damned_institute | NIGHTSHIFT 40: Doctor's Office 8 [Dr. Disraeli]

At least the office had... character. There was a bunch of old stuff everywhere and a picture of a lamb on the back wall, yet the office still managed to give off that creepy doctor vibe. Great. Just once he'd like to walk into an office that was full of puppies and kittens and unicorns shitting rainbows but apparently that was too much to ask for.

A quick (and somewhat cautious) exploration of the room turned up no monsters lurking, but the look he gave the desk was apprehensive at best. There wasn't anywhere else for the files, so one (or both) of them was going to have to stick their hand into something dangerous. "Maybe if we stand in the same place he did we won't get hit by whatever he's got in there." Badou took a drag of his cigarette. "Or we could grab someone from the hall and make them do it. I vote plan B."

Artemis smirked a little. "If you want to pull someone from the hallway--the one that's probably filling with smoke right now--be my guest. We may be camping here for longer than we have."

The boy frowned at the desk. Perhaps if they did stand in the same place Disraeli had... Though that assumed that it was a gas and not something Disraeli produced himself.

"It's possible that he was the cause two sessions ago," Artemis reasoned. "The desk may be safe. He also could have hidden some sort of mechanism somewhere to release a toxin of some kind."

Really, there were too many variables to be considering such a course of action. If he could be reasonable, Artemis would insist they retreat and come up with a plan that didn't involve 'try and see'.

"Those are the probable causes I can think of. Perhaps we can guard ourselves against them. If it is a toxin, perhaps covering our nose and mouth would be enough."

Badou rolled his eye, mostly because Artemis had a point. Damn, where was his unkillable meatshield partner when he needed him?

He didn't know anything about the doctor, so that was pretty much his only guess concerning the desk traps. He'd prefer a full face gas mask or something if they were going to chance it. Man, this place was just way too dangerous.

Or if it's a knife we'll be dead too quick to care. "Kids these days are nuts." Badou replied, but he frowned and gave it some serious thought. "Forgetting tonight would be annoying as hell but it's not going to kill us I guess. It'll be like a bad hangover." Ah, reassurance. Badou had no faith in this plan at all. "...Let's just try this out and hope someone up there likes us more than your doctor."

"Wait," Artemis said. He moved over to the couch and sat down, leaning to rest on his hand. He was trying to recreate the scene in his head--even though he couldn't remember exactly what had happened. The wheels in his head turned.

"Whatever hit me, if it came out of a drawer, it was one on the left side. It must have been," Artemis said, standing up. "If I'd seen him open a drawer and then remove nothing, I would have been suspicious. Also, mundane objects such as pens and supplies tend to be kept on the side of the dominant hand. I believe he's right-handed.

"...however that doesn't tell us the location of the files. They could be in a left-hand drawer. This may just be mere speculation as well. We could be worrying about nothing."

Fat chance of that.

"I'll take the right drawers," he said.

"Yeah ok." Badou crossed over to the drawers on the left side, fully prepared to just yank them open, but his brain finally caught up with his body at that point and he moved his hand away. "Wait, why am I talking the dangerous ones?!"

Then again, the doctor could have mixed them up after Arty saw him pull out whatever so it might be perfectly safe. Or both of them could be boobie trapped. There was no way of being sure until one of them opened a drawer. Haine would laugh himself shitless over this. Badou Nails: beaten by yet another inanimate object. That was pretty much the opposite of hardcore.

Stupid desk. "You go first. That way, if you pass out I can dump you in my room."

"Be..." Artemis began, his tone sounding rather defensive. "Because if something dangerous comes out, you have the highest possibility of dodging it!" Of course. That was it.

Or it was that Artemis just didn't want to lose his memory again. This was ridiculous, all of this for some measly pieces of paper that might not even say anything important. He was putting people in danger for his own gain yet again. He didn't like it.

"By that logic, I should open all of them..." Artemis said, looking intently at the top of the offending inanimate object. "I can't carry you, after all."

The boy took one of the drawer handles and pulled, looking inside cautiously. Just some mundane articles.

