Work Text:
there is an ad running on the screen again. they’re always running. always smiling, always sunshine. elliot can’t remember the last time he’s seen an ad that wasn’t for evil corp.
he knows they’re there. watching, always watching. most people don’t think about it. elliot can’t stop.
the letter e is on everything he owns. it’s on his computer, his credit card, the tags on his clothes and the nutrition labels in his pantry. he finds it on things it shouldn’t be on. behind the bathroom mirror, stamped on the pills he doesn’t take from the therapist he doesn’t listen to, on door handles where the keyhole is supposed to be. evil corp owns everything.
no one else seems aware of the e stretching a shadow across the world. elliot looks outside and it’s always so dark. there are rarely any clouds.
the evil corp building stands tall and imposing in the middle of the city. all the windows are impossible to see into, reflecting the daylight even if the sun isn’t out. everyone’s heard the warnings and stories, whispered like someone is listening. like someone would quiet them. everyone knows not to walk by at dusk, and never to stare too long. no one will say why. elliot isn’t superstitious. he avoids looking too long anyway. he doesn’t go home until after the sun is down.
people on the subway stare at their phones. when elliot looks over their shoulders, the only thing on the screen is the ad. an e fills the whole screen. the ad lasts the whole ride. it’s so easy to get lost watching it. always smiling. always sunshine. the cheerful female voice is unintelligible.
elliot hacks people and his computer watches him through the camera. for some reason he can’t cover it up. he tries to, once, puts tape over the eye above his screen. guilt claws at him until he takes it down. he doesn’t know where the guilt came from.
some days he comes home and his computer screen is covered in ones and zeros. the ones form a large e. elliot can’t get rid of it. he pulls out all the cords and the chips and the e watches him. only when the microwave beeps done and the smell of burnt silicon fills his apartment does the screen go black.
men in black suits stand at every street corner. they are always about to leave but they never go. their faces all look the same. they watch elliot when he’s not looking. he can never catch their eyes. he’s not sure they have any.
black cars with darkened windows hover along the streets. sometimes there is more than one at a time. elliot never sees them arrive and never sees them leave. he goes into stores and looks out the window and they are gone. he looks out the window again just to be sure. he can never be sure.
a man comes up to him on the subway, begging for money. “they took it,” he says, “they took everything.” he pleads for sympathy. no one looks up from their phone screens. elliot keeps his head down. he doesn’t need to ask who “they” are.
his neighbor disappears. elliot had hacked him when he first moved in. the man hadn’t used an evil corp credit card. even elliot isn’t brave enough to do that. a drug dealer moves in and replaces him. she says her name is shayla. elliot thinks he can learn to like her.
sometimes a group of men in suits come into allsafe’s office. elliot’s been told they are important. important means they’re from evil corp. he can never remember their names when they’re here. they sit in the meeting room and every time elliot looks up one of them is staring right at him. they all laugh as one and their jaws unhinge too wide. they smile as they leave. their teeth are all yellow. their eyes are shadows.
the security cameras follow him. he sees them turn as he walks by. they look like eyes. they all have an e on them.
a blond man stands among the group in the office. he is different. he laughs to himself and his teeth are brilliant white. he talks to elliot. he says his name is tyrell wellick. his hand is smooth and calloused at the same time. his skin is like ice. his eyes seem to glow blue under the fluorescent lights. elliot can’t look away. his heart won’t stop pounding. when wellick walks away elliot notices his computer screen has frozen.
evil corp gets hacked. elliot wants to be hopeful, under all the stress. but evil corp is too powerful, too eternal. no one could ever get rid of them, no matter how much he wants them to. he pities fsociety for thinking they could try. he leaves the infected server up anyway.
a man in the subway talks to him. he brings elliot to an abandoned arcade. the security cameras all turn away. there are no e’s here. it’s almost stranger that they’re gone.
elliot rides the subway back home and there are men in black suits standing beside him. he still can’t tell if they have eyes. they are there when he boards and they do not get off when he leaves. a black car follows him all the way home. every street corner has a man. he feels the eyes on him when he locks his door behind him. his computer is on when he turns around.
