[ cut to: scarlet ]
“This image doesn’t make any sense,” I said, looking at the clearly-photoshopped mess on the phone Blaise had handed me. “How is it even supposed to be funny?”
“It isn’t,” Blaise replied. “I don’t think anyone actually saw the image itself, it doesn’t have to be funny.”
Blaise and I stood around the table in DEED’s HQ building alongside Eden, discussing how to handle what could possibly be the source of the so-called “zombie syndrome”. The image in question was a picture of the trollface with bold impact font text reading “die”. The only clue that image gives us is that one of the image’s eyes was replaced by a picture of a real eye with a pitch-black iris. I didn’t recognize the eye from anywhere, but it did seem familiar.
“Why would they use a dead internet meme like this though?” I said. “If nobody saw the image, couldn’t they make it anything they want?”
“I think it’s to make it less conspicuous,” Eden answered. “If a sorcerer were to see the image, they likely wouldn’t think much of it at a first glance. I think that eye is the key, we just have to find out who it belongs to.”
“The eye is awfully suspicious” I agreed, “but there might be a better way to find out who’s responsible.”
“Oh?” Eden said.
“Normally, an image like this would pop up all across the web, and someone specifically trying to infect as many people as possible would have tried to do that, right?” I asked.
“That tracks” Blaise noted, “but Zombie Syndrome has only occurred in the city of Seattle, and the news still hasn’t picked up on the image being involved, meaning…”
“For one, only the people specifically sent this image have seen it, and only people within Seattle have been sent the image,” Eden explained. “This is a targeted attack on a mass scale. In addition, only MMS messaging and the Linkpoint social media service have been used thus far, we checked with a few other companies. Which means that-“
“We need to investigate the company that produces Linkpoint!” I exclaimed.
“That would be MooreTech” Eden said, “but we haven’t had any luck contacting them. They’ve been in panic mode since this whole thing started.”
“Wait, MooreTech… MooreTech, MooreTech, MooreTech… I think that’s where Claire works!” I said. “If we can get her to report insider info to us, we can probably find the culprit.”
“Why are you so sure?” Blaise asked.
“Because social media companies can see the IP addresses used to access accounts” I answered, “they would be able to tell where and when a user logs into their service. Either we can find the IP address of the culprit or they’re within MooreTech themselves.”
“Couldn’t they just use a VPN?” Eden said. “That would stop us dead in our tracks if we’re looking for an IP address. Moreover, an IP alone won’t give us any meaningful information.”
“First off” I answered, “if the culprit had used a VPN, the company would have just prevented login attempts from VPNs, which would have stopped the incident altogether. Second, I have my doubts that the culprit isn’t an employee of MooreTech. It’s too convenient that only Linkpoint and MMS users have been targeted, and Linkpoint is in a closed beta state right now, only approved users can access the site. Better yet, Linkpoint’s closed beta is only open to-“
“The Linkpoint closed beta is only open to residents of King County, the Seattle area,” Blaise said. “It’s too convenient that the beta is only open in the area where the killings have happened, this could have been planned from the very top.”
[ cut ]
Claire, Blaise, Eden, and I took a spot in MooreTech’s company parking garage before we stepped out of the car. “It’s just going to be you and Claire in there,” Eden said. “We cannot provide backup if things go wrong.”
“Understood,” I replied. “Is it really necessary for me to wear this though?” I looked down to the business attire that Eden insisted I wear. “It’s too tight-fitting and stiff.”
“That’s what people wear to work these days, Alex,” Claire said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Plus, you’re going to have to be looking your best for the interview today.”
“I don’t need your mockery right now,” I said. “This whole plan was your idea, anyway.”
“It’s the least suspicious way to get an outsider inside of the building,” Claire responded. As much as I didn’t like her plan, she was right.
The two of us walked over to the garage elevator and began ascending to the 1st floor after the doors closed.
“This is kind of like a date, isn’t it?” Claire said. “Just like old times.”
“You’re the one who wanted to break up with me,” I replied.
