Hello, everybody. This is going to be the last chapter of this story for 2020. I'll be back in 2021 with new chapters. Speaking of next year, I have a poll up on my profile right now. I want to hear from you what you would like to see next. I have a few options up that you can choose from and that'll give me an idea of what to work on next.
Sebastian put his gun away and held his hand out to me. "Thank god you're alive. How did you manage to escape that monster?"
I took his hand and let him pull me up. "I got really lucky," I answered.
We were in a hallway, but it wasn't in Mobius. This place had decaying wood panel walls with chair rail molding, a cabinet full of jars, debris on the floor, no planters with plants, and no bright lights. It didn't feel like this was Beacon. Maybe another hospital?
I could hear "Clair de Lune" playing nearby. A glance to the side showed a door with the Beacon logo painted on it.
"Élan, this is my partner, Joseph Oda. Joseph, this is Élan Wembly."
"Hey," I said.
"Wish we we're meeting under better circumstances," said bespectacled detective. He was dressed similarly to Sebastian, but was better kempt than his partner: his black hair was neatly swept back and he was clean shaven.
"Don't worry about it," I told him.
"Where have you been?" asked Sebastian.
"A little here, a little there. I found Kidman."
"You found her?" Sebastian asked.
"Is she okay?" asked Joseph quickly.
"Fine when I last saw her," I told them. "We've been chased around by some spotlight headed monster and an animatronic lion. We got separated a few minutes ago, or I think it was a few minutes ago. I don't know how long I was laying there."
"Not long," said Joseph. "You fell from the ceiling."
"Did I?" I looked up at the ceiling, but I didn't see a hole.
"More like you fell out of thin air," said Sebastian.
"Probably the least strange thing that's happened in here," I said absently.
Sebastian gave me a weird look. "In here?"
"In this hell," I said, covering my slip. I didn't think they realized we were inside STEM at this point. I was probably missing a ton of collectables.
"Come on," said Sebastian. "Let's check the area."
"Yeah," I agreed quietly.
I looked around, checking the floor for anything that could be laying around that we could use. On the floor was a map fragment. I reached down and picked it up.
"What do you have there?" asked Joseph.
This got Sebastian's attention.
"Piece of a map," I answered.
"Strange to have that just lying around," said Joseph.
"We've found stranger," said Sebastian. "I found more when we were separated."
My eyes widened. "You kept looking?"
"Figured it could be useful," said Sebastian. He turned to Joseph. "She's been really good at finding clues as to what the hell's been going on."
"Anything that could help us?" asked Joseph.
"Right this second? Not really." I turned to Sebastian. "But Jimenez knows a hell of a lot more than he's been letting on."
Sebastian gave a nod. He went over to the door with the Beacon logo. I followed him. Sebastian opened it up and the two of us went inside while Joseph stayed back. Sebastian walked forward and glass shattered. A bright light came from a broken mirror and we were pulled in.
The light faded and we were in the cellblock.
"I knew it," Sebastian muttered bitterly.
We went out to the reception area.
"Whatever is the matter?" the nurse greeted.
I didn't say anything, but grabbed the newspaper off the stand.
Sebastian went behind the desk and through the door to the back. I did the same, not feeling like using the other door by the upgrade chair.
"You may want to clean up your work area," the nurse said as I went by. "It's becoming a sty."
I paused briefly and kept going.
The table in the archive room was a mess. There were documents spread all over, none of which I collected. The map was also more complete compared to the last time I was here. Sebastian must have found more collectables. I began sorting through them. I started with a page from Sebastian's journal first.
MARCH 2005
THE BAD NEWS IS THAT I'VE BEEN RE-ASSIGNED TO A NEW PARTNER. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT MYRA SAID YES!
BUT EVEN THE BAD NEWS ISN'T SO BAD – JOSEPH IS A GREAT DETECTIVE AND WE'RE A GOOD TEAM. KRIMSON CITY NEEDS MORE MEN LIKE HIM ON THE FORCE AND IT'S AN HONOR TO BE WORKING WITH HIM.
BUT SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE BAILING OUT A BOAT WITH A GIANT HOLE AT THE BOTTOM. FOR EVERY CRIME WE SOLVE, IT SEEMS TEN OTHER ARE COMMITTED. THE KCPD IS A THIN BLUE LINE PROTECTING THE POPULACE FROM THE CRIMINALS. BUT SOMETIMES IT SEEMS LIKE THERE'S MORE OF THE LATTER THAN THE FORMER . . .
I put it down and moved on to the newspaper on the table. This one didn't have a lot of blood on it, just a small splatter on the headline.
INVESTIGATION STALLS IN SERIAL KILLER CASE.
COMMUNITY CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC.
CITING LACK OF NEW LEADS, POLICE SUSPECT SERIAL KILLER MAY HAVE GONE INTO HIDING OR MOVED ON.
There was another note, but it wasn't Sebastian's handwriting.
HE LIES! AND TO HIS OWN SON, HIS OWN FLESH AND BLOOD. IT'S OUTRAGEOUS! GONE TO A BETTER PLACE? THAT HYPOCRITE. THAT SANCTIMONIOUS FOOL! I KNOW THE TRUTH. I KNOW HIM BETTER THAN HE KNOWS HIMSELF. HE'S TRYING TO PUNISH ME AGAIN. HE ALWAYS RESENTED OUR CLOSENESS. THINKS HE CAN USE IT AGAINST ME. DOES HE TAKE ME FOR A FOOL? LAURA IS NOT DEAD!
