Day Before: The Beginning of the End
Chapter 3
Initializing Analysis
Subject: Lauren W.
Age: 16
Handle: lo-rain
General Overlook: A free spirited young lady who has a passion for fashion. While seemingly oblivious to everything around her, she, in actuality, studies her surroundings in great detail and is able to notice even the smallest incongruities.
Too much has happened to us…I honestly wouldn't have been alive if it weren't for these people supporting and helping me. I would've run away if I were on my own, implying that I would've lived that long anyway. I know it sounds really corny but…guys, please don't ever leave me.
Lauren's POV
The sky-ride (that's what I'm calling it hush) is absolutely amazing at night. That's probably why we had to wait in line for so long. But we finally managed to get on and also managed to convince the man running the ride to let all four of us on one seat (it's only supposed to be a maximum of three but with Anthony's stick thinness and my small size, both of us combined basically adds to one person). So we were going up, me sitting on Phillip's lap, who was on the far right, Sarah on the far left, and Anthony in the middle.
Anthony stretched out his limbs and rested his head on the safety bar in front of his. He let out a dreamy sigh, "Man, this has got to be the best birthday ever."
"You mean the best birthday so far." I pointed out. He let out another sigh that didn't sound as happy.
"Woman, just let me enjoy the mood, yeah?" I giggled a bit and we all stared at the amusement park in comfortable silence. The lights glowed so nicely in our desert home as we inched pasted some of the rides we rode earlier. About a kilometer away, we could see (and hear) the casino that was across from this place, with spotlights dancing on its walls. Phil rested his head on my shoulder and I patted his soft hair.
"Hey, Ant, are you cool to hang out tomorrow?" he asked.
Anthony scoffed, "Dude are you kidding? And let me set up all those electronics by myself? Hell yeah I'm hanging out with you guys tomorrow, you ain't got a choice!"
Sarah groaned at that, "Aw, I need to see your ugly face again? On my free time too?" She looked away as Anthony shot daggers at her. You couldn't see her expression, but it was pretty obvious she was laughing.
"Cool it, freak, of course I'll go. Where exactly?"
Anthony thought about it for a bit. "I was thinking the park but…" He took a worried glance at Phillip, "I'd be wasting so much of your gas man, I'm so sorry."
Phil reached over to him and flicked Anthony between the eyes, which produced a loud curse. "For the 30th time already, quit worrying about the money!"
A famous song quickly came into my head when he said that and before I realized it, I burst into song.
"It's not about the money, money, money…" I began. Anthony smiled and sang with me. Then Phil joined (after sighing about how a-dork-able I was) and soon, we all started singing very loudly (Sarah will never admit it, but she has a very nice singing voice). It was cliché and, in all honesty, pretty lame, but still it was very fun! When we finished, we all laughed. Apparently time went by pretty quickly because at the end of the song, the ride was coming to an end.
Anthony was hanging over the edge and looking down at the people below us when he gasped. "Oh my god, Lauren!"
"What is it?"
"Remember that guy I told you about! I think that's him down there." He unnecessarily whispered. I followed his finger until I saw a figure sitting Indian-style near the railing of the entrance of this ride. You could tell the person was on their laptop because their face was awash with light. Still, up here I couldn't make out many details except for the fact that it was a guy and his hair was pretty much the way Anthony described it.
"I can't see anything, he's too far! But I do see a guy…" I confirmed.
When we got off of the ride, Anthony immediately ran up to the mentioned person and we followed. The guy looked like everyone else in this city; nothing really special in all honesty (Anthony was right, not my type). The guy was wearing a drab, gray V-neck shirt, some jeans and dark shoes that blended in with the black concrete. There was also something around his neck that I couldn't make out since it was dark. The guy is so absorbed in his computer; he doesn't bother to look up at all, not even when Anthony very obviously bends over him. Something about him seemed off however, though I couldn't tell what exactly it was.
"Hey there, we meet again! This is the second time we see each other, so…" Anthony begins to speak more when he realizes that it's useless; the guy hasn't regarded his presence even once and still taps away on the keyboard. Anthony leans in even more, attempting to peek at the screen. It's at that point that the man inches his head up. His bored eyes widen and he abruptly shuts his laptop. He gets up quickly, carefully placing his laptop in a backpack nearby him and eyes Anthony warily.
