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“Are you kidding me?”

The man’s nostrils flare as he slams his palm on the metal table in front of Kwak. The researcher simply offers a secretive smile.

“Don’t fucking smirk at me,” the head of the research department cusses some more under his breath as he paces on the other side of the table, “this is an interrogation. Do you understand?”

Kwak tilts his head.

This earns him a repetition, each word punctuated by a snap from impatient fingers. “Do. You. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.” He responds in a remarkably airy tone, at odds with the solemn expression on his superior's face. Hilarious. It isn’t like the man’s actually upset, grieving, or even remorseful. No, the head of the research department is upset that Daydream’s on his case after losing a couple dozen of their pawns—

Oops. Sorry, a couple dozen of their employees.

“This is unacceptable.”

He stops his repeated movements through the room to sit on the chair in front of Kwak. The man glances at the one-sided mirror. Definitely a Director on the other side. His gaze snaps back to the head of his department.

Who would this man be siding with? Hm. Could be a fun exercise to reason it out. Though there wasn’t much interesting going on in this man’s private life.

Receding hairline, but full head of hair? Toupe. Seems to be very concerned with appearances. Stains near his buttons, likely food. Messy eater, or unclean? The stale smell that seems to emanate from him points to the latter.

The man drums his fingers on the table. His name… Something Kwak hadn’t cared to remember given the sheer state of incompetence run rampant in the research department. Something like that… would have to be earned.

This waste of flesh and bones situated in front of him was neither interesting nor important enough to have earned his name.

Hence the moniker of ‘head of the research department’ in Kwak’s internal monologue. The only thing this man had earned was his Regulars discount at the local bar, exemplified by the telangiectasia spattered across his cheeks.

Spider veins was a funny translation in layman’s terms, they didn’t much look like spiders so much as stupid choices. Why waste a brain like that? Hm. Kwak gives his superior another once over. Perhaps there hadn’t been much to waste away in the first place.

“I’m talking to you.” Another smack on the surface of the desk.

Kwak sits up straighter, flashing a grin. “Yes?”

He receives a disbelieving stare, as if being questioned whether he really expects the head of the department to repeat whatever inane line of thinking he had gone down this time.

Eventually, when it becomes clear Kwak won’t be answering any time soon, the man speaks, “I said, how is it that you, newly hired researcher with all of four months under his belt, escapes in the same Darkness that claims the lives of twenty Daydream employees?”

“Perhaps I was lucky, sir.”

“Neither of us believe that.” The man’s gaze hardens. “So why don’t you tell me what really happened.”

Kwak shrugs. “What would you like to know?”

“Let’s start with why you were in a Darkness assigned to our field employees in the first place.”

His supervisor waits for Kwak to respond.

He does, but not without getting all of the man’s remaining nerves. “Oh. Am I supposed to be answering that?”

“What else?” Were the man’s toupe any thinner, he’d be able to see a throbbing vein right on his forehead. Probably.

“I thought you were going to be telling me, haha,” Kwak laughs a little as he defends himself. These higher-ups really are so capricious, one can never be too sure what they want.

“Don’t dodge the question, tell me what you were up to right away.”

Kwak has no doubt if they had any sort of evidence pinning him to the willful neglect and murder of Daydream employees, he’d be undergoing a much more uncomfortable interrogation right now. Probably involving water and an unpleasant meeting with his own face.

But he’s here right now, alone in the interrogation room with his supervisor.

And so he begins his response in a breezy tone, mild smile present as he narrates how exactly he had ended up there.

Kwak Jaekang examined his notes on his most recent assignment. He was to reaffirm the strength of the restriction placed on the Security Team members and perhaps even strengthen it.

To aid him in this endeavour, they had given him a few extra watches.

Except why focus on restricting them after the fact when figuring out how the human psyche changed post-contamination was so much more interesting? But no, no, it was “completely unnecessary” to perform brain scans on the Security Team members and a “waste of time.”

An MRI would take a maximum of two hours. Not to mention… there had been a new recruit who had accidentally contracted the Midas Touch after a Darkness set in the Parthenon went awry. He really wanted to send that one to get imaged, and wondered what would happen in that case. He recalled with a frown that gold was not magnetic. A real shame, but it meant his interest around that subject had temporarily waned.

Kwak fiddled with a watch again. If he manually turned the minute hand using the dial, would he disappear too? Or would nothing happen because he would not hear the ticking of the watch.

Should he test it out?

Hm. In due time, yes, he would. But for the time being, he had just designated to examine the wristwatch a little more. Who knew before he could get his hands on one again. And those security folk were always such a dreary bunch. Getting contaminated by a Darkness wouldn’t be so bad, Kwak was sure.

He resumed making notes on the wristwatch. Of course, to ensure whether it was operating as intended would have to wait at night. Likely he would have to coerce someone out.

…

What did they expect the researcher to do? Empiricism was at the heart of progress. Kwak finished his half hearted attempt at the clock face, more of a scientist than an artist.

Though it was a digital watch, an analogue clock would appear when turned at just the right angle, or when the wearer had toed out of line. Hence the split diagram on his charts. He frowned. Half of an analogue clock face… It reminded him of something, but he couldn’t quite place what at that moment.

A hand grasped his shoulder tightly.

Kwak was pulled out of his reverence for the item to the face of some member on his research team. The leader… A man who would halt scientific progress if it meant he would get a promotion.

Kwak, though irritated at getting pulled away from his work for what was sure to be another story all about the man’s made-up wife and equally fictitious children (funny how their ages and achievements never seemed to stay consistent) for the nth time, held back from clicking his tongue.

It wasn’t like he had someone to back him up should he fail, and neither did he have the track record required of someone who could get rid of a researcher and get off the hook with only mild disciplinary action.

Yet. Kwak was on his way there and it was only a matter of time.

He wondered what experiment this man could be useful in serving. Perhaps this was how he could find out the changes in human brain activity pre-and-post contamination. It would be a lot more conducive to have scans from the same person. But the human condition was an amazing thing even without the existence of Darknesses. He had his own working theory on that, and how just maybe the origin of Darknesses, those pocket dimensions in which they seem to reside are in the mindscape themselves.

