This was supposed to be up two weeks ago, but for some reason I couldn't figure out a way to end it neatly. This is actually two game chapters in one because The Keeper, while having some story progressing elements, was mostly finding the pieces to get down to the Keeper and A Planted Seed Will Grow was a really short game chapter.
Also, the poll for what to see this year is still up. There is a tie at the moment. The poll is going to be up until the end of this month (March), so if you haven't voted yet, please do so.
Sebastian pushed the church door open and we stepped inside. The sanctuary was trashed. Pews were knocked over and the rug in the aisle was bunched up. At the front was a giant statue of the woman, but the head was missing. Light came through the stained glass windows, casting different colors around, and above was a giant chandelier with lit candles. Sconces with lit candles were on each pillar for additional light.
"This place is beautiful," I muttered.
Sebastian looked at me like I was crazy.
"What? I like stained glass," I defended.
There was a cry from the front of the sanctuary.
"That sounded close," said Sebastian.
We ran up to the front of the sanctuary and went behind the altar. There was a grate that the statue was sitting on.
"It's all right, I'm here. Nothing is going to get you," said someone from beneath the grate.
"That sounds like Kidman," said Sebastian.
"Get you . . . get you . . ." I heard Leslie mumble.
"You have to stay with me," said Kidman. "Three's no other way."
"Kidman? Leslie?" I shouted down the grate.
There was no answer. Their voices stopped entirely.
"There must be a tunnel running under there," said Sebastian.
"Maybe that's why the floor collapsed in the first place," I said.
Joseph started coughing again. We turned around and saw him sitting on one of the upright pews. He did not look good.
"Hey, Joseph, you still with me?" asked Sebastian. He started over to him. "Stay with me."
I went to follow and noticed something on the altar. It was another map fragment. I picked it up and quickly crammed it into my bag.
Joseph started to fall over in his seat. Sebastian was quick to keep him up right.
"Is he okay?" I asked, coming over to his side.
"Sebastian," Joseph said quietly, "you ever had the urge to just jump . . . when you're on a high place, or the subway rolls by?" He looked up at Sebastian. "Imagine if you had that urge for a minute straight. Then two minutes." He leaned into Sebastian's chest.
"You fought it off three times now, Joseph," said Sebastian. "You're learning to stop it."
Joseph pushed him away. "You're not listening. I'm not worried about stopping it, Seb. I'm worried about not wanting to stop it." His voice broke a little at the end. He took his glasses off. "Some part of me wants to turn. I don't know why and I can't reason it away . . . it's deeper than that. It's like instinct and it's getting stronger."
The high-pitched ringing started up again, causing both men to cry out and grab their heads. The room began to pulse like a beating heart. Joseph yelled.
"Hold on!" Sebastian told him. In his hand was a syringe. "This might . . ." He grabbed Joseph and shoved the needle into his shoulder. Joseph went silent and fell to the floor.
Sebastian, still struggling with the noise, looked up.
I looked up at the chandelier, too.
Ruvik was perched on it as it swung. He raised his right hand.
We were lifted off the floor along with everything else not bolted down. Joseph, however, stayed where he was. A loud crack signaled the headless statue breaking at the base. It hit the vaulted ceiling with a heavy thud. Sebastian continued to hold his head and moan as the sound persisted. To me, it was just annoying. I winced and tried to keep myself positioned so I would land on my feet.
Sebastian let out a shout as he and everything else fell out of the air. His shout was suddenly cut off and there was a loud crash as the statue hit the floor. I was still in the air. I looked at the chandelier and saw Ruvik had his full attention on me. He turned his hand and pulled me up to him. I stopped just short of being able to put my feet on the chandelier.
"Mobius," Ruvik spat. He was pissed! "They sent you here . . . to do what exactly? Get the boy back? They already have Kidman for that. Do they think because you look like her that it would make things easier?"
"I-."
I was cut off by Ruvik curling his fingers. My chest constricted and the air was squeezed out of me.
"Or did they do it to torment me?" Ruvik went on. "Remind me what I have lost?"
"N-no," I managed to get out.
"No?" Ruvik repeated.
"L-let . . . go."
"Let you go?" Ruvik asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. "You are in no position to make demands. You've eluded me multiple times now, hidden from my sight. I want to know how."
I made myself focus.
Let go. Let go.
"I said," I managed with a whisper, "let go."
I put everything I had into that command. The pressure disappeared and I fell. Almost immediately, my feet touched solid ground.
I gasped for air and fell over, falling into something solid. Something grabbed me. I flailed, trying to push it away.
"Élan! It's me!"
Sebastian.
"Get down," he said, pushing me down. "Get down on the floor."
I got on the floor and on my side, still gasping and coughing.
"Take a minute," said Sebastian.
My vision cleared up. I was on a stone floor. There were ornate table legs in front of me. I must have fallen into the table was I appeared here. It was dim, but Sebastian's lantern gave additional light.
I took a deep breath. "I'm okay."
"You sure?"
I nodded and sat up.
We were in the catacombs. There were shelves with many lit candles. The table I crashed into also had candles, but some of them were out now.
Sebastian tugged at my bag. "Here. Anything in this?" He handed my water bottle to me.
I opened it up and took a sip. I took off my hat and poured a little on my head to cool me down. I felt so hot! I took another drink and put the bottle back. I put my hat back on, pushing my hair up in it so it was out of my face again.
"Thanks," I said.
Sebastian helped me up. "Come on. Let's find the others."
We walked by several crypts and walked up a flight of stairs. We turned a corner and saw a Haunted at the other end of the corridor. Sebastian shot it with his sniper rifle. The sound attracted two more that came running out from the doorway near us. Sebastian was quick to grab the shotgun and blasted them both with one shot. He made sure they stayed down with a match.
That made me wonder if I had any matches myself. I checked my pockets. I found the matchbox I had. I had three.
"I'm almost out of matches," I informed him.
