Chapter : An Ordinary day (Part 3)
—Cael Lucian
Pant Pant Pant
"SCHEISSE. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT"
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? NO ACTUALLY WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!
"YOU THINK I KNOW???" Jeremy replied again, his voice full of annoyance and anger
"Tsk. Pipe it down kid. Don't acknowledge it" Old Man Randy muttered, when everyone was panicking and swarming, somehow he had dragged us all back to our living quarters, locking the door after everybody entered.
And for a while, we were just—Silent. While looking straight at the Old Man.
"Tsk. Don't you remember the number one rule? Don't ask questions." he said as he grunted
…
"Randy, as a team—The fact is, we have our own little personal things, but you seem to know something that could potentially get us killed if left unknown." With a smile he said as he looked at the Old Man. Yet he wouldn't budge.
"Tsk. Old Man, don't be stubborn now." Trying his best to persuade The Old Man as he gave that smile. A smile that basically means I want something from you so please give it to me. Of course such things are quite useless against an Old Man
"HMmph." Yet he only let a Hmph, before turning his head away, of course such actions only serve to annoy the team leader even further.
"Hahhhh… Randy.." Here's the thing about old guys, you don't push them, you push them once, they'd be pissed for a while, you pushed them twice, they ain't talking to you for a week, not even Jeremy'd cross the line with the Old Man.
The team had learned this the hard way across a year of shared shifts, and even Jeremy, who pushed everything until he gets it on principle, had filed it away as a specific exception. So the silence held, for a solid 5 minutes, before of course—Someone had to crash out
"AH SCHEISSE. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE." It was Jeremy of course.
THUD
"Randy." Jeremy slammed his notebook on the table between them and opened it to the first marked entry. A Tall Man. Very Tall. Black Suit. Red Tie. No Face*.* "How many times have you written something you don't remember writing?"
Randy only looked at the page, his expression still unchanging, but eyes don't lie, there's even a quote about it, I don't really remember it though.
"I have five entries." Jeremy's voice was flat. The tone that meant he'd already run the numbers. "Zero memory of any of them. Whatever that thing is, it's been in my notebook for a while. So if whatever you're protecting us is related to this—"
He tapped the page.
"—it's already too late."
Grit.
Randy's jaw tightened. He looked at the notebook for a long moment. Then, subconsciously he looked at Jeremy, Me, Amanda before stopping at Eve. She was smiling. I don't know what sort of history those 2 have together, but it must've been a long one.
A look of recognition seemed to flash in Randy's eyes, before he muttered the same words he always did.
Tsk.
Stands
He stood up. Walked to the drawer under his bunk, and settled it on the table, it was a thin folder, see through as well, made with flimsy plastic, with only a few thin sheet of papers
"Sit down, all of you. This'll take a few minutes."
A quick glance at the report and it was all filled with incident reports, Psychological evaluation, and many more other things with many redacted words, however if one were ask what all these reports have in common, it was a single setence.
Subjects become increasingly distressed after repeated sightings of ████████, but for some reason the name of said Remnant was redacted. Why?
"Tsk. You happy now?" In a completely grumpy voice while crossing his hands, Randy muttered glaring daggers at Jeremy, to which he only showed a smirk with a nod as if mocking him. Well—Typical Jeremy…
But why is the name redacted though-? System? I asked subconsciously, and it delivered.
[Cognito Hazard] Before turning to [1] Wait when did I use the first question??? I didn't remember asking anything…
"Is it dangerous if we know it's name?" I asked
!!!
"Your sharp kid." Old Man Randy had this weird look of satisfaction somehow it looked like those looks you see in anime's where the parent's satisfied with the child, Eve only nodded as Amanda had this confused look going ???.
"Wait, doesn't that mean I'm already targeted?" Jeremy asked, his voice turning into a slight panic.
"Tsk. As long as you don't know what it actually is, it doesn't matter."
"Well, that's reassuring" Jeremy said as he sighed of relief placing his hand on his chest.
"S-s-say if knowing even it's name could bring harm, doesn't that mean it's like SCP-096?" Amanda suddenly muttered, as everyone else had a look of confusion, I took over to explain, as a fictional lover Of course I know who that is
"Well, SCP-096, more commonly known as 'The Shy Guy' will basically kill you no matter where you are if you look at his face, even if it's a single pixel, if you look, it knows and you'll be dead."
"Ah, one of those rule type Remnants then." Jeremy nodded as he seemed to smirk.
"Old Man, what are the rules of this Remnant? If we know it's rules we can avoid it"
Grunts
"Old Man."
"Tsk."
"The rules." With a tone even more forceful then before, Jeremy the team leader tried his best to persuade him
"I heard you the first time. Kid"
"THEN WHY—"
"Knowing the rules means acknowledging it." Old Man Randy's voice flat, as if issuing a warning, a line that shouldn't be cross, as if his decision is set in stone and nobody I mean nobody would be able to persuade him to change his mind.