My phone vibrated. I took it out of my pocket and saw the camera app was open. There were some recent pictures.
The first was a detailed drawing on a wall. It was the anatomy of a man with the arms out, one hand holding a brain up at its stem and the other hand holding a heart. The head was missing and was replaced by large eye floating above the neck. There was a centaur drawn at the bottom of one corner and in the other corner was another anatomical drawing, this one a man's torso and skull, the empty eye socket looking at a sunflower. There were various notes and smaller drawings that I couldn't make out. Off to the sides on the floor were a couple of birdcages. Also on the floor was a white mist gathered in one place. It looked like someone small was hunched over and writing on the wall at the bottom.
The second picture looked like it was taken in some sort of cell. The wall had a large drawing of a brain, but the stem looked unraveled and there were other tendrils coming out from the underside. Drawings of gears surrounded it. There was a bed shoved in one corner and a table sat under the only light. A wheelchair was pushed into the table. A ghostly form sat in the wheelchair and was hunched over working on something.
The final picture was of a laboratory. There was a body on the specimen table. On the back wall was a large diagram of a brain pinned in some sort of container and the brainstem was inserted into a machine. There was more mist, this time hunched over at the head of the body on the table.
Ruvik through the years, I realized. Boy, teenager, and adult, always working on his research. I had a feeling the note about Laura happened not long after the fire.
Before I put my phone away, I saw I had two sound recordings. I clicked on the first.
"Experiment number four, subject numbers four through thirteen."
That was the first audio tape from the village. Good to know I could listen to them at any time. I turned it off and went to the second clip.
"Assimilation of subject's consciousness," said the deep voice from before. "Initial symptoms: sharp pain in the brainstem centered on insertion point, followed by gradual onset of hemorrhaging as capillaries dilate. Over time, degradation of the ego generates strong suicidal tendencies. They lose who they are and become clay, completely reshape-able in my image."
I let out a shiver. "Ever thought of ASMR?"
I put the phone away, trying to compose myself, and turned to the newspaper I picked up from the rack. This one had a large blood splatter in the lower right corner.
MENTAL PATIENTS CLAIM ABUSE.
"ABUSE ONLY TIP OF THE ICEBERG."
PATIENTS AT BEACON MENTAL HOSPITAL CLAIM THEY ARE BEING USED IN BEHAVIORAL ENGINEERING EXPERIMENTS BY UNKNOWN AGENCY.
Mobius. And Jimenez and Ruvik.
I turned around to the map. I had a fragment to place. I took it out of my bag and held it up. The fragment shot out of my hand and went into place second to last on the top row. The map glowed and I was back in front of the mirror with Sebastian.
"You two okay in there?" Joseph called.
We walked of the room.
"We're fine," I said.
"You sure?" asked Joseph. He looked at me and then at Sebastian.
"What?" I asked.
Joseph turned back to me. "Your face is all red."
Sebastian looked at me.
I guess I didn't compose myself as well as I thought.
"Sebastian," drawled Joseph accusingly.
Sebastian snapped around to Joseph. "We weren't doing that!"
"Oh, Joseph, if you were feeling neglected, you should just told me. I'd give you a kiss," I played off.
Joseph flinched. "H-hey!"
I smirked.
"All right," said Sebastian, putting a stop to my antics. "Let's keep going. Maybe Kidman will fall out of thin air, too."
There was a set of double doors. Sebastian walked up to them and pushed them open. It opened up into a large room. Where we were was a balcony going around the entire perimeter of the room, or it almost did. Parts of it had collapsed creating a path down to the floor below. We could hear rushing water. We looked down to the floor below and saw Kidman in a glass box wrapped in barbed wire that was filling with water from a pipe above her.
Sebastian ran to the railing. "Kidman!"
She looked up at us. "Get me out of this thing!"
Sebastian started to run around to find a way down, but Joseph stopped him.
"Wait a minute; it's another trap. Look . . ."
Sebastian looked over the railing again.
Several Haunted came out of the shadows carrying weapons.
"It's much more elaborately -." Joseph was hit in the back by a Haunted and they both went over the railing. They crashed to the ground, breaking a table that was randomly there. The table probably saved Joseph from a broken neck. He slowly got to his feet.
"Joseph!" Sebastian yelled. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Joseph called back up. "I think you better get down here."
Sebastian ran around to the collapsed walkway. "Hold on, I'm coming!"
I looked around to see what I could do. I realized what this place was now. It was a cellblock and common area, hence the random tables and chairs.
Sebastian and Joseph started firing their guns at the Haunted. More and more kept crawling out of the shadows.
"Shit! Let's hurry it up!" Sebastian yelled.
"Here they come!" Joseph took aim at a group that came out of a cell.
"Come on!" Kidman cried. The water in the box was continuing to rise.
I didn't know what to do. I didn't have a weapon to help in this fight.
"These things won't stay down!" Joseph called out.
"Try burning them!" Sebastian shouted back.
Burning!
I started checking my bag for matches. I only had a few. I leaned over the railing. "Sebastian! Matches!"
"Do you have any?" he called back.
"A few," I replied.
"Watch out! They've got dynamite!" Joseph yelled.
Below, I could see the sparkling fuse as a Haunted ran with at them with a stick of dynamite. Sebastian shot it in the leg and it fell to the ground. The dynamite exploded, blowing the Haunted to pieces.
