“Temper, temper. You are special, Kristy, I offered them nothing.” He sounded amused though as she conducted her series of tests but everything seemed real. He was tough to figure out, it could have been as simple as he spreading misinformation to further confuse her or to get her not to trust the others as she already had with Dean.

But her patience in playing his games ran thin. “Oh … I can only open the door … oh, you mean this one ...” she would see the doorknob to her room turn.

“You cannot elude me, delay maybe but I have existed for eons. I predate time itself, days, weeks, months ...” he sighed, it was all meaningless. “But sometimes beating one into submission is necessary too.”

The door opened and there before her stood a man with a cellphone to his ear that he disconnected. Yeager, though he seemed to have the same build as the driver that came to pick her up. He had the same yellow gloves. Adorned in a black tux and top hat his face had been concealed beneath a plain mask with eye holes and a frown. The eyes were haunting, yellow though not luminescent.

Stepping into the room she saw no one in the hall beyond, not even Simon. As he entered he closed the door behind him casually placing his phone in his pocket.

“But I suppose I'll have to take more direct methods with you,” he slowly gazed at he, “oh I think you will do nicely, Kristy. Before we begin you're not a virgin are you?”

He was so matter of fact about things stepping closer, no malicious movement thus far but she just knew that it was going to happen and soon ...

It had been a major risk calling him out like that but she'd really believed he was bluffing. That he'd give her so excuse as to why he couldn't come to her yet because she wasn't ready for him yet or something equally cliché. He surprised her though. The knob turned as he spoke calm, menacing words to her. She back away from the door. No way, no way was he really going to show. He was just fucking with her...

That conviction died a moment later when the door opened and a masked stranger in a tuxedo and yellow gloves stepped into the room with her. Her brain went blank with sudden terror. She was so royally screwed. She froze there for a split second, her mind reeling as she took in the man's appearance. Then his words caught up to her and her widened eyes locked with his yellow gaze. "Virgin?" Why the fuck...? Nope, she wouldn't even let her mind go there. She grabbed the foot of the rolling hospital bed and hauled it between them. "Ah, no thank you, Sir. That is close enough. Come any closer and I swear I'll..."

What? What would she do? Fuck, fuck, fuck! She needed to think of something quick. She glanced around quickly for a weapon or something... Oh, wait! She reached behind her to check and see if her knife was still in her jeans. It was. Dream or not, she still had her weapon. How much use it would be to her was another story. She'd have another weapon if this really was a dream... Or at least, a means of escape. "I'll do something crazy." She tugged her blade from her jeans but kept it behind her and backed further into the room, towards the back wall. She could try something once she was there... Hopefully he hadn't been lying about the dream thing.

“Mm, cat got your tongue, I suppose I'll just have to err on the side of caution.” She felt that he was grinning behind that frowning mask, one part of the pair that were often hung up in a theater. The bed rolled out between them granting her a momentary delay as his hand set upon it arresting it's movement.

He casually rounded the bed, she found that knife still there Dream or not. It was a hospital room for patients, a quick scan recounted things like gloves, a paper towel dispenser, sink and other effects that she would find in the patient's room in a hospital but nothing jumped out at her as being dangerous unless he was allergic to latex.

She was on the second floor so a fall out the window was survivable but what then barring any serious injury. With the knife behind her back he stopped almost as if he knew, but then he made it clear that he was analyzing her word choice and finding something amusing in it.

“Crazy? Why everyone in Carosca is a little crazy.” He chortled and came straight at her lowering his left shoulder and leading with it. If he had believed she was armed he had not showed it, his intent clear and that was to drive that shoulder into her and the air from her lungs ...

For a second, she thought maybe she'd be about to talk her way out of this mess. He'd rounded the hospital bed she'd moved between them but he'd stopped advancing after that. Of course, he was between her and the only exit so maybe he was confident that he had her cornered. She reached the back wall, hoping to use her dream manipulation power to create a new door but before she could Yeager suddenly charged her like a linebacker. "Fuck!" She screamed and attempted to side step out of the way, bringing the knife forward to defend herself with at the same time. She wasn't a trained fighter but if there was one lesson she'd learned about defensive from TV and Movies it was that pain was an excellent distraction. She needed to distract Yeager to give herself time to get away, punch a hole into a different reality or something. So, she thrust the knife out as she attempt to dodge him. Hoping to land a blow good enough to slow the bastard down. "Then go back there, asshole!"

He came at her, Yeager was quick but it had not been as if she was surprised, with his words she was ready for some kind of attack though there had been some hope there with the pause. When she realized that that wasn't going to happen she did have time to evade him, the mask impaired his vision a bit and his calculations were off just enough for her to evade. Had he tossed out his arms and tried to grapple he he would have gotten a hold of he though being armed she could have delivered a quick series of crude stabs.

