Nillium Neems (12 page)

I leapt up and caught the edge of it on the
second try, holding on though it put a sharp strain on my already
injured shoulder. Mousy rustled, jumped, latched onto my leg, and
climbed it up to the edge of the hand I dangled from. He then
grabbed one of the screws in his mouth and started to twist it.
They were only loosely attached.

In moments I had shoved the vent cover back
and crawled up and inside. It was a tight fit, but I managed,
starting to make my way forward. I wouldn’t be able to turn around,
which would prove a serious problem if I encountered anything, but
I figured most of them were too big to fit in the vent anyways.

With a grim smile on my face I crawled,
having no clue where I was headed, simply that it was away. I’m not
sure when, but I passed out at some point from the combination of
injury and exhaustion. Guess it was time for some much needed
sleep.

Physically I’m a mess, but at least I’m
still mobile.

Nil, Out (hopefully right out of this vent
to freedom)

Day 65

I woke up in pain, but once again, not
nearly as much as I should have been in. Glancing down at my hands,
I noticed that sure enough, they were mostly healed. Just like
before. All my injuries from yesterday’s beating felt like they
were weeks old. Whether Siegfried’s doing or someone else, I
neither cared nor bothered to wonder about. All that mattered was I
was healed and free to find and destroy the Director. That
monstrous being behind this Hell that was my life.

A quiet rustle echoed in the vent around me
and I noticed Mousy a little ways off, fast asleep. He’d crawled
over to the nearest turn in the vent to keep guard against any
incoming foes. Poor little guy probably tried to stay up all night!
It touched my heart and I thought about letting him sleep a while
longer. But we had to get going.

"Come on, Mousy," I said gently, nudging him
with a hand once I’d crawled over to him. His ever-blue eyes
cracked open and peered blearily up at me. He looked tired but got
to his feet, ready to continue.

Through the vents we went. Although
partially healed, my body still felt worn out. I had to stop
several times to rest, much more often than I would have liked.
Every now and then we would come across a grate that looked down
into a room below. I’d always stop to peer out of the grating,
hoping for some clue as to where we were and where we were
headed.

More than once I saw Monsters beneath,
shuffling about like zombies. It seemed the Director was using his
every resource to search for me, transforming every warden and
doctor in the building into just another mindless minion. Twice,
through grates that looked down into hallways, I caught a glimpse
of the Twisted Puppet.

He seemed to be a general of sorts,
marshalling his troops in their search. It was only a matter of
time until somebody thought to check the air vents. I tried
desperately to be silent, but I know I made noise sometimes. Maybe
they’d already heard me.

Knowing I couldn’t keep this up much longer,
and with no real clue where I was, I decided to drop into the next
empty room that I found. I needed to know where the Director’s
office was. Either by getting directions from a Monster somehow or
by finding a directory posted to the wall. Directory. For the
Director. Ha ha ha.

The next grate that I came to overlooked one
of the doctor’s offices. Deciding it was the best I’d get, I gently
shoved it outwards, holding onto it so it wouldn’t clatter to the
ground. Thankfully, it wasn’t even screwed in and just took a push
to knock it loose.

I sucked the grate into the vent, placing it
carefully beside me. I then dropped quietly to the floor below,
followed seconds later by Mousy. Padding over to the door on silent
feet, I locked it so that I'd have no unexpected intruders. Then I
turned to survey the room and see if there was anything that might
help us.

A nice desk, a swivel chair, and some weird
painting of clocks by a guy named Salvador Dali. That was about all
the room consisted of. I grinned as I read the medical degrees that
hung from the wall. The name said Lucius R. Higgins. I was in dear
Dr. H’s office...

I glanced once at the door, paranoid that a
Tormentor or Monster would sneak up on me even though it was
locked. Shaking my head to clear that ugly thought, I took a seat
in Higgins chair. It was tempting to log onto his computer first
thing, but there were also several desk drawers to investigate. And
even better, a fat file cabinet. I opened it.