The door I was next to was broken down and several Haunted ran out.
"Sebastian!" I screamed.
"Élan! Get out of there!" Sebastian shot a couple bullets at the Haunted.
I ran back around to get away from them. There was nowhere safe for me. I looked at the pipe pumping water into Kidman's box. The Haunted wouldn't be able to get me there. I jumped on top of the balcony railing and judged the distance. I leaped down and tried to land on the pipe with both feet. One foot ended up going to one side and I landed hard on my center. I held onto the pipe.
I heard another explosion as another Haunted blew itself up. I started to scoot out to the box. There was barbed wire across the top. Even if the water got high enough and Kidman could tread long enough to reach the top, she wouldn't be able to climb out. I carefully tugged at the wire and tried to move it to make a bigger opening. The barbs pricked at my palms and fingers through my gloves.
"Watch out!" Joseph shouted.
Kidman looked through the glass and screamed.
An explosion knocked me off the pipe. I landed on my side.
"You okay?" Joseph called.
I got up and shook myself. "Yeah!" If I couldn't get Kidman out, I would make myself useful somewhere else. "Knock them down and don't shoot me!"
"What?"
"Just do it!"
I ran up to a Haunted Joseph just dropped and struck a match. I dropped it and heard the Haunted scream as it burned. I was already running for the next one. There was an axe on the floor. I picked it up and swung it into the head of the Haunted in front of me. I looked around for more, but it seemed like there were none.
Sebastian came back down from the upper level. "Is . . . is that . . . is that it?" he panted.
"I think there is still something nearby," said Joseph.
A door in an alcove opened and several Haunted came running out.
"More of them on the move!" Joseph cried, aiming his pistol at them.
"Sebastian, shotgun!" I yelled, going for my matches.
Sebastian fired off his shotgun and the Haunted all fell back in a pile. I ran up and lit the match and threw it on them. The single match engulfed them all in flames.
Two more Haunted came from elsewhere with dynamite.
"Drop them!" I ordered.
Joseph shot the other two. They fell to the ground. We ran back out of the way of the blasts.
"Dammit, that was close," Sebastian said.
Joseph went over to the box Kidman was in. "You better come take a look at this," he called to Sebastian.
Sebastian jogged over.
Joseph was inspecting the large combination lock on one side of the box. Kidman was now treading water as the box continued to fill.
"I can't get the thing open," said Joseph. "There must be another control panel. We're running out of time."
Sebastian took a look at the box. "Where do those cables go?"
There were a couple of cables attached to the lock that went up the side to the water pipe and followed it.
"I'll go," Sebastian said. "Tell me what to do." He ran back to one of the cell areas and disappeared.
My watch vibrated. I looked down to see the compass needle pointing after Sebastian. There was a collectable nearby.
"I'm going with him," I told Joseph.
"Hey, wait!"
I was already following after Sebastian. I walked by another axe and picked it up. I entered the narrow corridor when there was an explosion.
"Sebastian!"
I ran to catch up to him, axe ready to swing. What I found was the remains of a Haunted that had just blown itself up. Another explosion echoed in the corridor. I kept going and my watch vibrated it again. I looked down and saw it pointing to the cell I was standing next to. There was a statue sitting on the bedframe. I used the axe to break the rusted lock. I kicked the door in and then broke the statue. I put the key in my pocket and ran to catch up with Sebastian.
I had to crawl through a hole in one cell to get by the locked cellblock door. I then ran up the stairs. Sebastian was standing in front of a control panel.
"Look at the control panel!" Joseph shouted from below. The double doors were open to the collapsed balcony. "It's the same type of dials, right?"
"Yeah, a top and a bottom one," Sebastian called back.
"Set the upper dial to . . . 22 and the lower dial to five."
Sebastian turned the dials.
The control panel beeped.
I looked down and saw the box open and Kidman fell out.
Joseph ran over to her. "Are you all right?"
The floor around the box collapsed and Joseph and Kidman disappeared into the hole.
"Joseph? Kidman?" Sebastian shouted.
There was no response.
Sebastian jumped down onto the collapsed balcony and ran down to the newly made hole.
I let out a sigh. "We don't get a break, do we?" I jumped down and followed him.
"Hang on, I'm coming!" Sebastian jumped over the side.
I sat down on the edge and put my legs over the side. I looked down to try to see where I would land. It was completely black. I sighed and started sliding my way over the edge.
I sensed more than I heard someone behind me. I threw myself over the side. As I did, the air at the back of my neck move like someone had tried to grab me. I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of white.
Ruvik!
I gasped as I fell. There was a jerking sensation as if I was being pulled back upwards.
"No!"
A shockwave erupted from my body and I was falling once again.
I crumpled in a heap on a concrete floor. I was quick to get up and looked around. There was no one around in the dilapidated lab area I ended up in.
The red door was kicked open and Kidman walked in, holding an axe.
"You again?" Kidman asked.
I shrugged. "Yeah."
"How did you get here?" Kidman asked, coming over to me. "I thought you were back there with Sebastian."
"I was, but when I jumped down to follow you guys, I landed here." I got up.
Kidman looked at one of the desks. "Do you still have that cassette player?"
"Yeah, why?"
Kidman didn't say anything, but walked over to the desk and picked up a cassette tape.
ENTRY #239.
I took out the cassette player and we listened to the tape. It was Jimenez's voice on the tape again.
