SATURDAY AUGUST 6TH, 2011
(Don't Speak Its True Name VI: The Ghost)

12:00 AM
We took some time to finish our coffees, then Lilith had us get equipped. She took us to some more rooms (this building has so many rooms!) and gave us hazmat suits. Fentzy asked if we're dealing with something radioactive, but apparently that's inconclusive, and the suits are to make us feel safer.
I've asked to see a map, and she's gone digging for a paper one I can carry around with me.

12:01 AM
danny "Yo, so, uh, are we really gonna stick around for this? Shouldn't we just dip?"
fentzy "Well, how bad could it be?"
danny "That's a question with no upper limit."
She's asking us for help. I don't know if she'd want us to die in the process.
donnie "We did kill a bunch of her security…"
bones "So it could be a trap. For revenge."
danny "We really should just go. There's no way she's not tricking us."
she's back.
"Having second thoughts? That's not surprising. But there are five of you, and you have weapons."
she's brought Danny's machete.
gave it to him.
he's looking at it. at her.
lilith "Wouldn't you at least like to see what I'm asking you to deal with? I do have a plan."

12:02 AM
Paper maps.
The warehouse is a separate building that's slotted into this one, making the overall structure a clean rectangle, but this building itself, with the offices and labs and corridors, is more of an L.
It has three floors. All three have similar layouts, though each floor has an additional corridor somewhere exclusive to it. The first floor is the only one that connects to the warehouse.
The monster is currently loose on the third floor. Lilith thinks it's gotten into the vents.
She doesn't want us to kill it, because it is a spidercat spliced with important technology. "It was an experiment." We want to protect the merchandise. And Lilith wants that technology back.

12:03 AM
Down the corridor that led to the cages, but in the other direction, is a stairwell. Up we go.
The doors to the third floor are currently blocked with a broom through the handles. "Just in case."
Lilith will hang back, but we have been given a cat carrier.
We're removing the broom.
danny "feel like a bunch of chumps."

12:04 AM
"here, kitty... here, kitty kitty…"
"this is so stupid. what the fuck are we doing."
"kitty... kitty kitty… little pussycat..."
"thirty-one waves of professionals couldn't wrangle a fucking cat? and we supposedly could?"
"baby? where's the little baby, where are you, little cabbage?"
"I had trouble even getting my cat to the vet… this one's got eight legs!"
"tch tch tch tch, kitty! cat cat!! where cat? where are you, cattacat?"
"how many security guards are even in a wave? we fought like a dozen of them. that was just one wave? how many guards does the Genera have? where does it get the money? especially now?"
"bubbly-boo, where are you? little bubba... weetohl buhhbba…"
"and this technology! way to be specific, lady! it could be as simple as a tracking chip or as dangerous as laser beams coming out of its eyes. we were given hazmat suits, for fuck's sake!"

12:05 AM
The third floor has dim lights, many of which are flickering. The bulbs haven't been changed in a while.
This floor's exclusive corridor is down near where the corridor would connect to the warehouse, but instead it keeps going and takes a right turn where I'd expect it to turn left.
And it's down there that we hear skittering in the walls.
pit pat. pitter pat.
Bones has the cat carrier at the ready.
We were given keys to open any of the doors we need, to find the vent where we can get at this cat.
We picked a door.
We hear meows.
We're going to remove the vent cover.

12:06 AM
REEEOWWWWW
HISSSSS
"I'VE GOT IT! I'VE GOT IT-- SATAN'S STEAMING CUNT"
RRRRRRRRRRRRRAO
skitter-skatter pitter-patter pat pat pat pat…
it ran back into the vent.
okay, cats are bad enough to wrangle when they only have four sets of claws.
everyone's groaning.
back to listening for where it's gone.

12:08 AM
"here kitty... cat cat c-cat cat cat... we're not gonna hurt you... do we have any, like, treats for it or anything?"
"my fucking hazmat suit's torn up, he scratched my arm. someone else needs to take the lead next time. can't fucking believe this is what we're doing."
"little meow meow! oh little meow meow! little mrrkgnao! little tower-jumper with your little pink button-nose!"
"did anyone see anything different about that cat? it looked normal to me. so at least we're not dealing with laser eyes. maybe it is a tracking device. or some weird vaccine deal."
"oh youuu are a kitty-cat, youuu arrre a cat, youuu are a kitty-cat, and kitty is your name, rrowr!"
"this is such bullshit."

12:10 AM
..you hear that?
movement from this room. doesn't even sound like it's in a vent.
who's got the keys? bones, give me that carrier, you try to get the cat this time.