"Yeah, or getting killed by it! I'm just a regular human you know." He knew sooner or later he'd just have to give in but he liked to think he could take it like a man: whining and complaining the whole time.

He watched Artemis open the first drawer, and after a couple of moments where nothing happened he rolled some of the tension out of his shoulders and took another long drag.

"Actually, I'd probably end up dead either way." He added thoughtfully. "Your boyfriend would kill me if something in here actually hurt you. At least you can bring cigarettes to my sick bed if something happens to me. In fact, I'm demanding that as payment. If I get hit by something nasty you owe me smokes."

Despite the complaining mere moments before, Badou sounded rather cheerful about this proposition. After all, if he got hit by the memory thing Artemis could fill in the details and score him some more cigarettes. He'd done more dangerous things for a puff. And, well, he really didn't want Artemis to get hit by anything serious.

Artemis frowned at the prospect. If something got Badou, he hoped Badou would be conscious enough to smoke--that his brain wouldn't be brain-flavored yogurt. Disraeli was dangerous. Artemis had never even heard of a toxin that induced selective memory loss, and yet he'd been administered it without knowing. Or Disraeli did it without touching him.

Of course, if Badou was hit by something nonlethal, then he'd have to find him cigarettes. Which would include... requesting a trade. The thought that he would be the party at the mercy of the party in possession of said cigarettes made him a little irate. He didn't feel comfortable taking Haku's after all.

Artemis crouched down to the second right-hand drawer in the desk, stepping to the side slightly. He opened the drawer slowly. More supplies.

"This is incredibly anticlimactic. I'm hoping they're all like this."

Artemis hadn't said no (or anything at all for that matter), so Badou figured that counted as silent agreement or something. Sweet. Well, the sooner they found the file the sooner they could stop trying to figure out what special surprises were hidden inside the desk.

Badou chuckled and turned back to the left hand drawer. He stood a little to the side and pulled it open slowly. "Now you jinxed it. The first one I open will be..." The smile faded instantly. Badou was silent for a few moments before he said. "Hey, Arty? Your doctor is a complete freak. I found something."

Artemis wasn't surprised by the declaration that Disraeli was 'a complete freak'. He'd known there was something off about the man for a good while now. What he was surprised by, was the content of the drawer.

There were jars of eyes carefully placed in there. Jars of preserved eyes, as though they were being studied. A set of gray and a set of hazel from what he could tell.

Silent, and his hand shaking a little, he withdrew the paperwork kept in the drawer--documentation for the eyes. He was clearly studying them. At their first meeting, Artemis vaguely remembered Disraeli taking an interest in his eyes, but he hadn't dreamed it was something like this.

"I believe I'm in trouble," Artemis said, staring at the pages, but not really reading them. His doctor was obsessed with eyes, to the point of hiding them in his desk, and Artemis had time-tunnel induced heterochromia.

Yeah, no shit. Badou thought. He just barely stopped himself from making a crack about Artemis being able to pick up a matching pair now. Considering the way Arty's hand shook when he pulled out the paperwork, Badou really didn't need to pull that particular trigger if he could help it.

"You mean there was a time when you weren't the target of some depraved freak of nature?" Oh, much better than his original thought. For some reason he couldn't take his eyes off the...eyes. He'd shot people in the head with a machine gun and eaten Kiri's day-old pasta (not necessarily in that order) so it wasn't like he had a weak stomach. Maybe because it was easy to imagine Artemis' eyes floating around in his doctor's drawer one night. He already had a hazel pair. He reached over to rest a hand on Artemis' head. "Don't freak out Arty. Isn't there some reason that your head's this big..?" He tapped it with his finger. "Overinflated ego or something like that?"

He felt a little weird and uneasy in general to be honest. Nothing had popped out of the drawer besides the eyes but... Was he just getting paranoid or something?

Edited 2009-05-10 23:33 (UTC)

Artemis laughed at the attempt to cheer him up--weakly. He still was reeling over the thought of Disraeli locking the door behind him and using the time they had to... add to his collection and dispose of the body. His body. He was starting to develop a headache over this, as well as a growing feeling of general uneasiness--strangely unconnected to the evidence before him, upon further thought.

