Page 31 of Lethal
“Why are you doing this? I’m a doctor! One just like you! You took an oath, you are supposed to help people, not hurt them! You’re a liar and a monster!” I scream, as multiple bites happen at once. Tears cascade down my face, as pain and terror assail me. “You’re right, I am a doctor and a scientist. By conductingmy experiments, and learning how to dissect the human psyche, I’ll be able to save humanity one day. I’ll be able to curb the urges of violent offenders. Offenders like the monsters you profess to love, the ones that existed, and perished, long before you ever stepped inside of Wellard’s doors.”
Perished? What the fuck does he mean?The twins are alive. I was just with them last night. Has he had them murdered? I would know if they were gone, I would feel it in the connection deep inside, the one that the three of us share.“They were here in the early 2000s, Cece, they killed so many women, luring and kidnapping them, and then eating them. Real live cannibals, can you believe that?”Caterina’s cheery voice penetrates through my mind.
“Remove Miss Vaughan from the crate, I believe she’s having a breakthrough, and is in a position to listen.” Halstead’s strong voice cracks through the voices in my mind, and I take a deep breath, holding it as I feel a rat clawing at my neck, its whiskers twitching and rubbing against my jaw. The lid of the crate lifts suddenly, blinding me with bright light, and I hear and feel all the rats scrambling, trying desperately to escape. Large hands roughly grab me by the shoulders, forcing me to sit up, and my head immediately swims. “I see the rats had a little treat already, good for them.” Halstead stands before me, his hands buried in his pockets, as his henchman, Henry, lifts me out of the crate, and the final rat races for the dark shadows.
“Place her on the chair and restrain her,” Halstead instructs Henry, and he drops me painfully onto the medical chair, and wraps thick, leather straps around each of my legs, my chest, and waist, ensuring that the only thing I can move is my neck. I want to escape, I want to stop breathing with all the fear that saturates me, but a huge part of me refuses to give up. I can’t leave here, not even in death. I can’t leave here until I punish those whohurt Cecelia, and find the twins. I have to keep them safe from Halstead.
“You see, Cecelia, I have allowed you to live in this delusional world you created to soothe yourself, after you committed your most heinous crime, for months. I did it in hopes that it would offer me a new understanding of how grief breaks a person from their current reality.” He leans forward and brushes my tear-drenched hair away from my face. “Do you remember how you killed your cousin, Caterina Vaughan, in a fit of rage and paranoia? Do you remember how you strangled her with your bare hands, until she stopped breathing, and then tore her body apart like an animal?”
“WHAT? You’re lying! I’m Caterina Vaughan! I’m still alive, I’m right here, you sick bastard. You’re lying about Cecelia. She was gentle and broken. She couldn’t have hurt anyone. You broke her, you experimented on her until she couldn’t go on any further, then you killed her, and disguised it as suicide!I’ll fucking kill you, Halstead!You’ll pay for what you did to Cecelia, to all the others you’ve been testing on!”
Halstead turns away with a disturbing calm, and that might even frighten me more than his threats, and the rats. He grabs something reflective off a nearby medical table, and brings it back in front of me, holding it up to my face. “Look in the mirror, Miss Vaughan, tell me what you see staring back at you,” he demands.
At first, I close my eyes, refusing to look at the reflection, and playing his malicious games. He must motion to one of his henchmen, because they come up silently behind me, forcing my head straight with their arm around my neck, and choking me. My rapid loss of oxygen has me prying my eyes open, and staring into the mirror before me, and what I see not only shocks me, but destroys me. “No, no, no, no! It’s not possible... this is a... trick. It’s not real... not real... can’t be.”
“What do you see, Miss Vaughan? Who is it that is staring back at you?” Halstead demands with an icy edge.
A sob rips from my throat, a wretched sound filling the air, as I stare at the emerald green eyes staring back at me, in a pale face featuring high, sunken cheekbones, covered in pale freckles. Her once-vibrant, thick, and silky blonde hair is now long, thin, ragged, and brittle. Her emaciated features stare back at me, mocking the image of Cecelia I’ve always known. My lips open to speak, and the image reflects the same movement back to me. “It... it can’t be... she died.”