12:11 AM
dark room, lights off, but there's desks and computers here much like Lilith's office.
..the cat ran straight into the carrier and made itself small. o_o
fentzy's a little pale. what's. what's wrong?
"I thought I saw something for a moment. But this room's empty now."
bones "Shit, you saw that too?"
"Wait, it wasn't just in my head? What'd you see?"
"A fucking ghost? Walked right through the wall."
A. what? o__o
bones "It had a mangled face and was looking right at us, walking backwards into that wall right there. I think it's what scared the spidercat."
..let's go to lilith. please. I don't like ghosts.
bones "No complaint from me."

12:12 AM
On the way back to the stairwell, Danny volunteered to watch our six and see if anything appeared behind us. Just in case.
Entering the stairwell, he said "fuck" and hurried us through the doors. We passed Lilith on the second floor, telling her to just.. come with us, we didn't want to talk there.

12:13 AM
Lilith's lab.
She took the cat carrier from us. "That was fast. Can I.. hire you guys? Full-time?" looked at us for a moment. "..something wrong?"
fentzy "You didn't tell us there was a ghost up there."
lilith "A what? What did you see?"
fentzy "We only saw it for a moment before it walked through a wall. It was pale, mangled, and vaguely human-y."
lilith "Human? Mangled? Through a wall?"
danny "It was crawling across the floor. But it was like something else's approximation of 'crawling.' Its limbs rotated like wheels on axles." he's looking around the room, like I do when I've just seen a spider. "Pale skin. Really smooth. The eyes had static.. like, TV static... You have, like, all these top-secret projects and stuff. Anything you're not telling us about the third floor?"
she's thinking. taking this seriously.
lilith "..no? There's.. projects up there, yes, and it's stuff you don't need to know about, but it's in the nature of information on computers, some petri dishes. You say this thing is on the third floor, for sure?"
bones "We didn't see it until like ten minutes into our search. But I get the feeling that cat hadn't even seen it until then either, which tells me it just got here."
Does it sound familiar to you, Lilith? Is it anything you can explain?
lilith "No. Even amongst the fossils, the, uh, gods, I've never known something to pass through walls. Maybe Passacaglia? I guess that might also account for limbs on axles? But if multiple people are seeing the same thing, then I have no idea?"
!!! noise.
sounded like powered machinery shutting down.
...the lights went off.
lilith turned on a flashlight.
"What in the world...?"
donnie "Do you have any more of those? Flashlights."
"There's another over there, next to Abe. Listen, uh, I don't recognize this thing you saw, and dramatic timing all but screams at me that it's probably what turned the power off. Maybe we should.. leave."
donnie's got the extra flashlight. SCREAMED
ran to us.
"LOOK"
the wall, near where she got the flashlight. a face is poking through.
eyes filled with static bleeding out noisily. mouth is all teeth, too many teeth, poking out through a closed mouth.
while I was writing all that the others said a lot of things but point is we're going now, going now, going now

12:14 AM
to the warehouse.
through the warehouse.
past the corpses.
the corpses are raising. zombies.
just slip past them. jesus christ they're nothing.
get to the car.
just get to the car!!
the car has space for five, and there's six of us. plus the damn spidercat.
donnie "oh fuck it, jordan I'm sitting on your lap."
fentzy "that works. lilith, either keep the cat on your lap, or leave it, I don't care which. I'm driving."
the zombies are screeching. sounds like they're being torn to shreds.

12:15 AM
We're in, and we're off. Jordan can't write in this position, so I've got the journal again.
As we pulled away, we could see a gnarled figure move into the parking lot, limbs pointing in illogical directions, eyes glowing and flickering and wide, a mouth of teeth opening wide and letting out a scream that sounded like... a normal human's.

12:34 AM
We have been talking with Lilith.
She truly doesn't know what the creature is that we encountered. She's spent some time trying to identify what it might be but has drawn a blank. She says the only Fear that can do anything close would be the Musicians, but Jordan was assertive about this not being them, and Lilith agreed, as the Musicians' hallucinations are supposed to be centered on one subject at a time.
So instead, we've asked Lilith to tell us about the people held in pods. That was what she had agreed to tell us in exchange for securing the spidercat, after all.
The pods in the trucks contained the original citizens of Dominiere, who were Canadians from across the country who had died long ago. They weren't.. actually residents of Dominiere, as they died before the town even existed, but they do serve as the models for the current population.
Lilith came from the UK branch of the Topography Genera Center and had flown over to Canada to do some field research when she discovered an instance of underscore beginning to grow, so she proposed to her higher-ups that she run a program to study the process. They accepted, with a catch: Rather than allow people to wander in and get taken by the town organically, she was to make use of the Genera's connections and include another Fear.
So: Zombies. The people in the pod are all zombies.
But that still doesn't account for the full details. We had been in Dominiere for five days and didn't notice anything strange about the people there; they did not look like zombies.
And that gets into why the Archangel agreed to be involved in this project, the full details of which Lilith is not privy to; she has had to piece together even that what she knows.
The Archangel came to the Genera shortly after the apocalypse began, that much she knew. She can surmise he came to trade notes and to make use of their expertise. She suspects he sought to learn the truth about Indisen. And she knows he succeeded, because.
The citizens of Dominiere, the people that we met, are Indisen. They are Indisen off-shoots of his own zombies.
Lilith's team, studying underscore, used zombies to (somehow) produce Indisen who were given to the town in sacrifice, to become the lifeblood of Dominiere.
And that's the story Lilith gave us. It's spotty, but it's all she knows.

