Lani groaned.

"God damnit…. Ok Daniel, what've we got to work with here? We got a jammed bridge…leads over to that room…we got this bridge…aaaaaand god damn it all."

There was a brief silence as the feeling of defeat sunk even deeper inside Daniel's heart.

All I would need is some weight, a way to push the bridge down, but I can't even reach it from here and I can't throw my satchel as a test burden and risk losing it for good…hold on a moment…

"Wait! Hold on!"

Daniel ran back to the machine room door and the levers. It was surprising he and Lani were more than likely on the same page with this plan, as reckless as it was.

"This might be stupid…."

Believe me, it is….

"But we're good at stupid, right Daniel?"

Again, yes….

Daniel pulled the lever of the fully-functional bridge and ran back with all of his speed. With a final jump he landed on the bridge just before it began rising up.

"HAHA!"

I can't believe that actually worked!

"Yeah, this is brilliant!"

The bridge rose to level with the other and slowly passed it as Daniel readied a jump that he knew he would regret.

"Ok, now let's see, do I think I can jump…"

Once the second bridge was at least a few yards away Daniel started to fear heights and hated himself for doing this at all.

"Ok, this is a lot higher than I thought it was gonna be."

The bridge stopped and Daniel ran off of it in an adrenaline rush of fear as support and Lani giving grunts of false effort.

"Go, Daniel!"

He wanted to scream, yet he also watched time slow in his mind as the air pushed against his falling frame. With a loud thud Daniel crashed onto the bridge, feet first, possibly shattering his leg bones. He tottered and fell with the bridge as it lowered itself to level with the door.

"BOOYAH!"

Daniel could hardly see, he was in such immense pain even screaming would not help. His eyes watered with tears as he tried to pull himself together much earlier than any professional would recommend. He was losing consciousness and that was not something he could afford.

I must remain awake…if nothing else I must stay awake….

Lani made sounds of laughter and pain, most likely very amused and also astonished.

"That was stupid! Ow, walk it off, Daniel, walk it off…."

Despite that being impossible, Daniel tried to.

"Oh, wow…you ok, Daniel?"

No….

"Let's see…oh, barely conscious. Don't worry, we got laudanum for that."

Daniel took out a vial of laudanum and greedily drank the contents. He was awake, but still in a lot of pain.

"Wound is bleeding quite badly, I don't know where you're bleeding…."

Perhaps my literally bloody legs, you twat!

Daniel drank a second vial's worth of laudanum and watched his world change. He could see perfectly fine again and his legs were in pain no more, in fact he could not feel them at all.

"Oh, yeah, much better. Now, where are we heading?"

Happy as could be, Daniel skipped off the bridge to the new door. He stumbled when he landed and listened to Lani tell him where the door led as he went inside.

"The morgue! Charming…. Now you see, Daniel, at least you're going to the morgue alive…you know? We could have uh…could have killed you there."

Oh nonsense you silly voice, I'm fit as a fiddle~. Perhaps not a fiddle, I'm not quite the right shape~!

His gibberish was nonsensical but, in his state, Daniel found himself very amusing and even witty.

"'Cause I'll have to admit, that was probably one of the dumbest things I've done in this game. I'm sure there must have been another way, but I don't care!"

I want honey now….

"I made Daniel suffer!"

Well that isn't a very nice thing to do Lani-Patty-Catty!

The door opened to a long, dark passage.

"Ah, how quaint. Let's look around here."

A bright light came with Daniel's first few steps.

"AH!"

Lani laugh-cried in pain.

Pretty!

"Do you see, Daniel? It has yielded."

"What?"

"The shadow."

Not liking the shadow, the crazed Daniel lit a candle.

"The shadow knows all!"

Can we ask it directions then?

"It has?"

"For now. Come, let's get this out of here so we can get some peace."

"Yes, let's. Where to?"

I want to have sleepy-time, I'm tired….

"Just down the corridor. To the morgue."

"Ah…."

"Are there more – dead men there?"

"You did well, Daniel. Come, let's get going."

"Daniel!"