"You…you're the guy who almost grabbed my laptop earlier." The man says. He notices the rest of us staring and regards us with just as much hostility as he did with Anthony. He tries to cover one of his eyes with his hair but it wasn't long enough so it just sprung back up above his eyebrows. I stared harder at that eye, but he quickly turns his head so that I could only see one side of his face. Something bugged me about him but this guy was clearly not going to give me the chance to figure out what exactly it was.
"Oh hey, you do have a voice!" commented Phillip. I begin to chuckle but stop when he gives us a threatening glare. He does not seem friendly at all.
"You know, you could of at least said a simple 'thanks' when I helped you earlier." Anthony chides. The boy glances at him and then looks down in the direction of the building, like it was much more interesting than all of us.
"…Sure, thanks I guess." He pauses for a bit and looks down, as if in thought. He then looks at Anthony, more serious than before (if that were even possible). "Hey…this may seem like a strange question but…you didn't happen to obtain a package containing some kind of electronic thing with internet capabilities, did you?"
Anthony gets taken aback, "That's…" He looks at us for help but we all just shrug, "Surprisingly accurate, wow um…yeah I did, how did you…?" Suddenly, with surprising speed, the boy grabs Anthony by the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer to himself. His eyes were filled with such intensity, it looked as if he could've burned holes on the railing if he tried. "Where is it!?"
"Whoa, whoa, dude, back up!" cried Sarah, now in a sort of defense mode.
"Hey, it's O.K, She-rah, no need to get worked up, I'm fine." He assures her, using the middle school nickname she hated. He winks at me and mouths 'Watch this'. He gently takes a hold of the other guy's hands, whose deathly serious expression becomes mixed with confusion, and shoots him a devilish grin.
"You know, if you felt that way about me, you could've just said something." Anthony purrs in the most seductive voice he could muster (which wasn't much). Phil stifles a laugh and quickly turns the other way as to not be seen.
"I—what!?" The guy was clearly flustered and not used to people doing this. The rest of us were now laughing and giggling. Anthony strikes again.
"There's no need to be violent," Anthony continued, "I felt the spark at that moment when our hands touched. I don't even care if your eye is weird, I…" He was about to say more, but the moment he said the part about the eye, the other guy flinched and shoved Anthony so hard, he ended falling back, landing flat on his bottom. He hit his head on the opposite railing and drops an F-bomb. His eye?
The strange guy looks at us with a horrified face and stared long enough for us to see what Anthony was talking about. It was hard to tell at first, since it was nighttime, but when I examined him enough I could see what he meant. His eye color was dark, so I still couldn't tell exactly what color it was, but the peculiar thing about his eyes were the fact that his left was just a blank, white space. I ended up gasping when I saw it, which was a bad idea since he turned his entire body the opposite direction while whispering a quiet curse.
"If this were just another random summoning in the middle of nowhere, I would've just let you be another crime scene." He muttered. The guy sighs and pulls Anthony up by his collar, who was still furiously rubbing the back of his head.
"Listen to me." He snarled, "Go grab the package and meet me…" He looks around and stared at the center of the park, the part where there was nothing but a large, dry patch of land. He nods his head in that direction. "Meet me over there; it's kind of hidden from the general public so it won't hopefully get too much attention. And it'd be best if you came…" He glanced at us and gave us a look that suggested we were the equivalent of rats who managed to get into the house, "…alone, understood?"
"Wait, hold on, you can't seriously expect me to go with you after you attacked me, I don't even know your name!" Anthony protested. His expression hardened as he pushed aside the guy's hand on his collar. "And wherever I go, they go." He responded firmly, straightening out his shirt.
The guy glared at him and held it for several beats. For a moment, I really thought something was going to happen, but he just sighed in annoyance. "Whatever… you can call me Kisuke; just do as I ask, O.K?" Did I just hear some pleading in his voice? With that, he turns, grabs his bag and makes his way to the center of the park, gripping it more protectively and with more intensity than before.
We all looked at each other in uncertainty. I asked the question that was most likely on everyone's mind, "Should we actually do as he says?"
