Chapter 1
Rayna Thysin just turned sixteen. Rayna Thysin just died - or so she thought. It was supposed to be a night to remember; how easily it became a night she'd never forget. Home alone on the beginning of the sweetest year of her life, she decided to down a couple of her mother's sedatives and take a ride in her new car through the deserted streets of Castleview, Maine. The night after Halloween, the streets were still littered with teepee, eggs, shaving cream, and silly string. Rayna's mom was a therapist who helped everyone but the person who needed her most, that being her clearly unstable daughter. So it wasn't a surprise that she wasn't there the night her daughter thought she saw a man on the road through her half closed eyes and swung her brand new Audie into a large tree. It also wasn't a surprise that she wasn't there when the ambulance brought her sixteen year old daughter's comatose body into Kingdom Hospital and into the care of Dr. Traft and Dr. Hook.
A young girl with long amber hair woke up on the dirty floor of the Old Kingdom. Her green eyes opened to the distorted vision of a long narrow corridor, covered in cob webs and years worth of dirt. Screams echoed through the barren hallway from a room not so far away, undoubtedly that of a young boy. Her vision cleared as an empty metal stretcher rolled her way. She lifted herself off the floor to avoid collision with the object gone astray. "Where am I? How did I get here?" she thought to herself.
She dusted off her clothing and began to inspect her surroundings. She began to walk in the direction of the door, carefully assessing herself to her new found environment. She passed another stretcher and discarded IV stand, and decided it must be some form of hospital.
"Hello, is anybody here? I think I'm lost!" she called out into the musky air as she continued to walk towards the glass doors at the end of the hall.
"Hello?" she called out again as she gently knocked on the glass before realizing the sign on them that read "Pain Room". "What the hell kind of hospital is this?" she thought to herself.
She heard a faint noise at the other end of the glass, followed by what might have been a moan. "Is someone there? Can someone help me?" She knocked on the glass again before pushing the door slightly ajar.
She took a step into the room, which seemed to be alive with the hum of machines and the boiling over of beakers and laboratory materials. She carefully examined the glass apparatus before her and how the heated liquids moved from one glass container to the other, creating some kind of chemical reaction. From the other end of the room she heard another moan and a sharp exhalation of air. Looking through the glasses and tubes, she saw the shape of a pale body lying on what looked like an operating table.
"Excuse me, I know I shouldn't be in here, and I'm very sorry, but can you tell me where I am or how to get out of here?" she said approaching the figure on the large metal table. As the figure came into clear perspective she noted that it was actually a young boy about her age hooked up to an array of tubes and wires. He didn't move, and whether he heard her or not she didn't know.
"Shit! Listen, man, I know you're probably in some seriously bad shape and all, but I really need to get out of here, if you could just like, open your eyes and tell me the exit, I'd be like really grateful," she stuttered nervously as she lightly tapped his pale, bony hand. "Sir?"
A hand fell onto her shoulder, causing her to spin around. "What are you doing, young lady? This isn't any place to be fooling around!" an old man in his 70s stood behind her in a white lab coat, his face twisted in anger.
"I-I-I.... I'm lost. I heard a noise so I came in here; I'm trying to find my way out... please don't hurt me..." she backed into the metal table the boy was lying on, pressing her palms to the smooth, cool surface. The man before her seemed to relax into a more playful demeanor.
"Hurt you? Don't be foolish, I'm a medical doctor, my goal is to cure pain. Don't be put off by my young patient; he's really quite the savage when awake. I can't seem to control him as of lately, so I was required to try a new treatment. He'll be quite docile for a bit of time once the experiment is complete."
"Experiment?"
"My grandfather used to say, 'No great thing is created suddenly'. Medicine takes trial and error; I assure you it's to his benefit."
She looked back at the boy. His skin was as pale as the grayed out white hospital gown he wore, glowing in contrast to his dark curls and the dark color of his beautifully shaped lips that lay slightly parted. "He's a mental patient?"
"Yes, his poor parents were at a loss of what to do with him. He never went to his classes, quite antisocial. He didn't mix well with the kids his age. His mother caught him smoking cigarettes, and he threatened to light the house on fire. That's why she brought him here to me to try to cure him."
"Dr....."
"Gottreich, and what is your name young lady?"
"Rayna, but Dr. Gottreich there are other ways to deal with this. My mother is a therapist and she..."
"Well now, a therapist? Deals with issues of the head I imagine?"
"Yes, and she knows of drugs and treatments for social disorders. Maybe he should have been tested for ADD, or perhaps given an antidepressant to quit smoking. Listen, how about you tell me where the exit is, and I will give you her number to reach her and ask questions?"
"Nonsense, my telephone is broken, and besides I can learn first hand from you, dear. I come from a family of doctors; the skill is inherited you know? I'm sure you've inherited your mother's skill, and perhaps with your knowledge I can cure all the children in this hospital of their pain."
"There are others?"
"Of course. There are many. And I can take care of them as soon as I get young Mr. Morlock here under control."
"About me leaving..."
"There is no leaving here, young lady; you're in the in between lands. We're all stuck here."
"Wait, am I ..."
"Dead? Yes, or something close to it."
