to take a closer look. The man, the father, stood at the back. He looked older and had fair hair and beard and was wearing a nice suit. Sitting in front of him was the mother. She was wearing a black dress and her black hair was pinned back in a bun. On the right side was a teenage girl with long black hair and wearing a red dress. The upper part of her face was blacked out, like someone had taken a paintbrush and painted over it quickly. On the left was a boy in a suit. He had white hair, but no face. It looked like his face had been cut from the canvas, leaving a hole behind. Bugs started crawling out of the hole and ran all over the wall.

"Memories are vague things indeed," said the nurse. She walked over so she could look at the portrait with us. "It can be easy at times for memories to be distorted by others. That is why they must be cherished . . ."

I looked at the empty hole in the portrait.

Ruvik's twisted face appeared.

Something screamed and the room warped, everything turning shades of gray. Sebastian and I looked around for any danger. Soon room returned to normal.

No, it wasn't normal. The walls were different with wood paneling and different paintings now mounted. An eye looking down on a mansion, a safe wrapped in barbed wire on a table next to some flowers, a skull, books, and candlestick nub, a body torn apart, and a barn set in the middle of a sunflower field. I looked around at the blank wall by the now silent gramophone and saw three sunflowers painted directly on the wall, dark paint around it and dripping like rain.

The nurse was sitting behind the desk and was quietly reading the paperwork in front of her. Sitting on the end of the desk was a newspaper. I picked it up and read it. I felt Sebastian looking over my shoulder as I did.

ESTATE FIRE CLAIMS CHILDREN.

DAUGHTER BADLY WOUNDED.

WHERE WERE THE PARENTS?

CHILDREN PLAYING IN BARN ON VICTORIANO ESTATE BURNED IN FIRE. DAUGHTER, 17, LEFT IN VEGETATIVE STATE. SOURCE OF FIRE UNDETERMINED.

"They only mention the daughter," I pointed out.

"Élan," Sebastian drawled uneasily, "she looks like you."

There was a picture of Laura Victoriano under the headline. She was in her signature red dress with her hair down.

A pulse came into the room from the cellblock. Sebastian and I looked at each other. He peered into the cellblock, taking slow steps. I put the newspaper in my bag and followed Sebastian. The mirror at the end of the hallway was glowing brightly. The pulses were coming from it.

The cellblock disappeared and we were on a narrow trail in a forest, steep embankments on either side. We kept walking. Sebastian had his hand on his pistol, ready to draw and shoot.

A single sunflower grew in the middle of the trail.

"No, no . . . Not that way . . . No . . ." someone muttered.

Ruvik appeared, walking up to us and passing straight through the sunflower. A single pulse of red came off him and our surroundings changed again. Ruvik was gone and we were still standing in a forest, the trail now much wider. We looked behind us and saw our way back was blocked off by a makeshift wall going across the trail.

"Come on," said Sebastian.

We stayed on the trail. We didn't get far before Sebastian noticed something off to the side. He picked it up.

"Map fragment," he said, handing it to me.

I put it in my bag.

We continued on the trail until we reached a large iron gate. On the other side was an imposing mansion.

"Whoa," I breathed.

"Wait, I've seen that house somewhere," said Sebastian. "But I've never been here before."

He opened the gates.

"Someone had some decent taste," I said, looking at the statue in the center of the drive around.

"Yeah, if you like horror," muttered Sebastian.

"Hey, I've seen some mansions, estates, whatever you wanna call them that look like complete crap compared to the price tag. If I pay big money for something, I want something that looks nice and cohesive, not some gauche, 'modern pop' style that'll be dated by the next year."

"Gauche?" repeated Sebastian, surprise coloring his voice.

"Yeah, I'm probably not using the word right, but it got my point across." I noticed something move in one on of the windows. "Huh?"

"What?" asked Sebastian, looking at the house. "Hey!"

I noticed Sebastian wasn't looking at the window, but at the front door. Two people in white were entering the mansion. Jimenez and Leslie! Jimenez had found Leslie somehow.

"How did they get here?" Sebastian asked quietly. He ran across the driveway.

I started to follow, but felt my watch vibrate. I looked down and saw the compass needle pointing at a dead tree in the garden. I looked back to see Sebastian running inside. I turned back to the tree. If there was a collectable in it, I needed to get it.

I ran over and started looking for it. Caught in the branches was a statue. I took out my slingshot and knocked the statue down. It shattered and I grabbed the key. I ran back to the door to catch up with Sebastian.

The front door had closed behind him. I pushed the door open. Sebastian was standing in the foyer.

The house was in disrepair, having been abandoned for years. There was dirt and dust on the floor, the carpet rotted, and the place smelled musty. The dark wood paneling gave the house a heavy, claustrophobic feel that added to the creepiness. The dual staircase led to an upper landing and balcony. Underneath the balcony was a set of thick metal doors with a relief of a brain and three syringes stuck in it. Pipes led from the syringes to other parts of the mansion. Sebastian was staring at it.

"Jimenez and Leslie went through that door," said Sebastian, turning to me. "We got to find a way to get it open."

"Okay, we -."

Sebastian's expression turned terrified. "Élan!" He reached out to me.

The floor moved under my feet and I fell forward. I ended up on my knees.

"What the?"

The smell of the mansion changed. It smelled clean, not sterile, but clean as in things had been dusted and washed. I looked up. The entrance hall was clean, the carpet no longer rotted, and the lights were all turned on. And Sebastian was gone.