he does what fsociety tells him. tyrell wellick sits next to him in the meeting room and his eyes are definitely glowing now. the other men smile their yellow teeth at him. their eyes look like security cameras.
nothing happens. elliot doesn’t know what he expected.
something happens.
the men at the street corner are looking at him. they never look at him. a black car pulls up. elliot gets in.
tyrell wellick talks and his voice makes elliot shiver. he feels electricity dance across the room. all the men in suits are staring at him. tyrell makes them leave, which gives him more power than most people. he stands in front of elliot, too close and radiating cold. the electricity in the air makes the hair on elliot’s nape stand straight up. tyrell’s hands touch elliot’s. it feels almost like freezer burn. his eyes glow like blue fire. elliot tells him no and the air gets colder. tyrell moves away but the chill stays. elliot can feel those eyes on his back from the reflection of the glass.
he draws the last line as his computer camera watches. withdrawal burns and he wants those icy hands on his again. when he wakes up he doesn’t remember thinking that.
steel mountain is covered with eyes. there is an e on every person and a security camera in every corner. people glance at him as they walk by and it feels like a warning. the device in his ear hums with static. elliot wants to run away. he doesn’t know where he would go. the voices in his ears don’t stop talking.
“we’re all human. except me.” tyrell says, smile too bright, and elliot’s heart is pounding even as tyrell claims it to be a joke. elliot isn’t too sure. tyrell’s eyes glow so bright. when he takes a bite elliot can see sharp teeth, too sharp to be human. he wants to run. he wants to stay. tyrell has the gravitational pull of a star. elliot gets away. he thinks.
he doesn’t get away. tyrell is in the bathroom, too close again. he picks elliot apart. he knows about colby and elliot wonders what there is that he doesn’t know. this man who may not be a man at all knows him too well. elliot’s heart hurts and he knows tyrell can hear it beating. a chill lingers in the bathroom after those bright, knowing eyes leave. elliot sees an e on the fuse box when he looks back to the wires.
there’s an e on their borrowed car. the return to the arcade is bitter, like evil corp brand coffee. the dark army won’t help them. they wasted their time.
the world falls apart piece by piece but the ads still play on every screen and security cameras still follow him. men stand in street corners and black cars are parked wherever he stops. they are the constant in his now changing life. elliot sees tyrell’s eyes in the ones and zeros on his computer and everywhere is too hot.
people talk about joining fsociety on their evil corp-owned phones and through evil corp-owned networks. elliot thinks the irony would be sweeter if it wasn’t so scary. evil corp owns everything. what will be left when they are deleted?
there’s an e on his dog’s microchip. he can see it on the vet’s computer. the computer also has an e on it. there’s an e on her lab coat and i.d. badge. there’s an e on his too.
the pieces of the world shatter completely. nothing he knows is real. maybe he’d imagined everything. security cameras stay still as he walks home. the men on the corners don’t look away when elliot stares at them. there are only shadows where their eyes are supposed to be. the black cars drive by, over and over. they don’t slow down or stop. everything is moving too fast. there are three black cars driving along the curb by his apartment building. when he looks down from his small kitchen window they’re gone.
tyrell wellick knocks on his door. he knows everything. he tells elliot “i thought i’d feel guilty for being a murderer” and elliot wants to run away again. his heart pounds so hard and tyrell’s eyes are so bright they hurt to look at. elliot can’t look away. “but... i don’t” tyrell says. “i feel wonder.” elliot thinks he’s going to kill him. those hands, icy even through the gloves, press into his burning face. elliot thinks maybe he won’t kill him. those blue eyes are filled with an emotion elliot can’t, or maybe doesn’t want to identify.
he takes tyrell to the arcade. he doesn’t know why. the security cameras don’t follow them and the men and cars are nowhere to be found. the arcade hums and glows like static in his ears. tyrell is too close again.
his voice is a murmur to elliot and the suffocating heat is replaced with a familiar chill. tyrell’s eyes are like stars in the low light. his gravity is greater than the room. his lips are as cold as his hands. his teeth are sharper than any human’s.
elliot wakes up in tyrell’s car. he’s missing time and completely alone. evil corp has been deleted. tyrell is gone. there’s a chill lingering on his lips.