We checked the room the Haunted ran out of. Sebastian found some ammo. We moved on down the corridor. It turned to the right and ended in a room with a table with a little memorial set up. There was a picture flanked by candles. I stepped closer to get a better look. When I did, the light seemed to go out and there was a loud crash. When the light return, the picture was broken and there was blood on it.
"Ominous," I muttered.
Sebastian found some handgun ammo sitting on the table.
We turned around.
"Looks like it's back the way we came," said Sebastian.
"What's that?" I pointed to the wall. There was an intricate carving on the wall. It was made to look like a doorframe and had a stylized person carved into it.
We went over to the wall. Sebastian ran his hand over the head of the lithograph.
"Looks loose," he said. He took out his knife and pried the piece off the wall.
There was a low rumbling and the entire section of wall rose to reveal another room.
The room had several tables and stools, some with a few small clay pitchers. What I noticed immediately was the safe sitting on one of them. I went over to it and tried to get it open.
"Let me try," said Sebastian, seeing me struggle with it.
With a little fiddling, he was able to get the safe open. Like the safes with the letter scraps, this one was also fleshy on the inside. But this one didn't have a letter scrap, but a key. I put it in my bag.
My watch vibrated and I saw that the compass needle on the app was glowing brightly. I looked to my right. There was a piece of paper sitting on another table. I picked it up.
HELP
THE METALLIC POUNDING HE'S COMING
I RUN BUT HE FOLLOWS
HELP GOD HELP HELP
HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP
HELP
I put the note in my bag with the key.
"Did you find something?" Sebastian asked, seeing me messing with my bag.
"Yeah," I replied. "Someone was down here before us and maybe something else with them."
Sebastian tensed a little at the idea that there was another monster down here with us, but that was becoming par for course.
There was a corridor leading out of the chamber. We rounded the corner and went down a flight of stairs. At the bottom was an archway with an iron gate. On the other side was something large moving.
The Keeper.
"Oh, shit," muttered Sebastian.
It pulled a lever and a large stone box fell on top, sealing the Keeper inside.
Sebastian looked at the gate. There was a chain and a lock looped around it. He took the shotgun and hit the lock with the butt of it. The lock broke.
"You know, we could have just crawled under the chain," I said. "There was enough of room."
"For you," countered Sebastian. "Not me with all this stuff." He shrugged his shoulder to remind me of all the weapons he was carrying.
"Isn't it heavy?" I asked. "I know that crossbow is."
"I don't even feel it, which is strange," said Sebastian. "I know I should feel weighed down, but I don't."
"Huh," I said with a shrug.
The new chamber had the stone box in the center, steps leading down from three direction to it. On the left and the right was a large door with the church cross on it.
We walked down the steps. The carving on the stone was similar to the lithograph we took the piece from, only was larger and had multiple people on the carving. All three of the people had their heads missing.
Sebastian took out the lithograph piece. "It looks like it could fit." He looked to see if the piece would match up to a specific spot. He placed it in the middle space as the body looked like the one we took the piece from in the other lithograph. "It fits!"
The room trembled and the heavy metal doors with the crosses on them raised open.
"So what do you think?" Sebastian asked. "Left or right?"
I looked from the left to the right. I remembered something about not getting a collectable if we started on one side first.
"Left," I said confidently.
"You sound sure of yourself," said Sebastian.
"I like left," I said. "And I'm a lefty, so maybe that has something to do with my choice."
"Okay," Sebastian said slowly. "That's a different way of choosing."
I was pretty sure that starting on the left side would get us all the collectables down here.
I heard music.
"Do you hear that?" I asked Sebastian.
Sebastian listened. "Yeah, music. It's coming from up there."
I looked in the direction of the sound and saw there was a safe room door up the steps in the corner.
We went up to the door and opened it. There was an old fashioned sink bowl, the kind that was used before there was indoor plumbing. It also had a vanity mirror. There was something on the edge of the sink. Sebastian picked it up. He read it over quickly and the mirror broke. The light pulled us in.
We both stood in the reception area. Sebastian was facing the newspaper stand.
"The worrying type, I see," the nurse said from behind the desk.
Sebastian glanced at her, but didn't say anything. He picked up the newspaper and held it so we both could read it.
CATACOMBS FOUND BENEATH PARISH.
PASTOR SAYS "NOTHING TO LOSE SLEEP OVER."
WHO TOOK CARE OF THIS PLACE?
WORKMEN REPAIRING COLLAPSED FLOOR DISCOVER MAN-MADE PASSAGES BENEATH CEDAR HILL CHURCH, CLAIM THEY SAW "MUMMIES." PARISH DENIES ACCESS TO HISTORIANS, CLAIMING "SACRILEGE."
I looked over at the bulletin board and saw a new missing person poster. I took it down and showed it to Sebastian.
MISSING: CHRIS TAYLOR.
CONSTRUCTION FOREMAN. DISAPPEARED WHILE OVERSEEING REPAIRS OF A FALLEN CHURCH FLOOR.
REPAIRS WERE NEARLY COMPLETED SO IT IS UNLIKELY HE FELL.
"Why do I get the feeling he saw something he wasn't supposed to?" I asked Sebastian.
And what were the chances that he was the one that wrote the note I found earlier? Probably pretty good.
"Let's open a locker and restock," said Sebastian.
I went back to the locker room. I chose a locker and opened it up. Inside was a box of matches.
Sebastian came in.
I held up the box. "Matches. You mind if I keep them? I'm almost out."
"Yeah," replied Sebastian. He grabbed some ammo out of an open locker.
I found another key in my bag. "You want this one?"
Sebastian took the key from me and opened another locker. "Crossbow bolts."
"You may want to keep a couple handy," I said. "You never know when you may need them."
"Yeah, you're right," said Sebastian.
I noticed he took a freeze bolt out of the locker. He walked out of the room.
I went over to the archive room to clean out what I was carrying. I put the note, poster, and newspaper in their folders. I did a quick check of the folder full of Sebastian's personal documents. Inside was a new one.
