Chapter Text
It felt like George had been walking in circles for hours darkened the hallway and rooms stretching on forever in a nonsensical layout. It was enough to madden a weaker man not that George would ever consider himself particularly strong. He wasn’t supposed to even be a field agent initially as his expertise was more along the line of tech and code. Dream and Snapnap but mostly Dream had been the one to convince him into considering moving departments. An opening that just happened to involve working with Dream and Snapnap had conveniently appeared after he gave into their begging. He had no doubt that his friend had pulled some strings for him to get the job as he was woefully under qualified for field work.
George couldn’t help but recall the particular conversation that convinced him with fondness. Dream had given him his biggest puppy dog eyes before saying “oh come on, George! Come blow shit up with me!” with a laugh. It was both the best and worst mistake he had ever made though currently leaning more towards the worst part as the overwhelming fear that he had been walking in circles really started to sink in.
He let out a soft huff of frustration as he stopped walking and holstered his gun. Taking a moment to dig through his remaining gear for anything remotely helpful turned out to be just as unhelpful as he thought. George really wished his goggles had not broken; it had an auto-mapping feature that would be a huge help right now if only to tell him if he was actually going in circles. It would also be nice not to have to fumble in the dark with only the occasional emergency light to illuminate the floor.
The faint sound of metal dragging against metal caused George to jump slightly in surprise. It was distant but sounded as if it was approaching and considering his current luck with encounters he wasn’t too keen to see whatever was making it.
As silently as George could manage he unholstered his gun and started to creep forward away from the sound's distant origin. The sound of a crunch echoed out into the darkness as his boot accidentally crushed some debris.
“Fuc-” George began to whisper to himself before the dragging sound increased in volume along with the now audible sound of thudding footsteps causing the words to die in his throat. Whatever had been approaching definitely knew he was here now which didn’t bode well.
Snapping out of his frozen state the brunette frantically glanced around. The increasing volume of the noise suggested running would be useless as whatever it was, was definitely faster then him. The sight of a nearby door cracked open caused him to snap into action as he quickly moved into the room. The door jostled a little on his entrance making a slight creaking sound which immediately made whatever was coming sound as if it was speeding up.
The room was tiny, sparse in furniture, and appeared to be an office of some kind. The small space only had a singular desk setup and with no lock on the door or time to barricade it he had only one option, hide.
Shoving himself under the desk George tried to slow his breath and calm his beating heart as he heard the sounds grow even nearer. He had gotten over panicking in the field years ago but there was the chilling fact that he was alone hanging over him. The thudding sounded as if it was only several yards away now causing George to clamp a hand over his mouth as if to silence his frantic breathing.
As he held his breath whatever had been coming seemed to pause just out the hallway for an agonizing amount of time. The moment seemed to stretch on forever with only the sound of his frantic heart beat and the loud breathing of whatever waited outside the door to fill the silence. The seconds flew by but just abruptly as the creature had come it seemed to leave as the sound of its footsteps signaled its continued charge down the darkened halls.
George let out a sigh of relief once he was sure it sounded far enough away. He was allowed only a moment of relief before the creak of the door opening caused his stomach to plummet. The front of the desks blocked his view of the front of the room but he was beyond certain that the thing from the hallway was just on the other side. The unnatural chill that suddenly creeped into his blood, and the instant feeling of overwhelming fear confirmed it for him. It, whatever it was, was here, and he was fucked.
The echoing of low guttural laughter filled the room as the slow heavy footsteps approached the desk. “I know you’re here.. The voices, they’ve told me and the room reeks of your fear,” a monotone voice calmly stated a deadly edge evident in their tone.
Quelling the sudden urge to start pleading or calling out for his friends, George merely clutched his gun tighter in preparation for whatever was about to play out. A hand without warning was clutching the tables overhead edge with enough force that the wood appeared to splinter.
“I’d say you might as well come out, but I prefer it when they try to fight or hide. Makes things a little more interesting,” the voice continued.
An abrupt pull from the creature yanked the desk to the side revealing a tall otherworldly looking humanoid figure that appeared to be tightly clutching an axe. George could have sworn that the strange imposing figure looked like something he had seen before. It’s most striking and familiar feature was its nearly glowing red pupils that dilated and stared down at him as if he were prey.
George fired off his gun in a last ditch effort the instant those haunting eyes met his as he tried to scoot back away from the beast. The moment his gun went off a hand was pulling his hand hard enough to the side that the shot fired wide. The pressure from it’s grip caused the gun to clatter to the floor.
“How predictable and boring, the creature said as George struggled frantically in its tight grasp. “I swear you agents are all the same. It's a pity, it would be nice to have an actual challenge one of these days,” it continued as it started to lift its axe overhead with its free hand.
George pressed his eyes tightly closed as he knew what was about to come next. He had always known he would probably die sooner rather than later in his line of work but he didn’t think it would go down like this. The idea of death didn’t bother him as there were much worse things including knowing that he wasn’t able to save his friends. He had never even admitted how much he loved them to them. It was a particular inside joke for Dream to try and get him to confess his love in increasingly convoluted and ridiculously ways. He had never given in but god did he regret it now.
