Lost, spiralling time. Muddled happenings. Flitting in and out of reality. Momentarily here, then gone, reclaimed by madness and demons.
Clarity. A warm room. Police officers. I'm wrapped in blankets. A man with a kind face offers me a mug of hot chocolate. I take it. He's asking questions. His words sail over and through me. Staring into the dark liquid of the mug, I begin to fade out of reality. To avoid the return to nightmares, I lift my head and focus on his moving lips.
For a long time - nothing. Then whispers. They grow. Like turning up the volume on the TV. Not all his words make sense - there's a roaring sound inside my head - but I get his general drift. He's asking about the murders.
"Demons," I mutter, my first utterance since my soul-wrenching cry.
His face lights up and he snaps forward. More questions. Quicker than before. Louder. More urgent. Amidst the babble, I hear him ask, "Did you see them?"
"Yes," I croak. "Demons."
He frowns. Asks something else. I tune out. The world flames at the edges. A ball of madness condenses around me, trapping me, devouring me, cutting off all but the nightmares.
A different room. Different officers. More demanding than the last one. Not as gentle. Asking questions loudly, facing me directly, holding my head up until our eyes meet and they have my attention. One holds up a photograph - red, a body torn down the middle.
"Gret," I moan.
"I know it's hard," an officer says, sympathy mixed with impatience, "but did you see who killed her?"
"Demons," I sigh.
"Demons don't exist, Grubbs," the officer growls. "You're old enough to know that. Look, I know it's hard," he repeats himself, "but you have to focus. You have to help us find the people who did this."
"You're our only witness, Grubbs," his colleague murmurs. "You saw them. Nobody else did. We know you don't want to think about it right now, but you have to. For your parents. For Gret."
The other cop waves the photo in my face again. "Give us something - anything!" he pleads. "How many were there? Did you see their faces or were they wearing masks? How much of it did you witness? Can you..."
Fading. Bye-bye officers. Hello horror.
Screaming. Deafening cries. Looking around, wondering who's making such a racket and why they aren't being silenced. Then I realise it's me screaming.
In a white room. Hands bound by a tight white jacket. I've never seen a real one before, but I know what it is - a straitjacket.
I focus on making the screams stop and they slowly die away to a whimper. I don't know how long I've been roaring, but my throat's dry and painful, as though I've been testing its limits for weeks without pause.
There's a hard plastic mug set in a holder on a small table to my left. A straw sticks out of it, I ease my lips around the head of the straw and swallow. Flat Coke. It hurts going down, but after a couple of mouthfuls it's wonderful.
Refreshed, I study my cell. Padded walls. Dim lights. A steel door with a strong plastic panel in the upper half, instead of glass.
I stumble to the panel and stare out. Can't see much - the area beyond is dark, so the plastic's mostly reflective. I study my face in the makeshift mirror. My eyes aren't my own - bloodshot, wild, rimmed with black circles. Lips bitten to tatters. Scratches on my face - self-inflicted. Hair cut short, tighter than I'd like. A large purple bruise on my forehead.
A face pops up close on the other side of the glass. I fall backwards with fright. The door opens and a large, smiling woman enters. "It's OK," she says softly. "My name's Leah. I've been looking after you."
"Wh-wh... where am I?" I gasp.
"Someplace safe," she replies. She bends and touches the bruise on my forehead with two soft, gentle fingers. "You've been through hell, but you're OK now. It's all uphill from here. Now that you've snapped out of your delirium, we can work on..."
I lose track of what Leah's saying. Behind her, in the doorway, I imagine a pair of demons - Vein and Artery. The sane part of me knows they aren't real, just visions, but that part of me has no control over my senses any more. Backing up against one of the padded walls, I stare blankly at the make-believe demons as they dance around my cell, making crude gestures and mimed threats.
Leah goes on talking. The imaginary Vein and Artery go on dancing. I slip back into the shell of my nightmares - almost gratefully.
In and out. Quiet moments of reality. Sudden flashes of insanity and terror.
I'm being held in an institute for people with problems - that's all any of my nurses will tell me. No names. No mingling with the other patients. White rooms. Nurses - Leah, Kelly, Tim, Aleta, Emilia and others, all nice, all concerned, all unable to coax me back from my nightmares when they strike. Doctors with names which I don't bother memorising. They examine me at regular intervals. Make notes. Ask questions.
What did you see?
What did the killers look like?
Why do you insist on calling them demons?
You know demons aren't real. Who are the real killers?
One of them asks if I committed the murders. She's a grey-haired, sharp-eyed woman. Not as kindly as the rest. The 'bad doctor' to their 'good doctors'. She presses me harder as the days slip by. Challenges me. Shows me photos which make me cry.