"Aw, great," I muttered. I stood up.

"Clair de Lune" began playing from a nearby room. I followed the music to a room next to the metal doors. I opened it to find a powder room. The mirror was glowing and there was a newspaper article on the edge of the sink.

TRAGIC FIRE KILLS CHILD, NANNY IN KRIMSON CITY FEBRUARY 11, 2012.

DESPITE THE KCPD'S QUICK ARRIVAL AND BEST EFFORTS, A FAST-SPREADING HOUSE FIRE TOOK THE LIVES OF A YOUNG GIRL AND HER BABYSITTER YESTERDAY AFTERNOON IN THE PARK RIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD OF KRIMSON CITY.

LILY CASTELLANOS, AGE 5, AND HER BABYSITTER, JUANITA FLORES, 56, WERE UNABLE TO ESCAPE THE SMOKE AND FLAMES THAT QUICKLY CONSUMED THE SINGLE-FAMILY HOME. LILY'S PARENTS, BOTH DETECTIVES FOR THE KCPD, RUSHED TO THE SCENE BUT WERE TOO LATE TO SAVE THEIR DAUGHTER FROM THE FLAMES.

THE BLAZE WAS FINALLY DEFEATED BY FIREFIGHTERS AFTER SEVERAL HOURS, BUT THE HOUSE WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED. THE CAUSE OF THE FIRE IS UNDER INVESTIGATION, BUT INITIAL FINDINGS POINT TO FAULTY ELECTRICAL WIRING [CONTINUED ON PAGE 8, FIRE].

The mirror's glowing stopped, so did the music. That was weird. I looked closely at it, seeing if I could force it to pull me into the safe haven. No luck.

I heard the tinkling of silverware on dinner plates. I walked out of the powder room and tried to locate the sound. It was coming from the room next to me, the door under the stairs. I opened it a crack. It was a dining room with four people sitting at it, the same four people from the portrait. Their forms were ghostly, but not the white misty forms from memories playing out. They were colored, Laura's red dress and black hair especially saturated. They were eating dinner.

"Ruben, stop playing with your food," scolded the man at the head of the table.

The boy, Ruben, looked up at his father. From the position of his knife and fork, he was trying to carefully dissect the piece of meat in front of him instead of simply cutting a bite sized piece off. He looked like he was about to say something, but looked down abashed at his plate. From across the table, Laura managed to get Ruben's attention and made a funny face. He smiled.

The ghosts faded along with the dishes, leaving an empty table.

"What?"

I didn't remember this from the game. There were memories of Ruvik that could be uncovered, but nothing like this. And the house was never repaired in the game either. What was going on?

I found a note on the dining table.

I'VE FINALLY COME TO RECOGNIZE THE WAY, THE PORTAL TO A NEW WORLD. THE DETAILS ARE ALL THERE, HAVE BEEN RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY NOSE. I'M APPALLED AND INCENSED THAT I DID NOT SEE THEM SOONER. THE SPECIFIC PROCESS TO BREAK DOWN A HUMAN'S PSYCHE, TO OBLITERATE IT AND GIVE MYSELF FREE REIN, IS SO OBVIOUS. AND NOW THAT I SEE IT, NOW THAT WHAT I HAVE TO DO IS IN FRONT OF ME, I FEEL AS IF THERE IS NOTHING ELSE I CAN DO. I CAN HAVE EVERYTHING I SOUGHT, EVERYTHING I'VE LOST. BUT I NEED RESOURCES. JIMENEZ. THAT CRETIN WILL FINALLY BEGIN TO EARN HIS KEEP.

Another door opened. I peered down the hallway and saw the form of Ruben running down the hall. I chased after him. The hallway led into the kitchen, which would make sense in a house like this. There was an open door to my left. I went inside and saw several sets of metal shelves. I walked around them to see a head mounted to a table. A portion of the skull had been removed and there were orbitoclasts sticking out of the brain. A bright work lamp illuminated the brain and the other objects on the table. One of the objects was a robotic arm with an orbitoclast. The robotic arm came to life and started moving over the brain. An audio tape began playing.

"Subject Number 58, Test 92A," said Ruvik clinically.

"No! Let me go now!" a woman yelled.

"Electrode placement in M-33 pain region, ineffective," Ruvik continued. "Anticipate greater results with stimulation of section F-7, the 'consent' region of the neocortex."

"No! Help me! Let me go!"

"Subject imprint only partially successful. Individual personality traits linger."

The tape ended.

The robotic arm remained hovering over the brain. Did I have to place the orbitoclast? I checked the machine, finding a joystick and a paper of the brain sectioned out. Ruvik said F-7, right? I found it on the paper and then looked at the brain. I saw a tiny hole already there. I maneuvered the arm over and lined it up with the hole. There was a button next to the joystick. I pressed it and the orbitoclast was inserted.

There was beeping coming from behind the head. A machine of some sort was against the wall. A chamber holding a red liquid – blood, perhaps – was draining. Above the machine was a pipe. It must have been draining out into the pipe.

"Is this . . ."

I spun around at the sound of Jimenez's voice. The white misty forms of Jimenez and young Ruben were standing by the shelves.

"What did you call it?" Jimenez asked Ruben. "Your 'inner sanctum'? A research lab of your own? I am most impressed."

"Why are you back?" Ruben asked, perplexed. "I didn't give you permission."

"Come now, we are both men of science," said Jimenez. "Men of science are dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. You can show me your experiments. I can show you things."