"Something else is even more harrowing . . . our subjects are . . . dying. They come out from STEM abruptly passing with looks of horror in their eyes. The ones that do survive are catatonic; babbling incoherent messes that we can't properly interview.
"We've done nothing to the process to cause this change. It must be the ever-growing collective consciousness of the STEM system. These patients seem unable to take the strain of the exposure. We need more 'sane' subjects, perhaps to cleanse the system. At its current state, the system is unsustainable, something Mobius will not approve of. This time, only I am to blame for this.
"Our new prototype in Beacon is almost ready. When it is, I will start its conversion to the wireless system. Even if the original STEM experiments go awry, I will show my worth to Mobius with its next generation."
I took the earbud away from Kidman. "Guess that explains how we got here – wireless system."
"Come on. We have a job to do." Kidman turned back the way she came in.
"Hey!" I called after her.
I followed after her, the earbud still in my ear. I switched the player setting from tape to radio and pulled in a channel.
"His name was Ruben Victoriano," the Administrator said, "but now he exists as Ruvik inside the encephalon of STEM. Ruben was brilliant, designing the entirety of the system himself, but we conflicted over our intentions."
"And what happened to him?" Kidman's voice asked.
"Ruben has been dealt with," the Administrator said crisply. "The consequence of trusting the wrong people."
Kidman went over to a metal gate and turned the crank to raise it.
This place was a mix of a sewer system, a hospital, a laboratory, and judging by the gate she was raising, a pinch of medieval architecture sprinkled in. I had to wonder whose memories created what. Obviously the Mobius stuff came from Kidman's head, at least some of it. The rest was probably from Jimenez and Ruvik; same with the hospital. And then there was the memories of the patients who had been stuck in here.
We climbed down a ladder and into ankle high water. It soaked through my shoes and into my socks. There was a pipe on the other side of the pit we climbed into. Kidman climbed inside first. I followed behind her.
Shade suddenly appeared at the other end of the pipe, spotlight head turning red. Kidman and I both froze. Shade spent another second looking at us before running off.
"It can't get to us in here," I whispered.
"Yeah," Kidman concurred with a small nod.
We slowly climbed out the other side and jumped down into a passageway. The water was now almost up to our knees. Shade was nowhere to be seen.
"Stay close," Kidman told me.
We waded through the water. There was some rubble that was piled across the width of the passage and out of the water. Kidman climbed over it and jumped down on the other side. I climbed up it.
There was something banging, like metal on metal.
"You hear that right?" I asked her.
"Yeah," she said.
I bent my knees to jump down when I heard something else. It was the sound of someone humming. Not a tune, but when you hum when something has your curiosity. And it sounded kind of like Kidman.
I looked at Kidman and saw she had stopped. The water she was standing in started to bubble.
I gasped. "Kid, run!"
The floor collapsed and she fell with a shout.
"Kidman!" I shouted down.
I could just make out her body trapped under some concrete.
"I'll find a way down!" I told her.
"No, stay there!" she yelled back up, panicked.
She started trying to get herself free in a hurry, like there was something down there with her. If I had to guess, Shade or some other Haunted was close by. She needed a weapon.
Gun appear. Gun appear. Gun appear.
I heard gunshots below me. A pulsing red Cadaver that had gotten close to her exploded. She kept firing at things out of my line of sight.
I looked around to see if I could get down to her to help. There wasn't a ladder or even a rubble mound that I could jump to. My only choice was to jump straight down to her and hope that I didn't break my leg.
Kidman kept shooting her gun.
You know what; I'd wait until the shooting was over before going down there.
A Cadaver with large red pulsating lumps got very close to Kidman. Kidman didn't seem to notice it, too focused on shooting something else.
"Kidman! Watch out!" I screamed.
Kidman saw the Cadaver, but a Haunted was charging at her with a rod in its hands.
I yanked off my bag and grabbed the slingshot and scooped up some rocks from the ground. I fired at the Cadaver's lumps. It exploded, the blast nearly hitting Kidman. Apparently it didn't take much to kill a Cadaver that was ready to explode to begin with. I started trying to take out other Cadavers I could see.
I ran out of rocks and took a step back from the edge to get more. I grabbed two and stood up.
Ruvik was looking at me dead in the eye inches away from my face.
I gasped, terrified, and took a step back. My foot slipped and I fell backwards. My pulse thudded in my ears and then I was on the ground. I didn't hit the ground; I was just there.
I sat up. I was now on a metal walkway still in the sewer system. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight app. The first thing I saw was a wall with numbers and arrows written in blood. A few steps away tucked back on some wood pallets was another safe. The numbers must have belonged to the safe.
"8 right, 12 left, 14 right," I muttered as I turned the dial.
The safe clicked and the door swung open. I took out the note scrap and the orbitoclast. I put the note scrap in my bag and tucked the orbitoclast into my waistband. I had a feeling I may need a weapon in the near future, not that it would do much damage.
The walkway ended and I had to climb down a ladder into ankle deep water again. I walked down a large drain tunnel that went uphill. It was blocked off by a grate. There was a ladder next to it. I climbed up.
A cat meowed when I reached the top. I was now in a little room with concreate walls and a red sofa. The black cat with the ribbon was on the floor, looking at me. It meowed again.
"Hey, little guy." I walked over to him and sat down on the sofa to rest.
The cat jumped up on my lap and purred. I gave it a pet before it curled up next to me.
