Doom Upon All The World

Chapter 2: Never Enough

He woke with a start. Nightmares and terrible horrors had plagued his nights of late. Perhaps it was living in the rehab center. Or maybe it was his mother's dangerous job. He saw and heard awful things here all the time. People groaning and crying out in pain. People screaming for the torment to stop. It wouldn't. Either they'd get better or they'd get worse. He saw it in everyone that entered the building. They came in, either willingly or by force.

He remembered a time when he had to watch the guards at the door drag a man, kicking and screaming, down the hall. That man did not last very long at all. A few days, a week maybe, but most certainly not more than that. When things were going good, a man would come in by his own accord, surrender his weapon and shield to the guards, and take his place in the waiting room until someone could find him a bed. The man would have a bed set up in the dormitories and would be given a change of clothes. From there on out, most of the work was up to him and it could go either way. It was really hard to tell anymore who would survive.

There was a pair of women that came in once. Women in the facility wasn't an odd thing. There were many women among the Templars but few of them wanted to go through the rehab process so publicly and thus most died in their homes. The two women strode up to the door hand in hand, like sisters, unwilling to release each other. It was evident that they were not related. One was particularly tall for her stature. She had long black hair that she kept tightly kitted in a bun, and a big pointy nose that stood out among the rest of her features. He could only come to the conclusion that she was Antivan.

The other woman had light blond hair with just a hint of red in it. Her eyes shimmered like impossibly blue diamonds. He'd only seen eyes prettier than that on one other person. They immediately underwent the process and they were doing good. The smaller woman was kiddish and slightly paranoid but she wasn't beyond help, yet. At the end of the week, the tall Antivan was going through her first bout of withdrawal. The shudders, the cold sweats, the nightmares, and inability to keep any food down.

They had special rooms for people going through these. This way the others could sleep without being disturbed by the screams. And, Maker, they all screamed. It seemed at first to him that the screaming was something that would cease all at once. But it never did. It never stopped. There was always someone that needed to get it out as the night terrors took them and the pain rattled their bones.

By the end, the tall Antivan came out of the room on her own two feet, only being helped by a guard for balance. She looked tired and drawn, as if she hadn't seen a wink of sleep in months. That was entirely possible though if it was true, she'd have gone crazy by now. The other woman, who was also going through the ordeal, did not fair as well. She did not sleep, nightmares did not take her, screams did not echo through her room. All that could be heard was the faint whisper of voices and the occasional howling cackle of a mad woman. She had started to go through Lyrium madness. The tall Antivan fell to her knees upon hearing this. Later she was found in the dormitories, hanging from the pillars above by the neck.

He remembered his father walking into the room full of recovering Templars that all just stared up at her limp body. There was a look of despair on his face. He moved his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck as he did on so many occasions when he was confused or upset or nervous. He turned to him and told him to go find his mother and stay there. He didn't want to. He wanted to help his father but he knew he was only trying to protect him.

His parents argued often that the rehab facility was no place for him. These arguments were generally his mother yelling and getting upset met by his father talking to her in a level voice before comforting her. He didn't understand. Why didn't they just send him away. There were places he could go. The Chantry, Antiva to stay with his Aunt and cousins, Halamshiral to stay with his mothers good friends. He could go many places. They had people nearly everywhere in Orlais. He just wanted to make them happy. If that meant going away then that's what he'd do.