UnwillingEldritchHorrorofFortune
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Chapter 91: A Game of Hide and Seek
🕑 Added 2024-03-06 14:36:06 +0000 UTCTismon notes: Hey guys, I'm still sick, but I'll upload a chapter today. Will see how much I can write today and tomorrow but might need to slow down, but I am getting better!
I rounded the corner to where the cemetery's main entrance was and strolled inside the enclosed space, making sure to close and lock the gothic gate behind me, as was expected from a respected member of this hospital. The graveyard itself was pretty impressive, with old, expertly crafted gravestones and epitaphs all lined up in neat rows. The richer families had massive monuments erected to house their dead, and the paved stone path was free from weeds and other clutter. It was a comforting place to be.
The grave keeper, or at least that’s who I assumed the hunched-over man was, greeted me with a polite nod before heading off into his hut once more. I waved back before stopping to deal with all the soil caked on me.
Apparently, I was in another dimension where it was perpetually dark and rainy, and I was very glad to have some pavement to stand on again. The mud and rain were starting to seep into my socks from all that running around, and I had to take a solid 5 minutes to scrape off the gunk from my shoes.
“It’s not going to come off, Dr. Walter,” Molly told me, “I’ve had the same thing happen when Alice dropped me outside the other day. Just have the girl dry you off when you see her.”
“Feels awful though,” I grunted, “I never thought I’d hate the rain so much, it’s even getting into my windpipes.”
Wait, my windpipes? How was it doing that?
“We’ll get you a proper hat next time, the madam should have some spare ones,” the doll answered, tugging onto the little beret that she was still wearing, “Keeps the worst of the moisture off.”
“Yeah,” I grumbled as I shook the worst of the damp rain off my head, “I’ll take you up on that offer. Any news from Alice?”
I had wondered how we were going to communicate when Alice suggested we split up, but she had some kind of psychic link to her doll that allowed them to talk to each other. Molly informed me that they’ve been doing this a lot whenever they played similar games with the patients. It made me miss the system chat a little.
“Yes,” the doll answered after a short pause, “He’s made it into the catacombs a while ago. Alice wanted to give him some time to hide, but she’s giving case right now and she needs the two of us to cut him off in there. We’ll head in on the opposite side and meet her in the middle… although I might have overdone it with the cursed dart earlier, so we should hurry before he dies.”
I remembered that small bundle of the doll’s hair that Molly shot at the patient when we first met. It was barely the size of a toothpick, I didn’t think it would do that much damage, even if it was cursed.
“The patients should be a little more tenacious than that, right?” I asked,
“There’s no way that little dart would kill one that quickly.”
Molly chuckled, “You’d be surprised by how frail they can be, Dr. Walter, but I hope you’re right. Anyway, it’s still best to hurry; just follow me.”
“Lead the way!”
The way Molly directed me kind of reminded me of the way that the twins used to guide Vadeem. She sat on my head and would point at where I needed to go, it was a little hard to follow her instructions when I was chasing that patient earlier, but I had gotten used to it at this point. I sighed as I wondered how the others in the Abyss guild were doing. I was having the time of my life here since all I had to do was babysit a kid and play some games with her. I hoped their experience was as easy as mine.
“That’s the one,” Molly said as we reached a massive stone door blocking off the entrance to one of the many stone structures that littered the place, “Just push it aside and we’ll be on the other side of Alice.”
I looked at the door hesitantly. The structure was huge, with the old mausoleum being at least 3 stories tall. The door sealing off its interior was almost as tall and just as wide. Honestly, it was more like a slab-shaped boulder than a door, and I wasn’t sure if I could even budge it, let alone move it. Well, I was pretty strong when I fought that minotaur earlier, so maybe I can manage.
I placed my hands on the smooth surface and pushed hard. The door all but flew out of the building and I had to grab onto it before it crashed into the gravestones close by. My fingers dug into the rockface just fast enough to stop the thing from careening away before I gently lowered it to the ground. The stone door was a lot lighter than I thought.
“Please don’t destroy the courtyard,” Molly lectured, “The grave keeper will not be happy having to fix it again.”
“Sorry,” I said quietly.
Molly just shook her head, “Come on then, let’s get going. I’ll seal the door behind us.”
Once the two of us were inside the staircase, Molly’s hair extended outwards and coiled around the big slab. With little effort, she hoisted it back to where it was before and closed us off. Thankfully I didn’t need any light source to see down here.
The catacomb, as the name suggested, was filled to the brim with the dead. Some of the skeletons and skulls were arranged neatly on the various alcoves and shelves carved into the bare rock, kind of like what you’d see in those famous ones in Paris, but the vast majority of bodies in various states of decay simply littered the floors. They made for horrible tripping hazards, and I swore that some of them were still twitching.
Molly noticed my struggle trying to navigate my way through and used her hair to clear a path forward. Her hair engulfed the bones and other decaying substances as it swept all around us. I wasn’t sure where all that material was going since it all just ceased to be once she was done.
“Sorry,” she said, “I forgot how cramped it is here, Alice just floats down here so I never noticed before.”
I nodded. The piles of bodies practically covered the place from floor to ceiling. I’d probably twist an ankle if I had to wade through this stuff.
Molly shook her head, “We haven’t had a chance to clean this space out since we got that influx of patients.”
“What about the crematorium?” I asked, remembering distinctly that this hospital had one on the map, “Wouldn’t it be easier to just burn all the bones here? It can’t take that long if we have some of the patients do it.”
