єṅċһѧṅṭяєṡṡ - ṡ.ṡṭıʟıṅṡҡı

149

Valack has brought Faline down to an old, musty room in the basement, where she has been strapped to an exam chair. It's clear that she's still overwhelmed by the noises in her head and her magic coursing through her veins, and her face is screwed up in concentration as she tries her best to resist her urge to scream.

When a powerful wave of screams in her mind washes over her, she gasps in surprise and whimpers in pain, and her head continues to bleed as her vision starts to shake. Valack takes a piece of gauze to dab at the trephination hole in her skull.

"Just hold on a little longer, Faline"

Faline gasps and groans in pain when the gauze makes contact with the wound on her head.

"You can make it"

Valack stands to his feet and walks over to a machine plugged into the wall behind him. He flips a switch on the machine as he gives Faline further instructions.

"I want you to focus on this, Faline. And what other sounds you hear now, push them aside. Focus on this sound"

The machine seems to be emitting some kind of staticky white noise, and when Faline focuses on it, it seems to relieve the pain caused by her overwhelmingly amplified abilities, causing her to let out a sigh of relief as she straightens up in her seat. Valack seems pleased by this reaction and continues to speak to her in a soft voice.

"That's it. Focus on this sound and my voice, all right, Faline?"

Faline's eyes are wet with tears when she suddenly sees something out of the corner of her eye. She turns her head to the right and is horrified by the sight of Nurse Cross, the woman who has treated her so badly since she came to Eichen House, is slumped in the corner of the room and is obviously dead. Valack notices her concern and immediately tries to calm her down.

"Oh-"

"Don't worry, Faline. Nurse Cross wasn't nearly as strong as you are"

Faline whimpers in fear and turns away so she can no longer see the nurse's body.

Faline struggles weakly against the restraints of the chair in one of the rooms in the basement of Eichen House. Though the white noise machine seems to be keeping most of the voices at bay, its clear that she's overwhelmed and exhausted by everything she's been through in the last week or so.

"Faline? Can you hear me?"

"What do you want from me?"

"I want your help against the Dread Doctors. They ruined me. Destroyed me. They drove me to obsession, consigned me to professional ridicule... People thought I was a monster when I was simply trying to open their eyes"

Faline's expression becomes slightly smug when she realizes what he's doing, and manages to respond in a snarky, albeit weak, voice.

"Now you want me to be your eyes"

"You'll see things, Faline. Things no one else can see. You may not survive... but you might save the lives of your friends"

Valack walks over to the nearby desk and picks up the Dread Doctor mask that he used on Nurse Cross in the previous episode. One of the eyepieces to the goggles' glass has several fine cracks running through it, and the mouth looks like it's been stitched up with wire. Faline looks horrified by the prospect of putting it on.

Valack is continuing to explain what they're going to do as he applies electrodes to her temples to help him determine the kind of brainwaves she's producing. She's twitching from the exertion it's taking her to ignore the screams in her head, even with the white noise machine's help.