Alone • Liam Dunbar

Part II : Gabriel Valack

Doctor Valack sat with a content smile on his lips as he listened to the storm that raged over the grounds of Eichen House. With each boom of thunder that followed a strike of lightning, screams carried across the air from the patients in the facility. Not all of them were exactly thrilled by the natural phenomena before them, but he was.

He believed rain to be a symbol of rebirth, the earth being cleansed with each downpour that replenished its lands. The people he was up against didn't believe in such a concept, but rather resurrection. They'd lived for over a century with the sole purpose of reanimating what once was. 

Valack considered himself an optimist in their presence. He saw potential in life. A way to improve it. People just had to be willing to look with their eyes to see the truth.

His hand drifted to his forehead, a movement of pure muscle memory. The skin there was wrinkled because of his age, yet smooth too considering what had once rested there. It was almost bittersweet to him, feeling as though he'd lost a dear friend.

Valack removed his attention from the sounds of the natural war outside and focused on the girl in front of him.

Her strawberry blonde hair was soaked, as well as her clothes, from the rain outside. Her body glistened with sweat, a product of the fight that occurred during her failed escape tonight.

The orderlies and security at the facility had done a terrible job in restraining her, though Valack was hardly disappointed. The girl's actions tonight proved the depiction of her catatonia was nothing but a lie, which meant she was ready to endure certain amplifying procedures. Of course, Valack still wasn't ecstatic over the idea of having to reveal himself to her just yet, so he had put a few precautions into place.

One of the advantages given to him by the people he was up against was the gift of frequency. With it, he could manipulate the natural and supernatural world to his will and bend reality. So, rather than seeing the doctor himself, the girl saw the projected image of a dead lover.

"Aiden," she whimpered under her breath at what appeared to be a hallucination.

She tilted her head to the side in hopes that the image would go away. Valack didn't give her the privilege of ignoring him and moved her head back in his direction, seemingly bringing her face to face with death.

"Tell me about that night," he coaxes her gingerly, his hand caressing the sides of her face as he plays into his own casted illusion. The girl doesn't react, she can't react. Valack knows she's trying to fall back into the act of being a helpless catatonic teenage girl despite being anything but.

"What do you remember about the man with the talons?"

Valack is trying to get her to talk about that night. The first night.

It was the beginning of the end.

"No one saw him again, did they?" Valack adds.

"No," she confirms in a hoarse voice, a product of her raw throat. She had spent so long not saying a word and tonight had changed that as she quite literally screamed for her life, and the life of her friends.

"But that was the start of it, wasn't it? The beginning of senior year," Valack continues to question her, forcing her to recall a time in her life when everything and everyone she loved fell apart.

"What happened after that?"

She doesn't respond and instead stares at the doctor with hollow eyes with a gaze that passes right through him.

"You're not Aiden. You're not real," she breathes out.

Valack sighs as he leans away to reach for a transmitter nearby, turning the dial down. He no longer hides behind the guise of frequency and freely shows himself.