The human condition, in order to lead to the advent of Darknesses, had to be a truly twisted thing indeed. The reason why crime continued to plague nice and civil societies of course being that it was human nature. Such was his tentative hypothesis on the relation of humans and Darknesses. Of course, he just had to find a way to test this all out.

He zones back just in time to hear the crazy stunt the team leader’s little one pulled and how he just had to be there (why the hell would he be there?). 

“That’s nice.” He flashed a grin, “Then how’s the eldest doing with school?”

Kwak tossed the thought out like an old bone. It had to be true, all children went to school, he figured.

The team leader’s face lit up, “You remembered! They’re thinking of making him the valedictorian.”

And yet, if asked for photos of the graduation ceremony, the man would be sure to mutter something about leaving it at home and ‘Ah, I really need to get it framed so I can bring it in.’

Satisfied with getting his ego stroked, the man finally turned his attention to what Kwak was doing.

“What’s this,” he murmured as he slid the paper away from Kwak. Ah, well it wasn’t anything he hadn’t already committed to memory.

“My recent assignment, the ah, Security—”

“Team wristwatches,” the man finished off.

Kwak nodded, “Yeah, exactly, you got it~”

The man’s eyes scanned over the text. He was a researcher after all, if not a particularly good one. He whistled as he flipped through the few pages Kwak had already gotten through.

“This is good stuff,” he chuckled as he closed the notebook, “you sure put effort into your work. Keep that up and you’ll be due for a promotion in no time.

“Well, I’m glad you think so, sir,” Kwak leaned an elbow on the desk.

“I know so,” he patted the researcher’s shoulder again. “You’re downright crazy and crazy people belong here.”

He said it like a joke.

Kwak laughed, “You may be right.”

He didn’t get to hear the man’s response, the world had begun to warp all around him.

“So you’re saying, what? That, the Research Team 1 Leader calling you crazy is what landed you there? That’s impossible, we had all of our employees perform a Ro-Rorsc–” The man struggles to perform the name of the psychological test a few times before giving up. “The Daydream employees all did that inkblot test before entering the Darkness.”

“But they got called crazy too, didn’t they?” There’s a glint in Kwak’s eyes, one that only arises at the prospect of discussing Darknesses.

“You had them do the Rorschach Test, they received a diagnosis for Schizophrenia with the phrasing ‘You’re Crazy,’ and then they were sent to the Darkness.”

“What happened to them, as I understand it,” Kwak explains in what can be seen as a patient tone, “is that the employees woke up in the woods and were chased by their interpretation of the blots until they ended up within the gates of Gonjijam Psychiatric Hospital.”

“You’re correct,” the man begrudges, still annoyed at the difficulty in interrogating, “but how does that relate to you? You didn’t get any blots.”

“I believe…” Kwak takes the opportunity to spread his own theories on the mechanics of the Darkness.

“I believe that the requisite to entrance merely has to serve as some sort of psychological diagnostic tool.”

“And you did that how?” The man, initially frustrated beyond belief, seems to be getting pulled into Kwak Jaekang’s pace. He’s now thoroughly invested in finding out what the man had found out.

“I was working on my assignment with the wristwatches, as instructed. In doing so I drew half of the clock as a technical diagram in my notes. This is similar to the Clock-Drawing Test, a tool used for diagnosing dementia.”

And it all clicks into place. This Darkness is one that would arise outside of the context of a visit with an actual psychiatrist, through this little ritual of a home-made test and diagnosis of insanity.

Kwak’s quite sure of this, and had even made some personal scribbles upon arriving. Of course he didn’t get chased by an ink creature like the others. Instead Kwak had waded through surrealist droopy clock pools, similar to those depicted in paintings by Salvador Dali, until he reached the asylum gates.

And that’s when the fun had truly begun.

“Let me get this straight.” Kwak’s attention is drawn back to his supervisor.

“You arrived at the loony-bin just like the others and then what? What happened?”

“I told you,” he offers with a crooked grin, “they all ended up in scuffles and dying of their own accord.”

“How can that be?” The head of the research department shakes his head furiously, “Our Daydream employees are a talented bunch, there were even elite team members present for this exploration.”

Kwak shrugs, “I’m just telling you the facts, like you asked.”

In actuality this man hasn’t been doing the best job of interrogating Kwak so far, but it is quite fun to see his reactions.

“We only decided to acquire and explore that Darkness because there was a higher level of escape according to civilians!”

Well, three people making it out of a Darkness you thought would kill your entire group would do that to you.

“It’s true. Had the employees cooperated I suspect most, if not all would be alive and out here right now.”

“What do you mean by that, what do you mean ‘cooperated'? Your initial written report described the Darkness to have dropped you all at an abandoned insane asylum.”

“That’s right!”

Hm. The supervisor will probably get mad if Kwak offers him a cookie.

“So then how do you mean, co-operate, it sounds like there’s nothing to cooperate for in the first place.”

Kwak leans forward to continue his explanation on what exactly happened in the Darkness.

There was no one around. Upon falling into a puddle of something metallic and off-white, Kwak had felt a thrum of exhilaration running through his veins.

He looked around to see a large clock hand extending a few meters past and he was sure— Kwak Jaekang had finally ended up in a Darkness.

As a researcher, one didn’t receive much access or ability to fiddle around with Darknesses and perhaps enter them. Their work was deemed useful only when done on the other side of protective glass.

But now, now, he had entered a Darkness and it wasn’t even through his own interference! Sure, he had landed in some dubious puddle of what seemed to be perhaps a melted clock by the numbers he could see floating away, but Kwak was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He swam across the short distance, not far in length, but the depth of the “water” making it impossible for him to walk through to the edge. Upon getting out, he observed the numerous groupings of other similarly surrealist clocks.

Of course, they just had to form a vague sort of path in one direction. So obviously a trap and yet… As Kwak looked around to the inky edges of the forest, he was certain. It was the only way forward. So he slipped off his lab coat and let it fall into the clock pool.

