Descent Into Madness

Chapter 16: Heck of a Day

I stared at the phone in my hand. If she was to be believed, then Dr.  Abraham was responsible for all of this.

Placing the phone back on the desk, I took another look around the room. Was the woman in the video the one who trashed it?

But it still didn't make sense that the phone worked.

Maybe Phineas came here, found it, and fixed it? It made more sense than it somehow managing to not only hold a charge but remain intact after however long it's been. But how would he have known to fix it? That it would have a somewhat informative video on it? Even if he found it in the same place I did, it's unlikely he would have used the video game reasoning on it. He would have been guided by curiosity alone to do that.

My thoughts continued to swirl as I left the room. It didn't help that I didn't know where I was going past 'this way down the hall.'

Groaning, I ran a hand over my face. A mistake as it turns out. My foot caught on something in the two seconds my eyes were covered, and I stumbled. Pain shot through my jaw as my teeth banged together from colliding with the wall.

I hope no one saw that. I rolled my eyes. Of course no one saw that. There's no one else in this hallway...

Straightening up, I tasted metallic tinge of blood. I ran my tongue around my mouth, expecting to find I'd bit my cheek. Not feeling anything, I continued down the hallway, still allowing my tongue to search out the source.

I stopped dead as I felt a tooth shift at the slight pressure my tongue had applied to it. I hadn't hit the wall that hard, had I?

That was diffidently where the blood was coming from and, after a moment on hesitation-I'd washed my hands off not that long ago-I stuck a finger in my mouth to touch the canine. It moved easily. Almost subconsciously, I slipped my thumb into my mouth as well and gripped the tooth. It slid out as though it wasn't even attached to the gum.

Blinking, I removed my hand from my mouth and stared at the tooth.

That's... not normal.

I swallowed the blood in my mouth. My tongue poked at the new gap, touching a small bulge on the gum where the tooth was.

It reminded me of when I'd lose a baby tooth, and the new one would start to come in. Which didn't make sense. At least, not in a way I wanted to admit to.

The tingling in my back suddenly became overly noticeable, and I shook my head, memories of the broken containers cutting into it filling my head. 

The creatures I'd fought with, did they have strange teeth or human ones?

I couldn't recall. I had paid attention to as mainly details about them as I could at the time, but the memories were hazy now. Was this the start of a mutation?

If I find Phineas, will he even look like himself anymore?

The thought triggered horrible ideas of finding him only to not recognize him, maybe even killing him without ever knowing that it used to be my brother.

My breaths grew ragged as the tooth fell from my limp fingers. I'd almost killed him once already, and mere thought of his blood, his death, being on my hands was unbearable.

But if I didn't know it was him...

I ran a hand through my hair, squeezing my eyes shut. I'll burn that bridge if I come to it.

Forcibly slowing my breathing, I started walking again. Either I'd hit a dead end or find something. I looked at every picture still hanging, peeked into every trashed and bloody room.

Made myself focus on anything but the dark places my thoughts wished to stray.

Both about Phineas and about myself.

My hands fiddled with lose thread on my shirt. The digits still stiff.

Then a pressure hit me from behind, and I was face planting into the carpet.