"I don't think an overinflated ego, or my genius could fight of a doctor hell-bent on removing my--" Artemis looked up and immediately backed away, eyes wide. He'd thought it was Badou's hand on his head, but there was a man he didn't recognize standing where he'd thought Badou had been. He looked to his right, and when he didn't see Badou, he pulled one of his scalpels out of his pocket.

"Who are you," he demanded firmly. "Where's Badou?"

As much as he liked to protest and pout, Badou couldn't remember a time when Artemis had actually moved away from his hand. Was he really that freaked out by the eyes? He nudged the drawer closed just in case. "What the hell are you..."

He stared. Artemis wasn't standing there anymore. He was looking at himself at sixteen holding up a scalpel in a less than friendly manner. Who else would have let themselves get such a goddamn stupid hair cut? He didn't move any closer. He didn't dare do anything until he'd lit another cigarette. The sound he made was halfway between a laugh and a snarl.

"That's not even fucking funny." He moved away from the desk, searching, peripherally aware of...whatever lurking there. Probably just an illusion or some kind of memory shit. "Arty, where are you kid? If you keep getting in trouble I'm going to put you on a leash."

Artemis continued to back away from the unknown man until his back hit the bookshelf on the wall. It wasn't coming after him, but it was... looking for him. Was it blind? He was standing right there with his back to the wall.

His eyes darted around the room, trying to find Badou. He wasn't there, as far as he could tell--unless he'd stuffed himself inside the desk. Which meant that... whoever that was, was it Badou?

How to test it, though? The last thing he needed was to go trotting off with a monster and be eaten. Badou would give him hell for that--if Haku let him live long enough. But it talked like Badou and smoked like Badou, and threatened him like Badou...

He looked at the wall, noticing that it was filled with medical volumes. He pulled one, double-taking at the title. 'A History of Physics in Its Elementary Branches'? This book had been published in 1899... No matter.

Artemis cracked the book to a marked page and began reading, "Young's earliest researches were on the anatomical and optical properties of the eye..." Of course. "Then followed the first epoch of optical discovery, 1801 to 1804. His theory was laughed at, and he proceeded to other studies. The twelve succeeding years were given to medical practice and to the study of philology, especially the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing. But when Fresnel, in France, began to experiment on light and to bring into prominence the theory of Young, then the latter resumed his early studies, and entered upon his second epoch of optical investigation."

As he read, he watched to see what the strange man walking around the room would do.

As long as it didn't attack him, Badou fully intended to ignore whatever stupid shit the doctor had cooked up for them, even if it was himself. Where the hell was Artemis? Never mind Haku, Badou was seriously going to drag him back to the rooms by the ear when he found out where that houdini act hand landed him.

But unless Artemis' magical puberty really did include the ability to vanish into thin air, the only option was that thing in the corner going on about medical shit he didn't try to understand.

...Why the hell would an illusion of him be going on about medical shit? Badou stopped and looked at the thing again. "That's pathetic even by institute standards. I've never read like the Library's Most Wanted Nerd. Didn't you do your research you stupid shit? You sound more like... Artemis." The inflections were exactly the same. Badou crossed the room and stopped in front of the illusion of himself, grinning cheerfully in a way that people only ever got to see right before they went to meet their maker. "So, maybe you can tell me where he is little bro."

There were only two of them in the room, and there were still two of them now, so could it be..? That lingering question was the only thing that kept him from throwing that little illusion right into the bookcase and going about his business. Usually, he preferred to reason as much as possible, but in this case he didn't have the patience. Badou reached up for his cigarette, and noticed for the first time that the scar in his hand was gone. His hands themselves looked different, but vaguely familiar in a way he really didn't want to think about just then.

Edited 2009-05-11 01:27 (UTC)

Whoever this was, they were ginning at him--in a manner that Artemis decided could only be sinister and threatening. The sort of thing a mouse saw right before it was ripped limb from limb by the alley cat.