Riffling through the carefully organized
files, I reached the section categorized by the letter 'N' and
found the file named Nillium Neems. I pulled out my own patient
file and spread it on the desk in front of me, Mousy leaping onto
my shoulder so he could read it too.

Name: Nillium Amelia Neems. I now knew my
middle name. Yay. Height: 5’ 1". Already knew that one. Weight: 113
pounds. Probably less by now. More physical details that were
already self-evident. Random details about my problems. Numerous,
but mainly dealing with hallucinations. The name of the doctor who
first admitted me, some dude named Dr. Ahriman. I didn’t remember
him, but I made a mental note to pay him a visit someday.

Then followed details about my parents, how
they disowned me and I was a ward of the state, my patient history,
various transfers to different facilities before Atrium. As I
continued reading, I frowned, and my frown only deepened. Mousy
rustled questioningly.

"I don’t remember this, Mousy..."

He rustled out another question mark.

"I’m serious, Mousy. I
don’t remember any of this. I don’t remember any Dr. Ahriman. I
don’t remember all of these places, these other mental wards that
are listed. I mean, I know I was disowned by my parents and have
spent my life growing up in the system. But... as I think about it,
I can’t recall any of the
details
. I can’t remember what my
parents looked like. I can’t remember these other wards. I can’t
remember
anything
!"

The last word I said nearly in a wail,
starting to get a bit freaked out. Was my memory that badly
damaged? Could I have lost everything like that? Mousy brought me
back to the here and now as he let out a rustle that was more like
a hiss than anything else.

He’d dragged a manila folder from one of the
desk drawers, and spread it out in front of me. The title said
‘Black List’. It contained several sheets of paper, each one filled
with names, patient numbers, and a date next to each patient. The
dates went back fifty-one years, whatever significance that might
hold.

I recognized a few of the patient names near
the end of the list, the ones dated most recently. None of them I
had known very well, but as I thought about it, I also hadn’t seen
any of them in a while. Starting around the time of the date listed
near each name. Mousy must have arrived at the same conclusion as
me, for he looked up at me with a deep, soulful gaze, full of
sorrow.

"This is a death list of some kind isn’t
it?"

He didn’t even have to rustle. We both knew
it was. I read the last few entries aloud. The most recent one was
for a Jeremy Steiner. That made me angry. Jeremy was a helpless
little guy, but gentle. He didn’t deserve to be killed or whatever
it was they had done to these patients.

Folding up the Black List, I grabbed some
tape from Dr. Higgins desk, and stuck the little paper on the
inside of my Snoopy Cap. Someone was going to answer for it. I also
grabbed a lighter that was sitting on his desk, taping it to on the
inside of my Cap as well. Surely it would come in handy sooner or
later.

Rising from the chair to leave, something
told me I hadn’t delved to the depths of the corruption quite yet.
I sat back down and continued riffling through paperwork.

I found several folders regarding something
called Atrium Pharmaceutical’s. They used a lot of technical terms,
but from what I could make out it was a new drug company. A company
closely connected with Atrium Psychiatric Ward. But I couldn’t
think on that one too long. I had to get moving. Already we had
stayed far too long.

"Siegfried said the Director was in Office
33A on the third floor," I said to Mousy, as I picked him up and
put him on my shoulder, preparing to leave. "Well that doesn’t help
us much. We’re on the first floor right now and I have no idea
where anything is. We need a map."

I closed the door, Higgins nameplate
catching the light from the fluorescent bulbs overhead. Mousy
rustled and I followed his gaze to the nameplate. I smiled. It was
not a pleasant sort of smile.

"You’re right, Mousy. We don’t need a map.
We need a guide..."

Assuming he hadn’t been killed, Dr. Higgins
was still about somewhere, having refused to transform into one of
the Director’s Tormentors. There was little chance that I could get
what I needed from any of the horrors that haunted Atrium, but
Higgins was another story.

"I think we’re going to have to backtrack to
where we last saw him," I said with a sigh, looking down at Mousy.
His half-hearted reply echoed my own feelings. The two of us set
off at as fast a pace as possible while remaining silent. I didn’t
much fear the Monsters, who seemed easy enough to outrun. Now that
my injuries had been mysteriously healed, I could run circles
around those bozos. It was the Tormentors I was wary of. For I had
no idea how many stalked the halls of Atrium.

