On Scattered Memories, Puzzles, and Angry Librarians
She awoke, or, at least it felt like it. Last thing she could recall were those weird, horrible things latching onto her, feeling cold, then falling into the abyss... Wait, was she alive? The fall didn't kill her? Or the hypothermia? Well, it was time to open her eyes again.
The room was dark and she could barely see. But her nose worked, and it retched of blood and death. She was sitting, so she tried to move, her hands and legs were restrained and strapped to a chair. Looking at her restrained extremities, she suddenly looked... Slimmer? Smaller?
All of a sudden, a lamp lit up and underneath it, there was a man which stood centimeters in front of her with a switchblade in hand, ready to lunge at her without mercy.
"You shall do as you are told, and be a good girl. Do you understand?" He grasped her neck and began to choke it with a single hand, depriving her of air "DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND?"
He released her neck from his hold, allowing her to breathe once more. A few seconds of hyperventilation later, she spoke, or rather, she screamed. Though with no control over what she said, it was an impulse, or rather, a subconscious order or something of the sort.
"I WANT TO SEE MAMA AND PAPA!"
The man's patience was toppled, he grasped the switchblade on a stabbing manner once again, and aimed for her face.
"WRONG FUCKING ANSWER!"
The switchblade was slammed against her left cheek, the man stabbing it deep enough so it would remain stuck as she moaned in pain.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH"
The pain was unbearable, she could taste the knife and her own blood, and she cut her tongue with the edge of the knife, it was so much for her to handle, and so, she passed out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH"
Kofuku shot up with a scream and alarmedly looked around. Apparently she wasn't in the road anymore, rather she was... It appeared to be some sort of restaurant, one of those 1950s styled diners. She looked around and spotted in the restaurant's bar the backpack she had picked up from the filling station, and the flashlight from the shipwreck. She also noticed that, apart from having laid down for a nap on a table, strangely, there was electricity on the diner, given the lights were on and the jukebox was playing a probable 1950s hit. It sounded like Elvis Presley, but not quite. Something was off about the voice... Oh great, another mental tangent.
I don't know if it's just me, or do I have the attention span of a child...? Wait, I was a child in that dream, wasn't I? Was that a repressed memory? Or a hallucination...? Wait, I got stabbed in the cheek on that dream-I need a mirror!
As soon as she processed that thought, Kofuku ran to the ladies' room and rushed to a faucet. Splattered her face with as much hot water as she could. As she did, she noticed how unbelievable amounts of make up were being diluted from her face and running down the drain, so she looked up, the mirror was misty, so she wiped the mist out with her hand, revealing her face... Her scarred and rather pale face.
All of her features remained the same, even without the make up, to the eyes of many, she could be regarded as 'Pretty', but there was one thing the makeup successfully concealed, and that was a rather large stab mark on her left cheek, the thing had scarred a long time ago and looked ancient. It looked like one of those childhood injuries that eventually heal up but leave a mark, but this scar was different, not because of the scar itself, but because she suddenly remembered where it had come from. Was she kidnapped once? As a child? Did she put much of a fight? Why was she remembering all of this? What triggered the nightmare? Questions over questions piled up on her head. But then, the biggest question materialized on her brain.
How come I aren't dead? How did I end up in this diner? Didn't I fall down a hole? Didn't those creatures kill me? For crying out loud, what is even going on with me? Nothing makes sense. She thought to herself, but then, a probable answer popped up The town! Colline Silenziose! It must have something to do with all of this! I just need proof, or evidence, or however you say it. But for that...
She looked at the bathroom door in hesitation before voicing her thoughts out loud.
"I'll need to explore the town... I'm no detective, but I'll need answers one way or another"
Kofuku then dried her face off, removing any remnants of makeup from her face with a paper towel, which she was thankful that weren't in short supply in this diner. She realized something small as she made her way out of the bathroom.
You know? For a small, abandoned town? This place still has a few amenities. Toilet paper is still a thing around here!
When she got out of the bathroom, she walked to the diner's bar and picked up her stuff, but not before making a quick check of what she had in stock.
Flashlight? Check. Checkbook holder? Check. Six bottles of herbal infusions? Check... Weird, there's only five bottles of energy drinks... Wait, I drunk one of these when those things were chasing after me... This means the chase actually happened! Those things do exist! Oh goodness... If I want to explore this town, I really need to find flares, lots of them.