12:42 AM
Rauri wants to drive us into Vancouver, where we can find a place to sleep. Lilith can figure out what she's doing in the morning.
My poor Jordan needs that sleep.

1:04 AM
These streets are wrought with potholes.
These house windows scattered with cracks.
Very few cars are left here. The people who once lived here might have decided to move closer to the city centre.
What's left are houses not even scavengers would want.

1:18 AM
got the journal back.
we just.. took the first house we saw that was anything like decent.
danny and fentzy want to sleep on the ground floor, listen for intruders. I think bones is down there with them too.
lilith is doing something in the back garden, I don't know.
donnie and I are sleeping here on the second floor.

11:37 AM
FINE FINE I'm getting up
just want to sleep forever.

11:38 AM
today's another scorcher, even up this far north.
donnie wants to have a meeting and actually, like. figure out what we're doing.

11:40 AM
I'm not even the last one to wake up. Huh.
Gotta wait for Danny. And Fentzy's in the bathroom.
I see Lilith out there in the yard, behind the house.

11:41 AM
She's got bowls of cat food and water next to her, and she's watching the spidercat roll around in the grass.
They are pretty cute. I'm thankful they don't really move like spiders.
"It's not used to the extra legs. Apocalypse or no, it's still a cat."
chirp
Now it's licking itself as it lays on its side.

11:42 AM
"So, you know about the Fears?"
Yeah. What'd you call them, Fossils?
"Genera policy. Hard to shake."
I do know about them. I've been dealing with them since not long after the red sky.
"And you talk to them?"
When they let me. Some of them aren't the talking sort and just try to kill me instead.
"But some of them do talk. What is it like? To talk with them?"
It's not the most calming! Sometimes I kinda forget that, with the more friendly ones, but then they remind me that they're.. eldritch and shit. Do you know Salmacis?
"EAT. Do you talk to EAT?"
Y. Yeah. Am I not supposed to?
"I hardly think you're 'supposed to' talk to any of them, but EAT? Something about that one gives me the creeps most of all."
It's.. taken to me. Even when it's scary, it's protective of me.
"You know what it's capable of?"
That's a hell of a question. It has countless bodies, human and bird alike. It can bend and change the bodies to its will. ..her will?
"'It' and 'Her,' never 'She.' It maintains all her bodies simultaneously, independently. It could be having completely opposite conversations with other humans at the same time it talks to you. It spreads via water, which is a damn good vector for contagion. And it's been here for a long time."
Here, like, Earth? Haven't they all?
"Some are short-term, trading places with new Fears once a decade, sometimes even once a year. A rare few are long-term. EAT is long-term. Everything we know about her points to an age of billions of years. And EAT doesn't trade. It's been the same EAT all this time."
..it did tell me it was our god. Which, like, they all are. But EAT seemed.. dead serious. I'd have thought you guys would have loved her, though? Salmacis is all about the science, the knowledge, the cooperation.
"EAT? Cooperation? I don't think 'cooperation' is in her vocabulary. I haven't kept up with our studies into her; I've spent the last few months focused on underscore. But before the apocalypse, EAT viewed the Genera as competition. Our policy was to avoid her at all costs. The last I'd checked, it was still trying to break into and take over our Icelandic branch. We'd lost many good minds to her."
But meanwhile you guys were making deals with the Archangel, of all things. What'd you call him last night? Hades?
"That's our.. internal designation for him. He's not really evil, you know. I mean, I haven't spoken to him, but from what I'm told, he's just very selfish. He navigates social situations through power games, so as long as you can make a deal with him, he will respect that."
Do you know what he did to San Francisco?
"What I saw on the TV suggests it was the Judge that did that."
Yeah, but before that happened, like the day before, he'd managed to manipulate thousands of people to a bloody death. Massacre in the streets. I was there for it.
"Huh. Well, do you know what EAT did in the last underscore I'd seen?"
Evidently not?
"A colleague of mine, Blackcap, had found it during some fieldwork. He didn't even know about underscore at the time; he reported in that he'd found EAT's Camper moving in on a town. I was sent to assist him, and when I got there, the death toll was already in the tens of thousands. EAT had figured out that the people had fallen prey and were defenseless, and had seized on the opportunity. Not even to take bodies, but to practice murder. Literally, practice."
o_o But isn't underscore, like. Another Fear? A baby Empty City?
"The Fears aren't all friends with each other. EAT preyed on that baby city like it had found a freshly laid egg. And with all the people dead, her Camper tore up the foundations of the town to get at the blood and guts and transfer fluid circulating in the sewers. It knew this was a living town, and it drained it of blood and left it to die mid-vivisection."
Jesus.
"You say EAT's cooperating with you? Maybe even it's protective? That's great if true. Use her for all it's worth. But know the context: It is a Fear, not a human. If it has no use for you, you are fodder."

