PSYC Ward: Explorer

World 9: The Gallery

PART A: Welcome Back

HERC-LOG #07:

The subjects continue to demonstrate increased intelligence, activity, and empathy. My studies on the empathy hypothesis were approved and run by Dr. Nurse, who I trust as the only one capable of it. Her findings show that empathy is, in fact, increased. We ran the traditional "stab a doll in the leg in a setting where it looks like your own" experiment, and their reactions were far more severe than the control group. As a final note, some of the earlier subjects are "spacing out" quite frequently. Further study is required.

PART A: Welcome Back

There were a lot of things Rachel was expecting to see when she passed through the portal back to Magicant. A memory of Singer Castle, the Garden, maybe even The Night Sky. She was not, however, expecting to step out into a large enclosed space with a hanging chandelier of glass and candles hung over a fountain in the center, with a pair of stairs that led straight up to a visible second floor that overlooked the whole thing. It took Rachel a second to realize the fountain wasn't just an ordinary fountain. Specifically, it was a three tiered fountain whose central pillar was made up of the corpses of four people who had been melted together into a single, large piece. Two were female, two were male. Any other feature of their person had been lost in the fused wrinkles of molten flesh. The 'water' from the fountain was produced from the mouths of the people, who drooled out blood instead of water. The three tiers came off of these people, and had a framework built of bone with eight segments, making it more octagonal then circular. Not that Rachel was being picky about shapes right now, there was a fountain made out of dead melting people. The only part of the fountain not made of the human was the pillar connecting the third tier to the second, which was glass. Through it, the mechanism that operated the fountain could be clearly seen - a large, still beating heart, pushing blood up from pool to the mouths.

What the fuck was this place?!

A sandwich board stood in front of the fountain. It read, in red letters made from scratching painted fingers across it,

"WELCOME TO THE GALLERY

NO eating

NO drinking

NO fire

NO complaining

NO crying

NO UNINVITED GUESTS"

Rachel approached the fountain, seeing a plaque standing in front of it, going over to inspect it. This panel had the piece's name written on it: The Bastard's Fountain. Kyle, on the other hand, was beginning to shake and tremble, dropping the Celestial Cloth in shock.

"Wh-hat is th-his?!" Kyle asked.

Rachel froze up. She immediately ran up to Kyle and hugged her.

"I don't know, but we're okay. You're okay. They're dead, they can't hurt you. C'mon, calm down."

Suddenly, the entire room lit up a deep, dark red. The walls began to look like they were oozing. Suddenly, letters appeared on the floor in front of them, splashed in mysteriously appearing red fluid.

I - N - T - R - U - D - E - R - S - !

It didn't take Rachel a second longer to figure out what it was. A lot of sights and sounds could be convincing enough to fool a vampire's senses, but the scent of human blood was something that could never be mistaken for anything else. The entire building began to vibrate violently. Rachel just held on to Kyle tighter, while Kyle began to scream. Images were filling her head.

It was Kyle's room again. Laying on the bed, trying to sleep, when she heard a sound like nails on wood. Cautiously, she leaned over the bed to see what it was, and saw, clawing its way out from under the bed, a new creature. An unclothed torso with a tuft of blond hair. It had one arm, and a head, but everything else had been cut off. It wasn't leaking blood from its wounds, but instead a milky white fluid.