"Silas?" I asked, walking towards him.
Her turned to me, and I took a step backwards at the expression on his face. I've seen the empty, hopeless eyes of a suicidal soul, and I've seen the void in a young girl's heart, who never got a chance to live. But both of those were as nothing, to what I saw in the eyes of Silas Took.
He was not a man who had lost everything, only having the memories of what once was, but a man who had even lost those memories. All that existed now, and all that had ever existed, was the being known as Mr. Slither who had taken over control. And in that one moment, I knew. Knew that Silas was aware of every single action that Slither had made him take.
"I'm going to kill him," I said firmly, tears clouding my eyes at the thought of what had become of Silas Took. "I'm going to kill Mr. Slither, and then he'll let you go."
He stared at me with his dead eyes. Already his shadow was starting to twist and distort, and the light in the room was going all weird again. But I felt the man at least deserved some hope, so I was going to stick with him as long as I could. I dared to walk forwards and place my hands on his shoulders.
It would have been a rather impressive picture of someone truly caring for another's pain, but, you know, since I'm short and Silas is rather tall, I had to stand on my tiptoes and frankly looked ridiculous. If he had been nothing but a frail old man, I probably would have pulled him to the ground and smashed myself under him. So yeah. Thinking things through is kind of important.
"Silas," I said quietly, realizing I'd kind of ruined my big moment to do something caring. "I'm going to go find one of your big, elephant smashing guns, and prune the life out of Mr. Slither. And I don't care if that doesn't make sense, he's a plant guy, and pruning is what you do to weeds I think, so there. Have faith that I'm going to get stuff done."
Silas Took's eyes quivered like jelly, starting to turn a deep shade of emerald, and I knew it was time to get moving. I nearly didn't make it as the vines shot out of his back, swishing through the air as they headed for me, but then my foot gave out on me and I collapsed to the ground, neatly ducking under my grasping adversary.
Thinking fast, or more, not thinking and relying on reflex, I rolled as I fell, gaining a little more distance between us as I headed for the door to the next room. That was when things kind of fell apart, as I realized I couldn't stand. My foot was too screwed up.
I started pulling myself along with my arms, just trying to make it to the next door so I could slam it in my adversary's face. Though I didn't dare look back, I could see his tentacles in my mind, slithering across the floor as they drew ever closer to my legs.
Whimpering like a child, I kicked out blindly behind me, but didn't hit anything. I picked up the pace as much as I could, though I was moving unbearably slowly.
"Go away!" I shouted at him, like a little kid who has awoke in the middle of the night to see a monster coming out of her closet. I thought about just pulling the covers over my head, but then realized that I had no covers and was starting to lose myself in fear. Again. Mr. Slither seemed to be good at that.
Stopping where I was, though I knew it might be the death of me, I closed my eyes and tried to pull myself together. I mentally blocked out the sounds of my approaching death, tried to picture every muscle and strand of fiber within my uncooperative foot, and then made them move. I felt pain, but no movement, ignored the pain, and scrunched up my face in concentration. Something loosened in my foot and I could wiggle my toes.
Nearly shouting with triumph, I leapt to my feet and hobbled. I almost turned around to see how close Slither had come to getting me, but it probably would have been the death of me if I had. Instead I just kept hobbling, making it to the door and through it, slamming it behind me and shooting the deadbolt into its slot. Then I kept hobbling onwards, knowing better than to stick around.
Through another door, this one unfortunately without a lock, I grabbed a piece of furniture and dragged it in front of it. Then another room, another door, and finally the room with the stairs where Sabin and Rain had nearly shot me.
Things had changed a bit since last I'd been here. Namely, the room was an inferno. It seemed that nobody had thought to put out the flaming corpse of Alec Romero, and now those very flames were quite cheerfully spreading. The way to the stairs wasn't exactly 'clear', but I figured it wasn't going to get any clearer, so I hobbled towards them all the same.
I probably burnt my injured foot, maybe both of them, but I was kind of tuned out at this point and didn't really notice. I just focused on My Plan, which went like this.
Mr. Slither was behind me, and by the time he caught up, the flames would probably have spread more. Meaning he might get burnt, maybe even killed. All of the remaining guests, save for Tatay McGee, were in one place and, presumably, safe. Sabin and Rain had probably fled to the basement, since they had spoken of taking the remaining guests there, and wouldn't have stayed here due to the flames and Mr. Slither. Which left me with only one clear route left. Head for the trophy room, grab a gun, and then make my way to a confrontation in the basement.
It wasn't a great plan mind you, but it was the only one that happened to come to mind. So cackling like a madwoman, I dragged my useless foot down the stairs, hopped off the bottom step, staggered, and started hobbling again.
