Just to warn everyone I haven't written for fun for a few years now so I am a little rusty but I couldn't resist writing a story about Ruvik after playing The Evil Within, he's such a neat character.

'Dear Miss Sophie Burke,

As you requested my associate, Dr. Mayer, has informed me about your rather unique situation and I believe that I can be of assistance in remedying your mental state. At the moment I am currently busy with a rather special project but in a month's time I should be able to accommodate you. I strongly urge for you to stay at Beacon Hospital in the section for 'voluntary commitments' rather than seek outside housing as this will make it easier for me to treat you. Please contact my secretary, Mrs. Rowley, to make the appropriate arrangements. I am eager to meet with you Miss Burke and I am certain that together we can conquer your delusions.

Sincerely,

Dr. Marcelo Jimenez'

Sophie put the letter down and let out an uneasy sigh, running a hand through her long, brown hair in frustration. She must have read those words a hundred times in the past month and as much as she wished they'd give her comfort or hope, they never did. But this had to work. If Jimenez couldn't help her then she had nowhere else to turn. For two years she has been traveling the country visiting countless psychiatrists, neurologists, and religious officials and so far none of them has been able to relieve her of her problem. Sophie, for whatever reason, could not only see but also converse with the dead. The professionals would all be skeptical of her abilities at first but that never lasted for long. How could they be when Sophie could accurately and with in-depth detail describe events and secrets from their past? Or, if a dead relative or friend failed to appear, how could she know the numbers or sentences that the doctors and priests wrote out of her line of sight to test her unless there was someone standing over their shoulder, giving her the answers? No, the skepticism never lasted long. Afterwards would come the fear and also the endless questions about the afterworld but never a solution to make it stop, never that.

That's why she was so hopeful about Dr. Jimenez. When Dr. Mayer had told her about Dr. Jimenez and his radical work she had been uncertain. She knew that Dr. Mayer was terrified of her ability and wanted to get rid of her so she thought he was just trying to pawn her off onto some sort of quack but, after a little research, it seemed Dr. Mayer was onto something with Dr. Jimenez. She'd read all of his papers about the mind and they were absolutely brilliant. The discoveries he has made about human consciousness are revolutionary and his theories, while ambitious, seem to be plausible. The theory that Sophie was most interested in was Dr. Jimenez's 'Individual Event Reconstruction'. It's the idea that one can delve into someone's mind and successfully change or even eliminate a specific memory in order to alter the patient's psyche. And boy did Sophie have a memory she needed to forget.

She leaned back in her car seat and looked up at the gray goliath that was Beacon Mental Hospital. Would this be the start to a new life free from the dead or the end to her search for recovery? She wasn't certain she was ready for the answer. She had never been so nervous in her life. Her stomach was in knots, her hands sweaty, and her heart racing. But she had to brave because one way or another this was going to be the end of something.

"Why are you so eager to be rid of me, Sophie" A deep Southern voice inquired from the passenger seat. Sophie turned to her dear companion and guardian, James. He had been a Confederate soldier during the Civil War and had died from a bayonet thrust through his heart. James had started following her around about six months after she started seeing ghosts. She had been visiting a friend in Gettysburg, PA when she had seen him amongst a copse of trees. He was a handsome man with thick black hair and the darkest eyes Sophie had ever seen. At first he had only stared at her, the ghosts always stared at her. James told her it's because she gives off a different light then most people which draws them to her. Most will just stare at her but some will actually follow her around in some sort of grotesque game of follow the leader. That's when they would start talking to her. They always wanted her help. Some wanted their tale told, others had unresolved business they wanted her to take care of, and then there were the bitter and disturbed ones who would whisper horrible things to her in order to draw her into their misery. James was different. He never asked anything of her, he just wanted to help her. He was her guardian angel and he was the only person she'd miss if Jimenez was able to cure her.

Sophie turned to him with pity in her eyes. "I don't want to stop seeing you, James, you know that. I just can't take it. At first I thought I could manage, that I could help the dead move on to the next realm and still lead a normal life but it's impossible. There are just too many of them, and more and more people die every day. It never ends. I want to be able to wake up in the morning and take a shower without ten strangers watching me the entire time, constantly shouting at me and beseeching me to the point where I can't even have a cohesive thought." She reached out her hand to place it on his arm in comfort but immediately withdrew it, knowing her hand would just go through him. "I want to be normal again, James." She finished in a defeated voice. He turned to her, his deep black eyes meeting her own green ones with such sadness that it made her chest ache.

"I was lost for 150 years until I saw you, Sophie. I don't want to be lost again." She bowed her head, feeling the weariness of the past two years settling deep in her bones.

"Maybe I'll still be able to see you James, we have grown close over the past two years. Maybe that connection will withstand the treatment or maybe this won't work at all and we can continue on like we did before. But I have to try, James, I am terrified that I will slowly slip into madness from dealing with the dead all of the time. I probably would have gone crazy by now if it weren't for you. You have kept me grounded these past few years but your help may not always be enough. Please, please understand." She begged with tears in her eyes. He bowed his head and gave a slow nod.