"You wouldn't like them," Ruben said. "You'd think they're gross."

"In science one must do any number of things a lay person may find 'disgusting'," said Jimenez. "I've done many things others would consider . . . distasteful."

"You think I'm some kind of monster," said Ruben.

"You concern yourself so much with your appearance, but that mind of yours." Jimenez knelt down to Ruben's level, tapping at his head. "That's all that matters."

The ghosts disappeared.

I clenched my fists. How old was Ruben then? He was just a kid, a bright kid, but Jimenez was already putting him on the path to what he would become. Ugh, I just wanted to punch him! Honestly, I would settle for smashing something right now. I looked for a jar or something I could break. What I found on the top shelf however was a statue. That would do. I smashed it on the floor and picked up the key inside. That took care of my aggression for the moment.

Scuffling alerted to me to something outside the room. I saw nothing in the kitchen, but there was something in the hallway. I walked out and heard giggling. Running down the hallway back into the dining room was Ruben. I chased after him. I cut back through the dining room and into the foyer. I heard footsteps above me on the left staircase. I rushed out and looked up to see Ruben just as he vanished half way up. I followed after him, going up the left staircase. At the top I could go to the double doors between the two staircases or to the left where there was a door.

A child giggled. The ghostly form of Ruben ran through the door. I kept following him. I opened the door slowly. It was a library.

"Oh, wow," I whispered, looking at the different floors of books and dark wood paneling.

There was more giggling, but there were two separate giggles. I looked up on the second level of books and saw Laura and Ruben sitting against one of the bookcases. Laura had a book in her lap and was reading to Ruben while he was curled up against her side.

"That was really smart of Jack, wasn't it?" Laura asked Ruben.

"Or the giant was really stupid," Ruben giggled in response.

There were heavy footsteps behind me. The siblings also heard it because they looked up behind me. I turned around and saw their father coming out of the hallway off the library. He stared at them with a stern expression while Ruben drew back a little, but Laura put her hand on his knee. Then they were gone.

I climbed up the ladder to the second level and walked over to where they had been sitting. There was a book on the floor: Jack the Giant Slayer. There was also a painting on the wall, or half of one. The upper half of the canvas showed eleven people in black robes with white sacks over their heads. Some of them were holding poles with the eye-like cross. There was also the top half of a guillotine, the blade in the raised position. Under the frame was a combination dial. I needed this. I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

I climbed back down the ladder.

A door slammed from down the hallway their father had come from. I walked over and listened for any more noise. I could hear crying. I slowly opened the door. There was a desk against a wall and I saw Ruben sitting at it. He wiped at his eyes before disappearing. I walked into the bedroom. Was this Ruben's bedroom? I went over to the desk to see what he had been working on. There was a note on the surface.

I SAW HER THERE AGAIN, STANDING AT THE END OF THE HALLWAY. LONG BLACK HAIR, BEAUTIFUL AS EVER, STREAKED WITH MOONLIGHT, EYES DARK POOLS IN HER PORCELAIN FACE. SHE WORE HER FAVORITE RED DRESS, LIKE A CRIMSON SUNSET. LIKE A STREAK OF BLOOD IN THE WANING LIGHT. LAURA, OF COURSE, YOU COULDN'T BE DEAD.

"If science hadn't worked out for you, you could have been a poet," I muttered.

Laura and Ruben had a close relationship, but this was bordering on creepy. But this was written after the fire; Ruben's mind had cracked by this point.

I turned around and saw another doorway in the room. I thought it went back to a bathroom, but it went into another bedroom. This one didn't have a desk inside, but decorative privacy screens. Was this Laura's room? They were adjoining? Or maybe this was how Ruvik envisioned this house to be?

The door to the hallway opened.

"Laura, we need to leave for church," the mother said, coming in. She was dressed up in a black dress, much like the one in the Victoriano portrait. She was staring right at me.

Could she see me?

"I'm almost ready."

Laura's voice came from behind me and I spun around. She was finishing brushing her long hair.

"Beatriz, Laura, time to go," the patriarch said, appearing in the doorway. He adjusted his tie and looked at Laura. "You are wearing red." It was clear he disapproved of her dress choice.

"She looks lovely in the color, Ernesto," said Beatriz. "Besides, if she changes now, we will be late."

"Pastor Graciano may have a few words about it. Speaking of being late, where is Ruben?" Ernesto asked.

"Right here, Father." Ruben stood behind his father, dressed in a suit.

"There you are," said Ernesto. "Time to go."

They walked out of the door and vanished, leaving me by myself again.

I checked around the room. There had been a tan dress put out on the bed. I had a feeling that was the dress Ernesto wanted her to wear.

I left the room and continued around the corner of the hallway. There was a door at the other end, to the left, a couple steps and pillars leading up to sitting area. I made my way to door.

I could smell perfume. I stopped and looked to my right. There was another door open. I carefully peered around to see what was in the room. It was a bathroom. The perfume wasn't air freshener; air fresheners didn't smell like cedarwood, cinnamon bark, lavender, rose, frankincense, and myrrh. Actually, it smelled like the perfume I used when I was awake. Why was I smelling in a bathroom?

I went in, walked passed the toilet, and saw the bathtub. It was full of water. Laying on the edge was a map fragment. I quick picked it up so it didn't get wet and shoved it into my bag.

