--==Chapter 48: Goddamn Illusions --==

After passing the ER, I stuck close to the hospital wall as I circled around to the entrance. I started looking out for security cameras, just in case the screens were being watched by someone who wanted me dead or gone. There were more than I expected, and it wasn't possible to avoid them altogether, especially by the parking garage and main entrance. I'd just have to hope that cameras weren't being watched, at least not closely.

I kept my shotgun pointed down but ready as I poked my head into the main entrance.

Everything I knew about guns told me this was a terrible idea. How many times had I heard about people accidentally shooting their loved ones when surprised? How many times had I heard about police using deadly force because they were unnecessarily scared for their life? They'd at least had at least some training.

My own morality and a limited number of shells made me determined not to use the gun on anyone except Hands and his goons. Yet, while the dolphin might stand out, the goons were just people and wouldn't be easily picked out from anyone else.

It also wouldn't do me any favors if I stopped Hands from framing me for creating and abusing drones if I instead got caught on camera blowing a random guy to smithereens. I told myself it was a price I'd willingly pay to stop Hands, or at least stop him from enacting this scheme.

I didn't know why he was doing what he was doing. I didn't know what he was after—besides my Shadow and wanting me gone. He'd told me there was nothing for me here, and then, as I was beginning to think I had a chance of making something, he stole that foundation out from under me.

Jon may never have been eager to believe I was his best buddy, Sam. Still, if Jessica had been there and if Maebe hadn't been used to set me up, I was sure our reunion would have gone better. Maybe that wouldn't have changed anything for Kay's group. I understood why they'd be scared. But if they didn't have any victims to point to? I had to believe Jon would have been much more willing to trust me, to fight for me and with me.

I was so close.

It was just another reason to make sure Hands understood his actions had consequences.

My first priority had to be ensuring Nia, Jessica, and the others were safe and stayed safe. There'd been no way for me to follow Aquarium Guy after he tranq'd me. I was weak, and my limbs shivered; even if I'd been able to keep pace with him, I wouldn't have been able to stop him.

I'd just have to hope my fur was collected for later use or that he had to check back in with Hands for some reason. My heart cried that I was already too late, that I'd already failed. For all I knew, it was too late when he took my fur in the first place. If that was the case, I'd just have to make sure I put fear in their hearts. I couldn't undo what was done, but I could make sure they regretted it. I could take every chance they had to do it again.

Checking the shotgun's safety was on, I walked into the hospital. Thankfully, nobody ambushed me.

My hands shook, and I didn't think it was from the lingering drugs in my system. I was nauseated over what was coming next. It wasn't just nerves either. I felt gross. Wrong. I was modeling behavior I hated.

I just kept reminding myself that the people were all just empty puppets, and even if some weren't, the day would restart, and they'd be fine, hopefully with a lesson learned. If I could regain my Shadow, I could stop Hands from making more drones, and with Sori's help, I might be able to restore their minds.

Like the rear entrance, a map was on the wall near the door. With a trembling hand, I traced the route I'd need to take to the pool.

I had no voice. I had no memory crystals to create visualizations. I had no Sori-crow to translate for me poorly. I only had violence and death. I only had rage and could only create fear.

It wasn't who I was. It wasn't who I wanted to be. It wasn't the reality I wanted to live in. It was the one path afforded me that I could live with.

People were being threatened, terrorized, and stolen away without mercy or compassion.

I hate this.

Heart thundering in my ears, I turned left, following the path I'd traced. I could only thank my lucky hearts, stars, and horseshoes that it was in the opposite direction of the chapel. That would hopefully make it less likely I'd accidentally hurt an innocent.

The pool was close; at least it was close if I cut through some other rooms.

From that admit area of the hospital, I walked through a door labeled as a lab. It was long and filled with tubes, microscopes, scales, Petri dishes, and four bathrooms for some reason. Passing through the lab, I reached a door marked "outpatient mammogram imaging," and I readied myself.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I took several deep breaths and prepared a glamour, taking the safety off the shotgun. The entrance to the pool would be across the room and to the left. If someone was standing guard, I'd need to be ready.