Then he followed the trail out of the forest.

Kwak’s eyes lit up as he recognized the gates of the place:

GONJIJAM PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL

The rusty wrought iron gates loomed before the scientists in a mimicry of barrier to entry. When in reality, he had been able to tip open the gates with one hand. They had whipped open, shrieking and squealing metal alerting the group of people who had yet to make their way actually inside the building of his presence.

“And who are you?” A man with the mask of a big cat, perhaps a bobcat, spoke with a drawl. She looked at him, seemingly unimpressed with the nondescript appearance.

Kwak rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “I just woke up here out of the blue, you wouldn’t happen to know where we are, would you?”

The employees exchanged a glance, immediately clocking him as a civilian.

“No,” a short-statured lady in a dog mask with droopy ears answered him, a bloodhound. Bloodhound cleared her throat before speaking again, “We actually woke up here too, but we’re not sure why.”

Of course it would be a Daydream employee's instinct to lie. He hid a smile. Should he be happy or disappointed that Daydream continued to behave exactly as expected?

Bobcat called attention back to himself. “So what do you do?”

An attempt to gain information poorly as disguised as small talk. Who even would ask that sort of a question upon realizing they’ve ended up in a strange place such as this?

“Pardon?”

Before the man could repeat his question he got smacked on the back of the head by Bloodhound.

She took it over from there. “What he means is, what’s the last thing you remember before ending up here?”

“Hmm…” He pondered what story would make them lower their guards the most without deciding he was completely useless.

Ah, wait, no. His gaze flickered between the three or so people that seemed to be shaking where they stood, clearly Round-off Team members. He would always be useful as a meat-shield, so he didn’t have to consider that part too much.

“I was just playing around with a couple of my buddies, doing one of those tests online…”

“Did you have to interpret the shape of some ink?” A new voice spoke that time, gruff and low.

Kwak turned to see the man who spoke; a man with strands of gray hair peeking around the edges of his Polar Bear mask.

He nodded vigorously, “Yeah! Oh my gosh, how did you know? We did some stupid test and then the results screen just straight up said I was crazy! Like, what?”

That set off a murmur through the group. Hah, as expected. This seemed to be the Darkness he had skimmed over recently. Come to think of it, it was one of the only large-scale missions Daydream had initiated recently, so it was only obvious.

Upon seeing them break off into whispers, he spoke again, “Hey… About the masks…”

“We were just having a fun costume party at work,” another lady answered. She was wearing a bumblebee mask.

“So you all know each other.” Kwak made sure to speak in a put-down tone, as if disappointed by this new set of facts.

The setting sun had long since lit everyone in a fiery orange glow.

“You could say that.” This time it’s some other employee, with some sort of reptile mask, who spoke up. Kwak gave him a short once-over before moving on. Even now, it was easy to tell.

So far, he counted three elite team members, three round-off team members, and the other fifteen or so were members from the regular teams. Of this small gathering of people… Only five could be said to be notable.

Polar Bear, who was indubitably from an elite team from how he had spoken to Kwak, assessing the reason behind his appearance with few words. So was Anglerfish, who hadn’t spoken a word so far. However, she hadn’t stopped assessing the building, entry points, and so on for a second. On top of the fact that she looked one wrong movement from tearing someone’s neck out.

Then, also of note were Bloodhound and Bobcat. These two had to be from the regular teams, but knew each other no doubt. The way they hadn’t paused their bickering save for when they spoke was telling.

And finally, Beluga, a scrub who was without a doubt from the Round-off team. From the way she kept wandering back to the center of the group, it was clear she had been trying to run away for a while now.

But neither her, nor the person controlling her were backing down.

Everyone else was more or less another regular Daydream employee, as regular as those could be.

A breeze had run through the group, prompting a few shivers.

“See,” Bobcat insisted, “this is why we should be going inside. It’s only going to get worse out here.”

“It’s not right,” Bloodhound retorted immediately. “I can tell… That building smells like death.”

“Oh, cry me a river. What else did you expect?”

One of the Round-off team members tried supporting Bloodhound by commenting on how it looks haunted, though they were immediately shut up.

Polar Bear chose then to speak up. “There seems to be no other exit out of here. Our best choice would be to leave some people out here whilst everyone else goes inside, as a sort of failsafe.”

“However,” Anglerfish finished off for him, “Doing so may not be a wise choice.”

She pointed at the iron gates surrounding the property, “The inkblots seem to have caught up to us.”

They were rattling at the metal, clanging about. They hadn’t been able to melt through like one would expect to be possible of ink due to being solid, but they seemed dangerously close to breaking through.

“Inside it is then,” Bloodhound muttered, apparently deciding that whatever was out there was more dangerous than the stench of rot and despair emanating from the asylum.

Kwak watched silently as they all shuffled to the industrial complex. The appearance of the building contrasted sharply with the more formal appearance of the gate, though things tended not to make complete sense in Darknesses.

Amazing, just incredible. How right at the crux of his personal research, on the nature of humanity and the relation of that nature to Darknesses… He got handed this situation on a golden platter.

Now he could have done entirely as he pleased and set up a number of entertaining experiments, but it felt like a little of a waste. No, no, he had to conduct that ordeal with proper scientific dues.

A control group who he wouldn’t interfere in the actions of and an experimental group who would find themselves uniquely tested. He suppressed the urge to jump for sheer joy as he walked in with the rear end of the group.

Beluga gave him an odd, questioning look, but he quickly shot a soft smile her way. She turned and continued trying to break free.

The third, unremarkable member of an elite team muttered something to her about knowing her place as they forced her further into the entrance.

“Why did you lie about your identity,” Kwak’s supervisor questions, interrupting the man mid-sentence.

“Did I?” While he didn’t do the test online, technically a ‘buddy’ did send him into the Darkness.

“Yes, it’s abundantly apparent the employees did not know you were a researcher from Daydream, otherwise you would have been implored to take a lead alongside the elite team members. They wouldn’t have allowed you to walk in with the back of the group.”

So the head of the research department does have some sense left in him after all. Kwak laughs.

