The Evil Within-The Final Showdown

Mad Man

I sat on the edge of the bed, the darkness of the room pressing in around me from all sides. At any moment, they will come to my door and take me for my treatment. I looked down at my hands in the dim light, counting the number of scars that covered them. My last round of treatment had been brutal. Strapped to a table as doctors initiated electrical shocks through my body. Necessary treatment for my hallucinations and nightmares, they had explained. Doctors were supposed to help people but here, they only seemed to aggravate the conditions of the already sick people. The patients were an upsetting sight. Their screams and cries were met with lashings by doctors with an angry temperament to match. I didn't scream or cry though. I would always remain silent, appearing as vulnerable as possible.

My heart almost found its way into my throat as I awaited my treatment. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be pleasant. It was my fault I was here though. I shouldn't have said a word to the Krimson City Police Department about my experiences. They had shaken their heads at the story I had told. Deemed mentally unstable and clearly sent into trauma by the murders at Beacon Mental Hospital, they only saw it fitting to admit me to the very place I wanted nothing to do with. I laughed harshly to myself. This was supposed to help me? Lock me up in the place my supposed fragile state of mind had arisen from? But, of course. Who would have believed my story about Ruvik and being trapped in his mind? If any person had said they had been fighting for survival in the mind of a serial killer, I doubt anybody would believe them. How stupid I had been! I was no more than a once fine detective who had fallen from grace. I had lost everything. My career, my wife, my daughter, my partner and probably soon, my life. One by one, something important to me was always ripped away from me. Sobs started to rise up in my throat, threatening to choke me.

Don't cry, Sebastian, I warned myself. It would only result in more treatment.

The staff at Beacon Mental Hospital viewed me as nothing more than dirt under their feet. Nightmares would threaten to engulf me in the middle of the night, forcing me awake in a fit of screaming and crying. The guards outside my door would be in my room in seconds, one holding me down as the other would sink a syringe into my arm, the substance plunging me back into the sea of terror I had just escaped. Most of the nightmares would be about dying a slow, torturous death at Ruvik's hands. His crude smile would spread across his face as he worked one of his torture methods on me. Others would be about losing my partner, Joseph Oda. I still remembered the moment the bullet had found its way into his chest, ending his short life in an instant. A single shot from Juli Kidman's gun was all it took. So clever she was, she tricked me into thinking she was a rookie detective. Nobody would have guessed she had ties to a covert secret organisation.

The steel door of my room slowly creaked open, a shaft of light from outside spilling into the room.

"Mr. Castellanos," the guard in the doorway said, pleasantly. "You are to report to Dr. Avers."

I nodded, saying nothing. I stood up and walked towards the guard, keeping my eyes to the floor. I found that avoiding eye contact with the staff mildly improved their treatment towards me. The guard gently took my arm and led me down the hall. He was one of the nicer people around here, showing sympathy to me. But I still distrusted him. Being subjected to Ruvik's horrors made you question peoples intentions. So my eyes remained glued to the floor, seeing nothing but the cold tiles and the white uniform I had to wear. I reminded myself of Leslie Withers, the gentle boy with a fragile state of mind. Always wrapped in the official uniform of Beacon Mental Hospital and bare feet, he was a sorry sight. Even thinking of Leslie was painful as I felt that all too familiar feeling of grief. He hadn't met a nice end. Ruvik had tried to take advantage of the innocent boy, to gain control over his body so he could enter the real world and continue his sadistic practices. Leslie's fate remained unknown. I presumed he was dead.