The panic that overtook him as the man (who, honestly looked rather like Badou, though he clearly wasn't) approached him obscured any rational thought he had. The only option was that whoever or whatever this was, it was clearly toying with him. Asking where 'Artemis' was when he was right in front of his aggressor. He flattened himself as far as he could manage against the bookcase, effectively cornered by the person. Cornered, no where to go, no one in sight to help him.

The person was going for their cigarette... "B... Badou help!!" Artemis screamed, swinging wildly with the scalpel at the man's midsection. Long bangs swept in front of his face. They were... red?

Badou moved back easily, staying just out of the way of blade. It was just his luck that he'd end up with a really dull monster near the end of the night, but he hadn't had a fight in a while so he supposed if he was due for one this wasn't something to complain about.

The half-finished cigarette had fallen somewhere. "Hey," Did his voice sound different? Not his but still far too familiar? "If you're going to look like me, don't call my name like that. Shouldn't you be shouting for someone else?"

Badou snatched the creature's wrist as it moved past him. Absurdly, his grip was firm but not painful. His eyes were a little wide, though the slasher smile remained in place. "Making me look like him is just bad taste. Not funny at all. So, are you going to tell me where my nephew is or do I have to rip you open and divine for it?"

Artemis struggled frantically against the hold, logical thought spinning further and further out of the way. By his line of thought, he'd given away that he was who he was (even though his hair had suddenly become red and he felt a little taller), and the creature was coming after him. Badou must have seen it and run off, or Artemis had missed some sort of vocal cue to run away. So now he was struggling in the grasp of a monster that wasn't making any sense.

That's not even fucking funny.

You sound more like... Artemis.

If you're going to look like me, don't call my name like that. Shouldn't you be shouting for someone else?

Making me look like him is just bad taste. Not funny at all. So, are you going to tell me where my nephew is or do I have to rip you open and divine for it?

Artemis looked up at Badou, his eyes flitting around the terrifying expression this person was making. If he was right, he would be fine. If he was wrong, he was dead. But most of his gambles went that way, he supposed.

"...Badou...?" Artemis asked, looking into the stranger's eyes. "Why do I have red hair?"

Isn't that familiar? Positions reversed, all that he was missing this time around was a black coat and a freaky metal mask. And for all his threatening his body refused to move any further. He couldn't do it. Not in Dave's body, not to something that looked just like himself.

Finally he stopped struggling, and Badou tried to order his frantic thoughts - a process that was usually made harder by the lack of nicotine, but strangely it came easily this time once he tried. There were still two of them in the room. That was the way Artemis talked and gave him puppy eyes, even if they were both green now. He was probably being taken in by some stupid monster, but it made more sense than the alternative (what alternative?). The grin faded away.

"...Jesusfuckingchrist." It came out in one breath. He let go of Artemis' wrist and backed up a step. "Arty? You look like... I take it back, this shit must be fucking hilarious to someone. You look like me."

It had never felt so good to be alive, as it did after being right, he thought. Artemis let out a sigh of relief and dropped the scalpel, holding the arm Badou had seized.

"I thought so..." Artemis said relaxing against the book case. "I couldn't make sense of what you were saying, until you said that I looked like you. And... I'm guessing you look like your brother. His expressions are terrifying, and somewhat like yours--though he does look different than you."

The boy let out another shaky sigh, putting his hand to his forehead in an effort to calm himself. "You scared ten years off my life, Badou. I thought you were going to kill me."

"I hate short hair." Badou added, because that needed to be said. He started to push his fingers through it and stopped. He wasn't even going to think about it because this was just too fucked up for words. But it was just an illusion. Some stupid institute trick after all. "That's just me wearing his face. Dave was always pretty easygoing. I guess one of us had to be high strung."

Man, he must have scared the daylights out of Artemis who, despite looking like him, still acted like Artemis. Killing the kid was another set of thoughts he didn't want to get into. His nerves felt more than a little bit raw, but making sure Artemis' heart was still functioning gave him something else to think about at least. "You ok? Lemmie see your wrist."

"Someone always has to be the high-strung one, I suppose," Artemis said with a nervous laugh. He went to push his sleeve up to show Badou, but found that even his suit was gone. He was wearing something completely different.

