Plague Doctor

Gu Jun slowly pushed open the wooden door. The room looked grey as if covered in a layer of shadow. He frowned as he reached for the light switch. It snapped on with a flick. However, the light did not come on, perhaps they were broken. Gu Jun focused and he realized everything in the room was fading in color. The vintage bed, the closet flickered out of corporeality. They seemed to edge against the border of existence. With the blink of an eye, they could disappear. ‘Is it my mental problem or vision problem? Or is it a problem of the room itself?’

Gu Jun had a suspicion. ‘So this is the witch house…’ Once again he was reminded of Keziah Mason, she was definitely not a good person but she was not exactly a bad person either. She did not believe in Nyarlathotep, she only believed in herself. If she did not chant the prayer of Shub-Niggurath at the altar, things might have ended up completely different.

“What are you doing here?” Suddenly a voice came from behind him. Gu Jun jumped. Due to his high spirituality and military training, he could pick up even the smallest sound, but earlier he was certain there were no approaching footsteps. Gu Jun turned back and saw a woman materialize behind him. She had red hair and faded green eyes. Her face was pretty and she looked around 25. She wore a jean jacket and slacks. This was of course Hannah Mazurewicz but she had the same appearance as Keziah Mason, the witch.

Her face was devoid of expression so Gu Jun could not tell her thoughts.

“Do you walk with no sounds?” He questioned.

“I do and I don’t.” Hannah smiled. “So how are you doing now? Are you faring better?”

Gu Jun trained his eyes on her. Her question had many layers, “Keziah Mason, that is what I should ask you. What is going on here?”

“Keziah Mason? Me?” Hannah shrugged, “Since April’s Fool, you’ve been saying that. Jim, you are a clever person. You do not have a religious faith, you do not believe in god or demon. You aren’t the type to go insane so why did you?”

“Perhaps you know the answer.” Gu Jun glanced into the room that had gotten blurrier. “Don’t tell me that this is supposed to be normal.”

“What is not normal about my room?” Hannah shrugged again. “Get mom and dad, see if there’s anything abnormal here.” Before Gu Jun could speak, Hannah hollered. Soon Bob and Jennifer ran up the stairs. They asked with concern what was happening. Hannah said, “Mom, dad, can you look inside my room, what do you think?” The Mazurewiczs did what they were told but their eyes spoke of confusion. They glanced into the girl’s room and nothing seemed out of place.

“Is the light on?” Hannah asked.

“Of course, honey.” Jennifer answered with blatant concern. She then turned her gaze anxiously towards Jim. “Is everything alright?” Gu Jun also looked inside the room, it had almost faded into nothingness in his eyes. He did not answer. He looked on wordlessly as Hannah chased the couple away. And then she strode into the room, she opened her arms to say, “Would I stand in here so freely if there’s a problem with this room?”

“You mean to say, I am the one with the problem?” Gu Jun hedged.

“Clearly.” Hannah nodded but as her eyes chilled, she added, “If your mind has no problem, how could you see the problems?”

Gu Jun narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

“Can we ever really see our real faces?” Hannah walked towards an antique mirror. “From the mirror? My dear brother, our eyes are not meant to turn their gazes on our own faces, so how can we tell that everything that we see is real?”

The woman’s attitude was unlike Sanders and the Mazurewiczs, she did not insist that he was insane. When he claimed that there was abnormality with her room, she did not deny it, she merely used other people to prove that in their eyes, there was no problem.

“Come, follow me, I’ll bring you to an interesting place.” Hannah exited the room and walked down the stairs. Her voice echoed, “Mom, dad, Jim and I are going out for a trip. We’ll be having dinner outside. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Jim.” Just like that, Gu Jun left the ‘home’ that he had just returned to less than 1 hour ago. He hopped into a white Chevrolet. The engine purred and zipped down the road. The car moved so fast, it was not the horsepower a Chevloret should have.

“Don’t worry, we won’t run into any car accident.” Hannah said, “No matter how fast we drive.”

Under the night sky, the car flew down the road. Gu Jun, who was in the passenger seat, noticed that there were no cars on the road. Even though they were in a small town, this place was too deserted. The blocks of houses that they passed, even though the windows were all lit up, there was no human activity, like they were all empty. Hannah drove the car all the way east. According to the GPS, they would exit Arkham in another 3 km, then 2 km, 1 km… Gu Jun saw something strange. The road which would lead them out of Arkham was flickering, blurry and phasing out of existence like Hannah’s room. If he focused, he’d see a strange nothingness.

The car stopped beside a sign that said Arkham. Hannah looked at him and then looked back ahead.

“I’ve been thinking about my life. Can you believe it that I have not left Arkham? I was born here, grew up here, studied here, and now worked here. But what about travels, summer camps or a quick visit to the neighbouring towns? In my mind, I never did those things. The pictures at home proved that, I’ve always been trapped at Arkham. A week ago, I read the King in Yellow that made you go crazy and then it hit me. I too could see the truth.

“Little brother, this whole town is a big sanitorium.” She said, “But the question is are we the ones who are crazy or we’re the ones who are not crazy?”

Gu Jun was silent before he said, “You have no memory of Keziah Mason? But you look just like her.”

“Nope.” Hannah shook her head. “But who knows, perhaps I’m the one who has amnesia.”

“Have you tried driving out of the town before?” Gu Jun asked.