But as it was she could stab at him just once. The knife sinking an inch or so into his shoulder, followed by a hiss of pain. His blood unusual, black or a deep red, she had no time to analyze it as he wheeled back in her direction, a gloved hand pressing to the wound, there was something beneath, she could have sworn there was something trying to wriggle free but was being stuffed back inside.

A split second decision, hold her ground or scramble to the door over the bed. He was one armed now seeing that he was clutching his wound but did she risk it?

“No, not yet but before the evening is through you'll get a glimpse, Kristy.” And he came at her again, slower this time, cautious of the knife now but she could see now that the hand holding the wound bulged as if something was trying to escape and he was attempting to keep it within himself. It was not yet time ...

She felt a little queazy at the thought of what might be bulging under the gloved hand over his wounded shoulder. She had some idea what might be there but she didn't want to think about it. Not right now. Now she needed to get away. She didn't waste time trying to stab him again. She just made a mad dash for the door. "Again, I think I'll pass, Yeager. Go find another Alice to drag down your fucked up rabbit hole." She grabbed the gurney and slung it in his direction again before running to the door.

It wasn't until after she stepped over the threshold that she realized her mistake and froze. Was this the door he'd meant for her to walk through. She waited a second to see if some new horror show started now that she was through. It wouldn't take Yeager long to recover from his injuries so if nothing happened immediately she would surge on. Maybe only glancing back for a instant to make sure she wasn't being pursued.

She dashed towards the door, the bed serving as an obstacle she had to evade though her hesitation nearly cost her. Yeager had dashed after her, nearly got hold of her though she was gone. The hospital was a lonely place. There were plenty of places to hide and she heard him follow at least at the start. He was moving slower, as if cautious. She could hear his footfalls whenever he had been close to any place she hid until he passed.

Whenever she came back into the hall after his passing there had been droplets of his blood and … maggots, grubs? They were bloated white worm like creatures about half the size of her thumb. There were only a few of these things ever, though he came back. It wasn't long before she realized that he was sensing through them. At least she got that impression.

There was no one else in the hospital it seemed other than them. The lights were off in all but the wing that they ha been staying in though with the latest room she slipped into she saw Rachel sitting on the edge of a bed, gazing at a photo album. She looked up as she entered not surprised but her eyes seemed to wonder why she was here. It felt to Kristy that she was intruding on her secret place but since it wasn't one of the others she was more lax about it.

“I thought you were Dean. Is Otis back yet?”

She shook her head in question to Rachel's question. "I didn't know he had left. You are the only person I've seen though." She felt a little awkward standing there, back pressed against the now closed door, staring at woman she barely knew. A woman who had clearly been having a very private moment. She didn't have time to be embarrassed though. Not when Yeager was prowling around the hospital looking for her. "Listen, Rach, I'm sorry to be barging in on you like this but I'm afraid we are going to need to barricade this door. Something bad is in the building and we are in danger."

“Bad?” She repeated as if she didn't understand the word. She then smiled at her. “The Faceless cannot enter here. There are a few places that they cannot.”

She nodded slowly as she stood setting the photo album on the bed. She nodded “He left right before you went off to sleep that was,” she checked her watch “close to two hours ago. What's wrong? The others are missing?”

Rachel seemed to process than churning over staying here where it was safe or looking for them out there if there were Faceless that somehow got in.

"Umm... No, it's not a faceless. It's..." She hesitated again, not sure she should tell her it was Yeager himself that was there. Simon and Otis were the only people here she felt certain were trust worthy and it was really her fault Yeager got it. Rachel might not be to keen on protecting her from him. "Something else. I don't really no what but it's stalking the halls. I think if anyone else is here they are staying in their rooms where it's safe."

She had to keep Rachel in the room. "Rachel look, I think I know of a way we can lure it outside but first we've got to barricade this door. Once it's gone we can check on the others."

She seemed to accept that all in stride. Rachel smiled to ease the panicked stricken girl. “Faceless or not it cannot enter here, there's no need to barricade the door.” She moved toward her though her eyes searched out those things that they could have used. Though she relents, probably thinking it best to place her mind at ease.

“But if you're that worried about it help me move the bed,” when she had though she felt a prick on her arm registering the fact that she was injected with a needle before her legs went out from her.

Whatever she had been injected with had been fast acting indeed, she would have fallen to the floor had Rachel not caught her beneath the arms and struggled to get her on the bed Kristy was conscious but her limbs felt as if they were a thousand pounds, she could not move them.

Thankfully whatever drug had been introduced to her was not a true paralytic agent, she could still blink and more importantly, breath. Rachel sat down on the bed beside her and smiled. “You see, he can only open the door. He cannot come through it.”

On the other side had been his world, but this was some space she could not get. “So much like my Clair … so much,” she stoked down the side of her face with her fingers though it was an affectionate touch not a sexually one. “But he'll only get the yellow sign once he gives me back Clair ...” She pause, then smiled. “But he probably told you he'd show you the yellow sign too ...”