Lani dragged out every syllable of Daniel's name like a particularly cross parent or instructor. Daniel instinctively shrunk in worry over being in trouble as a second pretty light came and disappeared.

"What've we talked about killing people?"

I don't know….

"It's wrong!"

Sorry Mr. Lani…

"Bad Daniel!"

Lani sighed as Daniel walked with his lantern in hopes there would be no further scolding.

"What've we got? Blood path…"

A rat hurried across the floor and Lani gasped in excitement.

Mousey!

"A mar-mar! And this one actually walks, it's scampering, cute."

Play time would have to wait though, so Daniel explored the other direction.

"Oh, what've we got?"

As the two walked, or while Daniel walked and Lani somehow followed, Lani began another series of musical do's. Sounds of clanking metal came from above and Daniel briefly looked up.

"Changeling chains."

Another turn and some odd steps later, Daniel was in what appeared to have at one point been a small storage space. Bones that had been picked clean were strewn about the blood stained floor as light poured down upon them.

Weird.

Daniel continued without issue.

"Bones. OW!"

The pretty light was back. This time a new voice was in Daniel's head; presumably it belonged to a random prisoner.

"What? What happened? Why are all these dead…? Where am I? What's happening? Help! Anybody, help!"

"No."

A second pretty flash took away the man's voice.

You're mean Lani.

"I see something glowing. Let's grab it, Daniel."

Pretty?

Across the floor of bones, a shelf case and a copper tube lying in wait. The copper shown in the adequate light and Daniel thankfully took it, as well as a vial of laudanum that was hiding a little bit away.

"We have a copper tube and…more laudanum!"

Daniel turned around and the light shown again.

Pretty!

"WHAT?"

"Two…three days now. This is ridiculous!"

"Two in a row?"

"Why doesn't someone come to this room? Hey! Anybody!"

"Bargh! Blarblarblarguh!"

"Am I all alone here? Help! Help!"

I'm with you other voice.

"I'm so tired…if I sleep – will I wake from this nightmare? If not, I pray my heavenly Father will take me in my sleep."

The pretty light came and left.

"Yeah something tells me you got taken in your sleep."

We should go find where they took him then!

With a confused motive, Daniel left the room.

"Somebody broke down that wall."

Door.

Daniel lit a candle with his vision growing fuzzy from his drunken-high state.

"Daniel, would you please…please, stop freaking out man. Seriously, it's getting on my god damn nerves."

I'm not freaking out, are you freaking out pretty light?

The pretty light did not return.

Aw….

"How much lantern oil do you got?"

Daniel checked; less than a fourth remained and he had only two more jars.

"Not a lot. Okay, we're gonna fill that up a little."

One jar's worth was added.

"But we gotta start using this tinder, Daniel, 'cause uh…you don't got a lot of lantern oil left in ya'."

There's oil inside me? Is that what this warm, red stuff coming out of my legs is? I didn't know oil was red….

"So come on."

I'll use the red oil later then.

Daniel lit his lantern and ran down the halls, stopping at a lit candle that drew his attention.

Pretty~.

"Just run from place to place to keep your stupid ass sane…. Oh you're perfectly sane, Daniel. We can walk in the dark for a little while, can't we?"

I don't like darkness….

Walking forward in darkness, Daniel lit a random candle before moving on without even stopping in its light. Soon Daniel saw a door thanks to his adjusting vision.

"See? A door."

Daniel swung the door open and saw a decently lit room. There was another door across the room, some fallen rocks strewn across the floor, and a body lying on a table in his immediate line of sight.

"And a light, and a dead body…. Huh?"

This one looks better than the others; he's still in one piece.

Without his usual sense of fear Daniel felt free to move right up to the corpse and investigate. The body was bald, naked, and laid across the table as if it were one solid board rather than a jointed man. The man's fingers were curled and stiff, and there were no visible wounds on his person. Lani laughed.

"Haha, he has a wang."

While Daniel was in no condition to identify signs of rigor mortis or even comprehend most of what he was seeing, he could still identify voices. Alexander was clearly speaking to him again, inside his mind with Lani.

"I hear you breathing Daniel. Do you hear me? Have you changed your mind?"

"About what?"

Helping…him….