“No, Cecelia, Caterina died, you killed her. You murdered the one person who tried to save you. First, with your brother, and then later, by bringing you here. She did everything she could to protect you, and you rewarded her with death, and then, in your mind, created this elaborate world, where you needed to avenge all the harm inflicted on Cecelia Vaughan,on yourself,and in your fractured mind, you took her place.”
I try to fight him off, the man holding me from behind, my limbs frantically wrestling with the restraints, but it’s no use, I’m strapped too tightly, a prisoner of Halstead, and I fear I am going to die. The man behind me breathes against my hair, his chin pressing down on the top of my head. “You’re so pretty when you scream, Blondie. I hope Doctor Halstead lets us have a taste of you.”
My head swims, and colors dim before my eyes. I want to disbelieve what Halstead is telling me, but something within me breaks, shattering a shadow that has been protecting my mind. As it breaks apart, rapid images fly in front of my eyes, the first one has bile racing up the back of my throat, and I gag over and over again.
Before me, Cecelia sits primly in a leather chair in an empty therapy office. I take note that the bookcases, and all the walls surrounding her, are devoid of any possessions. My eyes searchthe space and land on the large, empty wooden desk behind her, which sits with a thick layer of dust, discarded and forgotten. I force my eyes back to Cecelia, noticing that she has an old, torn bedsheet wrapped around her bare legs, fashioned into a distorted skirt, as she sits prim and proper with her legs crossed. The bones protruding in her collarbone fill me with despair at how thin she’s gotten. In her lap is a weathered, leather-bound book, and she’s intently scribbling away, as she stares at the two empty metal chairs before her. I turn my gaze in that direction, and my glance runs over the rust, and old, dried blood stains, on the metal frame of the patient chairs bolted to the floor. I watch, bewildered, as Cecelia’s lips move, while she concentrates deeply on her task, and her words have a shiver racing down my spine.“Are you worried, Sebastian, that I’m not qualified to treat you? I graduated from an Ivy League medical school.”
No response comes from the empty seats, and I stare at her stern expression with horror ravaging me. In my mind, I picture the images of the twins filling those barren seats, and I choke on a whimper. The words she uttered, I know for a fact, were the same ones I said. How can that be? I move closer, afraid to startle her, but she doesn’t halt in her task. I lean forward over her shoulder, and stare down at what she’s writing. The paper is filled with scribbled words, but line after line is nothing but the same four words.
She turns her blonde head toward me, and her eyes meet mine. “None of this is real, we need to wake up now. The monsters are coming, CeCe.”
The scene rapidly switches, and I feel my stomach lurch with its velocity, my head spinning, as if I’m on a roller coaster ride that I can’t get off. I force my shuttered eyes to reopen, and I’m immediately confronted with a white, padded room. My heart beats ferociously inside my ears, the sound threatening to drown me. I know this room, I remember what happened here. No, I don’t want to relive that again. This is too much. I... I can’t survive it a second time. Perhaps Halstead is correct, and I’m weak. “Please, no... I don’t want to see this,” I whimper, but no one answers me.
The door opens, its hinges creaking menacingly, and the image of the emaciated Cecelia walks through, wearing an old, tattered, and stained doctor’s coat. I watch mesmerized as her head turns back and forth as if searching for something,no, someone.Her stare meets mine, and her ragged, chapped lips rise into a pitiful, distressing smile. “They’re coming, CeCe. They love us, they want us. I am theirs, I belong to them.”
“NO! RUN! Please run now, don’t let the door close!” I scream, but she turns away from me, humming a tune under herbreath that I’m almost positive is the one Wren always sings. The door closes with a bang, and she almost seems shocked, as if for a moment it wakes her from whatever daze she’s in,I’m in,if Halstead is to be believed. The padded wall shifts across the room, and I panic, knowing what’s coming next. I throw myself in front of her, trying to protect her,us,but it’s no use, it’s as if I’m made of nothing but shadows. I watch as the orderly enters the room, a menacing, lecherous grin across his face.“Miss Vaughan, you shouldn’t be down here alone,”he drawls.
