The Terrible Old Doctor

The Terrible Old Doctor
(As the sun sets in the autumn sky over the suburbs of east London, Yuuko and Janis carefully watch the old home from across the street. About half an hour later Dr. West emerges from the house wearing yoga pants and a Miskatonic university hoodie. As she locks the door behind her and begins to jog away from the house, Yuuko and Janis can see something causing the blacked out windows on the second floor to shake.)
Janis: (checks over her phone one last time in the passenger side of Yuuko's black SUV and swipes her screen to close and puts it in a concealed pocket in her vest. She glances over to the house to see Dr. West leaving her now seemingly unguarded home and changing her stride to a jog. She sighs a deep breath calming her nerves,) "And there she goes," (she says within her exhale to Yuuko, waiting patiently at the driver's side. Janis then checks herself by feeling her pockets and holster.) Pistol? Check. Shotgun? Check. Flamethrower? Check. Cleaning drones? Check. Bunky's grenades? Shouldn't need them, but nobody knows when they will come in handy? Check.
(As they exit the black SUV, the shaking of the windows on the second floor seems to become more intense.)
Janis: (stares at the second floor of Dr. West's home, wondering about what could be causing the windows to shake.) "Holy crap, do you see this? Is the whole second floor blacked out! Or is it just me?"
Yuuko: it’s not you. But the question is, is it the house or something inside it. You don’t see any chicken legs on the house do you?
(The enormous tree in the front yard seems to dampen any sound coming from the second floor but as they approach, the shaking of the windows seems to grow more intense as if someone was trying to get their attention.)
Janis: "That definitely doesn't sound natural!" (Janis says as she looks up as the duo approach the front porch of the house after hurdling over the shrubs.) "And no I haven't seen any chicken legs." (Janis pauses for a moment and cautiously looks to the left side of the house and scans the area then stacks up next to Yuuko.) "You don't think she would have family members staying here? Just a thought," (she throws in a just in case thought.)
Yuuko: (Searching wall next to the front door she finds a loose brick and pulls it out finding a key taped to the back. The door to Dr. West home seems surprisingly old compared to the rest of the house.) She shouldn’t, I have been watching the house for about a week and she only ever leaves to jog, even the mailman seems to be afraid of this house. (The interior of the house is remarkably clean, almost as if no one has lived here for years, yet the house is free of dust and appears to have been recently cleaned. Next to the door is a coat rack on which is hung a pink hoodie such as might be worn by a schoolgirl and minion backpack that might have once belonged to a boy. In front of them is a set of stairs leading to the second floor of the house, to their left is a dining room and to their right the living room with a heavy metal door off to the living rooms side.)
Janis: (turns to the street to scan for anything or anyone who might notice them unlawfully performing a breaking and enter as Yuuko unlocks the door with the key. She enters inside the house carefully walking backwards still watching the street. As the door closes and locks behind them, she sighs and takes out a pair of latex gloves from her back pocket and puts them on. Then at every surface that she would encounter, she swipes her gloved fingers through the top of the woodworks and looks at her hands.) Clean as a whistle. Not a single speck of dust in this damn house, I'm impressed! Or the good doctor had hired some help?" (Janis says as she offers Yuuko a pair of latex gloves,) "Gloves?" she asks. (As she examines the corridor, she notices the coat rack containing a hoodie and a Minions backpack. Her eyes furrow as she examines the hoodie and backpack for a short time, then turns to Yuuko.) "Now how do we explain this? You said that there shouldn't be any visitors at the house?" (She walks carefully toward the dining room, noticing everything completely neat and organized, from the pantry to the kitchen table. Even the table is set with clean dishes and cutlery for the next meal. Janis turns to leave the dining room and come face to face with a heavy metal door. Her eyes widen as the vast door catches her attention. She places one hand on the door and turns the knob with the other and tries to open it, only to find that its locked.), "I think this is somewhat bolted down or just locked."
Yuuko: (turning to Janis to accept the gloves) Thank you. (Turning her attention to the metal door in the living room.) It looks like she doesn’t want anyone to go down here, the door is locked with a key pad, and we need a code to get in.
(Upstairs they can hear something throwing itself against a door, outside Janis can hear rustling in the bushes outside the window.)
Janis: "What could possibly be up there making such a racket?" (Janis looks to the staircase as she asks and then she turns her attention to the sudden rustling of the shrubs from the outside, and in an instant reaction, Janis pulls Yuuko under the curtained window with her.) "Get down. Somebody's coming." (The rustling outside stops almost as suddenly as it started, the pounding upstairs continues though. From the living room, they can see the first signs of life inside the home. It looks like someone was recently cooking something in kitchen.)
