Tony slid down the wall of the elevator and felt exhausted already even though he had only moved a couple meters. He began to review what had happened so far within his mind. He woke up within the psych ward, got captured by a mentally ill woman, saw another man killed and then her face of disappointment and abandonment. He found himself very confused about what to do next, as he rolled his arms and legs to return them too normal faster. His thoughts were interrupted though when the elevator shuddered to a stop after crossing three floors.
The doors slid away to reveal a messy hallway, with carts knocked over everywhere. Tony pushed the floor buttons again, but the elevator stopped moving and the lighting went out soon afterward, even the hallway lights. Resigned, he stumbled out into the darkness carefully while listening for any movement. He had already been ambushed once by Olivia and now someone else may be in the hospital with them, since the power cut off should be in the basement. He shuffled to the nearest wall and waited there with his back against it for his eyes to get used to the darkness before moving again. There were no visible sharp objects on the messy hallway floor when he glimpsed it earlier, but he wasn’t willing to risk it.
After a few seconds, Tony began to explore the first knocked over cart with caution. It only contained metal food trays and some unused bandages, the same went for the following two carts. He shifted them upright and out of the way as he finished his searches to ensure his retreat path to the stairs. Since Olivia was above and someone else was below, he wanted to find something to help him fight back aside from his bare fists.
By the third cart, he managed to find non-skid socks underneath a blood pressure monitor and quickly put them on. The feeling of bare feet on hospital flooring and the sting of his toes had begun to worry him, even if it was only a small distraction, he had seen horror movie characters die from distractions. Slightly more confident now, he moved aside the other carts after realizing they were mostly knocked over monitors or empty food carts with only metal trays.
Crossing the hallway, he found a small visitors’ lounge with couches and a couple backpacks. Tony entered with some anticipation as he headed straight for the backpacks on the couch. The light from the windows shone on a shirt peeking out from one of the bags. Reaching the couch, he opened the first backpack to discover a set of clothes mostly reserved for teenage girls or even college ladies as there was a lot of pink involved with appropriate undergarments. The other backpack contained a black sleeveless shirt with a cobra on the front and saggy blue jeans that were a size too large for Tony. There was also a pair of sneakers that he took out with the accompanying ankle socks and tried on, only to be surprised at how well they fit. He quickly changed his attire and felt a bit more comfortable, even though the pants were saggy and might fall down without a belt.
Done with the room, he went back to the doorway and checked the dark corridor once more. Seeing and hearing nothing, he continued exploring the rest of the rooms while keeping one hand on his pants to hold them up. The next rooms were primarily generic single bed patient rooms. However, the end of the hallway held a sterile environment dual door room. A man whose chest had been cracked open and internal organs were removed laid on the only bed while still in a security guard uniform.
Tony paused at the sight and bit his lower lip in contemplation. Taking a deep breath, he entered the room and his fingers stretched out to the man’s waist, slipping off and pulling out his belt before sliding it on his own waist. Then he went over the remainder of the corpse and found a handheld taser whose prongs were broken off and a 9mm pistol with the bullet jammed. Sighing after realizing that he couldn’t use the taser and didn’t know enough about firearms to safely unjam the pistol, he put them back. Then he went to the cart next to the man and found a scalpel and a bone saw with a full grip handle. He smiled briefly when he picked up the saw, remembering a particular movie where his hero made a mid-ranged weapon using saws and gauze wrap. Wrapping the scalpel in a piece of the corpse’s shirt, he stuck it in his right pocket and wielded the bone saw in his left hand, even though he was right handed.
He exited the sterile room and nearly ran into a terrified Olivia whose butterfly wing sheets were torn and bloody. Reflexively, he raised the bone saw in his left hand to attack her, but stopped when he saw her messy figure and heard a man’s laughter coming from behind her. If evil could be heard and felt on the skin, then the man following Olivia was the epitome of evil desires. His very presence disturbed Tony before he even saw the man clearly.