11:45 AM
Back inside. Still processing all that. But it's time for our meeting.
Lilith's staying outside, as she's not part of the group, though she thanks us for our hospitality.
We're here in a front room, sitting on the floor in a circle. Danny, Bones, me, Donnie, Fentzy.
bones "Alright, uh. I should start us off by saying, like. I know my last attempt to navigate Xanadu landed us in a sticky situation. And I'm sorry for that. But, I'd be willing to try that again, like, if that's what we decide on."
donnie "That's good to know. We have that option."
fentzy "Yeah, we don't blame you for how that went, Derek. Or, I mean, I know I don't."
danny "It's whatever."
I nodded
donnie "But it might actually be to our benefit to stay in Canada for a while? How many Fears have we run into up here? Versus the whole ensemble down in the States."
counting zombies, we have run into at least four, including two we'd never seen before.
donnie "Four? I know you found the Musicians, but what was the fourth?"
woman in the mirror.
bones "Should zombies really count? They're not like.. eyes for the Archangel, from what you guys have been saying."
donnie "Okay, well, four in a week is maybe a bit higher frequency than I'd thought. Maybe three, maybe we shouldn't count the zombies. But, actually, the Musicians and the woman in the mirror are both following you, Jordan, so maybe they shouldn't count for or against a particular location."
fair enough. was just answering a question.
danny "The Fears are following Jordan? What?"
donnie "They've been.. rather harmless ones, all things considered."
danny "Still, I feel like that's something worth talking about?"
fentzy "If you want to leave the party and go out on your own, you're free to."
danny "Hey, I'm not saying that!"
yeah he's not saying that. it's a good concern to have. I obviously can't promise we'll fix it. actually I think the Musicians are on our side now? haven't seen them since the other day, can't update that. the woman in the mirror, though, I'm pretty sure cannot hurt us, she's confined to mirrors. she actually tipped us off about the genera.
donnie "I can attest, from months of travel with him, that we're not in any more danger than we'd be just running into Fears blindsided."
danny "Alright, yeah. Sure."
donnie "So, do we.. do we have any ideas on where we need to go?"
well. I do have a thought.
bones "Bring it, bro."
so, like. this whole time Donnie and I have had plans. first we wanted to leave England, and it took us a month but that's what we managed to do. then we were headed west, but it wasn't actually for anything in California; we were trying to pursue the Ciphers, on Tiresias's instigation and Salmacis's advice. the rabbit holes we entered on the way got us close enough. like, I can't claim to know how intrauniverse navigation really works in there, maybe we'd have found the Ciphers from any rabbit hole if we dug deep enough. but that is what we were doing. and anyway, so, we've finished the Ciphers. we took care of the last of them just before meeting you three.
and. what comes next is something about Knights. I remember that much. I can probably find the right journal, hang on...