"I hope my suit is under this," Artemis complained, holding the sleeve with his index finger and thumb. "Because if I've lost my favorite suit to a parlor trick, I'm going to be very upset."

He rolled back the sleeve and showed Badou... Dave... Badou, his wrist. "No harm done, I promise."

"Somehow I doubt that they fit your whole suit under there. Sorry kid. The replacement looks pretty shabby." He hadn't been too fashion conscious at that age. Artemis' suit had been replaced with a pair of jeans and a slightly over-sized long sleeve shirt - hand me downs, and man did it show. Badou almost grimaced. His clothes weren't much better. Just a t-shirt and jeans. Pretty plain stuff.

Here he was casually thinking about clothes while he was wearing someone else's skin.

He looked at...Artemis' wrist, and since he seemed to be moving it just fine Badou nodded. "Ok. Still freaked out?" He reached over and ruffled Artemis' hair, which was both nostalgic and incredibly weird. "Don't worry, I wouldn't hurt my favourite nephew."

Edited 2009-05-11 05:48 (UTC)

Artemis made much the same face he always did when Badou ruffled his hair. It felt strange to be letting someone he (visually) didn't know do that, even though he knew it was supposed to be Badou.

"I don't think you would hurt me, but something posing as a younger version of you? Quite possible," Artemis said, smiling a little. "Did you think something had taken me? You seemed to be a bit more concerned with where I went than standing in the same room with yourself."

Badou was about to protest, but he shook his head and said, "Fair enough."

Somehow Artemis not scooting away from the touch made it a little more bearable. It was a little anchor to reality, as weird as reality was at the moment. Despite all his complaining about the habits he'd picked up, Badou knew he wasn't his brother. Even when he visited the store and dropped into that role for her sake he knew he was a pretty shoddy imitation.

He didn't want to be in his brother's skin. Some part of him knew that Dave had taught him how to survive because he knew his way of living would get him killed some day. Badou had learned from his mistakes but he just couldn't let it go...so for all he knew, he'd end up dieing like that anyway.

And yet he had barely noticed the change at all while he was searching for Artemis. Maybe the boy had a point...whatever his point was supposed to be.

"Guess I just don't like the thought of you disappearing." He shrugged, one of his common grumpy expressions returning. "I was serious about that leash. I can't leave you alone for five minutes without the whole world turning upside down and rotating backwards."

Artemis laughed at the leash comment this time. It sounded different, but it was his own--that much he could tell. "Well, perhaps next we're in town, you can visit the local pet store. 'Excuse me, sir. I have a fourteen year old, and I need a short, sturdy leash. One he can't chew through.' Or something like that."

This could be psychologically damaging for Badou, and Artemis felt as though he could be the cause of it. He was attempting to be light-hearted, to be certain, but there was probably something about looking into your own eyes that could be strange. For one thing, Artemis had both of his eyes, and no scar on his palm. This must have been a time before Badou had lost his brother and his eye.

"It must be strange, looking at me," Artemis said with a nervous laugh. "Perhaps I should go back to my room for the rest of the night."

"I'm holding you to that." He really planned to, even if it was just for a joke. He tried to smile in a way that didn't look like a grimace. Arty was trying to cheer him up. He shouldn't be this freaked out over a little illusion. It didn't mean anything. It was all in his head.

Ha ha ha, just a joke in really bad taste. Arty wasn't as dumb as he had been at that age, or as permanently pissy, so it was at best like looking into a distorted mirror. Like hell he was going to admit that this was all getting the better of him. He was Badou fucking Nails. This shit didn't work on him.

"No, it's just a stupid trick. As long as you don't mind having my dork hair for a while, I guess I can live with this too. Could be worse." Not that he could come up with a lot of ways just then. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

Artemis shook his head, "I don't think he keeps his notes in the office. He could have also trained our minds not to see the notes by now, if this is his work--and I have no doubts it is. He must work with toxins or drugs that affect the mind. How else would he have both wiped my memory and tricked my brain into thinking I was you?"

The boy tittered another nervous laugh. "And I have to be in the same room with him next week..."

