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Chapter 2 - Parallel World

Darkness. Everything was covered in black. The wolf felt like he was starting to regain his senses, the sensation returning to his paws and ears. He slowly opened his eyes as a huge light shone through. Taking a bit to adjust to the light, he found himself in a hospital bed. Alex got a feel for his surroundings. It seemed like he wasn't connected to any life support or heart monitor, which was a relief. On the nearby chair were all his belongings and he was still in his normal clothes. Stretching a bit, the only thing he felt was some soreness and a small pain in his neck. Checking his neck he found his collar was missing and was replaced with bandages. At first this freaked Alex out since he didn't want anyone seeing what his neck looked like, but since it was covered with bandages it was a relief. The small desk near his bed had the silver necklace given to him by his father, his eyeglasses, and the collar that once adorned his neck.

Quickly Alex placed the pendant on his neck, letting out a sigh of relief, and then placed his eyeglasses on as well while putting his collar inside his laptop bag. Just then a nurse walked in, a young female kangaroo wearing a standard white uniform. "Ah poor thing, you are finally awake! Let me go get the doctor!" she exclaimed rushing back out of the room before he had the chance to speak up. He felt completely fine. The wolf felt he did not need to be in a hospital bed any longer. It should go to another animal who was worse off than he was. Yet he decided to wait for the doctor to come and then hopefully get discharged as fast as possible. Hospitals were one of the worst places to be for him; it was so uncomfortable being around sick animals that he couldn't help. Despite the fact that hospitals do amazing deeds and save a lot of lives, he couldn't help but think more negatively and dwell on the sadder aspects of what it meant to be in one.

The doctor walked in, a large hippo wearing glasses who looked to be in his late 50s, and proceeded to tell the wolf the events that brought him here. Two officers from the ZPD brought him to the ER. After cleaning and getting rid of any effects the mace had on his body, they concluded that the collapse was from fatigue and not anything out of the ordinary. At first they assumed Alex was choked to near death based on the fur-less area of his neck covered with bruises and burns, but looking at his medical history if was obvious that was there since he was younger.

"Right, exhaustion. That's what they would call it..." the wolf thought to himself. There was no scientific explanation for suddenly not being able to breathe and having visions of a hell-like landscape in front of him right in broad daylight. There was no way to vocalize that this was the cause of the exhaustion without being put in the mental ward of this hospital either.

The wolf nodded and explained that the doctor was correct about his neck, also noting that he was told the fur would never grow back for the rest of his life. The doctor gave him a sad yet understanding look and then concluded that the wolf was free to go. As Alex started to get up and get his things, the doctor mentioned that the two officers who brought him here would like to see him and ask him some questions.

Alex was confused and wondered if those two officers stayed here and waited for him, but looked at the clock on his phone and noted it was already nighttime. He was knocked out for at least eight hours and wasted it sleeping in a hospital. "O...ok, I'll talk to the officers." The hippo doctor nodded and told him to wait in the room while he got the pair waiting to talk to him. The wolf sat on the bed patiently and soon the familiar rabbit walked in with the fox trailing behind her. In the distance a pair of nurses were laughing. Apparently the fox had shown the nurses or anyone within earshot the video he recorded on his phone of the main cause of the wolf's visit to the hospital. The bunny angrily objected to the fox doing this multiple times but was ignored in the end.

"Hello! Officer Judy Hopps at your service. This is my partner, Officer Nick Wilde. We are here to ask you a few questions about the incident this morning if you don't mind." The bunny spoke in a cheerful upbeat voice, holding a carrot shaped pen and a notebook. Alex noted that she and her partner were still on duty in their police uniforms. Nick grinned mischievously as he waved hello to the wolf, trying to hold back from laughing at the sight of the poor guy. This served to further embarrass the wolf who ignored eye contact with both officers, blushing a bit.

"N-no p-problem!" Alex stuttered a bit, trying to remain calm. He always found it difficult to talk to new animals, especially ones in law enforcement, but mostly those that were generally more intimidating. "Thanks for saving me earlier by the way! My name is Alex Lykos. I'm a programmer. It's nice to meet you both," he said timidly as he composed himself.

"Think nothing of it, klutz! I mean Alex," said the fox in a sarcastic tone. "C'mon Carrots! Ask away so we can go home already," Nick said in a tired voice, exhausted from the long day on the job.

"Ignore him. He gets cranky when he's tired, almost like a child," Judy said, placing emphasis on the last word and turning back to glare at the fox as if to say behave yourself. "Anyway, tell me about what happened with you and Officer Jake Hunter. From what I saw, he seemed like the aggressor. When I questioned him back at the station he reiterated that he was just having a friendly chat, which I don't buy one bit. You seem more like the honest type, so can you tell me what happened?"

"Well...he...was someone I knew from Zootopia High...and he used to...do horrible things to me. I was so happy when I graduated. I felt free. I could finally get rid of him. But for him to turn up as an officer after all these years was a shock. He hasn't changed one bit, and he tried to extort money from me for 'protection'."

Nick looked sympathetic as Alex told his side of the story. "Yea. I hear ya. Zootopia High wasn't the greatest place to be. That mess of hormones all in one place is just begging to give anyone mental scars."

