Rite of the Last Breath - Rebooted

Chapter 2 - The Entity

Darkness.

Pure, unending darkness.

The air smelled of darkness. Sally didn't know how, but every single one of her senses told her it was dark.

Which it was. 

Very dark.

So dark that it made a black hole look like a supernova.

Sally learned something that day, although since there was no light she couldn't really call it a day.

She really, really hated darkness. And boredom.

She lay there, unable to move, unable to do anything except think.

"Is this the afterlife? Seriously?"

Sally didn't know how long she lay there. All she remembered was a tight feeling around her neck, and a clang as the metallic stool clattered to the floor. 

...

Seriously, what the hell was she supposed to do? If this was hell... well shit.

...

Hey look! A light!

Well, sort of a light. It was a black light, but it was still brighter than whatever miasma she was surrounded by. It looked like it wanted her to reach out and touch it. She wanted to curse at it and yell that she couldn't. Eventually it seemed to get the memo, and it reached out to touch her. Then everything went black. The blackness almost burned Sally's eyes from how bright it was.

...

Sally sat bolt upright with a jolt. To her credit, she didn't scream or gasp. Probably because she couldn't - her throat burned with every breath. She could hear herself wheezing. She sounded like that catatonic boy in A-39.

Wait. Where was the catatonic boy? Where was Kavanagh? Jenner? The Bad Man? Her head was totally empty, and the silence made her very uncomfortable. 

All except one.

Spencer.

Of course, Patrick Spencer had stayed with her. Somewhere in her fractured mind, she knew she could count on him to always be by her side. Or in her head. Wherever her brain ended up, really. As always, Spencer was silent, but his reassurance brought Sally immense comfort nonetheless. He didn't need words. 

Spencer really was just like Andrew.

For the first time since waking up, Sally decided to survey the room she was stuck in. Except there was a pillowcase on her head. She reached up to try and pull it off, but it felt like it was stuck to her neck. No matter; she could see through it anyway, but it confused her nonetheless.

From what she could make out, she was still dressed in her nurse's gown, but it was dirty and tattered from "detaining" all those patients. The belt, looped around her waist to prevent the gown from slipping, was faded and the buckle was warped. She couldn't take it off - not that she had anything else to change into.

The room around her was just as faded as her belt, and her bed creaked with every movement. There was no blanket, no pillow to go with her case, and no duvet. Just a plain, stained mattress. She didn't want to think about what it was stained with.

The walls were dirty and blackened. It looked like one of the Crotus Prenn patients had been given a flamethrower and locked in the room for an hour. There was a bench next to her bed, with... a bonesaw on it? Not the strangest thing she'd seen, but enough to unsettle her, certainly.