Saturday, 29th March, 2104


Thank God Laurie let me and Edd borrow some of her holos while she's out with Emily for groceries. Hopefully she won't ask why though.

Ah, who am I kidding. She will.

Still hoping she won't.

"Oh, there you are Edd."

"Hey Cora… What are you drinking?"

"Drinking?" I glance at my mug off to the right, "Ah, you already know."

He nods and smiles.

"Gotcha. You plan on telling the others soon?"

"When the time's right. Do you wanna move to my room before we start?"

"Nah, the kitchen's fine."

"I don't think you'd enjoy sitting on the floor…"

Edd grins. What is he-Oh.

Oh.

OH!

"You can thank Tord for this coding alongside the cold spike patch," he laughs at my dropped jaw while leaning back into a chair, "He borrowed me to test some stuff on Tuesday and Wednesday. So far I'm the only one to get this fancy upgrade of his, but…"

"Yeah?"

"I still can't physically touch you."

"Oh… Kay. Should we get started?"

He catches a holo I toss to him and opens up an ultra-incognito window of Firefox (once again with kudos to Laurie).

"Let's get to it."


I've written SO MUCH stuff into the journal regarding what we're looking for… And all of it feels so useless.

Edd's currently taking a fifth study nap (I don't blame him) and the Nectar is barely keeping me awake to read all I've written down.

Ping!

Huh, another news update. Maybe that'll give my head a break…

THE DAILY BLARGH, 28TH MARCH, 2104

SIDNEY MCCOY: Smart or Serpent?

Okay, no. I definitely did not need to see Mr McCoy's head photoshopped onto whatever that ghastly snake is. The poor guy, getting all of this. Not to mention the other amalgamations which make up his posse. At least uncle Thor isn't there.

Damn. The black dye from Sidney's hair's almost entirely gone. I'm already missing the 'Bee Elvis' look - it suited him better. Laur and I are gonna need some new in-joke material.

But… Does Sidney deserve the media treatment? Everything I've heard so far about him says no. Em's tentative talks and calls with her parents (whenever she does answer them), Laurie's updates she shares from Legion and even her classmates haven't been giving Sidney a good rep recently…

"Who… Who's that guy you got there on the news?" Edd groans, rubbing his eyes.

"Sidney. Did Laurie or anybody tell you about him?"

He frowns when I show him the article's title and photo.

"Oh yeah," he grunts, "heard of him from everyone else. There's something about that guy."

"Yeaaah, it's not the most flattering media press of him right now."

"I mean, he really reminds me of someone - not in the good way, y'know?

Funny, I think Tom mentioned the same sort of thing a week ago with Laurie. Em even said something was up with him to Matt the week before…

"Who's that guy in the back?"

"Which one?"

"Top left," he hands back the holo, "Out of all of them, I really don't like this one."

Looking at it, the posse member he's talking about is small enough to somewhat hide in the far back left, but obvious enough for me to catch onto. They've been amalgamated with a black snake, but their face is still somewhat in shadow. I can't tell what they look like.

Though, looking at the silhouette of the head alone, it looks strikingly similar to Sidney's. The only difference is Sid has two hair licks in the back, which kind of remind me of horns, whereas the other person doesn't have any.

"I get what you mean, Edd." I shake my head, "Just looking at this guy gives me the shivers. But I think it's his relative he brought in to help him for the Firebird case ages back."

"Some relative," Edd scoffs, "If they're just going to hover over everything Sidney does like some sort of disgusting fish-faced demon spawn."

I don't blame him for saying that.

Taking another sip from my mug, I read over the notes again before flipping to a new page to write.

Nectar-shipping and its associates of Pepper (as in Firebird vs Pepper?), PPSY & Fantasy began sometime in 2030.

PPSY: Defunct since '97. 2097.

Fantasy: Under the radar, still active (?)

Pepper: MIA since late 2103.

2030 was the same year as 'The Disappearances'. Probably a coincidence or related. Probably not.

"Anything, Edd?"

"Nope. Same old. Hey, wait a minute…"

"What is it?"

"Can I take a look at your notebook? I know you wrote a lot in there today, but I'm wondering why it's already half-full."

Oh hell no.