WE WELCOME WITH LOVE LILY LYNN CASTELLANOS.
BORN JULY 18, 2006
9:56AM
7LB. 3OZ.
14 INCHES
PROUD PARENTS SEBASTIAN AND MYRA CASTELLANOS.
I put the announcement back in the folder. The only other thing I needed to do was put the map fragment up. It found its place on the map like all the others.
"Élan," Sebastian called.
"Yeah, I'm coming."
We went to the mirror over the sink. A moment later we were back in the catacombs. We walked out of the room.
"So, left?" asked Sebastian.
"Left."
We walked up the steps and into the left corridor. It had large gas pipes that were open and releasing gas. Sebastian turned the shutoff valve and the gas cleared out. He kicked open a door and we continued down another corridor. We turned a corner and saw something hanging from the ceiling.
"What is that?" I whispered. I took out my monocular from my pocket and looked.
It looked like two beings meshed together. The right side looked like a grotesque human while the left was mutated, angry skin twisted with large claws. It had two heads connected on the same neck, the right human and the left beastly with a large maw and eyes sunk into their sockets.
AlterEgo.
Sebastian firing his gun made me jump. The AlterEgo was still hanging, but now there was another dead on the floor.
We continued down the corridor and passed the body. On either side were jail-like cells. The sudden beeping and flashing light on a wall startled us. Sebastian grabbed my arm and forced me into a crouch beside him. There was a bomb on the wall. He crept over and disarmed it. I let out a sigh of relief.
Inside the cells were more AlterEgos. On one side was not a cell, but a section of bars that acted as a wall. In its little alcove was a lever and on the other side of the bars were two AlterEgos pacing around on a lower level. I grabbed the lever and pulled. A spiked ceiling trap fell down and crushed them. The trap then slowly reset itself, clunking as the cogs pulled up the large, heavy square ceiling.
Sebastian did open one cell. It wasn't locked to begin with and there was no AlterEgo inside. I kept a lookout for anything that might come at us.
Sebastian came back a moment later with an axe. "Here." He handed it to me.
"Thanks," I said. I was glad to have weapon.
There was a cell at the end of the corridor and then it split. The right path was block so we took the left. It led to a large hatch in the floor that was open. The only way forward was down the ladder.
Something on the floor next to the hatch rattled. It was a safe wrapped with two pieces of barbed wire. Sebastian and I looked at each other. Neither of us were going to mess with it.
"I'll go first," Sebastian said. He started climbing down the ladder.
The lights began to flicker and the safe began to shake violently. From the bottom of it something began to form.
I scrambled down the ladder, jumping once I was about halfway down. I looked up to see the Keeper fully formed standing at the opening. It grabbed the hatch and slammed it shut, trapping us down here.
The gas valves opened and the passage began to fill with gas. We started coughing and choking on it. Sebastian ran over to the nearest valve and began turning it. The gas from that pipe was shut off, but there was still gas filling up the passageway.
"There's got to be another valve somewhere," I said, holding my top over my mouth and nose.
We started searching for it.
An AlterEgo stepped around the corner. Sebastian lifted his shotgun but hesitated to fire. I ran forward through the gas and hit it in the beastly head with the axe. The AlterEgo dropped dead. I wiggled the axe out of its head.
"Why didn't you shoot?" I asked.
"I didn't know if the gas is flammable," he answered. "I didn't want to blow us all up."
I didn't remember the gas down here being flammable. In another section of the game it was, but I didn't think it was here.
Sebastian found the other valve and turned it. The gas turned off entirely and it cleared out.
After a few steps down, we were now in a narrow corridor. We could still walk side by side, but I stayed a step behind Sebastian. There was a little red light on the wall ahead of us.
"That looks like a bomb," I said quietly.
Another AlterEgo walked by the bomb, but it didn't trigger it. Sebastian took his pistol out and shot the bomb. It exploded and blew the AlterEgo up.
"Takes care of that," I said with a shrug.
We walked over the AlterEgo and around the corner and almost walked straight into two more AlterEgos.
Sebastian shot at one. The second came after me. The left, beastly head tilted back and its neck pulsed. It spat up green liquid at me. I jumped out of the way and it hit the floor with a sizzle.
"Those things spit acid!" I yelled.
Sebastian switched to the shotgun and blasted them both to the ground. "Élan, matches!"
I grabbed a match and struck it. I dropped on top of the bodies. One match was able to burn them both.
"You okay?" Sebastian asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
The corridor turned again. Here the walls were falling apart and there was stone gathered along the walls and in the corners. Lit candles were placed all around for lighting. There was another red light glowing. Sebastian crouched down and approached it. He fiddled with it and it turned green.
"Another bomb?" I asked.
"Yeah, there's a lot of them down here," he said. "Just be careful."
I nodded.
The end of the corridor was blocked by a barred gate. To the side was a wheel to control the gate. Sebastian began to turn it. As the gate rose, a solid metal door with the church cross lowered behind us in tandem. With the door forward now open and the one behind us closed, we moved on.
I turned the corner and saw a tripwire where I was about to step. I pushed myself into the air with the foot I still had on the floor. I hit the floor and rolled, my shoulder throbbing, but I avoided the trap.
Sebastian carefully stepped over the tripwire and helped me to my feet. The corridor continued to twist and turn. Rats ran ahead of us. We stopped when we came across two AlterEgos crawling on the floor, blocking our way. I struck another match and dropped it on them. They burned quickly and we were able to step over them. We found another barred gate. Sebastian opened it, sealing the way back behind us.
We walked down into a small room. I looked to my right and saw an iron barred wall. On the other side was some rubble and lit candles. There was also a statue. There wasn't any way I could reach through the bars and grab it, but it looked like there was a staircase. If we could get around to that, we could get the statue and the key.
After climbing a ladder and going up some stairs, we reached another lithograph that blocked our path. Sebastian pried the head off and the wall opened. We were back in the chamber with the giant stone box.