“I think times have changed since then,” Claire said. “I’m not so opposed to trying things out again.”
“Think about it again when we aren’t on the clock. This kind of behavior is why I wanted one of the other two to come with us.”
“Why aren’t you shapeshifting right now? Wouldn’t that make this whole process easier?”
“Now you’re thinking about the operation?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted me to do?”
“I’m not disguising myself because I’m not as good at doing it as I need to be. I can’t mimic another person’s mannerisms well enough to pass as them. My abilities would be well suited to acting as someone else, but my actual talent for deception is almost zero,” I explained. “We have a better chance at succeeding if I’m not trying to be someone I’m not.”
“So you’ve finally decided to be yourself for once? That’s a development.”
The door began to open.
It opened into an empty hallway. The lights were off, the room only barely illuminated by blinded windows.
“That’s weird, there’s normally people around here,” Claire said. “Was there an unannounced holiday?”
“This should make our job easier. This building has a security office, right?” I said.
“Yeah, it’s on this floor,” Claire explained. “We’ll need a keycard to get in, though.”
“Not a problem,” I said. “If it isn’t vacuum sealed I can get inside. Wait a second-“
In the corner of my vision, I spotted a misplaced shadow, a dark spot on top of another. It burned at my eyesight for a few moments before slithering away.
“What is it, did you-“ Claire said.
I motioned my finger up to my mouth before pointing down the hallway, not to where the dark spot was but to where I figured the security office might be. Claire pointed the other way and began leading me through the business complex. The halls of the building twisted and branched in a way incoherent to my feeble mind, making our journey feel significantly longer than it actually was.
The two of us arrived at a dead end with two doors to our sides. Claire looks confused for a moment before turning towards me.
“I went the wrong way,” she whispered as she walked past me.
I was slightly too transfixed by the blank wall in front of me to turn towards her as she exited my line of sight. The wall seemed unnatural, not to mention inconvenient. The way we had been walking around the building made me assume we were traveling in a circle, so theoretically we should have ended up back by the elevators, right? There was no use worrying about this now, I should just follow Claire.
I turned around and saw a wall behind me.
That couldn’t be right. Claire just walked past me, not to mention it was the direction we came from. The halls of this building were changing around us, that must be why we went the wrong way. In that case, the only way forward would be through the two doors.
I went up to the door to my right and found it to be locked. Thankfully, a locked door wasn’t going to stop me from getting inside. I sent a tendril of my blood through the keyhole and lockpicked the door. The lock was real, surprisingly, it wasn’t impossible to get open.
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The room past the door seemed to be the women’s restroom. The walls were completely different from the hallway behind me, they were tiled rather than drywall, and there was a mirror to my right. I couldn’t see my reflection in the mirror, but I’ve come to be unsurprised by that fact. Demons have a difficult time creating reflections, so this mirror had to be altered in some way. In fact, it’s possible it isn’t a mirror at all.
I climbed up to the bathroom counter and tried stepping into the mirror. It didn’t come as a shock to me when I stepped right through and into a perfect reflection of the women’s bathroom. The exit door to this bathroom was bolted with no lock, so I couldn’t get out of the room from this side easily. The sign to the bathroom, which I presume would have read “women”, was backwards, indicating that, rather than I different room, I was inside of the mirror. I checked the stalls, all unlocked, for anything out of place. There was nothing, this was a perfect reflection of the other room.
I turned around to look back at the mirror. The doors I had left open were still closed on the other side. It seems that altering one side of the mirror leaves the other unchanged. There’s no point in investigating further, then. I climbed back up the counter and tried to leave, but I was met by the feeling of cool glass.
Shit.
[ cut to: ashton ]
I arrived outside of the building where my sister worked. It was a long walk from Brooklyn’s house, but it ultimately won’t matter how tired I am when I finally hit the concrete. The doors ahead of me looked automatic, but they didn’t open when I approached. I tried kicking them, but they wouldn’t budge. There was no security around, outside of a camera perched over the door. Who cares if I’m caught on camera, I’m going to be dead soon anyway.