"Erm… It's an old notebook from Laurie's classes last year. She changed a class and ditched it after."

The look on his face isn't buying it.

"What did you write in there?"

"You mean, just now?"

"Yeah."

"It was that Nectar-shipping and its associates of Pepper, PPSY and Fantasy began sometime in 2030."

"Weird…"

"What?"

"I have a really… I don't know, I have a strange hunch about this. You ever heard of a drink called... 'Cola'?"

Cola?

"Co-lah?… No, what about it?"

"I kind of went on a tangent when researching earlier. Cola's my favourite drink, so of course I wanted to know what happened to it. Bloody annoying when I found out it got banned, to put it lightly…"

I find myself jotting it down.

"Well, what does that mean for your hunch?"

He shakes his head.

"I, well… No, it'd be too much of a stretch."

"Come on, try and explain! I'm not gonna laugh at you."

"Look, I don't know if my hunch would make sense, but I can't confirm or deny it unless I'm able to eat and drink physical stuff. Like, the Norweigan bread Laurie can make and the Nectar you have there. But after talking to them, she and Tord reckon that kind of coding is impossible."

"What about asking Legion?"

"No way would they risk telling them about us. Tord told me the best they could do was ask them to hack into whatever servers and databases this signal is coming from. But even that's proving to be a pain for them, we're just so isolated."

"Too dangerous to tell them straight, at least for now." I agree, sighing.

"Yeah. I wish there was a way for me to find out. I still remember what cola tastes like because I've had the stuff in the 'dream' world I told you about on Tuesday. Except, you know. Feels fake and weird. But it's not like Pepsi."

"What's Pepsi?"

"Forget I said that. It's just a disgusting version of Cola."

I lean back in my chair, thinking on my notes so far. Wonder how Laurie and Em will react to these - if they ever read them with a spare chance.

"Cora?"

"Yeah?"

"I just had another thought. I don't think me and the others have been 'dreaming' for a hundred years."

"I'm sure of that too."

"No no, hear me out. I was in my early forties when we first got into it. Actually, I'm sure we all were except for Tom - he must've been thirty-nine or something. God, I was married, Cora! I had kids! We all did!"

Early forties, spouses and children left behind…

"Edd, when were you born?"

"1988. Tord and Matt were '89, Tom was born in 1990."

"So, with this year being 2104… It makes all of you in your hundred-and-teens, approximately."

"...Yeah. God, we're old…"

"Then…" I mumble, "It would mean… This all happened in the early 2030's.

2030's?

2030.

"That's it!"

"What?"

"2030. It makes weird sense. Everything centres around this exact year! The ban on Cola, my job's history, you guys falling into the 'dream' world, and the disappearances!"

I scribble it all down into the journal, grinning proudly at my new notes till I notice Edd's confused face.

"The disappearances?"

Aw, crap.

"Well… It's not an old family tale, but it's got enough years behind it to make it count. I think it kinda links to a lot of stuff here. I think. It was usually told during Halloween or whatever night felt the most spooky to us. Different ways and random horror elements were thrown in for drama, but I know the story's truest version from my older brothers and sister."


"It was the year 2030, kinda late in March, as Ell says. Four lines of my family tree were friends back in the day, and they had a meet-up at the home of my surname namesake's line for an anniversary or something. I'm not sure what the event was really, but neither do my siblings. Anyway.

"So. One of my great-great-granddads had gone to the basement to grab some memorabilia - y'know, to share around with his other friends, the spouses and all the kids.

"But things got peculiar when he didn't return. When the other three great-great-grandfathers went down trying to check up on the first, they didn't come back either. The kids closest to the basement door didn't go in, but they recalled hearing noises of a scuffle - guessing it was a 'just for old times' joke deal, but…

"The only evidence left of the four men from police investigations were the clothes they'd been wearing: laying on the floor of the basement, as if they'd been thrown away carelessly. There was nothing else to say about what happened to my ancestors. No blood, no bodies, not a trace. Everything led to dead ends.

"As the decades passed, those ancestors were declared most certainly dead after being missing for so long. Eventually, everyone abandoned the entire neighbourhood, because there were rumours of the house being haunted. The only evidence the neighbours had were their own devices going glitchy or losing service if they were too close to the 'cursed' house. It wasn't much of an argument in hindsight, not that it stopped the ghost stories based around it, clearly."

