Post Oppression The final bit

This is the final tidbit of the series, I haven't posted the whole thing yet as I'm still rewriting parts of the draft.. This one will be updated at a later time as well. For now it'll fit right here.

The hospital's crumbling building seemed a perfect analogy of the whole health-care situation in the country: it was there, it was still standing, albeit on its last legs… 

Gyula's uniformed figure drew some nurses gazes to himself, including the one behind the reception desk, she continued with her odd, cautious glances until he finally told her he had come to see his father. 

That instant, the sterile stench and droning of steps and chatter in the hallway, it all faded away when the young brunette girl, probably still on her practical exams, uttered the words…

“I'm sorry, but your father passed away just a few minutes ago..”

Gyula heard but didn't register her explaining that they called the station but he had already left.. 

Following more instinct than reason, Gyula turned to his right and without delay hurried down the black and white tiled floor… 

The nurse followed after him and for an instant he contemplated asking for the circumstances of his passing, then, he remembered the ways of the administration…

 Keep everything quiet… If there was anything suspicious or out of place, they wouldn't tell me anyway. 

The fifth room on his left, he recalled after passing by the third open door, glimpsing an old lady sitting in bed, staring blankly in front of herself.. 

“Father…”

He called just as a doctor and nurse exited the room, closing the door. 

“You can't go in there,” 

the nurse stated to no avail. 

Gyula considered blurting some response about the staff hiding some dirty little secret, instead, ignoring the pair he reached for the door. 

The doctor's hand grabbed his, 

“I'm sorry, officer, but that man needs his rest, he was just brought up from..”

But he'd have none of it, shaking off the doctor's grip and pushing the nurse away, he barged into the room and stopped dead in his tracks.. 

I know he was in this goddamn room.. Who's that guy in the bandages anyway?

The bandaged up figure groaned and moaned some weary, distorted gargly version of a greeting. 

“I've tried to tell you, officer.. We've moved your father to a different room last week, his delusions had grown more severe..”

The receptionist started from behind him. 

“Delusions?”

Gyula asked, only then remembering it for himself, the old man grumbling about his dead wife coming to visit only for him to find out it was actually another woman.. 

“Yes, he had become unpredictable and sometimes even violent. He mumbled something about a black cat and a witch…”

Gyula spun around, glaring swords and daggers at the nurse, freezing her words instantly. 

“Black cat?” he absently repeated to himself, some strange sense of familiarity grasping for his attention. 

I know there's some important detail here… 

“Yes.. And a witch. Why?”

The nurse repeated.

“We had a case.. Nevermind…”

Gyula stuttered, just then berating himself for thinking there was some connection between the cat he had seen on the crime scene and this illusory animal his delusional father mumbled on about. 

Or maybe there is a link.. 

Before his mind had sunken into utter chaos and confusion, he regained his composure, glanced at the patient and grumbled an apology before leaving. 

***

The envelopes found under his father's bed had no labels, no signature or address, nor have they been sealed. 

One of them was much fatter than the other two and a familiar, deep shade of red peeked out from the small triangular opening. 

Official documents from the previous regime… 

Some trepidation and anxious anticipation vibrated in his hands.. 

Sitting down on his bed, Gyula set the other envelopes beside himself and first reached to his nightstand for the bottle of pálinka… 

A few gulps of the fiery liquid swiftly eased the trembling in his hands.

The red star with the scythe and hammer occupied the center of a red seal on a translucent plastic bag containing a small audio tape and a handful of documents. 

*

Project Necromancer 

The title read on one of the pages. 

Gyula searched his drawers for his own recorder. An eagerness like he'd never felt before taking hold of his clumsy shuffling about, rummaging through his own belongings like a burglar looking for valuables.. 

*

A dry, crackly voice stated something in Russian, Gyula paused the tape and gathered his rusty recollection of the language… Surmising it was the introduction and title of whatever was recorded. 

