Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I run out of the archives and in to the foyer catching my breath and resting my hands on Rosie’s desk “um sorry miss can you call me a cab?”

She stairs at my blooded hand staining the spare paper on her desk “um- uh y-yeah yeah of course Um to the hospital?”

“No no to um…” I pause trying to think of a location in the series

They never gave an address for George’s apartment complex
I could just say screw it and look for one of Michaels doors
Or
“105 hilltop road, please” that was so dumb why did I do that holy shit

“Of course and um- do- do you need a bandage?”

“No, no I’ll be fine thank you,” I stand up and the paper sticks to my bloody hand
This is so stupid “I’ll-I’ll just take this with me than” I giggle and walk out with the blood soaked page in my hand and sit on the curb of the Magnus institute London actually hear I wonder if I have a family here? Probably not.

I pat my self looking for a phone or a wallet not finding one i sigh loudly how the fuck am I gonna pay for the fucking cab!

I run my hands over my face and-

Fantastic now that’s is blood on my hands and my face how fun

Chapter Text

The cab pulls to the curb and I stand up and sit in the seat behind him “hello, 105 hilltop road please”

He looks at me nervously and nods “um yeah.. you- you have blood on your face do you know that?”

I nod “and my hands, and this piece of paper… don’t worry though it’s just mine”

“O-oh that’s good.” He puts the address in to the little tablet on the front dash

1 hour and 41 minutes

The driver whispers a little oh and starts the car

Five minutes go by

“S-so um Oxford huh? Are- are you a student? Or do you just live there?”

“Neither actually”

“Oh um-“

“I’m from Canada” I say “I’m just scouting out places”

“Ah that makes sense..”

We continue to drive in silence

“What’s your name if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh um David, David whitter”

“Nice name, did your mommy pick it out” I smirk not being able to hold back the joke

David chuckles nervously “um- yeah”

Thirty minutes pass

The blood on my face and hands dry and the paper turns crisp I notice that it’s proper parchment with ‘the Magnus institute, London’ printed at the top with the address printed just a under that

I catch David Peking glances at the paper

“So the Magnus institute huh… what’s it like in there I’ve heard so many stories about it but none of them seem plausible”

“Or pleasant I’m sure… it’s dusty that’s for sure, the lady at the front desk is nice, everyone is always watching you, the archivist is a prick and so is the director, it has a suffocating feeling about, to much brown you know who has brown carpets it’s stupid I’d disintegrate the whole building if I could who ever designed that building needs there ass beat…. But that’s just my opinion”

David stairs at the road trying to make sense of my opinions of the institution

“Oh”

We continue again in silence

“Radio?” He asks

“That’s sounds nice”

Be nice to me by the front bottoms it on halfway through when he turns the radio on

we continue in not so silents till we arrive at hilltop road

I step out of the car “thanks, your really cool David I hope you survive the apocalypse” I start to walk up to the house

“Um you forgot to pay”

“Oh I didn’t forget”

Chapter Text

I walk up and knock on the door and a woman answers “oh hello you must be the new resident um.. Alex?right?”

I am so lucky

The name thing is weird and if ‘Alex’ shows up I’ll have to fake a not-them and fuck with there head…
Why did I just think that so casually

“Yeah, oh! And sorry about the blood, I cut my hand in the cab and-“

“Oh not it’s alright I get it, the wash room is right down the hall and to the left, you should get cleaned up” she smiles warmly

This bitch knows what’s up
her phone is cliched tightly in her hand
I walk slowly to the wash room and turn on the sink pressing my ear to the door

“Um.. h-hello is like to report a um- something?-“ I knew it I move back to the sink and start to wash my hands and fall being mindful of the gash on my hand
I rummage thought the cupboards and fined a roll of bandage and start rolling it carefully around my hand

A hard knock comes from the door
“Open up!”

“Just one second mr.policeman im nursing my wound’s-“

They slam open the door and pin me to the sink cuffing me

“Wow rude” I complain as if this isn’t completely fair

I was a bit to genre aware for a not-an-avatar

The police search me and find nothing but the blood stained Magnus archives page

The police officer stands upright as he opens the folded page
He moves to his partner and whispers something and shows her the page
She nods and steps away to talk to her Walky-talky

The guy turns to look me up and down before closing the door slowly

And I cross my fingers whispering and praying they don’t send Basira and Dasie

They do of course because I am so incredibly in the plot now

…yippee?

Chapter Text

After moving me out side and sitting me on the grass Basira stands in front of me and daisie stands beside her staring me down

“Oh bad cop much much worse cop how fun! One thing, please don’t kill me Alice I promise I didn’t actually do anything wrong at least if you don’t count lying, or not paying for a cab, or-”

She stiffens “how do you know my name.” She asks

“That doesn’t really matter, are you going to take me in yet?”

She looks at me analyzing my every move like a cat with one of those lasers or a better analogy that doesn’t put me in a prey position

“What’s you affiliation with the Magnus institute?” Basira asks ignoring my question

“Hmm… I don’t think I really have one yet, I will soon if I played my cards right”

“And what are your ‘cards’ exactly”

“That peace of paper, with my blood all over it, I have mail to send on it”

“And what will that do exactly? You sending a note with your blood on it”

“Probably nothing, I’m just curious on how they’ll react”

I’m not technically lying

“Let them go, they’re useless, they know nothing”

Basira turns to her partner “are you sure?”

Dasie glares softly at her in response and moves over roughly unlocking my hands

“Gee thanks… do you mind giving me a ride back to London?”

Chapter Text

They dump me somewhere in the midst of London

At night

All alone

How fun

I start walking around randomly finding a home hardware that’s only like ten minutes to close I know it’s a jirk thing to do but I walk in and wander through through the store bright fluorescent lights flashing over head

I find my self in the door section staring at one in particular

A large plastic yellow door

Is it a Michael door or it it a door section show door?

I knock on the door

Nothing happens

I slump down on to the floor

“Oh Fibreglass Smooth Clear 6-Lite door comma yellow… we’re really in it now…” i sigh the cold making my breath visible- wait what

curling clouds circle my face and shoes
“Ah! No fuck off” I wave them away
I open the door and leave

Fuck

The hall it like if someone took a bunch of left turns and straightened them out in to an area that definitely are something-ing

The hallway’s it lined with yellow doors and windowsills without the windows paintings and mirrors line up and down the top of the floors the steps look like something turned a shity roller rink carpet in to stares and then tilted them to look like a sharp curved floor-ish thing
I try to take a step but i trip and fall through the floor into a mirror maze

I point at the sealing or more the top of what’s wrapping around me “your not being vary slay boss girl queen Michael I know your grumpy on the inside but like come on girl, not cool” I walk through the window and out the door

“Oh, hey archivist”

Chapter Text

Jon stands holding a fire extinguisher

“You!” He drops the fire extinguisher to point at me but drops it on himself “ow! God damn it!” He looks at me enraged “what are you doing here! Wh- how did you even get here! How did you know about those worms!? Are you working with prentis! Or- or Michael!?… What are you!”

Zanm he was fucked way before season two came around I-I feel kind of bad for the guy
“Whoa whoa..” I put my hands up in serender “first things first sit down turn on the recorder and calm the fuck down my guy”

He moves hesitantly to his chair and clicks on the recorder

“S-statement of?”

Chapter Text

(Click)

Jon: s-statement of?

(Someone sits down in a chair)

???: you know my name Jon
(beat.)
um mr.sims? I’m sorry I’m just so used to calling you Jon in my head (beat.)
how about just- the archivist, can I call you the archivist Jon?

The archivist: uh yeah alright and what do you mean by-

???: oh! Right the answers to your questions
I don’t know, Michael probably, you didn’t believe me the first time so it doesn’t mater, no I’m not working with her and no I’m also not working with it though it does seem to be working with me which I find strange but what can you expect with fuckhands MCmike

(Beat.

The archivist: what?

???: the question you asked

what are you doing here, how did you get here! How did you know about the worms!? Are you working with prentiss or Michael!? What are you?
Oh I forgot to answer that last one
Um, I’m (beat.) me I guess? I hope, I mean I look like me and I sound like me, but I can’t quite pinpoint a name…

The archivist: a-alright than, and-

(Door opens)

Martin: Jon I brought you some-
Oh, sorry I didn’t see anyone come in, I’ll just-

(Clink of teacup being set down)

Martin: uh, whole you like some tea as well?-
Oh your- h-how’s your hand healing over

(Snort)
???: well I’m not sure it’s not even been a day, and no I’m alright with out

(Beat.)

Martin: a- a day? It’s been-

(Jon clears his throat)

The archivist: yes thank you Martin you are free to go.

Martin: oh, right, sorry

(Door shuts)

(Beat.)

???: how long has it been since I was here?

The archivist: a-

???: actually that won’t clear anything up for me, what statement did you record last?

The archivist: I can’t just jive out that informa-

???: Jon!
(Beat.)
Please
(Beat.)

(Papers shuffling)

The archivist: case #0020406

???: um (beat.) which one? L-like what was it about or the guys name, I didn’t exactly memorize all of them as I was listening

The archivist: listeni- ah right the ‘podcast’ (beat.)
stament of…

???:(snicker) what did you lose your reading glasses or something?
(Beat.)
Oh… sorry

The archivist: statement of Harold slivana

???: doesn’t ring a bell.. what exactly happened to him?

The archivist: (heavy sigh) he found a few tunnels under a renovation site, he was hired by jurgin litner-

???: jurgin litner!? STUPID IDIOT MOTHERFUCKING JURGEN LEITENER GOD DAMN FOOL BOOK COLLECTING DUST EATING RAT OLD BASTARD SHITHEAD IDIOT AVATAR OF THE WHORE BIGGEST CLOWN IN THE CIRCUS LAUGHED OUT OF TOWN COWBOY MOTHERFUCKING JURGEIN LEITNER. STOP PINNING ME WHEN I TALK ABOUT JURGEIN LEITENER I HATE HIM SO MUCH WHY DOES HE HAVE SO MANY FUCKED UP BOOKS WHY DID HE DECIDE TO FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT JUST SET THEM LOOSE IS HE DEAD IS HE A BASTARD MAN HAS SUCH A VISCERAL AFFECT ON ME NOT EVEN IN THE ROOM NEVER SEEN THIS MANS FACE AND I KNOW HE HAS THE WORLDS SHITTIEST BEARD GET AWAY FROM ME.
if i wanted to get into heaven and god said jurgein leitners waiting inside i would piss on gods feet for the sole purpose of getting sent back down. if i have to deal with jurgein leitner speaking one word in person on voice in podcast not only will i close the tab i will delete my bookmark out of spite and have to rewatch the entire series again for the experience of being able to skip all the times when he is mentioned or alive. i dont even know why i hate him so much. he collects books but i am just mad because i am ANGY. he better have some fucked up backstory to explain this if hes just some rich shithead whos a fan of creepypasta and wanted the irl version ill go ham. BETTER have had a book make him kill a man cuz if he didnt Im going to make him.
paypal.com/IFuckingHateJurgeinLeitner
episode's not even about him. vaguely mentioned what is supposed to maybe be his library and I lost it. where the fuck is jurgein leitner if hes still alive im going to so deeply wish he wasnt.
crusty old man. ill punch leitner and his sad frail old man twig bones will simply flake apart under my epic huge meat fist and he will disintegrate until all thats left is one final book he kept on him at all times simply titled Now You Fucked Up in ancient yiddish. im not breathing im hyperventilating at this point. i hope theres a date given for when jurgen died or will die so i can make it a reminder on my phone, and everyday once a year i will see it and do anything but pay respects to the man who had so many fucked up if true books!
(Heavy breathing)

(Beat.)

Sorry it’s instinctual at this point

(Beat.)

The archivist: it’s… fine, honestly I completely agree

???: I know! He’s almost as bad as e-!

(Beat.)

The archivist: as who?

???: you know

(Beat.)

The archivist: oh… he is lightly incompetent but I don’t think he’s as bad as litner

???: girl you have NO idea

(Door opens)
(Beat.)

Speak of the devil and he shall arrive

Elias: you have no idea

(Chaotic noises)

???:ow! Fuck-

(Click)

Chapter Text

Elias drags me by the wrist through the archives past a jaw dropped Tim, shocked Sasha and worried Martin

He drags me to his office and pushes me into a chair moving round and sitting in his desk and starts staring into me

‘Gay gay homosexual gay’
‘Words words words fuck you elias words words words’

Pause

‘AhhHhhhHhHhHhhHhhhhHhhHh!!!’
He flinches back and pinches his nose bridge

“Who. Are. You”

“I’m…. Me” i smile

He scoffs “your name?”

“Figure it out Jonah”

His posture straightens “pardon?”

“Well if you know everything mr.Magnus I’m sure you can figure out my name… if I have one that is”

He buries his eyes in to mine and I feel like my eyes are made of static and my body of see through rubber

His knuckles turn White against his desk
“What do you serve?”

“Not you that’s for fucking sure”

“Did Peter send you?”

I think back to the smoke at the store “maybe but I don’t think so”

“Then what?! The spiral? Stranger? Hunt! Flesh?! Hell! Did the dark send you to torment me! Who. Are. You?!”

“None of your gods damned business mr.Bouchard, so you can stop looking at me like that because it’s clear from your agitation you can’t read me. you’re not used to not knowing things are you? That must be a big change. But don’t worry I’m willing to arrange a contact.”

He straitens his posture and collects him self “what sort of contact”

“Well there are things I need and there are things you need, I am willing to be temporarily involved with the plans you have for the archives, IF I’m able to leave at anytime without notice and I can quit with out having to carve my eyes out when shit inevitably hits the fan”

“And what exactly do I receive from you?”

“Well it depends, what do you want?”

He returns his eyes to mine searching my face for something

“Our hr head was recently removed from their position and I haven’t been able to find anyone…. suitable.. for the position, I need an hr head, what do you need?”

“Well a job, a place to stay and…. A computer i suppose, but my contract needs to include the… exceptions I talked about”

He crosses his legs and smirks, leaning back in his chair “I believe that can be arranged”

Chapter Text

The day goes by quickly with me being shone to my office quickly realizing that I’m the only person in my department and using a pen to scratch and poke all of the eyes insignias out of my office

Than actually staring to do my job and fill out paperwork

Five hours of writing down safety complaints later I get to something actually interesting well not interesting more so just… story related

I pick up the phone on my desk and dial the archives

“Hello..?”

“Hello, mr. Sims would you mind sending Martin Blackwood down over to human resource?”

A heavy sigh and a muffled ‘good lord what has he done now’
“MARTIN!…. MARTIN!…” another sigh “yes he’ll be over soon” another another heavy sigh and then the phone clicks off

I yawn and walk across the room from my desk to the coffee maker putting a whiteboard mug with ‘world’s okay-est sugar daddy’ printed on it under the bean juice dispenser and turning it on staining at it menacingly as it pour into the cup

The door creeks open
“Um hello?” He clicks on the light blinding me temporarily

“Oh god! That’s brutal! Yeowch my eyes!”

“Oh god sorry I-“

“It’s fine it’s fine! Your all good” I turn around to face him and shock oases over his face

“You, your… I didn’t get your name.. ever actually” he moves and sits in one of the three chairs in front of my desk

“Oh that’s alright I never gave it I don’t think so your not missing much”

“Um why am I here? Am I in trouble or-“ he cuts himself off “actually.. why are you here?”

“I work here,” I gesture around the room “in Human Resources! How fun is that?”

“Oh…. How? You don’t seem vary.. qualified?.. that sounded rude sorry”

“No love it’s fine you’re completely correct I am not qualified at all, I don’t even have my G.E.D, but you get that you didn’t graduate high school either did you?”

His face falls “i-is that why I’m here? Because I’ve been working here for years! And it’s never caused a problem! Besides dosint everyone lie on thare applications? A-and I have a good reason I swear I-“ bro is panicking hard

“No, no Martin it has nothing to do with that I completely understand the situation your in, it’s actually about the prentiss situation, specifically the fact your currently staying in the archives”

“Oh I-“

“I know it’s been cleared with Jonathan and Elias, it’s just one of your coworkers it worried about your mental state, witch I completely understand why your panicked worms are just as bad as fruit flies, but-… actually maybe not ‘just as bad’ because fruit flies don’t tend to eat people alive but I hope you see my point, I get that you worried, hell who wouldn’t be, but it might be a good idea for you to take a day or so off,” wait he needs to be here for the worms “or just go outside for a bit, take an early lunch, get out of the archives for a bit is all I mean, all that dust and paper mold can’t be good for anybody’s health”

He stares at me blinking a few times “it’s… weird seeing you so put together and… professional. The things you’re saying actually…. Make sense? I’m sorry that’s rude”

“Nah dude I completely get it, I’m not used to this shit ether” I get up and grab my cup of coffee that sit back dear my desk kicking my feet up onto it

I look as he’s reads what’s written on my cup and he lets out a ‘ah yes this is the same basterd from earlier’ type sound

“Is- is that all you wanted to speak to me about?”

“Yes but if you have anything you’d like to talk about or if you need company after everyone Is gone I’ll probably be here, I’m going to be staying in the institute as well for a while, as I don’t really have any worldly possessions here, I wasn’t lying to the archivist before I am quite literally not from this world, and I don’t just mean Britten, though I’m not from hear, their ether, I’m Canadian”

“A-alright, is it alright for me to leave now?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah for sure”

He stands up gives a tight lipid smile and leaves shouting the door behind him

What to do now?

Chapter Text

Things to do before I can’t anymore
- meet mike crew
- Do a kiss with Michael
- Save Sasha(?)
- Save Tim (?)
- Try to avoid freaking out people too the point of statements
- Find out if I’m an avatar
- Become an avatar (?)
- Kill Elias(?)
- Meet Jurgin
- Bind a book out of the fucked up blood page I have (note: one page isn’t enough for a book. Other note: have jurgen make my fucked up book a bonafide litner)
- Befriend martin before he gets all lonely (if I fined away to save him from the lonely how with that effect everything, can I stop the deaths too if I try? Should I? because if I do I won’t know what happens next and it could mess up the story completely, or whold Annabell stop/kill me before I could do that? Am I all ready accounted for in the plan?!?!?? Am I trapped in the web already?!?!!)
- Find out how to spell that book eating basterds name
- Collect a bunch of fire extinguishers for my office
- Make sure Tim isn’t completely alone after Sasha
- See if it’s possible to get fuckhands MCmike to split from Shelly before Hellen happens
- Make out with at least two archives assistants (can I do this without creating a power dynamic??!)
- Ether punch or fuck Elias (decide soon)
- Call Peter Lukas a (Martin stealing) bitch
- Check out artafact storage (avoid fuck ass not-table)
- Check out the library for cool books
- Try to find a not deadly litner
- Make office look cute!! :3

Chapter Text

I fall asleep at my desk quickly after tucking my list in to a drawer in my desk and finish dealing with more reports

I think I get why Jon’s so pissy in the first season this shit is annoying

The next morning I wake up erase my mug and write ‘worlds sexiest hr head’ on the tiny whiteboard on the side and make a coffee

I walk along the halls of the institute with my coffee looking for something cool to do

I end up instinctually in the archives and take a look around

Four desks sit in the back of the room three are visibly occupied with paper and small trinkets

I walk to Jon’s office and close the door behind me turning on the light

Looking along the floor boards for any secret openings
I don’t find any obviously
Gertrude hid her shit well

I leave Jon’s office and walk to Elias office standing in the middle of the room than walking the the wall to trace the eye insignia’s hidden in the wallpaper

The phone on his desk rings and I walk over and pick it up

“I would prefer if you don’t flirt the idea of scratching out the eyes in my office, it was painful enough for you to remove them all from your office an-“

“Die mad” I hang up the phone and leave the room after penciling out one of the eyes covering his office walls and make my way to a stack of fire extinguishers and grabbing two

“Martin is that you?”

“No mr.sims it’s me”
The archivist turns the corner and it immediately hit with the sight of me in *lightly* blood stained clothes holding two full sized fire extinguishers in one hand and a mug that says ‘worlds sexiest hr head’ in the other

“Wh-why…”

“Worms,” I raise the extinguishers “depression” I raise the mug

He pinches his nose bridge “you.. live? Here now?..”

“And work..I work in hr” I show him the mug

“You do realize someone could report you for that right?”

“Yeah… that’s- that’s the joke archivist, they’d be reporting me to me.. it’s a comedic abuse of power, you- you do understand the concept of humour right Jon?”

He scowls “yes I get the point of the joke, I just don’t see the point”

“You just contradicted yourself like.. twice.. also it’s autism humour so it’s chill if you don’t get it”

He tenses up slightly “pardon?”

“Autism humour, how do I… it’s like 40 percent gray humour 20
Present sex jokes and innuendos 10 percent sarcasm five percent brain teaser five percent dad jokes and twenty percent unfunny bullshit with just a sprinkle of bullying and ironic comments”

“Oh,That actually explains a lot about you…”

“What that I’m autistic?”

He freeze up slightly “no i meant- well - I-… I am too”

“Oh, your an autism?”

He seems confused at the framing of the question “um, yes?” He adjusts his tie, nervous tic maybe?

“Hmm, that explains a lot about you to”

“Yes, well,” he strayers up adjusting his tie again “I should get to work”

“Mm, yeah I should to, see you later
Archivist”

”Right” he walks away and in to his office and I walk back to mine
Setting one extinguisher by the door and one under my desk

Honestly I’m surprised I haven’t seen any worms yet I guess I haven’t been here long but I’m surprised than like NONE of them are outside of the archives
But i suppose Jane doesn’t care about anything other than the archives

Oh shit epiphany

The only reason that Jane and the corruption latched on to Martin so fast was because it appears as parasitic relationships and Martin and his mom….
Also because everyone hates bugs

Jonny you sly motherfucker

Chapter Text

First thing as the work day starts -because there is NOW WAY I am doing any overtime in this fucky ass house I’m in- is putting on what the ghost on in the background as I do more safety concern paperwork

Wow this is just… exactly like buzzfeed unsolved

Knock knock

“Uhhhhhh-“ I scramble to paus my show “come in?”

The door creeps open with a whine
“Working hard I hope”

“Ah, goodmorning mr.bitchard” i smile warmly at him he sighs and shakes his head

“You do realize I’m still your boss right? No matter what you may or may not know about”

“Oh don’t worry… I know”
He breaths heavily and steps forward to set a small rectangular box on my desk

“Think of it as a welcoming gift”
He than promptly leaves the room without another word

I grab the box and open it slowly

It’s a phone?
Already set up and app-etized
Already With institute members numbers

This Seems to easy-

Ahh there it is
Fifty different flavours of tracking and parental control apps

Thank you Jonah! Vary cool!

After an hour I get bored of paper work, make a coffee and find my way to the library

Wow big

I wander around the shelves looking for anything that catches my eye

Code crackers 101
Geography for absolute idiots
Confessions of an English opium eater
The man upon the stairs

Ohhh this looks cool

The complete history of technology and human advancement

“Oh it’s you!”
I turn to see Sasha

“Oh, um miss James hello” she is so pretty in person

“Oh please just call me Sasha, Martin says you had started working here, are you in the library?”

“Well I am currently in the library but i work in hr now” i smile at her as warmly as I can muster knowing what happens mere weeks from now

“Oh! That’s wonderful the old hr guy was a terrible person incredibly incompetent man”

“Well I’m glad to inform they hired a slightly less terrible and incompetent man this time”

She laughs “well i suppose that’s good. What’s that about?” She gestures to the book in my hands

“Oh um The complete history of technology and human advancement, I’m probably not going to read it though I’m more on the fantasy and poetry side of reading”

“Do you like comedy books?”