I kind of blanked out again as I walked, almost in a sleepwalk-like state as I made my way back down to the first floor. It was cool, since it almost completely blocked out my pain, but a bit creepy at the same time. I would 'wake up' periodically, to find myself in other rooms and walking through other hallways, with no idea how I'd gotten there. If I'd run into a plant zombie during that time, I suspect I would have been killed without even realizing it.
After a while longer, I started to speak aloud to myself.
"Where are you taking me, Nillium Neems?"
My question was met by silence. I repeated the question, a bit louder in case I hadn't heard, but then realized I was just being a smarmy little twerp. Which wasn't surprising.
"You heard me the first time, Nil. Now level with me. What's up?"
In answer, I woke up, finding myself in a living room of some kind. Then I blacked out again, an indeterminate amount of time passed, and I woke up to find myself in another room, one that was a dead end. Then I repeated the process, blacking out, waking up in another room, this one too a dead end, and I finally started to understand what I was trying to say.
"You're searching, right? Looking for the trophy room while I'm, err, indisposed?"
I felt my head nod of its own volition, like I was nothing but a puppet, though the puppet was me. I really started to feel creeped out.
"Any luck?"
No response, which I took as a no.
"Look, err, subconscious or whatever you are. You're kind of... freaking me out. Could you please stop?"
And like that I was myself again, lovable, sane, inscrutable little Nillium Neems. I was also nearly nose-to-nose with a grizzly bear. I would like to think that it was merely my temporary insanity that provoked my next action, that if I were ever to run into a bear in the wild I would run like a madwoman, but the first thing I chose to do was reach up and pet it on the head.
It didn't react. Largely, because it was just a head hanging from the wall, which I only now realized. I'd made it to the trophy room. My face lighting up with a grin, I began to explore.
Head after head hung from the walls around me, and on pedestals scattered here and there were whole animals arranged in moderately life-like poses. A bobcat faced me down, every fake muscle tensed as it prepared to leap. Some kind of little racoon-looking thing stared on quizzically, as if contemplating why a wild Nillium Neems had appeared. Then there were snakes, not just one, but several, all looking impressively fanged.
I wandered from case to case, inspecting each display like a little kid in the zoo. My parents had banned me last year from going to the zoo, since last time I'd caused a riot. But looking at all of these previously living creatures, was the next best thing. At least, for a while.
After a time, with their nearly living eyes staring into me, I came back to the racoon-looking thing and noticed something else in its gaze. Sadness. Though I doubted that Silas Took had killed any of these himself, he had at least paid someone to do it, all for the sake of looking good in the eyes of the rich. I began to hate the man.
Now I am no animal rights activist, nor a vegetarian. I eat hamburgers and am proud of it. But life is... sacred. No matter what your religious beliefs are, life is sacred in one way or another. You shouldn't just blithely kill it, just because you can.
Overtaken by a fury unusual in me, I pulled my trusty little lighter once more from my pocket, stared into the racoon-looking things eyes, and held the flame against its wooden display. Now normally trying to catch a big piece of wooden furniture on fire is harder than you might think. Drop a match on a hardwood floor, and watch it just bounce harmlessly against it and burn itself out.
Even if you were to hold a match against it, the most you might achieve before the match was used up was to create an ugly black patch of burn. However, Mr. Silas Took had been kind enough, and vain enough, to keep every square inch of wood within his precious trophy room carefully varnished to the highest level of shine. And most varnishes, are highly flammable...
The pedestal and its occupant lit up like a bonfire, that one tiny flame from my lighter spreading and duplicating with an unstoppable force. As I stepped back, sole mourner at the funeral of a racoon-looking thing, its expression seemed to twist in the dancing light of the flames, till it looked like it was smiling. I smiled back.
Then with a feeling of utter horror, I realized I hadn't searched for the guns yet. Cursing myself for my stupidity, I started a frantic circle around the room, racing the flames that were rapidly spreading. Then I stopped in my tracks, thinking.
I'd explored the entire room for far too long a time, looking at all the animals, and I would have noticed a gun display. I'd been wrong. There were no guns. I fell to my knees, all hope drifting upwards and away. I didn't really care at that point if I got burned or not.
All of that effort for nothing. I had no weapon to fight Mr. Slither, nor a weapon to stop Sabin and Rain. Even now, they were both probably rounding up the remaining guests and bringing them to the basement, so they could either shoot them or let Mr. Slither finish them off.
About then I felt myself go a bit cross-eyed. Though my hoped for monster busting guns weren't here, there were in fact a few guns still in the mansion. Sabin had her fancy revolver, and Rain had an Uzi. All I had to do was take them.
Smiling again, stamping my good foot a little to put out some hesitant flames that had started to crawl up it, I cast one last glance towards the racoon-looking thing, thought I saw tears in its plastic eyes, and left the trophy room.
