AN: Hey, it's me. So, my summer break has officially begun and it seems that I have a pattern going on where whenever I do get the chance to write, I don't, then I complain about how I didn't when I don't have the time anymore. I'm trying to break that streak by writing a new story – this one, incidentally (ha ha).
I do have a prologue for another story up on this account – a Maximum Ride OC one – and I'll get back to that at some point, but right now I've really been getting back into JP's characters. This one is short, just over 850 words, but hey, it's only a prologue. The chapters will be longer.
Without further ado, I present to you: TO TASTE THE LIGHT~
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~ NULLA ~ limbo ~
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p-r-o-l-o-g-u-e
n u l l a :
l i m b o
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chapter song:
bring me the horizon – can you feel my heart
can you hear the silence?
can you see the dark?
can you fix the broken?
can you feel... can you feel my heart?
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can you help the hopeless?
well, i'm begging on my knees,
can you save my bastard soul?
will you wait for me?
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~ NULLA ~ limbo ~
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It was cold. Oh, so cold.
"Ah, Doctor Martinez? Yes – my name is Doctor Gunther-Hagen; I work for Mister Pruitt,"
Gunther-Hagen's voice was remarkably steady – and you wouldn't even have to be au fait with his current situation to know why his calm tone was impressive, all you'd have to do was look at his face. His forehead was lined with tension and stress, his mouth taut with unspoken fear, his irises clouding and shaking and repeatedly slipping out of focus.
And his skin was cold. Oh, so cold.
The phone hushed and Gunther-Hagen started talking almost the very moment Martinez was finished.
"I've called as a result of a recent staffing shortage on a… new project at the NYCI facility and, upon inspection of your recent progress, as well records of your past work; my superiors have decided to offer you a promotion. If you should accept, they will be expecting your presence on-site beginning on the twenty-first of August,"
There was a brief silence followed by a muffled reply from the other end of the line, to which he began nodding slowly and thoughtfully.
"Yes, I understand completely," he murmured, pausing his nodding for a split second before establishing a firmer, more enthusiastic nod. "Well, full details would be emailed to you and further discussions would be held upon your arrival – should you undertake the promotion, of course,"
Another burst of faint speaking was spat from the phone – a wall telephone, not a cell, but even so, it was probably one of the most contemporary, sophisticated wall phones to exist. Gunther-Hagen coughed softly, seemingly a fair fraction less taxed and anxious than he had been mere minutes ago, though the boxy, glaringly white room with its clinical content and stifling disinfectant stench was just as aggressively algid as it had always been.
"Well that's grea–" Gunther-Hagen halted abruptly mid-sentence, giving himself a mental slap. How could his polished professional façade have slipped so easily? Any and every word he spoke during this call could be held against him. He thrust the phone away from his mouth as he gave a small cough, reigning in his emotions in exchange for his default cool tone and stony expression. He returned the apparatus to its perch on his cheek. "That is decidedly agreeable, thank you, Doctor. I will be informing the Board and Council of our mutual affirmation immediately, to allow them time to introduce your name into the deliberation over the composition of the aforementioned project's specialised unit,"
God, that was a lot of long words. Gunther-Hagen wondered often what the point of all this jarring professionalism and overly ceremonial etiquette really was, or if there was even a purpose at all other than to make him sound sickeningly erudite. He almost rolled his eyes, but he was still half-listening to Dr Martinez and was much too immersed in the robotic autopilot mode he always used while working to produce anything more than a twitch in his left eye.
(And it was still too Goddamn cold.)
"Well, this information will of course be attached to all communicative documents of which you will be a recipient," he continued reassuringly, "and you will certainly be thoroughly debriefed, along with the entirety of your new colleague unit, upon arrival,"
After what, in reality, was roughly five more minutes, though it felt like a lifetime, Gunther-Hagen replaced the phone to its nest on the wall. He held in a sigh. That particular call was over and done with, but his work was most definitely not.
He only just managed to swallow the sigh again as it clawed back up his throat at the thought. Seven down, seven to go.
Dr Hans pressed his fingertips to the cover of the phonebook lying on the thin, wheeled metal table resting below the wall phone and slid it off the surface, catching it swiftly with his other hand. Carefully opening it, he flicked nimbly through the pages until he found the 'D' section. This was all for show, of course. He had memorised all fourteen numbers long ago. He had been using this excuse since he made the first call anyway, taking the opportunity to quell his nerves while still looking as if he were being productive.
He found the end of the 'D's pretty quickly. As his eyes flitted between numbers on the page and the numbers on the manual display, he felt himself shiver involuntarily. His eyes hovered a little too long over the book before slowly sliding sideways to find the small black device in the corner, fixed to the ceiling.
Its flashing red dot blinked at him intently, the darkened lens below trained on his every move.
In that moment, he remembered. He remembered why his voice had been so 'remarkably steady'. He remembered the point of all that 'jarring professionalism and overly ceremonial etiquette'. He remembered why his heart was frozen – not solid, but trapped, encased in ice for ever.
And he knew that it wasn't the broken thermostat's fault he had goose bumps.
"Ah, Doctor Dwyer? Yes – my name is Doctor Gunther-Hagen; I work for Mister Pruitt,"
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~ NULLA ~ limbo ~
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AN: So there you have it. Thanks a bunch for just reading this; it really means a lot to me that someone would even find my stuff readable. This is going to be a full story and I honestly have no clue how many chapters there'll be. We'll see, anyway. It isn't prewritten, so I don't know how long it'll be between chapters either, but as I said earlier, I'm on break, so hopefully I'll have a lot of time to write. It would make me indescribably happy if you could drop a review and any critique you could give could make the story immeasurably better, but thank you so much regardless.
Catch ya later :)
- Leo