Daniel felt his mind grow clearer at a slow yet steady pace. Alexander was the last man he wanted in his head, though Lani was trying very hard to gain that position, but he did help him remember who he was and what he was doing. Sadly, he could also remember the pain in his legs which was now only dulled.

"I don't – I don't think Alexander understands that I've, you know…totally…."

I…have to make progress.

Daniel closed the door behind him and looked around for anything useful. The dead body was not something he could pay attention to for long now so he opened the first door he saw.

"What's in here?"

A pile of corpses was in the center of the sunken room.

Dear lord….

There were about four steps down to where they laid and what looked like an oven in the back. Against his better judgment (something Daniel had been opposing a lot lately), Daniel went down to where the bodies were.

"Corpses…and cockroaches…lots of dead guys…."

The roaches hissed as Daniel looked upon the faces and backs of the dead. One was strewn across a thin strip of four steps that went up to the oven; he looked like he was trying to go inside it for some reason; possibly to reach the other dead body that was already in there and yet not burned. Daniel's ears were ringing and his vision began to waver. The pain in his legs far outweighed the pain his hand had gotten from the fire earlier and his lantern was once more his only salvation.

"You gonna have issues here, Daniel?"

HOW ARE YOU NOT? I'm in a bloody morgue, literally, with countless dead around me and who knows how many more to come, Alexander can enter my mind anytime he pleases, there's still monsters in this castle, YOU are still in my head, and my legs are in excruciating pain and I may be unable to so much as walk after this whole ordeal if I even manage to make it out of here alive!

In anger and confusion, Daniel stumbled his way across the room and around the bodies. He looked to the side and saw large slots where he could see the feet of the dead sticking out.

"Daniel, it's a morgue! What did you expect! Stop freaking out!"

Expecting something doesn't always make it easier, Lani!

Daniel had to leave that place, and with labored steps he did. He put out his lantern and went back to the single dead body in the front room. The sight was still less than bearable.

"Ok…let's look around, there's gotta be something."

Across the room bookshelves lined the walls and various bottles filled their shelves.

"Bottles…paper!"

Oh thank God.

Lani read aloud.

Plague Outbreak

The strange deaths among the servants and the prisoners have finally been resolved. It seems that the drain sewer which has recently been opened up for use as a means of transport is plagued by a peculiar poisonous fungi.

The victims seem to have suffered an extremely quick outbreak of sickness effecting the entire body. Some of my men, including myself, are blissfully spared by this calamity but it is clear that this cripples my progress. The prisoners die quickly and their contaminated vitae lacks the energy I seek.

I shall immediately start working on a vaccine.

Yes, but what IS the vaccine? At least tell me where you store it!

Daniel collected a nearby tinderbox as he attempted to calculate his odds of finding the cure among the various bottles.

"Tinder."

In the room was a desk with a chair that had been knocked over.

Of course, there's always a desk.

On the desk was a second sheet of paper, hopefully one more useful. First though, Daniel checked the side compartment. He found another one of those strange cylinders he believed to hold the short diaries of Alexander.

"Hey one of these things again."

Daniel reached out for it and saw the blinding light come forth.

"Covering the eyes."

As Daniel suffered through the light, Lani read aloud in his mocking voice before choosing a more dramatic approach.

"I fear for Daniel, for he is reckless. He is tainted by the approaching shadow and will not be able to pass the gate. Will he be able to accept this in the end? My love, I've seen evil in him. How am I to trust him with the truth? What cruel irony that I have to do unto him what Agrippa did unto me."

Lani grew silent as the light faded away. Daniel's vision was restored as he grew only angrier and angrier.

I'm evil, am I? Alexander, you are the one who killed these men! You created these hell beasts that follow me! You have done nothing but wrong and try to justify it all by saying it is for your love! You are the monster, not I! This love of yours must be a poor soul if she loves you in return! I still know nothing about this woman either, for all I know she could be a man! For someone you cherish you spend no time speaking about them. You are some form of alien monster and I shall have you destroyed!

"I wonder who he's talking to."

As well as Lani!

Daniel took the paper from the desk and began reading, the sooner he could find a way to Alexander the better. Lani read aloud with both mumbles and full words.