“I didn’t realize they’d assume that, it’s not like I hid it.”

What the supervisor doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Or not.

“Bullshit,” the supervisor snarls.

“You deliberately concealed critical information from Daydream personnel, that’s your first offense.”

Well, he had expected as much. Admitting to something like this now would give an honest impression and help in hiding anything he wanted to conceal later on.

“It doesn’t mean I led to all of those deaths, though,” Kwak says with a bit of a forlorn tone.

His supervisor doesn’t care much. “We’re not done here.” When Kwak shuffles in his seat, he barks out, “And settle down.”

Really the interrogation would be going so much better for the man if he could use some sort of interrogation device. Perhaps one that would enforce truthful answers. Does Daydream have something like that? It’s worth looking into developing.

“Your report puts the first death”— the man pauses to look down at his notes—“first two deaths, as happening shortly after entering the asylum. Can you go over them?”

“Ah? What do you want to know? I think my explanation was pretty detailed, though~”

“Detailed— Yeah, you detailed their exact time and cause of death without explaining the events that led up to them, like an autopsy report.”

“I see.” Kwak nods, leaning back into his seat.

“Where should I start… Hmm… It all happened so quickly, it's hard to remember.”

The supervisor raps at the metal of the table again. “Try.”

“You fucking piece of shit,” a lady with an Atlas Moth mask hissed as she shoved Bobcat against the wall.

“Hah,” he laughed, before coughing a bit due to the pressure on his chest. “This kind of thing is shitty now?”

Kwak observed the scene quietly, ignoring Beluga, who seemed to be inching closer to him. It was interesting how the first fight, or rather altercation, was breaking out between two members of the control group. He muffled a giggle with a hand over his mouth, as if appearing horrified.

Perhaps there was more credence to his theory than even he first thought.

“Stop using my tool!” Atlas Moth brought Bobcat’s face even closer, almost spitting out the words.

“Your tool?” At that point even Bloodhound had joined in, not looking too keen to be defending Bobcat, but unable to stay quiet nonetheless.

Kwak noted Polar Bear and Anglerfish staying still on the sidelines. As members of the Elite team, they had the authority and say so to interfere with the situation, but didn’t do so.

“Yeah, I claimed her when we entered, dibs.”

“As opposed to the elite team members?” Bobcat freed himself from her grip to point at the two.

Kwak raised a brow. They really weren’t doing a good job at pretending to be normal corporate employees. Though that was if they had ever cared about the guise in the first place.

“They don’t care,” she snorted, “they agree with me using her like this. Right?”

The pair stay silent, neither confirming nor denying the statement.

“If you’re so confident that’s where we should go”— Bobcat nodded his head in the direction of the hallway Atlas Moth had tried sending Beluga down —“then why don’t you go down there yourself? Mm?”

At that point Beluga had all but completely made her way behind Kwak. He wondered briefly if he had given off the impression of being someone she could trust, then decided it was probably the case.

“Because this is exactly what we brought meat shields in for? What if there’s a demented patient waiting for me down the hall? One of those knife-wielding psychos!”

“Yeah,” Bobcat acknowledged, “But this is a trivial matter? It seems like a waste of a Round-off team member when we’re more than capable of exiting the Darkness ourselves.”

Kwak furrowed his brows in concentration. Did Bobcat truly think there were better uses of the team members, or did he not want to use Round-off team members in the first place? Against the idea as a matter of principle.

He wished to pull out his notepad and pen, but doing so would be impossible in front of this large group of people. On top of that… Those items were currently residing at the bottom of a clock-pool, having been in the pocket of his lab coat.

“Oh, you fucking—” She lunged for the man. They were both regular team employees, though there was clearly a disparity in skill set. Because in the blink of an eye, Bobcat had run his hand through Atlas Moth’s chest, creating a large cavity.

The blood spatter reached Kwak, speckling across his glasses due to the proximity. He sighed, pulling them off to clean with his shirt.

A choking noise came from another employee in the group. Kwak’s eyes darted towards them. They fell to their feet, clutching at their own chest.

“D-Doctor!” But who else was there around save for Daydream employees?

Kwak hummed. Well… It could be useful to take on the role.

“Yes,” he scrambled towards them, “that’s me, what’s wrong?”

The tremble in his voice was real, albeit due to entirely different reasons.

Blood was quickly seeping through the pristine white of the employee’s dress-shirt. Kwak shifted it around to get a better look, noting holes in the fabric. He unbuttoned the bottom of the shirt, peeling the slick material back to examine the source.

Claws.

One inch each in length, and around a quarter in diameter. They were embedded deep in the abdomen of the man. Treatment was possible, except… His eyes darted towards a female employee in the crowd, whose face looked pale and concerned. She wringed her wrists, worrying away at the cuffs of her sleeves.

Workplace relationship? Interesting.

“It’s too late,” he mumbled in a solemn tone. Of course, she immediately jolted, what was visible of her face falling in despair.

“The cause,” Kwak continued, “seems to be animal claws launched in a projectile manner.”

“Oops.” Bobcat shrugged as he jogged closer to the scene. “That must be my item. Didn’t realize it would go through when I got rid of that pest.”

He chuckled as he crouched down next to the injured man. Bobcat pulled his wearable claws out of the man and wore them again, ignoring the shocked cry that came from the man’s lover.

Kwak narrowed his eyes. Bobcat didn’t prevent the use of the Round-off team member for moral reasons, then. It made sense, ‘good’ people didn’t last long in Daydream. Part of his running theory.

He looked around the group after brushing a hand over the man’s eyelids to brush them shut. Aside from him, there were seventeen employees left, then.

A loss from both the experimental and control group. It was mildly disappointing that he lost people before even being able to do anything, but it was a valuable experience nonetheless.

“Right,” Anglerfish chose then to speak, interestingly enough. “Let’s get a move on. The civilian report states that upon arrival, it was clearly to tell the hospital was abandoned.”

They looked around. That much was true.

“There’s two things to be cautious of here,” she continued, in a quieter voice as she looked around, “the patients… Who play a more movie-like role and are violent, as if possessed by ghosts, and…”

Polar Bear finished off her sentence this time, “The doctors. If you’re caught by them, they’ll perform their own series of tests.”

