The House of Sorrows

Chapter 42: "Remembering"

*VzzzzzzzVzzzzzzz* Black to white, overwhelming light was permeating my eyes. My head hurt, in fact my whole body did.

Where was I?

What happened?

I don't remember anything. I remember a plan, but I don't know why we were planning something.

Wait

Who was I planning with? What day was it?

God I'm so tired—

"Hey look who's finally awake, how are you feeling?" A disembodied voice said from beyond the lights flickering in my eyes.

"Who are you? What's going on?" I asked quietly, my voice was quiet and gentle.

"I'm Bailey, you're in the hospital. You were found bleeding badly in an alleyway." She spoke softly, or maybe my ears were just adjusting to the sudden noise.

"What happened?" I questioned her but I can't remember if she answered, I was out of it, like time was skipping past.

I'm not sure how long I had been there. I think I was being given anesthetics to ease my pain. Honestly I wasn't even sure that I wasn't dead. I did regain some of my memory, I remember George and Holly, and a boy named Anthony Lockwood. I knew that I loved him, and I remember all of our time together, working cases, and being friends. I knew everything up until the point of finding an envelope in my room. I think it was a few weeks ago, maybe longer. I just don't know why I couldn't remember anything.

But that's when it started. The nightmares, the cold sweats. Because of the drugs I was almost constantly sleeping, so the fear was reality for me. The nightmares were horrible, coming only in increments, as if to torture me. But they weren't horrible because there were monsters. But because there was a man. I think his name was Freddy, I remember him saying he loved me, but then he killed Lockwood, I remember him wanting to hurt me, and then I remembered a night where my friends and I came to fight him. But it all went wrong and I tried to...kill him? What. Why would I do that.

These dreams, they felt so real. I could feel the cuts...wait, the cuts, the gash across my stomach, the pain on my arm, they matched. Why did my injuries match my dreams, I don't—

"Good morning sleepy head, how are settling in? I hope it's going well." She asked, her name was Bailey, right?

"I'm okay I think. My body hurts, what happened? And I keep having these dreams, a man, and my friends. I don't understand." I said to her, a hint of questioning was implied in the statements.

"Oh honey, of course your body hurts. He won. In the end he died, but in the long run...he won. You lost." She told me with a newfound coldness.

"What do you mean?" I whispered, my voice fading from louder to softer over and over again.

"Freddy, he's real. They're not nightmares sweetheart. It all happened. Remember?" She spoke and suddenly it all flooded back.

The note, baby blue; he shot him, killed him, but then he was back; we caught him; he escaped; we found him and planned; I went off course, I tried to kill him; I did, but I got hurt; and—Lockwood, he wouldn't look me in the eye, he was ashamed; I ran; I collapsed; and then I was here.

Why was I here? Why did she know this?

"Who are you? Really?" I put emphasis on my question, I knew something was wrong.

I'd just now noticed, this didn't seem like a hospital room, why was I constantly drugged?

""I'm Bailey, like I said, I did lie about the hospital part though. You're at my house, or job of sorts." She said with a smile, it would've been a comforting one if the situation didn't feel so...off.

In a moments notice all of my senses went on overdrive, she knew, she knew about Freddy, and Lockwood, and me. How? Something was wrong, so wrong. Who was she? Doctor? Nurse? Friend? Accomplice. She was Freddy's accomplice.

We had suspected that someone had helped him break out of prison but we never found any evidence. I was stuck, drugged in the house of the accomplice of the man I killed, the man who hated me.

Why am I alive? Why didn't she kill me?

"What do you want from me? I know you're Freddy's accomplice. What haven't you killed me?" I squeaked out, trying not to sound like a scared little girl.

She laughed and said that that wasn't her plan. Not yet. That she was going to fix me up and make me her new partner. I was Freddy's replacement. Normally I would have been confident that my friends would come and save me. But now. Now I was alone. She was right, he had won in the end. I was back where I was years ago, alone in London, with no one to care.