Level 1 - Leader: Agent 103
Darryl jumped as someone dropped from above, landing right in front of him. Darryl stepped back, fumbling his knife from his sheath as his opponent advanced on him. His fingers curled around the hilt as he brought the knife into an upward slash. The agent sidestepped the blow and brought his bow staff down on Darryl's head. Darryl's ears began ringing. He struck out again with his knife. It barely glanced the agent's stomach.
Darryl watched in horror as the agent wiped away the thin line of blood that welled up with his fingers and used it to paint two thin lines under his eyes. He fixed Darryl with a hypnotizing stare and smiled! Darryl could see madness lurking within the depths of the agent's wide, ice blue eyes. His opponent was insane!
Darryl broke eye contact. He slashed above the agent's knees with desperate and practiced precision. In the proximity it took for the agent to realize what had happened, he had already fallen to the ground. Darryl stepped back. For a guy who just had his quadriceps femoris tendons completely severed, he didn't look too concerned or pained. He just appeared to be a little more than ticked that he couldn't get his legs to move.
Blood was pooling around him, but still he hopelessly tried to get at Darryl. The agent bared his teeth and swung his bow staff at Darryl. Darryl caught it with one hand and yanked it out of the agent's grip. With a choked cry, Darryl brought the staff down hard on the boy's head. It cracked in half just as he stopped moving. Darryl clutched at his stomach and puked.
His heart was now thudding loudly against his ribcage. What was wrong with these people? When you severe a muscle in someone's leg, they should fall to the ground, howling in pain! This agent acted as if it was just a mild inconvenience!
Visibly shaken, he shuffled by the unconscious body. Darryl took about five minutes to inspect the rest of the library. Not another soul was in there. Apparently, 'place full of books' wasn't high on the agents' list of 'places where intruders hide'. He left bloody footprints with each step as he left the silent library.
Blood and battle cries were the first thing he noticed when he left the library. The sticky crimson liquid splatter along the floors and walls told stories past of victories and losses while hoarse battle cries vibrating through the air around him told of battles soon to be fought.
As he stepped into the hallway, another thing he noticed was the distinct lack of moving bodies. He counted three… no, four, unconscious, or at least hopefully unconscious (There was NO WAY he was checking for a pulse.), enemies strewn about, but from the bend of one corner to the fork of the other, no challengers nor allies approach this little forgotten corner of the world.
He decided to cautiously make his way towards the bend. Peering around the corner, he came face to face with another insanely smiling agent, though this time 'he' was she. Drawing back too quickly, he slipped on a puddle of blood. The girl wasted no time pinning him to the ground. With one arm at his throat and the other immobilizing his arms, she started talking to him.
"You know, it's rather common courtesy that when you die," the girl paused to bring a switchblade to his throat, "you… stay… dead!" she whispered poisonously in his ear. Darryl leaned away from her the best he could, considering she was holding him down.
"Nah-ah-ah. " she scolded. She had a worrying spark of excitement in her eyes. She straightened up slightly, opting to trace out a thin line on his throat. Little beads of blood started to appear, only succeeding in making her more excited.
In that moment, Darryl became acutely aware of the blood pumping through his veins. And extremely aware of how just one little cut could forever change his life. He tried not to whimper in fear.
Then his headset took that wonderful moment to come to life. "Darryl, are you okay? You're the only one that hasn't reported in yet." Slenderman's voice crackled over the line. Blood must have soaked into the headset when he fell.
The girl's menacing eyes widened slightly. "You speak, you die." she hissed before she ripped his headset off, nearly taking his ears with it in the process. Darryl barely muffled a squeak of pain. Somehow holding the headset and the switchblade, she juggled both for a moment, and then flung the headset away. It smashed into the wall and fell to the ground in a puddle of blood. Nothing but static came from it now. "Dead guys don't need allies anyways." she said cruelly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Darryl saw yet another agent coming around the corner. The male half-paused when he spotted the girl restraining Daryl, and then let out a low growl. There was a predatory grin on his face as he stalked over to where Darryl lay writhing on the floor.
He squatted down. "Where are all your friends? Oh, that's right, they're DEAD! While all of the other Shadow Wolves members were dying in puddles of their own blood, what were you doing? Hunting down a little low-life retired agent. Heh. No one left to save little Darryl now. Nobody left to miss him."
Darryl felt all his self-worth and will to live quickly slipping down the drain with every word the boy said. "Hold him there for a minute. Agent 967 is going to want to see this." the teen said.
"With pleasure, 710." She adjusted the grip of her knife. He vanished around the corner. Each second claimed an eternity of time as the smirk on her face only grew bigger as she waited for the moment in which she could claim his life.