Sebastian put the lithograph piece into place on the larger lithograph. "Just one more. You ready?"
"Yeah."
We went to the right side now. Immediately we went down a flight of stairs. In the first chamber, there was a ceiling trap panel leaning against the wall. A table was up against another wall with a single lantern sitting on the tabletop. Next to it was an old tape recorder. Sebastian and I looked at each other. I pressed the play button.
"That cockroach," Ruvik said with venom, "that sycophant; living off of me, feeding off of my work. I'll have to figure out he got the combination to my safe. But there's no time for that now; I'm so close. No one can ever have that data. It is mine. My only way . . . Whoever opens that safe next had better be ready to pay the price." The recording ended.
"Sounds like somebody was stealing from Ruvik," I said.
"So what?" asked Sebastian.
"So what?" I repeated. "Sebastian, this could help us understand what's happening."
"I just want to find the others and get out of here," said Sebastian.
"Oh, for the love of – haven't you figured it out? Some detective you are."
Sebastian glared at me. "What are you talking about?"
"The notes, the map fragments, the newspapers, the missing posters, they're clues to what's happening," I said. "And didn't you see the thing with the safe for a head earlier? 'Whoever opens that safe next had better be ready to pay the price.'"
"But we didn't open . . . a safe. Oh, no, the one with the key," said Sebastian.
"I don't think he meant that," I said. "Someone was stealing data from him. We're probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. Heh, story of our day." I rolled my eyes.
As I did, I noticed a trap ceiling off to the side. It seemed like an odd place to be. Tucked at the top of the column next to the trap was a statue.
"Sebastian." I pointed up at the statue.
Sebastian looked up. "I see it. I don't think I can shoot it from here."
I looked at the trap's lever. "What if we used this?" I walked over to the lever and pulled it.
The trap fell and hit the ground with a heavy thump that shook the floor. I climbed up on it and the trap began to reset itself.
"Élan! Get down from there!" Sebastian ordered.
The trap came to a stop. I took the statue and tossed it down to the floor. It shattered and the key fell out. Sebastian picked it up and put it in his pocket.
"How are you going to get down?" he asked.
"Easy." I jumped down. "Like that."
Sebastian shook his head.
We left the chamber and heard something behind us. We turned around and saw that our way back was blocked by metal spikes in the doorway.
Sebastian took lead and found another tripwire. He disabled it. At the end of the corridor was two more levers that controlled the trap ceilings. There was also a pit directly in front of the levers.
"How much you wanna bet there's something in there?" I whispered.
Sebastian took his pistol out and shot the gears the levers controlled. The ceiling dropped down, crushing whatever was in the pit. As it raised itself back up, there was a body stuck to one of the spikes. It slid off and fell back down.
It was a dead end here.
"There has to be another way out," said Sebastian. He looked up at the ceiling trap. "I wonder."
Two more gunshots startled me and the trap fell down again.
"Come on," Sebastian told me, climbing up on the trap.
I jumped on with him.
The trap went up and we saw a doorway above us.
Sebastian looked over his shoulder. "Élan, look out!"
He shoved me aside and I fell down. I looked over my shoulder and saw an AlterEgo that had dropped down from somewhere and had tried to attack me. Sebastian kicked it away. The trap came to a stop.
"Run!" he yelled.
I ran through the doorway. I heard another loud gunshot. Sebastian must have used the shotgun on it. I took a few more steps and turned around. Sebastian was following me with his shotgun in hand.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. "That was way too close."
In the next chamber there was a bright light coming from one side of the room.
"I think that's our way out," said Sebastian.
The light was coming from a gate. Sebastian went over to the wheel to open it. As soon as he turned it one notch, groaning from AlterEgos came from behind us. Six of them had appeared and slowly coming after us.
"Take cover!" ordered Sebastian, taking aim with his shotgun.
I looked around for a place to hide, but there wasn't any place. However there was a set of double doors with the church crosses on them. I ran for them and found they were unlocked. I went inside, shutting them behind me.
My watch started vibrating. The compass needle was pointing behind me. I looked at the room I was in. There was a landing with several skulls and then there were stairs that disappeared into the dark. I took out my phone for the flashlight app. It gave me enough light so I could see where I was going. Once I was down the steps, the floor was uneven with rubble. There were also a bunch of tripwires.
"Didn't anyone have anything better to do but set tripwires all over the place?" I asked, picking my way around them.
The passage continued downwards with another set of stairs. There were bombs lined on the walls. I ducked down and crept by them so I didn't set them off. Once at the bottom of the stairs, the passageway turned to the left. There were many lit candles surrounding a statue. I was on the other side of the barred wall from the left passage. I broke the statue open and grabbed the key.
I hurried back up through the passage.
"Élan!" Sebastian called.
I reached the doors. "I'm here!" I opened the door and poked my head out. The bodies of the AlterEgos were all over the floor.
"Where were you?" he asked.
"I found another key," I replied.
He shook his head and went back to the gate. We didn't have any more interruptions while opening it. As soon as we stepped through, spikes blocked out way back again. The corridor continued for a few steps before dropping off into a pit. We jumped down only to find two AlterEgos beginning to stand up. We ran across the pit and pulled ourselves up. There was a lever that controlled a ceiling trap. I gave it a pull and the trap slammed down behind us, crushing the two AlterEgos. Another AlterEgo staggered down the steps in front of us.
"Get back!" Sebastian said, stepping back onto the trap.
I did the same. The trap began to reset, but the AlterEgo jumped on with us before it raised too high. Sebastian ran across it and jumped down back into the narrow corridor. I made it to the other side, but the gap between corridor and wall was too small for me to get through. The AlterEgo was advancing. I looked up and saw the ceiling was getting closer and there was no sign that the trap was going to stop before it reached it. I would be crushed!
Another doorway appeared as the trap rose. I threw my axe at the AlterEgo as a distraction and jumped to the doorway. The trap finished resetting with a sickening crunch.