I start calling her Doctor Slaughter, but only to myself, not out loud. When she comes with her questions and cold eyes, I open myself to the nightmares - always hovering on the edges, eager to embrace me - and lose myself to the real world. After a few of these intentional fade-outs, they obviously decide to abandon the shock tactics and that's the last I see of Doctor Slaughter.
Time dragging or disappearing into nightmares. No ordinary time. No lazy afternoons or quiet mornings. The murders impossible to forget. Grief and fear tainting my every waking and sleeping moment.
Routines are important, according to my doctors and nurses, who wish to put a stop to my nightmarish withdrawals. They're trying to get me back to real time. They surround me with clocks. Make me wear two watches. Stress the times at which I'm to eat and bathe, exercise and sleep.
Lots of pills and injections. Leah says it's only temporary, to calm me down. Says they don't like dosing patients here. They prefer to talk us through our problems, not make us forget them.
The drugs numb me to the nightmares, but also to everything else. Impossible to feel interest or boredom, excitement or despair. I wander around the hospital - I have a free run now that I'm no longer violent - in a daze, zombiefied, staring at clock faces, counting the seconds until my next pill.
Off the pills. Coming down hard. Screaming fits. Fighting the nurses. Craving numbness. Needing pills!
They ignore my screams and pleas. Leah explains what's happening. I'm on a long-term treatment plan. The drugs put a stop to the nightmares and anchored me in the real world - step one. Now I have to learn to function in it as a normal person, free of medicinal depressants - step two.
I try explaining my situation to her - my nightmares won't ever go away, because the demons I saw were real - but she refuses to listen. Nobody believes me when I talk about the demons. They accept that I was in the house at the time of the murders, and that I witnessed something dreadful, but they can't see beyond human horrors. They think I imagined the demons to mask the truth. One doctor says it's easier to believe in demons than evil humans. Says a wicked person is far scarier than a fanciful demon.
Moron! He wouldn't say that if he'd seen the crocodile-headed Vein or the cockroach-crowned Artery!
Gradual improvement. I lose my craving for drugs and no longer throw fits. But I don't progress as quickly as my doctors anticipated. I keep slipping back into the world of nightmares, losing my grip on reality. I don't talk openly with my nurses and doctors. I don't discuss my fears and pains. Sometimes I babble incoherently and can't interpret the words of those around me. Or I'll stand staring at a tree or bush through one of the institute windows all day long, or not get up in the morning, despite the best rousing efforts of my nurses. I'm fighting them. They don't believe my story, so they can't truly understand me, so they can't really help me. So I fight them. Out of fear and spite.
Somewhere in the middle of the confusion, relatives arrive. The doctors want me to focus on the world outside this institute. They think the way to do that is to reintroduce me to my family, break down my sense of overwhelming isolation. I think the plan is for the visitors to fuss over me, so that I want to be with them, so I'll then play ball with the doctors when they start in with the questions.
Aunt Kate's the first. She clutches me tight and weeps. Talks about Mum, Dad and Gret nonstop, recalling all the good times that she can remember. Begs me to let the doctors help me, to talk with them, so I can get better and go home and live with her. I say nothing, just stare off into space and think about Dad hanging upside-down. Aunt Kate leaves less than an hour later, still sobbing.
More relatives drop in during the following days and weeks, rounded up by the doctors. Aunts, uncles, cousins - both sides of the family tree. Some are old acquaintances. Some I've never seen before. I don't respond to any of them. I can tell they're just like the doctors. They don't believe me.
Lots of questions from my carers. Why don't I talk to my relatives? Do I like them? Are there others I prefer? Am I afraid of people? How would I feel about leaving here and staying with one of the well-wishers for a while?
They're trying to ship me out. It's not that they're sick of me - just step three on my path to recovery.
Since I won't rally to their calls in here, they hope that a taste of the real world will make me more receptive. (I haven't developed any great insights into the human way of thinking - I know all this because Leah and the other nurses tell me. They say it's good for me to know what they're thinking, what their plans are.)
I do my best to give them what they want - I'd love if they could cure me - but it's difficult. The relatives remind me of what happened. They can't act naturally around me. They look at me with pitying - sometimes fearful expressions. But I try. I listen. I respond.
After much preparation and discussion, I spend a weekend with Uncle Mike and his family. Mike is Mum's younger brother. He has a pretty wife - Rosetta - and three children, two girls and a boy. Gret and I stayed with them a few times in the past, when Mum and Dad were away on holidays.
They try hard to make me feel welcome. Conor - Mike's son - is ten years old. He shows me his toys and plays computer games with me. He's bright and friendly. Talks me through his comics collection and tells me I can pick out any three issues I like and keep them.