“I’m telling you all this beforehand.” Polar Bear took on a defensive stance at a sudden CLANG but relaxed after it was just the doctor poking around. He cast the man a mildly annoyed glance before continuing.

“The way to exit this Darkness,” he made eye contact with every employee, “is to kill yourself.”

“That’s it?” One of the newer hires boldly spoke up, “Why don’t we just kill ourselves right now, then?”

Kwak could have chosen this moment to ask the question he has to as a supposed civilian dropped into the Darkness alongside the Daydream employees, but he was more interested in seeing where exactly the answer would lead.

“Who the— Oh, the newbie, no wonder,” Bloodhound muttered, before answering their question, “The research team suspects that the longer we stay in the asylum, the higher-quality the Dream Essence will be. So only if you’re cornered are you allowed to exit the Darkness.”

“Couldn’t they have given us guns or something,” the rookie grumbled in response, which was actually a fair point. How were they to kill themselves if, say, they were otherwise occupied?

“Um,” Kwak raised his hand, “What’s a Darkness, haha? Do you guys actually know what’s going on?”

He was a bit annoyed at having to ask that, actually. If only they had a better job at attempting to look normal he wouldn’t have to ask the questions any normal person would ask in his position.

Anglerfish turned her gaze towards him. He supposed it was the type of cold, evaluating gaze that should make him cower, and so he did. She glanced at Polar Bear, having some sort of silent exchange, before answering his question.

“Sort of, you could say we’re experienced in this sort of encounter.” She seemed to have considered her next words seriously. “We’re from the government.”

Ho? Stealing the Disaster Management Bureau’s identity? Incredible.

He nodded. “I see… I had wondered about this. Sometimes folks with truly odd injuries end up in the emergency room, but we’ve learned not to ask.”

“That’s wise.” Polar Bear nodded at him. “This sort of thing is often deadly.”

The group shuffled around for a while after that, employees making sure they were ready, that they had deadly weapons in the event that something ended up going truly wrong.

“Now that we’re all sorted out, I think it’s time we split up. Large groups are bound to attract the attention of entities.”

He finally heard the voice of the third elite team member present in the exploration. Clearly someone who benefited from nepotism, as their voice wavered even at that simple, obvious command.

Kwak raised a hand to contribute again. At Polar Bear’s nod, he spoke.

“Can I travel with you guys?”

The man frowned, “You don’t have to. We’re on orders from D— from our company, but you would be good to go now, no danger.”

Kwak put on an apprehensive look. “Right, but I’m a little unsure about that, it sounds… scary. I don’t want to be alone either.”

“You’re going to be in much more danger if you don’t,” Bloodhound cut in. “If you die in any other way than suicide, it’s an actual death.”

He glanced at the two bodies on the floor, “So those two…”

“Correct. They won’t be waking up in the real world, or anything like that. That’s why we suggest you get out now.”

The undercurrent of ‘while you still can’ went unsaid.

He fiddled with his shirt, “But still…”

Daydream wouldn’t be getting any good character prizes anytime soon. Anglerfish gave him one last look before rolling her eyes. She most likely thought Kwak didn’t believe them about the exit method. Not a bad assumption, considering if he were an actual civilian that would be the case.

“Suit yourself. We have to go, it’s been too long here already. A doctor will be making rounds any time now.”

A doctor? He wished one would, but it would be utterly absurd for doctors with too much to do to waste their time in the foyer of the hospital. Same with the patients, unless some sort of escape happened, it was highly improbable for one to burst on the scene.

Did they really think they had spent upwards of half an hour discussing, arguing, causing a ruckus, and nothing would come rushing over if it could? No, theoretically if they just spent their time here without doing anything, they would be doing exactly as the researchers asked of them.

Not that he would be letting them know about that. It would be akin to taking his golden goose to the back of the shed and shooting it for no good reason at all. 

So he simply nodded, falling in line into one of the groups.

Kwak didn’t believe in any notion of luck, except maybe as a Darkness mechanic, but he truly seemed to be lucky that day. The people in the group he followed just happened to be the members of Kwak’s experimental group.

Meaning his control would be going without his interference, just as planned. He could check up on them and see what had gone down after he finished up here.

“Why didn’t you exit the Darkness as the employees suggested? You had to have known they were telling the truth about the exit method.”

The head of the research department has relaxed a bit, perhaps realizing this is going to be an extended ordeal for him. He’s loosened the tie around his neck and had some new intern bring in a standing fan.

All the better. Kwak wonders why his interrogator is sweating so much when he’s the one in a tough spot, so to speak.

Still, the man rubs his forehead in exasperation.

“Can I ask a question?”

He looks at Kwak with deadpan. “If you answer mine, sure, whatever. Fine. Go ahead. But for the next,” the man pulls his smartphone out of his pocket to check the time, “half an hour, you have to stick entirely to recounting the Darkness. No if, and, or buts.”

“Why are you so eager to rush through? Want to get back home to the wife?”

The man flinches. “What the hell are you talking about?”

He had specifically taken off his ring before entering, lest he give the man in the seat any more ammunition against him. Kwak, while promising as a new recruit, had been described by quite a few employees to be mildly off putting.

‘He’s a nice guy and all, funny, but sometimes… I don’t know, it feels like he looks at me and he sees inside, if you know what I mean. And then other times, it’s like, he looks at me, but it doesn’t feel like he’s looking at another human being.’

So while it was inevitable that Kwak Jaekang would know certain things about him already, such as his name, he got rid of any other particular or identifying factors.

“Your tattoo.” Kwak smiles. “It looks quite nice. I assume that’s the name of your wife?”

Then: “Hmm… I guess it could be a dog—”

“Watch what you’re saying!” The man slams his palms on the metal. Not out of any particular protectiveness towards his wife, but anger at being insulted. He can’t believe he forgot about his tattoo, it must have become visible when he pulled his sleeves up earlier.

