The Grenier Ascension - Pt 4b (Lexi, Sonny, Vicky)

Sonny wanted to pace, but the pharmacy wasn't big enough to do so without continually bumping into Stephen.  He also wanted to ask what Stephen had come up with, but the first few waspish replies had persuaded him to wait... though of course waiting left him wondering whether Wendy and Niella were ok; or Wendy's friends and Niella's patients.  How far did this Count Grenier's vampiric web reach?  Was there really any way of stopping him?

Stephen's voice broke into his thoughts.  "Ok I can tell you what I've got so far."
"Go on," Sonny said.
"The base is a standard sedative; we use the same stuff here, it's harmless.  It's mixed in with some other stuff.  Some blood components-"
"Blood?" Sonny interrupted.
"Yes."
"Could it make someone sick?"
"If they're incompatible, sure.  Although this sample has only a tiny amount.  There are also some compounds I think are plant extracts, but I haven't been able to identify what yet."
"Any idea what they might do?"
"Mildly toxic would be my best guess at the moment.  But probably not fatal."

"Hm."  Sonny thought about it.  An injection that knocked someone out and poisoned them could certainly explain Lexi and Vicky's physical symptoms.  But certainly not the commonalities of their dreams, let alone the commonalities they had with Wendy's.  And whose blood was it in the damn stuff?
"So what's this about?" Stephen asked.
"Uh... would you believe me if I said you were better off not knowing?"
"Yes.  I wouldn't like it, but yes."
"Thanks.  Could you keep looking?"
"Sure."  But don't expect me to drop everything for it, was the unspoken extra clause.

As Sonny left the pharmacy his phone rang.  Niella.  "Good to hear from you," he said.
"Thanks for sending Eve."
"There was...?"
"Yes, there was."
"Is Wendy ok?"
"Mostly.  We'll talk about it later.  Wendy and I are on our way to the hospital, to... erm, can you get Vicky and Lexi, and take them to my office?"
"You're letting Wendy meet them?"
"I know, it's throwing my ethics in the waste bin.  I'll be lucky if I don't get fired.  But..."
"But."
"Yeah."
"Ok, I'll go find them."

   ****

Hiding out in her room felt safer than interacting with people, but the solitude and inactivity left Lexi vulnerable to falling back to sleep, and into the Count's dungeon.  She knew she should head for one of the common areas, and let the living keep her away from the dead; but even in the face of that knowledge, it was too much... fear made her want to hide all the more.  She'd done her best to stay awake anyway, but-

Her arms were stretched above her, locked into chains; more chains locked her legs to the floor.  Between her thighs, she could feel a length of rough wood, penetrating her opening; she was imapled on it, her weight driving it deeper into her passage, limited only by the chains on her wrists.  She twisted the chains into her fists, pulling herself up a little; it took some of the edge off of her crotch, at the cost of her arms straining and steel biting into her ankles.

The Count was there.  He was always there when she dreamed of his place.  His hand brushed her naked back as he came round to face her; he reached up, briefly caressing her cheek, then twisting his hand in her hair as she flinched.  He held her head still as he leaned in and kissed her.
"Please," she whispered into his mouth.  "I'm dying."
"Yes," he replied simply.
"Let me go."
The Count yanked her down by her hair, the flash of pain in her scalp becoming that of her wrists and fingers as the chains pulled against them, becoming that of her passage as the wooden stake was forced into her.  Bleakly she watched the satisfacion cross his face.

The dungeon vanished from around Lexi; for a second she panicked and thrashed, afraid that she was dead, that the Count had finally taken the last of her life.  But then her room in the hospital asserted itself around her; her heart was still racing, but she was pretty sure that this wasn't what Hell would choose to look like.
One of the orderlies was there with her; she thought she recognised him.  He was backing away from her, but his hand was still outstretched as if he'd shaken her awake.

"I'm sorry," he said.  "I didn't mean to scare you.  I'm Sonny.  I work here."
Lexi sat up, the movement making her head spin.  "What do you want?" she asked.  "Do I need to see someone?"  Her next appointment with Dr Collins had been postponed; was it now?
"It's not that," Sonny said.  "I wanted to ask you something about your dreams of Count Grenier."
"Are you supposed to know about those?  What did you want to ask?"
"I'm not, really.  What I wanted to ask is whether you believe the Count's real."

Lexi wracked her brain; had she given any sign of that to Dr Collins?  She was sure she'd just talked about it like it was a dream.  But then Sonny's next words took the breath out of her.
"Because I do.  And I'm not the only one.  And you're not the only who's dreamed of him."
Was this a trap?  Dr Collins was kind; she wouldn't do this.  But she wasn't the only doctor in the hospital.  What was the right answer to this?
"Come on," Sonny said, reaching out his hand again.  "I'll take you to Dr Collins's office.  We're going to find a way to help you."
Lexi made up her mind and took his hand.

   ****

Vicky's status as a voluntary patient let her walk the hospital grounds at will.  The fresh air made her feel a little better; she'd been feeling more and more grody all week, ever since she'd started having her latest round of dreams.  The ones where she was chained to a dungeon rack as her captor used and abused her.  Even that much thought of it banished tired and aching muscles from her mind, replacing them with the tingle of nipples as he teased them, of her spine as she felt her helpless bondage, of her passage as he filled her with his potency.

Hypersexuality Dr Collins called it.  Nymphomania, her friends said; they thought it was fun, and joked that she was just here to try out the medical restraints... jokes that had made her picture being strapped to the bed, unable to move a muscle, at the mercy of-  But that was why she was here.  When you liked everything, nothing was special; when you wanted everything, the word 'want' meant nothing.  Vicky wanted her 'wanting' to be more than just dancing on strings of obsession.

But even through this tangle, she could sense there was something different about these dreams.  She'd conjured all kinds of dark men for herself over the years, but none with the kind of malice she sensed from this one.  She wondered if Dr Collins would call it a reaction to her tying to tone herself down.  Vicky herself wondered if it was just because she was sick.

"Hey, Vicky, right?"  She glanced round; one of the orderlies had approached her.
"Yes?"  She mentally rolled her eyes at herself as she ran her real ones up and down his body.
"I'm Sonny.  Dr Collins would like to talk to you about something.  I'm here to take you to her office."
"Ok."  She fell into step beside him, tracing the familiar route to the office door.

But Dr Collins wasn't there when they arrived.  Instead there was another patient, a girl with brown frizzy hair, who... who, when she looked round at the new arrivals, Vicky realised she'd seen before.  But that was impossible; she was the other girl from her dreams of the dungeon, she couldn't be real.  But the girl in front of her had the same look of recognition on her own face.  Vicky looked at Sonny, heart pounding halfway out of her chest.  "What's happening?"
"I know you," the other girl said.  "I've seen you.  But..."
"What's happening?" Vicky repeated, hearing a hysterical edge creep into her voice.

"You're safe here, Vicky," Sonny said.  "This is Lexi.  You've both been having the same dreams.  Dr Collins will explain everything we know, but the short version is that they aren't just dreams.  Something's being done to you.  But we're going to stop it."
"He is real," Lexi said.
"Who?" Vicky asked.  "The guy in the dungeon?"  She wanted to deny it, deny the very possibility of it, but she'd only just been thinking about how there was something different about these dreams, and this dream figure; some part of her knew Lexi was right.
"Count Grenier," Lexi said.
"Yes," Sonny replied.  "But like I said, we're going to stop him."