The bathtub had sprigs of lavender and rose petals floating in the steaming water. The perfume seemed to be poured into the bathwater as the smell was the strongest there. Weird.

I turned around. There was someone dressed as an orderly directly in front of me. I was shoved and fell into the tub, my head hitting the edge. I went under, bitter water filling my mouth. I pushed myself up and coughed over the side. I gasped, getting my airways cleared. I looked up and saw there was no one in the bathroom.

"What the -." I wheezed and coughed. "Hell?"

I got out of the tub, water dripping everywhere. I checked my bag. Luckily everything was dry on the inside. I put it on the floor and took my hat off to wring it out. I then took off my hoodie and did the same, picking off the petals and sprigs from it. Underneath I had a gray tank top and peeking up from the low scoop collar was a strip of red from hem from my sports bra. I wrung out my tank top, too, leaving me standing in a gray with red trim sports bra.

"That sucked," I muttered. I ran my hand through my hair, slicking it back. I had a bump on the back of my head. I sniffed my arm. The perfume was all over me. Anything with a nose could find me. "Now what was that all about?"

I put my tank top back on, the thin fabric already drying. I put my hoodie back on, leaving it unzipped for now. I squeezed the water out of my pants the best I could without taking them off and hoped that I wouldn't track too much water with me. I shouldered my bag and left the bathroom.

I got back on track, walking to the end of the hall where the door was. I noticed the hallway continued with a sharp right, but for now I wanted to see what was on the other side of this door. I slowly opened it and looked inside. It was another bedroom, but from the looks of it, it was the parents' bedroom. I went in and closed the door behind me. I looked around. Sitting behind the door was a vanity table and amongst the items was a statue. I grabbed it and broke it on the floor. I tucked the key away. There was a fireplace against one wall, but there was nothing in it. Instead, the back extended and went around the corner. Clearly it was a passage of some sort.

I realized that I hadn't been checking drawers and cabinets recently and that I probably should be. I opened up the dressers to find clothes and personal items. There wasn't anything that I could use. I turned my attention to the passage way. I got on my hands and knees and crawled back around the corner. There were many spider webs and I swiped my hand through them to knock them down so they wouldn't get stuck to my face. There was a fire screen at the end that I easily pushed over. I was in a secret study. This wasn't like Ruben's room off the kitchen. This place had the dark wood paneling and brocade wallpaper of the house. Sitting on a desk was another setup of a head with the brain exposed. The head was turned to the side so the profile was revealed. I stepped up to the head.

The recording started playing.

"Subject Number 12, Test 71B, Electrode Placement A-2. Stimulation of the amygdalae, seat of emotion and memory allocations, the fear center of the brain."

The head moaned and the eye blinked. There were screams on the recording.

"Subject feels as I do. But this vessel is far too weak to withstand the psychological weight I myself bear daily."

The recording stopped.

Like the previous brain puzzle, there was a diagram of the brain. I located the spot to put the orbitoclast in and directed the mechanical arm. I pressed the button and inserted it. And like before, the machine behind the head drained of red liquid.

I turned and crawled back through the passage.

"Oh, father," I heard Ruvik say. I froze for a moment before looking around the corner of the passage. Against the foot of the bed were two misty figures laying and a bandaged, older Ruben standing above them with a knife in his hand. He sounded giddy. "If only you knew how satisfying that look on your face is. Did you actually think if you locked me away I would just cease to exist? 'Out of sight, out of mind?' You did . . . You did, didn't you. Well you were never out of my mind. I hope you're proud of yourselves."

The ghostly figures vanished.

That's right, Ruvik's father had locked him away after the fire, ashamed of what his son looked like. Appearances had been everything for Ernesto Victoriano.

I stepped out of the room and heard child Ruben giggling. He was at the other end of the unexplored hallway. He turned the corner and disappeared. I chased after him. The hallway twisted and turned before ending at a door. I opened it to find another room. It looked like a sitting room. There were decorative panels set up to section off parts of the room. A table and two chairs were set by the one wall. There was also a cabinet with some jars and a wardrobe. Maybe the room doubled as a guest room.

I noticed tape recorder on the table. I pressed the play button.

"Maximum frequency stimulation of critical regions has proven less than effective," Ruvik reported. "The subjects scream and scream but they die much too quickly. Tailored settings achieve better results. The only question that remains is which regions to focus on. Fear, hope, consent, trust, envy . . . Three of these are pivotal, but which will open the way?"

The tape ended.

Fear, hope, consent, trust, and envy. Ruvik had tried fear in the previous experiment and consent in the first. So the third experiment would be the final one. But would it open the way? And by way, did he mean the way to link minds to STEM?

Another door creaked open. I whipped around and shifted my weight, ready to run. When nothing happened, I went through the door. I was back at the foyer, but on the opposite side.

The double doors between the stairs opened slowly.

"What are you reading?" I heard Laura say from inside the room.

"You wouldn't like it," young Ruben said. "You'll think it's gross."

"Let me see," Laura encouraged.

I went to the doors expecting to see the ghostly apparitions of Laura and Ruben, but there was no one there. I walked into the room and the doors slammed behind me. I turned around and tried the handle, but it was locked.

"Crap!" I hissed.

I whipped around. It was an art room. I started making my way around the room, searching for a way out. There were large decorative urns, paintings that I saw in the safe haven last time, and two large statues, both women. The first was the goddess with her face hidden in her hand and the other one was a more classical looking piece in a draped dress that slid off one breast. A large family portrait was on the back wall. Ruben's face was intact, but his parents and sister's faces had been slashed across the eyes. There was also a bench that people could sit and look at the different works of art. There was a lot of light in the room. I looked up at the ceiling to see what the fixtures were, but instead it was a large sky light. And was that something tucked in the corner of the ceiling?