Of course, that’s not the only thing that clued in his marital status to Kwak, but he feels like the man would throw a fit and quite possibly have a mental breakdown if Kwak pointed all his little tics and mannerisms out. And the researcher would like to finish this question as soon as possible so he can get to the thing. If the head of the research department storms out and refuses to finish Kwak’s interview, then they’ll end up bringing someone else in and he would have to start from the beginning. Again.

He made the mistake of chasing out the head of his own research team and they brought this guy in, regrettably.

“Right, sorry. Well I’ll try to speed this along for you.”

“I’m going to repeat this only once,” the supervisor sits down again, “Why didn’t you exit upon learning the method? You understand that this is a very suspicious action, right?”

“But aren’t we supposed to be researching Darknesses as members of the Research department?”

“I— You.” He sighs, “Okay. So what happened after your group split up from the other one?”

Kwak smiles. “That’s when things got really hectic.”

They crept in the corridors of the asylum, shuffling so as to not make so much noise. Kwak observed the walls of the hospital as he walked through. There was graffiti, of course, spelling out things like “HELP ME” and “SAVE YOURSELVES.” And on top of that, there were bloodstains, scratches, really everything you would expect of a haunted and abandoned building.

Kwak narrowed his eyes. Like always, they seemed to be encompassing the most base and strongest of human fears. Most people would drop dead before they willingly entered a place like this one, and yet.

It only further added to the proof that these Darknesses are meant to incite fear, or that they are created from fear and negativity. Similar to the urban legends that popped up, strengthening the stronger human belief in them is.

Kwak suspected the Darknesses occurred as a sort of mirror to human beings, that it gained strength from the fear. He’d have to check on the Essence when they left. Considering that this Darkness didn’t pose any real danger to the people entering it, the Research team suspected it to be a D or even C grade Darkness.

Prolonging their duration in the hospital was a hope for increasing the quality of their Essence.

He turned his attention back to the group, which included three of the notable employees he had mentioned earlier. Only Bloodhound and Anglerfish had been included in the other one. Considering their personalities… that group would probably do alright in terms of evading the entities in the Darkness. The real danger laid within.

Suddenly, the group stopped moving. At the back, Kwak couldn’t quite tell what had caused the sudden commotion. He waited for the group to make some indication as to what the issue was.

Everyone had gone quiet, meaning it was likely on the orders of Polar Bear at the front. Had he seen something? An errant patient? The group hadn’t been spotted yet, with the way no one sprung into action and started shooting.

The group moved around slowly, into hiding positions. Kwak followed suit, pressing half under a gurney and against the wall. And there it was. A ‘patient,’ trekking down their corridor. Likely had turned in earlier, which had prompted the sudden movement.

The patient exhaled and inhaled in reedy, wheezing gasps.

When it got close enough, Polar Bear moved, quick as a whip. He lunged and crushed the thing’s skull within his fists.

It twitched a few times before it went limp. Kwak would be more interested if he did that all with brute force, but the man shook his hands a bit, revealing two gauntlets. They only became visible after he had dealt with the patient, perhaps a chemical reaction with the blood.

Interesting. Kwak wished he had one of the lab’s interdimensional pockets with him at the time he was sucked in, so he’d be able to take samples back into the building. Though if he found something interesting enough, he’d have to make do with what he had and bring it back anyway.

Some employees shuffled as if to get up, but Kwak held out a hand. He put a finger over his lips and held a hand to his ear, indicating he had heard something. Bobcat stared at him curiously, wondering what this doctor was talking about.

But then they heard it.

The pitter patter, a set of footsteps getting closer and closer.

Hah, it was so silly. Wasn’t it obvious that wherever a patient went, a doctor should be there to collect them soon after?

The Doctor walked down the hall, pausing, looking this way and that. He skulked to the body of the patient, still lying on the ground from Polar Bear’s attack. Kwak’s eyes glinted in amusement at the way Polar Bear stiffened. That’s right, if he had just let the entity walk through the hall without interference, it likely never would have noticed the group. As it were, though, the man was poking and prodding at the limp form of the patient.

He turned it over.

The caved in mess where its head used to be stared back at him. The Doctor stood up and looked around, but the perpetrators were nowhere to be seen. That didn’t mean he could leave this alone, though. Patients had to be documented and accounted for. He started dragging the body away. The grooves in the hospital tile didn’t help, the body’s head going THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, every time it passed over a bump.

Before anyone could feel a great sense of relief, the Doctor stopped, hand still clutching onto the Patient’s gown. He dropped it, already decimated skull crashing to the floor with a sickening crunch.

Someone had made a noise, Kwak realized. Not the kind one could hear with human ears, he was quite sure he hadn’t heard anything. Perhaps it was that stethoscope attached to his ears. It wasn’t quite how they worked, but Darkness logic was notoriously screwy. Something that made them all the more exhilarating.

Regardless, for whatever reason, the Doctor had realized the perpetrators were in his vicinity. So he decided to do another inspection. He started off at the end of the hall, where the closets of materials were. To his knowledge, there was someone there—

Yeah. Based on the muffled whimper and shriek as he ripped open the door, there was. The employee screamed while getting dragged out. The employee pulled out some sharp, metallic object—perhaps a scalpel or a knife—and aimed for her jugular. The Doctor didn’t want that, however, and grabbed the arm before she could reach the surface of her neck. Except he wasn’t able to completely stop the momentum and instead assisted in cutting her neck open.

Her eyes widened as she realized what just happened. It would no longer be considered suicide. She gasped, dying breaths a pained, whimpering thing as the light in her eyes went out.

The Doctor dropped her body without care, as if angry. He examined her body, no blood, before his gaze slipped back to the Patient, gown painted sanguine. She was not the killer, which meant his search must continue.

Beluga swallowed. She knew what was coming. If there was any possibility of the Doctor finding them out, the regular and elite team employees would have no qualms sending her out like a lamb to slaughter while they escaped.

So she did something bad.

She picked up some trash that hadn’t been cleaned up from near her and, as quietly as possible, chucked it in some random direction. Her eyes widened upon realizing the noise it had made was quite loud and right next to another employee. Immediately, she lowered her hand.