“Well I like funny things”

“Come with me”

She leads me through shelves of books twisting and turning until she stops suddenly and I crash in to her

“Sorry!”

“It’s fine you’re short” she tech is up and looks through a series of books until she grabs one “fantasy right?”

“Um yeah?” She hands me a book

“I think you’ll love this, it’s a series of books we got in like five years ago or something but the fun part is” she grabs the book back and opens it “‘this is an opening line, usually this is used to grab attention and draw readers in, the next paragraph usually includes important information like who the main character is and and the town it takes place in’” she shuts the book and puts it back into my hands “pretty cool huh? No idea where we got them from or who wrote them, but It can be read as a comedy or as like a help guide for writers, thare are like ten in the series all on different genres , that’s the fantasy one” she looks at me smiling

Wow I am at a loss for words she is the girl she is he moment “i- um thanks” I think I’m shaking

She chuckles “no problem, I’m glad to-” her watch starts to beep “oh, I got to get back to work now, your really easy to talk to we should get tea some time- not-not as a date though I don’t want to get reported to hr-“

“Oh it’s fine I am hr can’t report to myself, and I’d love to have tea sometime, come to my office on your brake or something it’ll be my pleasure”

her whatch starts to beep again “Thad sounds nice , I really have to go now, thanks for the chat”

“Thanks for the book” she smiles and leaves

I think I am going to cry she’s so nice and so beautiful and so neurodivergent and she dies in less than a month

I look down at the book and than back to where she left and my hart sinks because I know I’m not going to be able to save her

This is going to be a long few years

Chapter Text

Over two week sasha visits my office often joining me on trips to the cafe around the corner Tim joining once or twice acting vary stiff with me

“Knock knock” Sasha says as my door is already open “I’m here to whisk you away to a tea party” she smiles

My face slowly lifts up off my desk and I sniffle a bit “can you buy me a tiny cake also?”

She sucks in a breath “oooh no sorry, Tim can though he’s taking his break now and we’re gonna go antagonize him at the cafe down the street, I just have to grab some things from my desk first”

“You are an angel and I love you, I am also going to follow you to the archives so I can get out of my miserable office”

She smirks “at least you have an office”

“True, oh I finally finished the book you recommended” I gather my things and follow her out of my office

“Really? Was it good?”

“Yeah actually, I think I’m gonna read the horror one next is it any good?”

We walk in to the archives and I start hop scotching from worm to worm squishing them as i go
“I’m not sure I try to stay away from horror stuff never been a fan”

“Hm, we’ll I love it, I could help ease you into it” she shuffles through her desk

“Maybe, how bout you fined like the tamest movie you can and come over to my place in the weekend”

“Sure, I’ll bring Texas chainsaw massacre! It’s actually quite boring comparatively”

She sighs as she grabs her bag “fine but-“ a large crash from Jon office cuts her of and she calls over
“Alright?” She asks and walks over so I follow her

“Ah… Yeah.” Jon stands up off the floor and dusts himself of “A… spider.”

“A spider?” I ask

“Yeah. I tried to kill it…. the shelf collapsed.”

Oh no I thought I hav more time..

“I swear, cheap shelves are… Did you get it?”

“Ah… I hope so. Think so. Nasty, looking thing.” He shakes his head

She laghs “Well, I won’t tell Martin.”

“Oh, god. I don’t think I could stand another lecture on their importance to the ecosystem.”
She walks over to the dent in the wall and i slowly move to the door way
“What?”

“Look.” She points to the hole

“Oh… uh… Got dented when the shelf collapsed, I guess?” He walks closer as well

“No, it, it goes right through. I- I thought this was an exterior wall?”

“It should be.”

“Hmm. I, I think it’s just plasterboard?”
A strange noise starts up

“Do you see anything?” She looks over to me
The noise grows squirming and squelching

“No, I don’t think so, it…” Jon pauses finally hear the sound
“Sasha, run. RUN!”

Chapter Text

[CLICK]
[WRITHING WORM SOUNDS]

SASHA
What are you doing?!

ARCHIVIST
Almost…

SASHA
Leave it, it’s not –

ARCHIVIST
I got it!
[PULLS SOMETHING FROM THE MORASS]

MARTIN
Guys? Is everyth– OH CHRIST!

ARCHIVIST
Shut up and get the extinguishers!

MARTIN
What?

ARCHIVIST
The CO2! Get the goddamn CO2!

MARTIN
Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, yep.

???
Jesus! That’s so much worse in-

ARCHIVIST
NOW!

[WRITHING CONTINUES AS EXTINGUISHER SPRAYS]

MARTIN
There’s too many…

SASHA
Just keep spraying!

ARCHIVIST
We need to go!

SASHA
Where?

ARCHIVIST
Uh… Uh…

SASHA
Damn!

ARCHIVIST
I just… uh… let, let me think!

SASHA
Do you see Prentiss? If we could get her –

MARTIN
I, I, I don’t see her! I don’t see her! I don’t see her! I don’t see her!

ARCHIVIST
Uhhh…

SASHA
John?
John!?

MARTIN
This way!
Come on! Come this way! This way, this way!
[RUNNING, PURSUED BY WORMS]

ARCHIVIST
Erm…
LOOK OUT!
[CRASH]
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
[SOUND CUTS IN MIDWAY THROUGH THE ARCHIVIST SCREAMING]

MARTIN
And… there we go. Recording again.
Did you get it?

[PAINED CRY FROM ARCHIVIST AS SASHA EXTRACTS WORM WITH A SQUELCH]

SASHA
There. And I just want to point out that I didn’t make this much of a fuss.

ARCHIVIST
[Breathing heavily, aggrieved tone] I think your removal was substantially cleaner.

SASHA
I’m still not sure why you have this. Drinking in the archives?

MARTIN
What? No, no, it’s for worms.

ARCHIVIST
What?

MARTIN
For pulling the worms out of people. Like now.

SASHA
You, er… what?

MARTIN
I used to carry around a knife, but I started thinking that, well, cutting into someone laterally wasn’t really the most efficient way to get them out, and besides which, they seem to be quite slow burrowing in a straight line so, given their size, th-the corkscrew just seemed to be the better option.
…
Look, you guys got to go home every day, okay. I didn’t! I’ve been thinking for a long time about what to do when… well, y’know, this happens.

ARCHIVIST
[Softly] Well… thank you.

???
W-wouldn’t a skewer work better because it doesn’t have the twisty parts?
(Every one ignores that)

SASHA
That’s why we’re here?

MARTIN
Yeah. The room’s sealed, I checked it myself when I moved in.

ARCHIVIST
Climate controlled, as well. Strong door. Soundproof. [Sigh] These old files are far better protected than we ever were. Alright, I’ll grant you it’s a good place to lay low, but –

SASHA
They could still come in through the air con.

ARCHIVIST
Not easily. And… not en masse. It is actually safe.

???
(Overlapping) We should consider covering it up though just Inca-

MARTIN
Ha!

ARCHIVIST
Except, of course, that we’re trapped.

MARTIN
Ah… yeah.
Sorry.
…

SASHA
Why record it?

ARCHIVIST
What?

SASHA
Before, in the office. It, it was stupid going for the tape recorder like that, and then when you dropped it out there –

ARCHIVIST
I said I was sorry. If I’d known Martin had another one stashed in here, I never would have…

SASHA
No, it’s, it’s fine, just… I just don’t understand. I thought you hated the damn thing. You’re always going on about it.

ARCHIVIST
I do! I did. I just… I don’t want to become a mystery. I refuse to become another goddamn mystery! Or a story people tell to get a rise!

???
I said I was sorry, and honestly I’m telling the truth but I’ll- I’ll just stop

SASHA
What?

ARCHIVIST
Look, even if you ignore the walking soil-sack out there, and the fact that we are probably minutes from death, there is still so much more happening here.

MARTIN
I’m not sure we can really ignore the –

ARCHIVIST
Every real statement just leads… deeper into something I don’t even know the shape of yet. And to top it all, I still don’t know what happened to Gertrude. Officially she’s still missing, but Elias is no help and the police were pretty clear that the wait to call her dead is just a formality. If I die, wormfood or… something else, whatever, I’m going to make damn sure the same doesn’t happen to me. Whoever takes over from me is going to know exactly what happened.

SASHA
You don’t think that would… put them off?

ARCHIVIST
[Bitter laugh] I hope so. Only an idiot would stay in this job.

MARTIN
[Chuckles] Wouldn’t that make you an idiot?

ARCHIVIST
Yes, Martin, that was my point.

???
It’s funny I took a job here knowing everything that happens and has happened and I didn’t even negotiate pay (delirious giggles)
…

SASHA
Can you see what’s going on out there?

MARTIN
Ish. When did we last clean these doors?

ARCHIVIST
What can you see?

MARTIN
Worms seem to have backed off a bit. There’s a few lurking in the corners. Ooh, ooh hey, there’s the other tape recorder!

SASHA
Any sign of Prentiss?

MARTIN
No. No, it looks like they’re… waiting, I think.

ARCHIVIST
For what?

MARTIN
I don’t know. Tim, maybe?

SASHA
Oh god!

MARTIN
I think he was out at lunch.

SASHA
Quick, someone call him. Tell him not to come back inside.

ARCHIVIST
There’s no signal in here. We just have to hope he heard the noise.
…

SASHA
John, what did you mean by “real statements”?

ARCHIVIST
You know what I mean. The ones that have weird wrinkles, or that just seem to have something solid to them. They all have one thing in common.

SASHA
They don’t record digitally.

ARCHIVIST
And we have to use the tape recorder. At this stage, if it records to my laptop I almost don’t bother. I don’t –

MARTIN
There! There, there, there! I see him!

ARCHIVIST
What?

MARTIN
Tim. Tim’s outside.

SASHA
Oh god, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t see them.

[SASHA AND MARTIN BOTH START CALLING OUT TO TIM]
TIM, LOOK OUT!

ARCHIVIST & ???
It’s soundproofed. He can’t hear you!

SASHA
What is he doing? No, Tim, just run! Leave it alone!

MARTIN
Oh no, no, no, no…

SASHA
Turn around. Just turn around.

MARTIN
Oh god. There she is, there she is.

ARCHIVIST
[Muttering] There’s nothing we can do.

SASHA
Ah, screw this.

(Sharp inhale from ???)

ARCHIVIST
What, Sasha, NO!

[DOOR OPENS]

SASHA
Tim, look out!

ARCHIVIST
Watch out for the tape –
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
TIM
…still working? Ah, okay. Test, test. What are you doing on the floor? Huh. [Imitates Archivist voice] Statement of Joe Spooky, regarding sinister happenings in the downtown old –

[DOOR OPENS]

SASHA
Tim, look out!
[WORM SOUND INTENSIFIES]

TIM
Sasha?

SASHA
Behind you! Run!

TIM
Oh…

PRENTISS
[Slowly intoning over worm sound] Do you hear their song?

SASHA
TIM!
[IMPACT, WORMS AND SCUFFLING]
[SASHA BREATHING HEAVILY AS SHE STUMBLES THROUGH DOORS]

SASHA
Damn it!
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
ARCHIVIST
Right. There we go. Martin, what do you see?

MARTIN
Hm? What?

ARCHIVIST
I can’t really stand up yet. I need you to describe what’s going on. For the record.

MARTIN
Ah, yeah. Sure. So, um, Sasha tackled Tim and there was kind of a struggle, but she made it out of the Archives. That, that was about two minutes ago and she’s gone to get help. P-Probably. I mean, she, she couldn’t… she wouldn’t just run so…

ARCHIVIST
Did it look like any of the worms… got her before she left?

MARTIN
No. I don’t think so. Tim neither, I think. It was hard to tell after she tackled him. There was just a lot of movement and, and shouting and, and wriggling…

ARCHIVIST
Stay with it, Martin. Tim. What happened to Tim?

MARTIN
They got split up and he ran into the office. You said that’s where you made the hole. When you were recording. And they all came through, so… he’s dead. He’s dead in there and he’s covered in worms and that’s it.

ARCHIVIST
We don’t know that.

???
He’s not dead man!

MARTIN
…Maybe.
Maybe, maybe he found the spare CO2.

ARCHIVIST
Spare? What? Where? I never saw any.

MARTIN
Oh, I, er… I, I hid them in old casefile boxes.

ARCHIVIST
What, why?

MARTIN
Well, so the worms didn’t know they were there!
Look, I know it’s stupid.

ARCHIVIST
Yes. Yes it is. They’re just… they’re just unclassified parasites. They don’t have consciousness, they can’t plan, they’re just an unthinking infection.

MARTIN
Seriously?!

ARCHIVIST
What?

MARTIN
Why do you do that?

ARCHIVIST
Do what?

MARTIN
Push the sceptic thing so hard!? I mean, it made sense at first, but now? After everything we’ve seen, after everything you’ve read! I hear you recording statements and y-you just dismiss them. You tear them to pieces like they’re wasting your time, but half of the “rational” explanations you give are actually more far-fetched than just accepting it was a, a ghost or something. I mean for god’s sake John, we’re literally hiding from some kind of worm… queen… thing, how, how could you possibly still not believe!?

ARCHIVIST
Of course, I believe. Of course I do. Have you ever taken a look at the stuff we have in Artefact Storage? That’s enough to convince anyone. But, but even before that… Why do you think I started working here? It’s not exactly glamorous. I have… I’ve always believed in the supernatural. Within reason. I mean. I still think most of the statements down here aren’t real. Of the hundreds I’ve recorded, we’ve had maybe… thirty, forty that are… that go on tape. Now, those, I believe, at least for the most part.

MARTIN
Then why do you –

ARCHIVIST
Because I’m scared, Martin!. Because when I record these statements it feels… it feels like I’m being watched. I… I lose myself a bit. And then when I come back, it’s like… like if I admit there may be any truth to it, whatever’s watching will… know somehow. The scepticism, feigning ignorance. It just felt safer.

MARTIN
Well… It wasn’t.

ARCHIVIST
No. No, it wasn’t.
Still, it’s not my fault we’re going to be eaten by worms. Speaking of, can you see anything?

MARTIN
Not much. They’re just… there.

ARCHIVIST
How many?

MARTIN
Too many. And more keep coming up through the floor. I didn’t think they could get through.

ARCHIVIST
Prentiss?

MARTIN
No, I can’t s… Oh, there she is.

ARCHIVIST
What’s she doing?

MARTIN
I don’t know. She’s messing with the boxes. She’s holding one up and… ahh!

ARCHIVIST
What?

MARTIN
She’s… She’s destroying them. Sort of.

ARCHIVIST
Sort of?

MARTIN
Well, I don’t really know what that stuff coming out of her mouth is, but I think we should probably burn them.

ARCHIVIST
Right.
Right.
…
Why are you here Martin?

MARTIN
Well, well, Prentiss is out there and you can’t run so –

ARCHIVIST
I mean at the Archive in general. Why haven’t you quit?

MARTIN
Are you giving me my review now?

???
Yeah Martin we’re giving you your yearly review in the middle of a worm invasion, I’ve had at least four hr complaints held against you an-

ARCHIVIST
No… We’re clearly doing a whole heart-to-heart thing and, truth be told, the question’s been bothering me. You’ve been living in the Archives for four months, constant threat of… this. Sleeping with a fire extinguisher and a corkscrew. Even you must be aware that that’s not normal for an archiving job? Why are you still here?

MARTIN
[Considering] Don’t really know. I just am. It didn’t feel right to just leave. I’ve typed up a few resignation letters, but I just couldn’t bring myself to hand them in.
I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck.

ARCHIVIST
Martin…You’re not, uh… You didn’t die here, did you?

(Choked giggles from ???)

MARTIN
What? What? N-No… what?!

ARCHIVIST
No, I just… No, just the way you phrased that…

MARTIN
Made you think I was a ghost?

ARCHIVIST
No… it’s –

MARTIN
No, no… it’s just that whatever web these statements have caught you in, well, I’m there too. We all are, I think. [Sigh]
…
A ghost? Really?

ARCHIVIST
[Tiredly] Shut up, Martin.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
[FIRE ALARM IS SOUNDING]

ELIAS
Right, tell me again, please.

SASHA
You’re kidding.

ELIAS
You did bring a tape recorder. I just thought John would appreciate as many supplementary recordings as possible. For the record.

SASHA
Well, for the record, if we don’t do something now, it won’t matter either way.

ELIAS
So… these are the worms he and Martin have been going on about?

SASHA
The ones terrorising us for months? Yeah!

ELIAS
To be honest I always thought they were just… overreacting. Other staff have seen them around, but no-one’s reported any aggressive behaviour or anything like that. You know how those two are… John puts on a good show, but sometimes I swear he’s worse than Martin.

SASHA
Look, Elias. I don’t know what you think is going on, but I have just seen thousands of… fleshworms pouring out of the wall! God knows how long they’ve been hiding! Tim might be dead, and the others…

ELIAS
Of course. The fire alarm was a good move, but it does mean most staff have evacuated, so we’ll have to deal with them ourselves.

SASHA
There are thousands of them, Elias.

ELIAS
Not quite what I meant. On Johns insistence I recently changed the Archive’s fire suppression system to use carbon dioxide. Should have done it years ago, really –

SASHA
So why hasn’t it gone off?

ELIAS
Because there isn’t an actual fire.

SASHA
Right, right. Can we set it off manually? I think John’s got a lighter somewhere.

ELIAS
He’s not smoking again, is he? Anyway, it shouldn’t be necessary. There is a manual release, a few floors down.

SASHA
Wait. Wait. Will it hurt Martin or the others?

ELIAS
Almost certainly. Er, I’m not a doctor, but I know dumping a lot of CO2 on people isn’t generally considered a good idea. I really don’t want to have to find another Archivist so quickly after Gertrude, but from what you say… it might be a mercy. You know the situation best, so…?

SASHA
Let’s go.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
[FIRE ALARM CAN BE HEARD… AS CAN SOUND OF BANGING ON WALL]

MARTIN
I thought that wall was meant to be solid?!

ARCHIVIST
So did I. We don’t have any sort of weapon, do we?

MARTIN
I mean… I mean, I suppose we could use –

ARCHIVIST
Don’t say the corkscrew!

???
Guys it’s just-

ARCHIVIST
How many of them are outside of the door?

MARTIN
I don’t know. I can’t see because the window is covered in worms.

???
Calm down it’s just!-

ARCHIVIST
Right. Right. Damn. Well, Martin I guess this is –
[SOUND OF PLASTERBOARD AND TILE BREAKING]
TIM
Hi guys!

MARTIN
Tim!

ARCHIVIST
Tim?! What the hell? I thought… how did you…?

???
I did try to tell you!

MARTIN
You made it!

TIM
Funny story really. I ran into the office, worms everywhere, horrible death and everything, tripped and fell in some boxes and there were like 20 cans of gas in there.

MARTIN
Are, are you alright? You seem a bit…

TIM
Fine! Fine! Gas… bit light-headed. Not a lot of ventilation in the tunnels. Come on!

ARCHIVIST
In-Into the tunnels?

TIM
Yeah! Actually, not that many worms in there anymore. I think they’ve mostly gone into the Archive. Although the ones down here are faster for some reason. And quieter.

ARCHIVIST
You’re not bitten, are you?

TIM
No, I don’t think so! Have a look!

???
Oh? Golly gosh

ARCHIVIST
Yes, alright Tim, you look fine. Put them back on, please.

MARTIN
Can you walk, John?

???
I can carry you if you need?

ARCHIVIST
No, I can limp that won’t be necessary

TIM
Then let’s go!

ARCHIVIST
Martin, could you pass me the tape recorder?

MARTIN
Sure. I think it’s running out, though.

ARCHIVIST
Fine. I suppose I can turn it back on when we’re being eaten alive.

TIM
Why do you have a second tape recorder, Martin?

MARTIN
Oh, um… well, I’ve been using it to record myself. I write poetry and I think the tapes have a sort of… low-fi charm.

(??? snickers)

ARCHIVIST
…
I see.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]

SASHA
[SPEECH IS ECHOED FROM THE ROOM AS SHE WALKS]
[With some despondency in tone] Okay, John. I know you’ll want to know what’s been happening. If you’re still alive after this. The worms are on the upper floor. Not as many as down in the Archive, but enough.
I set the fire alarm off, so everyone’s evacuated except me and Elias. I didn’t see any signs of the fire brigade, but I haven’t been near a window in a while. There was a… I guess you’d call it a… a wave of worms. I got cut off from Elias. I hope he made it to the fire system, but who knows. Maybe everyone’s dead already.
I’ve had to retreat into Artefact Storage. That should tell you something about how bad it is out there.
God, I hate this place.
Did I ever tell you I first joined the Institute as a practical researcher? I had to analyse and investigate all the stuff in here. Take notes after sleeping in the rusted chair, write in the memory book, all that sort of thing. I transferred after three months. Would’ve quit, but couldn’t afford to back then.
Never understood why they keep this stuff secret. I mean, we’ve, we’ve enough here to send any sceptic packing, but it’s just locked away. I… I asked Elias about it once, but he just muttered something about funding and mission statements. He’s good at changing the subject, isn’t he?
Sorry. I’m rambling. No worms, though, so that’s good.
Oh, hey. I’ve found… I’ve found that table you were talking about. Don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Just a… basic… optical illusion. Nothing special… just… just a… wait…
[Hushed and panicked] John! John, I think there’s someone here. Hello? I see you. Show yourself.

[DISTORTION INTENSIFIES]
[SASHA SCREAMS, TAPE RECORDER DROPS]
[DISTORTION FADES TO A CRACKLE]
NOT!SASHA

[Words warped] Hello?
I see you.
[FOOTSTEPS]
[Clearly] I see you.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
[WATER DRIPS]

ARCHIVIST
Update. I don’t know how long we’ve been down here. These tunnels are a maze, and we don’t know where we are. We have four of the –

TIM
Martin’s gone. So is… damn they need to just pick a name already

ARCHIVIST
I’m getting to that. Martin has disappeared. Tim was right about there being fewer worms down here, but they are much faster. More aggressive. None of us have been hit yet but… during one of the more alarming encounters, Martin ran off. So did Jane doe

TIM
He thought we were behind him, I think.

ARCHIVIST
He didn’t think at all. Tim was with me, and my leg slowed me down. He must have taken a turn we didn’t see or something. We lost him. But, Tim has managed to find what looks to be an actual trapdoor, so… we won’t need to bludgeon our way through any more drywall. I’m recording this in case –

TIM
In case the trapdoor opens back into the Archives and Prentiss is there to kill us.

ARCHIVIST
In as many words, yes. Tim?

TIM
Alright.

[TRAPDOOR IS PUSHED OPEN TO SOUND OF FIRE ALARM AND LOTS OF WRITHING]

PRENTISS
Archivist.

TIM
Ah.

ARCHIVIST
Shit.
[CLICK]

Chapter Text

[CLICK]

ARCHIVIST
[Weary] Statement of, uh…

ELIAS
John… as your boss, I’m telling you to go home.

ARCHIVIST
I’m fine.

ELIAS
Look. You look like a mummy. You need rest.

ARCHIVIST
Our friends in the hazmat suits gave me a clean bill of health, bloody holes notwithstanding. And they seemed quite keen to quarantine anyone showing even the slightest sign of infection. It’s just pain.

ELIAS
The paramedics said your lungs need fresh air. Tim’s as well.

ARCHIVIST
It’s fresh enough down here.

ELIAS
A basement filled with a thousand rotting worm carcasses? Surely we could do this in my office?

ARCHIVIST
No. I need to be here. Keep watch. I need to be sure…

ELIAS
John! She’s gone. I went with the ECDC people when they took her away. I watched her body burn. Jane Prentiss is dead. You can relax.

ARCHIVIST
You know why I can’t. When Martin found…

ELIAS
That’s a matter for the police.

ARCHIVIST
Fine! Fine. I’ll go home as soon as I have everyone’s statements.

ELIAS
Very well.

ARCHIVIST
Statement of Elias Bouchard, Head of the Magnus Institute, regarding the… infestation by the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th July, 2016. Whenever you’re ready.

ELIAS
There isn’t a lot to tell for my part. This afternoon, just after lunch, I was going over some budgets in my office, as I normally do on a Tuesday, when the fire alarm started going off. It was annoying, but not too worrying at first. I packed my work away, and began to calmly head towards the evacuation point, when Sasha came barrelling through the door, babbling about worms, and clutching a tape recorder.
I told her that whatever was wrong should wait until we were out of the building, as there may be a fire. She told me she had set off the fire alarm to get everyone out, and that you and Martin and Tim were currently trapped by Jane Prentiss.
Obviously this got my attention, and I suggested she turn the tape recorder on, largely so this sort of debrief wouldn’t be necessary. Did you not get the tape?

ARCHIVIST
No. There was… some sort of problem. Sasha tells me the tape was lost.

ELIAS
Hmm. Well, I explained to her about the recently installed fire suppression system, and said that, as there was no actual fire, we’d need to activate it manually. We hurried down, and it was clear everyone else had already evacuated. We… had reached the ground floor when… well…
I… know I have often seemed dismissive of your concerns before, and in fact I was getting ready to raise the issue of Martin’s continuing to live in the Institute’s basement, especially as I believe he’s been stealing fire extinguishers. But… honestly, I didn’t fully appreciate what you’d been talking about until I turned that corner and we saw what I can only describe as a… a tidal wave of filth rushing towards us. I feel somewhat ashamed to admit I didn’t really pay any attention to Sasha as I ran, and must have lost her at some point. We became separated.
I composed myself, and decided on a more roundabout route to the boiler room. Luckily, it seemed the things were mainly concentrated in that one mass, leaving the other corridors largely vacant. It took me ten minutes, maybe fifteen, but I made it with only one close call. The sight of rows and rows of huge, red CO2 canisters was certainly something of a comfort. I do apologise that it took me quite so long to figure out how to actually work the system. If I’d been quicker…

ARCHIVIST
It’s fine.
We’re alive.

ELIAS
Yes. Well. I turned on the fire suppression system. And… that’s when I heard the scream. I can’t really describe it but… well, I’m sure I don’t need to, you were a lot closer to it than I was.

ARCHIVIST
It’s the last thing I remember before blacking out. Tens of thousands of… things without mouths screaming as one.

ELIAS
…
Yes. Horrible sound. Anyway, I called the fire department, ambulance and a contact at the ECDC who had previously been involved in the Prentiss investigation. Once I was sure most of the gas would have dissipated, I headed down to the Archives to see what had happened. Sasha was already there, but you and Tim were in bad shape. It looked like a few dozen worms had been going into each of you when the carbon dioxide killed them. Was like bloody Swiss che–

ARCHIVIST
Yes… thank you. I remember everything from when the ambulance arrived. Quarantine, bandaging, et cetera. When did Martin get back?

ELIAS
It was about an hour after they’d taken you and Tim away. They were prepping Prentiss’ corpse for disposal, when Martin burst out of that trapdoor you found, screaming that he’d found a body. So we called the police.

ARCHIVIST
Tell me what happened to Gertrude Robinson.

ELIAS
John, how many times do we need to go over this?

ARCHIVIST
We’ve never got it on tape.

ELIAS
You can barely stand. Just… why don’t we just do this tomorrow?
…
Fine.
On the 15th of March last year, I had a query about a statement one of our researchers was after and went down to the Archives. Gertrude wasn’t there, but her desk was covered in blood. I called the police, and there was a huge search, but there was no sign was found of Gertrude, alive or dead. She didn’t have any assistants, so there were no witnesses, and no-one saw or heard anything.
The police tested the blood and confirmed the DNA matched to Gertrude, though I don’t know why they had her on file. They judged there to be almost a gallon of blood spilled, far more than the human body can lose and survive, so I assumed she was dead and left the investigation to the police, for all that good it did me. And I appointed another archivist.
Martin finding her body in the tunnels is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.

ARCHIVIST
Right. Right. Thank you, Elias. Statement ends.
Can you send in Tim?
[CLICK]

[CLICK]

TIM
[Tired] Do you need much? I’d really like to go home.

ARCHIVIST
I sympathise. It won’t take more than a few minutes. I just… I need the parts that weren’t on tape at the time.

TIM
Sure. Just… quarantine, y’know? Not as much fun as it sounds.

ARCHIVIST
You were certainly in there longer than I was.
Everything alright?

TIM
Yeah, I just made some joke about itching and suddenly they were doing a whole bunch more tests.

ARCHIVIST
Well, itching is one of –

TIM
I know! I know. I was trying to lighten the mood.
I’m fine, though. Except for the holes. And the pain. And the blood and the nightmares. Could’ve been worse though, eh? Another couple of minutes and –

ARCHIVIST
Yes. Yes. It was…
Anyway, statement of Timothy Stoker, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, regarding the infestation by the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th July 2016. Just take it from when you got back from lunch.

TIM
Well, I could tell something was wrong as soon as I got back. It was quiet. I mean, it’s normally quiet, but it was dead quiet. I spotted the tape recorder lying on the ground, and went over to, er, see if it was damaged, and as I was checking it I heard Sasha shouting. It’s a bit of blur, to be honest, ‘cause when I turned around, there she was. Prentiss. Her face so full of holes it’s like, “my eyes are up here”, but they’re not, you know? They’re just… She tried to say something, but I don’t know, I couldn’t really understand her through all the…
So, I could see the worms were coming through the floor, the walls, everywhere. The whole “we’re safe inside the Archive” thing” Not so much. I don’t know what I was going to do, I think I was going to try and hit her, but that’s when Sasha knocked me to the floor. It, it was a good move, actually. Prentiss didn’t seem to expect it, and we crushed a lot of worms when we fell. They were slow to react, and we were running before they really went for us. I mean, all this happened in the space of a few seconds, so I’m not exactly certain.
Sasha had to basically drag me behind her. I saw the shelf in front of us was about to topple. There were so many worms on it so, being the hero I am, I let go of her hand and told her to get help. She made it out the main door. I turned to run into the office. I was just trying to get a door between me and Prentiss. I didn’t know that’s where you made the first hole.
There were loads of them. Some jumped at me as I ran inside so I dodged out the way, but ended up sprawling into this pile of boxes that I thought were case files. Instead, I found myself lying on top of a whole bunch of CO2 canisters, which are damn hard by the way. The worms were still coming, so I used them. I mean, I went full Gas-Rambo.
After that… my memory gets a bit fuzzy. I think the paramedic called it ‘respiratory acidosis’… from breathing in all the carbon dioxide, rather than your more traditional oxygen. I remember finishing the first few extinguishers killing the things, but they kept coming, so I grabbed a few more, and saw the massive hole in the wall. There didn’t seem much point staying, so I went into the tunnels. They were cold, dry. You know that worm smell? That earthy rotten smell?

ARCHIVIST
Oh yes.

TIM
Well, yeah. There weren’t so many down there. I think they were almost all in the Archives. I have a theory, actually. I think they weren’t ready to attack when you found the tunnels. It’s like, something in the Institute slows them down, and makes them, um, heh, sluggish.
And that noise they make? That squirming sound? They don’t make it when they’re in the tunnels. I don’t know why. It was only when they came into the Institute. Maybe the light, or the aircon, or something? I’m not sure, but I think it made them weaker, and they’ve been down there for months, breeding, building up their numbers until there were enough to properly bury us. Except you found that hidden passage, and they had to act.

ARCHIVIST
Maybe. Could you… describe the tunnels?

TIM
You were there.

ARCHIVIST
Humour me.

TIM
I remember they sloped down and up and around. I couldn’t keep track of where I was. I did see some more worms, though. They were fast. I only saw a couple, but it was still proper jumpscare territory. I got them, though. It was really surreal. I only had my phone’s torch, and it was hard to keep an eye out, I was so light headed.
I wandered for, I don’t know, maybe ten minutes before I found a wall that seemed different. It looked like someone had just put some plasterboard over an entrance, and I could hear you and Martin on the other side. I broke through and, well, you were there for the rest.

ARCHIVIST
Quite. You… you weren’t there when Martin found the body, though, were you?

TIM
No. I was quarantined, same as you.

ARCHIVIST
And you didn’t see it in the tunnels when you were first exploring?

TIM
No. I did see… uh, I mean, maybe…

ARCHIVIST
What?

TIM
No, it’s just… I think I was still gassed, and it was dark, but… I found a room.

ARCHIVIST
Go on.

TIM
I didn’t stay long, ‘cause it had a lot of worms in, and they weren’t acting like the others. They were sort of… wrapping around each other, like they were trying to form a… thing, like a structure or something. A ring.
I was probably still out of my skull, and half-hallucinated the whole thing, but it looked like they were trying to make a doorway.

ARCHIVIST
A doorway? Is it still there?

TIM
No. I pumped two full extinguishers into that room. Nothing was getting out.

ARCHIVIST
Good. Good. Go home, Tim. Get some sleep.

TIM
Heh. Yeah. Sure.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]

ARCHIVIST
Statement of Sasha James, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, regarding the invasion by the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th July, 2016. In your own time.

NOT!SASHA
Yes… Where do you want me to begin? I was with you until I ran out to save Tim. Then we were separated, and I fled into the Institute proper. I pulled a fire alarm, because the worms were following me, and I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. I went to Elias. We talked. We were going to save you, but the worms came, and I fled into the Artefact Storage room. You know I hate the Artefact Storage room, so it must have been bad.

ARCHIVIST
You used to work there, didn’t you?

NOT!SASHA
Yes, for three months. It was dreadful. I used to think that it was the most dangerous place in the Institute.

ARCHIVIST
Not anymore.

NOT!SASHA
Yes, not anymore. It was safe enough. The worms didn’t get in, and I stayed there until the fire system deployed, then I ran out to get to a window. I saw the worms in the main Institute. They shrivelled and died. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that scream, though. I could hear Prentiss screaming even from there.

ARCHIVIST
Well, it’s thanks to you, to be honest. If you hadn’t met that ‘Michael’ thing…

NOT!SASHA
Yes, Michael… With the bones in his hands. We still don’t know much about him, do we?

ARCHIVIST
No, not yet. Sorry, getting… distracted. You got as far as Jane Prentiss’ death.

NOT!SASHA
Yes, I returned to the Archives, and all the worms were dead. You and Tim were lying there, but you weren’t moving. You just lay there, the dead worms still half inside of you. The trapdoor was open next to you, and more were inside. I went over to check, and you were alive, so I pulled you back to where there was more air, and began to remove the worms.
Are you alright?

ARCHIVIST
Sorry, just… difficult to hear, you know.

NOT!SASHA
Yes, I understand. That was when Elias arrived with the fire brigade and doctors and the hazmat people. They talked to me for a long time, and I did my best to explain the situation. They checked me for worm-marks, but I was fine. They took you away, so I waited with Elias. He was looking at me strangely, but we were both quiet. It had been a very strange day.
After an hour or so, we heard cries from the trapdoor. It was Martin. He was shouting about a body. We got him out, and Elias tried to get him to calm down and explain. He said he’d found the body of the previous Archivist, Gertrude Robinson, and that was when Elias called the police. I tried to calm him down, but he was in bad shape. The police arrived, and I gave them pretty much this same statement.

ARCHIVIST
Right… Right. What about the tape? You had the tape recorder, the one I’d just recorded Mr. Ramao’s statement on, but when you gave it back, it was empty.

NOT!SASHA
Yes, I dropped it a few times. The eject button must have been hit. I didn’t notice until you pointed it out. It’s probably around somewhere. Is it that important?

ARCHIVIST
It’s important to me. Are you feeling alright? You seem a bit out of it.

NOT!SASHA
Yes, I’m very tired. It’s hard to keep track of things sometimes.

ARCHIVIST
Right. Go get some rest, Sasha.

NOT!SASHA
Yes. I will.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]

MARTIN
[Tired] I mean, I already told the police.

ARCHIVIST
Well, now tell me. I need to hear it. I need to record it.

MARTIN
I… alright. Are you okay?

ARCHIVIST
Fine. Painkillers are starting to wear off, but… It’s fine. Statement of Martin Blackwood, archival assistant, etcetera, etcetera. Go.

MARTIN
Right. Well, I was doing some background checks for case 0081709, when you and Sasha started screaming, so I went to ch–

ARCHIVIST
Yes, yes, I was there! I was with you for almost the whole time, and that tape survived just fine.

MARTIN
Sorry.

ARCHIVIST
Ah, it’s fine. I just… I only need from when you got separated. From when you got lost in the tunnels.

MARTIN
No, I mean… I’m sorry I left you.

ARCHIVIST
…
Oh, Martin.

MARTIN
[Tearful] It was an accident. I thought you two were with me! I mean, the worms came at us, and they were so much faster, and then there was the gas, and the running, and I just… I, I thought you were right behind me. But when I turned round you were gone. You were both gone. It was an accident.

ARCHIVIST
I know. It’s fine, Martin. Everybody’s… [sigh] Everyone’s fine… I just need you to tell me what happened next, and then it’s finished.

MARTIN
Alright. So, um, yeah, we got separated so I, I tried shouting, but you didn’t answer. The walls seemed to kill the sound dead and there wasn’t any echo. They were old stone, like, really old, and there was no light except my torch. I, I always keep my torch on me, ever since I moved into the Archives, so I had that, at least.
I wandered for a while. It’s a, it’s a maze down there, John. I don’t know how far the passages go. Maybe miles. I think it must be the old Millbank Prison, like Tim was saying before. I even found some stairs at one point, but I really didn’t want to go down them.
I hadn’t seen any worms for a few minutes, and weirdly enough that actually started to worry me, like, if there weren’t any worms then I’d gone too far from the Institute. And there was more dust in those corridors too, and dead rats, even some discarded wine bottles. At one point there was an empty packet of mint imperials –

ARCHIVIST
Martin…

MARTIN
Sorry. Yeah. Um. I was trying to go back, not that I knew what back even meant down there, when I heard the scream. I don’t even know how to go about describing it, but I thought… well I hoped… Well, when I started to find the shrivelled bodies of worms all over the place, I knew she was dead.
So I wanted to get out of there. I was looking for a way up, but it felt more and more like I was trapped. Every turn just led me to another empty corridor. When I finally found a door, I thought it might actually get out, but instead…
It was a small room. Square. There was dust on everything. Cardboard boxes were piled around. They were full of old cassette tapes.

ARCHIVIST
That’s where you found her?

MARTIN
Yes. She was sat in a wooden chair in the middle of the room. No worms. No cobwebs. Just… an old corpse. Gertrude Robinson. She was slumped forward, but I could see her mouth hanging open. So I ran, and I found the trapdoor soon afterwards.

ARCHIVIST
Could you find the room again?

MARTIN
I don’t know. Maybe. The police certainly expect me to, although I got the feeling they’re not too keen to explore the tunnels either.

ARCHIVIST
Martin, how did Gertrude Robinson die?

MARTIN
I don’t know. Not for sure. It was so dark, and I only saw the body for a few seconds. The police were quite clear that the cause of death could be absolutely any–

ARCHIVIST
MARTIN! How did she die?

MARTIN
She was shot! Three times, that I could see. Three shots to the chest.

ARCHIVIST
Right. Right. Thank you Martin.
MARTIN
…
Sure.
[CLICK]

[click]
(Beeping of medical equipment)
The archivist

Statement of(sigh) Jane doe,Human Resources head at the Magnus Institute, regarding the invasion by the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 30th July, 2016. In your own time.

???
(Delirious) I forget my name.. how sad is that, I think it was the only thing holding my humanity together and now I’ve lost it, well I didn’t really lost it because I don’t think there was anything to fined in the first place…

The archivist
Are- are you alright?

???
I’m sorry Jon but they pumped me full of all kinds of drugs so I’m a little itty bitty out of it…
When I left the worms disappeared and it was all just halls and stairwells

The archivist
Halls and- like Michael? Halls and stairs?

???
No it’s the forever deep down kind not the twisted deception king

The archivist
Wha- what does that mean?

???
(Chuckles) your vary pretty, it’s a shame your such a prick

The archivist
W-

???
You know I wish I was in the before part because this… sucks!
I haven’t even got my first paycheque and I’m covered in holes! I wish I could just stab people you know be on that side instead of this side, I feel like gouging my eyes out I always have a headache now, and ughhh waiting for the apocalypse is sooooo boring!
And you know what the worst part is?

The archivist
What?

???
Nobody likes me anymore and every thing is changing always and it’s just not fair

The archivist
Do- do you know anything about the death of Gertrude Robinson?

???
Yeah, lots of blood and than- wait.. you- I can’t tell you this

The archivist
Why?

???
Your not allowed yet thayd kill me

The archivist
Who? Who would kill you?

???
The Great Eye that watches all who linger in terror and gorges itself on the sufferings of those under its unrelenting stuporous gaze and the spider she’d eat me whole, I’ve never been fond of spiders… not a fan

The archivist
me neither

???
I’m so sorry you have to have conscious and humanity Jon, you’re a nice guy you don’t deserve that,,.

The archivist
I-, I don’t deserve conscious and humanity?

???
No it’s going to hurt you in the future, you don’t deserve to be hurt Jon

The archivist
Oh…

???
Before you leave can you tell the others to visit me while I’m here?
I don’t- I don’t enjoy being alone

(Beat.)

The archivist
Y-yeah, I’ll… I’ll do that

???
Thank you Jon, your really cool

[CLICK]
ARCHIVIST
Gertrude Robinson, the last Archivist at the Magnus Institute, and my predecessor, was murdered. There were no worms to infest her, no strange, ghostly apparitions to warp her mind, or caves to entomb her. She was killed, in the Archives, by someone who used a gun, and that scares me far more than any spectre or twisted creature. Because that means someone here is a killer.
The police will investigate thoroughly, I have no doubt, but… given their track record in this matter I am not optimistic.
There is something in these files, in these statements. I know that now, some deeper mystery. I think Gertrude Robinson found it, and I think that is why they killed her.
Some of my tapes are missing. Maybe it was Prentiss, but she seemed more interested in the written files, and the other tapes seem fine. There’s no sign of debris, or anything that would indicate they’ve been destroyed, but, in addition to the tape Sasha lost earlier, the tapes for cases 0051701 and 0160204 are gone. I don’t know why these two specifically, but I cannot trust anyone.
I’m going to figure this out, and I’m not going to stop. They’ll have to kill me first.
End recording.
[CLICK]

Chapter Text

The days in the hospital go by slow
I don’t even know why I’m here
Maby the eye protected only archives members
Maybe Annabelle is already sick of me
Im tired and sad and want to go home
I don’t even have a home or an apartment
Maybe I could ask Sasha if I co-

Fuck…

The door opens waving the clouds and smoke from the floor

“Jon?”

He gives a tight lipped smile “hello”
He walks over and sits in the chair next to my hospital bed

We kinda just sit staring at each other awkwardly

“How are the others?”

“Good”

“Cool”

…

“Why.. why are you here jon?”

He shuffles in his chair “you said you wanted company, if you don’t I can-“

“No it’s not that it’s just, why are…You, here, why was it you who came?”

He looks at me with a look of confusion and surprise “I-..” he pauses and looks at me than to the monitor and Iv drip pumping what ever shit they use to Rehydrate people in to my body “why did you leave? back in the tunnels, you ran off even before Martin did you just… left… why?”

I was looking for jurgin leitner

“I just got bored I suppose, I mean an uncharted tunnel system? How cool is that, I’ve never really been one for urban exploration, I mean as a kid I ran around churches searching for the secret rooms paved with old red carpet and beautifully carved wooden statues and pillars, the idea fascinated me you know, getting lost in small Buildings that seem impossible to get lost in, that your not allowed to go in and explore, it’s fun, I remember one church i went to as a child down in the basement you could get down by four or more stairways all leading to different places one when straight to the Sunday school playroom, there was a room next to that that was meant for the older kids and I remember so clearly the joy I feel when I realized it was a gate way to the other side of the church, I remember the first time I snuck in to the accounting office, I stole a paper clip I think… something like that… it’s been so long since I’ve been home… I just wanted that feeling of finding something you aren’t supposed to, Being, somewhere your not supposed to be, obviously it didn’t work out in my favour did it, got actually lost, barely found my way back before i passed out, it’s so covered down there like just suffocating”
I blink a few times
“Sorry for rambling I- I’m- sorry we got off on the wrong foot, I- it’s starting to seem like a dream less and less I-“ I start to chuckle morosely “I’m terrified honestly, of all this terrible change going on,” I
suck my teeth and shake my head “I know what’s going to happen I know when people will die, I know everything, but I can’t change anything or prevent it, or something in the big overwhelming web of the story will change, it’s my greatest fear you know? Change, the whole concept just terrifies me, change and the unknown it’s nauseating”
He just compelled me softly all be it I didn’t tell him important things but wow… I haven’t thought of that church in years

My heart sinks and I look over to his bag grabbing it and rummaging through it

“Hey what are you-?”

I pull out the tape recorder “you…” I chuckle a bit “I don’t know why this hurts my feelings so much… I am… disappointed or distraught, I can’t quite tell” I hand them the recorder the faint whirring noise filling my ears

“I just- I came to ask you questions about the prentiss attack and-“

“It’s fine archivist, ask your questions” i sink back into the crinkly hospital pillows and try to push the cold sad feeling away ignoring the fog on the glass window

Chapter Text

The next week she visits me in the hospital

Just talking to her gives me a grating headache

I thought it would be different

That it would be like Melany

But she looks the exact same

The crinkle in her eye when she laughs or smiles

I know it’s not her
I know it looks nothing like her
But I can’t remember

I wonder if the Polaroids we took are still the same

I hate this

I only knew her in a real way for two weeks but holy fuck

This is painful

God how is Tim going to react when he finds out I knew the whole time

He already doesn’t like me
It would feel weird to be his friend now

But I don’t want him to be alone

I’d say she wouldn’t want that but..

I barely knew her
And I never will

Chapter Text

It’s officially been three weeks in the hospital because I was a fucking idiot and passed out from dehydration in a fucking tunnel system underneath the eyeball cult ghost building that my monster cult man boss runs looking for the dust eating shit head avatar of the cunt book man that my monster cult man boss will beat to death with a metal pipe and then pin on my sexy pathetic meow meow eyeball coworker in about two months or in other words

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Kill me now, hart emoji

Oh right I forgot to mention the fucky ass lonely smoke has started to crawl it’s way on to my miserable life and is just there
but every time I try to fight it a nurse comes in and sees me fighting literal air
Because of course I’m gonna punch that shit away because no offence to Martin and full offence to Peter but i any no pussy ass bitch I’d rather have the fuckin burrrid than the lonely like fucking hell im going insane in this fucky ass room I’m in

And that’s what you missed on glee!

Ahhhhhh-

I’m cut off from my rage filled internal monologue by a nurse entering the room holding her nose bridge seemingly with a headache

She looks at me and smiles “hey hun, you have a visitor, I just wanted to know it your feeling okay enough for one right now?”

“Depends who is it?” If it’s Jon or Martin I’m sending them home they need a nap
if it’s Tim or ‘Sasha’ maybe
if it’s Elias or gods forbid Peter I am beating them on sight

“his name is mick or maybe mike the hand writing on the name tag is a bit hard to read, do you know them?”

Oh deep breath vary deep breath

Is it lightning flavoursome Michael or door flavoured Michael

“Um I might.. what does he look like”

Please say lightning scar I don’t have the energy to deal with any bullshit right now

Her face wrinkles slightly in confusion “he’s- I- ugh-“ I hand runs up to her forehead again “sorry dear, I’ve had this headache for-“ she winces slightly “I’m so sorry what was your question?”

Gods damn bro this is my only nice nurse why you gotta do her like this

I sigh as heavily as anyone has ever sighed ever “the visitor, you can send him in Cathy”

She look Up from trying to soothe her headache “oh of course dear, it’s nice you have so many people to visit you here” she smiles softly and leaves

God I hope fuckhands doesn’t do anything to that incredible woman

The door creeks open and Cathy leads in a normal looking guy

If you don’t count the fact that he looks like if a bad trip was compacted in to a ‘person’
And they have to many teeth
And they look just straight up blurry
And if you look long enough you can see it’s hair twisting in spinning within its own curls
And the fact that it’s ‘hair‘ is yellow and orange and red simultaneously and it’s ‘eyes’ are blue and gold and green and gray simultaneously
and it’s ‘skin’ have no real set colour instead of just pale like it’s going from a vary light green to a light pink back and forth around the colour spectrum
And the fact that it’s literally just ‘Michael’ trying to appear as human-ish as they can

“Sup, bitch… what’s up?”

It laughs a sickening laugh
“It’s good to see you alive again like before when I last saw you alive also!”

“You can go Cathy this wont be long” she gives a thankful smile and leaves through a normal not yellow door because if she did I would go absolutely fucking ham

‘Michael’ ‘walks’ over and moves the chair to face the door way and no clips in to a sitting like-ish position in the visitors chair beside my bed

He sits in a hugging his legs position except he’s sitting halfway in the the chair
His head is tilted slightly and he’s smiling at me every once in a while doing a segmented blink

I sigh “why?”

It smiles wider “why not?”

“Are you just here to be here or are you here for a reason?”

“I need, someone to help with my me..”

“And What The fuck does that mean my guy?”

“I need resources from a human, and you, are Human Resources”

“What kind of Human Resources? Because I can get a complaint filed against someone or something and that’s basically it, I’m practically useless to you”

They tilt their head and smile wider laughing with their mouth still shut

“Stop that with your face it’s creepy as fuck”

His smile drops and he looks at me with light contempt “I need you to make me work as a who, or, I will make you into a what”

“Dude… what?… just try to say it like a normal person”

Chapter Text

Hill top road was abandoned when they visited

Was- was that girl Annabel?

I’ve been thinking about lots of things lately

Like if head cannons figure in to this world
not just mine but others too

Mostly the whole is leitner martins father, because I’m not gonna lie the time line does match up

But currently I’m mostly worrying about hill top road and the web

To the best of my memory
It was completely covered in cobwebs

Did she clean just for me? If so I feel flattered

But also

Am I important?

Like if me coming to visit warrants her getting rid of her webs than
ether she’s going hate me in the future or she didn’t want to scare me off

Ether way she was banking on my not remembering it was abandoned

Well she was right i suppose
I guess she’s all ways right

That’s like her thing right?

Fuck… i need to get out of this hospital dude

Chapter Text

Martin visits the fourth week and then Tim the weekend after that and than I’m out of the hospital for good on September 21…

And immediately back at work
Yay.

I walk in to the building and walk to my office immediately, ignoring everyone one and take a seat at my desk

I sigh and rest my head on the hard wood surface tilting my head just enough to see my computer screen

Since the month changed over I finally got my epic pay check and so now I can bye cool things like more that one outfit and weapons

I put on what the ghost and scroll along Amazon, wish and Other shitty delivery websites shoving random things into my cart, using company funds to buy something’s and my personal account to buy others

And most importantly not doing any work because I’m technically still on med leave

I think I might be winning in life again

Chapter Text

My door creeks open and Jon turns the light on closes the door behind himself clearly not noticing me in the corner of the room making coffee the faint whirring of a tape recorder filling the room

“Supplemental, I have broken in to Human Resources intending to find more information about Jane doe” they walk over to my desk setting the tape recorder down and turning on my computer

I really should have put a password on that, it wouldn’t protect against Elias so I didn’t see the point

Talking about seeing how has he not seen me yet I’m I really standing that still? Or is he just to driven?

“Seems,” scrolls down “that there’s a list, in the notes of their computer of… names?.. wait? Peter Lucas? Simon Fairchild?! Mike crew?! Hellen Richardson?! What- how dose he known them? Who are some of these people!… o-oh my? Wha-… Jonathan sims, Martin Blackwood, elias Bouchard, Timothy stoker… that’s-…. Basira Husain… Melany king? And-and they’re colour coded? Green, yellow, blue, brown, what is going o-“ he freeze in assumed horror “g-Georgina baker… how does he-?” His eyes meet mine over the top of the monitor

“Hello Jon, sorry for not making my self known but I really wanted to know what you where doing in my office on my computer with out my permission” I suck air through my teeth “so… what’s up man?”

I stands up straight “I- I- no one told me you were out of the hospital?”

“Yeah just got back today, still on medical leave, pretty shit welcome back party if I do say so Jon”

“Who- why-… what is this?” a familiar feeling spreads up my face but I push it away easily

“It’s a list”

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I archivist?”

“How do you know about Georgie?”

“Check the next tab”

He dose so and it opens to the what the ghost you you’ve page

“Oh..” his face relaxes a bit but then retightens again “but why is she in a colour category with someone named Olivier banks? And why am i in a category with Elias and Gerrard”

Fuck fuck what do I say to that
Try to play it off

“It’s a list of people who have taken complaints on members of the institute and people who have has complaints filed against them, the colour code is types of behavioural complaints, do you want to know what green is Jon?” I try to make my voice as calm yes Stern as I can

He freezes slightly “fine, tell me.”

“Invasion of privacy,” i sigh “though this is all classified information and I really shouldn’t be telling you”

He looks away feeling a hint of shame most likely

I walk over and put a hand on his shoulder “look Jonathan, I’m worried, there’s a lot of fucked up shit going on here in the institute and outside of it , I mean I- well I can’t tell you anything there was an nda within my contract but- I’m worried you going to get yourself in trouble if this thing continues, if you’re not going to stop… cool, I guess, but if your going to do any real crimes, just… tell me first, your clearly not that good with scouting”

He blinks a few times “oh..”

I chuckle and walk back to my coffee “yeah back in my world I was quite the scoundrel…” my smile falls “i-I guess this is my world now…”

He hesitates “y-yeah, i suppose it is” he glances to the tape recorder he left on my desk “I’ll-“ he grabs it quickly “I’ll be going now”

“Yeah that probably for the best” the steam grows thicker on my cup and Jon clicks of his recorder and leaves

Chapter Text

Most of my things arrive within the week and by the time I have everything delivered and set up all my precious precious medical leave has been spent up

The day is spent doing nothing except drinking coffee and studying the spider webs in the corners of the room

They all look wet, stricken with dew from the lonely clouds i suppose

I should really fined a way to get rid of it before I get stuck, or if I do get stuck fined a way to get a cooler entity, because I don’t want to just sit all day in a cloud of smoke

I want to sit all day in a cloud of smoke

Ha weed joke….

The door creeks open

Not the entrance door to my office in front of my desk but the Fibreglass Smooth Clear 6-Lite door comma yellow that I bought and installed behind my desk

“What’s up dude- ow what the fuck man!” As soon as it’s through the door it immediately stabs trough my arm and starts to look around

“You can’t just come in here and stab me guy!, like come on what the fuck dude!” He pauses in the middle of the room looks me in the eyes and tills it’s head before inserting his finger back into my arm and pulling it back out soaked in blood

He holds it in there hand inspecting it upsetedly

“What are you doing man? That hurts! Like a lot! Come on” I’m honestly more disappointed than upset

“No…” he say silently and licks the blood off his fingers

“Ew! God damn dude! What the fuck-“

“No no this won’t do at all…”

“What are you going on about man?” It’s head snaps towards me and it walk’s through my desk picking me up by my collar and walking into its doorway immediately disappearing and becoming the surroundings

“Are you shiting my entire cock right now?”

Chapter Text

I start in the side of the floor hands on my hips and sighing as loudly as I can

I go in the top of the stairs and turn to forward and walk out of a painting and are met with a person With curling eyes and panicked hair “Hellen Richardson?”

She turns forward and cocks her head at me “what- how- I-it’s so.. wrong..”

She’s shaking so hard she’s practically vibrating “hey, hey no it’s alright you just have to-“ I step forward to try to comfort her in someway but I disappear instantly

I slump down against whatever this wall thing is supposed to be and tuck my head between my legs

My voice comes out crisp and warm like burnt tinfoil

“Why, why, why, why-“ I repeat the word over and over until the ‘word’ twists into nothing but mushy peas spilling out of my face

The ground seems to dolly zoom as I stare never blinking and the spiralling shapes and colours “-bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye-”

Time probably passes and the foam of white and red and green keeps spilling out of my head and into the carpet “-hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi-”

“Hello” my head turns my spine cracking at the comparatively sudden movement after sitting still for as time as I did

“Are you better now?”

“Hmm? What?” I look up at it and it looks down at me upset and disappointed

They slowly fold down to ‘sit’ next to me on the ‘floor’

“You where lonely so I brought you here”

“Oh?

“So… are you better?”

“I-…” I take a deep breath “you kind of… just…. Left me alone… so.. you know”

He makes a scoffing sound “we did no such thing! I was here the whole time”

“You were?”

“Obviously! Look around”

I look around and it’s a strobe light of different sensory inputs being put into the wrong spaces “I don’t- I don’t really get it just to be honest… I don’t- I don’t think I belong here”

“Well you sure as hell don’t belong in the lonely”

“Says the being made of falsehood”

It sighs a swarm of static that stings my head like a migraine and reaches its hand through the wall “we can’t help you, I can but I won’t, you will help me in the future, and this-” he pulls the a strip of paper out of the wall and puts in into my hands “-will help you now, leave and continue onwards”

They press a finger to my chest and push me over and I fall onto the floor in the archives

“What the fuck?”

Chapter Text

I look up at Tim who’s holding two cups and looking down at me “sorry, sorry you probably didn’t catch it the first time.. WHAt the FucK?!”

I lift a hand up and make a graby hand and the cup he’s holding “give”

He looks at me closely, carefully, confused and disappointed and than slowly lowers the cup into my hand

It burns a bit but it’s nice to feel something other than exactly room temperature air

I tilt the cup down to my lips

“Wait that’s not-“

But I forgot that I’m laying flat on my back and the lid pops off of the cup and hot coffee spills over my face and neck and chest immediately scalding

“-a good idea!” Tim finishes his sentence a bit to late and i shoot up with a yell

“Fuck!” I use my shirt to try and mop up the scalding coffee from my skin “ow ow ow ow ow-!”

“I herd yelling what’s- oh… oh god, are you alright?”

I turn around and look back at ‘Sasha’ from my place on the floor “is it bad”

She stairs at me eyes unnervingly black “it’s still fresh, come I’ll get you some ice” she holds her hand out and helps me up

“Isn’t ice bad for burn arnt you supposed to-“

“It’s fine Tim, I can handle it” she smiles softly and guides me to the staff room that’s surprisingly empty

She pulls out a chair out for me and I sit down gripping the table in pain and watching her move around

She looks in the freezer of the staff room fridge makes a soft sound of disappointment than moves to the sink grabbing a cup and running it under the tap before deciding the temperature is decently cold and walking over

She grabs a kerchief out of her pocket “don’t worry it’s clean” she dips it into the cup and presses it to the burns on my face, slowly blotting cold water across the side of my face

“Thanks”

“Well we are friends after all. Sorry I didn’t visit you all that much in the hospital”

“Oh, it’s alright”

“Oh alright then… I met someone.”

I look at the and see the soft smile on her face and her eye’s black and empty like a giant doll “that’s nice.. what’s there name?”

“Tom, he’s vary nice and works at madam tuso’s house of wax, we have lunch together on my breaks”

She keeps blotting water on my face as she spouts her script “he sounds lovely”

“Yeah, he is,” she sounds genuinely happy but her eyes are still completely blank, then something seems to load in her head “that’s why we haven’t had our movie night yet… we haven’t had time to plan anything because I’ve been seeing Tom on my brakes”

“Yeah,” she remembers “yeah, we-we should plan now, Texas chainsaw massacre, right?”

It smiles “yeah, I love horror movies”

Chapter Text

The skin on my face tightens and hardens uncontrollably as I spend the day lining the burns with salve and wrapping my face with bandages

Tim was right your not supposed to use ice or cold water for burns so it ended up scaring

Not visibly but I can feel the scars in my skin and the side of my face where I was burned is slightly discoloured and puffy

I stair at my self in a little compact mirror as I hesitate to call the number on the paper Michael gave me

I set down the compact and grab the paper staring at the numbers

No name just a number

I open my computer and look the number up

Not a company or a person

Or at least not a recorded one

A burner maybe?

Chapter Text

Ring ring…

Ring ring…

Ring ring-

“How did you get this number?” The voice is harsh and smooth, a woman seemingly a vary familiar voice

“Oh, yeah sorry, is- is this a burner phone?”

She pauses on the other side of the line “Yes. Now again how did you get this number?”

“Are.. are..you, a burner?”

Soft breath from the other side
“That depends… do you know of Agnes?”

“I know of her, I don’t know of her directly, but I know of you… you’re Jude perry?”

The other side goes shockingly quiet “how do you know-“

“An,” I hesitate “associate… of mine is uh-“

“What do you serve” she says bluntly

“Uhhhhh- nothing but… things are lurking and my associate doesn’t like that, and uh- he might… fuck I just need to talk with you because he said I should and uh- I wouldn’t really like to accidentally starve to death so-“

“Do you work at the institute?”

“Uh- yeah technic-“

“In the archives?”

“Um- no I-“

“Meet me on the curb, twenty minutes.”

“Oh- alright I-“ she hangs up

Chapter Text

She stands in front of a motorcycle staring at me

I walk up and hold out my hand she shakes it and her skin is warm and soft but she doesn’t burn me

she just shakes and climbs over her bike

“Sit.”

“Uhh do you have a helmet or-“

“No.”

“Oh ok cool”

I climb on the bike

she starts the bike shooting down the road at speeds probably over the speed limit

We ride in silence

Chapter Text

“Heh, nasty burn you got thare” she says staring at me from her bench seat

“Kill your self, L, bozo” why are you like this

“Excuse me?” She straightens her posture

“Sorry, I’m so sorry, I know hitting soft spots it’s like a thing with the desolation, and like the fact it’s a burn- on my face especially- is definitely like vary compelling and easy thing to target for you but like… come on dude it’s not cool”

She looks me up and down then takes a deep breath assumedly trying to smell something on me

She than chokes a bit clearing her throat than collecting all the spit from her mouth and spitting it onto the ground whare it sizzles the grass in the cracks of the side walk and turns the cement black whare it lands

“Uhh! Like wet cardboard!” She says disgustedly sending me a glare

“Why are you looking at me like I did something wrong?!”

“The lonely smell is radiating off you insistently, it’s nauseating”

“Welp, alright then. that’s why I’m here actually”

She scoffs “what you want me to burn the lonely off you?”

I bit my lip “well actually-“

She barks out a laugh “Oh Fuck Off!.. Are you kidding me?!”

“Well if you can-“

“Trust me sweetheart I’d love to burn the rest of that pretty face off but I’m not that type, see the desolation is a bit too far right from the lonely, you need one next to it or directly opposite to cancel out or shift from what you have going on now”

“Oh so like, the eye is next to the web and across from the dark? So if I was in the eye I could semi-easily shift to the web, and in the sprouting point I could get the avatar-hood cancelled out by a strong enough effort from the dark? And like.. vice versa?”

She looks at me curiously “you know a lot more about this than I thought you would… yeah, that’s about the basic idea”

“So the lonely would be next to the vast and across from.. the vast?”

“Hmm, I guess so, not an exact science, not a science at all really, somethings can be vary similar and vastly different at the same time”

“Yeah i suppose you’re righ-, did you just make a pun?”

She looks me up and down again and smirks slightly taking out a pen and holding out her hand “paper?”

“Oh! Ughhh..” I look in my pockets “I don’t have any, d-“

“Oh that’s just fine” she than smiles surprisingly warmly for someone who is practically just baring their teeth and grabs my arm scalding the skin under her grasp

Tears prick my eyes and wet my face and my lips shoot between teeth quickly drawing blood as I muffle a scream with a wine and she writes a name number and address on my arm

She pulls back after writing on my arm leaving my wrist bloody and cauterized in my lap

“You handled that better then I thought you would”

“Thanks” I squeak out weekly

“No it’s a bit disappointing actually”

Chapter Text

The walk home is long and way to short at the same time

Or more the walk to the institute is long and way to short at the same time

I grab the Handel of the door checking the colour before opening it and walking in saying hi to Rosie and walking to my office whare Sasha is waiting for me

“Oh good you are back. I was about to leave a note”

“You can just tell me in person it’s cool”

“Yes it is cool, Tim asked me out for drinks tonight and I wanted you to come as well”

“shouldn’t-… that sounds nice actually”

“Ah lovely, would you like to talk?”

“About what?”

“Well you just got back from a date did you not?” She takes a seat at the chair in front of my desk

“Oh please, it wasn’t a date a girl like that would never date me” I take a seat at my desk as well

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh it’s just- never mind, it was just a chat”

“What do the two of you chat about?”

“Well- do you know that feeling that’s like everything is really full and you’re empty or-or like you’re really full and everything else is really empty?do you know what I’m saying?”

Her cold black eyes stare into mine unblinking “no I- I don’t think I do” her posture is fully straight as is her smile and hands clutch a coffee cup tightly clearly showing what little stress she can show

“Yeah, not many people do… we just talked about how to fix that feeling”

“How-how do you fix that feeling?” No emotion shows in her eyes but her face shifts slightly

“Talking, talking to people helps sometimes”

“That’s good people like taking”

“Yeah, they do… do-do you like talking?”

“Of course I do! I’m a person”

“Yeah I- I know Sasha”

“That’s good… I need to get to work now, I will see you later after work at the pub”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you guys out side”

She smiles and leaves shutting the door behind her

My face falls and the headache hits full force

Why.. why do I feel bad for her.. she- that it killed Sasha, but it clearly still is sasha it looks like sasha and sounds like sasha so… isn’t she still Sasha

She’s not a real person but she’s still a person she still exists so she should- I should- they should-

I need to lay down my head hurts

Chapter Text

I stair at the crisp peace of paper with the phone number that Jude gave me

I pull out my phone a thick cheep Nokia that I bought after selling the one that Elias gave me to a girl named Michele not sure why I remember her name but I just do

I flip open my phone and dial the number written

It rings and rings and rings and-

“Hello? May I ask who is calling”

“Well that’s a difficult question actually but-“

He hangs up and I call back immediately

“Yeah sorry I’ll get to the point what god do you serve?”

“What am I supposed to say to that?“

“Look please don’t hang up I’m just-” i sigh heavily “l need your help, Jude Perry sent me”

“Who?”

“The desolation”

The line goes fully silent except for soft breathing from the other side “what’s your name?”

“I don’t really have one or at least i don’t remember”

“So your a stranger”

“No- well technically yes but not in the dolls and circus kind of way”

“Than what are you”

“What are you”

A soft ooze of ozone leaks from the phone and I can imagine that clouds of cloudy fog are coming out on his side

“What’s your name?” He says the bite of his tone some what disappearing

“I don’t have one, you?”

“Michael crew, it’s nice to meet you”

Chapter Text

The door creeks open “uh- hey..”

I look up from my computer to see Tim leaning in the doorway with his coat and bag “um.. Sasha’s out front she asked me to come get you..”

“Oh! Right yeah the bar, the pub, the alcohol room yeah yeah let’s go. Just need to pack this all up” I gather my things absent Mindedly putting my things in my bag and shutting down my computer

“Are you… good?”

“Hmm?” I shove my phone, wallet and keys to the institute into my messenger bag

“Well it just you seem, frazzled?.. did something happen?”

I look up from my bag over to Tim who has a confusing look on his face “I- uh- no not really just…” I sling my bag over my shoulder and pat his shoulder “get me drunk first yeah?”

His face twists into a ‘we have a mutual friend so we have to be friends now’ nervous smile
“wow flirting huh? Don’t make me report you to hr” he chuckles nervously and we start to walk through the halls of the institute

“Oh god no! I’m not flirting or anything, it’s just if I need to spill my guts I’d rather not remember doing it in the first place” I chuckle

“Wow, planning on getting black out on a work day, i under estimated you”

“No not full black out just drastically tipsy, is there an designated driver thing going on or-“

“Oh yeah Sash rarely drinks so I’m sure she’ll walk you back from the tube if you ask, I’ll probably just take a cab” he opens the door for me and we walk out to Sasha who’s talking on her phone she spots us and says something quick before hanging up and walking over

Chapter Text

We walk into the pub and a waitress escorts us to a booth near the back corner and sets three’s menus on the table before smiling and rushing to her next table

I slide in to the booth and Tim sits across from me as Sasha moves to sit next to me not noticing Tim’s fallen look as she takes a menu and peruses it

I Check a menu and spot what I’m getting almost instantly and set it aside

“W- you done already? How did you pick so fast?” Tim chuckles

“I’m autistic Timothy the indecision is deflected by my ‘I get the same thing every time’ shield”

“Mm, fair” he picks up a drinks menu “I’m adhd so my indecision ray is duplicated by my ‘wait but what if’ mirror”

“Wait mirror?”

“Uh yeah?”

“Shouldn’t that deflect it too?”

He pauses setting down his menu with a look on his face manoeuvring his hands to physicalise the problem “bloody hell you’re right.. a window then?”

“Or a portal?”

“Maybe a-“ the waitress stops by our table again

“Hi can I get you any starters? Drinks? Water?” She smiles an ‘I hate my job smile’ and holds a note pad in her hands

“I’m actually ready to order if that’s alright”

“yeah ‘course what would you like?”

“Right can I just get the biggest fucking plater of nachos you have, and a riptide”

“Right ‘course and waters for the table?” She scribbles in the notepad and we all give sounds of agreement and than she toddles of to her next table

“So.. look I know we’re just off work but.. have you talked to Jon yet?” Tim folds him menu down

I tilt my head slightly “what… what do you mean?”

“I mean you have to have noticed it he’s been paranoid since Gertrude was found, he’s been-…. He’s been watching my house, following Sasha on her breaks it’s-… look it’s just I put in a few formal complaint forms, checked all the little HR boxes, but nothings happened so I went to Elias and he just told me to fill out a form and it’s just-!” He puts his face in his hands “he’s been at my house that’s bloody fucked even for him”

“I haven’t gotten any complaints against Jon or really anyone in a week or so,” Tim melts into his hands slightly “but I’ll talk to him arrange an intervention or something, let’s focus on getting smashed on a school night yeah?”

He moves one hand from his face down to the menu “yeah”

Chapter Text

I turn on my new podcast
I only say new because when referring to my podcast I always meant the Magnus archives but now you know I can’t really listen to it…

Well I can, I’ve tried I took a tape from Jon’s office and played it but knowing that that stuff actually happened to real people just sucks the fun out of all of it the comfort of horror doesn’t really do anything anymore

But now ‘my podcast’ is what the ghost

It’s calm and nice and it’s funny to listen to Georgie grumpily reading the adds

I found Melanie’s show as well it’s closer to buzzfeed unsolved than wtg is and the company that supports the show is remarkabley similar but its more low-key

I keep the volume low enough to work and to not spike up a gut wrenching hangover headache

Knock knock

I shut off my podcast

“yes come in,” The door behind me creeks open “ oh so you’ve finally learned how to knock that’s lovely Michael” I continue taping away at my keyboard

They laugh a distant, disjointed, headache inducing laugh and settle into my desk (is he giving me a headache or am I just hungover, that is the question) “i suppose so, I’ve come for your help HR”

“And what could i possibly do for you Michael” I scroll through my inbox looking for something entertaining to respond to

“We you see we-“ his eyes sharpen and focus on something in the room
“Michael…. Crew?” He tilts his head

I look up from my monitor “uh yeah?”

It takes what looks to be a deep breath and then his face turns sour “what has he been doing here?”

“He hasn’t” i spin my chair to face them

“I don’t believe you”

“Okay, don’t believe me then” turn back to my computer and continue

He moves to look over my shoulder “what are you even doing?”

“Technically helping people, but most of these things I can’t actually fix like… look ‘safety complaint about: unsafe housing of confiscated books,’” I turn to him “probably a leitner” I turn back and keep reading “‘complaints: honestly it’s just a misfiled book it’s practically coverd in mould it should be in artifact storage not the library but I had to send Sarah home sick and it’s taken a toll on our work load’ see so with this I just send an email to mark in artefact storage give him the run down an’ ask him to pick the book up this one’s an’ easy one that can be fixed quickly but if it’s one where I have to call a someone in to my office its usually not that fun and if it’s something to do with the archives or Jon it goes through Elias and he decides whether in comes through to me or not , which is probably why I’m not getting Tim’s forms now that I think about it…” I lean back in my chair

“And what’s this?” It snakes his fingers into my drawer and pulls out my list

I rip it out of his hand “hey! No! That’s not yours dude!” I shove it back into the drawer

“Mm yes of course…” he tilts his head at me blinking

“Look I’m cool with you being here, like I basically installed fast travel for you so just stay out of my things okay gods know I want to say out of yours” I turn around from my desk

“Michael?… Dang okay then… bye”

Chapter Text

“So like I know your whole thing is like falling and uh.. lightning And storms right? But like why? I get that falling is fun and stuff that feeling is cool, but like ACTUALLY falling doesn’t sound so nice”

“Well to each there own i suppose, but I do feel like you get it a bit, you like the hights but not the fall yeah? But the thing is you can’t really have one with out the other, not in its purist form really” mikes voice comes out slightly staticky

“Well that’s not exactly true” I hum back into the phone

“And why do you suppose that?”

“ well there’s this place where I’m from,” I pin the phone in-between my ear and my shoulder and tap around on my keyboard looking through case files “in Toronto… well I’m not from Toronto but it’s besides the matter, there’s this really tall tower thee- uh?.. fuck I’ve never really remembered the name but fucking tall building one of the tallest buildings in the world actually and up there at the look out the wind whips like crazy and thares like steal netting all around so no one falls out my mom’s never let me get even close to the side even though it would be impossible to fall over but the point is on the in side thares a bit of the floor that’s see through and you can stand on it and so i think that’s the hight without the fall”

“Mm I guess that’s true but aren’t you still scared of falling? Even when it’s impossible to fall you still feel the prick of pain that comes with fear, you can’t have one without the other because the fear of hights is also intrinsically the fear of falling”

“Like if your afraid of loud noises you’ll be afraid of thunder and if your afraid of lightning you’ll also be afraid of thunder but being afraid of loud noise doesn’t mean you’ll be afraid of lightning, it’s the same thing but for different reasons”

“Rather tricky analogy but yeah you get the big picture I suppose”

“But since lightning means thunder will come and vice versa and thunder is a loud noise you’ll most likely be afraid of all three if you weren’t only just afraid of lightning in the first place”

“Rather tricky analogy but yeah you get the bigger picture I suppose”

Chapter Text

Right before my knuckles hit the door Elias’ voice chimes from inside his office “just come right in please no time for pleasantries”

“You’re a basterd you know that?”

“Yes I’m.. well aware, now.. come right In please”

“Yeah what ever”
I open the door and walk in taking a seat locking eyes with Elias
“We need to talk about Jon”

“Mm i knew your progress would be faster than his, I’m sure you have questions about-“

“No no no fuck that, look at me, look at me… fuck you… okay so I’m here on proper business like HR shit okay?”

“Mm” he grits his teeth

“Jon is not okay, and you need to get over your shit for a few seconds and realize that- hey no focus on me prick,” i pull my Keys out of my pocket and jingle them feeling all the eyes in the wall paper focus on me “yeah look at me, jingle jingle panopticon jingle jingle, oh wow I’m saying words that you like you fucking cunt jingle jingle,” i throw the keys at his face and they bounce back onto the desk “yeah that must hurt you’re pride, now look at me, Jon needs help, like an intervention or something”

“Yes, alright, how about,” he slides my keys across the desk “you do your job. And I’ll do mine. Does that sound good?”

I grab my keys and stand up smiling “prick!” I turn around leaveing his office and slamming the door behind me

Chapter Text

CLICK]

ARCHIVIST
You don’t mind if I record this, I trust

???
Jon come on-

TIM
–that’s kind of one of the things we wanted to talk about.

MARTIN
This is an intervention.

ARCHIVIST
Excuse me?

???
If you’d rather be talking to the cops that’s fine

ARCHIVIST
Fine. Say your piece.

NOT!SASHA
We care about you, John, and you’ve been rather erratic since the Prentiss incident.

MARTIN
And we’d really like To make sure that you’re doing okay.

ARCHIVIST
Look, I understand I’ve been a bit… distant recently.

TIM
You were watching my house.

NOT!SASHA
You followed me on my lunch break and searched my desk.

MARTIN
You said was I lying about a murder.

???
You broke in to Human Resources and searched through confidential files wail I was in the room

ARCHIVIST
I – that is to say – I –

NOT!SASHA
Do you think we killed Gertrude?

ARCHIVIST
No, it’s…
…maybe. Maybe you did, I don’t know –

???
Jon I’m going to level with you, this isn’t healthy for you or your team, I tried to talk to you before but-

TIM
You still don’t believe us, do you?

ARCHIVIST
It’s not that I don’t believe you it’s just – I mean, you could have done it!

TIM
Seriously, listen to yourself.

MARTIN
You’re not right.

ARCHIVIST
We’ve gone a long way beyond right, Martin, there are monsters out there, and I don’t know who or where they are or if any of you – if you want me to trust you, then I’m sorry, but I need evidence.

???
Okay.. okay, how about you take this, and we can talk later in my office

ARCHIVIST
And this is?

???
A copy of all the CCTV from the week Gertrude disappeared. The police finally finished cleaning it up and examining it, and returned a copy to Elias who I rock it from

ARCHIVIST
[laughing] There aren’t any cameras in the Archive.

???
But there are everywhere else. Including all of the entrances into the Archive.
And across all of the feeds, it’s…. Really detailed, everyone’s movements over that week. Even yours.

ARCHIVIST
And you think this gives everyone an alibi?

???
The police do, but feel free to check it yourself.

ARCHIVIST
[tersely] Thank you. I will.

NOT!SASHA
And let’s have no more of this paranoia.
[CLICK]

Chapter Text

I walk out of his office and fined the first set I can an empty desk at the end of a bookshelf

“You all right?”

“Yeah I’m balling actually I’m so slay it’s just I’m going to get fired that’s all” my errs start to buzz and my eyes crinkle “do you ever feel,” like a plastic bag blowing their the wind wanting to start again “like just the worst, like you don’t… I don’t know..”

Martin hesitates from behind me “do-… do you want some tea? Or uh- coffee?”

“No. no, thank you,” I stand up and drag my hands over my face “I just.. fuck I need to call Mike,” I start to leave but stop and turn around to face martin “you know I- you don’t need you do Stuff for people it’s not in you job description- well it is but like people like you dude your chill don’t think that people only like you cus your useful in my experience, people liking you in the first place makes you useful so if someone only likes you because your useful and subservient to them then they probably don’t deserve to be noticed by you,” that got to serious make it funny “that’s why I’m such I bitch I’m not useful AND nobody likes me” I blow a kiss at his shocked expression and turn on my heal “bye bye Martin”

Nailed it

Chapter Text

Ring rin-

“Hey what’s up”

“You probably haha I’m hilarious”

“Yeah you are so funny absolutely bloody hilarious, now what’s- what do you want”

“Would it be cringy to say I just wanted to hear you?”

“Yeah actually”

“Well then I just wanted to here you, cringe is dead I am free”

“Dang you got me there”

“You know that feeling when your falling-“

“No not at all”

“Haha so funny, and your falling and it feels light, it’s like that by my chest it Imploding in upon it’s self”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Yeah a bit”

“Do you want to,, come over and talk about it?”

“Maybe, will you promise not to throw me off a skyscraper in Paris”

He chuckles and the smell of ozone fills my lungs “yeah I promise”

Chapter Text

I tighten my on my heelez a roll down to the library

Looking trough library I fined the horror ‘book’ in the section that…

That Sasha showed me…

It’s fine
I’m fine
She not fine
Shut up read your book

I walk over to the seats and a girl is that at one of the tables with papers spread out all around her

“Hey sorry but do you if I sit here”

“Hmm? Oh yeah sure” she pauses “do you want me to clear some surface for you or-?”

“No no it’s all fine” I sit down and open my book reading for a bit when I slam it shut

“I am so sorry but do I know you? I aware I’ve seen you some have you bean past my office”

She looks up and we lock eyes “u-um no but I-“

“Oh fucking hell you’re Melany king! Oh that’s great” I chuckle and go back to my book

“Listen here that video was completely out of context you of all people have no right to laugh at me! You work at the bloody Magnus Institute for fucks sakes!”

“Hey oh gods sorry I didn’t mean to offend you, I wasn’t laughing like that I completely get it ask any one I came here in the same state, Rosie still looks at me weird when I come in”

She sits down slowly her face melting into a guilty like look “yeah I’m-“ they sigh “I’m sorry, it hard you know, it’s.. weird”

“It’s all cool man, so whatcha looking up in our fine institute full of sexy sexy decorum”

She chuckles “and if I said war ghosts?”

I lean forward towering my hands “I’d say go on good sir”

“Well I’ve been looking in to William W. Hay. He was an occultist all his paper where published but like hella edited and they pretty much sterilized most of his work and I’ve found references to a specific paper and-“

“The train car one?”

She perks up “how do you know the trai- the Video”

“Yeah… the video sorry, do you want me to leave or get you that awesome cool paper?”

“Awesome cool paper please”

Chapter Text

The ozon is thick in the hall way leading up to his apartment

Third floor on a four story building thought he’d try to get one a bit further up but i suppose it doesn’t matter

I arrive at his door and knock twice a small shuffle from inside and then he opens the doors little and than fully with a smile “good to finally see you, I’ve been baking, please come in” he steps to the side inviting me in

The door leads to a kitchen with a small circular table in the middle

To the right thars a swinging door to what I’m supposeing is a living room

The air smells less like ozon and more like

“Chocolate chip cookies?” I turn to him with a confused smile

“And blueberry cheesecake but it’s in the icebox right now”

“Huh.. I didn’t know you baked?”

“Well I never told you so makes sense”

Oh Ballz he doesn’t know about the me thing

He walks to the kettle and clicks it on “tea?”

“Depends what kind?”

He looks at me with a glint in his eye “we’ll I have black, but every one has it so I’m assuming you want something different? I have a blueberry one it’s a bit old though to it might be Stale”

I take a seat at the round table

“Wait tea can go stale?”

He smiles and just puts the tea bag in the cup

Chapter Text

I blow the steam of my tea no lonely clouds for two weeks it’s been nice

“so?”

“hmm?” I look up at mike

“The tea, it’s good?”

I take a deep breath and the blueberry smells good “well it smells nice enough, still… still hot….” my hands burn the warmth slightly to hot to hold in to

My face hurts

My face burns

“You alright?” Mike smiles

“Yeah.. yeah I’m good…it’s just, distracted that’s all I think…” I stair at my reflection in the cup

An ice cube drops into the cup

I look up from my cup to mike who has I sympathetic smile on his face

“Thanks” I mumble looking back at the cup watching the ice melt

“No problem… I get it”

“I don-… you do, you get it” I breathe in deep and exhale “thanks, your.. really cool”

“Cool as ice” he gives a cheeky smile

“Never mind your actually the worst”

Chapter Text

“-it’s a getting closer going faster then a-“

Knock knock

I sigh “yeah yeah come in what’s the problem man”

The door opens

“Oh Jon! what’s up archivist?” I smile

“I-… I apologize for my distrust”

“Oh?” I quirk my head “it’s really no problem jon”

“I- I have some questions”

He sits down
“Our firs meeting”

“Yes?”

“You takes about things, statements that I hadn’t even recorded yet, you knew about Hellen Richardson before I even met her, those dreams where real”

“Yeah”

“And those things actually happened”

“Yeah”

“But if I look back at the cases you weren’t there”

“Well yeah there just dreams Jon”

“Right… and have you had any more dreams since you got here?”

“No, none actually no cool dreams scary dreams or just dream dreams nothing, it’s a bit unsettling actually”

“Oh…. But you still know things”

“I- uh yeah to an extent”

He looks down at his hands “you- you know who killed Gertrude…”

“No I-“

He looks back up at me with wet eyes “don’t lie, you told me, you told me you knew, then you said something about spiders eating you and I just-“ he closers his eyes tightly “did anyone…. Trying to hurt me, kill Gertrude?”

“I-….”

How
Who do I respond to this

His eyes flicker from mine to the yellow door behind me but he makes no mention of it

“No, nobody that wants you dead killed Gertrude Robinson”

“I-…” he looks away than looks back and pulls something out of his pocket “this reminded me of you,” it’s a tape “call it a piece offering” he gets up and turns to leave

“To be honest I’m not the one who needs a piece offering but thank you Jon, as your colleague and friend and technical superior, don’t leave your team in the dark, and if you do at least acknowledge that you fucked up”

He pauses, nods and leaves

Chapter Text

The tape Jon gave me was one of my favourites ‘tail of a field hospital’.

That means he’s probably doing Annabells statement right now

Cool cool cool cooolcool

Yeah this is fine I’m fine my brain hurts

“What do you want Michael?”

A disjointed laugh echos through the air but then comes together with a sickening snap of static

“I want to have a chat” he walks around to the front of my desk and sits down halfway through a chair

I furrow my brow “why do you look like that?”

“Your more scared of me when I’m normal and so you’ll listen closer” he smiles

“So you’re threatening me?”

It frowns and pops back in to static and spirals and everything I know that i don’t know “no.”

“So what’s all this then?”

It leads forward “i need you to help me kill the archivist”

“Nuh-uh”

“What do you mean nuh-uh? I need help HR.”

“Yeah I help you with normal things like making sure Jon doesn’t bullshit you but I’m not helping you kill him”

They look at me with an un readable look “fine”

Chapter Text

A knock at the door and as soon as I open me mouth to let them in the door opens

Elias walks over and sits at my desk

He clears his throat

“Tell me about Melany king”

My head hurts
My head hurts
My head hurts
My head hurts

“Melany king has got to be one of the ones I have the least thoughts on honestly because I didn’t really notice her through out the series until like the vary end be-“

Don’t no stop
Stop
Stop

“Most of my friends online had vary strong opinions on her though that made me like her more and on my second listen she was actually really funny and she parallels Tim when which i didn’t realize until my fourth listening”

He tilts his head with an un readable smile

“How do they parallel exactly?”

Why does he need this?

Stop

“T-the s…. The stranger and t-the slaughter a-are actually quite similar I-in actuality a-and I don’t- I don’t- I don’t-..”

“Alright I believe that’s enough thank you for your help HR, your progress is going slower than expected, but what can you do,” he stands up and leaves

Chapter Text

Click)

Martin:
nights by m black wood

The night is deep and cold
The cold is dark and cramp-

[stumbling sound of the door opening]

Tim! I have told you to knock so many time-
Oh bloody hell are you okay?!
[sounds of muffled pain from ???]
[chair moving]

Are- are you eyes hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?

Can you talk? Can you tell me what happened?

The- the lights the lights right

[ walking, click of light switch]

Um.. your face is still bloody.. I’ll.. I’ll get you a cloth

[walking click of door]

[long silence with ??? Breathing heavily]

[paus of breath]

???:
When I fucking get you

[smashing and breaking of tape recorder]

Chapter Text

I stand in the dark breathing heavily staring at the broken recorder

Why did Martin have one?

Oh right poetry
I wrote poetry
I miss my mom
I know he can see me
I hate this

The door clicks open

“Oh! God I-“

I twist to look at him

“Sorry, ‘bout the tape… and the recorder I don’t want any one to see me like this” I take a seat in a chair nearby

“Do you want me to leave?” He ferries his brow

“No no ill…” I look at the blood trickling down my nose and dripping onto the floor “uh… cloth?” I hold my hand out and Martin passes it over

“Did you brake your nose or something, I know how you reset one if you new but I’ll have to turn on the lights”

“Lights right yeah turn them on.. and no it’s.. it’s just a nose bleed.. psyched me out a bit… my… My head hurts” tears trickle down my face and meets the blood on the floor

I raise the cloth to my face and just cover it close int my eyes as Martin turns the lights on

“Well uh.. alright then, do… you want me to leave?”

“Do whatever you want mate”

“Right”

I here the slightest shuffle of papers and scratching of pens over the next few hours

It’s nice

Chapter Text

“Hey Martin are you bawling or are your balling?”

He looks up from his papers “what?”

“The people Martin the people they want to know the tiny people who live in my phone so are you balling or are you bawling my dear?”
I look up from my phone with twitter open

Um?” He chuckles slightly “neither? It that an option?

“Yeah I get it secret third thing” I nod and go back to my phone for a few minutes

“Are that any good Indian pleases near here?”

“Yeah a few why”

“A frend of min-“

“You have frends?!”

“ damn OK Martin out for blood I see”

“S-sorry I don’t know-“

“Nah it’s chill” I go back to my phone smiling slightly

Chapter Text

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
New appliance whomst art tho

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Shout out to one specific trans girl I love you

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
In the tunnels™️

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
Nvm in actuly in the hospital
(Dudebro69 @Magnushr)
In the tunnels™️

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
Yo my nurse is so nice bro it’s crazy

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
I hate men but oh boy do I also hate women and also this dude named
Mickey

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Hit this was about an inter dimensional pal of mine not a fucking mouse btw
(Dudebro69 @Magnushr)
I hate men but oh boy do I also hate women and also this dude named
Mickey

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Hit tweet follow 5 more
(Dudebro69 @Magnushr)
I hate men but oh boy do I also hate women and also this dude named
Mickey

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Shout out to my colleague for being a bitch and visiting me in the hospital

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Ppl have been asking and yee I am actually the Magnus institute Human Resources director lol

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Oughhhhhhjjj /ignore me pls

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Shapes and colours!!!💪💪💪💯💯💯🌀🌀🌀

Dudebro69 @magnushr
I just burnt my face so fucking bad oh my lord

Dudebro69 @magnushr
British twitter….. britter

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Another hit tweet follow 5 more
(Dudebro69 @magnushr)
British twitter….. britter

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Holy shit wemon are scarry

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Men are so cool actually

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Getting sloshed on a work night wish me luck

Dudebro69 @magnushr
I’m from agnoger ynibers iso cook

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Luv my friend so much sad shes dead

Dudebro69 @magnushr
The smell of ozone is actually so calming though

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Killing my boss/hj

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Guys how do you stage an intervention?

Dudebro69 @magnushr
I honestly love some of my friends so much

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
Hey chat? So you ever feel like a plastic bag blowing through the wind wanting to start again?/srs

Dudebro69 @magnushr
He’s so oughhhhhhhjhhhjjjjhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
Toxic ex except we never actually dated I just had a crush on him once and now he follows me around asking me for things

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
Hey chat you cool with me killing a dude? (asking for a friend/srs)

Dudebro69 @magnushr
Just met @/melking at my place of workship she actually so chill

Dudebro69 @magnushr
I forgot how much I love blueberries

Dudebro69 @Magnushr
Shout out to my Bestie Martin for not bawling Nor balling but a secret third thing

Dudebro69 @magnushr
A 16 leader pot of butter chicken could save me

Chapter Text

I look up from my phone and around my office the calm a bit unsettling

I stand up and stretch and than sit back down in my chair

I look around the room again sigh and flip on my mitski playlist

I wonder if I’m this universe she’s had lonely experiences

I wonder if that’s what’s happening now

I reach for my phone but a wave of statick and a door opening stops me

“You might want to see this”

Chapter Text

[CLICK]
ARCHIVIST
[Whispered] It is remarkably easy to buy an axe in Central London. Harder to sneak it into Artefact Storage, but not impossible. I don’t know if destroying this is going to kill that thing… but I am damn sure it’s going to hurt.

[NOISE OF AXE HITTING & SPLINTERING WOOD AND THE GRUNTS OF THE ARCHIVIST AS A STRANGE MUSIC BEGINS TO BUILD AND INTENSIFY]

[SOUND OF SHATTERING WOOD AND THE STRANGE MUSIC DISAPPEARS]

Hollow. Just cobwebs and dust.

[FAMILIAR EERIE LAUGHTER]

MICHAEL
That was very stupid.

ARCHIVIST
What do you want?-

???
It truest was

ARCHIVIST
you- what?

MICHAEL
There’s no other way out of this room, you know.

ARCHIVIST
What?

MICHAEL
You don’t have time to escape before they get here.

ARCHIVIST
The… the… the “Not Sasha”? No, but the table…

???
Was keeping it powered down

MICHAEL
quite effectively. I may add

ARCHIVIST
Oh. Oh no.

MICHAEL
Even with all the protections you have on, I doubt you can survive them now.

[IN THE BACKGROUND, THE ARCHIVIST IS WORRIEDLY MUTTERING ‘NO’ OVER AND OVER]

NOT!SASHA
[Heavily distorted, distant] Jooooohhhnnnn….

ARCHIVIST
Er… I…

[SOUND OF A CREAKY DOOR OPENING]

MICHAEL
You. Need. A door.

ARCHIVIST
NO. No, I… I just… I need…

???
Get over here stupid!

[DISTORTED VOICE FROM THE NOT!SASHA CALLING OUT HIS NAME AGAIN]

ARCHIVIST
Shit!

[MICHAEL LAUGHS AND LAUGHS]

[STRANGE SOUND ALMOST LIKE SOMETHING ROARING OPEN AS MICHAEL’S LAUGH ECHOES]

[CLICK]

Chapter Text

[CLICK]
MARTIN
Streets. By Martin K. Blackwood.
The streets are hard in London.
Paved in old secrets, the hot smell after the rains.
The threads of people walking, living, lovi–

[CLICK]

[FOOTSTEPS]

MARTIN
You’re sure about this? He did tell us to go home…

TIM
Yeah, and then he said, “Sorry for everything”. Something’s up.

MARTIN
You don’t think he’s going to… y’know…

TIM
I don’t know. But he’s going to do something, and it’s going to be bad. And I don’t mean like ‘sneaking a cigarette’ bad. Like properly bad.

MARTIN
So we need to help him?

TIM
We need to stop him.

MARTIN
And… we needed my tape recorder because…

TIM
Because something tells me we’re going to need evidence by the end of today. I don’t want to wind up in court without something to back me up.

MARTIN
Court?

TIM
Yeah. Er, tribunal if we’re lucky, inquest if we’re not.

MARTIN
You did use a new tape, didn’t you?

TIM
Yeah, I took one off the pile.

MARTIN
Was it blank or… Tim?

TIM
It was blank.

MARTIN
He’s never going to speak to us again.

TIM
Don’t get my hopes up.

[DOOR OPENS]

MARTIN
John?

TIM
Aaaaaand he’s gone. Thought so.

MARTIN
You don’t think he’s going to…

TIM
I don’t know, Martin! I think he’s going fully off the deep end, is what I think. If he hasn’t already.

[DOOR CLOSES]

[FOOTSTEPS]

MARTIN
Look, I know you don’t like him…

TIM
Got that, did you?

MARTIN
But I’m not going to help you get him fired.

TIM
Martin! What do you think is happening here? This isn’t office politics. It’s not like he’s had one too many at the Christmas party and started ranting about the Greeks. Whatever is happening here it’s literally supernatural.

MARTIN
Really? Isn’t that a little… y’know?

TIM
No, it isn’t “a little y’know”. There is something in this place, and it’s messing up our heads. It watches us all the time. It stops me quitting. I’m pretty sure it would stop Elias firing John even if he decided to try actually running the place for once.

MARTIN
You’re sure you don’t just want to stay?

TIM
I’m sure.

MARTIN
But, like, deep down –

TIM
No.

MARTIN
Oh.
…
So you really think the Institute is, what, haunted?

TIM
I used to. Now I think it’s worse.

MARTIN
Worse how?

[CRASH OF DOOR BREAKING]

NOT!SASHA
[Heavily distorted]
Jooooohhhn!

[SOUNDS OF TIM & MARTIN BEING SURPRISED]

TIM
Oh god! What the hell was that?!

MARTIN (BACKGROUND)
Oh no nonononono!

[A ROAR, SOUNDS OF FRANTIC BREATHING, RUNNING FOOTSTEPS AND SCUTTLING MOVEMENT]

[TRAPDOOR OPENS]

[RAPID, SINISTER SCUTTLING MOVEMENT RECEDES]

[SILENCE, AS TIM AND MARTIN TRY TO REGAIN THEIR BREATH]

TIM
What the hell was that?

MARTIN
It… er… It looked… It kinda looked…

TIM
Oh don’t say it.

MARTIN
It did, though, didn’t it?

TIM
That wasn’t Sasha.

MARTIN
No. No, no, it wasn’t.
You don’t… you don’t think –

TIM
He told her to go home. Like us!

MARTIN
Yeah.

TIM
And she did.

MARTIN
Yeah.
…
It went into the tunnels.

TIM
Nope. No. Not happening.

MARTIN
We can’t just leave him.

TIM
Yeah, we can.

MARTIN
I’m going.

[FOOTSTEPS]

TIM
Martin!
Mar… I’m not coming down there with…
Damn it. Fine.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
ARCHIVIST
Damn. Damn damn damn damn DAMN!

[HAND SLAPS STONE]

I… I took Michael’s door. It was that or face Sa… the thing that was pretending to be Sasha. It opened into the tunnels. The tunnels. Not exactly the escape I was hoping for. I’m hardly surprised, must be its idea of a joke. Still, it is… it is a head start I suppose. I have no idea where in the tunnels I am. Or how far down.
At least it didn’t leave me trapped in some corridor hellmaze… a different corridor hellmaze, at least.
So I suppose I just… I just wait for now. I don’t think it’s going to just give up, and I can’t risk attracting its attention. It might already be down here with me. Just stay quiet.
Stay hidden.
…
God, I’m an idiot. Smash the table, kill the monster, stupid! Lazy, sloppy assumption. Of course the table was binding it. The table is webs and spiders. Spiders are something else. They don’t help each other, they oppose, they… they weaken. It was caught in a web, and I… All the pieces were there. And I just… I couldn’t see it. And why was Jain doe with Michael? Are they in cahoots?
…
I don’t know how much tape I have left. I’m going to stop recording. To conserve it. If –

NOT!SASHA
[DISTANT] Jooooohhhnnnn…

ARCHIVIST
Oh Christ.
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
MARTIN
What now? We need to hurry.

TIM
Shhh!
…
I thought I heard something up ahead.

MARTIN
I didn’t hear anything. Why, do you think it was the Sasha-thing?

TIM
Will you shut up about that. It wasn’t anything like her.

MARTIN
No, I know, but I mean… like, if you really stretched her out…

TIM
We’re never going to find him down here.

MARTIN
So go get some help.

TIM
Er… Elias is probably still in his office.

MARTIN
I thought you said he was a waste of a suit.

TIM
Yeah, well he’s better than nothing.

MARTIN
If you want to go, I understand.

TIM
I… I’m not just going to leave you down here.

MARTIN
You were all about quitting.

TIM
Oh, for God’s sake, this isn’t about you.

MARTIN
It never is.

TIM
Alright, fine. Fine. What do you want? What’s your light at the end of these spooky damn tunnels? And don’t say ‘everyone happy forever’, because that’s not happening.
…
Well?

MARTIN
I don’t know. I don’t know! I want to find out what’s going on. I want to save John. I want everyone to be fine, and, you know what? If we were all happy that wouldn’t actually be the end of the world.

TIM
Fine.

MARTIN
No, no it’s not “fine”. You’ve been going on and on and on about how alone you feel because John’s not taking your feelings into account while he’s having his breakdown, but you’re just doing the same thing. We’ve all been going through this, Tim, but you’re the only one who’s been running away.

TIM
Okay, okay. Look, let’s keep going. There’s nobody here.

MICHAEL
Yes there is.

TIM
Stay back!

MICHAEL
No.

MARTIN
Who are you?

MICHAEL
I’m Michael. Did you not tell them about me?

???
No I thought that Jon said something

Michael
Jon?

???
The archivist

MARTIN
W-what are you doing with that thing?!?

???
Oh that’s oomf

Martin
What!?

TIM
I- What are you doing down here?

MICHAEL
Probably watching the Archivist die. Maybe not. Either way is amusing. I… I think it’s called ‘a sport’.

???
Yeah death sport.. and we talked about this we’re not letting him die you know I’m not allowed

TIM
What?

MICHAEL
I think I might also kill you-

???
(Overlapping) no

Michael
-It would be easier than killing the Archivist. None of you are protected down here.

MARTIN
No, no, now hang on…

MICHAEL
You are going to try and help him. And I want to see what happens without you there.

TIM
Martin…

MARTIN
No, no, okay, because there’s two of us and there’s one of you that’s actually against us, okay. He’s not killing anyone!

TIM
Martin, look at his hands!

MARTIN
Oh.

TIM
Go!

[SINISTER DOOR OPENS]

[FOOTSTEPS]

[MICHAEL LAUGHS]
[??? Sighs]

[SINISTER DOOR SHUTS]

[HEAVY BREATHING]

[Distorted] Where the hell are we?
[CLICK]

[click]

???
So what now?

Michael
I’m not sure really, what do you think? I have more humans do I get more resources?

???
That’s not how it works Mickey

[taping of shoes echoing]

Michael
Whare are you going?

???
Jon’s office

Michael
Can I offer you a door hr?

???
No no think I’ll walk, oh are you fucking kidding me god damed bitch ass recor-

(Crunch)

[CLICK]
[HEAVY BREATHING AND SOFTLY CREEPING FOOTSTEPS]

ARCHIVIST
I have no idea where I am. There were stairs. I, I, I kept going lower. No arrows pointing down, though, which is… good? I don’t know. I found a weapon. Of sorts.
[RINGING OF A METAL PIPE AGAINST A WALL]
I don’t know if it’ll help. I mean, it’s not going to help. I can’t fight it with a pipe. I’m tired just carrying it. But it does make me feel a bit better, so… so that’s something.
I keep thinking I might have gotten away, but I think it can sense me… uh, at least a bit. I can hide for now, I think, but I don’t know for how long. I can’t kill it. I heard the tape. It erased Sasha, just like that. Deleted her from the world. I just hope this tape works the same, that my voice remains intact. Even if I’m gone, even if it wears a face that people think is mine, pulls me apart, becomes me. Listen, it’s not me! Whoever hears this: it is not me.
I don’t even remember what she looks like. Even now that I know, now I’ve seen it twisted and… I still don’t remember her. The only face I can picture is…

NOT!SASHA
[Distant] Jooooohhhhn… Jooooohhhhn… Come out, come out, wherever you are.
[SCARED BREATHING]
It’s okay John; it’s Sasha. Reliable old Sasha.
Nothing to be afraid of.
…
You seem stressed, John. You’ve been under a lot of pressure. You should talk about it. Have a real good chat. You like talking, don’t you, John?
…
I’m going to wear you, John. I’m going to wear everything you are. Like you never existed. No-one will even know. And it will hurt. Oh, yes, it will hurt. It hurt Sasha.

ARCHIVIST
Shut up!

NOT!SASHA
[Close and distorted] There you are.

[HEAVY BREATHING AS IF RUNNING]

[WEIRD SCUTTLING MOVEMENT]
[CLICK]

[CLICK]
[DIALOGUE IS VERY DISTORTED UNTIL NEXT CLICK]

TIM
Where the hell are we?

MARTIN
I don’t know. I thought… I thought the door led further down.

TIM
I don’t think we’re under the Institute anymore.

MARTIN
What was that thing?how dose it know-

TIM
I’m trying not to think about it. It makes my head feel weird.

MARTIN
Well? Wh… which way do you think?

TIM
Er… Right. Let’s go right.

MARTIN
[SIGH] Fine. I don’t think this thing’s working properly. It k-keeps making this weird noise.

[CLICK]

[CLICK]
[HEAVY BREATHING SLOWS]

NOT!SASHA
I’m glad we got a chance to run, John. It makes it so much more satisfying.
Do you have any idea how long I watched you? You and your little… acolytes. I hated it.
Let me tell you a story. You like stories; we can even call it a statement if you want.
Once upon a time there was a monster, but no one realised. Sometimes someone did and then they were scared, so that was good. But one day a nasty man came along. A nasty man who tricked the monster and wrapped it all in webs and tied it to a table.
So the monster got its friends to carry the table all around, and it still got to take faces and scare people. Then one day it was sent to the house of its enemy, which had the biggest eyes you ever did see. The monster was sent there to steal all its secrets, but it was sad because it couldn’t scare anyone any more.
Then finally, after what seemed like forever, a stupid, arrogant, little man cut the webs and set the monster free. Free to kill and scare whoever it wanted.
So thank you. I did leave what clues I could but I never dared hope you would actually release me.
[MENACING SATISFIED LAUGHTER]
I must confess, though, I almost enjoyed watching you scurry around. Desperately missing the point. At least I knew what I was looking for. You really aren’t even a shadow of your predecessor. You’re nothing. Even I would make a better Archivist than you.
Maybe I will.
You’ll miss the Unknowing, of course, but you wouldn’t understand it anyway.

ARCHIVIST
[Whispering] I’m sorry. Martin, Tim… Sasha. I’m so sorry. I should have… I didn’t… I’m sorry.
God, I’m so sorry.

NOT!SASHA
I wonder, if I wear you, will I really become the Archivist? Rob the eye of its pupil?
Probably not. Better to just kill you I think.
Yes. I think that would be best.

ARCHIVIST
[Whispering] Please forgive me. If you’re still alive… if… if you hear this. Get as far away from the Magnus Institute –
[GASP]

NOT!SASHA
Found you.

ARCHIVIST
No. Please…

NOT!SASHA
Sorry, John, but this is –

[SOUND OF STONE AND BRICK SUDDENLY SHIFTING. A SCREAM FROM THE NOT!SASHA.]

[SILENCE]

ARCHIVIST
What?

[SLOW FOOTSTEPS]

MYSTERY FIGURE
Mr. Sims?

ARCHIVIST
Yes.

MYSTERY FIGURE
I think it’s time we had a talk.

[CLICK]

Chapter Text

CLICK] [CLICK]

LEITNER
Please! I don’t know how much time we have.

ARCHIVIST
So you said.

[PIPE IS PLACED ON TABLE]

LEITNER
Is that necessary? You think I pose a danger to you?

ARCHIVIST
Yes. Yes I do.

???
Jon he’s like old as fuck come on

ARCHIVIST
I can’t risk it

LEITNER
Then take it with you, but I can’t afford to just sit here.

ARCHIVIST
So talk fast.

LEITNER
Could we at least have this conversation in the tunnels?

???
No way

ARCHIVIST
I’m not going back down there. That thing… Is it dead?

LEITNER
Unlikely. Whether something like that can actually be destroyed… It is trapped. I, I hope for a very long time.

ARCHIVIST
And Sasha… The real one?

LEITNER
Was that her name? I’m afraid she’s gone. Whatever it does to those it takes, they don’t come back. She’s dead.

???
Jon?

Leitner
Do you need a moment?

ARCHIVIST
No. No, I’m… You’re not what I
expected.

LEITNER
I suppose not. My family emigrated when I was very young. English was always my first language. I used to adopt an accent sometimes when meeting people, a sort of personal joke, but truth be told, my Norwegian is terrible. Now, are you going to help me or not?

ARCHIVIST
You first. You want my help, you answer my questions. Agreed?

LEITNER
Agreed.

ARCHIVIST
Good. Good.
Statement of Jurgen Leitner. February 16th, 2017. Statement begins.

LEITNER
You’re quite like her, you know. I suppose that’s no surprise. Anyway, your questions?

ARCHIVIST
Right. Let’s start with what you did down there. How you… trapped it.

[BOOKS ARE PLACED ON TABLE]

LEITNER
An unexpurgated copy of Ruskin’s The Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in 1845. Of course, Ruskin didn’t even begin writing the book until 1846, and the text of this one varies markedly from the version that was distributed. It gives an acute sense of the walls pressing in around you, and if consumed recklessly, will physically entomb the reader.
Over the years, I have found that it interacts with Smirke’s architecture, and those tunnels specifically, in a more predictable way. By carefully reading specific passages in certain locations, I am able to exercise… a degree of control over the substance of the tunnels.

ARCHIVIST
I didn’t hear you say anything down there.

LEITNER
I said reading. It doesn’t need to be spoken aloud.

ARCHIVIST
Right. So you can change the tunnels?

LEITNER
I can. Though even setting aside the obvious dangers, it’s a time-consuming and imprecise process. That said, I will admit that when you began to explore again, I… closed off certain passages, and remade others. I, I wanted to keep you contained while deciding whether to make contact.

ARCHIVIST
You moved the tunnels for me?

LEITNER
The upper levels, yes. Made them more rational, actually. It didn’t strike you as odd that you were able to map them in a matter of weeks?

ARCHIVIST
I thought I was just getting a sense of the place. I suppose you left the rubbish around for me as well, giving me hints? And the arrow?

LEITNER
No. I thought I was being very careful cleaning up after myself, but you have keener eyes than I gave you credit for. I should have expected that, I suppose.
The arrow, however, was not mine. The ‘Not-Sasha’ had come down several times. I suspect it was almost as curious about me as you were.
Perhaps it thought you might have better luck flushing me out. I suppose, in a way, it was right. In retrospect, using The Seven Lamps so much was perhaps unwise. It is possible I unbalanced Smirke’s architecture somewhat, however cautious I might have tried to be.

ARCHIVIST
And the other book?

LEITNER
Hardly a book. Barely twelve pages. It is entitled A Disappearance. If read cover to cover, it removes one from the world. I cannot say precisely what that means, only that the assistant I assigned to it, Jacob Feng, was never seen again.
I have found, however, that reading only one or two words is sufficient to hide me from the prying eyes of your master. It allowed me to talk with Gertrude in relative safety, and occasionally come above ground for my own ends.

ARCHIVIST
My master? We’ll get to that. How long have you been down there?

LEITNER
Hard to say. I’ve been in hiding for over twenty years now, ever since my library was destroyed.
Obviously I have not spent all that time below your Institute. The old Millbank prison tunnels stretch out a very long way, and there are other entrances than the one below the Archives. I have a small number of… secure locations, though since Gertrude’s death I have been reluctant to leave the tunnels. I dislike spending too much time in the open.
I am always being hunted. Both by creatures like the ones you have encountered, and by certain human individuals who believe I am to blame for the books that destroyed their loved ones. Three years ago, I made the mistake of spending a full night outside my safehouses. I was almost beaten to death by an angry goth.

ARCHIVIST
[chuckling slightly] That’ll be our Gerard.

LEITNER
I don’t follow.

ARCHIVIST
I wouldn’t worry about him. He passed away a couple of years ago.

LEITNER
That is hardly my point.

ARCHIVIST
So are you to blame?

LEITNER
For what?

ARCHIVIST
For the books. Or did you just stick your name on them by accident? Why the ‘Library of Jurgen Leitner’?

LEITNER
I… thought that I could control them; that I alone had the knowledge to contain them. Back then, I believed they were simply books. Horrifying, powerful, yes, but with rules, limits that could be charted. I was a fool. I had no idea what forces lay behind them, or that they had other servants that might come searching.
I was ruthless, I will admit that. I don’t know how many assistants I sacrificed to learn the secrets of the volumes I collected. Dozens, at least. Only a few escaped with their life and mind intact, and even then they were deeply marked. But I was relentless. I saw myself as a guardian, a reverse Pandora, gathering the evils of the world and locking them away.
And so I branded them with my seal. I told myself that if any should escape, such a mark could help me retrieve them. But I think, in my heart, I dreamed of my work becoming known. That “The Library of Jurgen Leitner” would stand as a symbol of courage and protection. Hubris. I suppose it is fitting punishment that my name has become a watchword for evil, spoken by those who only know it as marking the darkest, most terrible of secrets.
My name has become a curse.

ARCHIVIST
Tell me from the beginning.

LEITNER
I was born the heir to great wealth. My family used to deal in manufacture: steel, textiles, all sorts. But, by my time, it was largely a matter of extensive property holdings and carefully managed investments. Money making money.
There was never the need for me to learn anything of worth. I suppose in another life I might have been another rich wastrel, content to squander my inheritance on indulgence and comfort, but I always felt a calling to make something of myself. To matter. I had no interest in politics and, while I was certainly no fool, my attempts at academia were ultimately unsatisfying. Business bored me to tears. The only thing I was ever truly talented at was acquiring things. I suppose you could say I was skilled at shopping.
I don’t say that to be glib, nor as a comment on my wealth. I don’t mean I gained any satisfaction from wasting money on vulgar Bond Street trinkets. I mean, I had a genuine and pronounced talent for finding items of worth and convincing their owners to part with them. The most valuable things always need to be hunted, and that was where I excelled. It started by simply cross-referencing auction catalogues with local records and slightly obscure books of art history, but soon I had a network of contacts and took dinner with some of the most eccentric curio dealers in the world.
It was Desmond Lorell that first told me of the books. They were a rumour, as these things always are, and he had no idea of the dangers. “Magic books” he called them. He had believed them to be coded spellbooks derived, of all things, from the writings of Merlin!
Poor Desmond. When he finally found one, an old leather-bound thing titled The Stalwart Hunters’ Almanac, he had no idea what to do with it. I suppose, looking back, his death was a very good thing for me. The extent of the mutilation, and how closely it correlated with the passages he had described to me, left little doubt as to the connection. So when I acquired the book myself I took exceptional precautions.
The thing that surprises me most, I think, is how readily I accepted the existence of the supernatural. I had occasionally made purchases before that that had caused… anomalies, but nothing like those books. Yet as soon as their nature became apparent, I simply accepted it and began to factor it into my dealings with them. It was shortly afterwards I hired my first assistant. A dour man, by the name of Albert Stross. He barely lasted a fortnight.
It didn’t take me long to track down other books like Lorell’s, and it seemed like almost overnight I had found my purpose. I was to be the keeper of evil tomes. To begin with, I never gave much thought to their origins; I simply concerned myself with acquiring them, and making sure I had staff I could spare to study them. It was easier than I expected, and I’m always surprised nobody attempted such a thing before me. I suppose few walk away from their first encounter with any desire to look for more, if they walk away at all. And of those that do, none would have had my skill at finding them, or my extensive resources.
Luck played a significant role as well. It was shortly after I had begun to have problems storing them that I discovered the work of the architect Robert Smirke. There were several volumes in my possession that, if kept them close to each other reacted… very badly. But Smirke’s writings, his principles of balance between opposing forces, gave me some inkling as to a solution. Today was not the first time my life has been saved by his architecture. I commissioned a house to be built, based on some of his designs, and spent a good deal of time and money gaining access to existing buildings he had worked on, with the aim of storing the books safely. I believe at about that time I commissioned my bookplates and began to label them.
And then the house was complete, and I had my library. A vast, lopsided structure, by turns cavernous or maze-like, depending on the needs of the inmates. By the end, I had nine hundred and seventy-eight volumes in my library. Some innocuous, some unsettling and some utterly murderous. In the end, I didn’t have much time to enjoy my achievement. It was only a few years after the house was complete that the attack came.
You must understand, I had only ever encountered these dark powers in the form of books or the occasional antique. I had no idea that there were people or creatures out there that served them. So I was not prepared. All my defences were inward facing, to prevent the contents of my library getting out. I suppose getting in must have seemed a trifle.
It started with the visitors. Almost every day, some stranger would turn up at my door and ask to see my collection. Now, whatever my secret ambitions might have been, I was very careful not to let word get out about what I was doing. And these people, they were… wrong somehow. They didn’t move as people should move, and their cadence was very strange when they spoke. They almost always forgot to blink.
Even then I didn’t realise what was coming, and simply sent them away with a firm refusal. When it actually happened, it was so all fast I barely had time to register it. One moment, I was typing a new catalogue entry for A Journal of a Plague Year, and the next… everything was screaming. My assistants, the books, even me.
Thomas McMann was stabbed through the throat by something with too many teeth and limbs like knives. Mary Johnson was pulled into a cavernous maw that opened beneath her. Gregory Todd ran into a door that shouldn’t have been there. A great hand reached down through the roof and plucked away Leandra Toulouse. And there was one other assistant, whose… whose name I don’t recall, but the last I saw of him, he was being pulled into a great, pulsating pile of meat.
I don’t know how I escaped. Perhaps because I designed the house, I knew how to best move through it. Perhaps I was sensible enough to steer clear of the rooms that had fallen into darkness, or burned with a fire that seemed to leave the books untouched. Perhaps they let me go. Or perhaps, once again, it was simply luck.
I didn’t look back as I fled. Nothing seemed to chase me, at least not then. I had none of the books with me, and that was what they were after. Of course, by the time I realised that, there were many others who were hunting me. Mostly vengeance-minded folk who had lost someone to the books, plastered with my name, that were now free once again. It was easier to let the world think I was dead and, to one degree or another, I’ve been in hiding ever since.

ARCHIVIST
Huh. You’re right.

LEITNER
About which part?

ARCHIVIST
You were a fool.

(??? Chuckles)

LEITNER
Hmm.

ARCHIVIST
Why didn’t you burn them?

LEITNER
Pride. If they were destroyed, what was I to guard? Even so, I don’t believe that would have solved as many problems as you think. Many of them wouldn’t have burned, and some even liked the flames. And those that did, I now believe, would have been released to take a different form.

ARCHIVIST
But you didn’t know any of this when you had almost a thousand of them in your care?

LEITNER
I’ve spent twenty years trying to learn from my mistakes.

ARCHIVIST
You said you didn’t take any of them with you, so where did you get these?

LEITNER
When I started working with Gertrude, she hunted down some editions I thought might help.

ARCHIVIST
And why was Gertrude helping you?

LEITNER
Aside from my knowledge about the books? I think she was lonely. I didn’t meet her until about six years ago, after she’d lost the last of her own assistants. She would mention them sometimes. I believe she missed having someone to talk to on occasion.

ARCHIVIST
I… I didn’t know Gertrude had assistants.

LEITNER
Of course. Three of them, each meeting an unpleasant end. So, when she found me, it seemed natural that we help each other. In this instance, that meant finding certain useful books.

ARCHIVIST
Like The Key of Solomon?

LEITNER
That one was a mistake. I thought that, in the tunnels, there might be the stability to examine it properly, learn something of the forces arrayed against us. But it went wrong. We had to destroy it. I should have known, really. It was one of the few volumes that contained elements of several different powers.

ARCHIVIST
You keep talking about these… powers? These forces arrayed against you. What are they?

LEITNER
[Sighing] I’d hoped you would at least know that much by now. But I suppose you are simply the observer, and making these connections is not your role. Gertrude could be much the same at times.

ARCHIVIST
Just tell me!

LEITNER
There are… entities in this world. Beings of vast, dark power. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say they are ‘next to the world’, rather than in it. Their true existence could not function in the universe we live in, at least not as it is now. They have nothing in their pure state that could be present in the physical world so they sit in…

ARCHIVIST
Different dimensions.

LEITNER
No, I don’t think so. If there are such things, then these beings are linked inexorably to ours. They are not within our world, but they can… affect it in certain ways: reaching out with their will to change things. I don’t know where they come from or how they came to exist, but they are, from what I can determine, effectively eternal.

ARCHIVIST
Are you… are you trying to tell me all of this is at the behest of… evil gods?

LEITNER
Oh, there are certainly those who see them as gods. A few even go so far as to try and worship them, but I don’t find it helpful to think of them like that. Perhaps you could liken them to one of the old pantheons, each with its own rituals, agendas and spheres of influence, but I find simplifying them in such a way makes them harder to truly understand.
The ‘gods’ were conceived of by humankind as a reflection of themselves, their motives and actions divinely powerful, but in essence purely human. These… ‘things’… I find them hard enough to understand without trying to force human frameworks onto them.

ARCHIVIST
So the creatures are, what, priests? These books, their holy texts?

LEITNER
I told you it was an unhelpful analogy. Let’s try another one. Um… Imagine, you are an ant, and you have never before seen a human. Then one day, into your colony, a huge fingernail is thrust, scraping and digging. You flee to another entrance, only to be confronted by a staring eye gazing at you. You climb to the top, trying to find escape and, above you, can see the vast dark shadow of a boot falling upon you. Would that ant be able to construct these things into the form of a single human being? Or would it believe itself to be under attack by three different, equally terrible, but very distinct assailants?

ARCHIVIST
So the books, the monsters, they’re part of these beings? Just extensions of them? Fingers being pushed into our world?

LEITNER
The books are, I think, their essences in a purer form. The other things that stalk us, from what I know of them, they have varying wills of their own. All in service of the thing they’re a part of, but not directly controlled by the mind beneath them. At least, inasmuch as these entities have something we could recognise as a mind.

ARCHIVIST
Like a… a, a muscle, spasming on reflex?

LEITNER
Yes, that’s actually rather good.

ARCHIVIST
It would explain Michael’s identity issues.

LEITNER
Michael? Oh… that, that’s what the Distortion calls itself these days, isn’t it? That one is part of a power that my assistant Domingo used to call “Esmentiaras”, which I believe translates as ‘it is lies’ or ‘it is lying’. At the time, of course, we just used it as a way to classify books. I call it the Spiral. It deals in fooling the senses, in making you see and hear things that are not there, in drawing you into mazes and making you doubt your own sanity.

ARCHIVIST
Fractals.

LEITNER
Yes. It seems to have a particular fondness for them.

ARCHIVIST
What about bones? Does one of them manifest with, with bones?

LEITNER
[HEAVY SIGH]
You’re thinking too literally. Examining the physical categorisation, but ignoring the meaning of the thing. What are the bones? In the Distortion, your “Michael”, the structure of a skeleton, an established reality in your mind, is twisted and warped into an impossible form. But in other cases? Are they a symbol of slaughter and butchery? Are they the familiar made wrong? Or are they simply part of the messy, physicality of flesh?

ARCHIVIST
I’m sorry, this is a lot to take in.

LEITNER
Well, do so quickly. We’ve wasted enough time on your questions.

ARCHIVIST
Fine. Then I’ll make this one simple: did you kill Gertrude?

LEITNER
No. Don’t be absurd.

ARCHIVIST
Then who did?

LEITNER
This is a distraction! You’re in no danger –

ARCHIVIST
Who?

LEITNER
I believe it was Elias.

ARCHIVIST
What? Why?

LEITNER
I assume he discovered we were planning to destroy the Archives.

ARCHIVIST
Gertrude was going to destroy the Archives?

LEITNER
This is why I need those files. I searched this place thoroughly, and they’re not here, so I assume Elias took them when he killed her. I need your help to get into his office.

ARCHIVIST
But the cameras? They showed him.

LEITNER
Simple mechanical eyes? In his place of power? You think he can’t control everything they see? Assuming such interference wouldn’t ruin them beyond recovery, of course.

ARCHIVIST
This place belongs to one of them, doesn’t it?

LEITNER
You know the answer to that.

ARCHIVIST
The Eye.

LEITNER
I have also heard it called Beholding.

ARCHIVIST
And I…

LEITNER
You belong to it, too.

ARCHIVIST
I… Uh… I… I think I need some air.

[SOUND OF FUMBLING IN DRAWER]

LEITNER
We don’t have time for you to have a breakdown, Archivist.

[CHAIR SCRAPES ON FLOOR]

ARCHIVIST
I’m going to have a cigarette. Don’t…
[DOOR OPENS]
Don’t.
[DOOR CLOSES]

LEITNER
I’m not sure you would have liked him, you know. He’s paranoid enough. But I don’t think he’s got the stomach for i-

???
Tell me all you know about the extinction

Leitner
Oh? A clever one are you? You know I’d think you-

[SILENCE]
[DOOR OPENS]
[SURPRISED BREATH]
[CLICK]

ELIAS
Well. This is a surprise.
[CHAIR SCRAPES ON FLOOR]

ELIAS
Reach for a book and I will kill you.
[CHAIR SCRAPES BUT SLOWER, AS IF RESUMING SEAT]

ELIAS
Thank you for stalling him dear
How much have you told him?

LEITNER
Enough.

Elias
Hr?

???
Not as much as he wanted to

ELIAS

About Gertrude?

LEITNER
No. No, I didn’t have time.

???
he’s telling the truth, Jon just doesn’t get it yet

ELIAS
I’ve wondered for so long who it could be down there. Who was helping her. I honestly never would have guessed.

LEITNER
How did you know I was here?

ELIAS
I didn’t. You’re very well hidden. But John is not, and he failed to take the same precautions I’m sure you took for granted with Gertrude. I knew he was talking to someone. And it turns out to be Jurgen Leitner himself. [Soft chuckling] What an honour. And of course I have other resources

LEITNER
[Begging] Elias, please!

ELIAS
What did you want from him?

LEITNER
The files. The ones you took from Gertrude.

ELIAS
Planning a little light arson, are we, Jurgen?

LEITNER
It’s not just the Institute and you know it. They had everything she had found on the Stranger.

ELIAS
I know. It’s, um… what do they call it?

LEITNER & ???
The Unknowing.

ELIAS
[Chuckles] Creativity never was their forte.

LEITNER
You of all people should want to stop them.

ELIAS
And we will. But I don’t think we’ll need your help.

LEITNER
And what’s he going to think when he gets back?

ELIAS
Well, he was always going to need to fly the nest at some point. Go out and see the world for himself.

LEITNER
He might die.

ELIAS
It’s always a danger. Almost always. Luckily I have a backup

LEITNER
Elias, it doesn’t have to be like –

(Sharp yelp from ???)
[EXTENDED SOUNDS OF BRUTAL PIPE MURDER]
[PIPE DROPS AND ROLLS]

Chapter Text

I walk over to his corps and grab the book

I watch the sticky watery red goop coat leak into my hands and the book

I walk to the door and hesitate walking in to the archives

I don’t grab the handle

I put the book in my bag

I sit back down at the desk

I wait

The door clicks open “sorry, I’ve been quit for five years now but the-“

He locks eyes with my tearstained face

Then my blood coverd hands

Then the corpse of jurgin litner

“Oh..” he looks back to me as my chest gets shaky again

He chuckles

He fucking chuckles

Nervously All be it but still

“I need to- I need to- um” he reshot for the door knob and I run at him pinning him to the wall and he yelps

“Look at me Jon, Jon look at me…” he looks into my eyes “your going to go to the cafe down the road, your going to order something to go and then get in a cab and go to Georgie’s house okay?”

His breathing stays shaky but he nods his head

“I sware to god it wasn’t me okay?” my voice cracks but I push it down

“I- yeah , mmhm” he nods his head and starts to go

“Wait-“ he stops and looks at me fearfully “you need to give me your jacket, blood”

“Hmm?” He looks down and sees my bloody hand prints “now come on”

He takes it off and hands it to me before leaving the room

I walk into the tunnels

Chapter Text

It’s dark and damp the walls pres in but it’s covered and no one can see me so it’s good

‘The walls run’

i read of the dirty blood stained page and another tunnel opens

‘Towards’ another tunnel

‘The enemy’ another

Now I walk and walk and walk through until I hit the end

‘And away” another tunnel

‘From’ another

‘Watching’

I keep walking

Chapter Text

I press the door bell with my elbow keeping my hand in my pockets

He opens the door “hey I wasn’t expectin-“ the works get choked in his mouth and his hand shakes on the door handle

I brush past him “sorry bout the dirt, and the blood… it’s a long story”

“Yeah… lots of dirt” he walks over to the broom he keeps on the corner of the room and try’s to sweep up but the dirts just spreads across the floor his breathing kicks up and he clears his throat again and it continues like that’s in till he’s hacking dirt on the floor and then something finally clicks

“Fuck” I take the book out of my bag and take out the lighter I stole from artifact storage

They need the book later…

Fined a way to fix it you need to fix it it’s your job

I help him up and through the doors to the right of the kitchen in to the living room and out on to the balcony “there fresh air, that’s good I’ll… I’ll fix this”

He stands leaning on the banister looking down in to the street

He hooks a leg over the railing and-

I walk inside and to the kitchen grabbing the broom and successfully sweeping the dirt outside the apartment and grabbing a strong smelling cleaner and spraying down the floor the lemon stings my nose but it’s worth it because I can fix this

I can fix this
I will fix this

I clean the floor and then grab an envelope and put the book in signing the Magnus institutes hr department address

I walk to the phone but the door bell rings

I walk over

“We’re here to” “pick up a delivery”

I hand them the envelope

“Thanks”

“Well” “thank you too” “we suppose” I close the door and hear a soft muffled ‘Nice bloke’ ‘nice bloke’ from behind the door

Chapter Text

“I’m sorr-“

“No need” he reassures again for the fifteenth time “not your fault”

“Yeah… so…”

“So… why’d you come to me covered in blood?”

“I- its-… it’s complicated, if the cops come you dont know me and you’ve never herd or bean to the Magnus institute Kay?”

He looks at me shocked “the Magnus institute? Who’d you kill man?”

“No one! It’s just… it’s complicated”

“If you did I don’t care, I’ve thrown many a man off many a building”

“I’m just a witness” I look down into my soup

He takes a breath like he’s going to say something but hesitates and just eats more soup

Chapter Text

Was it worth it?

Truly?

A fucking pod cast…

Alex and Jonny can go fuck them selfs for all I care

What’s out there

I know people are listening

Am I apart of this now or is this just a fucked up little side world

It is worth it

Am I really just stuck….

“You doing it again”

“Hmm?” I shift to my side in bed peeking over the pillow barrier to look at mike

“Your clouding up the room… and there’s sand in the sheets”

“That last one’s not me I got rid of that fuck ass book” I turn back crossing my arms and looking at the frost washing away from the windows by the rain

“Well clearly your marked or something, so you better clean that up because I’m not having dirt it my sheets”

“Oh so sorry my king let me just-“ I stand up and rip all the blankets and sheets off the bed chuckling

“Oh bloody hell! Cold cold cold” he jumps up and runs to the bathroom shutting the door escaping from my lonely smoke

“Take that bitch! Ka-chow mother fucker!”

Chapter Text

Make a change
Do a difference
“Go buy me a tape recorder”

“What?” He pauses his show the unemployed living off Fairchild funds it’s twelve in the middle of the day you should be out doing things or vasting people bitch ass basterd

“Go out bye me a tape recorder and a shit ton of tapes” i throw sixty quid at him and he goes through counting it

“That is a lot of-“

“Yeah it’s like a hundred bucks now if you go quickly and come back with the stuffi asked for you can keep the change, now go! Go! Go!” I clap my hand next to his face

He sighs and gets up grabbing a coat and leaving

Chapter Text

(Click)
???:
Statement of the fuck if I know recorded who knows when by human resources I fucking suppose part one

Johnny boy this is your crash course in avatar ship. I’m not an avatar, but I’ve met a fucking couple man and so yeah if you’re listening to this, I’m not in jail that’s great you’re not in jail that’s also great.

Part one fuck ass powers

fuck ass powers are cool generally kinda suck if you use some to kill people like my buddy Mike or my buddy Michael or Jane or the entire Fairchild family or Elias or- no you haven’t met him yet never mind

Yes, so rule number one no killing people with your pussy specific brand Try to avoid eye contact but autism so you probably already do that.

Part two I shouldn’t of put these in parts because I don’t really have a parts system for this

This is shitty to put it mildly and you’re going through it and it fucking sucks my guy but yeah I know I have nothing but people don’t hate you just kinda like being a teenager all over again but instead of titties you get supernatural, monster powers you’re not a monster, though…

Your a cool guy Jon.. I’m sorry
(Click)

Chapter Text

“Okay just… keep your eyes on me, alright?” He moves a hand to my waist and the other to my own hand and shifts us in to a waltz-like position

“Yeah, alright”

“Your already looking away”

I chuckle “yeah right sorry” I fix my eyes on to his and he shifts his position slightly

“It’s fine, just.. focus. Okay so we go one,” he steps forward gently guiding me backwards “two,” we step to the left turning ninety degrees “three,” he again steps to the left moving me back and shifting us ninety degrees “four.”
he does the same thing again and we end up standing in the same spot we started

“Wait that’s it? That’s so easy-“

“Keep your eyes on me”

I look up from our feet and back to him “right sorry, so we’re just spinning in a square? That’s it?”

“Well that’s the basics, it is called ‘square dancing’ after all”

“Well yeah but that must get boring really quick”

“That’s why every four rounds or so you can do a dip or spin-out with your partner, look” he moves our hands back up “one, two, three, four” he marches us through the moves faster and smoother than before

“one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four dip” and he wraps his arm around my waist tilting me backwards almost falling if it wasn’t for his arm being in the way than moving back up and continuing the dance

“two, three, four, one, two, three, four,” his face shifts into a soft smile the faint and constant ozone smell seeping into my lungs becomes more apparent “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four and dip” the air is almost fully knocked out of my lungs and a deep but light blue fills my entire peripheral as I’m dipped down again

he pulls me up my breath heavy “Just look at me, keep your eyes on me, two, three, four” he steps the moves as we fall down the air not as fast and whipping as I had expected “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four” I start repeating with him as he looks down to check our footing as if he was worried we may get jumbled and fall and I keep my eyes on him just as asked “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four and spin” he lets go of my waist spinning me out and than back into his arms as we suddenly return to the balcony him completely calm and slightly giddy, content maybe? And me breathing heavily still shaking slightly in his arms my head light and spinning and my eyes ringed with a tight head-aching pain

“Are you alright?”

“Mm”

“Would you like to go inside now?”

“Mmhm”

“Alright, well you head in then I’m gonna take a smoke”

I swallow hard my head still spinning with vertigo “yeah, sounds good”

Chapter Text

I flop down onto the sofa burying my face in the pillows be for sighing and getting up on wobbly legs and going to the bathroom

I walk in and close the door and catch a glimpse of my self in the mirror

I look strange
i barely recognize my own face

Worm holes scar the right small spirals sticking where the skin healed over and burns scar on the left scar tissue webbing over my face and right up under my eyes which are the only real recognizable thing other that my hair witch has grown out a bit since my last self inflicted hair cut though the bang fringe area as gone a greyish white

How fun

It’s still me

Chapter Text

I lay on the sofa scrolling then movies and shows on the tv

The sun shine’s through the glass door leading to the veranda looking over the street where mike is now smoking a cigarette

The week has been calm it’s nice

I’m happy I think
Contentment is fun

Mike slides open and closes the door walking in and slumping down beside me on the sofa the smell of cigarette smoke clinging to him like mud on shoes

“I’m surprised you smoke”

“Why? Cus it’s bad for me?”

“No the smoke it clogs your lungs, it can suffocate you from the inside, and suffocation isn’t really your thing”

“No it really isn’t, but I’ll pretty much never die so why not”

Wait why does that sound-…

Oh, oh right

I- I forgot…

Oh no

Chapter Text

“So apparently your my girlfriend now” he sets down a bag of my stuff that I payed him to buy

“What the fuck?” Like honestly pardon

“You made me buy five boxes of bloody chocolates and a teddy bear-“

“I LEFT JON THE SECOND IN MY OFFICE AND I CANT GO BACK TO GET THEM MIKE! You can’t blame me!”

“Yeah well apparently my ‘girlfriends lucky to have a nice lad like me to buy sweets for her’”

“You know what fuck you yeah I’m your girlfriend now”

“Well at lest I have a name to call you bye now”

I click on my tape recorder
“We’re a completely cishet couple now how do you feel about that”

“disgusting, we’re lesbians now”

“A fine offer… per chance straight but not in that direction?”

“An interesting flavour palette, how about frends will no benefits and I still call you my girlfriend because I don’t know what else to call you”

“Deal” I shake his hand and click of the recorder

Chapter Text

???:

Statement of…
(Sigh)

You know who this is Jonathan…

It’s… hard to know

I know you know that and that’s hard too

It’s also hard to be alone..

I’ve been alone most of my life, my mom and dad…

(Beat)

Look I was just a lonely kid and and angry lonely teen and now I’m a slightly less lonely adult

I just want you to know that we’re all alone in the grand scheme of things but we’re all so so small so why not make ourselves just that little bit bigger by creating connections and community and like-

Just fuck shit up bro and don’t be an asshole and don’t-

I don’t know
It’s hard to not know what happens next
It also hard to know what exactly happens next at the same time

I don’t blame you

I don’t know who I blame really…

(Click)

Chapter Text

CLICK]
MIKE
You’re sure I can’t get you a cup of tea?

ARCHIVIST
Uh, it-it’s fine, really.

MIKE
Okay. You just seem a bit… jumpy, is all.

ARCHIVIST
Oh, I just, er… Coming in I thought… It’s fine.

MIKE
Grand. Er, okay, what can I do for you?

[SOUNDS OF TEA BEING MADE]

ARCHIVIST
Er… You’re… you’re Michael Crew, right?

MIKE
It’s Mike, please.

ARCHIVIST
Right.

[SPOON NOISES]

[Leadingly] I’m from the Magnus Institute.

MIKE
Oh, you, uh, yeah, you said.

ARCHIVIST
I, er… I read… You feature in some of our statements!

MIKE
Oh. Statements of what?
ARCHIVIST

You… There was, there was a book? Er, two of them, at least. Er… Ex Altiora, The Boneturner’s Tale.
You, uh, I think you threw a guy off a skyscraper in Paris.
MIKE
Hmm… Last chance for that cup of tea.

ARCHIVIST
I… Where did you get that scar?
[LONG SIGH AS THE SOUND OF RUSHING AIR RISES]

MIKE
And I was trying so hard to be polite.
[THE ARCHIVIST ATTEMPTS A SCREAM BUT TO NO AVAIL]
Hard, isn’t it, trying to ask prying questions at terminal velocity? The air… it doesn’t… leave your lungs like you expect it to. I mean, I know you’re still sat down, you know you’re still sat down. But whether your body knows it when I decide you hit the ground, that’s… that’s something I haven’t made my mind up about, yet.

A little bit of privacy. Is that really so much to ask? I suppose it is, isn’t it? From you and yours at least. We have a lot in common, really. After all, what, what good’s the height, the terrifying draw of gravity, unless you, unless you really know the scale of what you’re facing?

Maybe I’ll let you live, allow you to drag yourself back down to your den, but… you need to learn some respect.

MIKE (STATEMENT)
My scar, wasn’t it? Always the scar. Ironic, in some ways, because that was one the few marks that was only really ever physical. I got it when I was struck by lightning, age of eight. I was playing outside with a friend of mine, and the storm just came on quickly. That’s really all there was to it.

Have you ever been struck by lightning? No. No, of course not. Not unless that’s what happened to your hand, but I’m guessing that burn came from sticking it somewhere it wasn’t wanted my girlfriend have one just like it.. but you still didn’t learn. Well, imagine a white-hot, stinging pain, your whole body becoming rigid, like for an eternal moment you’re frozen, you’re trapped in a statue of yourself with a thousand needles of agony just erupting through you from the inside out. I don’t know if it’s the most painful thing that can happen to the human body, but… beyond a certain point trying to quantify and measure pain, it becomes pointless. That point is being struck by lighting.
The part that always bothered me was how I didn’t remember it. Not really. The sensation’s still vivid enough, but it exists in my mind completely detached from any actual memory. I remember the feeling, but not the event. One moment I’m playing amid raindrops the size of blueberries, and the next I’m in a white hospital bed, that acrid smell still surrounding me, and these lines of agony just carved through my skin.

The doctors told me there would be no long-term damage from my accident. They, they were wrong, of course, but the damage wasn’t something they could see, so how were they to know? Sitting alone in my room, tracing the lines of electricity with my finger, imagining my pain travelling these branching pathways. I was obsessed with it, and every time my finger reached the end of the line I felt a jolt of fear, because I, I knew they went further, went deeper than would show on my skin.