"Obviously not!" Sarah shouts, "Didn't you see what just happened? If we weren't here, and if we hadn't been with this many people around, he probably would've killed us! Well, at least try to."
"Kisuke?" Anthony says absent-mindedly, "Isn't that name, like, Japanese or something?" Sarah smacks him on the back of his head.
"That's not important at all!" she yells, "Freak, don't tell me you're actually going to do what he says."
He looks down in thought and there's a moment of silence. He pulls out his phone from his jean pocket and examines it. "Hey, what time does this place close?" Sarah lets out a small scream of frustration and covers her face with both hands while turning in the other direction.
"10:30 P.M." Phil answers.
"Sweet." Anthony puts the phone back and looks at Sarah with a bit of concern. He walks up to her, putting his elbow on her shoulder and leaning on her. "O.K, yeah, admittedly this is probably a bad idea, but I mean c'mon! The guy knew about the package and was saying some pretty weird stuff." Sarah lowers her hands and sighs.
"Yeah…something about a murder scene?" She admits unhappily, shrugging him off. Anthony grins and beckons us to follow as he makes his way to the entrance to retrieve the items of importance.
Phillip was the one carrying the box since Anthony already had enough trouble with his bag (weakling). We circled the route of the amusement park to wait out the crowd, as it would look suspicious if a group of four teenagers walked into somewhere they shouldn't be. Anthony was leading, gazing at random things and most likely daydreaming, with Sarah walking slightly behind him, her arms crossed. It was pretty awkward since Sarah was still a little angered for being dragged into…whatever this was, so for the most part, the only ones talking were me and Phil, who were taking up the rear, practically shoulder to shoulder.
"So Ant said something about knowing this guy before?" He inquires.
"Oh, well not personally or anything. He just bumped into him on his way to Sarah's car." I explained.
"Right…So then how do you think he knew about this thing?" He shakes the box a little.
"Honestly, I have no clue, unless Anthony mentioned it to him, but I kind of doubt it. I'm actually up for the whole 'meet the creep' idea since I also want to know what else that guy was talking about. A crime scene? Have you heard anything about random crime scenes?" He rubs his chin with his free hand and looks at the floor in thought.
"Well…" Phil began, "Around the Internet I have seen some stuff about weird deaths lately. The only reason they're called weird is mainly due to the fact that the victim's bodies aren't found at all. Heck, the only reason these are even considered deaths is because the people have gone missing for so long, and those are only the ones who get called in to the police. The consistent thing about these disappearances is the fact that it only happens to be in rural or deserted areas, so who knows; there might be a lot more people missing, we just haven't noticed. Although, I kind of doubt this would be the same thing, since, again, it usually happens in rural areas. If it were to happen here, there would be a whole lot of publicity."
I shiver a bit as my brain comes up with crazy ways in which the state of the bodies would be found. I quickly shake my head of the thoughts and we continue in just as awkward a silence as Anthony and Sarah.
After a while, we duck under a large billboard from the Children's Area side of the park and make our way to the center of the ring. Since there was next to no lights strong enough to shine upon this area, it was kind of hard to see much, but there was really no point as there was nothing to look at in first place. The place was rather big but not so much so; probably about half the size of a football stadium. While at the middle of the park, it was pretty well hidden at night time with no light, making it hard for even the sky-riders to be able to see anything. The fact that various billboards twice the height of Anthony and concession buildings formed a sort of circular fort helped to make it so people couldn't see in here. The whole place was flat, desolate, and covered in dirt, with very few patches of grass and weeds spurting through here and there. In the center of it all was Kisuke sitting Indian-style on top of his bag, his laptop screen on his lap and illuminating his face.
"Oh my god, is he actually smiling?" I whisper to Phil.
"So he does have emotions other than anger," He chuckles. As we got closer, I noticed he had headphones plugged into the computer and was talking to someone in a joyful manner. From this distance I could only hear bits and pieces of whatever conversation he was having.
"Yeah I'm sure….well, its fits…I doubt I'll need your guys'…"
"Hey there, Kisuke!" Anthony shouted. He looks up from his screen and sighs as takes off his headphones.
"I got to go, they're here." He tells his laptop, and clicks something on the mouse-pad.
"Oh, do you have a Skype? Want my username? I'm usually on there when I'm not busy with something." Anthony asked.