She flipped through the photo album. Pictures of Dean and his twin, to a woman that looked exactly like her with Rachel. There were a wide variety of shots and Rachel gave her some useless information on each, where it was at, what time or event and so on.

She was struggling with retaining consciousness when she brought her attention to a sign in the background of one of the photos. It was at an amusement park, there was a tea cup ride but in the back ground it appeared to be a wax museum or maybe a haunted house, it was tough to say. But it had an unusual sign, a yellow sign … her mind was a haze, there was something unusual about it, something …. something …. her consciousness faded and when next it returned she had been in a cell hearing chanting from a nearby room. The room she was in appeared to be a holding cell someplace, Simon was here too. In another cell was Otis though he had been in his own cell across from her own.

She should have been more cautious around the other woman. She thought simply not telling her about her confrontation with Yeager would be enough but she'd been wrong. The prick on her arm after Rachel had helped her move the bed was evidence of her shortsightedness. She collapsed before she even knew what had happened to her. Rachel tried to explain, telling her about Clair and how Yeager took her. She wanted to tell her that she was a fool for believing he'd give her back but she couldn't talk. The drug was fast acting and she was struggling just to stay conscious.

She blacked out before long and woke in a cell of some kind. So, clearly she wasn't in the hospital anymore. Was she in Yeager's lair already or was this one of the townspeople's hide out? She had a feeling it was the later. Yeager surely would have devised something worse than a jail cell to greet her when she woke. She looked around and realized that she was not the only prisoner here. Otis and Simon where in cells of their own. "Ah, I take it you two weren't involved in the plan to drug me then." She rose shakily and moved to the bars, there was chanting in the distance somewhere. That could not be a good thing. "I don't suppose either of you know what Rachel intends to do with us now, do you?"

Otis lifted his head. He was sitting on the edge of his cot thinking. He answered with the shake of his head, not involved in the plot. “By the time I got back Harris and Bonnie turned on me as did Dean. They've been planning this for awhile.”

She had not met those two, apparently Otis was suppose to pick them up. Simon shook his head too.

“I don't know why they got us ...”

“Because they're all fruit loops, coco for cocoa pebbles,” Otis answered as he abruptly stood. “We just never saw it. When Dean pulled that gun on me you know what he said? 'I'm sorry you didn't see the yellow sign, they're some sort of freaky cult and the three of us weren't around for their religious conversion. Which means we're expendable.”

Otis sighed and looked down the hall, the few words they could make out were yellow sign, key, Whisperer in the Darkness Most of what they were chanting made no sense.

“Rachel, Dean … the others, they all lost family to Yeager. Those Faceless out there … they think that they can get them back if I made out all that nonsense they were sprouting about. Don't suppose you're an expert lock picker and have a bobby pin handy,” the last was sarcastic, not expected in the least.

The cells they were in comprised of simple bars that they could reach out of to a degree and though the cells were opposite one another anyone coming down the center or the corridor outside was safe from their reach a pace either side from dead center.

"I did have one. In my bag..." She looked futilely around the room but honestly didn't expect to find it there. She wasn't sure when she'd put it down. In Otis' car, in her room at the hospital... Or maybe Rachel had taken it from her after drugging her. "I sadly don't have that with me anymore. Not that it really matters, I don't know how to pick locks." She shook the cell door to test it but not too hard. She didn't want to alert the cult members that she was awake. She turned and looked around her cell again, maybe there was something small that she could use... a rat bone or a sliver of wood even. "How long have they been chanting like that?"

The bag was gone, some was her knife. The cell had a sink with a mirror above it though the mirror wasn't glass but polished metal. It didn't reflect so well but enough to get the job done. There was a toilet, a roll of paper for it and bunk beds.

Perhaps she could loosen some springs with enough time. The work would be harder with no tools but she had no idea as to how long she was going to be in here. The bars were pretty solid too and the place seemed to be a prison of some fashion though and old style one that still used a simple lock and key to open the cells rather than electrical locks. It was of an older make, easier to escape from if she were here for some time but pretty capable of holding her short term.

“About fifteen minutes I'm guessing. No clocks here and they took my watch.”

In about another five minutes three beings in yellow robes arrived. They seemed focused on Otis though and he put up one hell of a fight though three against one the odds had not been in his favor. All the while the chanting continued without interruption and the men ignored her not paying her or Simon any attention.

They hauled Otis off and the chanting soon intensified. There was a scream, clearly Otis, and a ripping sound. Then quiet. No one came to see her for awhile and when they did she guessed it was around dinner time judging by her stomach. A man in a yellow robe pushed a trolley to them, he looked familiar, damn familiar.

He was the delivery guy! But there seemed to be no recollection in his features or maybe he was just focused on bring the pair a meal as instructed.