Ning arrived at the hospital and quickly went up the elevator to the floor where the old man was hospitalized. Larissa and Mira were next to him, walking at a brisk pace as well.
Two cops guarded the door, one a Minotaur with a bull head, and another an Orc with a chubby face and grayish-green skin. They saluted as Larissa walked past, allowing her and the rest to enter as soon as they showed them their identification.
Ning walked into the white room that slled of disinfectants. The old man, a ghoul with grayish-blue skin and pointed ears, slept peacefully on the bed. White bandages wrapped around his head, covering the back where he had been struck.
A man walked in, the doctor, the first human Ning had interacted with yet.
"Who might you be?" he asked.
"Detective Larissa. These are my associates," she quickly introduced herself. "We ca after hearing that he was in a coma. Any possibility that this has to do with Tritus?"
"Maybe," the doctor said. "His biotrics suggest that he has fallen into a coma, but it’s too early to tell if this is a normal coma or one that was induced by Tritus."
"You can tell the difference?" Ning asked. He had no mory of that ever being the case. The only reason they even knew it was Tritus in the past was because he took credit for every case after a few days.
"There is an easy way to tell," the doctor said. "We asure their brain activity. The ones that are in a coma tend to have very little brain activity, but the ones that were targeted by Tritus tend to have much more activity."
"What sort of activity?" Ning asked.
"Actually, we were about to test the very thing. If you aren’t busy, I can show you," the doctor said.
"No, we don’t have the ti," Larissa said. "Please give us more information once you’ve received it. Any information will help us with the case."
The doctor nodded slowly.
"Can I watch?" Ning asked.
"We’re going back to the station," Larissa said with an annoyed look.
"I don’t have to," Ning said. "I have no reason to be at the station right now, do I?"
Larissa narrowed her eyes. "I suppose. But who’ll drive you back?" she asked.
"I can walk my way back," Ning said.
"The sun’s about to rise soon, you know."
"Again, not a Vampire," Ning said. "I’ll be fine."
He turned toward the doctor. "If you will lead the way."
The doctor nodded and called for so staff to help transfer the old man to another room.
Ning arrived at the room and sat behind a pane of glass, watching the professionals work inside. A wonky tal contraption with a few dozen wires coming out the back was attached to the man’s head, and a large tal screen was placed before him.
On the other side of the glass pane, dozens of schematics of the human brain began appearing one by one on the screens before Ning, all no doubt belonging to the old man in a coma.
The doctor walked back out and stood before the screen. "We’ll be starting in a bit," he said, still ssing around with sothing on the screen, laying multiple schematics together to form a 3-dinsional image of the old man’s human brain.
About a minute later, the doctor told the staff inside to start, and the 3D image projected before Ning began glowing. There was a subtle blue coloring to everything at first, then blimps of orange and red began appearing around the brain.
The doctor worked on it for so ti while Ning watched from behind, before they were finally done.
"Hmm," the doctor said in the end. "From what I can see, I don’t believe this is the serial criminal Tritus. The patterns don’t match."
"The patterns... aning?" Ning asked.
"You see these lights that show up in yellow, orange, and red? They determine the amount of activity happening in the brain. As you can see, these red spots an that the brain is quite active right now. Not as active as you or , but much more active than that of a regular human."
"Of course, his ghoul physiology has sothing to do with that, so I believe he is still in a coma for now, but this isn’t Tritus’ doing."
Ning nodded as he heard the doctor. "What does Tritus’ doing look like?" he asked.
"One mont," the doctor said and brought out sothing else.
A different 3D brain appeared on the screen before Ning, one slightly different in shape from the old man’s.
"This brain belongs to a comatose Drow that we know to be a target of Tritus. Now, since this is a Drow instead of a Ghoul, the brain activity will be lesser in general, but still, look at this activity."
The man let the recording play, and Ning saw minimal hot spots appear all around the brain. However, there was one spot around the center that was forever glowing with a vibrant red color. That spot, along with so occasional ones all around the brain, lit up quite a lot.
"Do you know what this area of the brain is responsible for in a sleeping man?" the doctor asked.
Ning shook his head. "What?" he asked.
"These regions are responsible for our dreams," the doctor said. "These scans have been compared to healthy brains, and this activity is much more extre than even those. That only leads us to believe that whatever Tritus is doing to them, he’s forcing them into a state where all they do is dream. Forever and ever."
Ning frowned. Turning soone unconscious so all they could do was dream? That didn’t sound like him.
"Not a dream," he said slowly. "I fear all of those people are having nightmares."
"Nightmares?" the doctor asked, turning back toward the image.
"Thank you for showing all of this," Ning said. "I’ll take my leave now."
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