Janis: (smells the air and directs her nose towards the kitchen. Having a keen sense of smell she could detect almost any odor from a good distance away. She breathes through the nose a few times to smell again,) "Hmm, what is that smell? Almost smells like pan fried chicken." (She sniffs the air again as she slowly enters the kitchen and leads herself to the stove. She carefully touches the stove elements and finds them just lukewarm. To her left at the window, a frying pan with leftover oils in one side of the kitchen sink, some rinsed out plates in the other along with three plates, some forks and knives.) "I don't think she lives alone, unless she is married with kids."
(Next to the sink is a board that was used to cut up a cabbage, on the counter top next to the sink is a Nintendo DS that seem strangely out of place in the house. The pounding from upstairs seems to be growing weaker almost as if someone is tiring.)
Yuuko: (scanning the living room, she notices an old picture of a single woman in front of a college lab. The sign behind her reads “Herbert West institute for the advanced studies of molecular biology.” The picture seems to be from the early 60’s. Most of the address under the sign is block by a nearby bush but the number 1607 seems to stand out to her for some reason.) I haven't seen any one enter or exit besides Dr. West. That being said, she was yelling at someone a few nights ago, but she also may have been talking to some one on the phone. (She quickly jots down the number thinking it may be useful.)
Janis: (examining the Nintendo DS on the kitchen countertop.) "Could this belong to any of her grandchildren?" (She mutters the question to herself.) "Kinda of a odd to place for a child's gaming device…We should continue further. I'm not sure how long we have before Dr. West returns from her jog."
Yuuko: (checking her phone) we have about 20 minutes till she gets back, she is very punctual about her schedule.
(As they continue they can hear someone crying upstairs.)
Janis: (eyes widen and listens to the cries as she looks up at the ceiling,) "That DEFINITELY doesn't sound normal! We better hurry." (She takes off running up the stairs leaping on every second step to the second floor and scans the hallway with her shotgun in tow.)
(They are faced with four bedrooms at the top of the stairs. Janis slowly walks towards one of the guest bedrooms on the right. Inside, the bed is neatly made and prepared with fresh linens, her sense of smell detected the scent of lavender in the detergent. But the sound of weeping is much weaker in this room than it is in the hall, so she took her leave and quickened her step to the next bedroom. A closed door. She tried to open but it was locked shut. Janis put her ear to the door on the right, but the sound was coming from her left ear, and continued to the next one. The master bedroom. Opened. Janis scanned the room for any signs of life, even looked under the bed for some strange reason unknown, perhaps a monster under the bed when a child is afraid to sleep at night. Nothing unusual. Janis and Yuuko enter the last guest room. Locked tight and where the sound of the pounding and crying and screaming is the strongest.)
Yuuko: (looking at her notes, she punches 1607 into the key pad and the door swings open.)
(Inside is a weeping girl approximately 10 years old.)
Girl: (rushing to embrace Janis through a vale of tears)…thank you!, please tell me you’re the police!
Janis: (gasps and nearly chokes at the tight embrace of the desperately relieved little girl.) "There, there, you're safe now. Whatever in the world are you doing here?"
Girl: (through sobs) she’s crazy, she took me and my brother right off the street and no one seemed to notice. She forced me to clean her entire house and she took Brandon down into the basement and I haven’t seen him since. I tried to go down there once and she threatened to cut off my hand if I did. And then someone herd me screaming one night and came to check to see what happened and she killed him in front of us and I am pretty sure she made us eat him.
Yuuko: (unsure how to comfort the girl, she checks her phone again.) we have about 10 minutes left.
Janis: (Kneels on one knee and pats the head of the little girl sobbing at her shoulder.) "There, there, dear. Shhhhh... No need to be afraid now. We're going to find your brother, and then we'll get you to your parents." (Upon hearing Yuuko on the remaining time they have before they get busted by the returning doctor.) "And we better get him out fast!"
(With the little girl by the hand, Janis and Yuuko run down the stairs to the heavy metal door in the living room,)
Janis: "I betcha any money this leads to the basement." (Thinking about what the children had eaten at the mention of the poor suspicious man, Janis looks at the kitchen one more time,) "So much for pan fried chicken," (she muttered to herself before Looking at the big metal door,) "Well whattaya think, Yuuko? Melt it off? Blast it off? Put enough holes in it to bust it off? I'm game for any." (Then turns to the little girl,) "Sweetie, we need you to stand behind us, please."
Girl: (standing behind Janis, preparing to follow them down into the basement)
Yuuko: (trying the same combination that worked upstairs, the door creaks open)
(at the bottom of a stairs is a bluish purple light, like that of a aquarium, and across from it, is a boy chained to a treed mill, his arms covered in injection marks, his eyes blood shot from a lack of sleep. As they descend the stair case Janis turns to free the boy, while Yuuko turns towards the light only to freeze in terror of what was casting it. A massive aquarium containing the severed head of an Ur-Draug still gently puffing water over its gills and feeling the floor of the aquarium with its tentacles. Floating above the Ur-Draug is a ring of severed infants heads made of the same strings that they had seen at the hospital. The Ur-Draug and infants head seem to be connected by a metal cord running from the monsters neck to a latch connecting the ring of severed heads.)
