Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Into the Dark.
Well, let's start shall we?
There was a nagging feeling today.
I mean, most days do right? But something felt off today as you gazed out the window of the bus. It was a wet soggy day, the kind of day where you would have gladly left your tired ass in bed rather than go to work. Despite the prospect of attending yet another day in your successful, and to a point, enjoyable career at the lab, today just didn't feel like your day. Nothing that bad had even happened to you this morning. You didn't spill any coffee on your clothes, the bed practically made itself, so what was this bug in the matrix? You glanced about the bus, noting the other tired people on the way to their jobs. Maybe it was the realization that you held secrets in your mind that anybody on this bus would find...interesting...perhaps even horrifying to an extent? As you got out of the vehicle a few blocks away from your location, that same day-to-day realization came across your mind, and you dismissed it as usual, that you were a human experimenter.
The first floor looked like any other government building, perhaps the lobby of a bank for say. But only random people and lower-ranking employees saw that. Your haven was in the deeper levels. Where the real things happened.
You stepped off the elevator into your environment where you spent most of your time in the workspace. You didn't entirely do much anyway, you were more of a spectator, reporting progress to management, but the perk of that is that you got access to everything. Wonderful. The only tools you brought with you were a water bottle and a clipboard.
The area consisted of what your first impression of the lab would look like. A white environment with fluorescent light, scientists with their uniforms, and their clipboards. That chemical odor, the odorless smell of tools for experimentation, the counters with viles, and tools. Behind that first impression though...as you walked past your co-workers at their desks, giving friendly nods as you passed by...behind that friendly whiteness...
You opened a coded door at the far side of the lab to stand beside an older gentleman. Tightly grasping a clipboard in hand, you gaze at the minority of mentally ill people contained in the padded cells before you. The only thing separating you from their crazed expressions was a thick- unbreakable window so that you could see into each cell. The experiments: criminals, murders, the garbage of society, forgotten and free for you and your colleagues to use in your work. That work of course being, exploring the breaking points of the human mind.
"How are the results for the newest imports, Alec," you whisper to the grey-haired man beside you.
"All and well...the hallucinogenic chemicals seem to be having the preferred effects...nightmares, cursed monsters, fears from the past. Every one of these subjects seems to be having the proper results, although it would be preferable to have a more 'sane' person to experiment with our newest solution on, seeing how hard it is to get feedback from these subjects," he replies without looking at you.
You turn your gaze back to the crazed lunatics in front of you. Dark circles underneath their eyes, tired stares, frightened eyes...boy were you glad to some extent these people deserved what they got, but on the other hand...
"Would a more sane person include...an innocent person?" you inquired quietly. Alec sighed.
"We may have to accept that Y/N,'' he replied turning to look at you at last, after a moment's of hesitation in looking into his serious grey eyes, you nodded silently before turning back to your notes.
"Y/N, I know your feelings about experimenting on the innocent, but at this point in our research, that's the only path fit, we need a sane person to observe so we can get the detailed process of what these chemicals do to the human brain. And..." he laid a hand on your shoulder for a moment, "I would hate for your position in the company to get jinxed just because you protested something so simple, so let's leave this little conversation between you and me...ok?"
"Yes sir," you replied.
"Good, now after you finish your report to management, go exchange some words with the boys, and then go home. You deserve a day of rest," smiled Alec, pacing out of the room.
You watched the back of his white lab coat go, leaving you with these insane individuals.
"Well, another day another dollar," you murmured, scribbling things down in your notes.
Despite you working here for quite a long time, you still weren't sure what substances were put into that solution. All you knew from your observations, was open inhaling, the substance causes the human mind to dig out the most horrific, and most terrifying trauma that a person has buried deep in their brain. Even if you had forgotten about whatever the substance made you remember, it often unlocked a person's shadow side, or differently put, a person's deepest fear. Most were unable to face these memories, this darker side of them, and when the serum forces you to dwell on it for a very long time an individual eventually goes insane. As Alec put it, it was a great leap in the government's understanding of human psychology, giving your country the upper hand if perhaps, in war, they would be able to unlock the enemy's greatest fear in a very simple way, to our advantage. When you looked at it, it was admittedly, very scary, but it wasn't affecting you was it?
After you report to management, you want to say a last goodbye to your co-workers down in the lab where they made and transported the stuff, but not before grabbing your water bottle (you left it in the management's office by accident), making you only have enough time for a short chat.
"Hey Y/N! How are the insane patients doing?" called a young woman by the name of Aria as you entered. You smiled and went to sit beside her at her desk, setting your water bottle down beside her pen can. It was a small water bottle, one of those cheapies you would get at a dollar store, but it did its job and that's all you cared about anyway.
"About the same," you replied.