I squinted at the object. It looked like a statue. It was a great place for it; easy to miss. I took out my slingshot and searched for something to shoot at it. I couldn't find anything.

"Okay, think of something else," I muttered.

I looked around the room. There wasn't anything I could throw. But I had something I could throw! I switched my slingshot for my water bottle. It had been refilled and had plenty of weight to it. I gripped it by the neck and gave it a couple underhanded test swings, lining it up. I drew back and swung up as hard as I could. It wasn't a perfect shot as it hit the corner of the ceiling, but it dislodged the statue. Both items fell to the ground loudly. I picked up the key from the shattered statue remains and put it and the water bottle in my bag.

I heard scratching, like pencil on paper. I turned to the bench where the sound was coming from and saw Ruben sitting on the bench. He had a book open next to him and a sketchbook in his lap. The book was an anatomy book and open to a page about the brain. Ruben was copying the illustration.

Laura suddenly appeared and was leaning over to see it. Ruben quickly covered it up, flipping the book closed.

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"You wouldn't like it," said Ruben. "You'll think it's gross."

"Come on, let me see," said Laura, sitting beside him.

Ruben hesitated for a moment. He then uncovered the drawing.

"A brain?" asked Laura.

"I'm trying to copy it as detailed as possible," Ruben told her, opening the book to show her what he was copying from.

"That's really good," said Laura.

"Thanks," said Ruben.

"So why a brain?" Laura asked.

"Because it interests me," Ruben replied. "It controls everything in the body. Without it, you wouldn't be alive."

"You could say the same about the heart and lungs," said Laura.

"But hearts and lungs can be transplanted," said Ruben. "But who has ever transplanted a brain into another body?"

"Outside of fiction, no one, I think," said Laura. "Do you want to transplant a brain when you grow up?"

Ruben thought for a moment. "The brain is an amazing organ. I want to learn all about it."

They disappeared.

"Okay, now how do I get out of here?" I muttered, checking for anything I may have missed.

I found it in the form of a half a painting. It was only the lower half. A pale woman was wailing in front of a guillotine. Strapped in the guillotine was a lady in a red dress. Underneath the painting was another combination dial. I picked it up and stowed it in my bag with the other one. I looked back at the painting. The lady in the red was clearly Laura, but who was the pale woman? It wasn't Beatriz; she wasn't blonde. Maybe it was Ruvik in female form?

A lock clicked. I checked the door and found it was unlocked. I left the room. Below me, music was faintly playing – a piano. I went down the stairs. Under the right flight of stairs was a door I hadn't explored yet. I pushed it open.

The music grew louder.

A couple steps led into the room with its white pillars and grand fireplace. There were chairs set up that could either look at the fireplace or at the portraits on the walls. The music funneled from a hallway to the left. After walking down the hallway, I found the music room. Child Ruben was sitting at the piano, playing. He finished the piece and looked behind him, right at me. He jumped off the bench and ran around to a portrait in the corner. He touched the frame and vanished.

I walked over to the portrait he had gone to. It didn't seem to be anything special, just a woman in a black dress with white lace trim. Against the wall below it was a note.

TWO WORLDS, SEPARATED BY A JAGGED CHASM.

ABOVE, FACELESS SPECTATORS MOCKING THE TRAGEDY.

BELOW, HELPLESS VICTIMS LOSING EVERYTHING.

I smiled, shoving the note into my bag. I took the portrait frame and wiggled it left and right. It swung off the wall on a hinge. Behind it was a safe with two missing dials. I took out the dials I found and put the larger one on top and the smaller one on the bottom.

"Above, faceless spectators," I muttered.

That would be the eleven masked people from the half painting in the library. I turned the dial to 11.

"Below, helpless victims," I continued, turning the dial to 2.

There was a loud click. The wall swung open to reveal a narrow passage. I pushed the painting out of my way and walked back to find another brain puzzle. This one was cut directly in half, revealing a cross section of the entire head.

I stepped up to complete the puzzle.

The recording began.

"Subject Number 14, Test 88C; limbic priming, attempt three. Electrode Placement C-4: stimulation of cingulate cortex, the hope center."

The eye in the head flicked around and it moaned, the mouth and tongue flexing slightly.

"Assailing the hope axis improves domination of the subject's will but . . . domination is not enough."

"Hope center," I said under my breath, looking at the diagram and trying to ignore the face the half face was watching me. "Okay, it should be up here."

I used the mechanical arm to place the orbitoclast. The face cringed as the point slid into the brain. Behind it, the machine began pumping its contents into the pipe.

I turned and walked back into the music room. The misty form of the older, bandaged Ruben was playing "Clair de Lune". Jimenez walked in.

"The hospital has not received the family's usual donation this year," Jimenez began without preamble.

"And why would they?" asked Ruben, not pausing in his playing. "Has the hospital been doing anything worthy of donation?"

"The Victoriano family has always been a generous contributor," Jimenez said with a tone of annoyance.

I closed my eyes and listened to Ruben continue to play.

"Where are your parents?" asked Jimenez.

"They have gone away," Ruben said simply.

"When do you expect them?" Jimenez asked.

