Inanimate (50 page)

CHAPTER 50

The grounds of the old
building
were
vast; sparse trees dotted a landscape that seemed to go on for
miles. A car pulled up beside a large elm only a hundred meters
from the dumpsters at the back entrance. Dawn wasn’t far away but
it was still too early for the garbage men. After exiting the
vehicle, the figure moved swiftly across the yellowish green grass,
hopped the fence and slinked into the caged area near the fire
escape. A skilled knowledge of the building allowed the man to
enter through one of the fire exits. He knew the orderlies always
made sure this door was not connected to the alarm system so they
could slip out for cigarettes without the doctors knowing. Once he
opened the back door he was confronted by a dark set of stairs. A
knowledgeable hand flipped a switch, flicking on lights like
falling dominoes down the stairs and off away from his immediate
sight. The man walked down the stairs. The long hallways lined with
various colored pipes were similar in length to the long hallways
above. Gas, water, electricity, telephone and internet were all fed
into the building from here and all had a different pipe or cable.
He wasn’t entirely sure which way to go from down here so he kept
his eyes out for directions. All the signs down here were faded.
Stickers had been put on the walls years ago to help guide the few
who frequented the underbelly but, a combination of time and
dampness had all but destroyed them. It was a struggle for him to
read some of the signs now but he did through sheer determination.
These catacombs reminded him of the sewers he had seen on movies.
Normally meticulously clean, the very state of things down here
made him feel ill. Having to be down here only fuelled his anger,
driving him on, pushing him forward. He turned right down a short
intersection, read a sign and turned left. Then he read another
sign and made another right. There wasn’t even a strong odor of
anything down here, there was just so much dampness and so many
cobwebs that he thought there was. He wretched. He stopped; bent
over in the corridor and wretched. His brain was telling him there
was smell and it was foul. After bringing nothing up but a bad
taste he wiped his mouth, swallowed back down some of the taste and
moved forward. On the wall there was a greenish, half peeled sign
that told him his destination was just up ahead.

CHAPTER 51

The room
was dark when she opened her eyes.
Lying face down on the dirty brick floor Anne felt pain all over
her body. Her left arm was numb; she couldn’t move it at all. Using
every muscle she could muster she pushed herself over onto her
back. She gently gritted her teeth then, with her tongue she
checked to see if she had lost any. She hadn’t. Anne could not
remember the last time she cried. These creatures attacked her and
killed people right in front of her, not to mention the fact that
they forced her to take a life (even if it was Tony Oates) but
still, she was not about to let them see her cry. Only once that
happened would she truly be beaten. With her right arm she pushed
her way to her knees. When she sat up she realized she must have
bruised or perhaps even broken a rib or two in her felt because
breathing was painful for her. Her eyes tried to adjust to the
darkness. Only a little light came from the staircase and she was
not aware that the switches were only a few feet away from her. In
this unique and deadly situation she had never found herself in
before, her normal thoughts did not come into play right now.
Looking for a light switch should have been the priority but it
wasn’t. Self-preservation was. She used her good arm to sweep the
floor in the darkness. It was after almost a full minute of
searching did she remember her shotgun was not with her when she
was thrown down the stairs so it was extremely pointless searching
for it.

“
Shit!”

She hissed aloud as soon as the
realization hit her.

“
Anne…”

Brian’s voice
echoed hauntingly
around her ears.

“
Brian?”

She perked up, confused.

“
Is that you?”

“
Of course it’s
me
…” came
Brian’s voice “…come on over and give me a hug.”

Anne’s eyes squinted into the darkness
ahead of her. She shook her head hard.

“
No! It’s not you Brian, I
know it’s
not!”

Anne started to get to her feet. She
forced confidence out of every pore she had; she needed this
creature to know she was strong despite everything.

“
There’s only one dummy in
this room!”

Her quip, enforcing her strong will was
about to be thrown in her face by a second voice.

“
Anne…”

The voice changed into that of Anne’s
mother, her thick Polish accent catching the pretty blonde off
guard. The thought that accompanied the voice finally caused her to
well up. Overwhelming grief surged through her body. She knew that
the only way Dummy could imitate her mother’s voice was if he had
met her. And she knew what that meant.

“
Mom?”

Anne
cried out through her first tears for
as long as she could remember.

“
Yes sweetheart, it’s me. I was
wrong about Brian. Go to him, give him a big hug.”

Anne backed up sobbing, when she felt
stone against her back she slumped to the cold concrete below
her.

Her head shook “No mom…not you. It’s
not you it’s not!”

“
But it is me dear. I’m here
with Brian. Come on, hug him, he misses you.”

“
No…”

Anne protested weakly.

“
He wants you princess. He
wants you so badly.”

Anne sat; years of tears built up were
flowing now. She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t want to.

“
Anne! Do as your mother
tells you!”

The third voice turned her aching
muscles to jelly. She flopped over into a limp fetal position on
the stone floor. Her father’s stern command broke her spirit
completely.

“
Who’s the dummy
now?”

Dummy’s croaky voice came with
two separate chuckles, one from him and one from Connor.
Anne could hardly
anything through her own pain as Dummy crept from the shadows
mocking her.

“
I wanted to laugh
so bad there! That
dummy comment you made really tickled me! You have no idea how bad
I wanted to laugh!”

Curled up, unwilling to help herself,
all Anne wanted was a quick end so she could meet her parents and
apologize for involving them in all of this.

CHAPTER 52

Slinking up a small staircase the figure
unlocked and opened the door at the top. Now in the west wing of
Hallcombes his first stop was close by. He approached the solid
white door in the dim light and pushed it open hard. Caught off
guard, a relaxing Tim spilt a warm cup of coffee he had been
nursing all over his well-used white uniform. The immediate fright
from being startled wore off quickly when Tim saw who it
was.