Upon realization, she sought to get out of the diner, only to find out the main entrances and exits were locked, and the windows were covered by metal shutters, Kofuku ran to the back entrance, and it was locked as well. In conclusion: this place hadn't been abandoned in a hurry like the filling station on the entrance road.
I'm trapped! What can I do...?! It's an optimistic outlook, but someone may have left a spare key for the backdoor around here? Get on searching then, Kofuku!
She then began to flip the diner upside own in the search for a key. Counter after counter, drawer after drawer. She went through every nook and cranny for her utmost disappointment. Spare, hidden keys were nowhere to be seen. Just as she was about to slump against the bar in defeat, she saw her last glint of hope: The Manager's Office. How come she missed the door marked "Gerente" near the restrooms was beyond her. For her, it was as if it had materialized out of nowhere.
She turned the knob and entered the office. Just like the rest of the diner (Before Kofuku's interference and search, of course), the place was relatively clean. Surprising for a ghost town. In the far end of the office, there was a desk with a computer, a landline phone, and an answering machine. The rest of the furniture was as expected for a managerial office of a restaurant. Filing cabinets here and there, old adverts for the diner hanging on the walls. She noticed that the answering machine had a glowing red LED light on, meaning that the thing was powered on and had a new message. She approached the Manager's desk, the answering machine, pressed the play button, and listened closely out of curiosity.
"Ehhh, allo? Paula? Amministratora? Quest' è Vincenzo! You know, the janitor! Look uhhh... After the 'incidente' last week regarding one of the cuochi leaving you locked inside il ristorante, I decided to make a copy of the backdoor key...! Before you say it, lo so, lo so, I should have asked for permission, but I couldn't stand hearing you scream for aiuta quel dia. Either way, I've placed the key inside the register and changed the unlock code. Nobody pays with cash nowadays so nobody will be the wiser. il nuovo codice è your birthday. Buona giornata, Paula!"
This is oddly convenient, but I won't question it. Now, to find Paula's birthday!
With that thought, Kofuku started going over every filing cabinet in the office. Most were locked, except for two. One of them contained printed spreadsheets regarding the business' accountability, and the other was full to the brim of employee records, and when she meant full, she meant records going as far as 1983, and to make matters worse, there were multiple Paulas, 15 Paulas to be precise, all which got to managerial positions, and that worked simultaneously at one point. This was going to be a loooong... Uhhh, whatever the time is.
She headed to the register, several folders under her arms, sat on the barstool in front of it, and booted up the register computer. There was first a password prompt, which she passed by entering a pin that was written on a tape stuck to the monitor, then, when she tried to open the register box proper, there came the PIN prompt. She clicked on 'Hint' as to know which hints the Janitor placed, all she got was the following:
Suggerimento: Compleanno della Amministratora (DD/MM)
Alright, so she had just to take a day and a month. That made things easier. Before starting her password brute-forcing attempt, she shuffled all of the folders in a random order, and then began to enter the birthdays, one-by-one.
Paula Cuggiola... 27-02.
Wrong PIN.
Paula Morale... 03-04.
Wrong PIN.
Paula Farizzo... 31-11.
PIN errato. Numero di tentativi superato. Per favore aspetta cinque minuti.
Please wait five minutes? This is just wonderful.
Some time later...
Probably a few hours had passed, given that every three failed attempts, the computer would add five minutes to the cooldown timer, and she was nearly done with all the birthdays. Just one birthday more and she could be on her merry way...
PIN errato. Numero di tentativi superato. Per favore aspetta due ore.
... WELP!
"NONE OF THESE BIRTHDAYS ARE?! GIVE A GAL A BREAK!" She said as she threw a bag of potato chips at the computer in frustration, and went over the folders one more time
If it's not any of these, then who the hell is it? She thought to herself as she kept shuffling the folders and opening them one-by-one, spilling the contents into the floor. She shuffled every paper, every post-it note in her search for answers, completely frustrated Where the hell is it?! Which is the right PIN?!
After emptying one specific folder, her eyes widened both in surprise and fear. She was at a loss for words but she still tried to say something anyway.
"You have to be joking"
Upon flipping and emptying a folder, it revealed a hidden text within it... Written in blood. Copious amounts of blood, it even looked fresh.