11:48 AM
huh. tiresias just mentioned Seven Dialogues. where did I get "Knights" from?
bones "I'm especially baffled, because next is the Seven Knights."
what?
bones "Yeah. You remember Operation Ground and Pound? The, uh, DragonForce we did? The guitar duel."
yeah. yeah, that was weird. I never did ask you about that, I'd always just assumed you were as confused as I was? it was just another rabbit hole, xanadu being weird.
bones "It was the first of seven guitar duels with the Knights of Xanadu."
the what? you're joking.
bones "Nah, I thought it was a joke when I was first told about it at the start of the red sky, I was visited by some freaky prophet and told, if I lived long enough to see it, I'd need to take my plastic guitar and duel the Lamb. That's actually why I brought my Les Paul with me all this time."
the Lamb. is that supposed to be.. me?
bones shrugged. "I dunno, man. That does seem to be what the information's pointing to."
danny "Who was the prophet?"
bones "It's.. been a while, I remember the words more than the person, but I think it was some guy in a robe."
fentzy "Oh, of course. Naturally."
bones "So when the world went silent for half an hour, and then you came walking into the fancy starfield, and I saw an extra guitar controller by my feet, I.. thought to give it a try. And then DragonForce happened."
So you're.. a Knight of Xanadu?
bones "Yeah. That's what made me want to spend time in the Doors in the first place."
So. So. So next up will be another guitar duel. It'll still be in the rabbit holes, I take it? Since that one was. So we should still be looking for Doors.
donnie "More Doors. Got it."
fentzy "Would it make sense to.. start.. heading... east?"
donnie "Why east?"
fentzy "Like when you guys headed west. It gave you more time to focus on looking for Doors, you had plenty of wiggle room, and. God, how do you say it. It's just easier?"
danny "Like we head east in the real world, which will take a while before we need to change direction. Gives us more time to find Doors. It's optimal for focusing on Xanadu navigation. Right?"
fentzy "Yes! Thank you."
donnie "Alright, I think that makes sense. That gives us a plan. Unless anyone else has something more specific they need to do?"
I think everyone here is from the east coast anyway, you and me excepting. so whatever people might want to do is already over in that direction.
donnie "Ah, right. Okay, then shall we.. settle on that? Head east, but our ultimate goal is really these Knights. Or maybe anyone who can tell us more about them."
fentzy "Yeah!"
bones "Cool with me."
danny "Go team!"
:D

11:53 AM
Danny went and got Lilith. We're getting back into the car. Gonna look for supplies first, and maybe a better car, with more seats. Then we're heading east.
But for now, gotta give the journal to Donnie, 'cause it's time to get sat on!

12:09 PM
What tongueless ghost of sin crept through my curtains?

12:23 PM
We found a Wholesale Club. There should be some nonperishables inside. Food is good.

12:24 PM
The lights are on in here, and we hear voices.
In the centerre of the store are several people. They see us and look with some suspicion.
"What do you want?"
fentzy "Food."
"You can't have any flapjacks. They're ours."
fentzy "That's okay. Have you got any canned stuff?"

12:25 PM
We've been making conversation.
This is just.. a bunch of people who've set up here. They had been living in the area, and after Wholesale closed down they were skeptical that there'd still be anything left inside, but apparently it was abandoned just after a fresh restock.
They've been living in a squatter's heaven for about a month now. They brought tents and camping supplies from the nearby MEC, and the area is not lost for additional shops. It's Vancouver!
They're suspicious of anyone coming by, as they'd been able to keep the stock going with some rationing, and they've had some run-ins with "traitors and bandits" before. This also means they're not gonna open up to us beyond what we reasonably need, but that's fine, we weren't gonna stay here.
And the cat's gotta stay in its carrier.

12:31 PM
Refrigerators are kept running with generators; there's still a dairy aisle. Jesus, score. It's been ages since I've just pigged out on a good block of cheese.
Lilith is surprised at this. "The amount of energy required to keep this food fresh is.. a lot."

12:32 PM
Danny's grabbed an armful of packs of hot dogs. "They're good hot or cold." Is that.. actually true? "I don't care, they're hot dogs, I've been craving these. They got any ketchup?"

12:33 PM
Fentzy's got some little boxes of pocky from the candy aisle, and some packets of easy-to-make pasta. I guess it's not out of the question that she can find a way to prepare them. And they just need water.
I see Bones sneaking a whole carton of Monster cans inside his jacket, looking around to see if anyone saw.

12:34 PM
Donnie's found the Canadian pot noodles! ooh get me some beef
"I saw slim jims in the last aisle" can't hear you, already gone to grab them

12:35 PM
We've all put some food in the car for now, Fentzy wants to watch over our stuff, but some of us are going back in.
Lilith's with the residents here, talking.
She's asking about how they keep the fridges on.
"It's the damndest thing. They just never turned off. They've always been on."
"But the wattage... where does this building get its power?"
"Well, there's the trucks..." the others shut him up.
"Trucks? Where, out back? I want to see."

