Val’s POV

Tyler continued to gape at me in wonder. “What’s wrong with you, Val? Did you you eat anything strange? I mean, you’re acting bizarrely.”

I started out listening to him, but as I did, I found myself once more returning to the scene. I saw Sergei tying Tyler to some kind of giant spiderweb that stretched from one penalty box to the other.

I found I could move this time and I got to my feet, almost immediately freezing in place as a massive spider critter crawled onto the net and headed toward a young looking Tyler Seguin, as he pulled at the web ropes desperately.

He turned to gaze at me and shouted, “VAL, DO SOMETHING! HELP ME, PLEASE--!!” That was before I saw the defenseman reach over and stick tape over his mouth, muting him. I glimpsed that he wasn’t exactly proud and happy about being tied up and gagged by tape. I understood his pain.

I hopped over the boards and onto the ice. I could feel my legs shaking and I had to use the railing as a crutch.

“Sergei, stop!” I wailed.

He whirled around to me. I watched Tyler struggle in the background as the spider appeared to be “sniffing” him out. He was in an incredible amount of distress.

“Сергей, остановить. Пожалуйста. (Sergei, stop. Please.)”

“Маленькая Валерий, вы не знаете, что вы говорите. Расслабьтесь вниз, чтобы не попасть в большие неприятности. (Little Valeri, you don't know what you are talking about. Sit back down, lest you get into more trouble.)”

“Что не так с вами? Почему вы связали Tyler Seguin до? (What is wrong with you? Why have you tied Tyler Seguin up?)”

“Это вас не касается, Валерий! (It doesn't concern you, Valeri!)”

“Он делает. Почему вы связали Tyler Seguin? (It does. Why have you tied up Tyler Seguin?)”

“Это не твое дело. Вы галлюцинации, мой друг. Это не реально. (It's none of your business. You are hallucinating, my friend. This isn't real.)”

I stood my ground, letting go of the railing finally. I frowned and took a step forward. “Отпусти его, Сергей. (Let him go, Sergei.)”

“Сделайте мне, Валери. (Make me, Valeri.)”

I charged forward and headbutted my mentor in the stomach, sending him crashing into the boards. I gazed over to see the spider had found Tyler and was sinking its fangs into him. I crumbled to the ice, as I gazed in horror at the creature eating Tyler Seguin like a fly.

The spider finished his meal and crawled off the net and toward me, as though controlled by someone. Sergei was knocked out in a daze to the side, so it wasn’t him. I crawled backward on the ice on my hands, as the spider came toward me.

“No! Go away!” I screamed, before flashing back to reality and seeing Tyler shaking his head. He was on the ground and bleeding from a gash on his head. He looked stunned at me.

“Val--?” He managed to squeak out.

Jamie returned just in time to see my episode and grabbed me in a big bear hug. “Come on, Val. Back to the locker room.”

He forced me down the tunnel. I shot a glance over my shoulder to see Tyler in the arms of Hemsky and Spezza. He held his head, glaring at me with fury and disgust. Had I done that? I hadn’t hit Sergei, I’d hit Tyler!

Jamie shoved me into the locker room and pushed me down into my locker cubicle. I sat, gazing at him. He was tugging at his hair. “I couldn’t find Coach or anyone. For now you are still on the roster to play tonight.” He paced back and forth and looked like he was stressing out.

Suddenly he halted in place and seized me by the collar of my jersey, yanking me forward. “What is wrong, Val? You can’t do this tonight! We play the Avalanche and they aren’t going to care if you see ghosts or an evil Sergei Gonchar who keeps killing Tyler and me!”

“Spider ate Tyler.”

“That’s fantastic, Valeri, but you hurt Tyler. You need to apologize and we need to get to the bottom of your hallucinations.”

“Can’t. Not sure where they come from…” I croaked out.

My captain smacked me across the face. “I won’t take that! We need you to be yourself, Sergei or no Sergei. I don’t like that the man had an early retirement, any more than you do, but you need to pull yourself together man. You can do this without him.”

“You can’t do this without Sergei, Valeri!”

“You CAN do this without Sergei, Valeri!!”

“You can’t do this without Sergei, Valeri!”

“You CAN do this without Sergei! I know you can!”

“You can’t do this without Sergei, Valeri!”

I leaned backward, covering my face. I couldn’t deal with all of these emotions. What was wrong with me? I wanted to know as much as Jamie did. “I’m sorry!”

Jamie squatted down and put his hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Val. We’ll figure out what’s going on with you and get you help. Segs will be with you too. Everyone will. We’re going to get you help buddy, just try not to attack anyone.”

I nodded. That was the last thing I wanted to do to anyone. I didn’t want to attack them. I would try my best to behave and remain in control of my “spiraling.”

“I’ll try my best. Maybe I can drink a lot more water or something...that might help?”

“Now you’re thinking, Nichy!” Jamie exclaimed, smiling. He stood up and let me get to my feet as well. I cracked a slight grin, as we walked back out of the locker room. “Come on let’s go see Segs and see about getting you something to help out those hallucinations with.”

“Yes.”

“Seggy will know something, right?”

I followed him back out to the ice. He launched out and I closely followed him. I felt like a dog trailing its owner. We skated over to where Tyler was. He had dressed his wound, but still looked quite furious. As I stood to the side of my captain, behind his shoulder, Tyler glared at me. He folded his arms across his chest.

“Back to have more hallucinations and assault me again?”

