Every town has stories told of an abandoned place that is still haunted by the disquiet spirits of the dead.. But even the most far fetched of stories have some grain of truth deep within that sparked them. Most of them are just that ...stories.. Most of them.
The Great Hope hospital had become anything but great in the last three decades in which it had lay gated, padlocked and sealed, effectively freezing the old building in an envelope of time.. Its once vibrant heart having been stilled and its dazzling white facade now greyed with age which gave the outward appearance of being a hugely elaborate tombstone.. But places like these don't tend to die; they are more often than not killed off.
There is no small measure of irony that the sign leading up towards its once grand lobby, the word 'Great' had been sprayed out and the word 'Abandoned' had been crudely painted in its place, and so, with a cruel cool air nestling across it, the 'Abandoned Hope' sits as a dormant reminder of the malevolence that once stalked its pristine white corridors, the air of bleach having once obscured the stench of evil that flowed through these corridors like blood.
It was on the eighth day of August, 1975, when it all changed.. It was on that day that a nondescript hospital, not unlike any hospital in any town, was suddenly thrust into the glare of the national press, and for a while at least, one name was poised on everybody?s lips, Doctor Richard Connor.. On that day the facade of a conscientious and caring surgeon was torn away to reveal a man that had, for some years, systematically abused, tortured and executed patients under his supposed caring wing.
But it didn't end there, Richard Connor was able to escape the laws fullest retribution on a technicality and the man who was said to have murdered more than one hundred souls was once more free.. Word of this spread around the town like a bushfire and the vocal upsurge came close to tearing this small town apart in full view of the media circus that eagerly looked on.. Richard Conner, meanwhile, seemed to slip away from the public rage and in his absence a grim fear gripped the town, that is until his body was eventually discovered by a policeman sent to investigate a disturbance at the now closed 'Great Hope'.. Doctor Connor was sprawled out on the lobby floor. His neck broken and his body found to be a latticework or scarring both old and fresh.. It was never clear if it had been an act of retribution by persons unknown or if he had simply taken his own life, but that simple fact never seemed important, the truth of it was that the murderous medic was dead and with it the town had a chance to put it all in the past.
However, with many stories of this ilk, it never ended there.. The now abandoned building began to take on an unreal life all its own as a legend slowly grew up within its walls. A number of strange occurrences, missing people and unexplained deaths within its grounds, all of this was put down to the restless and vengeful spirit of Doctor Richard Connor and the old building became somewhat of a magnet for thrill seekers and college dropouts.
____
A limp pool of torchlight flashed across the shattered remains of the once grand lobby entrance, and was almost at once swallowed up by the cloying darkness within, an unnatural darkness that seemed steeped in the quagmire of decay.. The light flashed around until it fell upon the soft features of a woman, the haze of shadow to accentuate her sharp cheekbones, soft lines and soulful eyes.
"You don't have to go through with this Katrina, we can still turn back you know.". The deeper tones of a male voice came from behind the source of light.
Katrina snorted,. "Really Dan, if your so scared then just go back, you don't have to use me as an excuse, I'm more than happy to go on if your balls have shriveled.". The harshness of her words seemed unfitting of her soft features and gentle voice.
"...And miss all the fun!. I don't think so."
Dan reached out and pushed against the door, the rust around the hinges cracked as, with some effort, the lobby doors swung inward.. He stepped through, his path quickly mirrored by Katrina.. They slowed as they both reached the centre of the lobby, its resplendent grandeur having long fallen prey to the ravages of time, the floor was littered with broken masonry and coated in a grey dust that shone like fresh snow fall in the sweeping beam of light.. Cups lay scattered, magazines lay open, the board on reception still blinked with an intermittent red light, it seemed that even after all this time the hospitals emergency generators were still active and siphoning power around the building.
Even amidst all of this decay, the building seemed to hum with an innate energy and project a dark grandeur all its own.. Slowly they crossed the foyer towards the reception desk and it was then that they saw it, a significant depression in the mat of dust that lined the floor.. As they stood and stared, its form became unmistakable to them.