"Yes, you're cute," I said. "But I can't stay."
I stood up and looked for an exit. There was a vent like the ones in the Mobius. I opened it up and crawled through the shaft. It ended and I jumped down into a different sewer passage. I was on an upper level with razor wire on the railing. There were footsteps in the water below me. I looked over the side.
It was Joseph.
"Joseph?"
Joseph whipped around with his gun in hand. "Élan? How did you get up there?"
"How did you get down there?" I asked back.
"Come down here," said Joseph.
"Love to, but. . ." I motioned to the razor wire.
"There should be an access ladder somewhere around here," said Joseph.
I looked around. There was a break in the railing and razor wire. "I think I found one." I ran over and saw the ladder. I climbed down and Joseph was waiting for me.
"Stay close," said Joseph.
"Sure thing."
We walked together.
"Joseph!" I heard Kidman shout.
I turned around. As I did, a heavy, solid metal gate dropped behind us, blocking our way back.
"You heard that, right?" I asked Joseph. "I thought I heard Kidman yell just now."
Joseph looked at the gate. "We can't get back that way. Let's see if there's another tunnel."
We picked our way over large pieces of collapsed tunnel. I noticed the water down here was a different color.
"What are we standing in?" I winced.
The water looked red.
"Let's not think about it," Joseph said.
"Aw, man. That's the end of these shoes and socks."
There was a light ahead of us and another solid metal gate. Two service lights were lit on either side of it. Joseph went up to it and began inspecting it.
"That looks really heavy," I said.
There was a loud splash behind us and we spun around, Joseph with his gun out.
It was Kidman! She had jumped down from the collapsed passage above us.
"Joseph! You're all right," she said, hurrying up to us.
Joseph met her halfway, holstering his gun. "You too, thank god."
"Any sign of Sebastian?" she asked.
"Nothing," Joseph replied. "Maybe we can go back and look for him?"
"No," Kidman said quickly. "I mean, let's just get out of here first. Then we can worry about Sebastian."
Joseph didn't seem to like that answer.
Kidman leaned around and pointed to the heavy metal gate. "Can we open this gate?"
Joseph looked at the gate again. "I doubt you and I are strong enough, even with Élan. No offense, Élan."
"None taken," I said, looking at the gate. I wouldn't be able to lift that on arm strength alone.
There was a loud crash back the way we came. Joseph took his gun out and started for the sound.
"Joseph! Watch yourself," Kidman said.
"I'll be fine!" Joseph told her. "Quick, look around, see if there's another way out."
I looked around and saw the Mobius logo on a wall. "Kidman, your light." I pointed to it.
Kidman held her flashlight up and focused it on the logo. A door appeared. We went through it and we were back in a hallway that should have been in a building, not a sewer system. We went around and found a spiral staircase. We ran to the top and found another Mobius logo at the end of the landing. Kidman used her flashlight again and another door appeared. This room had several pedestals with sculptures of pieces of the Mobius logo. Part of the logo was already painted on the wall.
"We need to complete the logo," I said.
After a moment of studying the logo, I went over to one of the sculptures and turned it. Kidman came over and aimed her flashlight on it to complete the logo on the wall. The logo disappeared and the section of wall slid open to reveal a secret compartment with a cassette tape sitting in it.
"Here." Kidman held out a tape to me. "I found this one earlier and couldn't listen to it."
I took the cassette and put it in the cassette player. Kidman and I listened to it together.
ENTRY #246.
"Today was something truly surprising," said Jimenez. "He was one of the last groups of test subjects . . . Just another patient I expected to babble and maybe even die. Patient 105: Leslie Withers."
I heard a small gasp from Kidman.
"Ruben had singled him out as a useless subject . . . but he must have known. He knew I would read his notes. What else was Ruben lying to me about?
"But this Leslie . . . he emerged cognant, calm, and able to report fully what he'd experienced inside. His unique pathology allowed him to successfully navigate his STEM experience with little repercussion.
"They know nothing of his existence, but no doubt he will be the key. If we all share the consciousness, then with him I too will be able to experience the STEM, potentially even suppress the more unsavory aspects of it.
"With him I can be the master of the very technology I helped create. Mobius will see my worth and let me rise even higher in their ranks."
Kidman swapped the tape out and put the one we just found in.
ENTRY #215.
"They've refocused the efforts of the other programs to support our research. STEM priority has seemingly overridden other departments' individual research. Chemical and botanical studies are focused now on tempering, priming subjects for their inevitable connection.
"Now that the prototype is up and running, experiments continue. Upon their return from STEM integration, patients are interviewed extensively. While their particular pathologies inform their experiences, there are commonalities. They all experience the same settings, the same occurrences. The 'world' they inhabit becomes larger with every new visitor. This suggests that shards of each user's consciousness are left behind inside the STEM, creating a community. It's as if, internally, a new world is being built."
Kidman immediately turned and ran out of the room, leaving me with one earbud in and holding the cassette player.
"Hey!" I huffed and took out the cassette to put in my bag. "That is really getting annoying." I hit the switch to radio.
"You're losing focus, Kid. I warned you about this," the Administrator said through the earbud.
"How could this place exist?" Kidman asked. "I don't understand. What's happening in here?"
"Ruvik knows you are here," said the Administrator. "He's feeding off you. But there are more important problems . . . that detective . . . that girl."
"Joseph isn't something to worry about," said Kidman. "He doesn't suspect anything."