"I wasn't on Skype," Kisuke says, rolling his eyes, "And if I was, I wouldn't add you, that's for sure." Sarah's frown wavers a bit before she goes back to 'I'm-mad-at-you' mode. He gets up, carefully placing his laptop on his bag, and looks at us with a frown.
"Oh…I see you actually went through with bringing them all here." His tone when he said that was pretty the same as him saying, 'I see you brought useless insects with you'. I must've looked angry because Phil gripped my hand and gave a reassuring squeeze. Well, if I was going to kill the guy, at least I wouldn't be alone!
"Oh, trust me," Anthony continued, being oblivious as always, "It took a bit of…persuading. More like bribery." You could hear a faint growl coming from Sarah.
"Like what?"
"Well…" Anthony put both his hand behind his head and faced the direction opposite of Sarah. "Some pizza, at a later date." Sarah eyebrow raised a bit, "Maybe bring some videogames, and give away some cash…" He continued speaking of material wealth until Sarah couldn't resist anymore.
"Heck yeah! Alright, pirate, let's do…whatever we're going to do." She said in a happy tone. He shot her a look that clearly conveyed his emotions about that nickname but ended up ignoring it and stared at the box.
"I'm assuming that's the package?" He asked, pointing at the cardboard in Phillip's arm. He handed it over and when he held it, he gave a slightly confused yelp at the weight. He swears as he places the box in front of the laptop light.
"Don't tell me…!" When he opened the flaps and looked inside, he let out a long groan.
"Damn it! I'm responsible for all four of you now?" He shouted at no one in particular.
"Well, there was a reason I brought these guys." Anthony pointed out. Kisuke groaned again and passed out the electronics: Phillip got the smart-watch, Sarah the tablet, me the laptop, and Anthony the 3DS.
"I hope the idiot put some videogames in there; what would be the point of this thing if I didn't have any to play in it? Hey, check the box, is there anything left?" Anthony called out.
Kisuke looks back in the box, shakes it a little, and pulls out a piece of paper. He crouches in front of his laptop to see better and scanned the paper. When he got to the end of it, his eyes widened and he held a triumphant grin.
"Yes! B.G.! Finally some damn progress!" He exclaims, waving the paper around.
The rest of us give each other quizzical looks and I decide to shoot the million dollar question: "What's going on?"
He looks at us like we just caught him singing and coughs uncomfortably. "Uh, nothing…I guess you don't know who B.G. is um…here just read this." He shoves the paper in Sarah's hand and, brushing a hand through his hair, goes to his laptop and types at the speed of light again. Sarah straightens the paper and squints.
"Hey, can I get a light over here?" She yells to Kisuke. However, he pays no attention so I just pull out a phone from Phillip's back-pocket and shine it upon the paper. We all huddle behind Sarah and silently read it to ourselves.
Dear Anthony,
I hope you read this letter before you decide to turn on the gifts I got you, as it might help clear up some likely misunderstandings. Although, I believe it best that you should learn to help yourself, I will give you this very important warning: do not ever break or lose these valuable pieces of equipment. It will very well be the one thing that will keep you alive in the events to come. I originally planned to send you only one computer, but I did not know which you would feel most comfortable with so I sent multiple. Give it to those who you wish to survive alongside you or hold them all for yourself for back-up; it's entirely up to you. Since it is your birthday, it is all free-of-charge, but of course, life does not work that, especially the life you are soon to live in. Do not run away and please, do try to live until I can speak with you personally. Hope you enjoy your birthday, it may be the last joy you'll have for a while.
Sincerely, your cousin, more commonly referred as B.G.
We all stared in stunned silence. Anthony's mouth was agape, Phil looking in disbelief and Sarah having a look that was mixture of anger and confusion. I was just shaken and confused.
I was about to say something but I was cut off by a very excited Phil. "Your cousin is B.G.? As in the B.G.?"
"What's a B.G.? Why are we talking about backgrounds? I don't know if my cousin is a background. How would that even work? Guys, I'm confused and that message was not normal, guys." Anthony sped talked all of that; something he does whenever he's nervous. After taking a few seconds to calm him down, Phil began explaining.