The Killer, the Shambler, the Twisted
Puppet, the Green Ooze, the Scarecrow, and Dr. Skeleton. Rather
simple names, for all too strange entities. I feared them, but not
as much as I did before my fight with the Hooded Man. For there was
courage beating in my little heart now, accompanied by a righteous
fury at these things.

I let Mousy lead the way, hopping down from
my shoulder and scampering along the hallway. He seemed to have a
better understanding of the way back to where we’d last seen
Higgins than I did. Even then, we twice hit dead ends.

We saw few signs of life on our journey.
Presumably the Director’s minions had figured I had either fled
Atrium or made my way upwards to threaten the Director himself. I
had spent at least a few hours asleep in the air vents
afterall.

Rounding a corner in the hall, we nearly
collided with the Twisted Puppet. He was standing there, statue
still as if frozen in place. I have no idea why. Stepping backwards
on silent feet, I withdrew from him and out of sight, leaning my
back against the wall when I’d rounded the corner. I waited until
my heart stopped thudding and then peered warily out at him, to see
if he still stood.

There were two of them now. The Twisted
Puppet, still unmoving, and a tall creature dressed in a doctor’s
coat, a vultures head sticking out from the top. As far as I could
tell, he had neither hands nor feet, for I saw neither poking from
his sleeves or from the bottom of his coat.

"Is it possible for her to leave?" The
Ethereal Vulture asked in a mellifluous voice like some grand
poet.

The Twisted Puppet shook his head.

"She is ground here. She doesn’t have the
substance to leave." His voice was slow, like the warm trickle of
sap through tree roots. Though there was an anger behind it that
marked him in my mind as one of the more dangerous Tormentors.

"Don’t underestimate Siegfried," the
Ethereal Vulture warned. "He is craftier than you give him credit
for. He is no fool."

The Twisted Puppet scoffed.

"He is useless. As are his creations. She
hides somewhere in terror, cowering from us. We will find her and
kill her."

I was tempted to step out and make a fool of
the Puppet’s words, show him just how ‘terrified’ I was. But that
probably wouldn’t be wise and I resisted the notion.

"If you believe she hides, Puppet," and he
said the name with a sneer, "then I suggest you continue your
search for her."

The Twisted Puppet snorted at him and
stomped off, thankfully in the opposite direction from which I hid.
It was nice to know that my enemies weren’t all on the same
page.

"He is gone," the Ethereal Vulture said
mildly once the Twisted Puppet was out of sight. "You may come out
of hiding, Nillium Neems."

Well, that made my blood run cold. Mousy
made a startled rustling sound. I thought of turning and running,
but I had no idea how fast this guy was. And besides, he didn’t
seem to want to kill me immediately. Maybe I’d just learn something
useful. I stepped around the corner and faced him.

"How did you know I was back there?" I asked
him, using my most casual tone of voice. His eyes gleamed with
mirth.

"I smelled the stench of rebellion. You are
causing us trouble, Neems, and we don’t like it."

I shrugged.

"It’s like a hobby. I can’t help it.
Sometimes I get bored easy."

He stared at me for a moment with his black,
bird eyes, colorless as death.

"I could destroy you as you stand."

"You
could
. I’ll grant you that. But if
that’s what you wanted, then you would have revealed my presence to
the Puppet. So what do you want, Mr. Vulture?"

As much as he could with his long, sharp
beak, he smiled.

"How much do you know about us, Nillium
Neems?"

"Oh, bundles. I know pretty much all there
is to know. Stopping you people will be all too easy. Why don’t you
tell me where the Director is so I can put an end to all this? I’m
sure you’re getting as bored as I am of running about through
endless hallways."

His eyes glittered. I couldn’t tell if that
was a good sign or not.

"I am tired, Nillium Neems. Of dealing with
the annoyance of Siegfried and his followers. But even more, I am
tired of being... less."