Janis: (takes the freed, but weakened young boy into her arms and turns to see the massive aquarium containing the Ur-Draug head.) "Oh shit!" (She screams and then un-holsters her flamethrower.)
(Before she can fire, Janis’s mind is flooded with images that seem to from come across time and space, unknown worlds filled with strange life, past and future civilizations and a city floating on the sea)
Yuuko: (clutching her head in pain, she pulls a charm from her bag and clutches it tightly, this seems to reduce the pain and stop the visions.)
(Behind them Janis can hear something moving in the walls.)
Janis: (dropping to the floor with the little girl’s brother as she writhes on the ground from the unimaginable pain coming from the sides of her head, like a horrible migraine. Then as the pain subsides she hears tittering drawing closer and closer towards them,) "They are coming again."
(Dropping down from a vent, and on top of the aquarium, a set of new white fangs gleaming in the purple light, is a resurrected Browni.)
Browni: (tittering to himself, something catches his eye behind causing him to lower his head and slink across the basement towards the stairs.)
Dr. West: well, well, well, it appears I have guests. (Flicking her wrist, an unseen force throws Janis against the wall, while another lifts Yuuko up off the ground by her neck. Turning to the girl) Not only did you go down in to the basement, but you also let strangers into my house, I don’t know how yet but you will have to be punished and on top of it all they have ruined my Sunday supper (casting her eyes on the boy).
Boy: (trying to hide under the stairs.)
Janis: (laying in a prone position from being thrown against the wall, her gut feeling like she had been kicked directly there by a hoof of a Transylvanian paduuri. Her flamethrower flew out of her shoulder holster but is still within arm’s reach. Her other weapons still intact on her person. Still awake, but desperately trying to get her breath to her lungs through her battered diaphragm. Janis turns to her back gasping for breath and pumped her knees to work away the excruciating pain while she got a grasp hold of her flamethrower.)
Dr. West: (turning towards Janis.) What is this, apparently one of my guest is a Bee and one from temple hall at that…that last blow should have killed you but apparently your organs are already healing. (Looking skeptically at Yuuko) Your friend in the air however is not… (Turning back to the girl) perhaps you should see what happens to people who get in my way.
Yuuko: (struggling to free herself, she brings her hands to her mouth and attempts to whistle but is unable to)
Janis: "Why the hell are you doing this? Why are you feeding this thing with the blood of little children?" (Janis asks Dr. West as she moves herself to a sitting position, still weak from the blow, against the wall, concealing the flamethrower under her leg)
Dr. West: (a wicked grin creeps across her face.) Allow me to enlighten you. (Something akin to a whale’s song begins to echo from the aquarium as the severed infant heads open their eyes and begin chattering in a thousand different languages.)
Browni: (now perched on Dr. West shoulder, he begins giggling with delight.)
Dr. West: wgah'nagl fhtagn, fl axglo Shub-Niggurath
Heads: We listen and we obey servant of those who dream.
Dr. West: Tell the heretic what the master spoke with me about.
Heads: the city of knowledge and he who dreams beneath the waves. The dreams that have come to pass and the dreams that have yet to be. He instructed you to gather the thousand young and bring us to this world.
Janis: "That would explain the killing of innocent newborns at Kings College. To create that thing over there? But what was in it for you?" (Janis chuckles as her head flops to the side as she's still supported against the wall and points to the malformed rat perched on Dr. West's shoulder.)
Browni: (sticking its tongue out of its mouth.) Browni get left overs, eat with ketchup.
Dr. West: my familiar, whom you so callously destroyed, is bound to me, he is my eyes and ear's in the unseen realm and messenger to the black goat.
Yuuko: (attempting to whistle with all her might.)
(Behind Dr. West beneath the stairs in the darkness, Janis can see a pair of blue eyes staring back at her.)
Janis: (glances at the staircase and notices the pair of eyes. Then it dawned on her. All these questions to ask, all the answers they have a need to have. All but now had become clear. The effort of Yuuko gasping for air was clear to Janis that precious time is wasted on such questions and answers in riddles. Janis' legs, still weak, but her upper body has regained the strength to reach into her holster at her waist and easily grabs her pistol. Pointing it at Dr. West's cold eyes. Janis smiles very slightly and draws in a breath now to speak what may be her last words... Or Yuuko's last act on earth…Realizing that sometimes you have to first act and then ask questions later, Janis thought…) "Tell me Dr. West. How will Browni be your eyes and ears when you will soon have none to see or hear with, (switching out her pistol for her flamethrower, she raises her flamethrower and pulls the trigger as a stream of fire bursts onto the body of Dr. West?)
