The Infinidex - Part 8

"Hail? There ain't gonna be hail in a roofed hospital like this. Mistress? Last time I checked, Thomas Bart wasn't married, so how could I possibly be a mistress. Furthermore I only went out with that fella twice, that doesn't qualify me to be a mistress does it? Although I do agree that my silky fair skin makes me all that attractive that maybe Bart would have hired this fella to come grab me like some romantic love-smitten desperado, or I could be going insane..." thought Mary as she spaced out.

The cold and hard grip of a wet wrinkled hand on Mary's leg shocked Mary out of her extremely long and a total waste of time imagination. The hand however quickly went limp as a bright flash enveloped the room and all that was left in the room was a disintegrating body with a gaping hole in his chest region that belonged to Alex. In the hole laid the star-ball.

In the matter of seconds, the room was empty, devoid of Toby, Alex and that strange glowing armor. All that remained was the star-ball and cracked marble. "Erm, Ok..maybe I need some suppressants too..." Thought Mary confusedly as she picked up the star-ball and placed it back in her pocket and stumbled out wondering how she was going to explain herself to Bea.

********

"Darn! What is wrong with this hospital!" thought Ben angrily to himself as he ended his playing prematurely. The room was dark and windowless, and so was the corridor outside. "What kind of hospital will experience a blackout!" shouted Ben loudly as he slammed the covers of the piano back down. Of course Ben could play "Forever Love" in the total darkness. That was the result of constant practice over the same song that surpassed his counting ability. Of course all musicians had to know how to do the basic counting because music had the beautiful infusion of mathematics within but when the number of playthroughs have reached a number so high that the (x^) function had to be used, no one sane would keep count.

Ben felt his way out of the room and stumbled into the corridor expecting that the pathway be less dim then this void of light. To his dismay, it was strangely dark too despite the presence of windows that should have allowed the midday sunlight to pass through. "Geez, looks like there is going to be rain..." thought Ben to himself as he reasoned out an explaination for this phenomenal darkness. Memory flashes of him and Hazel cuddling in the cafe in the music of the raindrops as well as the tightening of Hazel grip whenever thunder shook the cafe walls sprang to his mind.

Ben took a deep breath and felt his way down the corridor to where he remembered the staircase was. It was sure strange that this hospital seemed to lack a blackout contigency plan thought Ben to himself. Slow paced footsteps besides Ben's could be heard but from the looks of it, the other patients would have rather stayed in their wards and await instructions, or they are unable to have left their beds anyways.

"Sorry!" exclaimed Ben as he bumped into a clammy body passing along his path. The figure merely grunted a reply and continued along his way. He kept his body leaned on the left wall which was where the staircase would be.

A bone chilling scream suddenly thundered through the corridor.
"HELP!" screamed the person and futher cries were muffled probably by the perpetrator.

The scream came at the wrong time for Ben however, as it came exactly when the left wall gave way to the stairway and it distracted Ben long enough as his hands lost his grip and his feet lost his footing as Ben tumbled down the stairs hitting his head violently against the wall, his weight acting against him, drawing blood and causing a deep blackness to cloud Ben's vision as he lost consciousness.

******

"Julie, how's dear Mr Patterson reacting to the new medication?"

"His appetite has improved a lot but recently he has been complaining of constipation."

"Oh that poor man. Please check with Dr Brown whether the dosage should be reduced"

Huh, what is happening, who is Julie and what am I doing here?

"Can anyone hear me outside? The door's stuck. Can you help us? Anyone out there?"

What am I seeing? I never seen this sight before...

"Ahhh! My arm!"

Huh?? The arm is gone... But I am not feeling any pain.. Is this me?

"I am losing blood...somebody help..."

Is this a different person? Thats the other person who lost the arm... What is that black figure over her... I cannot get a clear focus...

"Yah, my mama told me she was from outer space too, the other day I when I visited her."

"But you know what, you might be right, seems like there's a pair of invisible sunglass blocking out the light. Everything's a notch darker than usual. This isn't natural"

"Holy ..."

Huh...This is another room...Oh no! The guy has been sucked into the washing machine...The water is starting to turn red...

"There's no escaping the darkness"

"AHHH KAREN! What are you.... NO MY NECK!!"

What...another blackout... what happened to these people... are they in this hospital?

"Oh so sorry sir, I didn't see you there...would you please proceed back into your room while we get the electricity fixed sir? There is nothing to...Sir...you are gripping my neck...AHHHHHHHH!..nmmnmmnmm"

This was.... just now???

"Ben!"

HAZEL? Who is that figure before you??

"Come with me. The darkness have taken over this place. You are no longer safe."

No!! Don't follow him... who is he???

"No. I have to get to Ben, I have to warn him if there're more of these things around"

Yes!! I am coming for you!

"Listen, do you hear anything?"

"No, I can't hear anything"

"Precisely. It's too late for your friend Ben, but it's not too late for you, if you come with me."

"But if you come with me, I will show you the truth, and when you do, many will be saved. I am Destiny. Take the red pill and together we shall see how deep the rabbit hole goes."

No!! Hazel... NOOOO!!!

"The warm trickling of blood flowed down from my forehead. I could feel it flowing over my eyelids but it didn't matter, it was too dark to see anyway. But as I opened my eyes, I saw the staircase I fell down from, a figure passing across the staircase. My vision was all red, probably from the blood, but I could see. The figure stopped, turned her head towards me and her tongue sticked out of her mouth AND CONTINUED TO ELONGATE TOWARDS ME!" Ben's hand stuck out in reflex and grabbed the disgusting tongue/spear thing. The fluid around the tongue stung like acid but Ben wrapping the disgusting muscle around his palm and pulled, dislodging the tongue and sending out a spray of blood before the figure fell backwards and writhed in pain.

Ben looked at his burnt hands and his twisted feet. It was painful, but for Hazel's sake, Ben placed both hands on the acid coated floor, pulled back his legs and stood up painfully, and continued down the stairs seeing through his red tinted vision.