"Shit!. It's him!". Dan's voice, even at a whisper seemed to bounce of the wall.
Katrina gasped, the lines in the dust clearly marked out his body where it had fallen, arms sprawled, legs twisted.. They both looked up towards the open balcony above reception, Dan's light flashed across the railings but it couldn't break through the inky pitch that prevailed beyond them.. Katrina slipped across towards the reception desk, her eyes instinctively drawn towards the red flashing light.. She stuck out a finger and brushed away the layer of dust above it.. The location of the light was revealed to her, it simply said 'Theatre One'.
Softly she repeated these words to herself, her tone deliberate and wistful before she turned towards Dan.
"Dan.. It's the main theatre." Her words seemed edged with foreboding.
Dan looked up, the torch flashed across Katrina and the reception desk.. From the deep impression in the dust rose a small eddy that, unseen in the darkness, whipped the dust into small clouds.
Katrina locked on the blinking light, the light still flashed intermittently and the board was free of the stain of ages, the steel panel gleamed in the vapour trails of sunlight that streamed through the glass pyramid roof above reception.. A scream stuck in her throat as she spun about.. Dan was gone, as was three decades of filth and detritus.. Behind her hummed the bustle of a busy city hospital, patients musing over results, Doctors in joking conversations with nurses and porters hurrying past her with trolleys towards the theatres.
"No!. This can't be happening." She thought, turning to reception only to be greeted with the fresh smiling face of the receptionist as she went about her duties.
"Nurse Lempett.". Came a soft, almost whispered voice.. Katrina blinked at the receptionist, convinced as she was that this was all some bizarre hallucination created around her, she tried to convince herself that somewhere within the shattered remains of the lobby lay a cracked gas line or something else that would have created such real time theatrics within her head.
She watched as the receptionist's eyes flicked to her side, an inch or so past her right shoulder, and from somewhere close to her right ear came another voice, deeper, darker, yet holding her captive within its lyrical flow.
"Nurse Katrina Lempett."
Shocked, she turned her mouth agape and found herself staring into the deep brown eyes of a Doctor.. His features were thin and a pallor like snow, his sharp features framed by a mane of black slicked back hair.. It was a face everyone within the town would have recognised from the countless new paper clippings and old newsreels from the mid seventies.. Doctor Richard Connor.
He smiled, his eyes twinkled, and there was something about the way he looked at her, something took a deep hold on her and pulled her into him, her mind screamed out, desperate in its attempt to pull her from the brink of folly.. Somewhere deep inside she knew that none of this could be true and that she still stood in the decaying lobby.
"Katrina." Came the voice again, once more it crashed against the shores of reality, its ebb pulling her closer towards him.
Richard's eyes flicked towards the flashing red light on the console, then back at her.
"We have an emergency in Theatre One.. I shall need you to assist me Katrina." a voice that caressed her so deeply that her skin prickled at each word.
"Yes Doctor.". Her eyes flashed with confusion as she responded to him.
Richard smiled, softly, seductively, as he turned and walked towards the lift.. Katrina followed.
____
The sound of footfalls brought Dan?s torch to bear and he watched as Katrina crossed the lobby.
"Katrina?. Where are you going!?"
Se didn't answer him, she didn't even glance towards him in acknowledgement of his words, she just continued on to the lift.. The doors slid open as she approached.
"Shit!" Dan hissed, before quickly setting off across the lobby floor making it through the lift doors only moments before they slid shut.. He placed a hand on Katrina's shoulder, she didn't respond, he shook her but still there came no response.
Katrina reached out and clipped her finger against the button for the third floor.. With a clunk and a grind the gears began to shift and the lift started to rise.. The mechanics ground and whirred until it shuddered to a halt and the doors slid open, Katrina stepped out, for a moment she seemed dazed and somewhat lost, then she smiled, almost as if some unseen voice had silently whispered to her and with that she turned left following the path of the corridor, instinctively hugging the wall as a trolley came clattering towards her.
