Jack watched as the structure grew before his eyes, it was designed to cover a select area. It would become the shape of a hemisphere. This was used by a select group of people, and there were four of them from the world he had come from. Even though it should be a brand new structure, he knew exactly what it would become. This was one of the domes, specifically the one to the North. Metal beams, large lights, electronic mechanisms, and many more things were built in the generating dome. He stood and watched buildings within the dome, such as his workplace, were expanding and changing in all sorts of other ways. As the world shifted around him it became more like the area he had known. How long has it been? Several days? Weeks? Where am I? He thought about these questions over and over again, getting no answer. Well, I might as well look around. Maybe I could find a way out of here today. He began to walk through the streets of the dome, the changing buildings constantly creating a new picture in his mind. To observers it would look like he was going to a random area, but to him it was obvious to where he was going. After all, the building was built long before the dome’s creation, the building that was known by him as his workplace.
“Black Obsidian Company, New Energy for a New World.” Jack had stated the name of the company and its slogan that he, and almost everyone that actually had a job, worked at. The enormous sign that was put up to make sure everyone knew who this building was owned by, looked like what one would call a billboard. He walked past the sign in front of the factory, each step would lead him closer to where he wished to investigate. With each step closer, the larger the building seemed. Massive stone walls stood on the ground, metal pipes outgrew the dome and were poking out of the top of the auto-generating hemisphere. Toxic gases were thrown up into the sky, creating sickly clouds of smoke. Memories flooded his mind, this was the place. The place that kick-started the Company’s control of the world. The place that used a new form of energy. The place that stole the souls of many. The place that trapped spirits inside of it. The place that poisoned the water and air. The place he worked his ass off to get into. The place where he was replaced by an unfeeling automaton. And finally, the place that he snapped, fought against the rulers of the world. On the front of the building, the metallic door with a spiral design, dilated open in order to let him in. This was an early model of the sealing doors, it was abandoned because it couldn’t filter the air properly. He stepped into the building, and stood in front of the administration room. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Then, he decided to continue.
The administration room was one of the only entrances to the energy factory, chairs were placed in front of the front desk, there were several doors leading to the other areas of the factory. The room was clean and well cared for, this is what they wanted guests to see rather than what was going on behind the scenes. The floor was made of polished tiles, and had a red rug in the center of the room. The plastic and cloth chairs were many different colors, and looked like professional business chairs. He walked towards one of the doors, there were four doors. The one behind the front desk led to the restrooms, the two on the left and right walls were employee only areas that led to the main functions of the factory. And finally, there was a hidden door under the black chair on the right wall, it was more of a cellar entrance than a door. If someone were to look closely they would find a small padlock with numbers on it, even if they were to find it they wouldn’t be able to enter without the code. He decided he would save the cellar for last, and that the restrooms weren’t worth looking into.
Jack stepped through the door on the left wall, wires cluttered the walls, boxes were shoved to the corners, and the lights were dim. Cobwebs and dust cluttered many of the surfaces, the dirty floor stuck to his shoes. The loud hum of machines ringing in his ears, the dreadful smell of waste infiltrating his nose. He walked through these rooms everyday for a year, before he got promoted. Sometimes rats, roaches, and other pests could be found out in the open, walking around. The pests would even make their homes in the walls or under the machines. Since there were no workplace laws, the company didn’t care about having a clean and healthy factory. Metal pipes, gears, pumps, and many other more parts sounded from the machines. The machines that were responsible for creating energy, were also uncared for, despite being the things that made the company become a near unstoppable giant. Parts were rusted, dust and grime filled and clogged the machines until they finally stopped working. For the year he worked in this room, he and other workers spent time working on the machines in order to help them to create the energy. He still remembered the process, the familiar sounds of the machines, the dark emotions, the souls of the departed.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! I'm burning! I’m burning!” Those words rung in Jack’s head, a terribly familiar sound that he had heard. After all, how could he forget? That was the sounds that came from the very first human soul that he put into the machine, taken from their own body and collected in order to be juiced of the energy they inherently possess. This was the energy source that took over the world, fossil fuels went extinct long ago and the souls of the dead just happened to become the cheapest and most reliable source of energy around. Green ways of producing energy were seen as unreliable, even more so after the pollution of the world, and they weren’t exactly cheap. They may have been more healthy for the world, but the people didn’t care. The people wanted power, and the company delivered a new power source. He stood in front of the soul port, the part that would carry a soul into the process of creating energy. And stared down into it, like how a fearless man would smile while staring down the barrel of a shotgun. There was once a time that I thought I would be doomed to suffer in my after life, but not any more. I will create my own path. He thought to himself as if he was mentally taunting the machine. In the world he was brought up in, nobody had the luxury of going to heaven, or would ever get punished by being damned to hell. Every time someone would die, the chip on their brain would alert the company, and their soul would get harvested swiftly. They completely destroy the body, then trap the soul in a container to be put in the machines. “Hello? Is there anything in there?” Jack had asked the machine and got no response, except for the metallic humming.