Molly shrugged, “Cremation’s already overcapacity as it is, and we do need some new bodies down here to feed the rats. But you’re right, this is still ridiculous, I don’t think anyone we bring in here can even move with the clutter. The inhabitants will grow fat if they’re not hunting active prey. I’ll bring it up to the Director tonight to have this place emptied out, at least partially.”
I chuckled, “Seems like you’re keeping the whole hospital from imploding.”
“It’s one of my many jobs,” she answered with a tired sigh, “Wish we had more staff like you to help out though.”
“You got those interns though!” I joked with a cheeky smile.
She gave me a look of dismay and sighed even harder, “Don’t get me started on those fools, Doctor…”
“Alright,” I chuckled, “They’re more work than they’re worth, I have a few on my list I have to report later as well.”
“At least that’ll keep the madam busy.”
“So where is our escapee anyway?” I asked, changing the topic, “I can’t tell one corridor from the next. Easy to see where the exit is though, since you ate all the bones leading to it.”
“I don’t eat bones, Dr. Walter, but I get your point. I’ll make sure that our patient doesn’t come across this path and find the exit, not that he can get out the door in any case.”
I shrugged, “Better to be safe.”
“You should see his traces after you turn left there,” the doll stated, pointing at an intersection, “Just remember to let Alice play with him a bit first, and let her have the honor of catching him.”
“Like I’d steal the fun from a kid,” I answered, “It’s all hers!”
Just as Molly said, the traces of the patient were pretty clear once I walked a little bit along the left hallway. There was some faint torchlight illuminating the dark, and I could hear the echos of hurried footsteps crushing bone underneath, followed by the stifling gasps of an exhausted man.
Now how do I approach this? Patient 755 was fast approaching my location, and it would be all too easy for me to just grab him. I frowned, at this rate, he’d run right into me and I’d have a hard time finding a good excuse for letting him go if that happened. Guess I’ll have to spook him a little and have him run toward Alice’s position.
“Just have him run down the right path,” Molly interrupted once she saw my hesitation, “It leads to a dead end. Alice can have her fun there.”
I nodded and made my way back to the intersection and positioned myself in the hallway that led to the exit. Finding a suitably dark corner, I picked up a skull off the ground and waited in position. I’ll just throw it at the patient once he’s here and hope that’ll startle him enough to run in the opposite direction. Molly was tucked away down the left passage as a backup in case he decided to turn around and backtrack.
Once the patient rounded the corner, passing Molly along the way, I lightly threw the skull at the Aspirant, doing my best to avoid his head and neck. The projectile all but exploded, connecting right on his arm, and I saw to my horror that the Aspirant’s arm broke in at least a dozen places.
Worse yet were the fragments of the skull that were embedded into his face and body. I was afraid that I had killed him then, but he miraculously kept on going, not even letting out a cry of pain as he dragged his broken body towards the dead end.
Let’s just hope Alice can catch him quickly… I had a few potions left that could hopefully stabilize his condition, but that required him to be alive first. I swore that I only threw the skull lightly, but something was odd about the amount of strength that I could output.
Molly waddled over to where I was and gave me a disapproving look.
“Uh, he’s still alive…” I muttered before apologizing, “Look, maybe you were right about how fragile they were.”
“I told you so, Doctor.”
“I can stabilize him if he’s still in one piece,” I added quickly, “Can you tell Alice to perhaps hurry up a little?”
She sighed for the who-knows-how-manieth-time before agreeing. Molly paused to communicate with the girl before turning her attention back to me.
“Alice said she’ll catch him now,” the doll said, “You should be thankful that she’s in a good mood today and agreed, Dr. Walter.”
“I’ll make sure to properly thank her after.”
True to her words, Alice appeared next to Molly and I shortly after, an unconscious but still-breathing individual levitating a few feet behind her. He looked even worse than before; if Central hadn’t awakened him then I doubt he’d still be among the living. I took out one of the more expensive elixirs from my stash and quickly gestured for Alice to bring the man over to me.
I hastily poured the stuff all over the Aspirant and only calmed down when I saw that his condition seemed to improve. I also pocketed the little key I found in his pocket while doing so, that little maneuver I didn’t tell anyone else. There was one of the harder requests that Jae-Hyun had me complete out of the way, and I hardly had to do anything at all to receive it!
Once I was fairly confident that he wouldn’t expire, I had Molly wrap him up tightly and the three of us left the catacombs in high spirits. Alice began retelling her side of the game in great detail, and I chuckled at how inventive she was when she was catching the escaped patient. I guess she really was a master at the hide and seek!
Now let’s head somewhere a little quieter so I can ask this patient some very pertinent questions; I had almost gotten ahead of myself and asked him there and then, but I remembered that pesky rule about speaking with patients. I couldn’t talk with them outside of official medical procedures.
Well, I wasn’t sure if that still applied to patients who attempted to escape, but there was no reason to risk that when I could just bring him inside and book a spare operating room in the hospital. I did need to make sure he didn’t die, after all, so that must count as practicing medicine. I’ll even have some interns to help out so that if things do go badly, I can put all the blame on them instead.
More plans started to formulate in my mind as we exited the rainy weather and back into the comforts of the increasingly familiar hospital. I kind of liked it here, honestly.
Comments
Toby Lechtenbeger
I own a laptop and tablet I do all my writing in bed...
Monadologist
The irony of experiencing health issues during these chapters in particular is strong. If you go to the hospital I'm sure Dr. Walter will fix you right up.
