Upon leaving the apartment, Caspian took me all the way down to the parking garage, where he kept his prize vehicle: a shiny black motorcycle with a bird logo on it. It was also sparkly, similar to his superhero outfit, which made realize something super important.
“Wait, this bike is similar to the outfit you had on when you rescued me, which is like, your hero outfit, right?” I asked.
“Yes.” Caspian replied without hesitation.
“Where’s mine, then? If I’m gonna break into a laboratory, I gotta have an outfit.”
Caspian paused for a second, then started walking away from the bike.
“Where are you going?” I called out to him, as he seemed to be picking up speed.
“Don’t move!” he called before walking into the elevator and heading back to the apartment.
So there I was, alone in a parking garage, defending a super expensive motorcycle from the emptiness that surrounds this weird, shadowy car lot. I walked over to the bike and leaned against it, pulling out a vape I had bought from a weed store a month earlier. I tried to hit it, but nothing would come out. I held the side button for a bit but it wouldn’t turn on.
Figures. Hope the place Caspian is taking me to has chargers.
I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts. A lot had happened already, and I haven’t had a quiet moment to myself in a bit. I sighed, and sat down on the ground, my back on the starcycle. I’m, like, an official member of a superhero team. My anxiety sends me to different realities. Mylo can turn into a bean. Or he just has the powers of a bean. I don’t really know what he can do, exactly. I met fucking Anubis. God of the Scales, the judge of the afterlife himself, in a place that looked like the christian version of heaven, though I guess the christians don’t own the concept of clouds.
It was... a bit much to deal with, and I really wish I had some weed to calm my ass down. Just thinking about it gave me a tiny bit of anxiety, but I tampered it down before it could make me disappear from this realm.
I just wanted to be a normal girl, work my minimum wage job, and want nothing more out of life. Getting kidnapped felt like someone dragging me into an alley and hitting me in the face with a wrench. But with everything I know, some things just don’t add up. Why was Matt Shapiro the one torturing us? Why did he do it in a secret laboratory? Who else did he kidnap?
Upon pondering the sad life of a right wing news commentator, I heard the elevator door open from the other side of the garage. That’s how quiet it was. I stood up and saw Caspian carrying a blue suit that’s designed to look like a computer program, with several square-ish lines done in a cyberpunk-y way. Caspian himself was wearing the star-studded suit with a bird beak hoodie that he wore when he rescued me.
Once he finally approached the motorcycle, he handed me the outfit. I unfolded it, and realized that it was a full bodysuit.
“It’s got enhanced tucking capabilities in the genital area, and is comfy enough to soothe your anxiety, making it easier to control.” Caspian stated, answering my questions before I asked him.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“I have an apartment in this building as well,” he said, hopping on his motorcycle, “go change and we’ll head to the lab.”
I didn’t ask any more questions. I ran behind one of the cars and quickly put on the body suit, and it immediately fit itself to my body, as well as somehow managing to auto-tuck. I felt more womanly than I normally did, which was fucking sweet, and there was holographic technology that covered up my face. I strutted my way back to the motorcycle and hopped on, getting ready to experience whatever horrific realities await us at the lab.
Caspian, recognizing that I was finally on the motorcycle, turned it on and sped off as quickly as a rampant grizzly bear on severely life-threatening amounts of cocaine. Caspian’s beak hood must’ve been wind-resistant cause it didn’t lose shape once the entire ride, and my holographic mask was always on. It also seemed like there was a direct line to the rest of the team on the side parts of my hood. It was a really nice suit. Made me feel like one of the characters from Totally Spies, just need some laser lipstick.
After a few minutes, we reached the lab. It was a lot more fancy than I was expecting, with the front view that looked a lot more like a rich person's health retreat than a lab, with a lot of windows looking directly over the parking lot. The building was at least three stories high - though who knows how deep it goes. While I was scanning the area out front, Caspian was already on the roof of the building, seemingly already finding a way inside away from prying eyes.
He motioned me to climb up, but I wasn’t exactly an athlete and he was 3 stories off the ground. I didn’t know climbing would be involved when I willingly signed up for it, but I guess there was no way around it. Well, there was a way around it - using the front door and setting off the alarm immediately, but it wasn’t a good way. Not that the way we were going was bad or anything.
“Stop overthinking it and just climb up the side. There’s a ladder going straight to the roof.” Caspian immediately chimed into my ear.
“Roger dodger.” I replied.
I could hear Caspian groan into the mic as I ran over to the side of the building and climbed up to the roof, meeting Caspian near an open window. Looking inside, it seemed to lead towards an empty room that looked very similar to where I was held for the last month. Caspian immediately jumped down into the area and began looking around. I followed him, slightly hurting myself in the process.