Dan watched her, unable to understand why she suddenly moved against the wall, feeling nothing of the trolley as he followed her down the rubble strewn passage.
Katrina paused outside a set of double doors, above them sat a sign 'Theatre One' below it a dim red light blinked, Katrina reached out and the doors swung inwards, within an instant she was gone.
"What the fuck are you playing at Katrina!". Dan's patience had begun to wear thin of this game of cat and mouse through the broken hospital.. As he approached the doors he glanced upwards, it simply read 'Th. at. e O e', he gave the doors a hard shove and in that moment he had to raise his hands to shield his eyes from a stark white glare, a moment of intense pain flooded him and then nothing, nothing but black.
____
Katrina blinked against the harshness of the theatres flood lamps, the stark clinical white of the room appeared even more bereft of detail under it unforgiving glare.. As her eyes became more accustomed to the intensity she could make out a lone figure under the wash of neon lights.. He smiled directly at her; something about his expression caused her to physically shiver as her mind was invaded with his dark harmony.. Not a thought in her head escaped his caress and she fell to him, lost in the timeless pull of his gaze.
____
A soft focus whirlpool of. colour swept over Dan?s mind, images that seemed to carry little substance, he blinked against the deep swell that pulled against his consciousness like a tide withdrawing from a beach, with each wash felt more of himself lost to its hold.
Commands from his brain filtered down through his arm, its movement were slow and leaden, the flesh hardly seemed his to control but he lifted his hand before him and stretched out his fingers, each carried a blurred aura around them as though every subtle movement he made was disjointed with the passage of time around him.. The effort was too much and his arm dropped to the side, he felt the sudden sting of cold metal against his skin.. This was his first real tangible sensation and it set his mind alight with its touch.. He tried to move, but his legs felt unresponsive and even now it took the greatest will to even get the muscles in his arm to twitch let alone raise it.
He felt he must have slipped and hit his head hard, sure that the feeling would return to him he crushed his eyes shut and tried to fight back against his body?s stubbornness.. In his sightless world his sense of hearing seemed more astute and he picked up on the sensation of someone moving into the room, not so much the sound but rather the sense of the air around them being displaced and dancing across him as they moved closer.. His eyes flicked open and at once his sight was flooded with the pale glare of the lights directly above him..
For a second they were disturbed as a distorted figure moved across them, then a second following in its wake? No, his vision must be blurred from the strike to his head, he convinced himself that there was only one solid figure and anything else must have been similar to the distortion he felt as he raised his fingers.
He tried to turn his head away from the impact of the lights, trying to catch a better sight of the figure before him, it had to be Katrina, but why wasn't she helping?. Why was she acting as though she was entranced?
He opened his mouth to speak but couldn't hear the sound of his own voice!. Katrina came to rest close to him, her eyes seemed fixed across him, he turned his gaze to what seemed to have caught her attention but there was nothing there.. The remains of the theatre was empty but the two of them.. Dan tried to call out to her, but her name refused to form on his lips, his eyes conveyed his panic but not once did she turn her gaze to his, her wistful admiring look was frozen across him...
____
The world seemed to halt in its timeless flow as Katrina gazed into his eyes transfixed by the vibrant fire that echoed in the space that hung between them.. He smiled as his mind reached across to hers, and then turned his gaze downwards towards the prone figure lying upon the table, he had already begun to be affected by the paralytic nature of the drugs attached via a drip to his arm.. No movement, no sound, only his fear was a tangible presence in the room.
Doctor Connor walked around the table, his soft steps making no sound against the tiled floor as he approached Katrina.. He sidled up behind her, one hand snaking around her waist, the other across the top of her chest with his hand resting upon her shoulder.. His voice spoke as the soft eddies of a midsummer breeze against her ear.
"I have waited so long for you, before you I was nothing but a whispered promise on the wind seeking out the one who would know me as they know themselves.. Someone who would open themselves to me.. I have reached deep into your mind dear Katrina and I have seen all that you keep hidden, even from yourself.. But now is the time to allow yourself to be reborn, to embrace that deeper need that runs through your blood.. Look at him and tell me what you see."