"I'm just waiting for Eric to come down with the next batch, he's late as usual," Aria said, doing an exaggerated eye roll.
"Hmm, well here he comes now," you say as a jolly older man enters the space, his arms full with a cardboard box that from your point of view, contained many small bottles of a clear substance.
"Here's the next shipment Ari," he said, heavily setting it down on Aria's desk, causing a few of the containers to fall onto the hard surface.
"Eric!! What are you doing? You're going to get us all killed if you continue being clumsy," squealed Aria, shrinking away from the bottles as if they were bombs. You had to admit, you felt a little shaken too. Those little bottles contained the very substance that would cause you the most horrific nightmares of a lifetime.
"Oops, sorry girls. Just a little tipsy, and come on Aria, it's not like they're gonna bite 'cha," laughed Eric. Grabbing the bottles to put back in the box.
"Don't grab my water bottle! I left it next to the pen can!" you say hurriedly as Eric cleaned up his mess.
"Sorry there Y/N, there you go," apologized Eric, handing you your bottle. You stuff it in your purse and give a hurried goodbye to both of them as you realize what time it is. You'd prefer not to miss the bus home.
You sat in your usual spot, and once again, glanced out the window. The sun had since come out, and you tried to rest your mind off work. You still felt uneasy about the company's suggestion to use innocent subjects, sure, you worked there because perhaps you had a sense of justice...like those superheroes you saw when you were a kid right? Punishing criminals, saving the world, stuff like that. But, would Superman have sacrificed an innocent for human research? You shake your head, combing your hand through your hair, trying to dismiss the thought. What you were doing was right, at least in the minds of those you worked with.
Crap, that nagging feeling was back. You wiped your palms on your jeans as if that could clear your head right now. Everyone else at your work seemed fine with the idea...although...did you know your fellow workers? They were indeed friendly and all...but it felt more like they were mindless machines, numb to feeling after being subjected to their work for so many years. Man, it sucks when you feel like you don't know your friends at all.
The nagging feeling stayed with you even after you entered your apartment, even after you had showered and plopped your butt down on the couch in your living room with fresh clothes on. And that was usually what cleared your head after a long day.
"Maybe I need a drink of water," you mutter, reaching for the water bottle inside of your purse that you conveniently left on the coffee table next to the couch. Closing your eyes you unscrewed the top and lifted the bottle to your lips to take a drink. Nothing came out.
"What the-did I drink it all at work?" you mutter, opening your eyes, and turning the bottle over in your hands. That's when your heart froze. Instead of the wide wrapper that most water bottles had that told you why you should drink their water, or how many vitamins it definitely had in it, you only saw a small label with a warning sign on it that read:
!!!WARNING!!! Contains hallucinogenic chemicals !!!WARNING!!!
Your hands started shaking. Hurriedly screwing the top back on you raced to your kitchen and through that thing in a plastic bag, before shoving it right back into your purse. You sat down heavily on the couch, your heart racing like hell. How large of a dose had you inhaled? Cold sweat rolled down your neck as you thought of those insane people back at work, black-eyed, frightened stares, nightmarish hallucinations...
"Oh, no, no no no no," you murmured, burring your face in your hands. For a few moments, you just sat there, thinking about the stupid mistake you just made, the possible life-ending mistake you just made.
"Oh, how could I be so stupid...god dammit," you whispered, rubbing your eyes, then you got the bottle back out and looked at it.
"Maybe...it wasn't that bad,'' you mutter "Maybe...I didn't even breathe any in, people usually drink while holding their breath right? Yeah, and I screwed the top back on pretty quickly, and I feel fine...maybe I didn't breathe it in at all. Yeah, I'm fine, I'm good, I'll bring this back tomorrow and never use these water bottles again,"
You stare at it for a few more seconds and laugh, it's starts as a little chuckle, and then before you know it you're in hysterics.
"Ohh yeah, whew! Close one!" you chuckle, bouncing a bit on the cushion. Putting the bottle back, you stretch and get ready for bed.
"I'm fine, yeah..." you say. But as you brush your teeth, and walk to your bedroom...that little cold feeling of doubt is crawling its way up your spine, you ignore it as your hand turns the knob on your bedroom door, but you cannot deny the fact.
That you lied to yourself.
You stare at your bed. On a normal day it would be the most inviting thing in the world, but now....why did you feel dread? Something about your room tonight... seemed off as you tip-toed across the cold floor as if expecting something to jump out at you from your closet across the room. It made you think about those nights as a child when you thought monsters lurked under your bed, heh, you used to have night terrors too, didn't you? Waking up in the middle of the night screaming, boy how did your parents put up with you? And those nightmares...
You shook your head, nope, not tonight.
