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Sasha ducked into the storage room to get away from the worms and clicked the tape recorder back on. “Okay, Jon. I know you’ll want to know what’s been happening. If you’re still alive after this.” She kept her voice low as she made her way deeper into the storage room but it still echoed quietly off the walls. She hated it here, but she remembered the spots that would make good hiding places if needed. “The worms are on the upper floor. Not as many as down in the archive, but enough.
”I set fire alarm off, so everyone’s evacuated except me and Elias. I didn’t see any signs of the fire brigade, but I haven’t been near a window in awhile.” She tried to find something to climb for a vantage point in case the worms found their way in the storage room as well. She hoped not, but it wasn’t out of the question. “There was a… I guess you’d call it a… a wave of worms.” She found a ladder to climb. It wasn’t much but it was something. “I got cut off from Elias. I hope he made it to the fire system, but who knows. Maybe everyone’s dead already.” She shuddered.
”I’ve had to retreat into Artefact Storage.” She wrapped her arms around herself, making sure not to brush the recorder. “That should tell you something about how bad it is out there.” She huffed. “God, I hate this place.”
She climbed to the top of the ladder and sat down, overlooking a lot of the artefacts. She rubbed her arms, definitely feeling the creep factor. “Did I ever tell you I joined the Institute as a practical researcher? I had to analyze and investigate all the stuff in here. Took notes after sleeping in the rusted chair, wrote in the memory book, all sort of things. Would’ve quit, but couldn’t afford it back then, never understood why they keep this stuff secret. I mean, we’ve, we’ve enough here to send and sceptic packing, but it’s just locked away. I… I asked Elias about it once, but he just muttered something about funding and mission statements. He’s good at changing the subject, isn’t he?
”Sorry, I’m rambling.” She climbed down a few steps and investigated the floor. She climbed down and walked back the way she came just a little bit, but she didn’t hear any worms. “No worms though, so that’s good.”
Walking back to the ladder something caught her eye. “Oh hey. I’ve found… I’ve found that table you were talking about. Don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Just a… basic… optical illusion. Nothing special… just… just a… wait…” She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and whipped her head around only to see nothing in her direct vision, the movement still in the corner of her eye.
She spoke directly into the recorder, panic evident in her voice. “Jon! Jon, I think there’s someone here.” She kept looking around, seeing the movement just out of sight. “Hello? I see you. Show yourself.”
The movement in the corner of Sasha’s eye became darker, more directly in her line of sight, though she still couldn’t understand what she was seeing. She uttered a shriek and dropped the tape recorder. The last thing she saw was darkness and the last thing she felt was a million pinpricks like little teeth nesting in her body and then… Nothing.
Except… She could hear a voice not her own uttering her final words and walking off. “I see you.”
And there was a woman—tall, pale, obviously goth. She had teased hair straight out of the 80’s, wore black pants with a studded belt, a black tank top, and black gloves. She wore a silver chain with a silver ankh hanging off of it. Her eyeliner was dark and underneath one of her eyes was small spiral.
”Sasha James?” She asked, listing off details about her birth. “Died in the Magnus Institute Artefact Storage.”
She shook her head. “I’m not dead though. I’m here. I’m right here!” Her voice rose in volume. “My friends need me. Jon needs me! Tim needs me! They’re in danger!” She tried to take off after the thing that looked like her, but the woman held her back. “That’s not me!”
“I know, sweetheart. I know.” She stroked Sasha’s hair. “A lot is going on right now that shouldn’t be. I’ve been watching for awhile.”
”Why haven’t you done anything?” Sasha yelled in outrage. “If you’ve seen what’s been going on!” She waved her arms around, gesturing to outside the building. “If you’ve been watching for awhile, why haven’t you done anything about the worms?”
”I haven’t been able to step in,” the woman admitted sadly. “I can now though.”
”Why? Because I’m ‘dead’?!” Sasha still didn’t believe it. “Who are you??”
”In order of your asking,” the woman began with a smile playing on her lips. “Yes, because now that you’re dead, I can bring you back. You can be an avatar, but not one of theirs. I can make you my avatar—an avatar of Death of the Endless.”
The woman kissed Sasha’s forehead and Sasha felt something flare up on her ribcage. She ignored it, waiting for the answer to her last question.
”I am Death, of the Endless.”