"Fine, I will support you in this endeavor, even though it grieves me." Sophie gave him a grateful smile. Even when something pained him, he still supported her explicitly. What would she do without him? He had been good to her these past few years, escorting her to various appointments ensuring that everyone believed her by reading their concealed papers to her and occasionally throwing things off of walls and desks. He also guarded her from other ghosts as best he could, chasing off the worst offenders but they always managed to come back. He told her constantly that she had saved him. That before she had come along he just wandered the battlefields listening to the conversations of families and friends but, much to his chagrin, never being able to join in. He could certainly speak with other ghosts but the other dead tend to be very conceited and can't see past anything but their own problems. She had become his everything and he hers.

With that last thought she reached into the back seat to get her purse, a newfound bravery overtaking her. She climbed out of the car and locked the door and started to walk toward the imposing gray building when she realized that James was not following her. She went back to the car and opened the door to see James still sitting in the passenger seat.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked nervously. She really wanted James by her side for support.

"I wish to remain here for now," he said in a small voice, "I will accompany you when you return for your luggage, I promise." Sophie gave a small nod and closed the door. She could give him some time to himself, he deserved at least that much from her.

As she made her way to the side door of the building her nervousness only increased. She's gone into hospitals plenty of times before for treatment but she's never been this uneasy. Perhaps it was because she knew this was her last chance for normalcy? Maybe, but if felt more than that. Something felt off about the hospital. As she approached the gray door Sophie noticed something amiss, it was open. Sure, this was a side entrance into the administrative section of the hospital but surely there were laws about outside doors being closed at all times at mental institutions? She bit her lip and turned slightly to her car, considering returning to it. But seeing James there in his sadness quickly changed her mind. If she went back now she wouldn't have the courage to come back. So she slowly opened the heavy metal door, uneasiness filling her heart. The interior looked normal enough but no one seemed to be around.

"Hello, is anybody there?" She shouted down the empty corridor. Sophie cautiously entered the building while every fiber in her body told her to turn around and run away. But she was just being silly. This was only a hospital. Her footsteps echoed ominously through the empty hallway as she approached the first door in the corridor. Mrs. Jane Rowley it read, and relief instantly washed through her. Mrs. Rowley was who Sophie had to meet with. She knocked on the door and waited for a response but none came. Sophie started to become nervous once more and tentatively knocked on the door again. That's when she heard it. A woman crying. She pressed her ear to the door to confirm what she was hearing and sure enough someone was sobbing on the other side. This wasn't normal crying either, these were heart wrenching sobs that cut Sophie to her core. Not wanting to leave someone in such pain she twisted the handle and entered the room. At first Sophie didn't see anyone but the crying had become decidedly louder. That's when she noticed the crouched figure behind the desk. She made her way to the stooped woman, her heart beating wildly.

"Hello, Mrs. Rowley? Are you ok? My name is Sophie, I believe you were expecting me. Is there anything I can do to help you?" As she rounded the desk her blood went cold. A woman lay prostrate on the ground in a pool of blood, a gaping hole in her throat. The woman crouched over the body looked up at Sophie as she approached, revealing an identical bloody hole in her neck. Her nametag read 'Rowley'. Sophie had come upon Mrs. Rowley grieving over her own body.

"Wh-Who did this?" Sophie stammered, taking a step back from the slowly spreading gore at her feet. Mrs. Rowley's sad eyes seemed to look right through Sophie in her grief. Sophie had never been in a situation like this before and it left her numb. A small voice in the back of her head told her to call the police but she was too transfixed by the scene before her. That's when Mrs. Rowley's eyes filled with horror as she looked over Sophie's left shoulder. Mrs. Rowley could no longer speak but Sophie recognized the word that she mouthed in urgency 'Duck!' and so she did.

As Sophie's knees hit the ground she heard a whoosh of air above her and a loud 'thunk' as something slammed against the wall. She looked back behind her to see a man standing there, his left hand holding a syringe that was embedded in the wall. A syringe that had been meant for her head. He was tall and horribly scarred. He wore tattered white pants and coat and beneath a dirty hood Sophie could see a section of his brain exposed beneath a clear surface. What transfixed her though were his eyes. They were the lightest gray she had ever seen, so light that they seemed to melt into the whites of his eyes. But it was the anger within those eyes that held her attention. It was the hate there that scared her.

"How did you know I was behind you?" He inquired in a deep, gravelly voice, inclining his head slightly in curiosity. For a moment Sophie sat there motionless, stunned by what had just occurred. Where had he come from anyway? He took a step towards her, his gray eyes not leaving her green ones. "I asked you a question." He said, his voice noticeable more angry. Sophie shook her head slightly to shake herself out of her stupor.

She lifted her hand slowly to point towards Mrs. Rowley's body, "She warned me." Sophie answered in a whisper. His brows furrowed slightly. Whether it was in confusion or annoyance, she couldn't tell.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Sophie. Sophie Burke." His eyes seemed to widen in what Sophie thought was recognition.

"Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events." He said with a smirk. To her astonishment, he disappeared for a second but reappeared, kneeling in front of her. She jumped in surprise but her back hit the desk, trapping her before this strange man. He leaned in close, the smirk still upon his lips, "I thought I had lost the opportunity to examine you, Miss Burke. This appears to be my lucky day," he leaned in closer and whispered in her ear, "You are mine now, to do with as I please." Her eyes widened at his words but she didn't have time to dwell on them as she felt a sudden pain in the back of her head, and everything went black.

Well, there's chapter one, I hope you all enjoyed it! Hopefully I will have chapter two up in a few days for you guys. Reviews are always appreciated!