Walking down the hallway immediately outside of the trophy room, almost skipping with joy, I barely noticed Rain Brutal dragging the corpse of Tatay McGee towards me. He was so absorbed in his task, that he didn't notice my presence, so I stepped politely aside to let him pass and then got back to walking. Walking, thinking, and then whirling around to look at Rain dragging a corpse as my mind clued in.
He was still unaware of me, though he'd passed within less than a foot or two of distance, so with a wry grin, hoping that my luck might hold, I followed him. I got a closer look at Tatay as I crept behind Rain, and was not surprised to see a gunshot through the man's forehead. Looks like they'd gotten to him before Mr. S. could, which did beg the curious question of whether Mr. S. could still turn someone who was dead into a plant zombie.
I actually opened my mouth, on the verge of asking Rain Brutal just such a thing, before I remembered I was trying to be stealthy. Covering my mouth, lest I accidently say something stupid, I continued after him.
Through the hallway, through another hallway, into a big room I'd never seen, and then out and through yet another hallway. My steps were starting to drag worse than they had been, and I was about to ask Rain if we could rest for a bit, when I noticed that he was already slowing down.
Then we ran into the stairs leading down to the first floor, and Rain Brutal stopped in indecision. He made a frustrated growl under his breath, looked at the corpse of Tatay McGee in a calculating sort of manner, and then started to drag him down the stairs. Not liking the complex idea of steps, I hesitantly followed.
On the very first step I nearly gave myself away, my foot collapsing underneath me. Frantically I reached out for the railing, grabbing it and preventing myself from falling and tumbling down the stairs. Rain, fortunately, was making so much noise dragging the body that he didn't even notice.
Taking a moment to collect myself, letting Rain reach the bottom step before I made another move, I slowly dragged my feet down to the next step, moving hand over hand on the railing, holding it as tightly as if it were a lifeline.
I reached the bottom step, Rain quite a ways ahead of me now, and sat down on the step to catch my breath. I was not a happy Neems as my quarry disappeared around a corner. Getting reluctantly to my feet, very nearly falling right back down, I set off at my hobbling, limping gait, hoping that I hadn't let him get too far ahead.
Heading down the hallway I'd seen him go through, I ran past door after door, praying that he hadn't disappeared through one of them. I snatched a heavy little statuette off a shelf I walked by, figuring it was the best weapon I was going to get. The statuette was shaped like a turtle.
Just as hope was starting to disappear, I rounded a corner and saw him opening a door on the left side of the hall. I hobbled forward as speedily as I could manage, swung the little turtle just as Rain heard me coming, and hit him hard across the side of the head as he started to turn. The man collapsed without a sound.
I gave the corpse of Tatay McGee one sorrowful glance, then knelt beside Rain and started riffling through his clothes for a gun. He had it strapped to his side in a fancy little holster. Taking it in my hands, hoping I wouldn't accidently shoot myself, I wandered over to explore the door he'd been about to drag Tatay through.
There were steps leading downwards and I felt a draft of cool air. The basement had just been located. I smiled grimly and set off into the unknown, taking it slow in case I ran into Sabin and so that I wouldn't collapse and break my neck on the way down.
Wine Cellar proved to be the more accurate term as opposed to basement, for I found myself in a huge, open space, filled with rack after rack of fine wine. Though as my eyes began to adjust to the dimly lit room, lighted only by a few bare light bulbs suspended from the ceiling, I realized that perhaps 'Monster's Lair' was an even more accurate term for this place.
Sickly-looking vines hung from every rafter, climbing down the walls and across the floor. Something disturbingly like veins wound across their vegetable flesh, and I swear that I saw one of them move.
I hobbled forwards, eyeing the walls around me for any lurking ambush. The room was big, dare I saw massive, filled with shelves and shelves that displayed Silas Took's alcoholic treasures. I took one down to inspect it, and realized it wasn't wine at all, but whiskey. A slightly different take on the whole wine collecting thing, but still probably just for show. Besides, 'Whiskey Cellar' just didn't have the same ring to it.
I continued onwards, wary and alert once more, since Sabin or Mr. Slither could have been lurking down any shadow-filled corridor. I decided to take a chance on being bold and planted my feet in the middle of the room, gun held in my right hand.
"Sabin!" I shouted. "Come out with your hands up. It's all over now. The rest of the guests are safe, and I already took down Rain. You're all alone. If you give in now, I'll say a good word for you at the trial. If you don't give in, I'll say a good word for you at your funeral..."
I at least thought my punchline was cool. Sabin didn't really seem to care however, as she stepped out from between two shelves, leveled her revolver, and shot Rain's Uzi right out of my hands. I stood there feeling stupid as she pointed her revolver at my chest.