Judy empathized as well; she had known bullying quite well as a child, after all. She wrote down this information in a small notepad. "Thanks. That makes a bit more sense. I'm going to keep a close eye on this officer, and if he pulls anything funny again I'll see to it that he is kicked off the force. Don't worry!"

"T-thank you!" Alex said nervously. He did not expect a bunny to be so kind to a wolf like him, especially when they had just met. His tail wagged happily as he sat on the hospital bed.

"But I do have one more question, though. You collapsed soon after you accidentally sprayed 'Wolf Away' at yourself, but that doesn't explain why you went unconscious. I'm worried that something happened to you earlier that you aren't telling us. Did that officer hurt your neck in any way? It's all bandaged up," Judy said, eyeing the bandages on the wolf.

All of the life soon left Alex's face. His neck was a sensitive subject. He was not going to reveal what was underneath. Even if he did remember how his neck got into such a state, it was probably something he shouldn't share so openly. "This..." he said, pointing to his neck then slowly rubbing the bandage covering it, "This isn't related to what happened. This...isn't relevant..." he said in a monotone voice. His eyes looked lost and vacant as if his subconscious was trying to remember something.

"Really? But..." Judy said, but was soon stopped when Nick put his paw around her shoulder.

Nick was able to pick up that it was a sensitive subject and should be avoided, but the investigator within Judy couldn't help but feel like she had to press more. "Carrots, everyone has their secrets... anyway, thanks for your time, bud. I think we have everything we need," Nick said.

Judy looked back at Nick, nodding and accepting defeat while putting away her notes. "Right. That's it. Thank you for your time, Alex."

The two officers started to walk out of the room. Alex got out of bed to follow suit out of the hospital. Suddenly the room started spinning and a loud voice cackled in his ears. This startled the poor wolf and he let out a small scream. Judy and Nick quickly heard this and turned back to see what had happened. They found Alex clutching his neck, unable to breathe.

"What's wrong? Alex?! Alex!" Judy said running up to him. "Quick, Nick! Get a nurse!"

Nick nodded and proceeded to exit the room, but the door suddenly slammed and locked from the outside as if preventing escape. Nick tried with all his might but was unable to open the door. "What the heck is going on!?" he shouted, banging on the door to the nurses outside. The nurses heard no noise, however, and seemed to not notice anything out of the ordinary.

From Alex's point of view he saw it very clearly. A red monstrous deer was strangling him. It was larger than normal with blood dripping from its eyes and demon-like horns sticking out of its back. Alex's claws tried to pry its grip away, but from Judy and Nick's point of view, it looked like he was choking himself.

Alex felt like he was going to die. Some demon deer was going to kill him and no one would know the truth of his death. This saddened him greatly. He wanted someone...anyone... to save him. He begged and begged, screaming from the depths of his inner being. "H...e...l...p...!" he managed to blurt out.

Just then Judy noticed a shadowy figure grabbing the wolf. It was faint, but she was starting to see it. The lights started flickering wildly; the figure was becoming clearer and clearer to the officers. Judy pulled out her stun gun and Nick pulled out an expandable baton as he too saw a sinister figure. "Drop the wolf now!" Judy shouted and it took her moments to fire the stun gun, zapping the target directly. Startled, the target dropped his grip and the wolf collapsed to the floor, breathing in much-needed oxygen.

The room started shaking violently. Cracks started to form as if reality was breaking apart. The trio fell through the cracks forming underneath them and found themselves falling into a new world, a world parallel to reality. The three animals blacked out for a second and awoke moments later in the same hospital room. This time, however, the room looked vacant. Everything was dark, but there were faint lights illuminating the room.

The wolf, fox, and bunny got up. scared by their surroundings. "Was there a power outage?" Judy exclaimed. "Nick, you have night vision. Go check outside the room." Meanwhile, Judy reached for her phone to call for backup. "What the...? My phone's dead..."

Alex, having regained the feeling in his neck, got up and checked the repertoire of electronics in his bag. "All my stuff isn't turning on. They were fully charged this morning too."

Nick was able to open the door quite easily and saw that outside the room was more eerily glowing lights, but it was more brightly lit than in the room, as if there was more outside the room. "Guys, this is spooky, almost like this is a haunted hospital. It reminds me of the haunted house you can find at Wild Times. C'mon! It's brighter out here! Let's try to find out where this is!" Nick gestured, leading everyone outside into the hallway.

One of the orbs of light descended and took the form of a rabbit, but on all fours and without any clothing. It glowed in a bright white light, almost like a spirit. "Wow. I never thought I would see living beings here. I don't remember my name, but I used to be alive in this hospital yesterday. I'm still new here myself, but the others call this place the Spirit World." The rabbit quickly faded away, almost as fast as it appeared.

Other voices started to ring in their ears. "A place for those who have passed on to find peace to go to the afterlife..."

"A place where murderous lingering spirits who cannot accept their death thirst for revenge."

"A place not meant for the living! You must flee at once before they find you!"

A look of extreme dread formed on Alex's face. He could see the same look on Judy and Nick's faces as well. His fur stood up on end as he gazed around the room. His eyes started to adjust a bit to the lack of light. Everything was starting to become clearer... the vision he had this morning might have been part of this Spirit World. The monster deer choking him must have been from this place too. So many unanswered questions, and with danger slowly cornering them, Alex, Judy, and Nick must think fast if they wanted to get through this alive.