There was a lot to be said when it came to working for the Foundation. It was a job that wasn’t exactly to get, as one could expect from a hidden shadow organization made to hide the abnormal and abstract from humanity as a whole. It was also a job that wasn’t exactly easy, considering all the different procedures and rules and codes one had to follow just to avoid getting killed from some of the… things that were kept in these places. But, it was a job I was happy to play along with. Who would’ve thought that some small-town cop from the middle of nowhere in Arizona would actually manage to get himself the role of interrogator in some shadowy organization that protects the world? I didn’t, that was for sure. But I was glad for it all the same.
Most days, at least. I’m not so sure today was going to be one of those days… I mean, on paper, the job I have to do is easy. All I have to do is go into a little room, talk and question whoever they want me to talk and question, get what I can get, and leave. That’s the gist of my job here. Some would call that boring, or unnecessary, or even just tedious… but that assumes that the people I have to deal with are normal people. They aren’t. Half the time, I can hardly call them “people” even in the loosest sense!
From what some of the other guards and workers were saying, It sounds like I’m gonna be dealing with something like that. Something one of the teams found in some rural town, and something that wasn’t happy to see them either. Apparently, the damn thing nearly drove one of the guys insane! Doesn’t spell a good talk for me. But, this is what they pay me for, so I don’t exactly have much of a choice, do I? After all, if I don’t do it, some other schmuck will.
It’s that thought that I’m left with as I’m standing in front of that simple little door. Almost looks like wood if you squint hard enough, but the scanner to the left is enough to say that isn’t even close to true. You see that a lot in this sort’ve place, I’ve found. You can look left and right, and almost see things that are halfway natural, but then something pops out that tells you all over “it’s just a metal facade”. Of course, it makes sense: I wouldn’t exactly trust a wooden door anywhere in this whole damn building. With some of the things in this place, I’d take a diamond door over anything else!
I’ve been stalling at the door for three minutes now, thinking about just that. I couldn’t really even tell you why I was stalling. I’ve done questions with all sorts of creatures and people and… things. And yet, I just can’t seem to get up the nerve for those first few minutes, keycard in hand and guard looking on in quiet confusion. This shouldn’t psyche me out so much, but… I swear, the long I stand here, the more I feel something through the door. The only word I could really use to describe it would be “wrong”. But that ain’t enough to make me call it off. So, with a quick scan of the keycard in my hand and a nod to the guard, I push open the door and make my way inside.
It was that moment that gave me a good first look at what I was dealing with this time around. From what I could tell, it looked like some sort of humanoid fox figure… and damn, it was big. Had to be around 7 feet and counting, from what I could tell. Had this odd-looking greyish fur that almost seemed like a dirty white, and this huge mane that flowed like a wind was blowing through the whole room. Across its body, I could make out these revolting red pockets of what looked like congealed blood, pulsing and throbbing yet never seeming to bleed whatsoever… The damn thing was held down by chains on its arms and legs, cuffs straining both sets of appendages to each other as if it was hogtied! The table, bolted to the floor and with paneling between me and the other side, had this big plane of glass between me and it, and I swear I could just make out what almost looked like little prods on the chair it was stuck in. Probably had something electric running through that.
The moment I closed the door behind me, the click of the lock brought the fox’s eyes straight onto mine… that face was something else. A pair of yellow eyes, only tainted by the thin slits of red that I could guess were the pupils, stared me down like a beast waiting to strike. A complexion that almost looked like you threw a wolf, fox, and human’s face all together was paired with it, razor sharp fangs held within a barely-closed mouth tinged at the ends with red. It bore the startling-human expression of quiet contempt, eyes narrowing after a second as silence reigned for those few moments.
Those moments had to come to an end eventually, though. There was work to be done and questions to be asked, after all. So, with a few steps forward and a pull back, I sat myself down in the chair and looked up at the fox. I knew the questions that needed to be asked, and I had the little recorder they always wanted set up in a pocket. So, with a quick flick of a switch and a quiet clearing of my throat, I spoke.