"He's expendable," said the Administrator. "How else do you want me to say it? Remove him. That's an order."
"Kidman, what are you doing?" I heard Joseph shout from downstairs.
"Killing Joseph?" Kidman asked. "That's not going to help me find Leslie."
"Come on, I could use some help!"
I ran out the room and down the stairs.
"He can't be trusted," said the Administrator. "He'll turn on you. They all will, once they know what you're after."
Kidman started breathing heavy.
"We told you. You're weak, Kid . . . and you're disappointing us."
I blinked and I was standing next to Kidman among a pile of bodies. Joseph and Sebastian were both holstering their guns.
"Are you guys all right?" Sebastian asked.
"We're all right," Joseph replied. "Sebastian, maybe we can lift this enough for Kidman or Élan to go under and open it from the other side?"
I looked behind me and saw a barred door next to the heavy metal gate. That wasn't there earlier. A glance at Kidman told me she didn't see it earlier either. I glanced over at where the stairs we found was, but it was nothing but a wall now.
"We're counting on you," said Sebastian.
Sebastian and Joseph walked over to the gate.
The cassette player was still in my hand, one earbud in. I took the earbud out and wrapped it around the player.
"Here," I said quietly, handing it to Kidman. "You may need it. You seem to find them more than I do."
Kidman took the cassette player and clipped it onto her waistband. She took something out of her pocket. "You seem to want these." It was another note scrap.
I took it from her and put it in my pocket. "Thanks."
The guys lifted up the gate and Kidman was quick to crawl under. She walked around to the door and opened it.
"We should go," Kidman said.
We walked down a narrow passage.
"I'm glad you're all right," said Sebastian.
"It's odd though," said Joseph. "Why would they catch you instead of just killing you?"
"Maybe he didn't see me as a threat?" Kidman replied.
"He?" repeated Sebastian.
A pulsation came down the passageway and Sebastian and Joseph moaned and grabbed at their ears. The high-pitched sound was back. Kidman was looking at them, unaffected. We made eye contact and she was surprised that I wasn't responding the same way.
Kidman was pulled through the ground, followed by Joseph.
Sebastian was grabbed by two large hands with long claws that came up from the bloody water. Laura! Sebastian was pulled through the floor, leaving only me.
I closed my eyes.
Get away. Get away. Get away.
The ground beneath me changed and I was now standing on carpet in an A/V control room. I was back in the theater. I looked out the window and saw the heavy curtains pulled back, but a white curtain was lowered. I had seen screens like this in theaters before. They used them for projections.
I found the projector controls and pressed the play button.
Joseph had his hands around Kidman's neck. His face was covered in boils and his nose was leaking blood. "I know who you are!" he yelled in a distorted voice. "I'm not going to let you take him! You should have followed your orders, Kid."
She kicked him away.
The setting was now a circular hospital room with many beds. Kidman reached for her gun, but found it missing.
Haunted Joseph laughed and held it up. He took it apart and dropped it on the ground. He charged at her, but a bright flash of light blinded the both of them. Haunted Joseph roared in pain and Kidman took cover behind a cabinet. She was startled when she saw the body with the axe in its skull. She took the axe.
Haunted Joseph looked around. "I knew you weren't one of us!"
Kidman waited until his back was turned and came up behind him with the axe. "Hey!"
Haunted Joseph spun around as Kidman swung. He caught her wrist and tried to fend her off. Kidman got her hand free and slashed him in the chest. He dropped to his knees, reaching out for her as the boils disappeared and he returned to normal. He fell back, seemingly dead.
Kidman looked around. "Why are you making me do this?" she asked no one. She sighed and looked at Joseph. "Dammit Joseph! You should have just stayed out of the way!"
The high-pitched sound came back and the screen went white.
"Are there sins you are ashamed of?" the Administrator asked from the sudden silence.
Kidman was on the floor, her back against an old chair. She opened her eyes and gasped. Her eyes darted around the room of the rundown house. Her gun was in her hand. She got up and holstered it.
"Wait a second . . . This house. No . . . it can't be . . ."
She walked out into the hallway. At the end was a shadow of a woman in a rocking chair. The shadow pointed to the wall.
Kidman ran around to the room and found the rocking chair empty.
"Mother would sit in her chair, rocking back and forth killing time until the next service. She barely spent any time with us. I wondered why she even had children at all."
This was Kidman's childhood house.
There was a cassette tape on the rocking chair. She picked it up and put it in the cassette player. Glad I left it with her. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear what she was listening to. She eventually put the cassette player away and walked out of the house.
The town she was in was similar to the village we had been in earlier. It looked medieval, but there was a large pedestal for a statue. Several spotlights surrounded it, but there was no statue to light up.
Kidman looked across the town square and screamed. "Leslie! Leslie, stop!"
In the distance was the pale figure of Leslie. He didn't seem to hear her. There was a bright flash of lightning and a crash of thunder. In the instance Leslie was gone. She looked back to the empty pedestal.
"At night I would stare up at the statue lit up in the center of town," Kidman's voice over said. "It looked like it was crying for all the wasted life in that place."
One of the spotlights was missing. Kidman searched the area and found it. She placed it and aimed it at the empty pedestal. It still remained empty. She held up her flashlight. An angel statue flickered into existence. Its wings were spread and its head was bowed and a hand covered its face.
Kidman looked at the statue. "A piece of my past . . . STEM must be creating this."
The projection faded to black, but was still going.