Katrina's gaze lowered slowly, her expression showed no ounce of emotion as she looked over Dan's naked body prostrate on the table, a plastic tube connected to his arm and a clear chemical dripping into his body.. He remained completely motionless but his eyes were wide and frozen with dread.
"Tell me what you see" came the still soft but insistent voice at her side.
Katrina's reply came back a little stilted as if her conscious thoughts occupied some dream.
"I see ...meat."
The slim sound of satisfaction brushed against her ear.
"He isn't like us, his kind convinces themselves that they are 'top of the tree', but it is delusional.. Humanity has become decadent and weak, that is what gave rise to us, this is why people like you and I and others like us exist.. We are the next step up in the evolutionary ladder of mankind, we are the greatest predators, we are the shadows whispered of into the ears of a child from a parent who tells tale of monsters as they settle to sleep.. Come Katrina, embrace your true self.. I know the turmoil in your heart from the years you have spent in conflict.. Free yourself from such pointless constraints and embrace all that you can be."
Richard's voice sparked the hairs on the back of her neck, her body felt as though it was caught in the midst of a storm.. The expressionless void on her face began to focus; her eyes narrowed yet seemed to take on an intrinsic gleam, her smile spilt over her lips with a faint whisper of cruelty.
Dan tried to struggle against the flow of fear that crushed his heart.. He felt sure that he must be in the midst of some nightmare, he had known Katrina for so long, feisty and fearless she had always been, but the look that was now directed towards him was like something he'd never known before.. The air seemed to shift around her as the dust that hung in the stilted air appeared to flow and shift with a purpose, spiralling in the air for a moment it seemed to form around her, almost as though it was holding her tight in a lovers embrace before the sight of it was once more lost to his eyes.
"Take the final step Katrina.. Freedom is something that lies with your grasp, break these shackles that society have constrained you with and become what you truly desire."
Katrina's eyes flicked to the side, arranged upon a metal ray close to her were an assortment of medical instruments, her slender fingers reached out, they poised over the thin metal handle of the scalpel.. Her fingers closed around it and she brought it up to her piercing gaze catching the dark reflection in her eyes before looking back down towards Dan.
Dan tried to scream out, the frantic cry exploded through his mind but not even the vaguest whimper escaped his lips, but it was doubtful it would have made any difference as the look across Katrina's face spoke only of a primal hunger.
"Read the fear in his eyes. Drink of the hopelessness that lies in his heart."
Katrina slowly lowered the scalpel.
"Feel the pace of his heartbeat, its pounding as he lies there caught in the dread space between fear and the knowledge that this is the finality of his existence, that all his hopes and dreams have come to nothing.. Foolish, pointless meat that exists only for our satisfaction Katrina."
the blade lowered and pressed against the skin at the head of his sternum, depressing it, but not yet cutting it.
"Our sworn duty lies in culling the herd Katrina."
Katrina?s dark smile curled upwards as the hunger flowed through her heart, the muscles in her arm tensed as the neat blade of the scalpel began to press into his flesh.. Dan's eyes went wide with the focal point of pain that drove into his body, the drugs flowing through him having rendered all but his mind and nerve endings inert..
The blade compressed tightly against his skin until, without a murmur, the skin parted under the pressure of the blade and the metal bit deeply into the tissue before stopping at the bone.. The sheer scope of the pain battered at Dan's mind, his eyes fell so wide that they felt as though the y could burst from his skull.. A deep scream exploded in his head but the room remained clocked in silence, all but for the soft wet noise of his body giving itself up to the blade as it slowly parted in its path.
"Good Katrina, you display a strong and decisive hand.. They say the first cut is the deepest, that could be argued against but it is surely the most important."
his hand slowly moved from her waist and delicately placed itself over her wrist.
"Your journey has taken its first step my dear Katrina."