"Élan!"
"I'm fine! I'm not hurt! There's another passage up here."
"Can you get down?"
"I think so. It seems to go back a little ways."
I walked back the passage and found alcove with an altar. There was a much larger statue of the woman with her head down, but there was also a small box. I opened the box and found another key. The passage looped around and there was a ladder leading down. I climbed down and ran around back to where Sebastian was. He was waiting for me on the steps where the AlterEgo had been waiting. There was a lithograph behind him.
"Glad you're okay," he said.
"It was a close one," I admitted.
He took out his knife and pulled the lithograph piece out. The wall opened and we were back in the main chamber.
We walked down to the large lithograph and Sebastian put the final piece into place. The stone box began to rise, revealing a staircase. We went down the stairs and found a large solid metal door with the church cross on it. A large metal bar held it shut. When we got close enough, the bar slid back into the wall and the door raised.
We walked into a long corridor with circular metal devices scattered on the floor randomly. At the other end was the Keeper. It banged on its safe head with its heavy hammer.
"Oh, shit," breathed Sebastian. He was looking up at the ceiling.
The entire length of the corridor was lined with ceiling traps.
Sebastian took a step back and onto one of the circles. Razor wire shot out of it and wrapped around his leg.
"Sebastian!" I tried to pull at it, but it just stabbed at my hands through my gloves.
The traps began to fall, starting at the far end.
"Get back!" Sebastian yelled. He took out his knife and cut himself free. We jumped out of the corridor together just out of the way of the final trap.
The traps reset themselves.
"We're going to have to run for it," said Sebastian as the ones closest to us began to reset.
We waited for the last one to rise enough that we could duck under it. We didn't get far before the door behind us slammed shut, cutting us off from our safe space. The circular devices began to glow red.
The ceiling trap behind us fell first.
"Run!" Sebastian yelled.
I started running, avoiding the snare traps on the floor. The ceiling traps fell rhythmically behind us. In front of us, another door was slowly sliding shut. I put on a burst of speed and got through. I spun around and saw Sebastian made it as well.
"Is your leg okay?" I asked him.
Sebastian looked down at his leg. There were some tears in his pants, but no blood. "I'm fine. Where'd that thing go?"
I shook my head. "I don't know."
"It can't have gone far," said Sebastian.
We rounded the corner and saw a cell with someone inside.
"Leslie!" Sebastian ran up to him. "Leslie, you're safe. Where's -?"
"Kid . . . kid . . ." Leslie muttered quietly, looking down at his feet.
"Kidman?" Sebastian asked. "Is she here, too?"
"Kid . . . kid . . ." he kept muttering.
Sebastian grabbed the bars and gave them a shake. "Is she all right?"
"Is she all right? All right?" Leslie continued to mutter.
I put my hand on Sebastian's shoulder. "I don't think we're going to get anything out of him right now."
Sebastian sighed. "Stand back. I'll get it open."
Leslie and I took a step back. Sebastian got out his pistol and shot the lock off the chain holding the doors shut. The doors swung open. Leslie toddled out. I approached him from the side.
"Hey, Leslie. Do you know me?" I asked him.
He looked up at me with wide eyes. "Know?"
"I'm Élan. Do you remember me from the ambulance?"
"Élan . . . Élan . . ." he muttered now.
"Come on, you two," said Sebastian. He stood by another door crank a few steps away next to a barred gate. He began turning the crank to open.
"Get it open . . . get it open . . ." Leslie said quietly.
"He's getting it, Leslie," I told him.
The high-pitched ringing started up again and the room seemed to pulse like it had in the church. Sebastian stopped cranking with the door halfway raised.
"Get it open!" Leslie ran forward through the door and down the steps.
"No! Wait!" Sebastian shouted.
"I got him!" I yelled, racing after Leslie.
Leslie let out a scream and covered his ears.
There was a loud buzzer behind me and a heavy solid metal door dropped down, separating us from Sebastian. I turned around. Sebastian banged on the other side of the door. I turned back and saw Leslie at the bottom of the stairs and running into another passage. I ran after him, hoping I could catch up.
The new passage wasn't so much a passage as it was a cavern with an underground river. Sunlight came from gaps in the earth and water rained down into the river. There was a narrow ledge that was a path through the cavern. I sprinted after Leslie as he turned a corner. I turned the corner.
I was hit in the head and fell on my back. My vision swam as I tried to make sense of what happened. Someone in a white coat stood over me. Jimenez.
"Forgive me, my dear, but I can't risk you interfering," he said. He dropped the rotted, broken board in his hands. That must have been what he hit me with.
I tried to sit up, but couldn't.
Jimenez turned around. Leslie was standing a few steps behind him, murmuring frantically and fidgeting.
"Settle down, Leslie," said Jimenez. He walked over to him and put his arms around his shoulders. "Dr. Jimenez is here."
"No!" Leslie howled, pushing Jimenez away. He ran off into the dark.
"Leslie! Come back!" Jimenez shouted. He looked back at me before running after Leslie.
I tried to get up again. "Bastard," I hissed through the pain in my head. "Now you really pissed me off!"
I forced myself up and staggered to my feet. Next to me was the other half of the board he hit me with. I held my head and could feel the bump starting to rise. I checked my hand and saw there was no blood.
My vision was still blurry and I tripped over my own feet as I tried to follow them. I took a moment and a deep breath. I focused on the path in front of me and slowly put my foot in front of me, and then the other, and then again. I quickened my pace and went back through a tunnel. There was a pit lined with candles and a ladder leading down. I looked around and saw there was nowhere else they could have gone. I put my feet on the ladder and carefully turned myself around. I tried to keep a good grip on the rungs, but they were wet. My foot suddenly slipped and I lost my grip. I fell into the darkness.
My feet hit the ground hard and I went down on my knees. My head throbbed. It was almost completely dark in the cavern except for a little bit of light coming from somewhere farther in. I could feel the ground was packed dirt, not stone like in the catacombs. It was also damp down here, too.