The Administrator began to speak. "In life, we constantly search for a place we feel safe, a home we can always come back to. We imagine that place in our minds and are drawn to it."
The scene cut to Kidman in a graveyard holding three small statues. One was a smaller version of the statue in the center of town, one had an ox head, and the third was a person with their head down, face in their hand, carrying the creepy eye-like cross on their back.
"I guess you could say I started young," a voiceover of Kidman said. "I would sneak into the graveyard, steal the statues, and hide them. I wanted people to think they were cursed, but every morning they were back in their right place."
She began placing the statues on pedestals.
"At five came a plague taking our livestock. And with that, many took their lives," Kidman's voiceover continued. "At seven Mother turned to the church. Their symbol etched in her mind. At fourteen I left, leaving on a note. I wrote that I'd gone to heaven."
The projection ended. The screen rose to reveal the interior of a church. Kidman and Leslie came from stage right. Kidman had her gun drawn and up, scanning everything for an enemy.
"Kidman! Leslie!" I called.
They didn't hear me.
"Get you . . . get you," babbled Leslie. He ran in front of her.
Kidman lowered her gun and put one hand on his shoulder. It's all right, I'm here. Nothing is going to get you. You have to stay with me. There's no other way."
Leslie lifted his head and looked behind her. "He's here!" He pointed.
Ruvik was slowly walking towards them.
Kidman pointed her gun at Ruvik. She backed up, keeping Leslie behind her. "Ruvik. What do you want with me?"
"You?" he asked, not concerned by the gun pointed at him.
I sucked in a breath. His voice, the same on the two tape recorders, sent a shiver down my spine and made my face hot.
"I'm just making sure you're doing your job. Just like me, I doubt they want damaged goods."
"Back up!" she yelled at him. "He's coming with me."
"Oh, I hope so," Ruvik said, not stopping. "I needn't remind you the consequences for failure."
Leslie started babbling. "Beacon . . . Beacon . . . the light . . ."
"Your people aren't the only ones counting on this boy," Ruvik told her. "You need him to get out . . ."
Leslie straightened up.
"As do I," Ruvik and Leslie said in unison, voices cold and steady.
Kidman turned to Leslie in horror. She stepped back against a pew.
"We're all their pawns, eventual victims," the duo went on. Leslie moved so he was facing Kidman. "They killed me! They ripped me apart and took what they needed! I will destroy what they wish to control."
Kidman looked from Ruvik and then to Leslie. "Ruvik?" she asked, unsure who she was looking at.
The stage shook. Kidman grabbed her head and dropped to her knees.
"Stop it!" she yelled. "Let him go!" She pointed her gun at Ruvik again.
Leslie grabbed her by the throat.
"He is my vessel. I am in control," said the duo.
Kidman broke free and pointed her gun at Leslie's head, panting.
"I sense a conflict of interest," said Ruvik.
Kidman whipped back around to Ruvik.
"Just what was your mission, exactly?" Ruvik asked.
Leslie got closer.
"Do you think their all-prying eyes can't see in here?" Ruvik asked.
Kidman pointed her gun back at Leslie.
"They've been watching you . . . Kid."
Leslie kept getting closer. Kidman cocked her gun. Leslie's head was almost against the barrel. She put her finger to the trigger.
Leslie dissolved into black dust. Kidman looked around and Ruvik was gone, too.
"What are you doing, Kid?" the Administrator asked. "You are to bring the boy back to us."
"No!" she shouted up at the ceiling. "I can't! If I bring Leslie out, Ruvik comes with him! We don't know what he's capable of! I . . . I can't let that happen."
The black dust in the room gathered itself behind the altar.
"You swore allegiance but you are not in a position to make decisions like this," the Administrator said angrily. "This is not acceptable behavior."
The dust formed a giant Administrator.
"You will bring us back that boy!"
A shockwave threw Kidman back, breaking the pews. Kidman hit a pillar. The Administrator stomped towards her.
"Run all you want, Kid. You can't escape." A bright light came from behind the Administrator.
Kidman got to her feet.
"Like everyone else that crosses us, we will hunt you down!"
"Run, Kidman!" I screamed.
Kidman got up and ran off stage.
The curtain lowered and the houselights came back on.
I stood there for a moment, panting even though I wasn't the one in danger just now.
I looked down on the control panel and saw a cassette player. Not the portable one that I had with the earbuds, but the one with the built in speaker. It didn't even look like it had a headphone jack even if I had a spare pair. I put it in my bag. At least I would have a way to listen to any more cassette tapes.
I walked out of the control room. "Now to get out of her -."
I was hit in the side and sent tumbling down the aisle steps. I came to stop at the bottom and something jumped on me. The lion roared and tried to bite me. I put my hands out and grabbed its mouth to push it back.
"Get off me!" I screamed.
I got my foot under its chest and pushed it back. I reached down and grabbed the orbitoclast from my waistband. The lion jumped back on me. I jammed the surgical tool into its eye. It pulled back with a distorted screech. Pieces of lens fell on me and the floor. I got up and ran around the seats and out the door leading to the stairs.
The lion chased after me. I heard it crash into the wall as I ran down the stairs. I went around to the floor level of seats. I ran down the aisle. If I could get to the stage, I could go out the stage door or I could lose the lion backstage.
I jumped up on the stage. The lion jumped up and blocked the way I knew to the stage door. The houselights went down and the stage lights went came on. Applause sounded from the ghostly figures that were now taking up the seats. The lion looked at the audience and straightened up like it was pleased with the attention it was getting.
