Work Text:
…
I think I am dead.
My thoughts are running rampant since the moment I felt myself become more conscious, my head throbbing in pain and my body yelling in equal pain and relief. I believe I am dead, because if I were not, I would be hearing the sounds of screaming and fighting. Fighting those Abnormalities that we used to watch, take note of, and suppress whenever they broke out.
I do not understand what happened or how this came to be, the breaching of every single Abnormality within the facilities, but it doesn’t seem to matter now… because I believe I am dead. I do not see anything at all. Just the darkness around me, as I fall endlessly. Is this…
…
Ah.
My eyes start to properly adjust to the scene, the remnants of what used to be a hospital… or worse. My body no longer feels like it’s falling, more so that it feels like something heavy has hit me instead, despite there being nothing on my person. Instead, I instantly get hit with a wave of coldness, a sense of death and despair. I began to pat myself down and see what I was left with.
I am still wearing my EGO suit, the one they deemed “Regret” which belonged to T-01-54 or as many called it, Forsaken Murderer. While the Abnormality itself was not highly ranked among the scale, he was still highly destructive when breached; having already claimed a significant number of employees to his death toll.
While he was difficult to manage, I had become one of the more effective captains to suppress it. The Information Team had him, after all; I over-examined this abnormality every single day from the first to the last. It was the job I was employed into.
“... The roles have been reversed.”
My body, still crumbled and tired, managed to turn itself towards the voice; one that was all too familiar. The sounds of the straitjacket moving together, strap buckles gripping for life as his emotionless eyes looked down towards mine.
“... Forsaken Murderer.”
“That name makes me writhe.”
He shuffled closer, his head shaking like he normally does; it’s movements full of jitter and stifled rage. His face screamed agony, yet it was clear why he was getting closer and closer. My hands patted the ground, but there was no weapon to accompany me. I was unarmed, with a killer in my midst.
“Release me.”
It was demanding, his mouth frothing as he continued to shuffle closer; the more I began to move away, the more he closed the gap.
“Unbind me from my straps.”
“I refuse.”
“Even here, you keep me bound. Why?”
“Do you fear me? You are the most pitiful one of all here, not me. Release me from my bind.”
“RELEASE ME! RELEASE ME, DAMNIT!”
“WHY MUST I BE BOUND! RELEASE ME!”
The walls were closing in on me, as I became cornered by the Abnormality. WIth that face full of rage, I could begin to hear it. His head lurched closer as he continued to beg, and the sound became more prevalent. Even with the smell of death too overpowering to bear, that sound…
…
clang… clang…
“... my… head…”
It was happening. I instantly lurched out of his way, through his side as he began to scream in agony; the sound of clanging and his screams signified only one thing. A turn towards the Abnormality and my thoughts were instantly confirmed.
“... folding… turning into… metal…”
His head began to shift, to turn into genuine metal as his screams echoed until there was nothing left to scream, no mouth left to use. All I could see in front of me was the Abnormality in its breaching form, turning slowly at me.
“... ends… begins… ends… begins…”
Slamming left and right, hitting the beds and the walls; crumbling them all down as he charged forward; his chant rising louder and louder, his head slamming down in the concrete floors as every single pace slammed closer and closer towards me-
“... ends.”
“Begins.”
“ENDS.”
“BEGINS.”
“ENDS!”
“BEGINS!”
“Meursault.”
And my focus adjusted to my reality as I sat up from the bed I was in, to find myself in a room completely different than the one I was in. All to find the man, the one who had been giving me orders from the sidelines, in front of me dressed in completely different garb in a setting that was still too unfamiliar to me.
“Your job isn’t over yet, regretfully.”
Regret. A name that suddenly tangs within me as he continued, my hearing blurring out of reality within the moment that he spoke. Even if the Abnormality itself was trying to kill me, much like the rest of any employee that I had worked with, I began to find myself realizing something.
This job, in itself, is a bind. A bind that never seems to let go. A bind that forces me now to kill others instead of suppressing Abnormalities. All as someone who disrupted all our work stands all the way up there just to take it all in for herself.
Will I ever be released from this Library, I do not know.
All I know now—
[ Meursault stands between the librarians and guests of the current Reception, as the Regret E.G.O envelops him with a fierce look in his face. ]
—is that these binds will not hold me down.