HALF LIGHT - (What did you think was going to happen? How many bodies have we fished out of alleys like this? You know what happens here.)

This is the second time he’s been poisoned and it still really fucking hurts. It’s all in him so fast, burning through his body. He twitches and screams, trapped in Norman's fucked up many limbed embrace. He’s not thinking. In his dumb animal panic, he actually screams for Kim. Like somewhere he’d hear him. When it reaches his ears the loneliest sound he’s heard and-

REACTION SPEED - (Wait what are you doing? What’s that inhale for-)

“Half Light-”

HALF LIGHT - (Don’t say my name- don’t fucking say *anything!* Stop!)

VOLITION - (We aren’t in control anymore. I can’t stop him. Executive function. Everything. It's all shot.)

INTERFACING - (I can’t reset him. I can’t pull the plug. I can’t do anything anymore.)

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - (This is bullshit! This is *fucking* bullshit. No one can just make us talk!)

“Inland Empire. Drama. Suggestion. Physical Instrument. Pain Threshold.”

Each name is pulled out of his mind like a tooth from the root. His cheeks are wet. He’s shaking in his boots, in his fear.

“Endurance. Electrochemistry. Authority. Hand/Eye Coordination. Reaction Speed. Interfacing. Rhetoric. Visual Calculus…”

INLAND EMPIRE - (You've been afraid of this for a long time. You just forgot. There was a doctor. He wanted you to talk about us.)