(As the flames engulf Dr. West, they seem to split around her, as the fire is channeled into a single orb that seems to materialize in her hands. The house remains unscorched.)
Dr. West: Did you really think it would be that easy.
Yuuko: (gathering all her remaining strength she manages to emit one sharp whistle.)
Dr. West: (Looking up puzzled at Yuuko she doesn’t see the big black wolf leaping from the shadows and knocking her to the ground.)
Tuk: (seizes Browni in his jaws and flings him across the basement, he then pounces on the girl and pulls her into the nearby shadows before reemerging from the darkness and taking up a defensive position near Yuuko and Janis.)
Janis: (gets herself to her feet holstering her flamethrower and switching to her shotgun as she takes aim at the orb rolling across the floor and stopping at Janis’s feet. As she picks it up and checks it out. Tuk growling in front of Dr. West.) "I wonder what this could be." (Showing Yuuko the orb.) "I wonder if they still do skeet shooting in England these days. I hear it's quite popular among Britain's A-List. Toss it and I'll shoot it down into a million glass shards!"
Yuuko: (pulling herself to her feet, while trying to catch her breath she throws the sphere into the air)
(Janis’s shot finds its mark and the basement is engulfed in fire)
Tuk: (turning around he leaps on to Yuuko pushing her into a shadow before disappearing and reappearing from the darkness again this time pulling the boy into the shadows. Before turning and lunging at Janis pushing her into the darkness)
(Janis can feel herself falling through a void before light begins to appear around her again, the next thing she knows she is falling on to the streets of London outside of temple hall.)
Yuuko: (collapsed on the pavement, she pushes herself up and throws her arms around the wolfs neck) いい子!
Janis: (Thunk) "Ugh!" (Janis finds herself lying on her side in front of Temple Hall, and feels something striking at her thigh. A male guard from the gates boots at her from behind.)
 Guard: "Oi! Oi, you there! Get outta here, ya bum! No alms here, yeah?" (Her eyes open wide and realizes that she is not in the nightmare east London home anymore with a rat and a crazy doctor. Still getting boots to her thigh, she gets up to her feet and sternly gets in the face of the Templar guard and glares into his eyes,) "HOW BLOODY DARE YOU?!" (Janis screams into the face of the guard),
Guard: (Quickly casts his eyes down upon realizing who she is.) "Uh, sorry Ms. Harrington, I didn't realize that was you. Do me a favor. Don't tell Sonnac about what happened?"
Tuk: (helping Yuuko steady herself)
Yuuko: (looking at the children who were brought through with them), I’ll take them to the police, they have probably been looking for them. (Clutching her side) Thank you for coming with Janis, I am sorry things got out of hand.
Janis: (Calms down and goes about her way, looking for Yuuko. Should she ever find her, or if this is the real London, Ealdwic that she knows TO find her. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to blast that orb into smithereens with a shotgun after all. Questions running in her head as she parks herself on the benches near the water fountain in the center of the Court. What happened to those kids? The girl? The boy who she saved? Did Dr. West and Browni finally die in that final blow? Running her fingers through her scalp and hair as if she had such a humongous headache from all of the crap with Dr. West and the possible renewal of the Browni clan, the one thing that she would love to see right now, are her anima cats.
Janis sees someone coming through the gates. Yuuko with the children they had rescued from the home of Dr. West. At least that answers the most important questions of the entire mission. She gives Yuuko a nod as she is informed that the kids will be in good hands after they are turned over to police and have them search for the parents.) "Wow, that was... that was..." as she was finding the appropriate words to describe the night, "That was crazy. But I'm glad it's finished. Hopefully. No more Browni rats or crazy mad scientists."
Yuuko: (Looking uncertain at the idea,) the will almost certainly go into hiding after this, but I doubt they are dead. But I think they are gone for now, (her eyes seem too brighten as a thought pops into her head before reaching into her pack.) I almost forgot. (Pulling out a plastic container filled with cookies and green plastic bottle with Marie Curie's face on it.) I almost forgot to give you your cookies and Think Drink.
Janis: (Her eyes widen as she sees the cookies and drink.) "Hey I almost forgot about that." (She takes a cookie and bites into it and chews, then takes a swig of the drink,) "Oh man, this is nice, this is NICE!", (she gets up to walk out of the Temple Court with them,) "Man, I shoulda brought the cats along... and I promise I won’t shoot any orbs until we find out what they are for... and I promise I won't ask a bunch of questions while you are gasping your brains out for air... and maybe..." (Fades out as Janis walks together with Yuuko and Tuk.) "Thanks for the cookies and Think Drink, that really hit the spot."
Yuuko: (Smiling) anytime.
-End of file-