NOR - Jill & Charlie's thread

[Laraqua]

The wood is firm in Louie's hands, the mop holding up his weight as he awakens to himself with a brief start, with the queer sinking sensation of a micro-sleep. His blue janitorial uniform is clean but for a few bleach stains. The air is warm and clean with the hospital tang of detergent and sterile plastics.

Jill awakens with a jolt as her chin slides off her fist, her elbow on the cabinet at the foot of the bed, her body sitting on a chair. She wears a nice daisy-print dress that her husband has always loved. A children's book lays open on her lap - Ronald Dahl.

The curtains on the Children's Ward have been pulled back, allowing the waning light of the dying day to fill the room. The television set is on. A children's show involving dinosaurs is on the air. Several of the children are sitting up in their beds, watching the show eagerly. Others watch her and Louie curiously. A few of the children - Alisha, Brianna, Corey, Dahlia - are all still asleep.

[imme]

Jill tries to hide her shock, and manages to keep her jaw from dropping open, yet she can't help but run a hand down her leg, where her wound is ... was? She glances around the room, half expecting to see some new monstrosity emerging from the corners. The children she remembers from her--was it really a dream?--are asleep ... should she wake them? Had they really shared her nightmare? As she looks out of the window at the beautiful sunset, she barely manages to keep tears from trickling down her cheek. Of course it was just a nightmare. Of course it was.

It is then that her eyes catch those of the janitor, what was his name? Louie. He had been there. Does he remember? Is that even possible?

[Piano man]

Louie looks around and grabs his wrists automatically. He sees Jill sitting in the chair. His infatuation with her is suddenly not so important. It was too real, but did it happen. He see's Jill checking for something on her leg that's not there just like he did with his wrists.

"Jill? Are you ok? I think I'm losing my mind."

Louie see's Brianna lieing in the bed and starts to weep.

"She's ok....I didn't....She didn't. I won't do it Brianna. I promise."

He sinks to his knees beside Brianna's bed and hold her hand.

"I'll take care of you."

[imme]

"Yeah, of course I am. I just nodded off, nothing really happened."

Jill is unnerved when Louie begins weeping and, worse, she's afraid that the children will be disturbed by his strange behavior. Although if his behavior is the worst thing they have to worry about right now, that's not so bad. She moves over to him and awkwardly pats his shoulder. "C'mon, Louie, these kids are trying to watch TV. Let's go out into the hallway, okay? We should leave them in peace, right?" She tries to keep a reassuring smile on her face so that the children are not worried.

[Piano man]

Louie rises and follows Jill into the hallway.

"I don't know if I just had a nightmare or if I'm getting a second chance to set things right. My gut feeling is telling me to get all of those kids out of there before the metal wires come out of the toilet and start killing the children." Louie pauses and looks at Jill for a second. Unsure if he is sounding like a madman. Maybe he is mad. "I know I probably sound crazy, but it was so real."

[imme]

The breath catches in Jill's throat at Louie's mention of the wire thing and whatever she was about to say is lost for a moment. "You could go check out the toilets, see if there's anything suspicious." It must have been a dream, ... but it doesn't hurt to check things, right? Especially if it helps shake off this sense of dread. "But I'm more concerned about the children who are still asleep. They could still be there, or, you know what I mean. But is it safe to wake them? What were you doing there before you woke up here?"

[Piano man]

Louie notices Jill's reaction to the mention of the wires. The fact that she didn't out right call him crazy makes him think it might not have been a dream.

"You're not going to believe me, but I was outside the hospital surrounded by the spirits of children covered in water. It looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off and everything was covered in ash. The next thing I knew I was here. It was a bad dream right? Tell me I'm crazy. I'd rather be crazy than for all of that to be true. It was so real....and the things I did......I....."

Louie trails off and seems to be lost in his own thought. The geeky comic book, starwars loving guy isn't what he used to be.

[imme]

Jill looks at Louie with concern. "I ... I'm going to assume that it was a nightmare. I don't think that we have to be crazy or think that it was true. Somehow we both shared a weird dream. Maybe something's gone bad with the food in the vending machine..." Jill doesn't seem like even she's willing to believe that, but she presses on. "Anyway, it's over now, right? So let's gently wake up the kids who are still asleep in case they're still stuck in that nightmare too. Okay?" She's not quite sure why, but it seems very important to Jill that they wake the kids soon, before something bad happens to them in the dream. It could get worse.

