Chapter Text
“I guess you can describe it as a void. I just really hope it's not what everyone thinks the afterlife is.” I let out a dry chuckle.
“No, kid. Not a void, it's The Void.” Sans replied.
The way he put emphasis on the word was confusing. Glancing up to his text box the word was capitalized. Capitalized……..what? He’s saying it as a noun not an adjective…...Person, place, or thing. It’s an actual place?
“Try not to think about it too hard kid, you’ll only give yourself a headache. The Void tends to keep any and all information about itself forgotten.” Sans continued.
Itself….its sentient?
“No, no, no, we’re not just skipping over that. You're telling me that I’ve been kept by a sentient abyss for 80 years?” I asked, feeling exasperated. A tingling sensation began to creep up on certain parts of my bones.
“Well, kept might be the wrong word to say. A better one would be returned to.” Gaster piped up from behind Sans.
“The fuck do you mean by that?” I nearly screeched.
“LANGUAGE!” Edge shouted.
“It’s English.” I snarled back.
“ The Void only makes itself known for two main reasons. 1. Someone is messing with part of reality or the Universe they shouldn’t be or 2. It’s reclaiming something, or in this case someone that belongs to it.” G cut in before Edge could respond, who is fuming in the corner. Reaching out for my arm he asked. “May I?”
I lifted my arm and let him take it. He grabbed my hand and with his other hand he rolled up the sleeve on my sweater to show the black splotches that speckled my form.
All the while the tingling had gotten stronger and felt almost like static. Looking at the big spot on my arm I realized that the feeling was isolated to the bones covered by splotches. G raised my arm closer to him to inspect the black spot but refrained from touching it.
“I seriously doubt that you were messing with technology that would disrupt the universe. So the only other explanation would be that it had some sort of claim on your soul.” G turned my arm to and fro. As he inspected the spot I noticed that it completely absorbed any light that fell on it. It didn’t have any type of highlight and it would have been difficult to tell it was a 3D object if it wasn’t part of my own arm.
“But that leaves the question how did a human come in contact with The Void?” G continued.
I pulled my arm out of his grasp and brought it back to fiddle with the pillow again. “ What do you mean come into contact with it? I’d never been to that place before.” I questioned.
Dr. Gaster shook his head. “ You would not have to go into The Void for it to place a claim on you. A few mages before you have borrowed powers from The Void and been claimed by it.” As he continued his tone dropped and he leaned forward. “It would have been a time of desperation for you. Your soul would have had to call out through time, space, and everything in between to reach The Void. Maybe a life or death situation that you “miraculously” survived?”
For a moment I was confused, before recognition washed over me. Something twisted inside of me as a few moments filtered through my mind.It was in the darkness of the cell that night with me, wasn’t it?
It must have been very apparent on my face because Sans sat up straight and spoke. “Ah, so you do know how it happened.”
I stayed quiet debating whether or not I wanted to share the darkest part of my life with a few strangers I had just met. If I wanted to address the trauma that led to the end of my human life. In The Void nothing really mattered so I had just ignored it. My life was over. There was no point in being dragged down by it, but now it matters. I always hated therapy.
“I….” I tried to speak but it felt like my skull was filled with cotton balls.I a hushed whisper I spoke. “Yes, I know.”
“Well, are you gonna tell us?” Red said, sounding completely done with my shit.
“Give….the girl………a moment…..Red.” A new Skelton spoke up. He was wearing a blue sleeping hat and a blue sweater. One of his sockets was almost filled by a red eye light and the other was completely empty like mine were before the officer had given me food. “It’s…….obviously a……..bad event.”
His glare and words had no effect on Red who sat forward and addressed me again. “How did a human like you call on the Void.”
I scoffed at his remark. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘a human like me’ but he’s right.” I pointed to the Skeleton that spoke up from me. “ It was a really horrific set of events.”
G’s brother spoke up from behind him. “ I know it must be really difficult to speak about what happened. Nothing about The Void is anything but traumatizing. Unfortunately, it would be for the best if you told us. It would help us understand more about how it interacts with individuals. There are few that know about The Void and even fewer who have come into contact with it and survived.” His eyes flickered up to Dr. Gaster before returning to me.
I let out a haggard laugh. There’s no getting out of this trauma sharing circle is this? “I didn’t survive if you hadn’t noticed and I thought we had to be good friends before you start trauma sharing .”
A few chuckles echoed around the room, before it went quiet again.
“Alright, so where to begin? Do you want a long explanation or a short summary?” I asked.
“The more we know the better.” Sans nodded to me.
”Ok then. If any of you are squeamish or have light stomachs I suggest you don’t listen.” I glance around the room expecting at least one of them to leave but none budge from their spots, eyes focused on me.
85 years ago-
(Death, torture, dead bodies, and gore ahead)
Looking down at the crime scene before me, my stomach couldn’t help but churn and I could feel my lunch climbing it’s way back up. How could a human go so wrong?