Katrina's fingers braced hard against the slender handle as she continued to pull the blade down his chest, the tip of the metal cutting deep enough to scrape a thin groove down the run of bone centred to his chest, before it pulled free of its barrier and sunk into the flesh of his abdomen.. His flesh parted like silk, the split skin being quickly swallowed by a deep pooling of crimson that began to spill out over his chest and taint the whiteness of his skin with its tainted track.
Dan's mind twisted around with the complex pattern of pain, his eyes searing to its touch, his very soul screaming out in agonised desperation but his flesh remained resolutely silent. The blade continued its flow down his body, parting his flesh with graceful ease and washing his skin with its intimate red hue.
Dan's mind was crushed with the pain, his agony was given no voice and the hurt flowed through his nerves as freely as his blood from his body.. Katrina continued with the scalpel, his once tight washboard stomach now sliced through with the skin wrinkled at its edges.. She continued in a single fluid motion, cutting through his navel and reaching the rise of his groin before pulling the blade free of him and then she brought the blood stained steel to her eyes, they shimmered in its glow.
"Taste it in the air Katrina, and drink of your reward."
His hand, still touching upon her wrist, helped her to bring the scalpel to her lips, with some unspoken instinct they parted and her tongue delicately danced over the metal and filling her mouth with its pungent metallic flavour.. She glanced to the figure on the table, his eyes were wide and the pain burst through him, his torso split into a growing red pool as each raged breath he took spilled more of his lifeblood over the edges of his rent body.. For a moment his pained eyes rolled and locked against Katrina's whose own gaze was lost to the dark and whispered words at her shoulder.
She dropped the scalpel into the tray with a sharp clatter, flecks of blood coming to rest upon its glistening surface.. She returned her attention to Dan's body, her forefinger playfully following the smooth wall of skin and underlying fat, she continued running her finger across his exposed ribs, her touch rippling across the alternating bloodied bone and soft tissue.. Her bloody fingers continued on past the start of her incision, up his neck and ran along his lips staining them and exposing himself to his own rich deep taste.
She smiled at him, but there was no response given but for the wild eyed stare rich in the grip of pain.. Slowly her finger pulled away, she paused for a moment in order to bring it to her own lips.
"You see it now don't you Katrina.. You see them as I see them; they are so much lesser than you or I."
"I see it." Katrina's voice had a distant and dreamlike tone as she spoke.
Amidst the crippling spiral of pain Dan's mind tried to focus, who was she talking too, what was she doing.. He wanted to reach out and grab her, pulling her free of whatever dark malaise had taken such vigorous hold of her.
Katrina reached for a larger scalpel, its blade far bigger than the one she had used to so expertly part his flesh.. She began to feed the blade between his ribs and the fatty tissue of his chest and using a feather touch to tease the meat from his body, her other hand trailing in its wake and pulling the blanket of skin away from him which caused an even greater flow of blood from his body which pooled across him.. Once the blade had cut away the meat from the right side of his chest she slipped it beneath the flesh of the left, slicing through the soft meat, occasionally chipping the bone as the metal slithered through.
She turned her attention back to the tray, placing the bloodied knife down and grasping her fingers beneath the flesh of his chest and pulling sharply.. The room was filled with a slick wet tearing as the remainder of the muscle pulled away from the bone, there followed a sudden increase in blood flow as the vessels were torn through the fat and his open cavity was washed crimson.. Dan's eyes lay unblinking, his stoic body refusing to allow him the expression of pain that was rupturing his mind, already his sanity had been sorely tested as the sound of his ripping flesh filled his ears.
Katrina stepped back a little and eyed up her handiwork, a slight smile graced her succulent mouth bringing an unexpected sweetness to her expression amid such brutality.. The bloody meshwork of flesh lay exposed and his bones glistened red under the spotlights with the blood running in rivers down his body across the table and down the sluice.. But Dan?s expression never once changed, frozen into its benign state.
Behind her Doctor Connor seemed to snake around her, his spirit entwined deeply against her own as they both stood and watched his ribcage rise with shuddering motions as his lungs dragged in what air they could.