The vaccine enabling my men to work in the fungi-ridden sewer is a definite success. Unfortunately, only a few of the servants have been remedied as the procedure proved difficult. The others will perish, and eventually I will have to create more of them to keep my experiments running.

Note that an injection of vaccinated blood will work as a shield long enough to pass the sewers without any risk of infection. It will do fine for prisoner transport.

….

"Ok…"

Daniel looked to the body on the table and slowly approached it.

"I get the feeling that what I'm about to do is the…LEAST sanitary thing I could possibly do."

The body was still stiff from rigor mortis; it could not be more than a day old. Whatever the event that cleared out all living prisoners happened was, it had happened very recently.

Oh God….

Daniel lit the candle on the table to work by.

"Oh well. You're looking pretty good. Eh…you know I…ugh…."

Daniel tried to focus his sight on the man's head, he had to block out all distractions and try to forget his fear and disgust.

"There we go. Ok, now I need to jab this guy…."

Please stop speaking.

Searching through his items, Daniel considered the hollow needle from his time in the water; it would be too fragile though.

"So, uh…nope. But that's definitely part of it. Uh…chisel a hole in him?"

No.

"Nope, ok. Let's go with the drill."

It was the only thing Daniel had that might work, so he took the drill and forced the point through the man's skull with the crank. There was a disturbing series of cracking sounds as Daniel worked as well as Lani's sounds of disgust; he had some standards apparently. The hand drill broke once Daniel had finished; it would be of no further use.

"Yep…. WHAT? I was drilling through wood with that!"

Bone is thicker than wood you imbecile!

Blood was coming from the man's head at an alarming rate and Daniel had to think fast.

"Oh God, he's draining, um…maybe this?"

Daniel managed to shove the copper tube from before into the newly formed hole. The blood stream was thinner but still fast.

"Eh – ew! Uh, do I just – uh, ok?"

The tube could not be used to penetrate skin, something thinner was needed; the needle. Daniel took the hallow needle and combined it with the tube to fashion something just right for the job. All that was left was what was possibly the worst part. Daniel stepped back before coming closer at a different angle. He thought about it and stepped away again; afraid of continuing.

"Yep, possibly the least sanitary thing I could ever do in my life. Welp, Daniel, have fun!"

Daniel stuck himself with the needle and closed his eyes. He could feel the stream of blood enter his body as he slowly felt himself drift away from consciousness. For some time now he had been chased and injured; he was obviously tired as well as mentally scared. The last thing he recognized before he went out was Lani's voice.

"OWOWOWOWOW! That sounded disgusting…."

When Daniel came to he had to gasp for air. His ears were ringing and he was still by the table. He tried to restore his senses and check his safety by looking around the room; nothing had changed.

"Gross."

Please, Lani, just shut up.

"Fucking gross."

Ugh….

Daniel wanted to leave this place immediately, both to insure that this solution would last him long enough and to leave this horrible place of the dead. As he reached for the door, what should have been the painfully predictable happened; there was a bang. A monster had come from somewhere while Daniel was blacked out but the unlikelihood of that was outweighed by Daniel's panic as he ran to the first hiding place he could think of: the room of corpses.

"Jesus!"

Lani was more annoyed than scared as per usual. Daniel closed the door behind him and ran to the corner by the human-sized oven.

"Hide with the corpses, Daniel!"

He crouched in a place of false safety, looking out at the pile of dead and the strips of light available. His blood, as well as the dead man's, boiled inside him with fear as his head began pounding once more. A sort of groaning came from across the way in the next room; the monster had to be skulking about.

"That one sounded different."

Lani was right, the groan was deeper than usual. Daniel drifted in place with his swirling vision as his mind grew independent from his body and his self. To draw his sanity back, Daniel lit his lantern. He inched forward to the light from the ceiling, but quickly retracted when his senses briefly returned.

"Daniel, calm the hell down, you already know that there are monster here! And you already know that there are dead bodies. It's not like this is anything out of the ordinary…Christ, man."

It's still too horrible for words….