“Hello. My name is Officer Jonas Arcade. I’m here to ask you a few questions regarding certain matters that have occurred recently.”
A bout of silence was all that greeted me. The fox simply stared down at me with that look of contempt, eyes giving nothing away.
“I am sure you have your own questions that you’d like answered. Depending on how you respond throughout this interview, you may be able to get some.”
More silence, and a further narrow of the beast’s eyes. The retrieval team said this thing could talk, so it had to be keeping quiet on purpose.
“With that in mind, let’s address something prudent… Do you have a name?”
This time, I seemed to get something a little more concrete to work with. The fox stared me down for a few more seconds of unnerving silence, that strange feeling of wrongness piping back up with a vengeance. Before I knew it, the voice of a woman rang out in the room: it was cold and rough, as if I was talking to some smoker who couldn’t even bother to bring up a facade of civility.
“...Vyra.”
Well, I had my answer. A fox named Vyra.
“W-well, Vyra, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Now, before we continue, I also must ask… what are you?”
The researchers that received the retrieval team were especially eager to find that out, considering they couldn’t exactly get close to the damn thing before it got brought into here. Damn thing was kicking and screaming and clawing at anything that got close, from what the others said. How they got it in here and chained up, I don’t quite know. I’m not really sure I want to know.
The fox’s eyes- Vyra’s eyes, I mean- remained locked on my own for a few moments as another silence reached out into the void. That same harsh voice pierced the air like a bullet only a second later.
“...a Zoroark. Your kind should know this.”
Well, I had my answer. Not that it provided a whole lot in terms of actually answering questions… Still, that can be puzzled out later. This is just to get things sorted out while the containment cell is being prepped.
“Thank you. Now, let us get to the matter at hand… primarily, the incidents within Vanderwagon. I’m sure you’re familiar.”
All of a sudden, that wrongness grew like a balloon as the air around me and the table grew colder and colder. That strange, wavy mane of the fox started snapping around like miniature whips, the slightest hint of a growl tainting the air.
“I am more than familiar.”
Well, if nothing else, we’re on the same page. I’d probably be more than a little unnerved at this point if I didn’t see the chains holding the fox in place through all this, or the glass and the metal keeping her on one side and me on the other… though, I can’t say this isn’t getting to me just a little bit.
“A man was found dead about half a mile from his home around three weeks ago. A woman followed up a week later. Three days after that, two brothers.”
The air just seemed to get a little bit thicker as I kept on talking. If I squint hard enough, I could almost make out a shift to a cold expression from the fox.
“The town noticed, and they started looking around for whatever was causing the deaths. The same night three men left to investigate a particular spot of interest, only one came back.”
The lights flicked for just a moment. I couldn’t really tell if it was just a trick of the light or something real. The fox is showing a bit more teeth now.
“That one man described the assailant as some sort of humanoid, with a fox-like appearance, that seemingly emerged from out of the shadows.”
I could see one of the handcuffed hands clench, the claws grinding against each other in a quiet yet deafening screech of bone on bone.
“The world seemingly changed around them within an instant, and before they knew it, they found themselves being attacked by that figure from seemingly everywhere and nowhere.”
The camera in the corner of the room was still on, thankfully. I would’ve been worried if it had gone down during this strange little bout of madness.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“Two of the men kept getting turned around and attacked, but the third managed to get out. He described the scene by saying “It was like the air was folding in on itself, all around them”. Quite the harrowing experience.”
It was getting a little hard to breathe, with how wrong everything around him felt. The lights flickered again, and this time, I knew it couldn’t have been my mind.
“So, I would like to ask… what are your thoughts on all that?”