"Just like last week and the week before that? Look, the only difference is you know he can make up ridiculously elaborate mindfuck drugs. Whatever happens, it'll be a dream. Just stay alive long enough for one me to pinch those chubby cheeks until you wake up." The latter part of this statement was punctuated by a demonstration of this talent. (It was weird to do that to himself.) At least he only had to deal with this for tonight. Artemis was going to be stuck with this doctor every week until he got bored or just a little too interested. Somehow, he wasn't seeing the fun schadenfreude side of this.

He let go of Artemis' cheek with a little pat. "Or maybe I'll ask Haku to give you a kiss, just like a princess. So stop with that laugh. We've got you covered."

Artemis protested loudly when Badou pinched his cheek yet again--that made twice in one night, didn't it? Honestly, they were going to swell if Badou kept up with that.

He rubbed his face, narrowing his eyes and looking both annoyed and pouty. Still though...

"Just a dream, then. And I'll wake up to you and Haku and everyone else." He smiled softly. "If that's the case, I suppose I can work through any nightmare."

"Learn to dodge." Badou, as usual, was completely unapologetic.

He wasn't sure if the possibility of actual death had occurred to Artemis, but if that happened in the doctor's office there wasn't really anything any of them could do about it so maybe it would be easier on Artemis to think it was a dream. Am I doing the right thing, big bro? What would you tell him?

Badou wrapped an arm around Artemis' shoulders, and continued casually. "So after your next appointment you find one of us. I don't know about Haku, but even if I'm with someone just interrupt. Deal?"

Artemis wasn't especially thrilled, since he knew that once he started dodging, Badou would start picking him up or find some other equally horrifying thing to do. But he didn't have much time to be disgruntled about it--Badou wrapped an arm around his shoulders and most everything was forgiven.

"Deal," he said, tucking himself a little closer to Badou, despite the fact that it might look a little strange. "Assuming I can find you. If my eyes have been ripped from my sockets, that might make seeing a little difficult," he said with a laugh.

"Scream my name like a little girl. You're good at that." Badou replied, flashing him a grin. "Infact I--"

Badou finished that sentence by coughing up blood as a sword was slowly pulled out of his body from behind, barely centimeters from where Artemis had his face tucked up against him. Why was there a sword sticking out of his body? That was about as painful as it had always looked. The room seemed to get darker, but that was just the dark uniforms against the walls. There were five of them. What little ambient light there was flashed against their swords and the metal covering their faces.

Soldiers. Badou felt a thread of real fear binding him in place. He barely heard someone - Dave? - say, "Artemis run."

He pulled the boy forward and gave him a shove towards the door. They weren't after him anyway.

It took a while for Artemis to figure out what was going on. Suddenly, there was a sword in his line of sight, and blood spattered on his face. At least, it was warm like blood. Where had that come from...? More importantly, why wasn't his magic racing to the wound? He was in physical contact with Badou.

Before he could think very long on this, he felt himself being shoved towards where the door was. Or should have been. The room had gone dark, and there were strange... things in black converging on Badou. Dave. Badou. He was Badou--things were starting to become muddled in his head.

However, the one thing that was clear in his head was that he had to protect his brother. Badou. Whichever!

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Artemis shouted, hand reaching for where his sword should have been. His hand met with nothing but the waistband of the jeans. He was unarmed. The only thing left, then, was to distract them enough for Dave to start fighting. So there he was, charging things with swords, completely unarmed. Nothing about this, though, struck him as supremely stupid.

Memories layered over the real space of the office. From where they stood concrete and exposed piping ran the length of one steep drop that ended in a short ledge far below, barely wide enough to stand on. And below that... darkness.

They were on a wider ledge with enough room to move, but there were no rails to keep them there. That was ok. He probably wasn't going to survive this anyway. This was the last big party, the one he'd thrown away everything for. So I finally got close enough to the truth, huh?

He wished Badou would run, but there was nothing to do about that now. Too much of him in his brother. "Bad boy. I told you -- don't follow me everywhere."

The soldiers didn't seem to be interested. His brother got thrown back against a wall pretty hard, two of them closing in on him, but their swords were sheathed and they didn't remove them. He'd been right not to tell Badou anything about the case. He fought to get to him anyway. What kind of person wanted to die, even when they knew it was over? He got slashed across the side chest, back, side, another stab wound as he was driven back toward the edge.