“Ow...” I said, as quietly as possible.
Caspian was continuing to scavenge the place, looking for any traces of evidence. That was the reason why we were here, after all. I walked over to the other side of the room with a filing cabinet, all drawers locked.
It was probably important, whatever they kept in there. I saw Matt put some files in the cabinets occasionally so there’s definitely information being kept, but I didn’t prepare well.
“The cabinet is locked. Do you have a lockpick or something?” I asked Caspian through the teamline.
“I do, but this would be a good time to test your powers. Didn’t you say you could bring stuff here from other realities if you skipped the ghost dimension? Would be useful.” He replied, stoic.
“Yeah, okay, dick. Maybe I’ll bring back Thor's hammer and smack you in the face with it.”
“Mjolnir can only be lifted by those deemed worthy enough to do so.”
“Nerd.”
Okay, it’s time to figure out how exactly I can control the pit of anxiety in my stomach. I closed my eyes and concentrated, imagining myself in front of an imaginary ladder, grabbing each rung step by step, anxiety getting worse with each rung I passed, and eventually I managed to reach a rung marked with the words Thieves Guild on it. I had no idea this ladder had words on it, I thought it was just in my head. Guess the ladder wasn’t as metaphorical as Anubis made it out to be. I touched the word with my hand and opened my eyes, finding myself in a dark room, dimly lit. Everything was made out of wood. I didn’t waste time trying to figure out what this meant or why this was a separate reality, and started looking for a lockpick. It didn’t take me very long to find one, as this place was littered with them. I grabbed 5 of them and shut my eyes, taking deep breaths as I climbed down the mind-ladder, before finally making it back to the ground floor and opening my eyes.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The lockpicks were still in my hand and the cabinet was directly in front of me. Caspian was still looking through the desk, exactly where he was seconds before I left.
“Back. Went to a place called the Thieves Guild. Got some lockpicks.” I whispered into the mic on my side.
“Interesting. I haven’t found a whole lot, the desk is nearly empty. Open the cabinets and we can head somewhere else.” He whispered in reply.
I put four of the lockpicks down on a table near the cabinet and started unlocking each of them. 3 of the cabinets had nothing in them, and one of them only had a voice recorder in it.
“I think I found something,” I said into the teamline, “a voice recorder.”
“Play it.” Caspian replied.
I pushed play on the button and turned the volume up so I can hear it but it wouldn’t leave the room. Caspian was already next to me.
“Experiment #1: Sandra Saunders, Day One,” a calm, raspy voice spoke on the voice recorder, “We found her while she was leaving a shitty motel through the back, clearly engaging in prostitution. The situation was exactly what Dave wrote about in the list he gave me. Still gives me chills. How could anyone partake in something as vulgar as lesbianism and still suck a dick every now and again? Makes no sense,” He continued, as sounds of unintelligible gang members scrambling to surround something played in the background, “well, whatever the case... she’ll see her sin.”
The recording stopped, and I just froze in place, feeling the horrors of what this man had said. How was lesbianism vulgar? What the fuck is wrong with sex work? What’s going through his mind?
“This is bad,” Caspian whispered next to me, “they must’ve cleaned the place out after we rescued everyone. I remember Sandra, she was terrified when I found her, and in really bad shape. Bruised and Cut. If she’s the first experiment, she must’ve been here the longest,” he shook his head, “we got other places to look. Let’s go.”
As we left the room that had once belonged to Sandra Saunders, we emerged into a wider, circular dome area filled with plant life below walking paths. There were 16 rooms, and an exit into a hallway that splits off into two other paths. No one else seemed to be in there, so we were safe to explore, and decided to investigate 8 rooms each. He took the side we were already on, and I went to the far side immediately. I started with the room closest to the hallway and moved down from there.
Each room only contained crumbs of evidence, with all of them containing exactly one voice tape hidden in each room's filing cabinets. I listened to them one after another, starting with Number 16, a girl named Joy Nell.
“Experiment #16: Joi’Nel, Day One. I don’t... understand what’s going on with this one. She willingly came to the labs and let us strap her into the operating table, no questions asked. She seemed really excited about it, talking the whole time about how great it was to finally be somewhere different, and that she couldn’t wait to partake in our customs, but she said it in the worst English I have ever heard in my life. I want to take a deep dive into her psyche. I want her to understand what it truly means to be afraid.” The voice recorder said, making it clear that this was the scientist in charge, which means the voice on these recorders was none other than Matt Shapiro.
I gagged a bit and moved on to the next room. It was more of the same, another voice recorder, another experiment log.