Silence reigned supreme in that moment, a cold look on the face of the fox as it stared me down from a towering height. Even when sitting, this thing was truly massive…
“...I think... that those men were fools. Heading into the darkness with a threat yet unknown…”
Well, that’s an answer of some sort. Not that I really expected some sort of miracle confession.
“Our organization came to hear about that interesting little story around a week ago at this point. A team was sent in to investigate about 4 days later. By that time, another corpse was found. The same one who had survived earlier.”
Another bout of silence, but I could see the handcuffs shake just the tiniest bit from my position.
“They searched for a day before coming into contact with one of the local women. One that the others within Vanderwagon had noted behaving… oddly. A woman named Annabelle.”
No particular reaction this time.
“The two members of the team that spoke with Annabelle noted nothing odd at first. At least, until they entered the house of the woman to continue speaking on the local incidents.”
The smallest growl rings out once again, and a shiver of innate terror runs down my spine. That shouldn’t have spooked me as bad as it did.
“Once they went inside, they began to notice that the house seemingly curved in on itself. That the woman’s hair seemed to move without any sort of wind or air to stir it. That the door behind them was locked.”
Nothing. Just a glare in my direction.
“Before they knew it, the woman seemingly disappeared. And in her place… was you. And within moments, you lunged at those two members.”
The air grew just that little bit thicker. As if it wasn’t already bad enough before.
“It was only thanks to a split-second reaction from the two that they survived. Two concentrated shocks to your system, and you fell.”
Its eyes get down to barely-open slits at this point.
“The house seemingly returned to normal the moment you went down. And as soon as it did, the rest of their team was alerted. Thus, were you brought here.”
My eyes flick to the recording device. It was still going. A quick look over to the camera ensured it was still running as well.
“As you could expect, this brings up a lot of questions that we think you can answer. And one of the first we’d like answered is this: why do you begin killing the residents of Vanderwagon?”
Things seem to go still for a moment as I finally get to the meat of this whole affair. That horrible feeling doesn’t abate any, but it certainly doesn’t grow any stronger. Not much changes on the face of the fox, either. Just a cold expression that reeks of contempt.
“...I need not explain that which is already known.”
Another unhelpful statement with vague hints and nothing more than questions.
“If we knew, we wouldn’t be asking. So, I will repeat myself: why did you attack the people of Vanderwagon?”
This time, I actually got a response from the fox. What I got was not what I expected, however.
“I could pose the question of why your kind massacred my own. It would likely answer your question.”
Right, that was something to work with. Time to use it while it’s out.
“I’m sorry, could you elaborate on that? As far as we are aware, this is the first time we’ve come across… your kind.”
A silence grows in the room once more. The air is still as oppressive as it started. The lights are flickering a bit more often. And I swear I can see the table shaking every once and a while. I was about to speak when a response finally came, minutes later.
“Humanity reduced us to monsters. On what basis? Naught but paranoia. Thus, we retaliate in kind.”
When I get a glimpse at the fox’s face, an unnerving fanged smile is what meets me. An uncannily human look on a clearly-inhuman creature. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I could swear that it seemed like the fox’s face was melting into itself-
The lights flickered once more, yet this time, I found myself plunged into darkness for a few disquieting moments. I had half a mind to radio the guard just outside the door when the lights came back on, and what I saw was something I had not quite expected.
Where the fox once sat was the visage of a human woman… pale skinned and with a head of hair almost the exact same color as the mane of the fox. A red dress adorned the body, and a line of scarlet ran along the brows of the woman’s eyes. Eyes which maintained the slits that stared with such contempt straight at me. And when she opened her mouth and spoke once more, where was once a harsh voice was replaced with a soft, almost taunting tone that seemed to draw in the very air around her.
“And what better way to repay such paranoia than to become the very monsters they wished for?”
It was at that moment, when everything seemed to freeze, that I realized the cuffs and chains that had previously held the fox down were no longer snug around its wrists and ankles. That the chair that she had previously been sitting in was in pieces behind her. That when I tried to get up, to get to the door, or even to pick up my radio, that I couldn’t move. Instead, the sounds of rattling chains met my ears as I lunged up, and a quick look down revealed a few things I couldn’t even believe.