The girls - Lisa and Laura - are seven and six. Gigglish. Not sure why I'm here or aware of what happened to me. But they're nice. They tell me about school and their friends. They want to know if I have a girlfriend.
Saturday goes well. I feel Mike's optimism - he thinks this will work, that I'll return to my senses and pick up my life as normal. I try to believe salvation can come that simply, but inside I know I'm deluding myself.
Sunday. A stroll in the park. Playing with Lisa and Laura on the swings. Pushing them high. Rosetta close by, keeping a watchful eye on me. Mike on the roundabout with Conor.
"Want off!" Laura shouts. I stop her and she hops to the ground. "Look what I saw!" she yells gleefully, and rushes over to a bush at the side of the swings. I follow. She points to a dead bird - small, young, its body ripped apart, probably by a cat.
"Cool!" Lisa gasps, coming up behind.
"No it's not," Rosetta says, wandering over. "It's sad."
"Can we take it home and bury it?" Lisa asks.
"I don't know," Rosetta frowns. "It looks like it's been - "
"Demons killed my parents and sister," I interrupt calmly. The girls stare at me with round, wide eyes. "One of them ripped my dad's head clean off. Blood was pouring out. Like from a tap."
"Grubitsch, I don't think - " Rosetta says.
"One of the demons had the body of a child," I continue, unable to stop. "It had green skin and no eyes. Instead of hair, its head was covered with cockroaches."
"That's enough!" Rosetta snaps. "You're terrifying the girls. I won't - "
"The cockroaches were alive. They were eating the demon's flesh. If I'd looked closely enough, I'm sure I'd have seen its brains."
Rosetta storms off, Lisa and Laura in tow. Laura's crying.
I gaze sadly at the dead bird. Nightmares gather around me. Imagined demonic chuckles. The last thing I see in the real world - Mike marching towards me, torn between concern and fury.
The institute. Days - weeks? months? - later. Lots of questions.
Why did you say that to the girls?
Do you want to hurt other people?
Are you angry? Sad? Scared?
Would you like to visit somebody else?
I don't answer, or else I grunt in response. They don't understand. They can't. I didn't want to scare Lisa or Laura, or upset Mike and Rosetta. The words came out by themselves. The doctors can't help. If I had an ordinary illness, I'm sure they could fix me.
But I've seen demons rip my world to pieces. Nobody believes that, so nobody knows what I'm going through. I'm alone. I always will be. That's my life now. That's just the way it is.
The relatives stop coming. The doctors stop trying. They say they're giving me time to recover, but I think they just don't know how to handle me. Long periods by myself, walking, reading, thinking. Tired most of the time. Headaches. Imaginary demons everywhere I look. Hard to keep food down. Growing thin. Sickly.
The nurses try to rally my spirits. Days out - a circus, theme park, cinemas - and parties in my cell. No good. Their efforts are wasted on me. I draw into myself more and more. Hardly ever speak. Avoid eye contact. Fingers twitch and head twists with fear at the slightest alien sound.
Getting worse. Going downhill.
There's talk of new pills.
A visitor. It's been a long time since the last. I thought they'd given up.
It's Uncle Dervish. Dad's younger brother. I don't know much about him. A man of mystery. He visited us a few times when I was smaller. Mum never liked him. I recall her and Dad arguing about him once. "We're not taking the kids there!" she snapped. "I don't trust him."
Leah admits Uncle Dervish. Asks if he'd like anything to drink or eat. "No thanks." Would I like anything? I shake my head. Leah leaves.
Dervish Grady is a thin, lanky man. Bald on top, grey hair at the sides, a tight grey beard. Pale blue eyes. I remember his eyes from when I was a kid. I thought they looked like my toy soldier's eyes. I asked him if he was in the army. He laughed.
He's dressed completely in denim - jeans, shirt, jacket. He looks ridiculous - Gret used to say denim looks naff on anyone over the age of thirty. She was right.
Dervish sits in the visitor's chair and studies me with cool, serious eyes. He's immediately different to all who've come before. Whereas the other relatives were quick to start a false, cheerful conversation, or cry, or say how sorry they were, Dervish just sits and stares. That interests me, so I stare back, more alert than I've been in weeks.
"Hello," I say after a full minute of silence.
Dervish nods in reply.
I try thinking of a follow-up line. Nothing comes to mind.
Dervish looks slowly around the room. Stands, walks to the window, gazes out at the rear yard of the institute, then swings back to the door, which Leah left ajar. He pokes his head out, looks left and right. Closes the door. Returns to the chair and sits. Unbuttons the top of his denim jacket. Slides out three sheets of paper. Holds them face down.
I sit upright, intrigued but suspicious. Is this some new ploy of the doctors? Have they fed Dervish a fresh set of lines and actions, in an attempt to spark my revival?