Ruben slammed both hands on the piano keys. I jumped, snapping out of my stupor. I watched the scene continue.

"Is there something you wish to discuss, doctor?" Ruben asked evenly. He looked over his shoulder at Jimenez.

"I came to inform you that the hospital will no longer be able to provide you with assistance . . . materials," Jimenez said regretfully. His tone then changed to almost a taunt. "Your research will very quickly deteriorate."

The "unless you do as I say" was left hanging in the air.

"How dare you come into my home and threaten me," Ruben said darkly.

They disappeared.

I ran back to the foyer. When I reached it, the heavy metal doors between the stairs swung open, revealing a long hallway.

Footsteps ran up behind me. Something smacked me on the back.

"Tag! You're it!" Young Ruben ran by me and through the doors.

I was shocked. He touched me?

Young Ruben stopped partway down the hallway and looked at me, giggling. "Come on!"

I took a step forward.

Someone grabbed my arm! I spun around. It was the orderly. He was looking down at me blankly. I jerked my arm, but he wouldn't let go.

"Don't go," the orderly rasped.

Everything turned blue. The orderly choked and his throat split open, blooding running down his front. He let go of my arm and slumped to the floor. Behind him was Ruvik slowly walking towards me.

I took a step back and turned and ran through the doors and following young Ruben. The doors slammed behind me. I turned and saw Ruvik wasn't following me. I let out a sigh of relief. I turned to continue forward. Ruvik was directly in front of me. He raised his hand.

I was now standing in a study. The white ghostly form of young Ruben was sitting at a desk with his back to me. A creepy mannequin was in a corner, watching him.

"Slice clean . . ." Ruben was saying to himself. "All the way . . . No cure for what I'm going to do to you . . . Peel the pristine skin . . . thoughts from the minds . . ."

I stepped forward and young Ruben disappeared in swarm of red bugs. On the table was a pig's head.

"Oh, ew," I muttered, scrunching my nose.

The bug swarm flew out the doorway on the right side of the room and down a flight of steps. I followed it. It led down another hallway lined with candle sconces. There was a picture of Laura in her red dress on the wall where I had to turn. A little farther and I went up another flight of steps. I continued on until I got to a door. I pushed it open and found I was back at the same room again. This time, young Ruben was looking at me. The red bugs swarmed around the room, more being added. I threw my hands up around my head to keep the bugs away from my face. They formed a featureless giant.

I looked around for a place to run. The doorway was to the right again and I turned down it. The walls were tiled in white and the door was much closer. I opened it to see the room again. It stretched and warped, wires snapping and crossing the room. Above spikes formed and I could hear gears creaking, trying to hold up the ceiling.

I scanned the crisscrossing wires. I had to find a way through them and one wrong move and the ceiling would come crashing down on me. I pulled my bag to my front so I could keep better track of it. I slipped under the first wire and crawled to the opposite wall to get to the next gap. After zigzagging around the wires, I stood up and ran to the next room.

A mannequin blocked my path. Everything warped again and I was standing in a large room with giant mannequin parts, mostly heads, a single straight path my only way across. The mannequin was now waiting on the other side, its hand on its hip. I started running, not knowing what was behind me. The mannequin fell apart when I reached it and I stepped over the pieces.

Cell wall panels started to fall around me, cutting me off from going forward. I looked around and saw a panel hadn't blocked things on the left. I went around it. More panels fell and I was forced to zigzag like I had in the previous room, but a panel fell in my path. It had a padlock on it. I didn't have anything to break it with. I grabbed at the padlock and pulled at it. It seemed weak. I gave it a hard kick. The padlock broke and the panel snapped back up to the ceiling.

There was buzzing behind me. I glanced back and saw the red bug swarm flying through the bars at me.

"Shit!"

I ran, thinking I was okay. There was a loud beeping and I saw a red light flashing. Bomb! I crouched under it. More panels fell and I had to turn and almost double back to where I came. I almost stepped in a bear trap and set off a second bomb. Another panel with a lock fell and it was as easy to break as the first. The last bit of the path led me next to a spinning drum of blades that were covered in dried blood. A squeezed between them and the solid wall before breaking a final lock.

I was back on the straight path lined with mannequin heads. I sprinted, remembering the swarm behind me. There was a loud creak and something slammed behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw the heads slamming together. The swarm was still coming and the heads continued to move. I ran faster as to not be crushed.

"You did this to us!" I heard a distorted voice scream.

There was a bright flash of light. When it cleared, I was staring at a blank wall. I turned around. I was back in the study for a third time. There was no one here this time. I went over to the desk to see what young Ruben had been doing. There was a pool of dried blood where the pig's head had been. And a map fragment. I put the map fragment in my bag and repositioned to back to my back. The doorway want to the right this time, but in the left corner. I walked down the hallway and came to a double metal door. I pushed it open.

A large field of sunflowers was before me and in the near distance was a barn. Several torches could be seen above the flowers carried by ghosts. They disappeared after a moment.

I stepped into the field and started making my way to the barn.

There was a key in the barn.

I don't know why I suddenly remembered that, but I did. It was one of those keys that was very easy to miss. Come to think of it, I hadn't been using my watch to find the collectables, I just been getting lucky to look up at the right times. I paused in the field and checked my watch. It wouldn't turn on. I took out my phone to check it. The screen remained black. Neither of them were working. Why? I couldn't think too much about it now. I knew there was a key nearby and just had to find it in the barn.

I walked up to the door and put my hand on it.