Lani's complaints and sarcasm were not as helpful as they usually were. Daniel's mind was so far gone he needed a firm grip to pull him out of insanity and back to his normal self.

"YOU JUST INJECTED YOURSELF WITH DEAD GUY BLOOD!"

SHUT UP!

Or to drag him further down.

"This is nowhere NEAR as bad as what you just did!"

I know! I know….

Daniel's breathing was shaky as labored. He redrew his lantern and stepped out from his corner.

"Daniel, seriously, calm the fuck down, you're freaking me out man."

Oh, I'm freaking YOU out?

Daniel moved closer and closer to the ceiling's light, hypnotized by the promise of sunlight to come when this nightmare was finished. Bodies now lay beneath his feet as he carelessly climbed atop them. There were no sounds.

"This thing's not even attempting to come in here."

Only seconds past before Lani returned to his half-hearted music.

"Lalalala, lalalala, dead guy song! How're you feeling, Daniel?"

Not well….

"Hahaha, ellipses, cute."

Daniel hung his head and looked at the mass of flesh beneath him. Dirt stained and stiffened bodies created an almost solid pile. He had to look back up, with the occasional glance back.

"Stand on the corpses."

Daniel swayed where he stood, still not fully recovered from his recent blood transfusion.

"Wow, you're moving around…not so hot anymore, Daniel…. We are dangerously close to complete insanity."

The light from above is that of heaven….

The lantern was lit and Daniel stepped down from his throne of death. Lani spoke in a dream like voice.

"Look at the lantern, Daniel. Look at the lantern. Pretty lantern."

Daniel stared up above him at a lantern on the ceiling that hardly gave any light. It was useless to him at this point but he stared nonetheless. Daniel jumped for it. He wanted that light.

"It's lit, come on Daniel, there's a light here. There's a light. It's light, Daniel!"

Daniel's vision continued to swirl and he lit his own lantern. His lantern's light was better.

"Oh for fuck's sake…. Is that monster still there?"

There had been no sounds, and Daniel was too far gone for paranoid fear. He swung the door open; there was nothing. What had been there before was there, save the front door, and Daniel followed to the candle by the single dead man he now shared a bond with.

"Let's stand here…give you some time, calm your ass down…get you a nice juice box…."

Daniel looked around himself and at the man's body. The needle he had fashioned was still lodged in the man's head.

"Hey, look what you did to him, Daniel. Yep. You happy with that? Yeah, there's no need to inject the blood again but God only knows if I'll find need for another needle. Huh? Yeah, don't wanna salvage that shit, Daniel?"

No…not that….

"Don't want to bring a drill bit?"

It broke…it has no more use….

"Nothing?"

No….

"How about a pair of shears?"

Daniel took the shears from the table, they seemed as useless as the previous shears he had found.

"Never know when you'll find use for these, huh?"

Never….

He flung the shears away and saw them actually rebound off the man's thigh.

"That sounded disgusting…wonder what I can do to him."

Lani began making odd noises once more as Daniel took the scalpel and slid it under the man where the shears had hit. He was not sure why he did this, he simply needed busy work to keep his mind focused on a task.

"Did I just…? I just stuck that in him…ew."

It's not in him; there isn't even any blood….

"Ok, Daniel, come on! Stick with me! Listen to my voice, Daniel."

I have no other choice.

"You're gonna get through this…I'm gonna stop looking at the guy's wang though."

Daniel had been staring at the light from the candle, but he turned is head so Lani could not complain about anything in his line of sight. Of course then he could not see the candle so he turned back and just lowered his vision.

"There you go, just stare directly into the candle…and the blood on the floor…. Deep breathes, Daniel…deep breathes. Let this guy's blood just flow through your body, we're gonna make through this!"

SHUT UP, LANI, SHUT UP!

"We're gonna make it through this."

Perhaps I will but once I'm sane you are finished!

"Man, you're really…really not happy with the fact that you just injected yourself with this guy's blood…."

NO I AM NOT! Now kindly be silent about it before I kill us bothe just to escape you!

"Either that, or laying in the corpse pile – which I'm sorry! – but it was the only, real hiding place I could think of at the time."

