Investigator

Chapter 22: Awoken

Mort struggled to open his eyelids, he lacked the energy to even do that. But when he managed to come to, he found himself trapped in a chair. Mort jerked around in the seat trying to break free of the restraints but it was no use, they were on tight. Mort looked around, he was in an operating room with a bright light in his face. There were more oxygen tanks in the corner of the room, similar to the ones outside and all over the place, with fog coming from a tube that led to a nearby vent. Mort heard a door open behind him and footsteps, John then stepped in his field of view.

"Hello Mort, comfy? It's good you're finally awake," John said cockily. He paced around in front of his tied up employee. "It must be horrible for you, this terrible night, betrayal" John got close to Mort's face "Your friends." Mort leaped forward at John, mostly in an attempt to bite him.

"So what is this shit? You and your fucked up friends are ghosts, or demons or some shit." Mort said angrily, keeping a piercing gaze on John as he paced back and forth.

John smiled, and then laughed. He kept laughing and laughing until finally stopping and looking at Mort in the eyes. "Oh my god, really? Oh it's so good everytime." John wiped a tear from his eye. "No Mort, No. I guess I could reveal the truth to you. Zach! Tim!"

Mort heard the door behind him open again and two sets of footsteps walk into the room. Two men walked up beside John.

One was skinny, and wore a surgical uniform with blood stains and dirty and torn. He had short brown hair and was wearing black framed glasses he also had on one of those surgical masks doctors wear. Mort recognized him. He was a guard at the news studio, but he also knew him since he was the man in the main lobby that chased them all away.

The other man was bulkier and had a more rounder build. He was dressed in a ripped straight jacket. He had long black hair that was brushed down into a mullet. Mort recognized the man as the one who choked him and got into a fight with Kevin, he was probably also the one in the basement. He too was a guard at the studio.

"You see Mort, there are no ghosts, there's no such thing as ghosts!" John said with a big grin on his face. He stepped to the side and gestured towards the oxygen tanks in the corner of the room.

"These are the main attraction, it's what makes this whole thing possible. Datura, a very very strong Hallucinogen drug, which makes you see very wild things man. It's most strong when you have it as a liquid, but what happens when you turn it into a gas and flood a whole building? Well you get a gas house of fun! Add some makeup and some special effects and a prop here or there and you get people to see some wild things and lose their minds, maybe even kill their friends," John said with a sinister smile still stretched across his face.

Mort slumped back in his chair. Did he really kill his friends or was it just some misunderstanding? Did Tony actually try to choke him out or did he hallucinate that? Mort's head pounded from the headache of all this and the insanity he had endured. Mort looked up at the three "Why? Why do any of this?" Mort asked with desperation in his voice.

John chuckled. "Well, because it's fun." John began pacing again "The absolute hilarity of watching people struggle and squirm as they fight for their dear old lives only for us to end them. And that truly is the best part, the look of horror and betrayal across the person's face as I drive a blade deep within them and the life drains from their eyes. It's hypnotizing, no wait it's empowering"

Mort was disgusted and horrified beyond belief. He wasn't the first? "You're insane!" Mort yelled at his delusional boss.

John shrugged "Maybe, but what are you gonna do? Admit me to an asylum?" John said smugly. Mort struggled in his chair. He wanted to punch John, no he wanted to do more than that. He wanted to take a knife and plunge it into John and throw him off a building. He wanted to break his bones and bruise him up and then shoot him in the skull. But he couldn't, not as long as he was in his restraints.

"Usually none live and we just pay people to come here and rinse and repeat but this time that didn't happen. You caught us in a trickery spot, we normally use the new recruits of the news station since no one knows them yet but this time one slipped by since we were exhausted after three haunts in a week. Luckily for us though, he headed straight for the news studio. No one at the station knew him luckily so I just spun it as a random person, and you all believed me. But I was all out of recruits, so that's why I turned to you Mort. With your trauma and group of friends I knew it would be soooo thrilling watching you all SQUIRM!" John said, really getting into his speech as told by his enlarged pupils that made his eyes almost look black. John stopped himself from getting too excited and brushed off his jacket. "However tomorrow morning your body will be shipped to the studio, disfigured of course so no one knows it's you, and I'll tell another person to come. Rinse and repeat."

Mort looked at John with rage. "You won't get away with this!" Mort yelled at all three of them.

John nodded "Maybe not, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun until we're caught." John straightened the tie around his neck and shot Mort a grin "Well I best be going, I have to practice my speech for when I find your body tomorrow. I'm thinking maybe I'll even collapse to the floor, tears streaming down my face and I cry out in fear." John then shrugged "I don't know, it's kinda cheesy. Whatever, Tim take care of him and then meet us outside. I'm gonna go get the box ready, Zach come with me."

John and Zach walked away and out the door that was behind Mort who could hear the door slam behind him. Tim sat on a swivel chair and pulled over a medical tray with an assortment of surgical instruments on it. Tim reached over and examined the tools, most likely planning on which one to use. Mort looked at the man desperately.

"Please, don't do this. If you let me go and help get out of here then maybe I can make a deal with the police, or even better, I just won't go to them and I'll just leave town or the country, I don't care!" Mort was desperate. He had already failed his friends, now he just didn't want to die.

Tim grabbed something on the tray but lowered it down. He stared at Mort, a piercing gaze and Mort just now realized that under Tim's eyes were scratch marks. Tim looked at Mort dead in the eyes "I don't give a shit what you want, I just want to watch you writhe in pain." Tim lifted his hand and revealed a buzz saw. He turned it on and began walking towards Mort.

Mort was in a panic and he could feel the adrenaline kick back in. Mort squirmed and realized that his legs weren't tied down, he hadn't even noticed since he had no feeling in his legs until now. As Tim got closer to Mort, Mort kicked Tim in the legs making Tim fall to the floor and the buzz saw come flying at Mort. It landed in Mort lap, cutting through his already torn pants and drilling into his leg. Mort tried to ignore the pain, and instead lifted his leg over to his right hand. He grabbed the saw and cut his restraint. He noticed Tim getting back up and kicked him again back down. Mort took his now free hand and cut the other restraints finally freeing himself.

Mort stood and almost nearly collapsed, pain shot up his leg and looked down to see it bleeding heavily from his new cut. Mort turned his attention back to Tim who was now back on their feet and coming at Mort. As Tim ran at him, Mort dodged out of the way and cut Tim along his leg.

Tim fell to the floor and Mort jumped on top of him. He tried to swing at Mort but Mort just cut at his wrists making him barely able to move them. He looked at Tim and the cuts down his arm. Tim was done for, there was no way he could fight back or do anything, he was harmless now. But Mort didn't care, Mort was out for blood.

Mort took the buzz saw and began cutting into Tim's throat. Not a simple cut, a deep one and Mort didn't stop there, he just kept pushing the saw deeper into Tim's throat. Mort didn't stop until the saw reached bone, where the saw got stuck. He pulled his hand out and wiped it on his already bloodied jacket. He then heard footsteps begin to approach the door and he ran over and locked it. Immediately after there was pounding on the door "Tim! What's going on in there?" Mort looked around for another exit, but there wasn't one. He thought for a second that this was the end, but then he remembered the vent the gas was going into.

Mort ran over to the vent and tried pulling it off but it didn't budge, however it did look weak. He tried kicking it with his non cut leg and after a few kicks it finally broke. Before climbing in though, Mort turned around and grabbed a scalpel off the trap, tucking it in his belt line. Mort finally got on his knees to begin crawling through the vent, he could still hear the pounding on the door behind him.