The curtain raised to show that the stage had been reset. It was now a colosseum setting with mannequins dressed as Roman soldiers and gladiators. I didn't take the time to really look at the details. I was more concerned about the lion. But the lion was too occupied with the attention the audience was giving it to notice me. I backed up before running off stage and into the back. The lion roared when it noticed I was gone, but I was already threading my way through pieces of sets backstage. I saw the exit sign and followed it.
The stage door was in sight. I was in the clear. Or so I thought. My leg was knocked out from under me and I went sliding across the floor. The lion jumped on my back and bit my bag. I slipped the bag off and crawled away. The lion tossed the bag away and started for me. I noticed the orbitoclast was still in its eye. The lion snarled at me.
"Come on!" I roared back at it.
That seemed to startle it.
I shot forward and grabbed the orbitoclast. I shoved it deeper into its eye socket before pulling it out. The lion screeched. It reared back and pawed at its ruined eye. I grabbed my bag and ran for the stage door. I yanked it open and slammed it shut behind me. The lion hit the door and caused the door to rattle. It then started scratching at it. It gave it up after a few moments.
I stood still in the darkness and listened. I heard nothing.
Out of the corner of my eye a light came jogging towards me. I turned around and saw it was attached to the hip of a person.
"Élan." It was Sebastian, looking a little worse for wear, but in one piece.
I smiled wanly. "Thanks for not pointing your gun at me this time."
"How did you get here?" he asked. "You didn't have to face that spider woman monster, did you?"
"No. I came through that door after running from the lion again."
Sebastian frowned. "What door?"
"This door." I turned around to show him, but the door was gone. It was just a wall now. "Or it was there."
Sebastian let out a sigh. "I'm just glad you're okay. Let's get out of here."
We walked down a narrow dark hallway to a pair of swinging doors. Sebastian went first and I followed behind. It was dark for a second and then the lights turned on. We were in a circular room with a tower-like machine in the middle and was surrounded by several tubs. Wire and cables branched out from the top and across the ceiling, running down the walls to other machines. The floor around the tubs was sunk in and there was some sort of liquid pooled there. Towards the top of the machine was a bright light, the casing rotating slowly around it.
The ghostly form of Leslie was in one of the tubs.
"Go home . . . Go home . . ." he moaned.
The ghostly form of Ruvik walked over to examine Leslie in the tub.
"Subject's case history cites developmental delays and indicates issues with communication, social cognition, and repetitive behaviors," Ruvik said. "Signs of synesthesia reported. Genealogy suggests increased susceptibility to external stimuli and pattern adaptiveness. Could you be the one I have been searching for all these years?" Ruvik walked over to the machine's control panel against the wall. "And under my own nose. Unbelievable. There can be no mistake. This one is . . . 'compatible'." He pulled a lever.
Leslie screamed and convulsed.
The machine started up. The shadows of fan blades began to spin on the ceiling and walls, moving faster and faster.
The room pulsed and changed. We were in a vast empty space. The machine was gone and in its place was a giant brain wrapped in barbed wire and had orbitoclasts shoved into it.
"What in the hell?" Sebastian said slowly in horror.
The room came back and now three tubs were full and none of them were Leslie. The tubs tipped forward and dumped out their occupants and the liquid they were sitting in.
"Élan, stay behind me!" Sebastian took out his shotgun and fired.
Two of the three Haunted dropped, but got right back up.
"You have any matches?" he asked, shooting again.
"No," I answered.
Something grabbed my arm. The third Haunted had come around while I wasn't paying attention.
"Sebastian!" I screamed, trying to push the Haunted away.
Sebastian punched it. "These guys won't stay down!"
How were these things beaten? We didn't have matches and bullets weren't doing anything.
I saw the cables coming from the backs of their skulls. The cables! That was how!
"Sebastian, unhook them from the machine!"
Sebastian shot them down again and pulled the cable out of one of them. I ran to the second and pulled the cable out of it. I was pushed to the ground and landed in the unidentified liquid. The Haunted grabbed the back of my head and forced my face down. I thrashed trying to get free. My lungs burned from the lack of air. The weight on my back disappeared. I pushed myself up gasping for air only to be thrown back down. The floor disappeared and I was falling into nothingness again. Voices spoke in the dark.
"Having all of you in one place will provide us . . . with opportunities."
That was the Administrator.
"I can't trust you . . . not like this!"
Kidman.
"No! She's . . . she's coming with us. She's my responsibility."
Sebastian this time.
"Look, Seb, we need to talk. You're getting out of control."
Joseph.
"Finally, with this machine I can go back."
Ruvik.
"We can continue the experiments."
Jimenez.
"But there are more important problems . . . that detective . . . that girl."
The Administrator again.
"Sure you don't have anything to share with me?"
That was my voice.
"Laura."
Ruvik.
"There are some things here that are to remain in the dark."
The Administrator.
"Light, light."
My voice again.
"Beacon . . . I just hope I can get there before he does."
Kidman again.
The sensation of falling stopped.
"A little hasty with that gun, Kid. What is it you plan on doing?"
There was a pause and then she spoke. "What I have to do."
That's it for 2020. New chapters will go up in 2021. In the meantime, head over to my profile page and check out my poll. I need to start planning for next year and it'll be helpful knowing what you want to see from me next.