[Piano man]

Louie looks back into the room with a sad look on his face.

"Something tells me that we aren't going to be able to wake some of them. I think another doctor has sedated them, and if they shared the same dream as us.........well...I don't think..."

Louie trails off like there is something that he wants to say, but can't get the words out.

"I guess your right though we should wake the kids. If this is a second chance we need to be prepared. Dammit I'm just a janitor. There is something you should know, but.........I...promise you won't hate me...please."

Louie looks genuinely scared. He has something to say, but is afraid it's unforgivable.

[imme]

Jill looks confused. Why would a doctor have sedated them? That was just in the dream. The longer she's awake, the more willing she is to believe that it really was just some nightmare. How could it have been otherwise? Sure, it's strange that the janitor had the same dream, and the kids who were in her dream are still asleep ... but Louie interrupts her train of thought with his plea. "Why would I hate you? Louie, are you okay? What's the matter?"

[Piano man]

Louie stares at Jill in the eyes deciding what he wants to say. Finally he takes a deep breath and let's it out before beginning.

"It wasn't a dream. If anything it was a vision. My family has been part of an organization that meets below the hospital for generations. There are caverns below that are hundreds possibley thousands of years old. My mother has been pushing me into it since I was a small child. I have a title, but that's not important. What's important is that this group has been trying to keep the spirits that inhabit this place under control. What we saw is what happens if they fail. My job was to bring a sacrifice.......Louie looks back into the room, and then back at Jill........the problem is I can't do it. I'm a failure and everyone is going to suffer for it. Brianna was supposed to be the one. She's like a daughter to me, and she hates me. I did some terrible things to try and protect her. The problem is she thinks I'm out to hurt her. I won't do it. There has to be another way. I know you think I'm crazy, but I'm telling you the truth. I don't know why, but I trust you. I swear to you that I don't want to hurt anyone.

Louie stops talking and stares at Jill, giving her time to let what he said sink in. She hates me. She thinks I'm a monster. I didn't want to tell, but I couldn't keep it in anymore.

[imme]

Jill stares at Louie, dumbfounded. She opens her mouth, realizes she doesn't know what to say, and closes it again. She glances around the hallway, but there's no one near enough to have overheard.

The easy answer would be to assume that Louie was crazy, or maybe just that he still was caught up in the nightmare ... but some of what he said seemed to make sense of bits of the dream. She couldn't believe him. What he said was crazy, and if it was true, it means the dream wasn't just a dream, and she doesn't know if she could handle that.

She looks into the ward, where the children were happy and peaceful, and then brings her gaze back to Louie. Staring him straight in the eyes, she challenges him to make her believe him.

"Show me the caverns."

[Piano man]

Louie gulps when Jill asks to see the caverns. The last place he wants to go is back there. There wouldn't be time to set everything else right.

"What about the children. If what we saw comes again the children will be ripped apart. Plus Carson hasn't been infected yet we might still be able to save him. There are so many people we could help. The only thing going down there would do is possibley get us into trouble. They don't take too kindly to outsiders intruding where they shouldn't be. I'll take you if your set on it, but we need to make a stop on the way down. There is a room that has some guns in it. We may need to protect ourselves.....well I'll be fine, but I would rather you were protected. Dammit.......you don't know what your asking. I don't know if I can protect you. The cult has members everywhere, you even know some....like nurse Hammond for one."

Louie stops talking abruptly fearing he is sounding like a lunatic and just stares at Jill waiting for her reaction.

[imme]

The more Louie says, the harder it is for Jill to dismiss it as crazy rantings. The talk of guns and protection shakes her, as does the mention of Nurse Hammond. "If I remember right, there wasn't much we could do to keep the kids from being ripped apart." Jill stops and takes a deep breath at the memory. Somehow she seems more angry than afraid, and this gives her strength. "Besides, I don't see why what happened in the nightmare has to be the future. For one thing, I don't have a big bag full of construction materials with me." At least, I don't think I do. "And I can't believe what you're saying unless you show me somehow that it's true. And if it is, then I guess we have to figure out some way to stop it, right?" Jill swallows a sudden desire to start crying. It wasn't fair; she had woken up from the nightmare, it was just a dream, and now here's a guy who's trying to tell her that it's not--that it's real.