I didn't love the emotional glamours that Sori had taught me. Still, one of the button charms on the necklace was empowered with an illusion that would be useful for this assault. Terror. Since I didn't have the buttons anymore, I'd have to do the illusion myself. My main target would be Hands, but if someone was guarding the entrance, I'd need to debilitate them quickly and preferably quietly.

Opening the door a crack, I checked for guards and immediately felt stupid. In my nervousness, I'd not been paying close enough attention and accidentally opened the door to a bathroom. I sheepishly glanced at the cameras in the room. Now they had me on camera peeking into bathrooms, not a good look.

I moved down to the next door and started psyching myself again.

That room was also a bathroom.

Why are there so many bathrooms in this lab? Are they just continually developing new laxatives?

The map had shown four bathrooms, but I must have misremembered where they were. It would help if the labels on the door were accurate. Both of those doors had been labeled as entrances to the mammogram imaging.

I wish I could say that's when I figured it out, but it wasn't until I checked the doors actually marked as restrooms that it dawned on me that something fishy was going on.

Goddamn illusions. If Sori is watching, he must be laughing his ass off.

Still, he'd told me visual illusions were easy to see through. I double-checked the first door. The bathroom was still on the other side, but as I began examining the details, the lllusion broke.

It almost felt like I'd been dreaming about a bathroom, and when I started looking for incongruities, they popped out. Why did a bathroom need two plungers? What was the point of a mirror across from the toilet? The more I noticed, the more there was to notice. The faucet had three knobs, the toilet didn't have a handle to flush, there was no soap or soap dispenser, and so on.

I was pretty sure I'd seen all of those things in bathrooms before. But each oddity led to another, and it quickly became obvious it wasn't a real bathroom. It was just an approximation of a bathroom, the dream of one. That recognition was all it took to shatter the illusion. Reality snapped into place like a magic-eye picture in reverse, allowing me to see the room beyond.

I was lucky nobody was standing guard. The illusions must have been more effective than Sori claimed, or maybe Hands just trusted them more than he should. Either way, no guards raised the alarm about me walking through the illusory wall or shot me while I tried to see past it.

I hesitated.

The door to the pool and Hands was right there. Would Hands know I'd broken through his illusion? It seemed likely it wasn't the only illusion either. How many could he do? How close did he have to be? What if the map had been an illusion?

It was the writing on the doors that gave me the courage to go forward. When Hands had created the illusion of a bathroom, he hadn't changed the sign. Hopefully, like a dream, that kind of detail was too difficult to get right. It could still be a setup, but I had to believe the labels on the map and doors were accurate.

That would stop him from faking me out with other illusions. I'd just have to do my best to be sufficiently skeptical of everything I saw and probably everything I heard, too. After all, as a human, Hands had spoken to me. If that man had been an illusion, then his voice had to be as well.

Hopefully, Sori was right that Hands was the dolphin. Not only was I banking everything on that fact, but Hands was my main target. I doubted my emotional illusions would do much to a mindless drone, which made me doubly lucky there hadn't been one guarding the door. If the controller of that drone was terrified out of his gourd, though, his control would hopefully slip.

I took several deep breaths. I had three shots, then I'd need to reload. With further luck, those shots wouldn't need to be used on people.

They're just drones, I reminded myself.

The door read "Physical Therapy Pool," and I could occasionally hear water churning on the other side.

This was it.

I could expect more illusions on my way in. I wouldn't have time to see through them. I'd have to trust I could disrupt them.

I wasn't kidding myself. I knew this was very likely a suicide mission. I just needed to get to the pool to take Hands out. That should at least disrupt his plans. Whether or not I died, I'd be back when the day reset, and we could talk about why then.

I also needed to keep an eye out for my Shadow, not that I had much of a description beyond its name. Hopefully, I'd know it when I saw it. If I didn't die immediately, I might have a chance to reclaim it and solve several problems simultaneously.

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