"There's even a legend that my ancestors never died at all. Just sealed away, until they'd wake at our family's greatest time of need - direct and extended. Sounds like a King Arthur thing, really.

"Dad even reckons they'll wake up when the eagle's cross shines forth. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds pretty cool. I wish I could get to see it happen. If it ever does."


Edd's listening intently at all I'm talking about, but his slightly deepening frown worries me.

"Is… Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just thinking about what you've said."

"Oh. Do you… Wanna stop for now?"

"Alright. It'd be good for us to have some time out in between now and the next one," he hands back the holos he borrowed and tucks his chair in, "We've certainly had a lot on our minds today."

No kidding.

"You never did tell me what your hunch is."

"Don't worry about it, there'd be more questions to ask than there already is. Maybe it'll sort itself out."

"It'd be too much for the both of us," I nod, "Fair."

"Well, if you need anything kiddo, don't worry if you need to yell. I'm gonna go check in on the others."

Hold on.

"Kiddo?"

"Hey, I'm over a hundred years old. That's a decent excuse, right?"

"I'm closer to twenty than you'd think!"

"Don't get me started on calling you a child."

I sigh and shake my head, chuckling.

"You're one of a kind, Edd. You really are."


Edd's favourite drink, 'cola', was banned in late March 2030.

Nectar-shipping and its sister associates of Pepper (Firebird case Pepper? If so, why were they considered drug-dealers?), PPSY and Fantasy began later that same year.

Edd and co started their 'dreaming VR/RPG' state in the same late March of the same year, all of them nearly or in their early 40's.

Are all of these the missing links to the true story of the Disappearances?

All these four things must be related in some way. I just can't describe how.

I stare at my rewritten notes today, over and over until I skim through them with ease.

My bedside lamp flickers a bit and I take another sip of Nectar from my chilled thermos (Hey, it tastes better when it's kept cold, don't blame me). I know I probably should sleep now, but…

FLASH!

KRACK-KOW!

The rumble of thunder is almost enough to shake the house, and it takes me a few moments to catch my breath and calm down. It's not long till I hear the pitter-patter of rain onto the roof and into the backyard.

Looking from certain angles though the window, I can spot the house next door being zapped with forked lightning, already shocking and wrecking whatever I can see of its decaying husk. The thunder following it, gratefully, is softer and much further away.

I can't help but wonder how my family's holding up.

Tap tap tap.

"Corrie?"

"Come in, Emmy."

The door gently swings open as she and Laurie step through.

"We couldn't sleep, Cor," Laur yawns.

"Storm wake you up?"

"Not really, Corrie. I couldn't sleep at all."

"I wanted to," Laurie rubs her eyes, "but I just can't stop thinking about stuff."

"Me neither," Em rubs her eye with one hand while clutching herself with the other, "Apparently you're not one for sleep yourself now, so… You good to chat?"

"Yeah, I'm down. You okay? What happened to you two?"

"Corrie, while we were out… We bumped into my parents."

Uh oh.

"It was alright until… Oh, goodness…"

"I get it Emmy. It was a lot. Take your time, you don't have to explain everything immediately."

"I can't stop thinking about school either." Laur huffs, "It's getting nuts."

I sit up and stretch a little, closing the journal.

"Well, do you want a distraction right now?"

Nods all around.

"You know what, so do I. How's some Question Roulette sound to you?"


A/N: As promised, the second half of act two starts here and now!

God, it's been a rough time trying to edit and alter chapter 13 during this break. I've... had a lot going on, emotionally. On google docs, the page count went up from the current average of 7-9 pages up to a whopping 16. I've managed to knock it down a bit to 14, but... eh, What are you gonna do. Sometimes I've gotta live with what I got. (Though I still wish I had an editor tbh. If you're keen to help out with that, lmk!)

A few more chapters still need editing, one probably needs a whole rewrite and by the time chapter 13 releases, uni's gonna have started up again. But I'll do what I can. It'll be refreshing to work on chapter 14 after being stuck on 13 for so long. That's when things get GOOD.

Hopefully I'll see you for chapter 13's release!