When the man who was outed looked over, he saw a nervous Round-off team member and a smug regular team member. He dragged the regular team member out by the collar. “You think you’re fucking funny, huh?”

Kwak raised a brow. Was now the time to fight, when the Doctor was observing their actions? In the first place, why was the Doctor watching this play out? Then he realized, probably for the same reason that Kwak stayed in the Darkness: human observation.

The man who was dragged out made eye contact with Kwak. Kwak mouthed ‘Good luck~’ He saw red.

“Doctor!” The man whipped around to face the entity, “Over here, there’s eight—no, seven—other people!”

Kwak laughed, this time with noise. Just as expected.

The Doctor started cackling, an eerie noise, as he made his way down the hall. The employees exchanged glances; they could just kill themselves now. The Doctor was one person— thing , and there’s eight of them. It couldn’t possibly get them all.

But Daydream, the mission. If they left then, they’ve been there for what, an hour? The Essence they’d retrieve from it might even be F-grade, and after they’ve already lost 3 employees it’s no good. No, they would have to proceed according to the plan.

The issue was whether they should attempt to fight the Doctor. Just as Polar Bear raised his fists, perhaps to do exactly that, the Doctor reached inside himself and pulled out a buzz-saw.

The electronic hum filled the air as the tool reared to life.

C̶͚̪̽̎͂̀̀̏̕O̶̢̩̼̜̬̪̞̖̩͔̙̜̱̍̈́͜M̶̖̙͕̌̍̀́̆̈́̊̈̈͂͐͠͝Ȩ̵̛̣̭͉̦̜̥̙̲̳̝̪͕̝̋̎̎͗͑̈̆́̉͒ ̴̢̢̧͕̺͕̠̝̖̓̔̿W̸̦̭̞͈̫̪̺̔̑I̴̢̳̙̥͙͖͔̍͐̇̈́̅̓̏̅̀̇͠ͅT̸̟̭̼̃̾̔́̐͋͋̿̕Ĥ̸̨̡̰̙̫̘̦̲͈͎͛͘ ̷͕͙̤̱̖͈͗̓́̍̄̀͑̌̿̿͑̋̕ͅM̵͚̯̊͂̅Ę̶̧̬̬̜̬̲͈͉̫̺̎̾̋̆͜

And so they did. Kwak fell into the back of the line again. The Doctor led them down the hall and down another, dragging the two corpses along with him. They arrived in front of two doors; the left had “GIVE UP” on the surface and the right simply had a dark smear.

The Doctor started speaking, that same uncomfortable noise akin to nails on chalkboard, before stopping. He hit his throat with his fist a few times quite harshly before clearing his throat.

“That’s much better. Welcome, new patients to Gonjijam. We hope you’ll enjoy your stay.”

Another Doctor emerged from behind him, seeming to be a lady.

“Now why would the employee—what did you say their mask was again—out everyone else? According to Daydream’s policy, it would have been much more conducive to allow everyone to stay in place.”

“That would be expecting a Daydream employee to sacrifice,” Kwak points out.

“Yes.” The supervisor gives him a funny look. “What are you trying to say?”

“A certain type of person chooses to stay after the orientation,” he idly makes shapes with his fingers on the table, “I think almost all of our employees would have done the same.”

“He wasn’t provoked in any way? Perhaps mocked or taunted?”

Kwak eyed the empty coffee cup that had fallen to the floor in one of the supervisor’s fits of rage. Would he get in trouble if he asked for his own cup? Surely they would get tired of interviewing him at some point.

“Not that I could see.”

The supervisor doesn’t quite look like he believes Kwak, but he acquiesces and continues his questioning.

“Sure, whatever.”

“Hey,” Kwak intervenes before he can set up his next question, “Could I get some lunch? It’s lunch time, isn’t it?”

At the man’s blank look, he adds, “I’m feeling quite hungry.”

“How would you know if it’s lunch time or not?”

Kwak shrugs, “Your stomach keeps growling, I just assumed. Bodies tend to get hungry more as a habit than physiological need.”

“You are not getting food until we finish this investigation,” the man hisses.

“That seems like a violation of human rights.”

“You would be well versed in those, wouldn’t you?” His eyes narrow.

Kwak raises a brow, “I’m not quite sure what you mean. Isn’t a promotion to head of the department after a mere year in the company a bit of a violation too? Some ethical ones.”

“You”— his face is getting all red now—“You little— I’m going to have you fired.”

“On what grounds?” Kwak is genuinely curious. “And be careful of your hypertension. It’s best not to get too angry, it could be dangerous.”

“Mind. Your. Business.” He seems to have struck a nerve.

He smiles, “Sorry, I’m only looking out for you.”

The supervisor loosens his already loose tie even more. “Touching. Don’t.”

Sarcasm seems to be the natural state for many people, Kwak notes. He nods in understanding, which seems to alleviate the head of the research department’s anger a little bit. 

“I understand that after you were separated a second time is when most of the deaths in your group occurred? Could you provide more detail on that?”

“I mean, sure, but how? I wasn’t with the group at the time it all happened.”

“Start with what the Doctors made you do, then. You said they called you new patients?”

“I did say that.”

“Go into more detail on what they made you do.”

Kwak nods. “I can do that.”

After the second Doctor arrived, the atmosphere grew a bit more tense. The employees exchanged a glance as she welcomed them.

“We’ll be performing a diagnostic test before you get fully situated.”

They didn’t move to confiscate the group’s items or reclothe them in different garbs, leaving Kwak to assume that was what they would have meant by ‘getting them fully situated.’ Meaning they had until that point to end their lives, at which they would lose the capability to do so entirely.

Kwak examined the employees around him, trying to gauge whether they had realized this. No apparent sense of alarm, so perhaps not. That employee who he had taunted was glaring at him harshly, though. He supposed Daydream didn’t much ascribe to the philosophy of ‘water under the bridge.’

“For this diagnostic”— the male Doctor was speaking at that time—“we’ll be splitting you into two groups.”

