The Grenier Ascension - Pt 4a (Eve, Niella, Wendy)

Wendy's body siezed, falling out of the armchair; the impact with the floor half woke her, and she clawed at her stomach where the Count's spear had run through her... there was no wound.  She'd been asleep, dreaming sort of; her real body wasn't injured.  But it felt like it had been; every part of her ached, and shook when she tried to move.  Abruptly her innards lurched, and she forced herself up, stumbling out of the living room; she almost turned the wrong way at the door before remembering it was Sonny's house, and only just made it to the bathroom before emptying the contents of her stomach down the toilet.

When she was done, her body only hurt worse; she tried to get up, but her limbs gave way each time.  Finally she crawled into the shower; she managed to inch herself up the tile wall far enough to turn it on before she collapsed again, letting the hot water run over her body... hoping the warmth would dispell the ache, the cold in her muscles, the lingering death she still felt there.  And that it would keep her awake; she had no idea what would happen if she fell back into the Count's dreamscape in this condition.  "I'm sorry Criss," she whispered beneath the hiss of the water; "I'll come back.  I'll save you, and Denise.  I just can't yet.  I need too..."  Need to what? an inner voice asked; hide? "I will save you," she repeated.

   ****

Niella resisted the urge to creep as she unlocked Sonny's front door and went inside.  She knew she should call out Wendy's name, but she was afraid of not getting an answer.  If Vicky's dream was real, did that mean Wendy was dead?  There was no one, and no body, in the living room... or the kitchen; then Niella heard running water from upstairs.  She followed the sound to the bathroom, where she found Wendy slumped in the shower, still dressed  "Are you..." she asked.
Wendy looked up at her and squinted, as if having trouble focussing.  "Dr Collins?"
"Yes," Niella said.  "Sonny and I couldn't reach you.  We were afraid that-"

"That I was dead?"  Wendy interrupted.  "I feel like it.  I let myself fall asleep again.  Found Criss in the Count's castle.  I thought maybe it would set her free if I could show her what he was doing to your two patients.  I thought they had to be there, somewhere, if they were dreaming of him too."
"Did you find them?"  Niella felt her world crumbling as she asked the question.
"Yeah.  I don't know what happened after.  He stabbed me and I woke up back here.  I don't know what happened to Criss."

Niella rocked back on her heels.  Wendy's story was the same as Vicky's.  Either something supernatural really was happening or Sonny, one of the hospital orderlies and a friend, was conspiring with his own friends and two of Niella's patients who'd never had a chance to meet one another, to play an elaborate prank on her for no reason.  One was something she didn't understand; the other flew directly in the face of things she did understand.  "I believe you," she said to Wendy.  "I didn't before, but now I do."
Wendy looked up at her and started to say something, then turned her head toward the door.  "There's-" she began, before Niella sensed the presence behind them.

Darryl Green, the orderly Sonny had caught trying to drug one of the patients.  Who'd probably drugged Vicky and Lexi already.  Another man was following him into the bathroom.
"We were expecting to find Sonny," Green said.  Niella opened her mouth, but he lunged forward; before she could react, he'd shoved her down to the floor, pinning her with his weight and a hand clamped over her mouth.  Niella bucked her body, trying to push him off, but he was too heavy; she tried to claw at his eyes, but one by one, he caught her wrists, forcing her arms down and trapping them with his knees.

From the corner of her eye she saw Wendy pushing herself upright against the tiled wall of the shower, lurching as she tried to go for Darryl, but she was still weak and exhausted; she nearly collapsed as the second man grabbed her by the hair and yanked her aside.  Green kept his hand over Niella's mouth, holding her head still as he leaned close down over her face.  "I guess this means you're working with him," he said. "And with her; that's a convenient bonus.  Well, the Master can use you just as well as those bitches in the hospital."

   ****

Eve saw Niella's car as she arrived at Sonny's house.  And another, parked right next to it; not Sonny's someone else's.  On the alert she went quickly and quietly to the front door; ajar.  Pushing it open, she crept into the hallway; a collection of violent noises were audible from upstairs.  Eve fought the instinct to rush up the stairs, instead trying to keep quiet as she ascended.  The sounds resolved into voices, coming from the bathroom
A mans's voice:  "Well, the Master can use you just as well as those bitches in the hospital."
"Want to go double or nothing?" Eve said, bursting in.  Her eyes took in two men, one kneeling on top of Dr Collins, the other holding a second woman on her knees.