Where the fox had previously been the one held down by chains and cuffs, I was now in the selfsame position. Chains held my arms close to my body and to the floor, while cuffs kept them together in a tight form. While that was alarming on its own, what was more alarming was the fact that my arms and legs did not even look remotely human anymore. Instead, what I saw was an eerily accurate reflection of what the fox had looked like only moments before. White fur covered what was once skin, my hair felt like it was being thrown about in the wind and looked as disheveled as the fox had, and those pulsing sacs of bloody pus seemingly spread across my arms like an infection…
And all the while, the fox had placed herself right against the glass that kept us separated. She had a look of thinly-veiled amusement on her face, eyes shining with a cruel pleasure as that taunting voice came back into the air.
“I often remember seeing this exact thing happen to my kind. Chained down, terror in their eyes as they realized what was soon going to happen to them. What they would soon turn into.”
I could hear the door behind me, which should’ve opened easily for the guard outside, being slammed into as panicked shouting just barely came through. The camera looked like it was in a million pieces off in the corner. The recorder was sparking.
“And your kind, oh… yours were gleeful in the whole process. Ecstatic to put to death they who had done nothing but exist."
The glass was cracking. The whole table was shifting violently, and the panels between me and her seemed to be splitting apart by the moment.
“Did you really expect for us not to return the favor in kind? To bring upon you the self-same suffering you inflicted upon us?
I think I started thrashing around in the chair at some point. Everything was starting to blur together in a panicked mania as the world around me seemed to curve in on itself, closing in closer and closer…
“You all were fools to expect anything other than such.”
I could see the door behind me visibly knock forward, as if someone was trying to beat it down by themselves. I made a move to throw myself backwards, to do something to get out of this strange nightmare I suddenly found myself in.
And the moment I did, the lights went dark, and the sound of glass shattering hit my ears.
----------------------------------------
Three weeks. I had been unconscious and barely alive for the last three weeks. Seven broken bones, a dozen or so lacerations all over my body, and a concussion to the back of my head. I found I couldn’t see things quite right for the first week I was awake. Everything seemed to shift and twist around in place. I could swear that something was in the corner of my vision for a while. Heard laughing every once and a whole too. And sometimes, it almost seemed like there were a pair of red-slitted eyes staring at me when the lights turned off at night…
The guard apparently managed to break down the door around thirty or so seconds after she got through the glass and the restraints. Found me getting ripped into and mauled by the damn thing. He didn’t fare much better, if him being my roommate in the infirmary was anything to go off of. Took three other guards and a site lockdown for the fox to finally be restrained again. Last I heard, she was sitting in one of the especially secure areas after that little incident. Probably for the best at this point.
I got briefed on what exactly happened yesterday. Apparently, that fox could mess with the space around her in ways the researchers are apparently still trying to figure out. Some of it was just auditory and visual hallucinations, and others… not so much. From what they figured, she was a shapeshifter too. Explains how she got out of the restraints. And apparently, the hallucinations part of her whole schtick was the reason I thought I was a fox too. And why I thought I was chained down. Semi-solid illusions, they called it. Hell made real, more like.
I got to find out my assignment today. I’ve got about a week before I get released from the infirmary. And, as luck would have it, it’s another interrogation. Who will I be interrogating? The same damn fox. Apparently, they’ve got something that should keep her down a whole lot easier. I can only hope they’re right. Because I don’t exactly think I could take another mauling like that. I could probably request a transfer to another area of the facility after this. I’m hoping I can.
Didn’t expect to be stuck in the infirmary for a month and a half for a simple interview. But, then again, I also didn’t expect to be a part of the Foundation either. So, surprises all around. I can only hope the next surprise, be it from the fox or something else, won’t be the last one.