RESTART 0104
Even with all the fear clouding her judgement, she rebooted the computer. And instead of logging in with the password written on the tape, she entered the PIN on the bloody folder...
The register shut down immediately upon hitting the ENTER key.
... What now? She thought, glancing back at the bloody folder I did what you wanted!
CLICK! She heard from the register box, meaning it was now unlocked
She then pulled the register drawer, and there it was, the key to her freedom. She grabbed it with heavy hesitation, after all, she did get this key by entering some accursed code from a bloodstained folder. But the more she questioned it, the longer she was going to take to get out from that damn diner. Kofuku then, with the backdoor key in hand, picked her stuff up. She grabbed her backpack once again, filled it up again with the refreshments that she had taken from the convenience store (which she temporarily placed on the fridges of the diner), a couple things more like a few bags of potato chips and chocolate chip cookies (She didn't know why, but she couldn't get enough of those), and finally, a hotdog which she had prepared, a soda, and a map of the town which was laying inside the manager's office.
She entered the key in the backdoor's key hole, spun it, and the lock gave in.
I used the diner backdoor key... Well, no crap, genius!
She opened the door, and stepped outside back into that foggy town. Surprisingly, it was still daytime... Apparently. Kofuku stood outside the back entrance, unsure of what to do or where to go.
The map Kofuku. The map you just got. She thought to herself, and she complied with the idea, taking out the map out of her backpack to analyze it. The town is divided in three districts. Vecchio Silenzio, Silenzio Commerciale, and Nidi Silenziosi. Vecchio Silenzio is the first district one would stumble upon when coming into town normally through the road. It's a historic district full of museums and the oldest buildings in town, including... The Church of Saint Lima... Hey, it's also marked on this map as: 'Go Here'! It means something is in the church! Alright, that's your destination now, Kofuku...! Where are you now, though?
She then went out to the street, where she sought to locate herself. The place she just emerged from was an 'Empire Diner' ubiquitously located in an intersection, nice reference point.
Empire Diner on an intersection... She thought as she went over the map, eventually locating three such coincidences, but there could only be one she was in. She got closer to the intersection, and looked for a sign indicating the streets intersecting. Eventually, she spotted what she needed.
Via Celo
Strada del Silenzio
Empire Diner in the intersection between Celo and Silenzio... Ah-a! I'm on the Vecchio Silenzio district, which means... The Church of Saint Lima is only a few blocks away! What a relief!
She began walking in the direction of the church, turning right in the intersection. She was eating her hotdog as she walked, obviously starving. As she walked and ate, she noticed Colline Silenziose was definitely a ghost town. Cars and bicycles scattered and abandoned all over the streets, open doors to businesses alongside broken windows, and several roadwork signages thrown around as well. Added to the thick fog, things looked very off in this town.
However, following down the 'Via Celo' after a second intersection would reveal that the road had a giant crater tearing it apart and working as a deterrent, as if an earthquake had caused it. This prompted Kofuku to look for another route.
Okay, another massive hole. She took out the map from the backpack once again, and started to define her next course of action Alright, the church is one block away but the road cuts off here... Maybe if I backtrack...? Alright. If the road doesn't cut off on Santa Strada, I turn right, then right again in Strada di San Lima
And so, Kofuku did what she thought of doing. And everything seemed to nice and dandy... Until she got to 'Strada di San Lima', where the road once again cut off in the middle of her trek. She was so close of getting to the church, however, the gap wasn't as big as the previous ones. Still, she couldn't jump it by any means since it was probably a 20 meter gap.
Fuuu...! Alright, calm down, what now?
She analyzed what she could of the eerie, foggy, deserted street. Maybe she could try to inch through the edges...? Nah, too risky. Those sidewalk remnants look like they could give out any second now. Trying to jump? Gawd, Kofuku, you just said you couldn't do it! Think, think, think...!
It was at this point that she thought seriously about the apartment building she was standing in front of. And that she noticed that had two entrances on the same street, one on each side of the gap.
Maybe... Maybe this building is the key! Enter here, exit there, never leave the street! That's it!
And so, Kofuku rushed to the entrance of the building in question. Upon entering, she noticed the lights were out, so she took out that flashlight of hers from her backpack, and she noticed that this was not an apartment building, matter of fact, judging by the amount of bookshelves, it looked like a library.
That explains the two entrances on the same street. She thought
She started making her way to the other entrance, only to find herself face-to-face with a wall. However, this wall looked... Off.