Each stilted breath was like drawing in raw fire, each twist of his chest was as it it had been skewered on a thousand hooks, each second of this torment lasting an eternity, but perhaps the greatest torture and the richest torment lay in the fact that he could do nothing to release or vent the pain from his besieged mind.. He couldn't cry out or scream, all he could do was stare upwards at the woman he had loved as she systematically carved him up.
"Beautiful Katrina.. There is much to be admired in the physical expression of your souls deepest desire."
Katrina's hand moved across the arrangement of tools at her side, the light touch of Richard Connor guiding her until her fingers came to rest upon a heavy set of clippers, its short stubby blades designed for one thing, for fitting between the ribs and crushing through bone.
Katrina smiled, her eyes flicked towards Dan's and with her gaze she held for him the promise of pain.. Richard's fell words whispered into her ear.
"The source of life is the greatest gift, each of these cattle possesses one but they have neither the strength or the wit to employ it to its greatest purpose.. Take what is yours by rights dear Katrina."
Her fingers snapped around the handle and she brought the clippers into view, opening its solid jaws and then clamping them around the lowest rib exposed in the bloodied map of his chest.. She held them firmly before crushing the blades together.. The air shook with the sharp crack as the pressure exploded through the bone sending fragments scattering.. She pulled the bloody jaws free, like a predator's maw it now dripped with the taste for blood, she pushed it through a flap of thin muscle and clamped around the second rib.. Once more the jaws bit down and the silence was shattered with the shattering of bone.
Dan's failing mind was barely hinged against the agonised symphony Katrina was conducting on his body.. Each sheared end of bone burnt with hells own fury as she relentlessly ploughed through each rib in turn but amidst the pain was the enormous pressure that crushed the air from his lungs and the chill that flooded his bodies core as he was deeply exposed.. He wanted to scream out, to beg for a quick release form this, to be torn from this unending pain and cast into the respite that would come with deaths oblivion, but amidst the agony his body seemed committed to some spiteful rebellion against him in a twisted effort to ensure he endured this fire.
Katrina's guided hand moved across to the other side of his chest and was halfway through severing each rib as the pain reached a dizzying crescendo, she crunched through the final rib with a shivering jolt.. The tool clattered to the tray as her fingers reached out either side of his shattered breastplate, they slowly pushed their way through the bloodied mush before taking hold and pulling it away, slivers of tissue tried in vain to hold on but for nothing as the parcel of bone, tissue and blood tore from his body with a wet gurgle.. She discarded the bone sending it skittering across the operating theatre floor whilst she reached out her finger and tenderly ran it across Dan's struggling lungs..
Deep within his mind, Dan?s cries of agony had reached fever pitch, her touch on his grossly exposed body gave rise to the purest pain imaginable all of which she could read from his eyes.. Katrina shivered as the form of the Doctor shifted around her, his misty touch caressing her and exciting her skin.
"Don't hold back, you see him for what he is now, mere flesh, bone, blood and offal.. There is no spirit within; it is just the mechanics of biology that give it function, this I learnt early on.. I can feel your disgust at is as you can feel mine.. It is a sickening reminder of frailty and dependence; it can never be as we are.. Take it, take that which insists on giving this weak flesh life and free it of its fated burden."
Katrina's dreamlike smile echoed with the strings of cruelty as she began to move her fingers across his chest, lighting up a trail of agony in his mind wherever she went.. Her hand began to depress past his lungs, searching, seeking, and her fingers striving towards their goal.. Dan's eyes begged for release but even that dread hope seemed tantalisingly unobtainable.. Each breath clawed through his lungs with gasping uncertainty as her fingers, now covered with a rich coating of blood and fragmented tissue pushed further into his chest stilling only once they had found that which they sought.. Dan's silent stare met her own entranced gaze.
"Can you feel it?" a soft voice imparted against her ear.
"Yes." Came Katrina's simple response.
Her fingers softly clasped around the sole working muscle in his spent body, his heart.. Its weak rhythmic pulsations now only achieving one thing, that being to empty his body of blood as it spewed from his torn vessels.. Her fingers began to close around it, her grip tightening against its vain beating.
