Medical Bay Awakening

Archie's eyes were locked onto the doctor, stretching his arms and spine by grabbing his hands and pushing his arms upwards to relieve tension. After he did so, he realised that he was standing, causing him to look down at his leg in shock, unable to see any bones sticking out. "Yes, I healed you. You should realise that if I'm a registered doctor, I'd be able to heal people." Dr Ray told him, grabbing an office chair beside his desk so he could sit down, but never actually sitting on it. "Sit on the bed."

Archie looked at his leg with a surprised look before he quite literally jumped towards the medical bed, catching his foot on the edge of the frame. He fell face-first onto the medical bed's flat body, prompting a chuckle from the doctor. "Calm yourself, Archibald. We don't want you to break your leg again." Doctor Ray chuckled, Archie silently glaring at him. He had never gone to the medical room in the school since his teachers never deemed him worthy of wasting their energy. If he was burned, he just had to deal with it himself.

"So, tell me, what was your sleep-induced nightmare like?" Ray asked Archie, only to be met with an expression of shock. "What? Did you really think we wouldn't notice your body spasming out while you were unconscious? It was highly unnatural, which means you were dreaming of something that your mind couldn't comprehend since your body is meant to be immobile most of the time during sleep." Doctor Ray informed Archie, who just looked at him in astonishment. "Oh, here, take this," Ray told Archie, walking over to his desk and grabbing a notebook and pen. He tossed the writing tools lightly toward Archie, who caught them.

Archie began furiously scribbling on the paper, writing down a few sentences, crossing some of them out with his pen as he wrote. He was left with one question at the end. He turned the notepad to face the doctor, who read it aloud. "Why should I tell you?" Ray said to himself, smiling as he did so. "Why? Well, if you don't, you could be in serious danger of health risks or death. You experienced something most people can't, so I want to learn more about it." Doctor Ray explained, giving him two different reasons. Archie began writing again, a single sentence forming. "You wouldn't get it." Ray read to himself, wondering what Archie meant by that.

"There's a lot of stuff I'd get, Archibald," Ray told Archie, who looked at the doctor with an unexpectant expression as he pulled a pen out of his right pocket, tapping it against the right side of his head as he finally sat down in his chair. "For instance, let's talk about your inability to speak. The principal and I called your mother, albeit without your knowledge, to ask about the circumstances leading to your sudden muteness. We both know that you could talk a few days ago, but your sudden inability to do so concerned us." Ray explained to Archie, who stared the doctor down with a surprised look on his face, realising that he may be metaphorically fucked. "When we asked her about your muteness, she told us that you had lost your voice. However, when we tried to talk to her further, she refused to tell us anything extra and hung up the phone." Ray informed Archie, who silently sighed, unable to make a noise. Alexis was floating overhead, keeping quiet this whole time. They were floating around the room, trying to understand what all the gadgets in this strange area were.

"That brings me to my second point. I watched you as you were unconscious, and you never made a single noise. You were visibly breathing, yet no sound came from your mouth. When you fell face-first into the medical bed not five minutes ago, you didn't even make a sound of injury. That's also concerning because that might mean you CAN'T make any noise." Ray informed Archie, pointing his pen at Archie, who looked at it in shock. "Whatever you want to tell me, you can now, Archibald. Nothing you say here will leave this medical room." Ray told him. Archie quickly wrote something down on his notepad, taking a minute, before tossing it over to Ray, crossing his arms afterwards. The doctor caught it with two hands, reading his written words aloud.

"I'm not going to tell you anything. I've dealt with stuff like this all my life, and nobody has cared about it. I'm keeping my mouth shut." Ray read to Archie, sighing afterwards. "Fine. Keep your secrets. However, I'll drag them out of you even if you don't want me to." Ray told him, lifting his left hand into the air. A man in dark clothes stepped out from thin air, his face obscured by artificial shadows. "This is my friend. He's known as The Man Of Horror. He can manipulate the perception of reality for others. He can't use it to directly harm other people, but the stuff he warps can. Let's hope it doesn't get to that point." Ray told Archie, giving him vital information to help defeat The Man Of Horror. Ray snapped his fingers, and Archie was thrust into a world of nightmares. However, there was one difference separating this experience from his Night Terrors. Ray and The Man Of Horror were still there. To Ray and The Man Of Horrors, everything appeared normal.

Creatures made of pure shadow crawled towards Archie, but Archie remained calm. He walked forwards, ignoring the shadowy monsters, much to Ray's surprise. The Man Of Horrors created a blade made of shadows, grabbing the handle with both hands and pointing the end of the sword at Archie. However, this didn't shake or even affect Archie's path. He kept walking forwards, forcing The Man Of Horror's hand. He swung his blade at Archie but stopped as it reached his neck, his arms shaking. Archie stared at The Man Of Horror, not noticing the monster of shadows that floated behind him, holding the blade with a shadowy hand. It was almost like a demon that trailed behind a human that it had marked. That monster was something only The Man Of Horror was able to see. Ray wasn't affected by The Man Of Horror's perception manipulation, and Archie wasn't looking at it.

"What do you think you're doing?" The demonic creature asked The Man Of Horror, who failed to reply. "This kid belongs to me, you understand?" The monster told him, a shadowy hand grasping at The Man Of Horror's neck, invisible to everyone else, even Archie. "If you understand me, you'll want to leave as soon as possible. This kid brought me back into the human realm, and I want to be the one to kill him." The demonic monster of shadows threatened him, the hand disappearing as he did.

Archie could only stare in confusion as The Man Of Horror's cognitive manipulation ended, confusing both Archie and Ray. "What happened there?" Ray asked The Man Of Horror, who only put his arms up in an "X" motion, signalling that he wouldn't tell him. Before Ray could ask another question, The Man Of Horror stepped backwards, turning invisible again. Archie couldn't understand if it was teleportation or actual invisibility. He wasn't going to question it.

"Well, you surpassed The Man Of Horror without even laying a finger on him. I don't know what happened there, but he seemed unable to attack you for whatever reason. I can't get any information from you right now, so I'm letting you get back to class. However, I will let you know of this before you go. Every time you come back here, I'll test out new ways to extract information on you, so you better be well prepared." Ray told him, pointing towards the door. "Back to class."

Archie walked out of the room with a smile on his face. He had gotten out of the medical bay, fully healed. However, he was blissfully unaware of the monster asleep inside his body, released from the book once he read it. A demon that cursed his life to silence, just as it had many others. Their lives had been taken by him, and Archie will be just like them.

"Cursed to the same fate, just like a star. Wounded by the world, leaving a wound and a scar. Nothing to meet them as Heaven's light dims, cursed to life at the Devil's whims."