This wall is kind of strange, it is here but... I get the feeling it shouldn't be here in the first place. She mentally said to herself as she looked at her surroundings, taking note of what seemed to be a desk with two legs on one side, with the opposite side being bolted into the wall
She approached the desk, it had a few books strewn on top of it, mainly Shakespearean and Stanierian history books. One of which was a book labeled 'The Truth About Colline Silenziose'. She picked it up, but as soon as she did...
PLOCK! The leg-less side of the desk made a one-way trip to the floor, meaning one thing...
This wall came out of nowhere! And sliced everything in half! Holy cow!
Kofuku took several careful steps back from the wall before turning around. She then absent-mindedly took around with her flashlight, eventually spotting a sign which read:
Scale - Piani Uno a Tre (il quarto piano è il tetto)
(Ricorda: Tetto è solo per il personale autorizzato)
Maybe up in the rooftop there is a fire escape down to the other side of the gap, or I could jump the gap between buildings... I never find out unless I get there!
After processing that thought, she ran over to the staircase and began going up. Second floor? Got up there just fine, third floor...? Ummm, it's going to be a bit of a problem.
The stairs heading to the third floor of the library had crumbled down quite some time ago, judging from the fact that the stairwell was blocked by scaffolding and construction materials.
Alright, stairwell is blocked off. What next?
And as if on cue to aid her confusion, she eventually spotted a sign indicating that there was another stairwell on the opposite side of the library. That meant making her way through the floor. She lit up the floor from the staircase, and alas! No weird walls in sight. She could make her way there! And so, she got moving to the other side of the library to find the stairs.
A few seconds into the journey, she noticed that this library was... Unusually long. It shouldn't take more than thirty seconds to reach the other side, right...?
She kept on walking, flashlight in hand, lighting up everything in sight. Eventually, she reached a door marked 'Scale'. She turned the knob, walked in, closed the door behind her...
And she was right where she began.
"Okay, what the HELL?" She said out loud, confused and frustrated at the same time
SHHHH!
What? This place was abandoned when she entered, so how come someone was telling her to keep quiet?
"I-uh... Kon'nichiwa? Somebody in there?" She said even louder as she took some careful steps forward
SHHHHHH!
Holy cow, that one sounded even closer.
"Look! I'm not here to cause any trouble! I just want to know the way out to the rooftop!"
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
She turned around right in that instant, because that really sounded like someone was behind her. But to Kofuku's relief, there wasn't a soul following her steps. She took a sigh of relief.
"Phew...! I must be hearing things. This town has been getting in my head lately"
She then turned around to keep on in her merry way, but as soon as she did...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
What she saw, when she pointed her flashlight forwards, she couldn't describe it with any other words except 'unsettling', 'intimidating', and ultimately 'discordant'. The figure was female, wearing what seemed to be a black blazer/pantsuit combo with with a white dress shirt underneath the blazer jacket, her hair was black and seemed to be fashioned in a short bob of sorts, and she had a warm, toothy smile on her face...
But here is the discordant and intimidating part of the deal, she was a little over two meters tall, she was all bloody, with blood on the white dress shirt as well as running down her mouth and nose, her skin was rotting, white, and pale, like a cadaver; and her eyes were missing, the sockets were empty! A total void of darkness!
Upon seeing that sight, Kofuku stumbled back and fell down on her rear in fear, never dropping her flashlight, but then, that... That woman grabbed her by the neck, and began to lift her. Kofuku's survival instincts kicked in, and she dropped her flashlight to put both of her hands on the woman's hands and try to break free from her grasp, to no avail, as she kept lifting her. It didn't matter how much she clawed at her hands, she wouldn't drop her.
When Kofuku's eyes were at the level of her eye sockets, the woman only did one thing.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
After doing that, and Kofuku having to smell her death breath. She kept her up in the air by the neck, seeing as the woman wouldn't drop her, she started looking around desperately for a way out. She eventually spotted a nametag on her blazer, glowing in the darkness of the abandoned library. It read 'Jolyn'.
"J-J-Jolyn..."
The woman tilted her head as soon as Kofuku managed to utter those words, and loosened up a bit the pressure in her neck, allowing her to get some air and regain some strength. Then, Kofuku managed to swing and compress her legs a little...
PAK!
