Grace & Silver

Chapter 8

Pills, Doctor, Father

Disclaimer: Takahashi Ranma. Konami Silent Hill. Me Nothing. Please don’t sue, this is just for fun.

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Nabiki carefully scanned the waiting room, gun raised. No oddly moving shadows on the walls, no hideous bloated and shifting demons hiding behind the reception counter, no asphyxiating panda rug waiting on the floor, no massive self-devouring atrocity, no mocking girl in a bloody bridal veil, just one Japanese girl, slowly going insane in search of people she knew could no longer exist.

Nabiki tiredly sat down in one of the chairs, and unzipped her duffle bag. She carefully reloaded her gun with shaky hands, and tried to put the loose bullets back into the box she had ripped open fighting that… that thing in the toy store. She checked her shoulder; it wasn’t as bad as she thought. The lash against her shoulder had just barely broken the skin; already having clotted over. Nabiki gave it a spray of antiseptic and a clean bandage to ensure it stayed a relatively small wound.

With a deep, shuddering breath, Nabiki went for the collection of orange prescription bottles that seemed to scream for her attention and use. First were the green diamonds. With a pause, she realized the bottle was empty. She hadn’t even been aware she had used them all…

Nabiki’s eyes wandered through her duffle bag, hoping to find an escaped pill, but to no avail. She went for the flat oval peach ones, and felt the hollow pit of her stomach when that one had been empty as well.

“No…oh please no.” Her voice, even at a whisper, shook like a leaf desperately hanging to the bark of a dead tree in a relentless wind. Almost frantically, she rampaged through her bag, checking each bottle.

The dark blue lozenges, the yellow oblongs, the white hexagons with pink spots, all gone, every bottle was empty.

Nabiki swore as she discarded the empty bottles; already feeling the beginnings of an anxiety attack. Thankfully, the still sealed bottle of aspirin she had bought at the airport was still there and, by the weight, full. She struggled to take off the ring of plastic and then undo the childproof cap, though bandaged hand made it fairly difficult.

After a brief struggle that brought her more ragged breathing than was necessary, she carefully took out the cotton ball and dumped some of the contents onto her hand. As she was about to ingest them, the sight of a squirming mass of larva in her palm greeted her. Nabiki froze upon realization, as her lower lip quivered, as a few larva split open, pupating into flies. Upon realizing their ability of flight, the insects flew up at her face; attempting to burrow under her skin as they came in contact with her soft flesh.

Nabiki screamed as she threw the bottle away from her and began scratching at her face. It landed on the floor and with a clatter, about a fourth of the bottle’s worth of white pills spilled out onto the floor.

Nabiki bent over and looked at the normal pills on the floor, she started to giggle. She collapsed to her knees before the spilt bottle, as the uneasiness in her stomach, her light-headedness, and sensation of hopelessness fueled the mirthless sound into hysteria.

“Heh, heheheHAHAHAHA!” Nabiki clutched her stomach helpless to the permeating madness, still laughing manically. She just couldn’t stop, as the tears streamed down her face, laughing with a mockery of joy in her voice, and sincere terror everywhere else. Her roaring laughter changed into hiccups, then sobbing at her hopeless ordea, before giving into a fit of profane anger. Growling ferally, she vaulted the counter and charged past the reception office into the heart of the clinic.

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Nabiki stopped dead where she was. She took a few cautious steps forward; shifting her grip on the bat and cocking her gun. Carefully, she slid her back against the wall, poising herself so that if it was one of those shadow things sliding behind her, she could launch herself off the wall immediately.

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The whispers shifted in volume, as she approached the room filled with folders and files of every patient that had come here. There was a sound of someone sifting though the files and scampering around like sloths upon dry leaves.

“Hello?” Nabiki cautiously took a few steps deeper into the room with her gun at bare, and stopped. Gazing at the creature before her, she was conflicted by emotions of relief and horror. It looked so human; a kind, familiar face that she always felt she could trust. But…

She could see blood pooling in its open mouth, blending in with the bruises, sanguine, and ichor that ruined his face. Nearly all of the teeth within had been knocked out or broken, as both eyes had huge black bruises around them and his hair had been tore out in mats. His short, recognizable ponytail was still there however, distinguishing him as much as his glasses that had been smashed far beyond any practical use. His normal attire was shredded to bloody rags like strips of flesh from rotting meat. His chest had multiple bruises on it as if someone had hit him hard in the chest with fatal blows, and his legs were marred from heartless beatings, while his feet were swollen and purple around the small round indentations in them from attacks akin to a ball ping hammer. Crippled hands were uselessly attached to broken arms that were decorated long trails of nail marks all over them. Over the tattered brown gi, he was wore a doctor’s white lab coat that could not conceal the bulging lump underneath.