I got out my phone to get a better look at everything. My flashlight app wasn't that strong, but I could make out some barrels and the support frames to hold up the cavern tunnels. It looked like it was a mine of some sort, but long abandoned judging by the root systems of trees that poked through the ceiling.
I walked forward and heard a sound. I swept my light around and found an AlterEgo walking in my direction. Its chest suddenly exploded and something shot out at me, a giant mouth snapping at me. I ducked and dodged under the thrashing tentacle that attached it to the AlterEgo. I ran passed it only to find more coming after me. One spat acid at me and another's chest mouth shot out. I tumbled across the damp floor to avoid it. All of this was not helping my headache any.
I got to my feet and growled, "Okay, I'm getting sick of this shit!"
I concentrated on the AlterEgos around me, focusing on what I wanted to happen. I threw my arms out and a shockwave sent them all flying back and smashing into the walls.
I let my arms drop. "That was satisfying," I sighed.
I walked out of the cavern and into a narrow tunnel. After walking a bit, a barred gate blocked my way. I tucked my phone into my pocket so the flashlight still gave me a little light but kept my hands free. I went over to the wheel that controlled it and started turning. It was heavy, but I was able to get the gate open. I got my phone back out and a reflection off the chain caught my attention. Attached to the chain was a statue. I smashed it open and took the key for myself.
I hiked uphill through another tunnel before it opened up into another cavern. This one dropped off, but there was a narrow pathway that was a combination of naturally occurring rock and wooden planks. I stepped out onto the path and heard a strange clicking sound. Several arrows flew across the cavern and over the path.
"Oh, great," I muttered.
There was a brief moment of quiet and then arrows were launched again. I heard the mechanism clicking for a time.
One, two, three.
The arrows flew across the path.
One, two, three, four, five.
The mechanism fired. Three seconds. The arrows flew over the path.
I waited one more cycle before sprinting across the path. I hid behind a rock and let the next batch of arrows fly by. Once they did, I ran for a heavy wooden post. The arrows fired again and once it was clear, I ran to the other end of the path and into the next cavern.
I got tangled into some tree roots before slipping on some stone steps. I huffed angrily and brushed myself off. In front of me now was a narrow gap in the rocks. I had to stand sideways and inch my way through it. Once on the other side, there was a steep path down to another gate. Irritated by everything – the AlterEgos, my headache, Jimenez causing my headache – I stomped down to the gate to open it.
As soon as I started to turn the wheel, a bunch of small things dropped from the ceiling. One of them fell on my shoulder. It was a mini AlterEgo. I grabbed it and threw it to the ground. There were more crawling around by my feet. They launched themselves up at me.
"Ugh! Gross!" I jumped out of the way of them.
I focused again on what I wanted to happen and swept my arm at them. Instead of being thrown like the larger AlterEgos had been, the mini AlterEgos were vaporized.
I panted hard.
My watch vibrated.
"What?" I barked, looking at it.
The white compass needle was pointing behind me.
I turned around and saw a tape recorder sitting on a stone wall next to a small table. I walked over to it and pressed the play button.
"Aberrant brain wave patterns observed in subject numbers 25 and 33, and now again in 55," Ruvik said. "The one common factor is a case history of dissociative identity disorder. Pervious experiments on the prefrontal cortex led to degradation of sense of self, but there were unanticipated results here: suicidal thoughts of alternate personalities exhibited as attacks on the core personality. As self-consciousness waned, a sort of stasis was achieved, like two creatures sewn together and forced to live as one, eternally hating the other. Delicious."
The recording ended.
Delicious? Not a term I would use like that.
The gate started opening on its own. I watched as it opened entirely. It was almost like it beckoning me through. I stepped away from the tape recorder, looking for any sign that this was a trap. It didn't feel like it. I looked over my shoulder and wondered if I should wait for Sebastian. He should have been coming up behind me.
I looked back at the gate. I could keep going on my own. I was doing fine down here. I had been using my dream abilities much more since I came down here. I couldn't do that with Sebastian around without messing something in this dream. I felt empowered by myself! I'd be fine.
I stepped through the gate and found the tunnel was flooded. I began wading into the water. It came up to my waist and was oddly refreshing. As I went farther, little waterfalls lined the sides of the tunnel. I went along with my hand sticking under them. I let out a giggle. Under one of the waterfalls, my fingers brushed something that wasn't the smooth cavern stone. It was another statue. I took from behind the waterfall and held it up.
Break. Break. Break.
The statue shattered, pieces flying in every direction, but never hitting me. The key floated in the air. I plucked it out of the air and turned it over in my fingers. After turning it over several times I put it in my bag.
At the end of the flooded tunnel was a fence I had to vault over. The tunnel dried out, but there were more AlterEgos. They looked at me.
I tilted my head to the side. "Begone," I ordered and snapped my fingers.
They went flying into the walls.
I smirked and kept on walking.
The tunnel went up steeply and I walked by an iron gate that was hanging open. There was another narrow gap I had to crawl through and then I was in a chamber that had many wooden platforms. At the far end was a door. I crossed the chamber for the door, going up the steps. The room narrowed at the door, the walls on either side full of holes. A body was stuck to the one side, spikes going through its head and torso, dried blood all over the stones.
"Beautiful," I muttered.
What? Why did I say that out loud? And what was with me using my powers like that? That was abusive! When I did that earlier, it drew Ruvik's attention to me. What was I thinking? Was he watching me right now?
"Élan!"
I spun around to see Sebastian jogging over to me.
"You okay? Where's Leslie?" he asked.
"I don't know," I replied with a shake of my head. "We got separated."
Sebastian sighed. "At least I found you." He looked down. "What's this?"
There was a note by our feet. I picked it up.
I WENT IN TOO DEEP AND OF COURSE IT WAS A TRAP. SOPHIA TOLD ME TO STOP SO MANY TIMES. BUT IT WAS ONLY A LITTLE FURTHER TO THE TRUTH. I KNOW THERE'S BE CHALLENGES, BUT I WAS SO CLOSE!