But you see, Jeremy doesn't exactly have 'composure'
"LISTEN HERE OLD MAN, WE ALREADY SAW IT, THE WARS ALREADY STARTED, WE CAN'T BACK AWAY ANYMMORE WHATEVER—"
BZZZT
"Tsk." The lights in our room flickered once more, and with it so did our composure.
"E-E-E-E-EEEEKKKKKK"
Grab
"AMANDA YOUR BREAKING MY HAN—OW OW OW OW OW" Eve's small cries could be heard as she tried to pull her hand to obviously no avail. She is the Muscle Monster for a reason after all…
"Don't Fear it." Old Man Randy's voice was cool, calm, professional, like a mentor telling a newbie how to do things.
"That's the first rule, the second. Don't Acknowledge it The second you do, It acknowledges you to." Everybody had turned silent as we all looked at Old Man Randy.
"As long as you don't acknowledge what it is, we'll be fine." He continued. But honestly those rules, they sounded rather familiar, like something I recognized, something old, something ancient.
Raise
"What is it Amanda?" I asked, as she took her phone out and opened roblox, before typing something really fast and showing it to all of us the thumb nail of a roblox game.
"Isn't that Slenderman?" and right as she muttered those words—
BZZZZZTTTT CLICK FWOOOSHHHH
…
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???
"AMANDA?!?!"
"SCHEISSE."
"TSK"
"My handdddddddd Ouchhhhhhhhh—"
Curses and words came from my colleagues, but it was too late, just like Jeremy said, The wars already started. SYSTEM?!?!? ANY HELP?
[8 Pages.] it went before turning silent.
…
FUCK WHY DID I ASK IT IN A PANIC??? But it no longer mattered, our entire quarters had turned completely dark, along with it what seemed to be thick fog seemed to appear everywhere. Obscuring everything 5 meters ahead.
"Eight pages." catching everyone's attention, in a low voice I said.
"In one of the games, you had to collect 8 pages to make it leave you alone for a bit, that was the only way to beat it."
"Scheisse—So even if we survive this shit we'll be haunted by it till we die?"
"The Silentium's probably got something to help us—If we survive this of course" Eve said in a slight cheerful tone, obviously trying to toughen us up—But her trembling hands hardly made the act believable
"Tsk."
"So? what do these pages look like?" Jeremy said, having regained his composure it seems—Probably not but. No use in prying open such things.
"They look like insane scribbles, and in the game—at the very least the more pages you find the angrier he gets and the more active he becomes in trying to kill you"
Silence
"Doesn't that mean we'll die either way?" Said Jeremy with a flat tone.
…
"W-w-well… In the roblox version you could escape…" Amanda muttered weakly, her face looking extremely guilty. But there was no time to to care, no time to procrastinate. No time to blame others. Such things were privileges we didn't have.
"Better die trying." Old Man Randy finally spoke again as we readied ourselves to face. This Remnant, whether we like it or not. To survive. If we can
—Amanda
Step Step Tremble
The fog had swallowed everything the bunks, the table, the drawer where Old Man Randy kept his folder—all had somehow become a gray void with no walls. I could still feel the floor under my feet. It was the only proof I was still here.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Why did you do that Amanda?
Tremble
My hands were shaking. They'd been shaking since the cafeteria, since the lights flickered and that thing appeared between the tables, since I grabbed Evelyn's hand too hard and heard her yelp in pain. I didn't mean to.
I never mean to. But when I get scared, I just panic and make mistakes a-aa—and now I-I'd named it. I doomed us all
Don't acknowledge it. Don't say what it is. And I'd opened my phone and shown everyone the Roblox thumbnail and said the name out loud like it was nothing, stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid. whyareyousostupidAmanda?whyhwhy
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"
"Amanda." Cael's voice, it was steady. But he was scared too—I could hear it in his breathing—but he wasn't yelling. "No use crying over spilt milk." in a calm manner he said
"But I—"
"You knew the game," he said. "You've played these games before, you know the rules. That's useful."
Useful??? I'd just doomed us all and he was calling it useful.
Fwoooshhhh
The fog pressed closer. Somewhere ahead, Old Man Randy's footsteps crunched on something—broken glass, maybe? I could hear Jeremy scribbling something, Evelyn was still beside me, still holding my hand.
I couldn't see her face but I could hear her breathing, the same steady rhythm from the algae tank, one that never seemed to panic even in bad situations. B-b-but.. It's probably a mask… We all have masks. We're all humans.
Always pretending. Always showing a different side to every person.
We all are.
The quote Cael half remembered being : The eyes are the window to the soul