"I hope this isn't a Rorschach test," I grin weakly. "I've had enough inkblots to last me a - "
Dervish turns a sheet over and I stop dead. It's a black-and-white drawing of a large dog with a crocodile's head and human hands.
"Vein," Dervish says. He has a soft, lyrical voice.
I tremble and say nothing in reply.
He turns over the second sheet. Colour this time. A child with green skin. Mouths in its palms. Fire in its eyes. Lice for hair.
"Artery," Dervish says.
"You got the hair wrong," I mumble. "It should be cockroaches."
"Lice, cockroaches, leeches - it changes," he says, and lays the two sheets down on the floor. He turns over the third. This one's colour too. A thin man, lumpy red skin, large red eyes, mangled hands, no feet, a snake-filled hole where his heart should be.
"The doctors put you up to this," I moan, averting my eyes. "I told them about the demons. They must have got artists to draw them. Why are you - "
"You didn't tell them his name," Dervish cuts me short. He taps the picture. "You said the other two were familiars, and this one was their master - but you never mentioned his name. Do you know it?"
I think back to those few minutes of insanity in my parents' bedroom. The demon lord didn't say much. Never told me who he was. I open my mouth to answer negatively...
...then slowly let it close. No - he did reveal his identity. I can't remember when exactly, but somewhere in amongst the madness there was mention of it. I cast my thoughts back. Zone in on the moment. It was when he asked if I knew why this was happening, if my parents had ever told me the story of -
"Lord Loss," Dervish says, a split second before I blurt it out.
I stare at him... uncertain... terrified... yet somehow excited.
"I know the demons were real," Dervish murmurs, picking up the pictures and placing them back inside his jacket, doing up his buttons. He stands. "If you want to come live with me, you can. But you'll have to sort out the mess you're in first. The doctors say you won't respond to their questions. They say they know how to help you, but that you won't let them."
"They don't believe me!" I cry. "How can they cure me when they think I'm lying about the demons?"
"The world's a confusing place," Dervish says. "I'm sure your parents told you to always tell the truth, and most of the time that's good advice. But sometimes you have to lie." He comes over and bends, so his face is in mine. "These people want to help you, Grubitsch. And I believe they can. But you're going to have to help them. You'll have to lie, pretend demons don't exist, tell them what they want to hear. You have to give a little to get a little. Once you remove that barrier, they can go to work on fixing your brain, on helping you deal with the grief. Then, when they've done all they can, you can come to me if that's what you want - and I'll help you with the rest. I can explain about demons. And tell you why your parents and sister died."
He leaves.
Stunned silence. Long days and nights of heavy thinking. Repeating the name of the thin red demon. Lord Loss, Lord Loss, Lord Loss, Lord...
Torn between hope and fear. Could Dervish be in league with the demons? Mum saying, "I don't trust him." I'm safe here. Leaving might be an invitation to danger and further sorrow. I won't improve in this place, holding true to my story, defying the doctors and nurses - but I can't be harmed either. Out in the real world, I might have to face demons again. Simpler to stay here and hide.
One morning I wake from a nightmare. In it, I was at a party, wearing a mask. When I took the mask off, I realised I'd been wearing Gret's face.
Sitting up in bed. Shaking. Crying. I stare out the window at the world beyond. I decide.
Exercising. Eating sensibly. Putting on weight. Talking directly with my doctors and nurses, answering their questions, letting them into my head, "baring my soul". I allow them to help me. I work with them. Lie when I have to. Say I saw humans in the room that night. Police come and take my statement. An artist captures my new, realistic, invented impressions of the murderers. My doctors beam proudly and pat my back.
Weeks pass. With help and lots of hard work, I get better. Dervish was right. Now that I'm working with them, they are able to help me, even if we're progressing on the basis of a lie - that demons aren't real. I weep a lot and learn a lot - how to face my grief, how to confront my fear and control it - and let them guide me out of the darkness, slowly, painfully, but surely.
In one afternoon session with a therapist, when I judge the time to be right, I make a request. Lots of discussions afterwards. Long debates. Staff meetings. Phone calls. Humming and hawing. Finally they agree.
There's a big build-up. Lots of in-depth therapy sessions and heart-to-hearts. Tests galore, to make sure I'm ready, to reassure themselves that they're doing the right thing. They have doubts. They voice them. We talk them through. They decide in my favour.
The last day. Handshakes and emergency contact numbers from the doctors in case anything goes wrong. Kisses and hugs from my favourite nurses. A card from Leah. Facing the door, a bag on my shoulder with all I have left in the world. Scared sick but determined to see it through.
I leave the institute on the back of a motorbike. Driving - my rescuer, my lifeline, my hope - Uncle Dervish.
"Hold on tight," he says. "Speed limits were made to be broken."
Vroom!