For 6 months my team has been following the trail of a killer known as ‘The Silencer’ by the media. They abducted girls off the streets, kept them for weeks, and when they were finished with the girls. They cut out their tongues for trophies and let them drown in their own blood.
As of today 16 missing girls have been linked to this killer and presumably many more that haven’t been found. With the click of my camera I start to document the scene.
Two girls, both tied down to gurneys. Noses clamped shut and mouths filled with blood. Eyes wide with terror and pain.
It is believed that the last image seen by a dying eye is fixed on the retina. If we could capture that image would the last thing these girls saw be the killer or were they left to die alone? The walls to keep them company in their last moments.
I squat down and take pictures of the pools of blood that gathered on the floor beneath them. It is dried and flaky but mostly intact apart from a few smudges which may be from the shoes of their killer. I zoom in and take a few more of the smudges hoping that it will help gather information on our killer.
A sound of footsteps behind me caused me to turn and meet the eyes of Agent Campbell. He nodded to me before turning to look at the scene “ Is it the Silencer?”
With a solem sigh I stood up and nodded. “It’s the Silencer. Two girls who have been missing for 4-6 weeks, both have lacerations in various places caused by a hunting knife, both had their tongues cut out, and both drowned in their own blood. We’ve got their MO. 4 out of 4.”
Campbell closes his eyes and lets out a tired sigh. We’re both exhausted, we had gotten so close but the killer slipped through our fingers about two weeks ago. “Who are these girls? Have we gotten a positive I.D. on them?”
“Yes, this one” I pointed to the girl to the right of me. “ Is Maria Winters and she, “pointing to the girl on the left. “Is Lacy Newberry. Maria went missing about 20 miles away from here. She was walking to a coffee shop from her apartment. The last footage of her had her turning the corner leaving the coffee shop. Took a few hours for her girlfriend to report her missing.”
I looped around and stood next to Lacy. “Lacy disappeared about 6 miles away. Walking out to her car while leaving work. Lacy lived alone so she was reported missing the next day when an employee found her car still in the work parking lot. There was a camera in the parking lot but ‘coincidentally’ it stopped working for the few moments she was abducted.”
Campbell looked down at the girls with a deep sorrow in his eyes, no doubt that he blames himself for these two. I place my hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him a little. “Campbell there was no way you could have stopped these two from being killed. They had already been taken and brought out here.”
“Thanks Owen, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re dead. Or the fact that I missed the bastard who killed them.” He growled out and shrugged my hand away.
“ I'm just as responsible for their deaths as you are if you use that logic. I was with you when he slipped by us.” I looked down at the girls and to their glazed over eyes. Almost accusingly watching us saying “you could have saved us”.
We stood there for a moment in somber silence.
“There’s no point in blaming yourselves for the actions of another. If you really feel responsible for their deaths then catch the fucker who did this.” As we were wrapped in our self loathing, Agent Miller walked in. He scoffed at us and walked further in to examine the scene.
I gave one last glance at Campbell before going back to take pictures of the scene and evidence. Slowly but surely I took photos of every inch of that room and worked up the stairs towards the first floor.
As I took photos of the bloody tracks up the stairs I noticed something barely hanging off the back corner of one of the wooden steps. I pulled my flashlight, clicked it on, and froze.
There on the steps was a human tongue.
A tongue.
One of the girls’s tongue.
Very quickly I pulled out a bag and tweezers and bagged the body part. Snapping a few more photos I then bolted up the stairs to Miller.
“Fuckin Christ Owen, don’t sprint at me like hell is nipping at your heels. What the fuck is wrong?” Clearly seeing the distressed look on my face as I ran up the stairs he walked closer.
Panting, I held up the bag. “The killer dropped this on their way out.”
Miller’s face dropped in shock. “Is that a..”
With a slightly giddy voice I interrupted. “Yes, it’s one of their tongues. The fucker left it behind. He lost one of his trophies.”
If there is one thing that almost all serial killers have in common is the love of collecting trophies. Taking something from each victim for their own personal pleasures. But not this one.
I turned the bag around and looked at the body part. A triumphant grin split our faces. This was a small victory. Denying the killer the pleasure of taking anything more from these girls sent a shard of happiness through me. Denying them the ability to humiliate this girl or commemorate this kill felt good. And knowing that the killer will either be mournful or pissed off because the loss of his trophy felt even better.
“Go get it tagged and bagged. If it’s got anything on it we need to know now!” Miller demanded.
“Already on it!” I sealed the bag and wrote information on it as I walked it out to another examiner.
As I exited the front door I noticed a good group of people had started gathering along the edges of the police tape. Ignoring the prying eyes and shuttering of cameras I brought the evidence to the van and got it put away.
As I reentered the building the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and the feeling of a blood thirsty gaze settled on me. I shook off the irry feeling and continued there was no way the killer was stupid enough to come back. I gazed over the crowd and found nothing but reporters trying to get the next big story. I shook my head and kept going, my work was far from finished