12:36 PM
Big blue trucks. No logos, no text besides the health and safety.
Thick wires go into the back doors, open by a crack.
I'm looking at Lilith. I don't know if we should open these.
But she's madly curious.
Inside is a long, long passageway with cool white walls and dried muck on the ground. Like I might find in the basement of an old hospital, where they take the bodies to dispose of them. It stretches into darkness.

into darkness
The cables carry on down the body chute.
As soon as we climbed into the trucks and took our first step onto solid rock, we heard a distant screech echo from the other end of the corridor.
It sounded human, but near the edges of what sounds a human will make.
Lilith needs to see for herself. She's walking on.
I'm looking back at the Earth behind us, reluctant to go digging in this rabbit hole.

predator
Lilith has stopped. I'm coming up from behind.
She's stopped because there's two glowing eyes deeper ahead.
They've seen us.
Something scratches a wall.
The eyes dart closer. Closer.
Something heavily pants.
Says two words in a torn and jagged voice.
A name.
"Lilywhite... Lilith…"
Into our vision crawls the ghost with a mangled face of teeth.
And everything spins around me, or is it me that spins? Start to revolve.

revolve
When the spinning stops, I
I'm in
the Genera. The labs, the corridor of doors, and not the first floor.
I feel a gaping emptiness inside. Like something has been drained from me.
The lights are off. I have a flashlight.
I am alone. People are screaming, coming from below.
More people rush out of the doors around me. They're security guards, with their own flashlights, and with military-grade weaponry.
They see me. They do not point their weapons. They expected to see me.
One gestures for me to keep close, and stay behind. They'll protect me.

stairwell
We exit double doors into the stairwell. A sign on the wall says "5." The fifth floor. There weren't that many floors.
The building rumbles.
The stairs stop at the fourth floor. We have to cross the floor to get to the next set of stairs.

4
Following the guards, pointing my flashlight at the walls, the doors are all labelled with names. Harold Demure, Lucius Sunsetto, Wormwood, Bishop, Mad Man Moon. More.
The building rumbles again.
The corridor turns more times than it should.
I hear a guard utter "location warping."
Another replies "we must be dealing with a new one."
"you know the drill. diamond formation. look for stairs. they might not be where we expect. keep your eyes peeled for monsters."
They surround me, walking in formation, scanning the walls, the doors, the floor, the ceiling.
And we walk, stopping when we hear noises. Something falling over. Tapping that might be footsteps or pipes.
We walk until we reach the stairs.

3
This floor is recognizable. This is the third floor of the labs. The stairs we came out of were not there before.
We walk a little faster now, getting closer to the ground floor. Getting closer to Lilith.
then a guard steels his breath and shoves me, as hard as he can, out of the way and into a door.
and the ghost rolls and crawls and skitters its way through the corridor, raking the guards with claws so long they pass right through the floors.
the claws do not pass through the guards.
the teeth do not pass through the guards.
with one motion, the ghost opens its jaw, revealing insides of absolutely nothing at all, not black void, not the corridor behind the ghost, but a cascading mirror effect that bleeds into my eyes.
like the area behind a map in a video game. which snaps a realization into place in my panicking head. the limbs making crawling motions yet rotating on axles... the flickering static of the eyes, like textures fighting for priority... the inconsistent proportions stretched out to pass through the floors and walls, like clipping...
the ghost is a glitch. a glitch in reality.
and then its jaw motion concludes, with a fetid chomp.
tearing holes in the guards through which its center of mass slides.
the ghost passes and goes right through the wall at the end of the hall.
the guards are mangled messes, bleeding out, organs mingling in a pile, those with their heads intact are screaming and coughing and begging.
their guns are on the floor.
...I shoot them all to put them out of their misery.
and now I'm alone again.
u_u

stairs to 2
On the stairwell down to the second floor, I heard heavy breathing, felt it on the back of my neck.

2
The hallway here is redder. It's not blood, it's not the light, it's just... everything is redder. Like the textures have been replaced with identical ones with an added hue.
I can hear someone crying. It could be Lilith. I've got to find her.
Do any of these doors open?

room of red
Endless expanse, vault of stars.
Far in the distance are a crowd of figures. They're emitting red. They're coming closer.
They know my name.

2
Closed that door.
I hear the pitter-patter of rolling footsteps as something crawls around the corner up ahead.
Trying the next door.

just a lab
Thank god.
Gonna.. make myself small and hide out in here for a second. Hope the ghost just crawls past.
I can hear it making noises. "hhhhhh" and "eb. eb. eb."
step step. step step.
its limbs jut through the walls into here.
it's passing.

2
I poked my head out in time to see it pass through another wall.
I'm nearly at the stairwell.
should I make a run for it?
is it attracted to noises? is it just patrolling at random?
why has it even latched onto this building?
fuck it. making a run for it.

stairs to 1
I fell down the stairs.
I just. I took the first step, and then I felt like my stomach got ejected out of my throat.
I feel so empty. so fucking drained.
what is it doing to me?
but it hasn't come to the stairs. it's leaving me be.
I've gotta get up. I've gotta keep going.
If Lilith's still here, she'll know what to do.