“No, Seggy, I talked with him and he is genuinely sorry about what he did.”

“I thought you were Sergei. He had tied you up to a spider web and a spider was eating you!” I looked at the ground ashamed that I was even having any of these horrible reveries in the first place. I saw Tyler’s shadow move and glanced up.

He smiled and stepped forward to hug me. “That’s okay, Val. I forgive you. But next time, maybe use those fists on an opponent, eh?”

“I don’t fight.”

“Of course you don’t, you big Russian baby! It’s so hard to stay mad at you!” He gave me a nudgie. I pulled free from him, laughing. I was the best moment of the day so far. But I figured that my terrors weren’t over.

After all Maria had said that they would come at any given moment and could be extremely graphic. But I didn’t want to worry about it. For the time that I had being normal right now, I was thankful for it. And as it turns out, I didn’t have another episode until during the game. That’s when all hell broke loose.

****

Nathan’s POV

I was led into the locker room and sat in my cubicle. Ryan O’Reilly and Jarome Iginla stood on either side of me. I was still in pretty bad shape from the fight. My nose was bleeding and crisp dry blood caked the sides of my nostrils. There was a sharp stinging that seared through my entire face. My captain walked in the door, still gripping the dagger in his hands. I was so bewildered at what was going on. I opened my mouth ready to protest and say something, but Gabriel cut me off.

“What did you do?” he asked me, holding the weapon up before me. “You said you killed me?”

Okay, so I know you must be thinking “don’t we have a game going on?” Well, we do, but we only had a minute left in the period and my teammates were concerned about me. We had gotten a head start on the others, since Gabriel apparently wanted to chat with me about the episode on the ice. I didn’t blame him. I had put myself in a dangerous and vulnerable position because of this thing that was wrong with me. (And for some strange reason the NHL, Coach Roy and everyone allowed this be okay and happen.)

I couldn’t believe this. He was holding and could SEE the dagger in his hands. But it wasn’t drenched in his blood. I was so perplexed at what was happening and going on. I still had no idea what had gotten into me to be having these “Sidney Crosby Hallucinations of Horror?”

Gabriel passed the dagger to Jarome and reached out grabbing me by the collar of my jersey. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on with you MacKinnon, but you need to pull yourself together! We are playing the Stars tomorrow night!”

“I realize that,” I sighed, playing the cool card like I was rather annoyed that he was being obvious.

“Kinny, you can’t be doing this hallucination shit on the ice!”

“Do you think I really enjoy this? I don’t. I hate it. I’d rather not be terrified of the man I look up to. Did you ever think about how difficult this is for ME, Landy!?” I snapped. I was gripping the edge of where I sat. “I haven’t slept in days, Landy and I can’t. As long as that Penguin patrols my dream waves and controls my every thought, I can’t sleep!” I broke out in tears. “Do you realize how hard it has been for me?”

I buried my head in my hands and cried. I hated what was going on with me. I wanted to know so badly, so that I could get back to myself. I wanted to be Nathan MacKinnon, superstar centre! Not Nathan MacKinnon, the kid who had potential but floundered.

“I-I...I’m sorry, Nathan.”

I shook my head, refusing to uncover my face.

“Landy, we can’t have Nathan just sit out. We are we going to do for the Stars game? We need him to match-up with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn!” Jarome stated, shaking his head.

“I know, I know.” Gabriel Landeskog squatted down in front of me and slowly lowered my hands from my face. My eyes were bright red from all of the tears, but I sniffled and stopped my crying. I stared at him, as he gazed at me with a stern expression. “Would you mind if we stuck you on the wing maybe? We’ll pin you against Valeri Nichushkin. Will that work?”

I had remembered that Valeri Nichushkin was some Russian kid from the KHL, who’d come over and was drafted by Dallas in the same year and draft I was. I didn’t necessarily KNOW him, but I knew OF him. He was a talented winger. I didn’t mind the demotion. “Just for that game?”

“Just for tomorrow's game, yes, and then we will have a nice three day weekend for you to recover and try to get sleep and figure out what’s going on.”

I nodded. That would be fine. I was compliant with that plan.

“Alright, I’ll tell Coach Roy. But he’ll most likely be fine with it, given your play or lack there of lately.” Gabriel helped me back to my feet. “Now let’s get your wounds dressed and then the rest of us three will get back out on the ice. You can sit and watch.”

I nodded again. He was right. I was in no shape to play the rest of the game. Luckily it was pretty much second intermission time and the rest of the team filed in. They shot confused glances our way. Gabriel explained what was going on and filled the coach in, much to his dismay. But I was gotten help and cleaned up.

And I remained in the locker room for the remainder of the game. I knew the fans would be upset, but I couldn’t fuck my team up anymore. And luckily I didn’t have anymore hallucinations for the remainder of the night.

Notes

Yeah!! A spider ate Tyler!!!! Yummy!! :P
Okay, anyway...I am really enjoying this idea and making it, but I do understand that it is really dark and graphic. But I love psychological horror stuff like this. It is really suspenseful and unpredictable. I may have to recreate this piece with original names too...
Man this is gripping. But I really hope that Sergei doesn't get hit by Cooke. :( I also hope that Kinny doesn't get haunted by an evil Sidney Crosby....

Two/three more chapters until I reveal the truth about what is going on! :D

Next up: Stars VS Avalanche and the meeting of Kinny and Nichy!! :)