Jack checked each machine, making sure that he didn’t miss any stranded or trapped souls. Huh, is there really nothing here? Not even the normal roaches or rats had shown their faces. Well, I haven’t seen any people either. The only other life that I have seen was that weird mouse thing. He had thought to himself after the investigation of the machine rooms. Well, time to check the cellar. Could some of the Authorities be here? I’d like to see Wrath again. Thinking to himself as he reached the door that led to the right wall of the administration room. This side of the building had a very strong resemblance to the opposite side, it even had the grime stuck to the floor. The door dilated open, what felt like fresh air filled Jack’s lungs as he stepped into the administration room. He stood for a bit, he went from a place that could probably spawn a new disease to an area that looked as if it was cared for by someone that truly believed in cleanliness being next to godliness. Now that he thought of it he never saw any of the pests in the administration room.
The black chair was moved, it wasn’t heavy despite its size, it was so light that it could’ve been lifted by a small child. Jack placed it next to the cellar door, the entrance no longer covered. He grabbed the small padlock that latched the door shut. The code was the numbers, “1487”. 1487 was the year of the company’s creation, the start of it all. Although it was a simple code, this wasn’t the only lock, in fact it was the first and easiest to get passed. After the lock had opened, a buzzer sounded and a red light flashed. This was the alarm system, it activated every time the lock had opened. He decided to ignore it and stepped down on the latter. When he reached the bottom of the latter, he was face to face with a metal door. The door had a knob, a lock, and a scanner. Since only authorized personnel could enter and how old it was, it takes a few minutes for the scanner to scan a brain chip. Apparently an administrator before his time got so frustrated with how long it took, he got a key and hid it so that he could enter faster. But there was only one problem with this, the key was hidden in the room, and others knew exactly where it was. Jack removed a brick from the wall, and found a space that was mostly empty. There was only one thing in there, the key. He took it, placed the brick back in the wall, and used the key on the door. The door swung open as he stepped through.
A wide room with computers surrounding a large metal cylinder that reached the roof had appeared before Jack. Normally there would be armed guards that would make sure that nobody that wasn’t allowed to enter, would get removed swiftly. Well, time to find a way in. He walked to the nearest terminal, and turned it on. When he worked here the computer passwords would change every few weeks, since nobody could remember them they just wrote down the new passwords out in the open. Ironically the changing of the passwords made it less secure. If he looked around he could easily find the newest password. The monitor turned on, and opened to a screen called the access screen. That’s odd. Did somebody forget to log off? Well, this just makes it easier. After a few minutes, the metal cylinder lowered slowly, revealing fourteen glass containers. Each container had a label on top, labeled after the names given to each of the spirits trapped here. The labels had the words: “Pride”, “Envy”, “Wrath”, “Sloth”, “Greed”, “Gluttony”, “Lust”, “Chastity”, “Abstinence”, “Liberality”, “Diligence”, “Patience”, “Kindness”, “Humility”. Jack gazed at the empty containers. Huh, so there is nothing here. I was hoping that at least one of the Authorities would still be here. The containers that he had destroyed once before, the containers of the Spirit Authorities gave him no answer. Jack turned around and left the room.