"O.K, so basically, B.G. is the handle, username in normal terms, of practically the smartest man alive. He's a pretty well-renowned programmer and computer technician who lives in Japan, which would explain the Japanese text on the box if he really is your cousin. Anyways, he's made several hundred computer games that are always a hit and, through some leaked information that has been proven correct, worked on huge games like Skyrim and refused credit for it. Which is weird, but when you have lots of other things going for you, and considering his kind of aloof personality, it kind of makes sense. He hasn't been posting anything on his blog for a while though…"
Sarah laughs at that. "He has a blog? What, does he make depressive posts and takes pictures of Starbucks or something?"
"Don't apply your common knowledge to people far more advanced than you." Kisuke cuts in, walking with his laptop and a couple of wires in his arms. Sarah shot him a look, but he calmly ignored her and asked us all to turn on our devices.
"Oh, are you also one of his followers? What's your handle?" Asked Phillip. We all decided to sit down, since standing up for several minutes started getting tiring. I rested my head on Phil's shoulder, with Anthony lying down in full length next to me and Sarah sitting cross-legged across from me, forming a sort of circle.
Kisuke hesitated before answering, like that was supposed to be private information. "…it's spelled X-H-A-K-R, all capital letters. And of course I'm one of his followers; it's the only reason I actually came here in..." He abruptly stopped talking, like he was making a mistake and grabbed Anthony 3DS which was by his shoes. By the steady movement of his stomach, I could tell he was taking this opportunity to nap. Kisuke looked through the screen a bit and nodded.
"Hey, uh…what's that guy's name?" He said, pointing at Anthony.
"Ant." Sarah and Phillip said in unison. I decided against correcting then; maybe now the nickname will stick. He must have heard the name, because Anthony ended up snorting in a kind of gross way, which made Sarah retch and Phil and I laugh, and erected himself up with his elbow.
"What's going on?" He yawned, "You guys talking smack?" Kisuke practically shoved the gaming system in his face.
"Here, stupid, it seems you already have the program installed. Can the rest of you check your computers to see if you also have it? The file name or app should be named 'DSP'."
Since I was computer-stupid, Phillip looked through my files for me after confirming that he himself had the thing in his smart-watch (I can't get over how adorably small it was).
"What does 'DSP' stand for?" asked Anthony, pressing on the bottom screen with the stylus.
"That's not important, focus on what's going on in your screen." He answered. Ant huffed at that response.
I looked at the laptop and double-clicked the black square icon that had the name underneath it. After a few seconds of staring at a generic background, the whole screen became black with a hint of dark red. For a while, nothing happened, and I was about to speak up when a blinking white underscore appeared in the upper-center part of the screen. It quickly types out 'Identify Thyself' in white 8-bit letters and moved underneath these words to type out 'First Name and Last Initial'. There was a moments silence as the underscore blinked in a still position.
"Uh…Do we…type something?" I asked Kisuke. He looked at me, smirked, and pointed at my laptop. I gave him a confused look and stared at the screen again. I noticed that on the screen, adjacent to the words, were the letters 'Uh D.' and below that was the question, 'Is this correct?' I frowned and said 'No' out loud. Both the question and the random assortment of letters were instantly erased and again appeared the blinking underscore. I looked at the others, who were all looking at me, and we came to a mutual understanding. We did as was asked and after confirming the option, the underscore moved itself to the lower-center part of the screen. The words 'Handle:' were written and next to it was, "Please type out to complete the process." Phillip gave a small yelp of surprise and I turned my head to see that a green, holographic projection of a keyboard was displayed in front of him.
"Dude, this is so cool," was the only thing he could say. His fingers blazed over the electronic keys, typing something I'm assuming, and was about to press enter when Sarah shouted not to.
She looked at Kisuke with distrusting eyes. "What's going to happen, huh? You've been smiling this whole damn time and what, you just expect us to listen to everything you say?" I looked up and noticed he had been smiling, although it was more of a wicked grin if anything.
"Oh?" He responded with fake sweetness, "You've been doing everything up until now, why the hesitation?" There was moment's silence, with tension rising, until Anthony came in.
"Wait, we can put anything on our Handle? Like dic-" I quickly covered his mouth. Kisuke stared at him with a horrified expression.