To give her a kick in the face! The kick stunned the woman for a second, making her drop Kofuku, who then fell on her back, and on top of her flashlight and backpack. Needless to say, that hurt.
"ARGH!" Groaned Kofuku
"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Commanded the woman, Jolyn, or whatever her name was
Trying to ignore the seething pain on her back, Kofuku picked both herself and her flashlight up, jumped over a table that was to her right, and began to run like hell from 'Jolyn', who began to follow her.
Kofuku ran, ran, and ran. She was on the run once again, first from those weird, rotten and disfigured things, and now from a zombie librarian. The seething pain from the fall not making her any favors. Kofuku was limpìng around, and she had to create some distance between her and the hellish librarian. She saw a rather small bookshelf and toppled it over when she ran past it, creating an obstacle between her and 'Jolyn'. Kofuku looked back a second after, only to see 'Jolyn' running around it.
She can't jump, great.
Kofuku kept running, eventually running into a wall, so she turned left. She had to lead to the staircase on the opposite side of the building, but she had to detour to avoid the librarian, that was the why of the wall. Damn, she barely remembered that.
Toppling down more bookshelves, bookstacks, tables, and basically anything she could find as she ran to where she wanted to go, Kofuku eventually saw another door marked 'Scale'. She charged at it with her shoulder, breaking the lock and forcing it open. Lighting up with her flashlight forward, she was finally on a staircase, and she ran up the stairs despite the seething pain in her shoulders and back, going past the third floor, and eventually reaching a door marked...
Tetto
Solamente personale autorizzato
She reached for the doorknob, and... The lock was broken, the door wouldn't budge. And a few floors down, she could hear the sounds of a door being smashed open. Kofuku kept fumbling with the door lock to see if it would open...
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
"BY THE GRACE OF SAINT LIMA! OPEN DAMN IT!"
Kofuku then backed up a little and rammed at the door with her shoulder, and this time it did open. She found herself in the rooftop, finally...
Now, what the hell should I do?! I can't stand here like a sitting duck!
She then started to survey the rooftop. The only fire escape ended up in the middle of the gap in the street, so she could scratch that out of the equation. The gap between buildings...? About 5 meters between them, and the other building is not as tall as the library, so it appears jumpable. With those conclusions, Kofuku backed up from the ledge to get some speed going, and then began running towards it once again with the intention to jump. Midway to the ledge, the rooftop door slammed open, revealing 'Jolyn'. This prompted Kofuku to pick up her pace, and eventually make the jump.
"DAH!" She said as she landed in the adjacent building with a roll to try and slow herself down. Eventually, she came to a stop
Panting heavily and hyperventilating, Kofuku looked back at the library's rooftop, and there was 'Jolyn', who exchanged glances with her before retreating back inside that accursed library. Kofuku sighed in relief upon seeing that woman retreat.
"If I'm frightened of libraries and librarians after this? This place will be at fault" She said out loud, as to ease the tension in the foggy and cold air
After taking and drinking an energy drink and a herbal infusion from her backpack, she proceeded to get down from the building she was now in via a fire escape. After being inside that library? No siree, no more abandoned interiors for Kofuku Kasei for the rest of the day.
Once she got back down at street level, she took out her map and located herself. It was time to make the final stretch, over to The Church of Saint Lima. She picked herself up and began to walk through the fog, eventually finding herself at the steps of a rocky, hilly dirt trail. She made her way up it, and the further she went, she could faintly start hearing the sounds of a power generator.
Eventually, as the sounds of the generator became stronger, a shape popped in from the fog. She got closer, and when she was close enough, she stopped right before the entrance to read the sign on top of it.
il Vero Tempio di San Lima - Santo Patrono di Stanier
This is the place... It's the moment of truth.
She made her way to the entrance, and pushed through the closed doors, which opened for her. It was your standard Christian church. Several rows of wooden benches, the windows had religious images making the shapes, up in front there was some sort of stage, and finally, a sculpture of a crucified Jesus looked over everything. This was without a doubt the place. But what was waiting for her there?
She sat on one of the benches of the church to take a little rest, being tired of everything that happened up until now. She really needed that.
CLICK! That was the sound of the hammer of a double barreled shotgun being cocked backwards
"Manos arriba mardita. You've got ten seconds to speak like a proper human being o voy a estar limpiando tus sesos del piso en un momentico"
... You had to be kidding her.