[Piano man]

Louie nods his agreement.

"Your right. I don't know if there is anything I can do to prove this to you other than take you with me. The thing I'm most concerned with is this real. I mean is this another trick done by this god foresaken hospital. The last thing I knew I was surrounded by the spirits of past sacrifices, and I refused to hurt them. I have the ability to stop one supernatural attack if I need it. Kind of like a get out of jail free card." Louie pulls out the vial from around his neck and shows Jill. It's full of a almost glowing blue liquid. " I had a shotgun and a black cloak too. I'm assuming they are back in that room I got the gun in. That's the room that it happened in......where Brianna killed her."

[imme]

The blue liquid unnerves Jill.

"Wait, what? What happened with Brianna?"

[Piano man]

Wait, what? What happened with Brianna?"

Louie closes his eyes and he appears to be crying softly as the memories wash over him. In a calm voice that contradicts his appeance he tells his storey.

"We were in a room. A room I knew to be safe from all of the weirdness. It turns out we should have stayed away. Brianna, me, and childrens preformer name Ronald left and I took them there. When we got to the room it was full of members from the cult. I tried to get them to play along. They knew how important my job was, but Ronald was out of control. He was yelling at them, telling them they should be out there helping people. I went back into the hall to get Brianna some pain medication, and when I got back Ronald was still yelling. Poor Brianna was so scared. I put my shotgun down on the bed, and that's when Dr. Sutcliffe shot Ronald with a tranquillizer gun. Brianna panicked, and grabbed the shotgun. Before I knew it there was nothing left of Dr. Sutcliffe. Brianna was ruined for the sacrifice. They wanted to kill her and Ronald, but I wouldn't let them. I knocked Ronald out with the butt of a shotgun and then threatened them, and told them to make sure Brianna and Ronald weren't hurt. They had to listen to me. None stood higher. I didn't know what I was going to do. I just knew that people needed help. That's when Nurse Hammond and I set off into the hospital. She was set on getting another sacrifice, but I wanted to help as many people as possible. The next thing I knew I was here. Now you know everything. It would have been better if I had been killed. With everything I've been a part of I deserve nothing less. Brianna hates me now. She thinks I'm a monster, and I can't help but think she might be right."

[imme]

Shivers run up and down Jill's spine as she listens to Louie. As if speaking to herself, she mutters, "When Nurse Hammond appeared to help us move the children ... she was really only there to collect another sacrifice?" She sighs deeply. She recognizes that Louie is in pain, but can't bring herself to comfort him. If what he says is true--and it's getting harder for her to deny it--then he has been involved in some horrible business. But she doesn't fear for her own safety; he does seem authentic in his repentance, at least.

Jill runs a tired hand through her hair. "Louie, listen. What happened in the dream hasn't really happened yet, okay? So let's try to stop this all before it can begin." I can't believe I'm saying this. "What can we do?"

[Piano man]

Louie shrugs and looks at Jill with a look of hopelessness.

"That's the problem. I don't know. You see the one thing I forgot to tell you is that the people in this group are not violent by nature. Most of us are pacifists. We have been researching for generations how to stop this without a sacrifice, and so far no other option has presented itself. There may be one or two violent people associated with the cult, but that is it. We are made up of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters all trying to stop the world as we know it from ending. That's why I feel like such a failure. Every other person in my position, in the past, has done thier job. With one exception, but that is why there are more than one betrayer. Just in case one of us fails. Even though none of us enjoy the sacrifice, it is still a necessary thing. Without it everything we have experienced is doomed to repeat itself, but I can't do it. I can't hurt a child. I thought I could. I knew I should, but I couldn't. And as far as I know the other betrayers have failed, or we would not be going through this. So if you have any ideas I'm up for hearing them."

[imme]

Jill takes another couple of steps away from the door to the ward. Questions pour into her mind faster than she can decide which to ask. "I don't understand any of this. Why are there caverns under the hospital? Why does a sacrifice have to be made to stop ... whatever it is? And what is it, anyway? What do you mean 'with one exception'--did the sacrifice not happen once? Does the sacrifice have to be a child? And why isn't this all just a bad dream?"

Jill's face brightens for a moment. She grabs her upper arm between thumb and index finger and gives it a hard pinch. She looks up at Louie again and groans in frustration.