Hi and welcome to this pretty short chapter, which is a prologue-prologue of sorts. We'll say it's multipurposed as it gives a look into how I write, we get a short very small look at the protag and a peek into whatever this is honestly and it also allows the story to be bumped back at the top of the feed for visibility and some more submissions. Talking about those, thank you for everybody who submitted! It's very appreciated.

But yeah, looking forward to some more submissions, they're still closing on December 12th at 11h59 EST. Be sure to read and follow the rules and whatnots.

Enjoy!

A camera whirred as it focused on a light blue-haired girl carefully poking her head out of a room, looking around, before fully exiting into the blindly white hallway. She seemed slightly confused, but too tired to care as she threaded down the corridor, rubbing her light purple eyes as she yawned, a red jacket hanging around her elbows. The camera could picked up the sound of the black chunky high heel of her ankle-high glitter red boots repeatedly hitting the floor as she advanced. The camera followed her until she was out of view, another one picking up her movement instead, changing the feed of the screen that a person was boredly watching.

They themselves yawned before taking a walkie-talkie and pressing the button, talking into the device.

"Test Subject 13's out and about."

"What about the roomate? Test Subject 12 wasn't it?" crackled the walkie-talkie.

"Nah, dunno where the fuck that one is." responded the person, leaning their cheek against their hand. "I have fallen asleep earlier though, so maybe it got out then. Not my job to look over that one, anyway."

"Sleeping on the job, huh, Carpenter? Can't blame you. Hopefully, now that they're awake, things will finally get interesting."

"It better be, with all we've prepared, and everything we've done to get here." sighed the person as their eyes continued to follow the girl as the feed changed from camera to camera, following her movements. "Seems like she missed the auditorium memo…."

Sighing, the person took tablet, which also displayed the same feed as the screen, throwing their empty cup of coffee in the trash as they headed for the door, yawning.

"Who's in charge of test subject 12 again? Wan?"

"Ain't it Craven?"

"Dunno, will have to check. I'm going to get a new cup of coffee and some snacks."

"You mean you're going to try and to chat up Raimi again. More obvious than that and you'd die!" The walkie-talkie crackled as the person laughed heartily.

"What about you test subject, Hooper? They woke up yet?" responded Carpenter, as they walked toward the cafeteria, barely paying attention as they sporadically looked at their tablet.

"Trying to change the subject aren't you? He's where he's supposed to be, the auditorium, waiting like an angel. Unlike you, who is not where you're supposed to be since you're trying to go and seduce a coworker by… I don't know, staring at them? Not the best tactic bud."

"Shut up, I don't just stare at Raimi, I talk to them too." smiled Carpenter as they operated the coffee machine.

"Well-"

"Every employees shall report to the main control room. The Melancholia Experiment is about to officially begin. I repeat - "

Carpenter's smile widened as he heard the announcement, grabbing their new cup of coffee before heading toward the mentioned room, Hooper's voice crackling from the walkie-talkie.

"Guess you'll see her soon anyway."

"What's important is that this is finally gonna fucking started. Long time coming."

replied the monitor, sneaking a look at his tablet to see that the girl had finally entered the auditorium. They chuckled as they pushed the doors to the main control room, hearing their colleague laugh through the static.

"Long time coming indeed. Time to make them suffer."