"Laura, where are you?" young Ruben's voice came from inside.

I pushed the door open.

The ghostly form of Ruben was wandering. Behind him, Laura was silently moving around to stay out of his field of vision. Ruben finally turned around and saw her. He ran to her and hugged her.

"Rich bastards, think they can buy up all our land," a man's voice said in my ear.

"They need to be shown who really owns these parts," another voice said.

Ruben and Laura played, jumping off from a ledge and onto a pile of feedbags. Laura turned around and held her arms out to Ruben for him to jump down. He jumped and landed on the bags without Laura's help. They laughed and chased each other around.

"Hey, I think there's kids in there," another voice said.

"Hmph. I didn't hear anything . . ."

I smelled the gasoline. And I wasn't the only one.

"What's that smell?" Ruben asked, walking over to a bale of hay.

The barn ignited, hay catching fire quickly because of the accelerant and the dryness. Ruben had been standing close by and his clothes caught fire, burning him severely.

Laura choked on the smoke. "Somebody! Open the door!" she screamed.

Ruben dropped to the floor.

Laura turned around and saw her burned brother. "Ruben!"

The scene flashed and now they were up at the loft window. The fire had spread quickly and the only thing not on fire was the stone floor.

"Ruben! You have to climb . . ." Laura was pushing him up to the window. The flames reached her long hair and her dress and she screamed. With a final push, Ruben tumbled out the window. Laura screamed and fell back off the loft and onto the stone floor.

The swarm of red bugs glided across the floor and reformed into the featureless giant. It picked up Laura and howled in anguish.

"You did this to us!" it screamed, looking at me. It sounded like a distortion of Ruben and Ruvik. It dropped to its knees and sobbed over Laura.

It was then I started coughing. The whole time I had been in here, I hadn't felt the heat or the smoke. Now I was. I had to get out of here. There was some sort of elevator grain cart above me, but I couldn't find the controls for it. I looked up at the window Ruben had escaped through.

"Well, if there was any time for my abilities . . ." I started to say.

I closed my eyes.

I want to be by the window. By the window. By the window.

I felt the hot air move around me. I opened my eyes and saw I was next to the window. The hay bales around me were on fire. Sticking out of the ashes was a tiny head. Statue.

I held out my hand. "To me!" I ordered.

The statue flew out of the pile and into my hand. I chucked it out the window before jumping out myself. I hit the ground and rolled. I stood up and felt my arms burning. I looked down and saw blisters forming and a scrape on my left elbow.

"Ow." I shook myself off.

Young Ruben was still on the ground. He lifted his head. I glanced around and saw the men responsible for the fire running into the sunflower field. He had seen them – Ruben had seen the ones who did this.

I found the statue not too far from me. It had shattered on impact with a rock and the key was laying in the dirt. I picked it up and looked back at Ruben.

"Ruben! Laura!" a man shouted. He was dressed as a servant. He ran up to Ruben and picked up the boy. He carried Ruben back through the field, presumably to the house.

The field and the burning barn disappeared and I was standing in a little room. It was cold, the floor concrete, the same with the walls. In the corner was a metal bedframe with a mattress. A single light hung in the middle of the room over a circular table, papers scattered across the top. There was only a wheelchair to sit in. One wall had brain and mechanical diagrams drawn on it in marker.

I saw this room before, I was sure of it. I took out my phone and went to the camera app. One of the most recent pictures was of this same room. This was the basement Ruvik was kept in after the fire.

A faint shout echoed, "Let me out! Father! Please! Mother, help me! Help me, Mother! Laura! Laura!"

That was child Ruben crying, fading away the more he called out. I winced, knowing that no one would come for him. I let out a sigh.

I went over to the door and tried it. Locked.

I went flying back, my legs hitting the bedframe and I flipped onto the mattress.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Ruvik stood over me. "That I would show you my memories and let you walk away?"

I tried to sit up, but was slammed back down by an invisible force. It rested on my chest and held me down.

"Yeah, should've known," I ground out. "So any particular reason you let me see all that?"

"You believe all you saw was real? How trusting," Ruvik said.

"Makes you envy then?" I grunted as I was pushed down harder.

"I will applaud Mobius for finding someone like you," he went on. "It took me years to find someone who was compatible."

I froze. That's the term Ruvik used for Leslie. "Compatible?" I hated that my voice shook there.

Ruvik smirked sadistically. "I believe you already know what that means." He reached down and stroked my cheek. "You look so much like her."

I knew he meant Laura. If he thought he was going to use me to bring back Laura, he was going to be sorely disappointed. Speaking of his sister . . .

"What happened to her, Ruvik?" I asked. "What happened to Laura?"

"You saw what happened. She died in the fire," he said icily.

"Did she?" I pressed. "I saw her burned, I saw her fall, but she fell on the stone floor, away from the flames. The fire already burnt up her hair and dress, she wasn't on fire anymore."

The force holding me down eased up.

"The fire killed her," Ruvik said again. "They killed her."

"The men who started it?" I asked.

"She died in the fire," Ruvik said again. He turned and moved over to the table.

There was something shaky in that normally level tone. I was playing with fire here.

"The paper said that children were playing in a barn when it caught fire and the daughter was left in a vegetative state," I said. "You believed she survived the fire. You never believed your father when he told you she was dead. So we're you in denial or was there something else?"

Ruvik didn't say anything or even move from where he stood by the table.