“Experiment #15: Gwen Spacey, also known as Jim Jeremy, day one. What a crock of shit, you can’t sit here and tell me that some asshole from central seattle is allowed to prance around in a space dress and get paid for it. This man needs serious therapy, and I’m about to make him wish he was dragged to the pits of hell.” Matt said over the recorder.
I couldn’t find any other voice recorders in the next two rooms, but if Mylo & I were involved, alongside all the other people I heard... I knew who the people on his list were. Queer people. Like Mylo. Like Me. Someone named Dave gave him that list... why? What was his plan? Are we part of some bigger conspiracy to kill us?
I shook my head and moved to another room. There, I found another recording.
“Experiment #12: Serenity Eden, Day One. Real name is Michael Holter. He had it changed a few years ago, but Dave attached copies of his original birth certificate. He’s a wily one, he’s been at 10 different jobs in the last two years alone, never staying at more than one for longer than 3 months until he made it to the movie theater with that other cunt, Mylo. I don’t know her real name yet, but I know it’s something revolting, I bet. Anyway, Michael has a lengthy history with Christianity, and a real bad relationship with his parents. I’m going to enjoy watching him suffer.” Matt said from the voice recorder.
That... that was my name. Not just my name, but my deadname. He was actively deadnaming me and misgendering me while he was recording, and probably did the same for Mylo. But this message... it felt incredibly personal. Like he was doing it specifically to hurt me. I don’t like where it was headed.
I left the room, pacing around the circular walkway to clear my head before walking back into the research rooms. The next 3 didn’t have any voice recordings either, but the last one I managed to find was staggering.
“Experiment #8: Mylo Greene, real name Dana Whitewood, Day one. We had an extra room, so it worked out nicely. We kidnapped her alongside Michael, the other delusional cunt from the movie theater. Couldn’t get her real name until a few moments ago, but we have it now. I have it now. I also have a list of all her accomplishments. A limited one, mind you, but one nonetheless. She’s got a green thumb and her parents were never there. I can use that. As things progress, we’ll learn more about what truly makes her squirm.”
I knew Mylo was trans but we never really talked about it unless it came up in conversations about the news. He was thrown into an empty room... what could that mean? Was he not on the list? Did he have an empty room? What happened to the original person this room was meant for?
We need that list.
I left the room and met up with Caspian, relaying what I had learned from what I found. He gave me similar information, as it seems this corridor was only used to house the ‘patients’.
“There’s one other thing. I don’t think Mylo was originally supposed to have been kidnapped,” I told Caspian, playing back Mylo’s voice message from Matt.
He listened to the tape and thought about it for a few moments.
“We need that list, and there’s no chance it’s here. We need to find out where Matt’s hiding. He likely isn’t here anymore, as he’s a very busy person and he’s not going to be easy to get for a private chat, and that list would be more important for him to hold onto. He must’ve taken everything important out of here, but Mylo’s tape... Okay. Let’s explore the rest of the facility. I’ll take the left wing.” Caspian replied, charging ahead faster than I could process down the left wing.
I walked slowly towards the right, lockpicks in hand, ready to take on the world. However, the world wasn’t ready for me, as the only room on the right side was a door clearly labeled: STORAGE.
I unlocked the door and proceeded inside only to find a fairly empty room. Not sure why I expected everything to be here, the rescue was a few days ago and they’ve had as much time as us to plan. It was still pretty dusty, though, with parts of the room covered in less dust than other parts. It was impossible to tell what could’ve possibly been stored there.
I left the room, not finding anything I was looking for, and when I met up with Caspian again, it didn’t seem like he found anything either.
“No luck?” I asked.
“There was a filing room but everything was already moved out of it. The staff area and cafeteria look like they haven’t had anyone in them for a few days, at least. I don’t think we’re going to find anything else outside of the voice recordings... which can only mean one thing.” He replied, pondering on everything we’ve found.
“What?”
“He left them here on purpose, for us to find. He knows who I am. He knows who you are. He’s death note-ing us.”
Now that’s a reference I understand. I get what he means, though. We’re L. He’s Kira. He doesn’t want to be found.
“Let’s regroup at base and explain everything. Good job on field training.” Caspian replied, headed back to the first room and left through the window.
I decided that this would be a good time to use my ghost powers, cause if I gain the power to go to the paranormal reality, which is directly tied to ours, then I can use the powers of ghosts. I closed my eyes, reached to the second rung, and went invisible. Then, instead of climbing through a window or up a ladder I just... walked through the front door.
As soon as I was hidden from view, I returned to our reality, surprising Caspian who was already on the motorcycle.
“Did you go ghost again?” He asked me.
“I did, and now I know how we’re going to get to Matt.” I replied snarkily.
“How?”
Instead of replying like a normal person, I hopped onto his bike and proceeded to sing the entirety of the Danny Phantom theme song on our way back to the apartment.