Plague Doctor

“You can try.” Hannah said with a shrug. Based on her reaction, Gu Jun believed that she had attempted it many times herself but she kept getting strange results.

“Okay, I will.” Both of them got down from the car. While the engine was still running, Gu Jun grabbed a stone from the roadside and leaned it against the gas pedal. The Chevrolet drove forward on its own, and made its way out of Arkham into the blurry future. After the car drove for about 20 metres, suddenly it disappeared into thin air. Gu Jun had no idea what happened to the car. He did not blink but the car just dissolved before his eyes. “What was that? A dimensional rift?”

“I have no clue.” Hannah said coldly. “Just keep on waiting. Something even more interesting will happen.” Thus Gu Jun stood there silently, paying attention to his surroundings. His focus was on the red-haired woman who looked like the witch. The night was cold. Slowly the buildings, road, trees, everything around them started to ripple.

“It’s almost time.” Hannah uttered softly. Less than half a minute after that, suddenly, a buzzing sound entered Gu Jun’s ears. It sounded like many people chatting in the background. Then he found himself seated and not standing. He was sitting at a dining table and Hannah was sitting across from him. There were other diners around them. This was a high class restaurant. The well-dressed waiters served the customers. Looking through the restaurant’s floor length window, Gu Jun could see the car park and the white Chevrolet was one of the vehicles parked there.

“Don’t be shy, dig in.” Hannah was cutting through a rare steak. She picked a small chunk and sent it into her mouth, “We’re out for dinner, aren’t we?” Gu Jun then realized he was holding the utensils in his arms and there was a plate of steak before him as well. His heart sunk. He didn’t feel any anomaly during the transformation. The shift occurred practically in a snap of a finger. There was no chance for him to stop it.

“What happened?” Gu Jun asked dumbly. ‘This does not feel like an illusion or a dream… but this kind of spatial shift… Was it the doing of the witch? But she did not even require spells, rituals or preparation? She’s that powerful? Or it’s a trick by Nyarlathotep?’

“I was hoping you could tell me.” Hannah chuckled. “That day, after you went insane, I went to study the King in Yellow. After I realized I’ve not left Arkham in my life, I tried to drive out of it immediately. But after 100 miles of driving, suddenly I found myself at the office. My colleagues told me I have been working overtime.” She shrugged. “Am I going crazy as well? I gave it a second, third, endless tries… But it always ends up the same. In fact, I’ve attempted other things than just leaving Arkham. Take a look at this.”

Hannah suddenly stood up. Before Gu Jun’s confused gaze, she raised her steak knife and plunged it into the neck of the passing waiter. Instantly blood splattered. The waiter screamed and the tray clattered noisily to the ground. The nearby diners shouted from shock.

‘What the hell…’ This stunned Gu Jun as well. His doctor’s instinct kicked in, “Call the ambulance now! Apprehend her! Is there a first-aid kit here? I’m a doctor!” He rushed towards the wounded waiter. Anger rose within him. He wanted to detain Hannah but also apply first aid on the waiter. The latter took precedence.

“Don’t worry.” Hannah chuckled self-deprecatingly. “When I first discovered this, the first thing I did was to go and stab my boss several times. It was honestly quite stress-relieving.” Gu Jun glared at her when suddenly something flickered…

He was no longer kneeling beside the wounded waiter, instead he was back at the table and Hannah was seated before him. The waiter walked past with the tray and everything was back to normal. Temporal manipulation?

“You see?” Hannah sent another cut steak into her mouth. “Jim, why do you think you’ve gone insane? You’ve tried many formulas but you’ve failed. You should give this a try, or how about you go and land a big pecker on that beauty over there?” She nudged her head at a blond beauty not far away. “That one’s not bad.” Naturally Gu Jun did not heed her advice. He studied the peaceful restaurant. The clock on the wall kept moving, the steak on Hannah’s plate dwindled in size. This was different from what he experienced at Pnakotus. Back then, it was more like a rewind. But now, it was like they were on a fixed timeline, even if they strayed from it, they’d be eventually forced back into the predestined timeline. Even if they left Arkham, committed murder, refused to move, eventually… everything would be as it should be.

Suddenly, he realized he was chewing on a piece of steak. He had no idea when he cut it and fed it into his mouth.

“Do you know what the King in Yellow really is?” Hannah suddenly asked. “I mean, the King in Yellow mentioned inside the King in Yellow.” Gu Jun was silent. Actually it was stated quite clearly inside the book. The King in Yellow was a banned play in book-form, and this play was the thread that strung all the chapters together. Regarding the actual content of the play’s script, the book only gave a glimpse of it through Cassilda’s Song and the few conversation snippets between the in-play characters at the start of The Mask:

Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.

Stranger: Indeed?

Cassilda: Indeed, it’s time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.

Stranger: I wear no mask.

Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda) No mask? No mask!

“Jim, you’ve studied this short paragraph many times but actually I’ve reached my own understanding of it as well.” Hannah offered as she chewed the steak. “What if the stranger is really not wearing a mask? He has long since removed the mask but since the script says that he has not, what will happen then?”

Gu Jun’s heart chilled. If a character inside a play realized they were inside a play, and they wished to do something against the pre-written script, what would happen to the character? Would they accomplish what they set out to do? Or would everything proceed as written…

According to the script, Jim and Hannah went out for dinner, they did not exit Arkham and commit any murder. Or would the script have written that they have tried these things but they failed?

“You mean…” Gu Jun understood what Hannah meant, “We are characters inside the King in Yellow?”

‘Jim Mazurewicz went insane because he read from the King in Yellow and assumed he was the main character from the chapter, Plague Doctor.’ This story was a chapter from the King in Yellow. Gu Jun had read that King in Yellow at Arkham Sanitorium, but that might be the King in Yellow inside the real King in Yellow. If they were inside a script, Gu Jun could not read the actual King in Yellow that had Jim’s tales written inside it. Just like the characters inside The Repairer of Reputations, The Mask and The Yellow Sign could not access the King in Yellow that detailed their lives.

So who was reading the actual King in Yellow?