It would be comical if it wasn’t so pathetic, as it diligently worked its disfigured limps in several attempts to pick up a book that was lying on the table. Nabiki actually felt a sharp sting of pity as the sobbing thing failed again to pick up the book. It paused, before turning jerkily to look towards her. Causing Nabiki to step back when it registered her presence. It tilted its head in vague confusion, as it was finally able to pick up the book, before its bloodshot eyes widened in realization.

“Nubki? Uhh thnk Hvns!” The thing lurched towards her like a desperate and dying animal, holding out the book. The blood filled mouth gurgled and cascaded from its orifice in a valiant attempt to speak.

“Tyrr’ nt duuun ull thuss. Stp hrr, yuuh ndd tuu stpp AHHHHH!” The creature threw the book aside as it screamed in pain, wildly convulsing. Nabiki almost tripped backwards in shock and revulsion as the newly free flowing blood coating the creature speckled her face and clothes.

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A loud, wet tearing noise erupted from the bulge on the monster’s back, before it popped like a cyst. The back of the lab coat ripped open exposing two long slender female arms that were as delicate and slender as a mother’s. The bloody monster tried in vain to shake them off and grasp at them with dysfunctional limbs to no avail. The arms bent the wrong way and placed its hands on the monster’s temples and started to squeeze.

Nabiki was rapt in the horrid scene. It was morbidly comedic; the creature flailing about, waving its arms wildly, and forming half-words through its blood filled mouth. Nabiki’s stomach convulsed again, as she watched the two milky, thinly red veined orbs dangling halfway down its cheek that had sounded exactly like a cork popping at their exiting the eye sockets. Like an able contortionist hands did a sharp twist that opposed their joints, and the creature fell to the ground along with an accompanying crack of overstressed vertebrae. Nabiki couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu watching the bizarre scene as those two hands proceeded to rip the pathetic creature apart like vultures over a carcass.

The violent scene continued for three minutes, as the thing on the floor twitched and whimpered while the greedy hands tore chunks of flesh out of it. Nabiki had enough, as she finally snapped from her stupor. Looking away, she put a bullet into the thing’s skull, her mercy causing it to go limp and still.

She cautiously prodded the thing on the floor with her baseball bat. It was definitely dead, blood pooling out onto the floor, washing the scattered files on the ground in crimson dye. She bit her lip in confusion, why had she looked away when she shot this thing? Certainly she looked when she took out the others, hell she almost enjoyed it. What made this one so different? “It’s just another monster,” Nabiki told herself. “One of those things out there.”

Her attention went back to the book the thing had been so desperate to give to her. Picking it up from the bloody floor, she found that someone had stuck something in the book. Opening it revealed that a sealed plastic baggie stored within, filled with white powder. A label taped to the front of the bag named its contents.

“10 grams of PTV a.k.a. ‘White Claudia’.” Nabiki sounded out the words on the label. “To be held until Officer Bennet arrives from Brahms for post-analysis and disposal.”

She had heard about this drug actually, everyone in Nerima did. The authorities had caught someone peddling this drug all around the ward. Since it had happened when Ranma, Mousse, and Ryoga were chasing after the Musk the Wrecking Crew didn’t know about it until long after everything was settled; knowing that something from this town had gotten into Nerima so far back really churned her stomach.

She noticed that on the pages the bag had been stuffed between, someone had highlighted a few passages and scribbled on the rest of the book. Curious she checked the cover; it was a psychology textbook. Pointing her flashlight directly at the selected text she started to read.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: An egocentric personality. Physically preoccupied with oneself, exhibiting profound and unhealthy amounts of arrogance, self-esteem, and vanity. Can become extremely violent when presented with opposing views or evidence. May form emotional attachment to others for the purpose of subjugating and domination to reinforce their image of superiority. If the subject experiences constant reinforcement that disproves their beliefs it can result in an extremely violent mental breakdown.