Both, now just let me recover some, my legs hurt the less my head does….

"Gonna…gonna be ok here, Daniel? Huh?"

No….

"I'm just gonna let you cool down for a second."

By some miracle Lani was silent. Time crawled by as Daniel listened to the small cracks of the candle's fire. His legs burned in pain and he could not take it much longer. Among the various bottles and supplies there were bandages; it was odd but not the strangest thing to find here. He tended to his legs as best he could. There was no water to clean away the dried blood and his legs were still bleeding a bit underneath the thick coating. Daniel wrapped the bandages tight enough to assure they would stay but loose enough so as not to impair his movement. Once he finished, Daniel tried some practice steps before resolving to rest awhile longer by a different candle, the one at the desk with the capsule in its compartment. Some time went by before Lani spoke and ruined Daniel's phase of healing and being productive.

"Yeah, Daniel and I decided to move over to this candle so we're not looking at corpse wang. Seems a lot better of a choice honestly."

First, I have no issues with that, though I don't prefer to be by a naked man be he dead or alive. Second, who are you speaking to? Third and finally, why could you not stay away?

Lani sighed.

"How're we doing, Daniel? …oh! You're feeling much better."

My head is pounding and I'm still shaking horribly, I can hardly call that better.

"Welp, while I'm here I might as well check these drawers."

Daniel remembered he had forgotten to and began pulling out the desk's drawers.

"Nothing…laudanum!"

Thank the heavens!

Greedily, Daniel took the vial of sweet, green liquid and tucked it away.

"And…tinder! Ok. Now, there's one more door that we haven't checked, Daniel, so let's open her up."

Daniel was still a bit out of it, and when he opened the door it swung too quickly and hit him.

"Ow."

As if you felt that.

Rubbing his head, Daniel moved around the door and inside. There was another pile of dead bodies, only this room had water.

"Hey, another corpse room…how awesome."

While both water and the dead were things Daniel preferred to avoid he had to search as much as he could; he never knew when he may run out of needed materials or forget something useful behind.

"Op, here comes the bells again."

What does that even mean!

As soon as Daniel knew there was nothing of use he left the small room of water and death, closing the door behind him.

"Not entirely sure the need for the water, but…maybe it just keeps the corpses fresh? I don't know. What else do we got here? Anything in here that I didn't see?"

Daniel poked his head into the room he had hid in earlier before admitting her would have to search by going inside again. He lit his lantern and looked over each space in the wall that was made to house bodies, though only two were in use. The dead were given no respect, and Daniel knew that if he died here his postmortem fate would be even worse.

"Oh no, Daniel's freaking out again."

His ears were ringing as he continued along the walls of the room, checking every corner and hiding place. Daniel was losing his mind and Lani was becoming bored, so Daniel left the room for the candle that had been his friend when Lani was silent for that glorious time.

"Ok, I assume that's everything here, but now Daniel's flipping the fuck out."

Correction: Lani was becoming annoyed.

"Feeling better, Daniel?"

Lani sighed and Daniel chose to leave with his head pounding away.

"Let's go back out into the sewer thing, maybe that monster's gone."

Knowing our luck it's around a few corners and we'll have to hide with the bodies again, if not become one.

A few turns later and things were remaining calm.

"You know that monster didn't seem so bad; would've ended Daniel's horrible run of luck."

That is not how I want this to end, especially after coming so far.

Amazingly, Daniel exited out to the cistern without incident.

"And guess what, Daniel? Now that we're filled with dead man blood…"

Will you stop reminding me!

"We can get going!"

Daniel looked up and saw the raised platform he had jumped from. That was something he wished to never do again.

"Isn't that wonderful?"

Truly.

Down the ladder he went with Lani still in his head, loud as ever.

"Down we go…."

Daniel jogged back to the attached area and lit his lantern. He entered the section filled with the green smog of poison and did not feel the same way he had earlier.

At least it was worth it.

"See? We can breathe down here now, Daniel."

At the bottom of some more stairs was a thick metal door that was completely engulfed by the green gas. Daniel knew not where it led, but he was sure Lani would announce it.

"Awesome. The sewers."

Wonderful….