Sanitarium - Asylum Finale {Completed}

6. Dead Again

"Well, if I'm old enough to die for your mistakes, then let's go. Can I bleed enough to fill up what the engine takes? I don't know. But if you're watching up above, they're teaching me to kill. Who's teaching me to love? Now, baby, isn't it crazy?" --- Gun.

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Dead Again

Party's P.O.V.

I blink.

This can't be happening.

Paranoia is standing outside my office door, her palm pressed against the glass and a smile on her face. But there's something not right with her. The smile is too crazed, her blue eyes too wild. She dressed in dark colors so different from a Killjoy's usual bright attire. It was always a sign of rebellion. Could this be her rebelling now?

The song she'd been singing echoes in my head even though she's been silently staring for several tense minutes. I missed her singing, but I've never heard it like this. The lyrics have never been this dark and...well, evil. Jet Star shifts positions from beside me, but I don't look away from the figure outside my door. What's happened to her?

"Do we let her in?" Ghoul murmurs from Jet's other side.

"The door's not locked, genius," Kobra says just as softly on my left.

Ghoul gives him an indignant look. "Maybe she forgot how to open it. She's not even moving."

I find myself walking toward her. Kobra tries to grab me and stop me, but I smack his hand away and keep going. Paranoia's smile slips into a sinister smirk, and I almost turn around. No, you can't, I tell myself. You've gotta find out what's wrong with her. So I grip the door handle and pull it open, my body tense as I wait for her to make a move.

"Hello," she says smoothly, tilting her head to the side.

"Hi," I answer, just a bit breathlessly. I'm still in shock that she's here, standing in front of me. It's even more surprising to learn that she's been murdering Killjoys from the moment she got back. I just don't want to believe it's true.

She chuckles a little, looking down at her feet and then back up to my eyes. "What? You're not going to have me arrested? Lock me up, kill me on the spot?"

I step half an inch closer to her. She's only a few inches shorter than me. I don't have to look down too far. "Do you think I need to?" I ask softly.

She gives me a small smile. "If you're going to do it, I suggest you make it fast. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep up this conversation."

"Is that a threat?"

Paranoia shrugs. She suddenly squeezes her eyes shut and clutches her head with one hand. "What the hell," she hisses, but I think she's talking to herself and not me. She coughs a few times and then looks back up with a hardened expression. "Better do it now, Party."

I nod stiffly. Without tearing my gaze away from Paranoia's face, I hold out my hand and call for my brother. "I need your handcuffs." I'm expecting Ghoul to make a sexual joke, but instead he says nothing. Kobra's footsteps echo behind me. A cold metal object is placed in the palm of my hand, and then he retreats back to where he was standing before. To Paranoia, I say, "You're not going to fight me? You're just going to allow me to do this?"

She smiles, and it's the first normal expression I've seen her wear since she's reappeared. "Do what you need to do." She lifts both her wrists and watches as I clasp them together with the handcuffs. "Very nice," she murmurs.

"What is?" I ask.

She lets out a sudden cold laugh that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "Korse is coming," she says ominously. Her lips part into a feral grin and she looks down at her wrists, straining against their hold. With an inhuman shriek, her blue eyes roll back and she collapses on the spot.