I took a few steps back before charging one of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows next to the door. Upon impact, I simply bounced off, but several noticeable cracks appeared in the surface. I tried again. If this kills me, good, I’m only doing this so I can die anyway. More cracks formed after the second impact, so I tried again.
Upon colliding with the window a third time, it shattered, throwing me through and showing me with shards of sharpened glass. I was injured, but it didn’t matter, if I die sooner then so what?
As I was standing up after landing on the floor of the building’s lobby, I started thinking. Why am I doing all this? Isn’t there an easier way to end my life? I could just jump into the harbor or slit my own throat, why was I going to all of this effort to specifically jump off of this building?
After standing up, I walked over to the elevator just past the reception desk. The entire room was empty, but the elevator still worked. It was already here on the first floor, that’s where the last person to use it must have left. I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to go to the roof.
[ cut to: claire ]
As I passed by Alex’s shoulder, a feeling of unease passed over me. I should know these halls like the back of my hand, how did I get lost? I turned around, just to check if he was following me, and my worst fear became reality. There was a wall, presumably between him and me. There was no way I was going to be able to dig through the wall if there was even a wall there at all. Demons play with your mind, right? This is all in my head, I just need to find a way out.
I closed my eyes and started running down the hallway away from the dead end. I had to walk in a curve to follow the corridor, but I knew this place as well as my own home. As a passed by the area where the lobby and elevator should be, I heard a crash resound from my right. I instinctively opened my eyes to check what was there.
What I saw before me wasn’t the lobby, but a completely different room, one that certainly wasn’t here before. This room resembled the office working space, except it was reorganized in an incomprehensible manner. Cubicles were an inconsistent distance apart, leading to staggering. I couldn’t see an end to the room anywhere in sight, but I felt something. There was something else in this room with me, something inhuman. The last time I felt something like this was two years ago, when I first encountered a demon.
I pulled a gun out of my jacket. It was small, a handgun-sized revolver, discreet but deadly. There was a trick to this weapon however, one that I and I alone knew how to make use of.
“Show yourself, whatever you are,” I said loudly while scanning my surroundings. “If you make things quick enough you’ll be back in hell in less than the blink of an eye.”
A shadow darted between the gaps in the cubicles. Tracking its movement, it’ll appear behind me in about…
= pause =
I pivoted around to my backside and fired a shot.
= resume =
A beam of light erupted from the gun’s barrel and tore through the demon’s shadowy hide. It appeared to be about the size of a human, but its abilities could prove to be quite a nuisance, despite its size.
I ejected the revolver’s barrel and removed what remained of the blank bullet I had just fired before inserting another. If I used a real bullet at this point, it would more than likely kill me instead of the intended target.
The time I spent to reload might have been a mistake, however, as it meant that my enemy could have ended up nearly anywhere in the building by now. My surroundings had shifted once again while I wasn’t looking. I was inside of a conference room with no doors to speak of now, the demon intends to box me in and finish me off at its own leisure. Thankfully, I have more than enough time to break free of this room myself.
I closed my eyes and envisioned the conference room, the real one. Where I was standing, my back should be against a door, rather than a wall. I reached for where the handle should be and turned it, causing the door behind me to swing backwards, my body with it.
= pause =
My theory was correct, the hallway before me was the real one this time. In fact, it was the one that I was hoping for. There are two identical conference rooms in this building, one on the first floor and one on the fifth. The first-floor conference room is far away from the elevator, but the one on the fifth floor was right next to it. I was on the fifth floor, near the elevators, the same conference room I envisioned. Because of the reflection in the polished steel walls of the elevator, if I could get inside I would be able to see the entire thing, meaning the demon couldn’t alter my surroundings for as long as I stayed inside without me seeing exactly how its power works.
I stepped up to the elevator.
= resume =
I pressed the call button and started waiting, careful not to let my vision drift from the elevator doors.