1
walls of blood. oozing red. soaked in it.
all the directions, all the corridors, terminate in blinding glowing TV static. all the directions except the one where I'm going.
Lilith's lab.
breathing down the back of my neck.
claws grabbing my shoulders.
like it's riding on my back.
but when I look, there's nothing there.
body draining of energy. I feel pale. I feel like I'm going to fucking die.
Lilith!

lilywhite lilith
She's hiding under a table, pointing a pistol at me with shaking hand. Recognizing me. Lowering her hand. Tears in her eyes, sobbing.
"I shouldn't have been so curious. I shouldn't have taken this fucking job. I should have.. known. I should have seen it coming."
What? C'mon, we need to get out of here.
"That thing. That thing is no Fossil. That thing is human."
...what?
"That thing is Doctor Cloud."
.....what.
"He wanted to find me. He wanted to.. he wanted to…"
Kill you?
"God, no! He's my husband!"
..okay look, ordinarily I'd love nothing more than to sit here and patiently let you talk it all out, I'd love all kinds of answers, but we really can't stick around here. if that ghost is what happened to Doctor Cloud, if he's your husband, then, maybe you're fine, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to die. I need to leave. and I need your help with that.
"I'm not fine!! The abyss did that to my Cloud! He's a monster now! If he's not here to kill me, I don't.. I don't want to know… is he going to turn me into a monster too?"
Lilith, please, how do we get out of here? I need you. >_< I need your smarts, I need your inquisitive bravery, I need your nerves of steel!
"What do you need me for?! You've got the bravery, you're inquisitive, you're the kid who stands up to the gods!! Don't you hear the voices?"
The. Voices.
"They're coming from the other room. I can hear them through the walls, through the screams, through the... oh god."
…
Behind me is the ghost.
The mangled remains of Doctor Cloud.
He's here.

the ghost
"lilywhite... lilith…"
drool drops to the floor. his teeth are stretched so far, he can't close his mouth.
lilith "Stanford… what happened to you? What foul god did this to you?"
"lilith... lilith... I did this…"
stepping closer to her. moving at an even pace that does not match his limbs.
lilith "Yes, I suppose that.. would be true. You did this to yourself... when you found the Abyss."
"the abyss... is alive... our dead universe floats in a sea of life... and even the dead is life... I saw the.. the face of the abyss... I saw what waits inside... and it saw me... it saw our universe... it's coming... it's coming…"
Rapture...?
he looked at me, eyes boring into my skull. confused. I'm not supposed to be here.
"rapture was already coming... this is something else…"
lilith "What, Stanford? What's coming? What did you see?"
"I.. saw... red."
and with that, he grabbed her in his arms.
and all went white.

9:05 PM
And I woke up.
Took a moment to come to my senses. I didn't feel like I was dreaming, had to adjust to the new reality of being in bed.
Plus, the Musicians are standing in the corner of the room, so it's not like this feels any more real.
..Musicians?
"Rael. You are in grave danger. You need to leave right away."
What is it? Was it Doctor Cloud? Did he get me? Was he draining me? Did you guys save me? Where's Lilith?
"One at a time."
"Rael, this is not going to be easy to communicate to you."
"Perhaps we should ask him to describe his surroundings? Let him come to the realization on his own? And then we can provide clarity when he inevitably asks questions."
Describe my.. well, it's a room. It's, like, the room, nothing wrong with it. The bedroom. Y'know, where I've been staying.
Paper Mario's still on the TV, I must have fallen asleep playing it.
And I'm alone in bed, and the bathroom door's open, so Donnie's not in there, she.. went out.
She.
I.
No.
What?
No!
No, no, no, this isn't. I was dreaming, but, this has got to be the dream.
How can I. How can I tell? If I'm dreaming or not?
"Please, stay where you are, do not try to get up so quickly."
"You have lost a lot of fluids."
But. Please, tell me. How can I tell?
"In dreams and in reality, you will be engaged with the reality of your world. Experientially, the difference is very subtle, too subtle for you at this point in your life."
"We suppose that you cannot tell the difference."
"We suppose we ask you to trust us."
Trust you. But. But if you're right, then.
I'm still in Dominiere.
"And you never left."
o___o