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Jack arrived at the administration room, he didn’t bother closing the cellar door and covering it up. He decided to sit down, after hours of searching he found nothing here. Where else should I look? I have already checked all the places I lived at. Found nothing in any of my workplaces. Checked all of the potentially important areas and areas of interest. Out of all the areas that might’ve had something, this would be the place. But why was nothing here? Am I just stuck here? Is this Purgatory? Hell? He sat thinking about what he should do next, clueless as to why he was here and what this place is. After sitting for a couple of minutes. “Well, I should keep looking. Something may come up.” He said to himself, as he stood up. “Squeak.” Then, he heard it. “Squeak.” Something else was here. “Hello. Anyone there?” “Squeak.” The noise made by some type of life grew only louder as it got closer to him. His eyes scanned the room, finally finding a familiar life form in front of the door to the outside. “Well, well, well. We meet again Mouse.” Jack said doing his best villain act, as he spoke to the chimera. Then, the barking started. “Shut up! You sure ain’t a dog, so stop acting like it!” As Jack shouted at Frankenstein's monster rodent, it replied with even more barks with a couple of meows thrown in. “Oh, so you’re acting like a cat now, you mix-matched abomination!”
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After some time passed, Jack was sitting on a particularly comfy chair. A small creature was curled upon his lap as he petted it. Soft purring could be heard from the small chimera, even though it came from a rodent, it sounded exactly like a cat. I didn’t know leftover chicken could have this effect on the little guy. After the skirmish at the factory, Jack decided to grab a bite to eat. So he found a convenience store, and fleeced it. Nobody is here, so I don’t think anyone would mind. He thought with an honest to god smile on his face. Some time passed as he sat comfortably with the creature. “You are the only living being that I have met since I got here, Little Guy.” He said as he looked down to his lap. “It’s nice to talk to something that isn’t me, every once in a while.” He continued to pet the creature that he called, “Little Guy”. Then, they felt something all around them. An intense pressure built up, a strong, overpowering, force was pulling them in. Even if nothing was physically changing, it felt as if the whole world was bending, shifting, changing. Like the laws of the universe were forcefully bent to some being of chaos’ will. The creature, who was once curled up blissfully on Jack’s lap, darted towards the exit in a frantic search of the thing exerting the aura. The chimera knew exactly what was causing this, it must’ve ment “she” was here. Jack sat there, he stopped thinking, stopped feeling for about a minute. This pressure was something he hadn’t felt before. He had felt the pressure of bosses and higher ups pushing him, the pressure of not wanting to disappoint family and friends. This was something else entirely, it was as if a million eyes were on him despite that no one was in the room with him. It was as if he was completely naked, not just in body, but in soul as well. His neck ached, it was very much like the reaction Jack had before throwing up in the past, but the only thing that was building up wasn’t physical. The young man leaped up onto the floor and raced to the exit of the building, an overwhelming force was leading him somewhere.
The young man sprinted out of the building, the now finished dome that used to be above his head and the street he passed by almost everyday could be seen. But it was different, the street had been bent in some uncomfortable angles, it looked like how someone would twist a wet towel. That wasn’t the only thing that was wrong. He looked up, he didn’t see the dome, he saw the ground. It was as if gravity stopped being a law, and turned into a suggestion. That is to say even if the platform he is standing on defies gravity, he cannot. It was as if the platform had it’s own gravitational pull, and managed to defy the gravity of the planet below. Suddenly the world turned darker, as if a black out killed all the lights in an area. The young man was blinded by the newly made darkness, hearing the sounds of crumbling stone and concrete roads colliding into each other. He could still hear, touch, and smell, but taste was a different story. His mouth became numb, unable to make sound and to even open it. Invisible stitches tied his mouth together. The aura he was experiencing could still be felt, with each passing second becoming more irresistible. Then, as if he turned deaf, he could no longer hear the sounds of what is happening around him. “Follow me.” This was the only thing the body heard, a small playful voice that compelled the body to it’s whim. He then continued to run in the direction of where he thought the aura was strongest. “Follow me.” Still running, this unconscious body followed the mysterious voice. “Follow-” “Stop!” A ringing in his head sounded, it was as if it was something else trying to wrestle control away from his own body. He tried to think, but couldn’t, it was like he was fighting against half of himself and a force that was beyond human. Suddenly, he could hear again, the sounds of destruction sounded. Then as if the strings tying up his mouth were cut, his mouth was finally allowed to open. The darkness that had blinded the young man had faded away like a puff of smoke. The young man got all his missing senses back, but the menacing aura could still be felt. As if the world was bending around the young man, the streets that were laid out before him had all changed direction, but they all led to one place. And in that one place, where all the roads lead to, is the one thing that generated this aura. As the young man ran down the street, towards the being that took control of his body. Something clicked in his mind, he stopped and stood absentmindedly for a few seconds. Jack had returned to consciousness, his head still ringing from the events that had just occurred. “What the? What was that?” He said out loud, his hands holding his head.