Both men let go of their respective captives and came at her.  The one holding the other woman was already on his feet, and reached her first; Eve grabbed his outstretched arm and twisted, slamming her other elbow into his ribs.  She threw a quick side kick at his partner, connecting with his solar plexus; as he doubled over, she returned her attention to the first man, a sweeping trip that slammed his head into the washbaisin.  She followed up with another punch, knocking his head back into the baisin; letting him fall and grabbed the second man's hair as he tried to straighten up, slamming his face into her knee.  She twisted her grip, forcing his head to turn and throwing him off balance; as he went down she straightened and stamp-kicked him in the face.  Another stamp kick to the baisin man, and both were lying still.

Eve let out a few ragged breaths as the adrenaline from the sudden fight dissipated; the other two women matched her reaction.  Dr Collins climbed to her feet, and helped her friend to stand up; Eve noticed the other woman immediately leaned against the wall as if to keep herself upright.
"Eve?" Niella said.  "How did you get here?  Did Sonny call you?"
"Yeah.  He thought there might be trouble."
"You don't seem to have found them any trouble," the other woman observed.
"Oh," Niella said.  "Eve, this is Wendy.  Wendy this is Eve.  Let's see if Sonny has anything to tie these guys up with."

   ****

In the end, Sonny had turned out to have more than Niella would have strictly wanted to know about; but at least Green and his friend wouldn't be getting loose any time soon.  They left them in the bathroom for now, and headed down to the kitchen, Niella holding Wendy's arm as they went.  Once there, they raided Sonny's fridge for sandwich materials; the sight of food transformed Wendy's weakness into hunger, and she tore voraciously into anything Niella put in front of her.
"So, what is all this about?" Eve asked.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Wendy asked, pausing between a swallow and her next bite.
"Yeah," Eve replied.  "I've just gotten involved anyway, so I want to know what in."
She looked like she meant it, so Wendy began to recap everything that had happened between her, Criss, and Denise; and the Count and his book, and that they were looking for her.  "I guess those two work for him somehow," she finished.
Niella then took up the narrative, outlining what had happened to her patients, though again she didn't name them; and adding that one of the men upstairs had been seen trying to drug a third patient.

"Do you have anyone good working at that hospital, apart from you and Sonny?" Eve asked.
"I'm beginning to wonder," Niella replied.
Eve looked from her to Wendy and back, before asking the elephant among the questions.  "Ghosts?  Or vampires, or whatever you're saying he is.  You believe that; both of you?"

Niella traded a glance with Wendy, who simply answered, "Yes."
"I've reached a point where Occam's Razor says ghosts," Niella added.
"All right," Eve said.  "I don't know the first thing about anything to do with ghosts, but on the practical... Darryl Green, Grenier?"
"I'd wondered about that too," Niella said.  "Maybe his descendants?  It's a rich family; I saw Darryl's address in his file, a big estate on the edge of the city."
"That's probably where your friends are," Eve added.

Something clicked inside Wendy's mind.  "Denise gave the book to Criss and me," she said.  "So presumably the Count couldn't do it himself; not in the real world."
"So he needs help," Eve replied; "from the Greens."
"But not just that," Wendy said.  "Dr Collins, when we first met, you said what he's doing to my friends isn't he same thing as what he's doing to your patients.  But it's also about timing.  He and Criss both talked like he's been using the book for a long time.  But have any of your patients ever spoken about these torture dreams before?"
"No," Niella said.  "And I didn't find anything when I cross checked with other hospital records."
"Ok.  So the book's been going on for a long time.  That's how he stays a ghost; keeps his castle together.  But your patients aren't about that.  He's doing something new.  He's feeding himself with what he's taking from Denise-" Wendy swallowed before continuing... "But what he's taking from your patients, it's going somewhere else."
"Where?" Niella asked.
"I don't know.  But we need to talk to them.  I know it's a lot to ask, but we really do."
"And while you're doing that, I'll take a look at this estate," Eve said.  "Once we figure out what we're doing with the two upstairs."