What was that sense of deja vu? Didn't they even get to say a tearful goodbye? Black soldiers stood between them, but there was a ledge down there somewhere. If he could grab it...

He fell.

There was a flash of metal as he did. One of the soldiers by Badou had stabbed him in the eye.

Edited 2009-05-12 23:52 (UTC)

This wasn't how it was supposed to turn out. How had this even happened? Why had it happened? Why had they suddenly been attacked by these people? It didn't make any sense...

He screamed and thrashed, trying to get away from the two soldiers in black, trying hard to get to... to Dave. Who was he again? He couldn't remember... he knew he wasn't supposed to be here though. He wasn't supposed to be seeing this.

The boy was thrown back against the wall, shouting in pain. His brother was still trying to get to him, but he was being stabbed, slashed... murdered. He wasn't supposed to see this...!

He was so close to the edge, yet they didn't stop attacking him. They were going to make him fall to his death. The boy tried to get up, tried to fight his way to the edge and extend a hand to catch him.

A dark figure loomed up over him, metal mask staring him down with a maw that looked reminiscent of a huge, terrifying dog. It raised a knife with the longest blade the boy had ever seen. He raised a hand, trying to protect himself from the incoming knife.

He screamed at the top of his lungs as the knife plunged straight through his hand and into his eye. He blacked out.

How long he was like that, he didn't know. But the stabbing pain in his eye and hand awoke him. It hurt, oh God it hurt. Why did it hurt so much? Frantically, he looked around the ledge, panic slowly growing as he realized he couldn't see half of what he was used to seeing. The pain was blinding him, but he was at least clear enough to realize that he was alone on the ledge. Those terrible, terrible masked monsters were gone.

But where was his brother?

One hand clutched to his eye, he crawled over to the edge and looked down. He was down there, barely holding on it seemed--but he could get to him, he had to! He called out, hoping, praying he was still alive.

This wasn't right, some distant part of his mind was telling him. He told it to shut up. Of course this wasn't right. No, he was supposed to be up there bleeding from the eye. He was supposed to live. Badou was supposed to live. Where was he?

He'd scraped his fingers raw clinging to the edge. His strength was going, but if he could live a little bit more, things would be different. The next seven years would be different. He had to live. Besides, this was such a stupid way to die.

He looked up when his name was called. Relief made him weaker, or maybe that was just a renewed awareness the blood loss. Not even enough to keep the adrenaline flowing in his veins. No time for a last smoke. But it didn't matter much. His brother was still alive.

He met Badou's eyes - ah, just one now, he'd never have Dave's good looks. He'd be so mad. He felt himself smiling a little. So much for their tearful goodbye. He didn't think Badou could hear him, anyway. Sorry, little bro. Don't follow me this time.

The last of his strength gave. In the end, nothing changed at all.

The moment Dave looked up at him, he knew that it was over. There was no way he was going to climb back up, or he was going to get down there in time to pull Dave up. The look said it all: no dice, I'm a goner.

It couldn't end like this--it couldn't end with him not knowing why those things had killed his brother. It wasn't fair, that goddamn idiot. Always bumming money off him for smokes, and he couldn't even tell him that fucking huge metal-masked dog-faces would rise up out of nowhere and leave him bleeding on a ledge, completely alone in the world. This was so wrong, but he couldn't figure out if it was because Dave was taking the easy way out and leaving him with one eye, or for some other reason that nagged at the back of his mind. Not knowing why fucking sucked.

He only held his brother's gaze for a moment, and then he slid back and fell into the dark abyss below. He immediately found his voice and screamed as loud and hard as he could, as though that would save him--as though someone would come and save them. Save him from this situation that he wasn't meant to be in.

Artemis lay on the floor of the office, sobbing quietly with a hand clutched over his eye, his other one fisted in Badou's shirt. He lay there, trapped inside his own mind until the morning came.

NIGHTSHIFT 40: Doctor's Office 8 [Dr. Disraeli]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject