Just Another Boring Day

LAST COMMUNICATION OF SUBJ. 1854 BEFORE DEPARTING TO THE VOID

Hi, Dr. R——

I’ve gone through the audio recordings and what I wrote down in my notebook, and I’ve compiled it into a short narrative as you told me to. I kept things strictly factual, and the only thing I’ve added was my thoughts as best as I could remember. I’m fine with this being released to staff or people outside of the Institute; just bring in editors. I’m terrible at editing. I hope it’s to your liking. Keep it in third person; I don’t like writing in first person. It feels weird.

Cheers, Moonlight (subject No. 1854, part of the Anomaly Research Institute)

JUST ANOTHER BORING DAY

“By the dying universes, this is hot,” she hissed as she shielded her eyes. There wasn’t much to see, just a city in ruins before her and all surrounding vegetation dead. The only mildly notable thing was the midnight-black fighter jets circling above in one large loop as the sun seemed to be setting. The smell, on the other hand, was something else entirely: rotting meat, vomit, and a hint of smoke.

Moonlight looked around a bit more and found the place even stranger than she initially realized. The city looked like it just popped into existence in some random field; no road connected it to any civilization for as far as she could see; and, more disconcertingly, everything looked “pristine” (well as pristine as dead earth can get). There wasn’t a single pockmark or vehicle track anywhere for a place that supposedly got raided by the military or whatever the terminology military people use.

Is it trying to act like an isolationist type anomaly while trying to lure people here? But that doesn’t fully make sense; if it’s a lure, wouldn’t it want to be closer to some sort of civilization? Maybe it’s just a time or mental distortion, and it doesn’t even know, but that feels like a cop-out…She sighed. It was pointless trying to speculate with these kinds of entities. Logic isn’t their strong suit.

“Nothing bad happened, at least not yet. The anomaly wants to be seen, or maybe it is an isolationist type since I can’t find any civilizations nearby, and I’m only like three universes away from you guys- I mean ARI and the Department of Metaphysical Sciences and Anomalies. So it should be relatively similar.” Moonlight flicked her gaze down to the tiny device recording audio only on her DMSA’s task force uniform. It felt weird talking to it. Granted, the entire uniform felt strange on her human shell. It was bulky and awkward to move around in even without all the standard equipment, but apparently that’s normal for humans. But I had to wear it to convince the victim, so it’s whatever. Although your species is very strange. “Anyways, I’m heading off now. Should take around like five to ten minutes.”

The walk was unremarkable. The food and water stuffed into her backpack made rhythmic, strange water-and-bag crinkling noises. A couple of the jets broke away from their loop and began circling above her, yet it was strangely muted, and the air didn’t even move. As if they didn’t exist. The smell grew worse as the heat became intense: decaying flesh and smoke overwhelmed anything else.

The city itself changed the closer she got. Debris that was blocking her path somehow disappeared, kinda like a mirage. The road was in still shit condition, though; tons of broken glass, concrete, and wood littered the place. She spotted the odd rotting limb sticking out, but it was otherwise inconsequential. The jets became wild. They broke formation and zipped around in random, discordant directions that almost resulted in multiple crashes, but avoided them at the last minute.

Are they trying to act like a distraction, or are they upset that I’m here? Moonlight uneasily glanced up at the sky. All it would take was one plane to drop a bomb then everything would have been for nothing. Assuming there was a bomber in the first place. She didn’t know much about planes. “Should have just let me build a tiny non-human shell,” she muttered. “Or gone in just my void form.”

“Daniel Winchester?” She called out. Her voice echoed, but it was slightly off, like an entity was trying to mimic what it thought was an echo.

She picked up her pace. The pathway was clearly leading her somewhere; the place wasn’t smart enough to guide her subtly; instead, it just blocked any kind of exit or branching path that would have trapped a human here. Maybe they’re expecting some sort of rescue operation to start happening because I’m supposed to be panicking by now, she thought, and immediately felt like an idiot. Shit, I don’t want to start acting like I’m freaking out for god knows how long. But I should at least half-ass it; that might fool it enough. Hopefully.

“Uhm, so the anomaly is trying to trap me in here by blocking my way out. The fighter jets are being weird and flying all over the place, so it’s probably expecting a rescue operation to ensue. Uh, no other entities or Daniel have been seen.” Moonlight bit her lip. Did that sound too factual? Did I even sound remotely scared, or maybe I sounded more annoyed? God, they should have just made me look like d-class personnel; that would have made my behavior more reasonable.

The pathway meandered on. The sun hadn’t even moved an inch since she began, and even the planes seemed to have grown tired of their manic behavior because they settled back into their loop. The rubble became higher and more staged. She couldn’t put a claw on it, but there was something about the way it was arranged that screamed fake.

Eventually the road led to an actual pristine building that looked so out of place she had to stop and stare at it. It was a squat concrete structure that had some broken and cracked windows, graffiti scrawled on all sides of it, and the pathway to it was clear. The lights were on, and a humanoid figure was watching her, although she couldn’t make out much of its features.

“I think I’ve found Daniel, but I’m not a hundred percent sure. It could be a different entity altogether. Uhm, I’ll try to give you a good enough description of him when I go in.”

She nervously walked up to it, but before she could get far, a tall and lanky man rushed out.

“You’re our savior!” He cried.

“H-Huh?”

The man seized her hands, his wild blue eyes staring right through her. “We must hurry, before they arrive. We can’t hold them much longer.” He dragged her inside the home and slammed the door shut.

The man was dressed in odd attire: a pale blue T-shirt and light brown pants; his shoes looked like they were about to disintegrate any second; and the hat he wore had so many random symbols hastily stitched on it she could hardly guess what it could mean. Everything else about him was in dire shape; his hair was greasy and matted beyond belief, his skin was taut and looked so pale that she was convinced there was barely any blood in him, and he kept walking in a stupor.

“The Survivors have prophesied about our Savior coming in a fortnight, and here you are.” His voice was hoarse and weak, yet there was a strange tense energy whenever he uttered anything like his life depended on it.

“Uhm…a-alright, can you at least tell me who you are and what’s going on?”

The man laughed as he began closing the blinds and shoving shit at the front door. She nervously glanced around the area, but there were no other exits. It was essentially a sizeable box that had just enough room for maybe two people to live in it. There was a tiny living room that had card and board games strewn about, a kitchenette, and one other door that led to the bathroom.

“Sorry, my goddess, I was a bit too eager to get this war over and done with already. I’m Daniel Winchester of the Sea Lion clan, you see, the Party has been waging a war with us for over a decade, and I was there to see it all-“

“Daniel, you’ve been gone for like a month and a half. Don’t you remember you used to work at the DMSA?”

“The wha- oh, right, anomaly organization. Those idiots don’t know what they’re doing. They’ve been hurting us. Lying to me.” He tensed what little muscle he had left. “They’ve been lying to you too. I’m glad you’re reaching Enlightenment with me.”

How has he deteriorated this badly in such a short time period? He’s almost reaching word salad level conversational skills; I’ll probably have to take him to some place that can do a consciousness restoration. But I’ll have to tread carefully; I doubt he’ll be able to handle seeing me get out of my shell and construct a new one in front of him. Maybe I’ll have to use my other magic to strain him.

“Anyways, we’ll have to camp out here for around four days; the Party will be bombing us, since they’ve renewed the War after the Week of Peace has ended. The Survivors will be joyous,” he exclaimed. “Are you excited as well? We’ll build a statue of you in your honor.”

“Oh, y-yeah, of course I’m excited. I’m just a little overwhelmed, that’s all.”

He grunted in satisfaction. “Well, I’ll make us some dinner. Why don’t you rest and explain to me why you’re still wearing that?”

Moonlight settled on a chair and made up some weak excuse as she watched him pull out a can of tomato soup, canned green peas from the shelves, and an unidentifiable slab of meat from the fridge. He seemed lost in thought, barely saying anything as he poured the peas and tomato soup into a nasty-looking pot.

She quickly tapped the couch, coaxing the shadows out and letting them slowly wrap around her leg. They looked like incredibly watery ink that wanted to spread everywhere, but she kept them as still as possible. She just needed to keep him pinned to an object, then blind him and carry him back. That wouldn’t be too bad.

She swallowed as he came over and settled down. “The food will take around ten to fifteen minutes to finish,” he sighed. “I suppose your pack is empty by now?”

“Oh, no. You can have the food if you want-“

“ABSOLUTELY NOT. THEY’VE POISONED IT.”

She froze. He dug his nails deep into the chair; he looked like he wanted to kill somebody. “They poison everything they touch. Information, food, water, all of it is full of lies and drugs.”

“I-I believe you.” She flicked her finger towards him; the shadows slowly crawled off her legs and crept closer to him. He was shaking in his chair as his breathing became more erratic. Tears pricked his eyes. “They’re all liars, you see? How can you still be blinded by such nonsense that you would offer me their food?”

“I was unaware of the extent of their tactics. I’m truly sorry,” she lied.

Daniel didn’t respond. He just kept staring at her; his eyes kept going from a filmy, dazed look to a moment of clarity, before reverting again.

“Daniel, maybe you ought to rest for now. I’ll wake you up once it’s close to thirty minutes. You look exhausted.”

He sighed and slumped in his chair. His eyes still did not leave hers. A stony expression settled over his face. “Hmmm. Maybe you’re not the right one. You’re the Fallen One.”

The shadows had completely engulfed his legs now. He didn’t seem to notice.

Is he following a script? Is that why he isn’t reacting or saying anything that fully makes sense to me? Maybe this anomaly only affects typical organic entities, and void class is just beyond its reach.

Daniel began ranting and raving about the Religion of Old and babbling about the Flowers of Rose-Gold and the Fallen One wanting to drink the blood of the youth. The shadows had completely pinned him to the chair, yet his gaze never wavered for a moment.

Moonlight shrugged off her pack and dug through it and found a cloth. It wasn’t long enough to tie all the way to the back of his head, but it would have to do. She walked up to him and forced his mouth open and shoved it into his mouth.

He froze. His eyes were wide to the point he almost looked inhuman. “Everything is gonna be okay, I promise,” she said soothingly. “You’ll forget this even happened.”

She snapped her fingers, and the remaining shadows quickly rushed to create a door that led straight to a hospital room with a team of ARI and some of their healer subjects, and DMSA doctors waiting.

“See? You’re going back to your universe.”

She dragged the chair in, and almost immediately the doctors began to swarm him. She was ushered out of the room after closing down the portal.

“At least that’s the final missing person I have to deal with this week,” she sighed. “Hopefully he’ll recover soon.”

NOTE FROM MOONLIGHT TO ARI & DMSA PERSONNEL

I’ll be in the void for roughly two and a half weeks. It shouldn’t take us any longer to secure that particular universe where Daniel was trapped. You guys got hella unlucky; that was considered an extremely dangerous type of universe and, within our system, also an anomaly, so it’s probably gonna get eradicated by people who are more powerful than me soon.

P.S. Stop asking me to bring in incredibly dangerous objects to the void. They keep becoming more unstable and eventually go haywire.