The person that walked around the bend next , though he was neither Agent 967 nor Agent 710, couldn't have surprised Darryl more. It was Jeff. He had a once-silver-now-red kitchen knife his also-red grip. With one finger to his lips, the words 'grim reaper' had never described anyone more perfectly, but to Darryl, this grim reaper was an angel in disguise. Jeff came up behind the girl, who remained ignorant to the fact that he was not an ally.
"Good, now that you're here, we can kill the-" She broke of with a strangled cry. Jeff had one arm wrapped around her throat. He pulled her off of Darryl and slammed her against the wall. One hand was restricting her airflow, letting her brain get just enough oxygen to keep her conscious. Darryl watched what unfolded with a paralyzed terror greater than what he felt when he battled that first agent.
A drop of defiance was left in the girl's heart. She stupidly tried to kick Jeff. She missed, and Jeff retaliated with a smile. A truly terrifying smile. She shrank back against the wall. Her confidence had abandoned her. Jeff tightened his grip on her throat and made a small cut on her face. She flinched as he wiped it away with a finger. He brought his finger to his mouth and tasted it.
"Hmm. Not bad. AB negative, a truly rare blood type. I can't wait to spill it all." he said maliciously. Jeff hovered the knife over a specific point on her neck. "I could cut right here, severing your left common carotid artery. Blood will shoot about three feet, a rather poor record considering the fact that your heart can shoot blood up to thirty. That would give you about one to three minutes of life, but I think that death's a little too swift." Jeff moved the knife to the edge of her neck.
"Or, perhaps, I could cut right here, ripping your left external jugular veins to ribbons. About six to eight minutes, providing how much you thrash about and use up the oxygen you have left." Jeff looked thoughtful as he placed the knife at the base of her throat, just past the carotid artery.
"But, I think this is the one. A personal favorite, where I start here, and come all the way to here," Jeff skimmed the knife along her throat to the other side. "Not only do I cut your external jugulars, but I throw in an opened trachea for free! You get a two for one death that way! Blood will spurt from your neck, due to that stupid, treacherous heart of your's vainly trying to pump blood to the brain. At the same time it'll fill your lungs. You get to drown in your own blood, and I'll even let you paint a lovely picture on the floor."
"I don't quite remember how long you get to live, but I guess we'll find out, won't we?" The girl was getting dizzy from lack of oxygen. She probably didn't even understand what was going on at this point.
The knife dug deep into her throat as it cut through skin and thin muscles. A horrible gurgling sound followed as her vital life force began to flow freely. It cascaded down her neck in a deadly, crimson waterfall.
Jeff let her collapse on the floor. "Beautiful," he chuckled. He stooped down to Darryl's level and offered him a hand. When Darryl didn't move, Jeff grabbed his hand himself and hauled Darryl to his feet.
"I-I don't understand, I thought everyone hated me. You've wanted to murder me since you met me. W-why did you save me?" Darryl stammered.
"Well, for one thing, I'm supposed to be kicking butt, which I accomplished. Saving you was just the bonus prize." Jeff said smugly. "Two, Slender sent me to save your butt 'cause you weren't answering your headset. Good thing I got here when I did, too; you were almost dog meat. The last thing is the fact that if Lockup found you dead, I'd be dead too, because she would blame me. So really, I was just saving my own hide." Jeff reasoned.
"Now, if you're done questioning, Socrates, we sort of have a job to do." Jeff sarcastically pointed out. "I need to do something else first. You go on ahead, and I'll catch up." Darryl told him.
"No, you probably won't." Jeff predicted, but he walked over to the other end of the hallway. He glanced down both ways before he cupped his hands around his mouth. "COME AND GET ME, UGLY!" he screeched down the right fork. Jeff took off running down the left fork with a gleeful whoop, followed by his signature maniacal laughter and three agents on his tail.
Darryl shook his head amazingly at how recklessness Jeff could be with his own life. He stumbled over to the corner where the headset was. He picked it up gingerly by the only non-bloody spot. It was still playing static, so Darryl pressed the call button on its side hopefully. It didn't do anything but shock him a bit. He brought the blood-soaked mouth piece level to his mouth, but kept it at a distance. "Hello?" he tried. Nothing. He threw the headset down in disgust.
Darryl checked around the hallway again. No smiling faces. Instead, the body of Agent 710 greeted him. Agent 710 was flat on his back, and his face was slick with blood. Looking at his face, Darryl thought he might puke again. There was only one place that the blood was coming from. Agent 710's mouth. Darryl inched forward to get a better look. Agent 710 was missing his tongue. Jeff must have cut it out so he couldn't yell for help. Agent 710 must have choked to death on the blood.
Darryl couldn't help himself. He tried to puke again, but he only dry-heaved. He had already upchucked the contents of his stomach earlier in the library.
Footsteps resounded behind him. "Jeff, I said I'd catch up." Darryl said weakly. The footsteps came closer. A sharp blow to the back of his head made one thing clear to him. This wasn't Jeff!