**

Comrade Zelensky is convinced this woman will be different to the others.. Me, I'm just hoping they'll realize this is all a waste of time. 

Scientific approach, they said, except, with the communists dictating what is science and what isn't.. The project must continue and it must reach a successful conclusion because the party said so. Huh.. 

Ridiculous. 

Half of the so-called tests were rigged so they could claim the subjects had the elusive X factor, the unconventional, the inexplicable.. But it's plain to see, some of these people enjoy torturing others and this provides the perfect opportunity. 

***

I've examined the testing devices and removed all the elaborate, hidden mechanisms.. Let's hope that this last failure will finally close the book on this madness… Before more innocent people die for nothing. 

Comrade Zelensky spends his work hours studying the films, evidence supplied by the KGB.. Sometimes I think he's unaware that they, too, had rigged their own devices and sometimes…. Perhaps he's looking to perfectly replicate those fake results.  

Oooh look at that, a floating spoon… Or.. Ahhh! Flames! The devices caught fire! 

Yes, no doubt this would convince anyone that there is more out there than the observable world, but if there truly is, wouldn't that be too horrific and too dangerous for us to poke at so casually with our many pointless gadgets, trying to reduce something incomprehensible to a collection of abstractions, labels and equations so we can explain and above all: control that too… 

***

Gyula shivered when he recognized the voice, his father's voice.. 

The fact that he didn't continue in Russian suggested the old man wasn't intent on sharing these bits with his superiors. 

***

The subject had just arrived to building 5..

Already the air is filled with a rapidly spreading sense of fright, superstitious fear introduced to a collective of calm and rational people.. I must say, if nothing else, comrade Zelensky is a great actor and conman. I have little doubt he'd make a fortune in one of the capitalist countries… 

A heavy iron door fell on a guard as soon as this latest candidate was brought in, naturally, they blamed it on her powers and Zelensky didn't miss a beat, indirectly reinforcing that nonsense by saying “this one's promising” 

The tests are still ahead of her, what they don't know is that I've reset the devices, there is no earthly way to make them work, unless of course the poor woman is truly gifted with something beyond our comprehension.. And foolish enough to reveal that to these feral and vicious animals.. 

They might torture her to make her do it, if she can but if she does… Then her torment will truly begin. 

***

“Zelensky.. Why does that sound familiar.. “

Gyula mumbled as he paused the recorder again, taking another large gulp from the bottle, in anticipation of the recording taking him down the rabbit hole.. 

***

I must pause my records here, until I have witnessed the so-called tests and can return with something worthwhile to say. 

***

Lena was her name. I talked to her through the cell door after she was locked up again and the guards left the hallway. 

I can't blame her for revealing her ability after being subjected to unspeakable torment.. But still, for whatever reason, I first scolded her for it. 

She understood I've been working against the machine all this time and her breakthrough couldn't have been more inconvenient. 

Still, I can't simply sit idly by and let these beasts have their way with her.. 

I've already devised a plan for breaking her out, but plotting a successful escape for her will be difficult.. Lena doesn't want to leave the country. She wants to return to her village.

I can empathize with her need for returning to a sense of normal, still.. She must understand.. 

***

It's been three weeks since Lena's last manifestation of the incredible inside the lab. Until… Earlier this morning.. She appeared outside her cell while she was still in her cell at that same time. Her sudden, malformed and ghostly appearance prompted the guard on the right side of her door to open fire.. He was shocked beyond description and fired at everyone and everything indiscriminately.. His weapon's empty cocking sound echoed the silent hallway left behind the savage roar of his gunfire… 

The other guard, comrade Gergely's son had no chance of survival. He suffered ten direct hits, one to the head. 

Lena didn't do whatever she did in an effort to escape, unfortunately.. Comrade Gergely will not see it that way… And I.. I still can't convince her to come with me and leave this hellhole behind. 

***

Author's Note

Thanks for suffering through my clumsy draft 😁 more next time.