Dependant Personality Disorder: Complete reliance upon others to the extent where they lack the ability to make autonomous decisions. May experience an extreme mental breakdown, commonly depression, if they perceive that their connection to others is collapsing.

Borderline Personality Disorder: Commonly confused with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, however while both do focus on the need for the public to acknowledge their presence constantly, the Borderline person has a lack of personal identity. Often they place themselves in a superior role to identify themselves to others. The BPD feels the obsessive need for control in all aspects around them that directly and even indirectly affect their person. Often seen as shallow, or ‘two-dimensional’, loss of their imagined superiority can lead to a mental breakdown that can, in extreme situations, cause a detachment from reality.

The text then went on in detail about the disorders, mostly in complicated psychological terms Nabiki couldn’t translate with her minimal English skills. It was a moot point however as someone had scrawled all over the other pages in thick red marker ‘NO! NO! NO! NOT ME! NOT ME! NO NO NO!‘

Nabiki closed the book with an audible snap, and took a deep breath to steady herself again. She set the book down, and continued her search of the medical facility. Her mind however was still going over those last few words, ‘Detached from reality?’

Her mind wandered, as she peeked her head into the empty lounge. “This is about as detached as you can get…so does that mean that none of this is real?” She shook her head violently banishing the thought; that was absurd. Though far from a psychologist, she doubted she suffered from one of those disorders. Actually, she was fairly certain. Nabiki Tendou was not mentally disturbed. “That thing with the pills, the warping of the town, those demonic creatures…those were all constructs of the town.”

After all there were many cases of this happening here, so it was the town that was insane, not her.

“Right?” Nabiki asked herself, out loud.

She realized that she had reached the end of the hallway, and had discovered nothing but an assortment of empty rooms. Sighing at the surprising lack of activity, she started to walk back to the front of the clinic when she paused. On the door labeled janitorial supplies, someone (And Nabiki had a good idea who at this point) had drawn that same damn blue design. Right below it they had stapled a few pages to the door. Nabiki recognized them instantly as belonging to the storybook she had found in the toy store’s puppet theater.

She found her hands pulling the cardboard cover out of her bag; these pages were very important. Her hands were millimeters away from grabbing when she paused. Long ago Nabiki read that the human brainstem is very similar to that of a lizard’s; as her hand hovered near those pages she could feel her lizard brain ringing alarm bells, flashing lights, and screaming DANGER at the top of it’s lungs. But still she pulled the pages off the nail and began to read the worlds aloud…

In the town there was a boy and a girl.

The girl was sick and angry to the boy.

The boy tried to love the girl, with all of his heart.

Then the Boy did something wicked to the Girl.

Now the Girl is doing something wicked to the Boy.

Pity the Girl.

Pity the Boy.

There was a soft click and the door quietly swung open. Nabiki started to see what looked like a broom closet but she was more preoccupied with the sound of a wailing siren. Again the noise seemed to go straight into her brain hitting some primal fear node within. Nabiki hunched over lurching right and left, her hands over her ears still clutching the pages and her gun. It was unbearable.

She managed to keep from blacking out immediately this time, but her senses seemed to revolt against her own mind, as the world blurred around her forming shapes and blurs that she couldn’t process to be of earth. The smell of copper filling her nose and the air seemed to have a new texture, a thick, almost rotten, one. Her skin was literally crawling all over her body, and she could have sworn that she saw the veins in her arms turning black. There was a sense of movement but she couldn’t tell where, her head was ringing with pain and the sound of that siren. Still she kept her eyes open for a few more moments before her body surrendered to blackness. The last thing she saw was her father, but it wasn’t. He seemed eerily normal, yet she knew he was yet another one of those damnable creatures. She then registered his face, as it was vibrating in the same kind of movement that resembled a paint shaker. However it was just his face moving, his head stood perfectly still, and two gloved hands spun two valve wheels, faster and faster and faster. Nabiki was able to register one last thing before she finally passed out.

Whatever was behind her father’s face was smiling at her.

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Author’s notes: The three descriptions of the personality disorders are extremely exaggerated versions with some added dramatic elements. They are about as ‘based in reality’ as a Law and Order episode is ‘Based on the Headlines.’ They are meant for the purposes of entertainment, NOT psychotherapy.

And as always all reviews are welcome and WFROSE is a great guy for editing.