"Yes but…what is wrong with you?" Kisuke said whilst covering his face. Anthony smiled and tapped on his screen several times. I looked to make sure he wasn't putting anything stupid.
"G-Angelo…?" I blankly stared at the words, trying to figure out its meaning. It dawns on me after a few seconds and I pull an annoyed face to Ant's stupid grin.
"You freaking nerd!" I shout as I smack him on his leg, in which he just laughs. I huff and return to my own screen, thinking up a Handle that fits. After a couple of minutes of drawing up blanks, I shrug to myself and just put down 'lo-rain'. As I hit enter, the rest of the white text disappears and is replaced with words, in a kind of light gray, reading: "Waiting for 2 users".
"Hold on…is this…connected to your guy's things?" I ask. They all give me confused looks except for Anthony, who nods. "Yeah, it's saying its waiting for 2 others now." Kisuke gets a troubled expression and asks to see his 3DS. He studies the screen in deep thought and points at Sarah without looking up.
"Type out your Handle."
"What? I don't want to." Sarah says.
"Do it!" He commands. After a bit of grumbling, she taps on her tablet with her fingers. I look again at my laptop and notice that the number changed from 2 to 1. Kisuke is clearly confused and begins rapidly talking to himself in a very low tone, practically a chant. After a disturbing while, he sighs in resignation and hands over the 3DS. "I'll figure out why it's doing that later. It didn't happen to me when I when finished applying the information. If my guess is anywhere near correct, this might mean you're all stuck together."
"You say that like it's a bad thing." I quipped, and gave a warm smile to the others, who returned it. Kisuke pretends to puke and goes back to his own laptop.
"Phillip, I believe your name is, you're the last one. Hurry and come up with a Handle I.D!" He barked.
Phil rubbed his chin and looked at me. "Any suggestions?"
"Philly Cheese Steak!" I exclaim. I sighs and shakes his head.
"P.H.D it is." I pout in annoyance. He chuckles and messes up my hair (which angers me) and hits the enter thing on the hologram. Anthony snaps his fingers and remarks on how clever that actually is. "Better than 'Phlipster'!" He yells. I focus on my screen as stuff begins to happen.
'Now Loading…' slowly blinks on the center of my screen. After a few uncomfortably silent minutes, the letters fall to the bottom while flashing a bunch of numbers and letters (codes I guess). The reddish-tinge on the screen gets dimmer until it is fully black, and for a while nothing happen. I'm about to bang on the computer, thinking it broke or something, when green text pops up on the screen so suddenly, I sort of gasped in fright. The green stuff was scrolling up the screen too fast, so I couldn't read any of it, but it would soon be apparent that I wouldn't need to, since just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Nothing happens. I hear some creepy snickering from Kisuke, which doesn't help the mood.
"Why are you being a creep?" asks Sarah.
"Oh, no reason. Just that things are finally going to start getting interesting." He cynically answers.
On the screen appears the white, blinking underscore again, and slowly types out several phrases that disappear after they're shown.
"Mundane days are over."
"The clock of destiny is now ticking."
"Can you survive?"
A brilliant flash of blinding light is emanated from my screen (and after sitting in the darkness for so long; just becomes that much worse) and for a while I see nothing. After my eyes adjust enough for me to see some things, I look around to see if everyone else is alright. Wait…something's not right. I blink several times and furiously scratch at my eyes, but the figures are still there. The others seem to have noticed to, because they quickly jump up from their spots as one of the unknown things produce a low, threatening growl.
I hear Kisuke's voice, which sounds to be filled with glee. "I hope you can kill them before they kill you!"
This ended up becoming a lot longer than I intended it to be. With school back in full force updates are going to be slower (which is bad considering I just started…or restarted). Thank you for all those who submitted OCs! I now have all the major characters needed. You can still send some OCs, but keep in mind that they'll only appear as minor characters instead.
C6H12O6: I am very happy to hear that! Would you please explain what exactly it is that still needs work, so that I may fix it up early? An example would be very helpful!
Hades Revolution: Thank you very much! I was actually in need of another female OC so thanks. Welcome to FF, be careful of the smut around here, and if you're looking for it on purpose, well hope you find a well-written one. (Jefuh-fuh…Duckham…? Nope, never heard of him).
Reviews are appreciated!