I NOTICED THE FAINTEST BREEZE COMING FROM THE CRACK IN THE DOOR. THE DOOR HAS TO LEAD OUTSIDE. THIS PLATE I FOUND LOOKS LIKE IT FITS IN THE SLOT. IT'S PROBABLY THE KEY, BUT WHICH WAY DOES IT GO? FIFTY-FIFTY ODDS. AND I'VE BEEN HERE PACING FOR WHAT FEELS LIKE AN ETERNITY, UNABLE TO MAKE THIS SINGLE CHOICE.
SOPHIA, IF I MAKE IT OUT OF HERE, I'LL HOLD YOU IN MY ARMS. I'LL TELL YOU THAT YOU WERE RIGHT AND I'LL NEVER LET YOU GO.
I looked at the body. "I get the feeling he didn't get to see Sophia again." I put the note away.
Sebastian went up to the door. On the floor was a single tile, a relief on each side, but one side had blood streaked across it. He put the tile in blood side down. The lock barring the door slid off and it opened.
The door didn't lead outside, but into another cavern. There were steps to the left. We went up them and into a long tunnel.
Pulsations came down the tunnel at us. When the third hit, the tunnel warped and we were in the hallway of Beacon Mental Hospital. I remembered running through this hallway with Sebastian when this all started. There were no bodies on the floor, the windows were intact, and it was lit by red lightbulbs, casting an eerie glow.
My watch vibrated and I followed the glowing needle to a few steps behind me. It was just a wall behind us and on the floor was a map fragment. I grabbed it and followed Sebastian. The door at the end of the hallway was already ajar. Sebastian pushed it the rest of the way open. It wasn't the lobby, instead it was the room with the machine and tubs. Jimenez was standing next to the machine with a clipboard.
"Doc?" Sebastian called out to him. "Doc, what the hell is going on?"
"There's no time," Jimenez said. "I need to figure out how to reverse this if we're going to stop him."
"Who? This 'Ruvik' guy?" asked Sebastian. "Who the hell is he?"
"I'm sorry, I have to finish this . . ." Jimenez dismissed.
"I can't help if you leave me in the dark, Doc," Sebastian pointed out. "And you need me to help."
Jimenez thought for a moment before turning around to face us. "He – we, were working on a method . . . how can I explain this? It's like linking brains together."
Sebastian's jaw dropped in horror.
Jimenez turned back to the machine. "Sharing everything on an electro-chemical level. Emotion, memory, perception – everything. Directly. It's unprecedented . . . The implications on psychology, on pharmaceuticals, on consciousness itself -."
"Are you serious?" Sebastian asked, cutting Jimenez's rambling off. "It's a fucking nightmare!"
"Well, I never said it was perfect," defended Jimenez.
Sebastian and I stepped down and got closer to the machine.
"Especially not with such a . . . unstable host," Jimenez continued.
"Great!" snapped Sebastian. "So your research partner is a psychopath, and we're all inside his head."
Blood dripped onto the clipboard from Jimenez's nose. He turned away and subtly wiped it from his face.
"Not exactly, no. All of us are contributing on some level . . . but he's the only one with conscious influence."
Sebastian advanced on Jimenez. "You know how he thinks . . . What does he want?"
Jimenez kept his back to us. "Well, it's just a theory, but . . . I'd say he wants us dead."
Sebastian disappeared and I was left alone with Jimenez.
"Gee, I wonder why?" I said flatly. "It's not like you stole his project and tried to pass it off as your own."
That got Jimenez to turn around. "What? I did no such thing!" he denied hotly.
"Oh, so you only stole his lesser works to get in good with the people with money and power?" I asked sarcastically. "That makes it so much better."
"You don't know what you're talking about!" Jimenez snapped, going back to looking at the machine. "Now be quiet! I have to figure out how to fix this."
I swallowed and adjusted my vocal cords. "'That cockroach, that sycophant,'" I began, filling voice with as much venom as Ruvik had when he made the recording, "'living off of me, feeding off of my work. I'll have to figure out he got the combination to my safe. But there's no time for that now; I'm so close. No one can ever have that data. It is mine. My only way.'"
Jimenez froze.
"You took it to Mobius," I went on. "You called it . . . 'STEM'. You were so sure the Administrator and his superiors would find it 'most satisfactory'. You tried to keep his name out of it, passing him off as your unstable individual of a student; Mobius should only work with you as the middle man. That would make it so much easier for you to steal Ruvik's work and pass it off as your own, giving him credit here and there to make him relevant, to keep him under your thumb. But that changed when the Administrator ordered you to bring him in. Oh, how pissed off that made you."
Jimenez swallowed. "That's not true."
Memories of events in the game that hadn't come to pass in this dream came flooding to the forefront of my mind. Each one made me angrier with Jimenez.
"He was your student, your assistant, but Ruvik outclassed you by a mile," I continued. "Well, you couldn't have that, could you? If he proved himself better than you, there went your cushy position, that unlimited budget, the prestige you didn't deserve in the least – Mobius would kick your lying ass to the curb. So when Ruvik configured STEM to only work for him, you had to get him to undo it so Mobius could run it. But he wouldn't. Why would he give up his life's work to a bunch of greedy, power-hungry bastards that wanted to twist his creation? And when Mobius decided to trap him within STEM, the only thing you felt was mild indigestion. You felt bad for him for all of five minutes and then you moved on with your work. You're a man of science after all. Ruvik was a pawn to get what you wanted, just like we are right now, and Leslie."
The room began to shake.
Jimenez looked around in fear as panels and wires rattled.
I clenched my hands into fists, glaring at him. "You only cared about getting what you want. Well now you're getting it. You wanted to experience STEM for yourself. You're here now! Not what you thought it would be, is it?"
The rattling intensified.
"Is it?" I screamed.