Dan's mind had long since extinguished the possibility and hope of reprieve from his fate, all he yearned for now was a release, the key to which Katrina now held in her hands still buried within his chest.. The pain in his eyes was replaced with a desperate and agonised plea to her.
Her fingers began to press against the firmness of his heart, still it tried to struggle, its beat pulsing against her tight grip, despite it all, Dan?s flesh still craved to continue.
"It beats because it knows no better, no different." came the soft breeze of a floating presence around her, "All it knows is struggle, but in the end it is all for nothing and it all must end.. Fulfil your need Katrina, take the spark of life in your hand and tear it from him.. Take the next step towards your evolution."
Katrina's hand firmed up against his heart, it felt a deeper intensity than she could describe to hold the key to life in her palm, her eyes displayed an almost loving gaze as she tightened around him, her smile thinning a little in the effort of gripping the struggling organ.
The swirling form of Doctor Connor seemed to flare about her, as anxious as she was to savour his death.
Katrina leant low across his body, her lips hovered above his own blood flecked lips where she tenderly lay a kiss, her eyes blazed, her smile grew.
"Goodbye ...Dan," she hissed.
She pulled from him suddenly, simultaneously pulling her hand from his exposed chest, his beating heart picked up its pace as the veins and arteries stretched, the slow slick noise as bundles of soft bloody tissues tore from him.. First his pulmonary artery severed and flooded his chest with a thick rich soup, the others followed in quick succession, his eyes burning wide as the orchestra of pain shattered his mind and reached its shuddering climax.
Katrina grunted with the effort and tore his heart from his chest in a rich visceral spray that rained down on them both.. She threw back her head amidst this crimson storm and relished the feeling of blood as it spat against her skin and trickled down into her open mouth.
Doctor Connors grip tightened around her, his spirit seemed to fuse to her as she drank deeply of the intensity of taking a life.. Time hung heavily around them and with it Richard Connor's presence took on a darker shade as though he had been invigorated and refreshed around the spectre of death.. He pulled sharply from Katrina and began to shift towards the door before turning and proffering his open hand.
"Come Katrina, your journey is in its infancy, there is much you need to learn."
With Dan's blood still fresh on her lips she walked towards him and reached out her hand.. The instant her hand touched his the air shuddered around them and Katrina gasped at the weight and the pressure that crushed all around her, her eyes clenched shut and she staggered forwards.. In the next moment the Doctors firm hand was gone and she felt the gorge of panic swell inside her against the darkness that threatened to consume her completely.. Her hand suddenly clasped against the handrail before her, she opened her eyes, Richard was gone but she stood on the balcony that overlooked the crumbling reception of the hospital.. Glancing down she saw the faint imprint of a sprawled body in the dust, the indelible impression left by Doctor Richard Connor.
"Why!" she was shocked at the sound of her own voice.
And at once she felt Richards touch all around her, but not as before, this time he constricted around her holding her in place above the site where his own life was ended.
"Why!" his own voice mocked hers, "Because the first kill is the greatest to savour, no matter how many that fall past that, you can never recapture that moment. That first rush is all too fleeting but something you never forget, but it was something that I could never taste again, but I never abandoned hope, through you and people like you I can catch the essence of that first taste, but Katrina dear, you are nothing to me, you are sullied and useless now."
Katrina felt a huge compression crash about her as Richard forced her closer to the rail, her eyes flashed madly, but nothing would avail her.. He pushed hard and followed through as he tipped her over the handrail, only releasing her as she spilled towards the floor.. A panicked cry barely had the chance to escape her as she fell and her head cracked sharply against the ground.. The air was flooded with the sound of splintering bone as the dust rose in a great cloud before settling softly over her broken dying body.. Her arms were sprawled and her legs were bent awkwardly, a death pose mimicking the Doctor's final moments of life.
The shadow of Richard Connor gazed down at her before dispersing on the chill breeze that encircled the long abandoned 'Great Hope'.