9:13 PM
threw up. bathroom.
I'm paler than ever.
and there's a woman in the mirror.
"Good, they managed to wake you. I'm relieved."
I feel faint.
"I'm not surprised. The town has been feasting on you."
oh jesus. >_< the tubes and everything?
"Oh yes. They were working overtime. Ever since you stole a meal from its mouth, it needed to replace her."
Her? Stole. You mean.. Fentzy? That part was real?
"Mhm. It was brave of you. Sometimes you can be quite endearing."
But. That's when we left. What actually happened? Did you see?
"She left in a hurry. I bet she thought you were ahead of her."
Didn't the police chase her?
"Police? Chase? Is that what your dreams are like?"
...I guess so. o_o;;
"You were knocked unconscious after you left her room. The tubes dragged you back into your room and into bed."
Christ. Then I have no idea what happened to her, if she got away.
"And that's what you have us for, dear. With me, you have access to any mirror in the world. And with them, you have the rest."
You guys.. kept track? For me?
"I.. guess we did?"
But why?
"We said we would help."
"Well, we said that we would have to see."
"Yes, and we saw."
behind me now, hovering in the bathroom. the Musicians came in to join the conversation.
And you guys all worked together?
"I did tell you, we know each other. I find you fun to watch, so I didn't take much convincing. I don't want to see you die here."
Okay. Right. But I have questions. Specific questions.
…
So. First.
Was all of my dream a lie? We found Danny and Bones in a, like, warehouse, the Genera. We met someone named Lilith. There was a ghost. And she told us that Dominiere is something called underscore. Was that all fake?
"Well. No."
"Your dreams are a product of your mind, and as we have demonstrated to you, we can provide stimuli for your mind."
"Lilith is real, though none of you have met her. The Genera is real, and we have a working relationship with them. We have met Lilith through our connections. We know what she knows. As your dream took you, logically, to the nearest Genera waystation, we elected to insert her into the narrative there, as a means of filling you in on some things you needed to know."
"Dominiere is a.. what they call 'underscore.' It is an offshoot of the Empty City, one that latches onto other universes, such as your own, and pulls environmental nutrients until it is mature enough to travel the void on its own."
"There are many such underscores on Earth."
"You are in one of them."
And the. The people here are Indisen zombies?
"We found this revelation surprising too. There is a lot that the Archangel does not tell us. The same is said about the Genera. But Lilith was willing to impart this information to us."
"She did not tell us how the zombies produced Indisen, otherwise we would have included that."
Then. The ghost. Doctor Cloud.
"That part is unconfirmed."
o_o What?
"Last we checked, Lilith is still alive, working in the waystation, studying underscore, oblivious to anything wrong."
So you. Added the ghost thing just for, what, entertainment? To test me?
"While we would love to take credit for this, no, we had nothing to do with it."
"We suspect it was a manifestation of your body breaking down, trying to wake you up."
Right. Got it. I guess that's better than knowing it was real.
But then, okay, so what about my friends for real? What happened to Fentzy and Donnie? Where is Bones, where is Danny?
"The reality is not altogether removed from the narrative of the dream."
"If we are to call you 'Rael,' it would make sense to use Salmacis's names for the others. Donnivan is Victoria. Did it ever name the other three?"
"The other trilby is probably going to be John."
"..yes, that would be predictable enough for the naming convention."
"But Daniel and Rauri are unknown to her."
Can't you.. just... call them by their regular names?
"Fine. On this occasion. But getting the names right is a part of the deal. If we are to help you, we must call you strange things."
sigh.
"The reality is that Victoria and... and Rauri, caught up with the trucks. Victoria was captured, stored in the back of the truck, but Rauri eluded capture and followed close behind until they reached the Genera waystation. Victoria was taken inside and encaged, discovering Daniel and D.. John, also imprisoned. Rauri used espionage to infiltrate the facility and free the others."
Did they fight their way out? O:
"No. The four escaped from the Genera without incident, though they were nearly seen by a few guards."
"It was exciting to watch."
"They did not meet Lilith, who was working just a few rooms away. They did not find the truth about Dominiere, though John and Victoria both had seen the bodies inside the trucks and at least pieced together that the town was dangerous."
"They stopped somewhere to rest for the night, and searched for a working vehicle today. They are on the way to come back for you."
Oh! :D
"They did not unanimously agree to this, as your behavior over the last week has raised concerns. However, Rauri was adamant, and she fills the role of group leader without argument."
"You will probably have to make some apologies after they save you."
"But not to Rauri."
"No. You saved her life. And she knows this."
.w.
"Any further questions?"
Yeah. When will they get here?

(Attached: "The moment that Donnie, Danny, and I saw the door open and Fentzy walk in has stuck with me for all my years. I think we really did consider, beforehand, that we were going to die in that cage. But in she came anyway, that raging protective Connecticut steel, and she saved our asses.
It's not entirely true that we left without fighting anyone. I mean, it's.. literally accurate. But on the way out, overcome with hatred and spite for our captors, I found a corkboard and a blank piece of paper. I did consider writing something insulting, something bragging about the Genera's security vulnerabilities. Instead, I elected to write a new bit of Genera policy.
'This building has been renamed to the Candle Jack Labs. Failure to address the building by its proper name will result in a pay decrease.'
Did it work? Did it get anyone to say 'Candle Jack?' I don't actually know.
But on the way out, I'm sure I heard screams.")