By age ten I was reading everything I could on what had happened to me. Electricity, Lichtenberg’s experiments, meteorology. My parents thought it was simply my way of recovering, of processing my trauma, but there was something else there. I know that now.
Did you know that Lichtenberg figures are fractals? I didn’t, not back then, but as they travelled along the length of my scars, I sometimes think like my fingertips could feel it. When I was twelve, curled under my bed to escape the pounding of the rain against my window, the roll of thunder that just rattled my skull, I began to travel them once again. My hands ran down and along those jagged, discoloured lines, every branch, every turn, my nostrils full of ozone, my veins full of fear. And they didn’t stop. I knew where my scars ended, but… those I traced in the dark that night, they just went on and on and on, far beyond me and to somewhere that still flashed with that unspeakable white light.
That was the night everything changed. Before it I was odd, certainly, probably traumatised, and gripped with a terror of storms, but after that night, things were different. I think, looking back, that was when I called it. That was when it caught my scent.
It delighted in toying with my perceptions, making me believe a storm was approaching, forcing me to run for shelter or desperately hunt for cover without warning. In the dark it would stand beneath my bedroom window, the light flaring, flashing the awful brightness of sheet lightning across my room.
I could never look directly at it. The bright, arcing glow of its insides almost blinded me when I tried. It was almost a man, but I could never be sure. Its strobing, flashing Lichtenberg organs changed and flickered too fast. It… never hurt me. Not once in all the years I was chased by its… malevolence. Of course, I know why that is now, but at the time it did nothing to dull my fear.
I remember when it found out where I lived. I had dreamed that night of shifting, branching avenues of light. I travelled them so fast I could feel my flesh peeling away, leaving nothing but the coursing, buzzing pain within me as I ran down these hideous corridors, aching for an end I knew simply wasn’t there. I woke up screaming into the darkness. Walking to the window, I looked out over the tiny garden below. I was sixteen at the time, and the house I lived in had a small patch of green behind it, just fighting against the pressing grey of the city, the dull glow of the light pollution overhead. But where the back wall should have been, there was a small wooden gate.
I didn’t feel the cold as I opened the back door, and walked out towards it. My… my tormentor was nowhere to be seen, but the blackened edges of the gate showed clearly it had passed by. Was I afraid? It’s hard to remember now, but I have to assume that I was. I mean, I must have been. As I pushed the ancient hinges back to reveal this darkened forest, how could I not have been?
It stretched away forever, I think, or as close to forever as the human mind can contain. The trees were long and spindly, their branches bare and reaching, as they grew down towards me out of the sky, their roots pulsing upwards into this roiling mass of clouds; the scorched and shattered trunks reeking of ozone.
I found The Journal of a Plague Year when I was seventeen. I was lucky, I suppose, that it wasn’t anything worse. It infected the house, of course, brought it crashing down upon my parents in a collapse of diseased brick and septic foundations, but I escaped. And more than that, my eyes were opened to the powers that might save me. Might protect me from a past that followed me so brightly I could barely see it. But I knew that Filth was not for me. Buzzing flies and rot disgusted me, but they never spoke to my soul. I threw the book into a sewer, and began my hunt.
The Boneturner’s Tale was next. Found tucked away in a waterlogged library basement, and deposited back in another. I played with it, but when I tried to shift the bits of myself I thought might set me free, the only shapes I could form with them were laced with that horrid, hunting fractal. My experiments weren’t entirely pointless, though, they did have a truth to me. I learned that I was more than capable of killing, if it brought me closer to what I needed.
I spent some time with a small grey volume, I think it was in Cyrillic, that decided it was at home amongst my bookshelves. I couldn’t read it, of course, but… when it tried to read me back, I buried it on a lonely stretch of moorland.
Finally I found what I was searching for. In the back of a Chichester bookshop, I found my release. Ex Altiora. ‘From the Heights’. The owner didn’t want to part with it, a nasty, grubby little man who stank of sweat and self-importance, but I got it. And at last I had what I needed.
The thing that chased me, you see, it was an arcing branch of the Twisting Deceit, taken shape to follow me. But the shape it had taken more rightly belonged to the sky. To those same vast unknowable heights that blessed book wanted to take me. Falling had always held a special place in my heart, that wonderful border between terror and delight. When my parents would take me to the fair, I always found my way to the highest ride, the one that would just send me plummeting. It wasn’t simply the rush of adrenaline, but something, something deeper, something that just gripped my soul with this ecstatic horror. And I knew within that book was something that could not only release me from my pursuer, but chain my being to that rush of wind and vertigo forever.
I don’t remember that night in detail. The two most important events in my life, and I have clear memories of neither. I know it was the first storm, the first real storm, I had seen for almost ten years, but nothing else remains in my mind. There are echoes of resignation, I think, almost desperation. That can’t be right, though. What reason would I have had not to jump? Not to become as I am now. Perhaps I just didn’t know the true joy of vertigo. It doesn’t matter. In the end I threw myself into the arms of that vast emptiness, and I bound my tormentor to the book.
That’s… that’s all, I think. Since then I’ve embraced my new life; gladly fed that which feeds me.
A… uh, a Paris skyscraper, was it you said? I honestly, I, I can’t say I recall it in detail, but that does… sounds about right. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track.
MIKE
Hm. You know, that was… that was nice. I’m not, not usually the sort for speeches. That was… pleasant change. So.
[LOUD SOUNDS OF RUSHING AIR AND THE ARCHIVIST GASPS]
Off you go, then.
ARCHIVIST
[Breathing heavily] I, er… You –
MIKE
Archivist. Take my mercy and leave. You have touched something few ever walk away –

(Door creek)

???:
Hey mick can you pop by the store and- oh
[DOOR KNOCKING]
Oh no

Mike:
I thought you said you came alone?
[GASPING GURGLES]
Hm.
[OPENS DOOR]
Can I hel– UGHH!
[SHORT-LIVED SOUNDS OF ALTERCATION]

ARCHIVIST
Detect… Detective?

DAISY
Shut up. They human?

ARCHIVIST
What?

DAISY
Are they human?

ARCHIVIST
I… Er, him no, I, I don’t think so. Not anymore. Them I- I think so

DAISY
Right. What does it do?

ARCHIVIST
Er, he… It feels like, he makes you… Vertigo. Like you’re falling.

DAISY
Has he killed people?

ARCHIVIST
Er, y-y-yes. Yes, a few, I think.

DAISY
Does he need to see you to do it? Does he need to speak?

ARCHIVIST
I-I-I don’t know

DAISY
Okay.
[ADDITIONAL SOUNDS OF KICKING]
Doubt he can do it in a coma. Now turn that off, and help me get him in the car. Don’t try to run.

ARCHIVIST
What are you –

[PUNCH]

DAISY
What did I say about questions? I said turn that off!

[CLICK]

[CLICK]
[SOUND OF WIND AND VOICES ARE SOMEWHAT MUFFLED]
(Quiet crying)

DAISY
This is it.

ARCHIVIST
[Out of breath] So… so what now? You kill us?
…

DAISY
You think he’s going to save you?

ARCHIVIST
What? What, no –

[GUNSHOT]
[THE ARCHIVIST CRIES OUT]

???:
NO!

DAISY
Now… let’s see the bag.
[THE ARCHIVIST IS STILL GASPING]
[SOUND OF ZIPPER]

DAISY
One wallet, brown leather, no cash. One packet cigarettes, Silk Cut. One lighter, gold, spiderweb design. One pocket knife… blunt. Huh. One set of keys to the Magnus Institute. And one tape record-
[VOICES BECOME CLEARER AS DAISY EXTRACTS RECORDER]
You sneaky little freak! You want to record this? Alright. I’d have to destroy it anyway.

ARCHIVIST
What, I? I, I didn’t –
[RUSTLING NOISES]
Pl-please don’t shoot me.
[SOUNDS OF PANIC]
Why are you doing this? Tell me!
[GURGLES MORE AS DAISY GRABS HIM ROUND THE THROAT]

DAISY
Stop… asking… questions!
That’s how you want it? Fine. You brought a knife. So we go through the voicebox.

BASIRA
Daisy!
…
Daisy, put him down.

DAISY
You been following me, Basira?

BASIRA
Didn’t need to. I know what you do here.

DAISY
He tell you?

BASIRA
He didn’t need to. You’re not that subtle. But I – I always thought you just killed monsters.

DAISY
I do!

[ARCHIVIST CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE]

BASIRA
Just let him go.

DAISY
You don’t know what he is. You don’t know what it’s like to have your secrets pulled out like teeth, just because he asked?

ARCHIVIST
I’m sorry, I didn’t –

DAISY
Shut up!

BASIRA
Daisy!

DAISY
Don’t you… Don’t you dare look at me like I’m crazy! It got you too, or do you think we gave him those tapes because we like handing out evidence?

ARCHIVIST
What?

BASIRA
That’s not how it happened.

DAISY
No? You ask me to take a tape over to this murdering freak, and I’m all set to tear you a new one for it. But then I get the cassette in my hand, and suddenly all I want to do is deliver his tapes, and spill my guts.

BASIRA
So, so now you kill him?

DAISY
First him, then his creepy boss.

BASIRA
This is too far, Daisy. You know it is.

DAISY
He murdered two people, Basira. Maybe more. I’ve done one monster today, no reason not to do another.

ARCHIVIST
I didn’t… I didn’t kill anyone!

BASIRA
For god’s sake look at him!

DAISY
Then who? You?

???:
n-no

ARCHIVIST
I thi- I thi- I think it was Elias.

DAISY
Yeah. Well he’s on my list too.

BASIRA
What if he asks?

DAISY
What?

BASIRA
You reckon he can mind control people. Make them tell the truth? Why not try it on Elias?

DAISY
…
He’s got, he’s got his own… He knows things. Would that work?

ARCHIVIST
I don’t know. I, I could try.

BASIRA
Daisy! This might be our only chance to find out what’s going on.

DAISY
…
Alright. But if this doesn’t work, you’re still dead.

ARCHIVIST
[Exhaling heavily] Yeah. Yeah.
What about Mike?

DAISY
Who? Oh.
Grab a spade.

[CLICK]

Chapter Text

FOOTSTEPS ECHO AND THE DOOR OPENS]

MARTIN
Uh, sorry to interrupt, er, J-John’s here! And h- he’s – well he’s – He seems – He seems angry.
Um, [splutters] I actually think he’s brought a coup-

DAISY
Bouchard.

BASIRA
Easy.

ARCHIVIST
Hello, Elias.

ELIAS
Goodness, John. Whatever happened to your hand? And your neck?

DAISY
[Satisfied smirk] That one was me.

ELIAS
You look a mess.

???
Why thank you sir

ARCHIVIST
[Chuckles] I’ve had a hell of a week.

ELIAS
Martin, would you be so good as to fetch Melanie and Tim. I think it would be worth their time to be here.

MARTIN
Er. R-Right. Okay. I’ll just… what, go then?

[FOOTSTEPS, THEN DOOR CLOSES]

DAISY
Okay. Let’s do this.

BASIRA
Er, John? Do you… You want to get this on tape?

???
No need, Basira, he’s got one running.

Elias
Now, you have something to ask me?

BASIRA
Go for it.

DAISY
Before I strangle the grinning bastard.

ARCHIVIST
Elias. Did you kill Gertrude Robinson? And Leitner?

ELIAS
[PLEASURED EXHALATION]
That’s… That’s quite nice, actually. Tingly… but sort of freeing. [Chuckle] You know, even Gertrude never properly tried to compel me. I always wondered –

BASIRA
Just answer the question.

???
Stop being a cunt sir

ELIAS
Oh, no need to worry about that. I just feel it’s only fair to wait for your colleagues, John. They’ll want to hear this too. Uh, it’s also very important to me, in a personal capacity, that you understand I’m answering you of my own free will.

???
Literally kill your self!

ARCHIVIST
[Angry] I don’t care!

ELIAS
I know, but I do. There’s so much of this place, of ourselves, twisted by forces far beyond us. I just wanted you to know –

[DOOR OPENS]

MARTIN
Uh, okay, okay, so I’ve got everyone, but I’m honestly kind of lost as to what’s happening.

TIM
[Speaking over Martin] Yeah, I…
Oh, Christ, what is it now?

MELANIE
Er, yeah, same question, please.

ARCHIVIST
[Snarling] Elias here is about to confess his crimes.

TIM
What?

MELANIE
Oh.
Good?

MARTIN
Is, is that like, er…

ELIAS
Yes, I was just saying to John. It’s very important to me you understand that no action I have taken has been controlled. I have done everything because I wished to.

???
Incorrect

DAISY
Get to the point.

ELIAS
[Sighs] Of course, Detective. So. For the avoidance of any doubt. I killed Gertrude Robinson because she intended to destroy the Archives. And I killed Jurgen Leitner because he was… an unnecessary complication. Likely to tell John too much, too early.

MELANIE
Bloody hell!

TIM
Oh, no.

MARTIN
So-So-S-Sorry, that guy was Jurgen Leitner?

ELIAS
It was.

BASIRA
Daisy, where do I know that name from?

DAISY
Oh, the Yousuf case. An Introduction to Higher Anatomy.

BASIRA
Ah… Oh, god! And you killed him? You sure we shouldn’t be giving him a medal?

ARCHIVIST
Very sure.

MARTIN
And Sasha? Did you kill her too?

ARCHIVIST
Sasha died almost a year ago, Martin. But I’m sure hr could have handled that question

MARTIN
Wh-What?

TIM
Oh, god.

???
Don’t imply what you can’t understand Bouchard

ARCHIVIST
When Prentiss attacked, something else, it… it… it replaced her. I still don’t know how, but –

TIM
Goddamn it! This is… [dejected, exasperated sigh]

MARTIN
[Splutters incomprehensibly] It wasn’t… Sasha?

ELIAS
He’s right, Martin. The thing you remember as Sasha was nothing like her. It toyed with your memory. If I showed you a picture of the real Sasha now, you’d have no idea who it was.

MARTIN
So that thing we saw…?

ELIAS
Precisely. It finally tried to kill John. Then Leitner killed it. Then I killed Leitner. And I believe that brings us up to date. More or less.

ARCHIVIST
What about Michael?

ELIAS
What about him? An irritant. Interfering because he’s bored, and he resents us. He has no purpose –

???
Don’t talk about then like tha-

DAISY
Right. That’s enough for me. Even got it on tape.
Everyone get back.

[SOUNDS OF CONSTERNATION AS DAISY DRAWS A GUN]

MARTIN
What?

BASIRA
Daisy, wait.

DAISY
Out the way.

MELANIE
Now hang, hang on, I thought you were about to arrest him.

DAISY
Get out the way!

MARTIN
John, do something!

[INTERCOM BUZZES AND ELIAS CHUCKLES]

DAISY
Don’t.

ELIAS
…
Excuse me.

[RINGING THAT CEASES UPON KEYPRESS]
Yes?

ROSIE (INTERCOM)
Elias, there are some police officers here to see you?

ELIAS
Ah, yes, thank you Rosie. Er, could you ask them to wait a minute or two?

ROSIE (INTERCOM)
Yep, will do.

ELIAS
There. That should make it even easier for you. Right, Detective? I know you were planning to kill me, but surely an arrest is a consolation prize?

[DAISY’S QUIVERING FRUSTRATION IS AUDIBLE]

BASIRA
Daisy?

ELIAS
Oh, didn’t she tell you why she hadn’t gone back to the station?
Allow me. She rightly suspected that I held evidence of various murders she had committed, and that I sent this to her superiors

DAISY
…

ELIAS
She’s quite the killer, your partner. All in the public good, of course. And she was correct, I spent some time acquiring that evidence. Or creating it. And while your superiors don’t much care about the killings, the fact there is proof… They’re not happy. And they want you brought in.

DAISY
Heh. So I kill you, and go to jail. I’ll take that deal.

ELIAS
For someone who used to be a detective, you’re remarkably reluctant to think things through. You think you’re the only police officer eager to do violence and call it justice? No, there are plenty of other rabid dogs out there, mad with the hunt. And some of them have signed a Section 31. There are plenty of others your superiors can call on to clean up this mess.

BASIRA
Er… they wouldn’t.

DAISY
Yeah. They would.

ELIAS
And anyone close enough to be implicated. They will kill Basira.

MARTIN
Okay, wai-wai-wai-wait, that’s the police that you’re talking about! Okay, they… they wouldn’t…
Would they?

DAISY
I’m sorry, Basira.

BASIRA
Yeah.

ELIAS
If the officers down there take you away…
Oh, but perhaps I was wrong when I called them. Maybe it was a false alarm.

DAISY
What do you want?

ELIAS
Collateral.
[PAPER IS PUSHED ACROSS THE DESK]

DAISY
That… What?

ELIAS
A contract of employment. For Basira.

BASIRA
Uh?

MARTIN
What?

ARCHIVIST
Oh, no…

ELIAS
Sign it, and I’ll send your ex-colleagues on their way.

DAISY
Basira, I…

TIM
Don’t do it.

BASIRA
There.

ARCHIVIST
Oh damn it.

ELIAS
Hmm.
[PUSHES BUTTON]
False alarm, Rosie. Could you apologise to the officers for me, and thank them for their time.

ROSIE (INTERCOM)
Oh. Um. Alright…

DAISY
So… what, you’re her boss now? Is that supposed to stop me?

ELIAS
Yes.

MELANIE
Um, I mean, she’s still got a gun?

ELIAS
Ah, of course. Er, sometimes I forget how new you all are to this.
Basira is now tied to the Institute. All of you are. Like fingers on a hand. And I am the beating heart of it. Should I, or the Institute, be destroyed, you will all, unfortunately, follow suit.

MELANIE
Wait, what?

TIM
Yup, that sounds about right.

ELIAS
And it would not be a pleasant death.

DAISY
Bullshit!

ELIAS
Then shoot me. Just squeeze the trigger, and watch the only person you care about die screaming. Your last connection to humanity.
Do it.

BASIRA
Daisy…

[DAISY EXHALES, AND EVERYONE ELSE SIGHS AS SHE LOWERS THE GUN]

DAISY
What do you want?

ELIAS
The police are not the only ones who can find a use for your violence. I’m sure there’ll be plenty here for you to do. Feel free to go where you like in the meantime. I’ll be in touch.

DAISY
You piece of –

BASIRA
Daisy, it’s… it’s okay. We’ll figure something out.

MELANIE
This is insane!

TIM
You get used to it.

???
You don’t

ELIAS
Now that’s taken care of, if you’ll all give me and John a moment alone. I’m sure we have some things to discuss.

DAISY
Yeah.

MARTIN
Come on.
[FOOTSTEPS AND DOOR CLOSES]

???
I’m not leaving you alone with him

Elias
As I suspected

ARCHIVIST
So.
What do you want?

ELIAS
Honestly? To offer some congratulations. You’re doing a lot better than I expected.

ARCHIVIST
Feels like all I’ve managed to do is… not die.

ELIAS
And believe me, that is a remarkably rare skill.

ARCHIVIST
I’m not getting any answers out of this, am I?

ELIAS
The easily-digestible sort that wipe away any doubt and fear, and neatly organise your new world into happy little columns? No. Not from me.
These are things you must discover on your own.

ARCHIVIST
Why?

ELIAS
[Sighs] What are you?

ARCHIVIST
I… The Archivist.

ELIAS
Precisely. It is your job to chronicle these things, to experience them, whether first-hand or through the eyes of others. To simply be told, well…

ARCHIVIST
It doesn’t please your master?

ELIAS
Our master, John.

ARCHIVIST
[Emphatically] I never chose this

ELIAS
You never wanted this, no. But I’m afraid you absolutely did choose it. In a hundred ways, at a hundred thresholds, you pressed on. You sought knowledge relentlessly, and you always chose to see. Our world is made of choices, John, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean, but we make them nonetheless.

ARCHIVIST
[Signs heavily] So what now?

ELIAS
You were doing fine before you forced this little scene. I suggest you continue.

ARCHIVIST
So it was you sending me statements.

ELIAS
A little bit of direction never hurt anybody. So to speak.

ARCHIVIST
[Chuckles] Directed towards what?

ELIAS
The Unknowing. I need you to stop it.

ARCHIVIST
Again with – What is “the Unknowing?” Exactly.

ELIAS
A ritual. The Stranger and its kin attempting to gather power enough to bring it closer.

ARCHIVIST
They’re trying to, what, summon it?

ELIAS
Not exactly. These things that touch us, they… don’t have a form of the sort that could exist in physical reality. So the Stranger wishes to remake that physical reality into something closer to itself. It wants to make this world its own.

ARCHIVIST
And how do I stop it?

ELIAS
That is what you need to find out.

ARCHIVIST
No. You are not doing that. I know you have Gertrude’s notes, her, her files. She was working on a way to stop this. Not to mention that apparently you can… effortlessly see anything at any time!

ELIAS
Hardly effortlessly, but I take your point.

ARCHIVIST
So you obviously know how to stop it. You could just tell me!

ELIAS
I could. But I believe that if I did so, you would fail. The Stranger is antithetical to us.
[THE ARCHIVIST SIGHS HEAVILY]
We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown. If you are to stop them, you need to get better at seeing. And my explaining things is simply not enough.

ARCHIVIST
And you can’t just give me all of the statements?

ELIAS
John, even when you had them all at your disposal, you barely got through one statement a week. Why do you think that is? It takes its toll on you. And I know you’ve had problems with moderation.

ARCHIVIST
So it’s… it’s back to breadcrumbs, and statements, and risking my life talking to things that barely remember how to be human anymore?

ELIAS
For now. I’ll be in touch.
…
[RESUMES WRITING]
Anything else?

ARCHIVIST
Am I… Elias, am I still human

ELIAS
John, what does human even mean? I mean, really? You still bleed, you can still die. And your will is still your own, mostly. That’s more than can be said for a lot of the ‘real’ humans out there.
…
You’re worried about ending up like that thing, lurking in the dirt under the streets of Alexandria? Don’t be. Just do what you need to, and you’ll be fine. Understood?

ARCHIVIST
I suppose so.

ELIAS
Good. Well, I have work to be getting on with. I’ll send you a Return to Work form, but don’t worry about the doctor’s note. Now, if there’s nothing else?

ARCHIVIST
Right.
[CLICK)
(Click)

Elias
So.. how was your little vacation?

???
Mikes dead so peters probably going to come for me soon

Elias
Mmm, a shame I’ll try to deal with that before it gets out of hand

???
Yeah

Elias
Well I’d like you to be more thankful but-

???
Why am I here?

Elias
I’m not sure what you mean?

???
You know exactly what i mean

Elias
I assure you I do not.
(Beat)
Your progress is promising, survive the unknowing and you’ll practically be complete

???
Well than I hope i explode

(Click)

Chapter Text

I leave the room and find my office

I sit down in my chair and just cry

Nothing more just crying

And every time it stops it starts again a second later

Choking gasping sobs

Everything that’s been held hostage since i got here all released

The door opens and something warm and tingly surrounds me

Soft scratching at my scalp as I choke out sobs

“Poor poor Human Resources” it chuckles and pets me like a scared rabbit “would you like to come inside? We could have tea”

My voice comes out cracked “I’m not hungry, I think in dyeing”

“Your not”

“Okay”

Chapter Text

I sleep

I don’t know for how long

It’s up and down and up and down I grab a coffee and then don’t drink it and sleep again

When I wake up for the last time Tim is waiting at my door ready to knock

I’m still in Pyjamas

I don’t care

“Wha-what?…” I ask cluelessly

“What do you know?” He pushes past me and sits down at my desk

“What do you mean?”

“About Sasha”

“I can’t tell you Tim you know that”

“Do I? Do I know that?”

“Tim he’ll kill me”

“Honestly,” he gets out of his chair “I don’t care” he leaves my office with a nod and I just sit in my chair