I was able to sit up now. I slowly got up from the bed and went to the table, keeping my distance from Ruvik. I looked down at the papers scattered on the surface. There was a death certificate for Laura amongst the papers. I noticed the date looked wrong.

"Ruvik," I said quietly. "The day of the fire . . . were sunflowers truly blooming?"

Ruvik turned to me and for a moment I wasn't seeing Ruvik the mad genius, I was seeing Ruben the shattered child. "She was so happy when Father told us he purchased the property. She adored sunflowers almost as much as her red dresses."

I felt like I was going to throw up. Ernesto Victoriano had locked his son away after the fire because of his burn scars. Was it really that much of a stretch for him to rather have a dead daughter than a vegetative one?

I step towards Ruvik and put my hand out to put on his shoulder. I touched the white fabric of his singed robe.

Sebastian spun around and pointed his gun in my face.

I jumped back. I was in the foyer of the derelict estate. The metals doors were open and beckoning us into the dark corridor.

I jumped back. I was in the foyer of the derelict estate. The metal doors were open and beckoning us into the dark corridor.

"Élan!" He pointed his gun away from me. "I almost fucking shot you again! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I hit my head earlier, but I'm okay," I said.

He let out a sigh of relief. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Ruvik showed up behind you and the next second you were both gone."

"He took me on a jaunt of childhood memories," I said.

"Same," said Sebastian. "Only mine had Haunted and traps. You look like you had a cakewalk and . . ." He sniffed at me. "Did you go swimming in perfume?"

"I got shoved into a bathtub," I replied.

"That is strong! Hopefully these Haunted have no sense of smell."

I heard "Clair de Lune" playing from the powder room again. "I found a bunch of keys. You want to go stock up?"

"Yeah," replied Sebastian. "Yeah, we should."

We walked into the powder room. The mirror was glowing and cracked. I felt myself being pulled in.

The reception hadn't changed from the last time we were here, but there was a new newspaper in the rack. I picked it up.

BODIES FOUND NEAR COUNTRYSIDE ESTATE.

IDENTIFICATION COULD TAKE WEEKS.

FOUR MUTILATED BODIES WERE FOUND JUST OUTSIDE OF VICTORIANO ESTATE. THE BODIES APPEARED TO HAVE HAD VARIOUS CRUDE SURGERIES PERFORMED ON THEM.

"Élan, check this out," said Sebastian. He was holding a missing person poster.

MISSING: RUBEN VICTORIANO.

BELOVED SON OF WEALTHY VICTORIANO FAMILY HAS NOT BEEN SEEN SINCE A FIRE AT THE FAMILY ESTATE.

The picture used was the one from the family portrait.

"That looks like Ruvik as a child," said Sebastian. "So the daughter from the newspaper was his sister."

I nodded.

Sebastian made a disgusted noise. "He turned her into that monster that chased us earlier."

"His guardian. Laura always looked out for him when he was a child. Her death was what broke an already fragile mind."

"Why are you defending him? He's a psychopath!" snapped Sebastian.

"Did you see what happened to him?" I asked, trying to keep my cool.

"And that excuses what he did?" yelled Sebastian.

"No. But it gives us insight. Doesn't it, Detective?" I took the keys I had from my bag and handed them to him. I walked out of reception and back to the archive room.

Look, I knew what Ruvik did was wrong and unforgivable. I wasn't excusing him for what he did to all those people. But if someone would have done right by him after the fire and not for their own selfishness and greed, things could have turned out a lot different for him.

I filed everything away and put the map pieces into place. Once again I didn't leave the safe haven when I did. Across the hall I could hear Sebastian opening lockers. I took a moment and got a drink of water.

"Hey," Sebastian said quietly. He was standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"Don't worry about it. I put my water bottle away. "It's not the first time someone got angry with me because of my observations. Got what you need?"

"Yeah. Here." He handed me some bullets. "Could you hang on to these for me? I get the feeling we're going to need them."

"Yeah." I put the bullets in my bag where either of us would be able to get to them easily.

We walked back and through the door by the sinks. The mirror glowed and cracked and we were pulled back through. We went back into the foyer and looked down the corridor.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready."

We started down the corridor. The doors closed behind us like they had with me. Hopefully I wouldn't have to go through the traps I had earlier and run from a swarm of bugs.

A door appeared at the far end of the corridor.

"Beatriz, please," we heard a man's voice plea. Ernesto.

Sebastian stopped and motioned to me to do the same.

"You must eat. You've got to keep your strength up."

"My children . . . I want . . ." Beatriz said hollowly.

"Beatriz, we've been through this," said Ernesto.

"Sometimes, I hear his voice," Beatriz said. "The basement . . . he sounds so close."

"There is nothing down there," Ernesto told her. "How can I be any more clear?"

"Then why is it locked shut?" asked Beatriz. "Why can't I go down there?"

The talking stopped.

We slowly went up to the door and pushed it opened. It was the master bedroom again, but different. There wasn't a fireplace here, but a bookcase with a secret door open ajar. With nowhere else go to, we went over to the bookcase and slipped through the narrow entrance. It closed behind us.


Thoughts? I was worried about my execution of the events surrounding Laura's death. I have to go over the in-game story before getting into the next chapter. The only thing I have a clear memory of is the carnival music that accompanies the death merry-go-round. Would it be wishful thinking that the next chapter won't be as long or take me as long? Probably with the way things have been going for me. Best thing to do follow this story and that way you'll get an alert when I put up a new chapter.