[ cut to: scarlet ]
Great, I fell for what might as well be the oldest trick in the book. Of course, you can enter the mirror but not exit it, I should have figured that before I jumped in and expected it to all work out. Now my only way forward is prying open the door and trying to escape some other way. That or I’m permanently trapped inside of some kind of “mirror dimension” to live out the rest of my life in utter isolation.
I walked over to the door and slid a dozen blood tendrils through the crack between it and the doorframe. I then solidified and began bending the tendrils in order to pry the door open. After about a minute, the bolting mechanism tore through the main body of the door and the way was open.
The hallway before me was, surprisingly, fairly open. It looked like a somewhat normal office hallway. That actually makes sense, demons have a hard time manipulating reflections. Inside the mirror, the office layout is just a reflection of the original building.
I ran through the still quite confusing halls until I reached the elevator and pressed the call button.
[ cut to: claire ]
The elevator’s doors opened and let me inside. I had to wait for a while, which was surprising. Nobody else should be inside of this building, maybe Alex made his way to the elevator already.
Inside of the elevator, I saw something that confused me. On my way down to the first floor, I saw in the reflection of the steel doors the elevator open Alex step inside.
“Wait… What’s going on here?!” I shouted as I pressed myself against the door and started slamming my fist against it repeatedly. Alex didn’t seem to hear me, but he definitely saw me and started panicking. I heard the elevator doors open behind me, but I was too busy trying to communicate with Alex and understand what was going on. He pointed behind me just before-
[ cut to: scarlet ]
As I stepped into the elevator, I saw Claire on the other side of the reflection.
“Claire! Thank God you’re alright,” I exclaimed as I breathed a sigh of relief. “I ended up trapped inside of a mirror, but the business center seems unaltered over on this side.”
It doesn’t seem like she can hear me, but she’s banging her fists against the door. It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to cross through this reflection, but at least I know she’s alright.
The door behind Claire opened. Standing in the doorway was what was unmistakably a demon, about the size of a human. It’s body was covered in shadowy tendrils and where it should bear a face was a single, piercing red glow, something mistakable for an eye.
“Claire, behind you!” I shouted, but it was no use. I tried to gesture towards the entity behind her to no avail. She finally looked behind her just in time for the demon to pounce, pinning her to the door of the elevator. The doors behind it slammed as it tightened its grip on Claire. The only thing stopping her body from being annihilated at this point was her own force of will, something that wouldn’t last long against even a severely weakened spirit.
I had mere seconds to act, but I had to do something. There was one way I could think of to escape this mirror, something I would have tried before had the situation been dire enough. It was a risk, however, as using it would instantly make me a target for that demon instead of Claire. Right now, that might be the best situation possible.
I fused my fingers together to form a small, machete-sized blade. I’ve never tried to use this for something other than manipulating a cognitive projection, but it was worth a shot. I thrusted the blade into he door behind me and dug into it. My eye, or rather Ronin’s eye, burned in its socket. I cut through the reflection in the elevator door and onto the other side. I retracted the blade before clawing my hands into the newly-created gap and tearing the reflection apart. The gap was now big enough for me to step through.
As I passed from one side of the mirror to the other, I formed a weapon in my hand, a giant, bladed pair of scissors. Noe used a similar weapon very effectively in our previous combat, and it seemed like something that might come in handy when fighting demons.
I immediately drove the scissors, closed into a single blade, through the part of the demon that appeared to be the head. The demon recoiled back, releasing Claire from its grip. From there, I slid the scissors down the demon’s body until I hit a snag, its heart.
“Claire! Now!” I said.
In less than the blink of an eye, a hole appeared in the demon’s chest and its body began to fade away. Claire was standing behind me, holding her revolver over her shoulder.
“I knew you’d have my back, Alex,” Claire said as she slowly turned towards me. “You never let me down before.”
“Unfortunately, you know that’s not true,” I replied, catching my breath. “The only reason you have that thing is because of my failure.”
“We’d both be dead a thousand times over if it weren’t for that, though,” Claire said. “Besides, you really think your presence could stop a visit from the Reaper?”
[ chapter end ]