WESTIN HILLS
CHAPTER 7- SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS


Hypnocil- Experimental drug effective for management of psychotic disorders. Used for sedation where dreamless sleep is considered optimal. Also used for treatment of night terrors and post-traumatic stress disorder. Not approved by the FDA. Potential harmful side effects.

Those were the words staring back at the Man in Black as he fixed his pale blue eyes on the computer screen before him. After encountering doctors Graham and Halverson at Little Nemo’s and overhearing the word ‘hypnocil’, the man decided to go to the one place he figured would have all the answers— the Springwood Public Library.

However, much to his surprise, he couldn’t find anything at all on the subject. Every search he tried came up empty. Entire sections of the card catalog were blacked out, and the elderly librarians, who eyed him curiously when he mentioned it, were of no help. Surely someone had to know what hypnocil was, or what it was used for. But no. The closest—and only—book he found was a diatribe about night terrors questioning their existence, but that was about it. He even tried Springwood’s virtual card catalog, but met similar results, as the phrase “No Matches Found” appeared every time he typed in a search.

Determined but not defeated, the man shifted gears and consulted the greatest collection of information in the world—the Internet. If no one in Springwood knew what hypnocil was, perhaps someone else in this world would. After all, there were over six billion people on the earth, so he liked his chances. Taking a deep breath, he pulled up a search engine and typed in “hypnocil”. The results surprised him.

There, among a list of about 40 results, the man found the definition of the word in an online dictionary, a history of the drug and what it was used for, and examples of its utilization. Scrolling down, he uncovered a bunch of useless information, but a name at the bottom of the screen intrigued him.

It was of Dr. Neil Gordon, said to have been among the first to prescribe hypnocil to patients at the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital over 15 years ago. Clicking the link, he read on, learning that the experimental drug had been issued following an apparent suicide and the mass hysteria of the patients that succeeded it. Gordon administered the drug against the wishes of the hospital’s administration, and when another patient ended up in a coma, he was subsequently terminated. Smirking, the man clicked the printer icon on the top toolbar and decided to keep the article and read the rest later.

Going back to his search results, he went to the bottom and found another item worth noting—an article in the Springwood Gazette by editor Paul Krantz from just two years ago, discussing in depth a theory that the town had given its children dose after dose of the drug in order to counteract the effects of one Freddy Krueger—

The screen went black.

What the hell?

“Sorry, power outage,” the eerie-looking librarian told him as she grabbed his article off of the printer and tossed it into the wastebasket beside her. “We get them a lot around here.”

Looking at her cautiously, the man clearly saw that every plug had been pulled out of the wall right next to her, and that it was no accident.

Groaning, the man stood up, adjusted his black trench coat, and made his way toward the exit. The white-haired, saggy-dressed librarian watched intently as he opened the door, then disappeared from view back into her office. She didn’t pay attention long enough, because the man never left—at least not without the articles he printed. Pulling the door shut in front of him as a decoy, he quietly went back to the trash bin and collected his articles. Then, stuffing the sheets into his pocket, he left the library, knowing there was only one place to find his answers.

The one place that knew everything about hypnocil.

The one place that knew everything about Fred Krueger.

The one place where every piece of his puzzle would finally be put together.

Westin Hills.


Proceed To Chapter 8
Back To The Lair Of Horror