You crawl underneath your blankets, pulling them close to your chin. It felt rather childish actually,
"Why the frick, stop acting like a baby," you humph as the darkness slowly takes over your brain. Your eyes grow heavy...heart slows down...in a few moments, you slip from the waking world, letting the darkness surround you like a thick cloud...
You're walking around your childhood home. It's been a while since you visited it! Everything is like how you remember it, the family pictures on the wall, the friendly smells wafting from the kitchen. Mmmmm, nothing like home. Hummming along, you enter your bedroom to go get a pair of socks, in the bottom drawer to the right where you always kept them. But when you enter the room...it's dark. You turn around again, but the doors closed, and when you open them there's nothing but a dark hallway.
"What the...where's the light switch," you mutter, closing the door. Turning to face your bedroom again... somethings off. Your bed is in the center of the dead center of the room against the wall, a closet sits straight in the middle across from the bed set against the opposite wall. Across from you on the opposite side is another door.
"This...isn't how I remembered my bedroom looking..." you say, looking up at a long crack that ran its way along the ceiling. "When was the last time this place got maintenance?"
Looking back down to scan the room you shivered at how cold it felt. Hugging your hands around your arms you started exploring the room a bit more, but there wasn't anything else to see...sitting on the bed you thought about your options when you noticed a flashlight lying in the center of the floor right in front of you!
"What, that wasn't there before," you murmur, bending down to pick it up. As soon as your fingers wrapped around the metallic metal handle you immediately heard a soft song play in the distance. Standing straight up, you clutched the flashlight to your breasts and listened. It sounded like a melody you used to listen to when you were a child...a music box. Feeling a bit comforted you clicked on the flashlight and searched for the source of the sound. It seemed to be coming from the right door on the other side of the room. Making your way over to it you creak open the door and shine the light down the hall.
What you saw almost caused you to scream. Two glowing eyes stared at you from down the hallway. Your weak flashlight didn't make out the entire shape of it, but whatever it was it was big, and as it slinked its way towards you the music got louder. Giving a terrified gasp, you slammed the door close and leaned against it. Clutching the flashlight to your shaking body like it was your only hope of salvation. What was that thing? Before you could even think you heard a noise that sent shivers down your spine, a wet...slithering sound, along with the gentle sound of the music box, now sounding like it was coming from the ceiling. Filled with dread, you slowly angled your flashlight to the crack in the rafters. The beam of light falls upon a few withering black and white...they looked like snakes...but your mind told you that they were tentacles.
"Ew," you whimper.
They suddenly slither away at the touch of the light, and you breathe a sigh of relief. But not for long. The music was now playing from the other side of the room, near the bed, quickly angling your light to that side of the room you saw the tentacles again, but this time they were crawling from under the bed. Your mind screamed as you pointed your only light source at those things as if it were a gun. What was happening?? Memories started flooding into your mind, those horrible nightmares you had as a child, the screaming...horrible monsters, crying out loud, you dropped the flashlight and clutched your hands to your head.
The flashlight's beam went out as it hit the ground, once again giving the upper hand to the darkness. Panting, you reached for it again, your heart felt like it was about to burst from your chest as you wasted those precious seconds without your only weapon against this thing. Your fingers wrapped around the tool once again, but not before something else could wrap itself around your wrist. Your blood ran cold as you watched one of the tentacles snap your hand away from the flashlight, the music so loud it sounded like it was in your ears. That peaceful childhood song was the marching beat to your fate as you helplessly watched three other tentacles secure your arms and legs. You struggled against their hold, but they held on to you like metal rope, tightening themselves around your flesh until it felt as if your skin would break. You screamed, your voice echoing in the dark hollow room, something cold snaked its way around your mouth, making you gag as you tried to bite the tentacle that stopped you from making any more noises.
"Your nightmare is only beginning..." a cold, almost...glitchy-like voice whispered in your ear. You snapped your head around trying to get a glimpse at who was speaking to you, but not before a sharp claw punctured itself through your back, causing you to arch your spine like a cat, and your limbs would have flayed if not bound so securely. There was nothing you could do about the black and white claw protruding out of your chest. Your blood ran down your sides, soaking your garments in red. A sweet iron taste filled your mouth as you succumbed to this creature's will, letting your body go limp, and with that, your will to live went limp as well.
There was nothing you could do.
Your eyes fluttered open. You sat up in bed, your sheets were drenched in sweat, and you felt as if you had been possessed. Rapidly clutching your hands to your chest where the claw had punctured through you saw nothing...only your skin, nice and whole as always, you felt the pulse of your heart, strong and beating a soothing thump-thump-thump-thump. Taking a shaky breath, you weakly accepted the truth.
You had inhaled a very strong dose.