Jimenez stopped looking at the shaking room and to me. The color left his face.
"And I bet as soon as you got Leslie, you would leave the rest of us behind to save your sorry skin," I hissed. "What do you think is going to happen when you get out? Mobius is going to forgive you? You'll be back in their good graces because you figured it all out? Yeah, you might want to think again."
Jimenez was now taking slow steps back, still looking at me in horror. "Oh, god." He raised his shaking hand and pointed over my shoulder.
"What?" I snapped.
"As amusing as this is," Ruvik said in my ear.
I whirled around. Ruvik was standing less than a step from me. Behind me, I could hear Jimenez running out another door.
"I still need this," Ruvik finished.
He vanished.
I looked around and found the machine was gone and Sebastian was looking around the now mostly empty room as well.
There was something small on a gurney that Sebastian picked up before putting in his pocket. I looked around and saw a pile of pipes blocking the doors we came through. Sticking out of one of them was a statue. I picked up a discarded bottle on the floor and chucked it at it. The statue broke and the key slid out of the bottom of the pipe. I picked it up.
"Hey, check this out," said Sebastian. He was standing over by a medical machine. "What do you make of this?"
I took the piece of paper he held out of me.
SUBJECT NUMBER 18: CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: COMMENCING PROCEDURE.
2:45 – ABNORMAL BRAIN WAVE ACTIVITY DETECTED.
2:58 – CARDIAC ARREST; NON-RESUSCITABLE.
SUBJECT NUMBER 19: CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: COMMENCING PROCEDURE.
1:24 – ABNORMAL BRAIN WAVE ACTIVITY DETECTED.
1:48 – CARDIAC ARREST; NON-RESUSCITABLE.
SUBJECT NUMBER 20: CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: COMMENCING PROCEDURE.
1:43 – ABNORMAL BRAIN WAVE ACTIVITY DETECTED.
1:52 – CARDIAC ARREST; NON-RESUSCITABLE.
SUBJECT NUMBER 21: CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: COMMENCING PROCEDURE.
2:09 – ABNORMAL BRAIN WAVE ACTIVITY DETECTED.
2:14 – CARDIAC ARREST; NON-RESUSCITABLE.
SUBJECT NUMBER 22: CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: COMMENCING PROCEDURE.
1:02 – ABNORMAL BRAIN WAVE ACTIVITY DETECTED.
1:32 – CARDIAC ARREST; NON-RESUSCITABLE.
SUBJECT NUMBER 23:
3:31 – ABNORMAL BRAIN WAVE ACTIVITY DETECTED; HEART RATE, RESPIRATION, BLOOD PRESSURE, AND TEMPERATURE RISING.
4:24 – RECOVERY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
4:37 – STABILIZATION OF VITAL SIGNS . . . AT LAST!
Leslie.
I put the note in my bag.
"Hey, there's a way out." Sebastian pointed to a doorway.
The doorway led into a long hallway with several doors on either side partially open. At the other end looked to be a glowing mirror.
Something roared. We turned around and a giant form fell down from the ceiling of the room. Whatever it was wasn't human shaped. It charged after us, breaking the doorway and filling the width of the hallway. Sebastian and I ran.
The hallway seemed to get longer and longer the more we ran. The monster was catching up to us.
Get to the door. Get to the door.
I tried using my abilities. We got closer to the door, but then it started pulling away again. I strained as I tried to keep the door from moving.
Get to the door. You're not killing us here, Ruvik!
The door stopped moving. Sebastian and I ran through it and the door shut behind us. Everything was quiet. There was no banging, no sounds of the monster chasing us, it just all stopped. I put my hands on my knees and caught my breath.
"That was close," I panted, feeling drained.
I straightened up and looked around. We were in the safe haven reception area. The nurse was nowhere in sight. The door to the upgrade room was closed. There was someone standing on the other side of it.
Sebastian noticed, too. He pushed me back behind him. In the next second, Ruvik appeared in front of Sebastian. Sebastian raised his arm to protect himself and disappeared.
Ruvik turned his attention to me.
I backed up until my back hit the door. I reached back and fumbled for the door handle, but couldn't feel it. I looked back and saw it was gone. When I turned back, Ruvik was right in my face. I could see every scar on his face and the visible portion of his brain through the clear artificial skull.
"Wouldn't want to take your chances with the Amalgam Alpha, would you?" he asked.
Shit, it was still on the other side of the door? Why didn't it come after us?
Because we view this place as safe. We view this place as safe, but Ruvik is still here. He couldn't hurt us while in the safe haven.
I let my hand drop to my side and looked him in the eye. I wasn't sure if I could escape this time, but I didn't want him to see that I was scared.
"I'm beginning to see why Mobius sent you," said Ruvik. "You are able to manipulate this world; hide from my sight, escape from me, manipulate this reality. I saw what you are capable of in the underground passages. And all it took was a subtle nudge for you when you were irritated."
Crap! He saw all that! Wait.
"You messed with my head?" I asked.
The one corner of Ruvik's mouth twitched upward a hair. "You weren't one of the patients at Beacon. I would have remembered you if you were. Or perhaps . . ."
His hand shot out and grabbed at my face. He dug his fingers at my hairline and cheek with bruising force.
I slapped the hand away.
"No scarring from cosmetic surgery," he commented, unfazed.
He thought Mobius would have had someone undergo plastic surgery to impersonate Laura? Well, couldn't say that I would put it past them to do so.
"So what now?" I asked.
"Now?" repeated Ruvik. "I watch what you will do next."
I blinked.
What?
"I want to see what you have to offer Mobius," Ruvik went on. "Because no matter what you do, you're mine to do with as I please."
I wanted Élan to take a shot at Jimenez, because with re-watching gameplay the guy continues to really piss me off. Instead I had her take a verbal shot at him. And now Ruvik knows she has some power of his world.
Reminder that the poll for what you want to see from me this year is still up for the rest of the month and there is a tie currently, so if you wish to have a say, get your vote in.