The other man wore a beak-style gas mask that was more commonly found in the 17th century than modern day. His clothes were a mix of raven black and silver with a cross hanging on his chest and white gloves with scarlet markings flaking off. Three scalpels stuck out between his fingers on both hands that were held open at his sides as if he was waiting for a hug or ready to accept his flock. It was a truly strange sight and sent cold sweat down Tony’s back; this was a man that even scared Olivia after all, the same woman that brutally attacked the mad doctor fearlessly.
“Please… please help me…. don’t let the raven eat me. I’m just a little butterfly.”
Olivia begged from behind Tony as tears rolled down her cheeks and she held onto the back of his shirt trembling. Her back hunched over slightly to make herself smaller by comparison and hide better behind the only person she trusted, the only one who didn’t outright reject her. She recognized that he ran away from both her and the mad doctor and maybe he wouldn’t accept her completely, but he never spoke out or tried to harm her when they were in the ward together. Tony could feel her dependence, even though he didn’t understand why she felt that way towards him; to him, she was still a stranger.
“Kukuku, come here little butterfly. I promise to enjoy you very slowly.”
The raven masked man stated with an eerie laugh and greedy tone as he slowly stepped towards the couple. His fingers flexed around the scalpels as if to show them off as claws and the smile beneath the mask could not be hidden. His steps and movements were methodical, deliberate, provoking the most primal sense of fight or flight in both Tony and Olivia.
Tony held the bone saw in front of his chest in a defensive stance as he drew the scalpel in his pocket out slightly. He wanted to be ready to use it in a surprise attack, maybe as a throwing weapon or distraction if the man continued to come closer or make any rash actions. He was not particularly confident in close combat when weapons were involved as there were too many variables, but he held some confidence that he could distract the man enough to escape with Olivia. Though he questioned why he felt the need to protect her in the first place when she was the one who ambushed him initially. Damping down those thoughts, he focused completely on the man who had stepped within two meters distance, enough to lunge and attack before stopping in a stalemate.
Both men’s eyes sharpened and eyed each other up with some level of wariness. The clawed raven’s eyes wandered between the bone saw and the trembling butterfly while Tony tried to judge the raven’s combat experience based on his posture. The first to move would take the initiative in combat, but also reveal their openings for exploitation. The stalemate lasted for only seconds, though it felt like minutes for both combatants.
The raven struck out first with a lunging right claw aiming to force Tony to dodge and expose the butterfly Olivia behind him. Tony countered by crouching slightly and striking out with his front leg to the raven man’s charging knee after leaning backwards, forcing Olivia to step back. The ball of his foot connected with the man’s upper thigh as the raven dodged at the last second and swung his other claw down at Tony’s head. Tony fell backward completely in response, pushing off his back foot to drag Olivia with him to the ground as his right hand shot forward with the scalpel between two fingers in a throw. It flew straight from beneath the cloth wrap and gouged itself in the raven’s left exposed armpit, drawing a scream from the other man and a stumble.
Tony released the bone saw and rolled to his right while grabbing Olivia, pulling her into his embrace and out of the way of the stumbling raven who crashed into the wall behind them. He pushed quickly off the floor to regain a standing posture before yanking Olivia onto her feet and placing her behind him. His knight in shining armor fantasy mindset had subconsciously taken over as he focused on the raven who was struggling to get back on his feet. Tony used his back to push the butterfly farther away from the duo’s combat and motioned for her to head back to the stairs as he backed away slowly, never exposing his back to the raven.
The raven man had a slight trace of blood on his lips as he picked himself back up, the mask shattered from his own weight and its poor materials. It appeared to be a replica of the historical masks used only as a costume accessory and not a proper medical device. The man let out a sharp grunt as he pulled and threw away the scalpel lodged in his left armpit, the blood dying his black and silver outfit and adding a copper taste to the air. Then he crowed in anger and charged at Tony with wild abandon.