“
Jesus Christ Frieda! Can’t
you knock?”

Frieda stared at him for a long moment,
watching him try to clean himself up with a napkin from a fast food
restaurant. Tim looked at the doctor and sighed.

“
I’m sorry doctor, I didn’t mean
any disrespect. You just scared me that’s all.”

Tim paused.

“
And now I need to wash this
again. You’re here kinda early today.”

Foregoing any kind of banter, Frieda
simply said all he needed to.

“
I need the key to
101”

Tim sighed
heavily, he felt he had dealt
with this already and he did not want to deal with it
again.

“
Oh, not you too, go home doctor!
I’m not giving you the key.”

Tim turned away from Frieda and put his
feet back up again. There was nothing much worth watching on his
television but that didn’t matter. It took his mind off of his work
and that was all he wanted. Frieda closed his eyes for a second. He
was sure Tim wasn’t this rude to Doctor MacNamee when he asked for
the key, in fact, when Frieda watched MacNamee kick the door, Tim
was still more respectful.

“
I’m a doctor.”

Frieda stated this quietly but
firmly.

“
What was that?” Tim asked
nonchalantly, not turning around.

Suddenly, Frieda raised his voice and
pulled out his revolver.

“
I’m a doctor!”

Before Tim could turn around Frieda fired
three shots into his stomach and chest. The bangs in such a small
room gave Frieda a high-pitched whine in his ears which cancelled
out the sounds of anything else. He yelled again and fired three
more at Tim but he couldn’t hear is own voice. He could barely hear
the last three gunshots and he certainly did not hear the empty
clicking sound as he attempted to keep firing with a spent
revolver. The ringing in his ears was inconsequential compared to
the feeling he got when he took a life. A life he felt was worth
taking as Tim had treated him so disrespectfully. In his mind, he
was completely and utterly justified. He stared at the large bloody
body of Tim the orderly and smiled. This was justice; great justice
and he had completely forgotten why he was here.

In his periphery he noticed the
keys dangling from Tim’s belt and suddenly it occurred to him why
he was here. He turned to the steel cabinet by the door and looked
through for the key to “101” but it wasn’t there. He had an
excellent guess as to where they were. Unfazed by what he had just
done he put a hand into Tim’s pants pocket and found nothing.
Luckily for Frieda, Tim was sitting on a swivel chair when he
killed him so it was easy to turn him around and check his other
pocket. There they were; gold colored, dangly. Frieda squeezed them
in his hand for a moment
before slipping them into his coat pocket and
heading out the door.

CHAPTER 53

MacNamee was struggling to fight off the
smaller dummy. It stood above his knee, it was no easy feat and he
was slowly being whittled down. Jacobs had managed to fight off
Basket but had taken another clawing in the process. He was losing
blood but losing it slowly, the claw marks were not very deep but
they were draining him. He was not determined he was not finished
yet however; he was not going out right now.

“
Matthew!”

MacNamee had grabbed a table leg from
the makeshift fire the dolls built and was using it as a bat to
defend himself from the small dummy. He called out but Matthew was
still on the ground pretending he was still winded. He did not want
to help, he wanted to stay there and hope he was left
alone.

“
You fucking pussy! Get up
and give me a hand!”

“
Why do you need a hand” the
dummy quipped “you’ve already got a leg!”

The small dummy kept trying to attack
but MacNamee kept swiping, keeping him at bay.

“
Matthew!”

He didn’t want to help but he looked
down and suddenly he realized there was almost no-one left. Anne
was dead for all he knew and that left three. Jacobs and Oates did
not look good so that only left one still standing besides him. He
had to act, or it would be him versus the dolls and he would be
greatly outnumbered. He spotted the pistol he dropped right beside
him and decided to go for it.

“
Aarrgghh!”

With a cry designed to psyche himself up
he scrambled to his feet, picked up the gun and charged. As the
smaller dummy turned in surprise MacNamee struck it on the head
with the wood, knocking the well-suited villain to the floor.
Matthew pounced on top, shoved the pistol in its mouth and squeezed
the trigger. After the dummy’s head exploded Matthew turned to
MacNamee with a goofy smile. MacNamee was in no mood for
celebration as Basket was closing in on Jacobs again.

“
Help Anne!”

As Matthew scampered off MacNamee tackled
Basket, trying his best to pin down the devil clown. Jacobs was
stubborn but struggling. The more he exerted himself, the faster he
was weakening. As he watched the doctor struggle with the colorful
beast his vision started to go blurry. He watched as MacNamee stole
a look at him and he saw the fear in his eyes. It was clear from
the doctor’s expression that Jacobs did not look good. MacNamee had
to help him. Firmly and swiftly he grabbed the clown, rose to his
feet and threw him way across the room in a desperate attempt to
have some time to help Jacobs. He just hoped it would be
enough.

Dummy’s partial skull was slightly
illuminated by the light from the staircase. He chattered his jaws
in anticipation for the kill.

“
Don’t
worry about your parents; they’re
safe in here with me. You’ll be with them soon.”

Matthew bounded down the stairs just as
Dummy held her by the hair and was about to chomp down on her face.
The first bullet snapped his arm, the second fractured his jaw. The
proceeding barrage of bullets broke up the hideously fixed smile
and glassy eyes that had taken too many victims. Dummy lay on the
ground in pieces; his limbs were still trying to move. One arm was
trying to drag his torso towards the shooter but Matthew coolly
kicked it across the room, out of site. Quickly he kicked some
other shards of the once monstrous being away from the cowering
Anne and embraced her. “Anne, you’re alright!”