Free Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas

It probably stinks now."
    "I'm sure it will be okay," Fisher said. "It's only for tonight. The room would have been empty anyway."
    "It does seem a waste of space to be testing them all one at a time. I can't believe Wy thinks we can't handle even two at once."
    "It's not that we can't handle them," he said. "It's that Doctor Wy doesn't want them in contact with each other. He says it will taint the experiment. I don't think he wants them discussing their symptoms."
    "Do you think that's it, though? That that's the reason?"
    "What other reason could there be?"
    She shrugged her shoulders.
    They both turned at the sound of something falling outside the control room, but as Fisher recoiled Rose stood and walked out to see what had happened. There was a shadow briefly across the doorway but no doubt it was Rose's own. Nonetheless it took Fisher's heart a few moments to stop racing. As it did so Rose returned to the control room.
    "Well I can't see anything out there. Maybe those guys across the street dropped something outside?"
    "Possibly," Fisher said.
    There was a pause.
    "Hm. That's weird," Rose said. "The camera in Room One isn't working."
    Fisher walked over to the console and tried to call the room's details up but when he hit the command to display the video feed the picture was black. Fisher checked the connections; the feed was good -- the camera was sending information properly but the computer wasn't receiving it.
    "Try switching to the other rooms," Rose said.
    Fisher tabbed through Room Two's and Three's feeds and saw the ghostly image of a made bed and then of one unmade and slept in. Back to Room One, there was nothing.
    "That is strange," Fisher said, leaning closer. "If the cameras weren't working, we'd get an error. That fact alone --"
    Rose's finger pointing to the screen interrupted him.
    "Did you see that?"
    "What?"
    " That ! Look!"
    Fisher did look, and at first didn't see anything in the black display. Then, glimpses of something indistinct appeared faintly in the darkness.
    Fisher scratched his head. He'd never seen a camera fail that way before. Then, the darkness parted further and Fisher saw a strange shadow in the room. It stood still, hovering over Sanderson. Something about its shape niggled at the back of Fisher's mind, something that coiled the anxiety in the small of his back, and when it sprung he had to cycle through the video feeds once more to confirm his fears. The bed in Room Three was unmade, but there was no one occupying it.
    "Breem is in with Sanderson," he said.
    Rose ran to the door while Fisher tried to study the readings. The screen of the polysomnograph was flickering wildly, drawing thin blue and red lines across the entire width of the display as rows of white corrupting code scrolled upward. "I don't understand," was all Fisher could think to say, his brain tripping over the incomprehensible events.
    "Fish! Come here!"
    Fisher went to the door and saw Rose standing by Room One, looking though its tiny window.
    "Rose, what's happening in there?"
    She struggled for words. "It's -- I can't --"
    Fisher raced over and lightly pushed her aside to look through the window, but he too struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. Thick black smoke covered the ceiling, spewing forth from the unconscious Sanderson's gaping mouth. It billowed out in waves and continuously rose to join the cloud that amassed above and was slowly circling the room. There was a faint humming noise but Fisher couldn't be sure he wasn't imagining it. Beneath the darkness stood the muttering Breem, oblivious to the darkness creeping downward.
    "We need to get him out of there," Fisher said, desperately trying to make sense of what he was seeing. " Doctor Wy never wanted them so close to each other."
    "Why not? What's happening?"
    "I don't know. We need to get him out of there now and worry about the rest later." Fisher put his hand on the doorknob and then recoiled. It was vibrating. Rose cupped her hands and