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Jack stood in front of the theater, his visage a deeply serious expression. Whatever is creating the aura must be in here. I just want this to get over with quickly. He thought to himself. After, having his body controlled and his mind utterly fucked with, he wanted to end this. This was the place with the strongest aura, and it was the place all of the floating roads have led to. The theater was a massive building, it was where the rich would create their own plays and musicals and show it to other rich people. Usually the actors were really good looking people that caught some rich person’s fancy or people with actual talent, unfortunately they got one of the lowest paying jobs because it was not needed. Only the rich could see those shows, Jack only could think of what they were like through rumors. Who was it that told me they sacrifice babes in here? Whatever doesn’t matter. Jack climbed up the store steps, reaching the front doors. The doors were massive, old, wooden, well kempt, and polished. Since most trees had died out, wood became rare, so it became sort of like a status symbol to have wooden objects that were cared for. As he opened the door, he heard the small scampering of lots of tiny feet. He paused. “Hello, anyone there?” Pure silence, no answer. Before him was a large hall, red carpet stretched out to two other large doors at the other end of the main hall, small pedestals holding valuable objects hung on the walls in a very dignified pattern. But, to him that didn’t matter right now. He stepped inside, his feet landing on the red carpet. He closed the doors behind him, careful not to make any sound. Then he stood, waiting for something, for a while there was only silence. Then a noise like that of an audience clapping, infiltrated his ears. It was obvious where it was coming from, the auditorium. He walked slowly to the two large doors at the end of the hall, not wanting to alert what could be on the other side.
Jack’s ear was placed on the door to the auditorium, silence, silence, nothing. He had quieted down his breathing and waited for another sound. But, there were no more sounds that came from beyond the door. Then a thought crossed his mind. I should stop standing here doing nothing. Hmm… Maybe I should take a look? Yeah I’ll do that. He moved his hand to reach for the door, turned the handle, and opened the door slightly. The images of what he might see have vanished, his eyes showing him a large room filled with darkness. The light that had been shining hadn’t leaked into the room even though by all accounts it should have, from the outside, the auditorium’s atmosphere could be described as soundlessness and stillness. Jack seeing nothing, cautiously took a step, then another, and another. Am I being watched? The same feeling of eyes following him from before, have amplified the closer he got to the center of the room. Then, an inhuman clap sounded, as if commanding the auditorium itself to do something. The door behind him shut with a slam, as the artificial shadow over the auditorium started to lift. Jack looked around him, turning his head rapidly, glancing at the sights around him, trying to process what he was seeing with his own two eyes. Hundreds of luxurious black chairs that were made of only the finest fabrics stood in dozens of rows, split into two columns with a crimson carpet walkway in between. And inside each of those chairs was a white rabbit, fur as white as the snow from a winter’s morning after a blizzard, eyes as red as the blood flowing through their veins. All of the white rabbits stared daggers into Jack, emphasizing the uneasy feeling he was already experiencing. They made no sound, only watching silently. What happens if I try to leave? He thought, plans of escape rushing through his head. Maybe, I should try the door? Jack started to take a step back, but stopped. The rabbits that watched him, uncharacteristically of rabbits, learched up and got ready to pounce. Some of them started gnawing at their own teeth. His instincts went into action and made his body freeze in position. These things are not just rabbits, but vicious predators. I need to be careful if I want to get out of this. He then stepped forward, and the rabbits sat back down in their starting positions. Odd… Well, I guess this means I have to continue.
The lights of the auditorium were all pointed at the stage, the bottom part of it was made of bricks that were painted black, the top was made of very clean and valuable wood. A red curtain hung above the stage, covering what was going on behind it. To the left side of the stage was a set of stairs, it was most likely made so that someone from the audience could go onto the stage. As Jack walked down the aisle he looked around carefully, making sure to do nothing to aggravate the predator rabbits. Jack continued to walk closer to stage, apprehension growing with each step. Then, a booming voice of an announcer shouted through the auditorium. “Good day to you, fine Ladies and Gentlemen! This is your announcer speaking with you today! And I’m here to introduce you all to the absolutely lovely magician of chaos, the greatest show woman, master of bunnies and mind manipulation! Lepus White C. Zodiac!” Then as if on cue, the curtains opened up to reveal several strange objects and a woman with no ears and a top hat.