Max_Writer

Friday, July 20, 2012

(After playing the Call of Cthulhu scenario “Restless Dreams” Thursday with Jeff Smith, Ken Woody, Stephen Turner, and Erik Huffine from 7:00 p.m. to 11 p.m.)

Professor Herbert Loomis, Thomas Vanderholdt, Alan and Michael O’Shea, and Jack Shane stood in the hallway of Brookhaven Hospital near the now-open pharmacy room. Alan sat on the floor in a daze at the events of the day.

Vanderholdt put together a basic first aid kit using the drugs in the pharmacy. He found some stimulants and sedatives, as well as morphine and other drugs. He steered clear of the needles and, instead, found those drugs he could administer orally.

He was still of a mind that they had somehow fallen into someone’s dream. He looked at his watch. It said 11:45. He closed his eyes and slowly counted to 60, then looked at the second hand again. It was close to the same place where he had seen it just a minute before. He felt it strange that he should guess so closely and wondered if time were somehow moving more slowly than was possible.

When he returned to the hallway, he found that Michael had moved down to where another hall ran perpendicular to it.

The door next to the pharmacy had a small brass plaque that read “Store Room.” The handle was broken and the knob just spun around. The door was latched, however. He asked Shane to break the door down but the man was unable to. Vanderholdt asked if anyone could help him.

Dr. Loomis held up the key he’d found, telling him that he thought they should go to the 3rd floor patient wing. Vanderholdt noted that there was nothing on the note they’d found in the typewriter that said they should go to the third floor.

“No, but it’s talking about a patient,” Dr. Loomis said.

“Well, the patient could as easily be in this room as the third floor,” Vanderholdt said.

“No, because that says store room.”

“Well, nobody’s been here for a year, so things can move.”

“You still want in here?” Alan asked Vanderholdt.

“Yes,” the man replied.

Alan kicked the door but it merely rattled in its frame. Then Dr. Loomis tried, putting his shoulder to the door. There was a crack as the lock broke. The room had several shelves with office supplies: paper, pencils and pens, and the like. Vanderholdt looked around the shelves for obvious batteries or electric torches, but found none. Nothing in the place seemed very useful to them at the moment. He searched the shelves more carefully, pulling out a small cardboard box down and looking within. There were a dozen batteries.

“What’re you going to do, Vanderholdt?” Michael asked, peeking into the store room. “Give someone a bad paper cut?”

“I got batteries to change out of the flashlights, should they run out,” Vanderholdt said. “Which shouldn’t be long.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Michael said.

Alan wandered down the hallway a short way. The next door had a plaque that read “Visiting Room.” Vanderholdt caught up to him and found the latch there broken as well, though the door wouldn’t open. He waved Professor Loomis over. The man kicked the door but it didn’t move.

“So, what do you think?” Michael asked his brother.

“I try not to,” Alan said.

“I know that’s kind of normal for you, but ...” Michael quipped.

Professor Loomis put his shoulder to the visiting room door and it crashed open. The room within was small and had a pair of stuffed chairs, as well as a small table with no sharp edges. The only window had several bars over it on the outside. The few pictures on the wall appeared to be nailed down. The furniture looked very heavy.

“So, someone’s had the brothers O’Shea here before,” Vanderholdt quipped.

“Looks they were trying to keep people in,” Professor Loomis noted. “Or trying to keep people from escaping. There’s bars on those windows.”

“Well, this is an asylum, so it would make sense,” Vanderholdt said.

* * *