` Too caught up in his own thoughts, George hadn’t seen the sudden darkness creep in as the axe was brought down in an arch. He had not even heard the sudden curse from his captor after nor the axe clattering to the ground. He did however, begin to notice the lack of pain and dying. He reluctantly and slowly opened his eyes only to be met by an all consuming darkness. A weird void-like darkness that seemed to surround but not cloud his vision as if he was just standing in an all black room. A scent of death and rot seemed to hang in the air causing his nose to scrunch up in disgust.
George couldn’t help but wonder if he had died and had just gotten lucky enough to miss the whole pain part. It didn’t however, make any sense as his luck was never that good and he still felt whole and alive.
“Hello..?” George called out to the darkness as he pushed himself up from the ground. “Hel-” he started to repeat before a tap on the shoulder from behind caused him to yell out in surprise.
“Hey mat-woah woah calm down. You’re alright,” a voice said.
George spun around to face whoever or whatever had startled him and gapped in surprise at the stranger. Standing before him was a fairly ordinary looking blonde man. His clothes were a bit weird and his smile was very off putting but overall he appeared very normal. It would be a comforting sight in any instance other than this.
“Lift your jaw off the floor, you're gonna catch flies like that,” the stranger joked lightheartedly. At the lack of reply they let out a soft sigh and continued, “ I’m Philza.”
“Oh uh I’m George,” he replied as he shook off the shock of near or possibly actual death. “I’m not dead am I? Like this isn’t hell, right?”
The man laughed loudly at the question and shook his head. “No mate, you’re not dead and hell is a lot nastier according to my wife. I just had to get to you before my friend got to you. He’s not exactly in the right headspace right now and if I let you die I know at least one person who’d raise hell. I’d rather not burn bridges with such a powerful being even if they are an arsehole.”
“Who- wait, that thing is your friend?” George questioned as he tried to wrap his head around the weird situation he was currently in.
The temperature seemed to suddenly drop as the friendly demeanor of Philza melted away. “Don’t call him a thing. He’s a person for fucks sake,” he hissed with an acidic tone and a cold glare as he crossed his arms.
“Oh uh, my bad, sorry,” George quickly said as he sensed his mistake.
At the sound of an apology the man seemed to have his friendly air return, the coldness gradually melting away. “That’s better.. I’m gonna try and make this quick as we don’t have much time. I can’t exactly keep people like you here for long unless you actually want to be dead,” Philza said as he gestured to the surrounding void.
“What do you me-” George started to say but was silenced by Philza with an annoyed look.
“I’m trying to help you-” Philza paused for a moment before correcting himself, “-well, mostly. If others benefit some in the process then that's just a fair trade. I’d recommend you listen very closely and maybe keep the pointless questions to yourself.” He reached out and seemed to pluck a piece of darkness from the void. “Take this.”
George reluctantly grabbed the inky black bit held out to him. A closer look at it revealed it to be a large glossy black feather. “It's just.. a feather?” he questioned as he continued to examine it.
“Yeah its just a fucking feather mate,” Philza said sarcasm audible in his tone. “No, it’ll keep my friend off your back and-” The sound of flapping wings caused him to fall silent as a crow seemed to manifest out of the void and fly towards them. It landed on his shoulder and seemed to lean into his ear as if to whisper. “Jesus Christ of course he’d do that..” Philza mumbled in irritation after a few seconds of the bird chirping in his ear. “I’m sorry to cut things short but it seems like he’s gone and done it again. I swear I can’t leave those fuckers alone for five seconds… Good luck and try not to die will you? It would cause a huge headache for me and I already have enough of those in my life.”
Before he could even try to reply the void started to ripple and contort around George. As he glanced around in alarm he looked back towards Philza questioningly only to find the man was no longer there. The void seemed to pull away in a dizzying manner revealing the room around him before completely dissipating altogether. It was the same room he had been in earlier except absolutely wrecked with visible axe marks on the furniture and walls. His gun was even still laid on the floor from where the earlier creature had knocked it out of his hand.
George took a deep breath to steady himself and slowly slid down to the floor, the feather clutched tightly in his hands. He was beyond confused and a little bit shaken after what had just occurred. What even was that guy and why did something about him seem painfully familiar. Who was the person who’d raise hell if he died and what did the weird feather even do, he wondered. The questions seemed to just keep stacking up with each thing that went wrong. He just wanted to rescue his friends.. He just wanted to rescue Dream as just the thought of him dying was nearly unbearable. George was starting to have a growing suspicion that he was not going to be able to get them out of this one.
He shoved the feather in a pocket before forcing himself to grab his gun and stand. As he stood he grimaced in the process at the ache of all his wounds, reminders that against all odds he was still alive. Everything may have felt hopeless but he was still alive and his friends needed him. After taking a moment to steel himself for what might lay ahead he calmly walked to the room's door and back into the darkness of the hallway towards the unknown.