Chapter Text
Colin had meeting with Thakur and a 'Stefan Butler' one day. Stefan was making a game, Bandersnatch, based on the book with the same title. Colin had owned the book for a while, but never got around to reading it. Stefan's game had lit a spark of interest within him and he felt compelled to read the book.
After he’d come home that day he had gone directly to his bookshelf and found the book. He immediately became indrenched in its deep and complex narrative.
He sometimes even read the book at work over the two months it took for him to go through the entire thing. No-one seemed to mind since he was almost done with Nohzdyve by now, so he had much time to spare. Colin didn’t stop reading until he had read through the book multiple times, discovering all the paths each telling their own unique story while simultaneously being within a shared universe. This Jerome F. Davies fella was basically a genius, although, he turned out to be more mad than genius. Davies had basically come up with the same conspiracy theories that Colin had. Maybe because they were both taking “controlled substances”, to quote the narrator from the JFD documentary.
Colin thought about the first conspiracy theory that he’s come up with. It was the first time he got stoned while playing Pac-Man. His daler friend had talked about “The Man” and Colin’s flew into a long rant about how P.A.C. was an acronym for Program and Control-Man.
If these were the sort of ideas that were going around in Jerome F. Davies's mind, then maybe Colin was crazy too? But the book had turned out amazing as a result? Maybe Stefan needed to see the same documentary that Colin had seen? He remembered that he was taping it for some reason, probably because he had been taking care of Pearl that day and was afraid to miss anything.
Colin was sitting there in his sofa with the book in his hand when he had the thought. He had looked at the videotape, which was on a table right across the room from him. The letters JFD were staring back at him.
Colin decided to bring the tape with him to the office the next morning hoping he could eventually come in contact with Stefan and give it to him. He asked Thakur’s assistant to look for Stefan’s address.
The 12th of September arrived and Stefan had stumbled into the office, showing what seemed like a finished game. Colin was a bit disappointed that he hadn’t managed to give him the documentary before he finished the game.
But just then the computer beeped and judging by Thakur’s reaction the game had crashed.
Hm. Colin thought, maybe he had a chance to inspire Stefan after all?
Thakur gave him the weekend to finish the new path he had added.
Colin handed the cassette to Stefan after the meeting, feeling a sense of accomplishment. He’s been thoroughly inspired by the book, and he believed that the game would turn out fantastic too, if Stefan could just see the hidden silver lining in a brief deep dive into madness and conspiracy theories.
*
It was the 17th of September and Colin once again found himself waiting for Stefan to arrive to the new deadline meeting. When he didn’t, Thakur had called Stefan and then promptly sent Colin over to give Stefan a hand with the game.
There was a closed door in front of Colin, he was waiting for the person behind it to open it up and let him in. He rang the doorbell once hoping that Stefan would open the door rather quickly. He knew that someone was home since the car was in the driveway, that and the fact that Thakur had called and talked to Stefan right before Colin had left.
His patience was growing thin, he knocked once, then he rang the doorbell again. Still no one came. Screw it, he thought and tried the door handle. It was unlocked so he let himself in. Colin could hear movements from the kitchen, he took a careful step over the threshold, poking his head around the corner. The sight in front of him made him mentally recoil.
Stefan stood bent over his father’s body, knife in hand and a strange blank expression on his face. There was blood everywhere. At first Colin’s mind didn’t want anything to do with the scene that was splayed in front of him. He had the urge to back up, close the door behind him and just run. But before had the chance to react, however, his mind had somehow come to the conclusion that the situation was still soluble.
He then realized that he had stood still, frozen, just staring at Stefan. Only the whites of his eyes were visible behind a morbid mask of blood and tangled hair.
Without saying anything Stefan lunged towards Colin. He plunged the knife right into Colin’s heart and he could feel every inch of the blade pushing aside tissue, veins and nerves. Nerves that started firing ferociously. He could feel the blood gushing from his wound, adding more blood to Stefan’s already drenched hands. The pain was unlike any pain Colin had ever felt before, yet all he could think was “this is a shit way of dying”. He reached out to staggeringly grasp the wrist of the knife-wielder before his vision went black as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he could feel himself collapse.
Within the dreams of this memory, he could still feel his body twitch as he lost his consciousness. He could feel repeated stabs to his chest but at that point the pain was so over-encompassing that they just felt like tiny pinches.