I stand there, furious and filled with unbridled rage, as I stare at the man before me, the one I know means me harm.“Who are you? Don’t come any closer, I’ll scream.”My lips move of their own volition, and I take a risk to look behind me, but Cecelia is gone, and I’m in her place. I can see my ragged blonde hair tumbling over my thin arms, camouflaged by the doctor’s coat, and my bare knees tremble as I force my body to remain standing.
A psychotic-sounding laugh echoes around the room, loud and ominous.“That’s the point,”he growls as he lunges toward me, and knocks me into the wall.“You can’t run from me.”Smack.“You can’t pretend you’re better than me down here. No one’s watching you now.”He uses his brute force to rip open my doctor’s jacket, as he keeps me dangling in mid-air, and my body struggles for oxygen.“We’re going to have some real fun, slut. I hope you don’t mind it rough.”My fingernails find his face and tear through his flesh, as I croak, “Please. Come now. Come now, come now, please!”
My agonizing words must shock him, because he loosens his hold enough that I can push him away, and he stumbles backward, tripping over his own large feet. I fall to my hands and knees, gasping for air as I rub at my throat. The secret padded door remains ajar, tempting me with escape, but as I try to head in that direction, he crouches, getting ready to attack me.A maniacal laugh leaves my lips, and I charge at him instead of attempting to escape, kicking and punching. I slam my head into his, and he falls backward, groaning and clutching at his scalp.
My voice bounces around the padded walls,“He touched her,”I snarl, completely unhinged.“He touched her, my porcelain doll! MINE!”My arms move, and I throw a punch at the man’s face, before grasping onto his thick neck and squeezing.“What has five fingers and a death wish? HIM!”I dart my head forward and bite down on his ear, the taste of his flesh repulsing me as he screams, and I continue tearing at his skin, over and over, until a piece rips off. I spit out the offending contents, and the walls before me smear with red.“He touched her, Bash! He bruised her! He wanted her to bleed... her blood belongs to me, to us!”I scream.
No! This didn’t happen like that; the twins were there. They saved me from the orderly. It was Wren who bit him, not me, and those words were all uttered by them. What the hell is happening here? Am I losing my sanity?
“You killed one of my men, Cecelia, do you remember that now? Perhaps I should refresh your memory further, since we are lucky that the cameras were still working in that part of the asylum, to capture all your sins.” Halstead’s voice rips me out of the deranged memory, and my eyes meet his. I’m no longer sure if I’m seeing him, or a monster before me. I’m unsure what is true and what isn’t. The world has flipped on its axis, and I don’t know if I have lost my mind. Am I who he says I am, or is this a delusion fueled by some fucked drug he’s given me?
Please, Bash and Wren, come save me from this monster. I can’t hold on for much longer. I feel my mind slipping.
A tablet appears in Halstead’s hand, and I’m uncertain if he even moved. All my senses are dulled, and overwhelmed, I’m losing time, and I feel like I might pass out at any moment. “Your attention for a moment, Miss Vaughan. It is quite a show thatyou put on. I really didn’t believe that you had it in you, despite hearing how you tortured, mutilated, and hung your brother from the rafters of your parents’ garage.” He nods his head, and the asshole behind me forces my head straight once again, as a video starts to play on the tablet, the sound loud and clear of me screaming hysterically in glee.
“Hurt him. Flay him. Cut out his teeth and sew them into his eyes. Rip out his heart and make him cry!”I watch with disbelief as the video version of what Halstead claims is me, angrily grabs the man’s hair, and slams his head again and again into the dirty floor, as I straddle his body, using all my strength to subdue him. My fingers rise to my face, covered in the orderly’s blood, and I caress my own skin.“You’re safe now. He can’t touch you again,”my shaken voice utters.
My gaze on the video stares off into space, meeting only the padded walls.“You already punished him,”my voice trembles as the words leave my ravaged lips, and rise into a blood-tinged smirk.“But he’s still breathing.”
My hand on the video makes its way into the pocket of the jacket, and utter fear overcomes me, forcing me to lose control of my bladder, as I moan, attempting to thrash and release myself from Halstead’s man. “Please, please don’t make me watch this!” I beg, but Halstead just laughs.