They started picking employees out, moving them one way or the other based on some unknown parameter. Kwak raised his brows. Interestingly enough, he had been put into a group with Polar Bear, Bobcat, Beluga and another employee. It was interesting, to be splitting them up into five and three, but it was true that they never said they would be doing an exact split in half. On top of that, an odd number was advantageous for many things.

The female Doctor guided them into the room on the left, the one with “GIVE UP” written on the door. There was a cot pushed up against one wall and no seating aside from it. It looked more like a prison cell than an inpatient room.

Polar Bear took charge, as the highest ranking employee there. Kwak noted the eye-roll from Bobcat. Could there be some history there?

“What was the test you wanted us to undergo, Doctor?”

He was doing a good job acclimatizing, as expected. One could only hope it didn’t leave him extra susceptible to contamination though.

“Ah, you see”— he wiped the blood off his own glasses, doing nothing much but smearing it around further and obscuring his eyes completely —“we don’t have the space for so many new patients.”

With all of those empty, abandoned rooms? Really? It was a funny claim.

The Doctor continued on. “As we are unable to take in your full group, we have come up with a system for you to do this process yourselves.”

Kwak could barely contain his glee. This was shaping up to be a great test on humanity.

“Between you and the other group, we are only able to keep a few people. Therefore we will either be letting half—maybe even all—of you go or taking everyone to experimental treatment, where they’re in dire need of more bodies!”

He walked around the room, “If you guys offer the other group up as patients and they don’t, you go free while they get pulled into the hospital as true patients. If you don’t offer them up, but they offer you up, the reverse is true.”

The Prisoners’ Dilemma. The thought flashed in Kwak’s head as the Doctor kept speaking.

“If both of you choose to let the other go, Gonjijam will have no choice but to let everyone go free. But if you both offer the other group up, you’ll all be taken to experimental treatment!”

He had made his way back to the door.

“You have”— the Doctor paused to look down at his wrist, though it was bare—“half an hour. Well, I’ll leave you to it.”

A click. The door had been locked from the other side; of course they wouldn’t leave any wiggle room for the future patients to escape.

“It would be optimal if both groups were to let the other go. I am confident the other employees know this.” Polar Bear made eye contact with each of the other employees as he spoke.

“Hah, sure”— Bobcat frowned as he spoke—“but what if they don’t? That would just leave us with these freaky-ass Doctors to do who-knows-what and experiment on us as they please. To hell with that.”

“I have a suggestion…” Beluga spoke in a meek voice, then became surprised when the chatter actually stopped at the words.

“Wh-why don’t we take this time to exit the Darkness? I feel like we’ve stayed here long enough for the Essence to be of good quality.”

At the seemingly disapproving stares, she rushed to explain her reasoning to the group, “I just mean, we have the other group that we split off with in the beginning and the other group we’re with right now would be let go…”

“How do you know that?” Kwak was sure the other employees would have their own qualms about her suggestion, but he felt the need to point this flaw in her logic out.

“What do you mean?” Beluga looked eager that someone was considering her suggestion at the very least, unbeknownst to the fact that Kwak would do everything in his power to make sure no one followed it.

“I mean, if we were to exit through suicide,” Kwak ignored her flinch at the word, “how could we guarantee the Doctors would let the other group go? They only said they needed to take less patients in, not that they don’t have any room at all.”

“Ah.” The light in her eyes dimmed. “That’s right.”

“On top of that”— Bobcat’s tone was derisive—“If we let the other bastards get away with the good stuff, where will that leave us? This kind of mentality is what’s keeping you stuck in the Round-off teams.”

Interestingly enough, there had been no need to say that considering her idea had already been shot down. But people, Daydream employees in particular, have a penchant for kicking others when they were down.

“We’re back at the beginning, then.” Polar Bear frowned. 

Kwak turned his gaze to the last employee, who had stayed silent until now. Interesting considering even Beluga, who in the eyes of Daydream was worse than trash, had offered her opinion. A grifter? Potentially.

“I say fuck ‘em, let’s choose to sacrifice the other team.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Polar Bear frowned. “It’s possible doing so would be sending them to a certain death.”

Bobcat snorted, “So?”

“We’ve already lost 3 employees, it wouldn’t do us good to lose more. A continued source of Essence is more preferable to one instance of higher-grade Essence.”

“Ahhh.” A slimy look entered Bobcat’s eyes. “You’re worried about your track record as an Elite Team member, gotcha.”

Polar Bear’s eyes narrowed, “No—”

“What do you think, doctor?” Mantis interrupted, perhaps by accident, the Elite Team member to ask for Kwak’s opinion. Her eyes widened. “My bad, you were speaking.”

Though he looked mildly annoyed, Polar Bear let it slide. “I’m also interested in this.”

Kwak grinned. “Do you want to hear my opinion as a doctor, or as someone with a brain and healthy sense of self-preservation?”

Mantis raised a brow. “Is there a difference?”

“Well, as doctors, we take the Hippocratic Oath—” Kwak made it less than halfway into his sentence before Mantis cut him off.

“The other one, then.”

It seemed this one was prone to cutting people off, likely a disregard for what other people have to say as a whole. Ironic considering she had stayed silent to see the mood of the room before she spoke up.

“Ah, well…” He patted his person as a sort of theatrical display considering he already knew he would come up empty. “Does anyone have a marker?”

“None that aren’t items,” Polar Bear’s gruff voice answered before anyone so much as reached into their pockets.

“That’s okay,” Kwak replied, but with a slight frown. “Regardless, I think we’re better off selling the other team out, regardless of the situation. On one hand, if the other team keeps us safe, selling them out would give you a larger share of the reward from the Dream Essence as opposed to merely going free. If they chose to sell us out, selling them out as well means we would all go to experimental treatment giving us the maximum chance to escape this… Darkness, you called it? As opposed to just the five of us getting registered as normal patients.”

A bout of silence.

“You sure thought about this a lot, huh, doc?” Bobcat commented, a little surprised.

Polar Bear looked Kwak dead in the eye, “Are you really just a doctor? You seem to know a lot about how Daydream works.”

Elite Team employees, sharp as always.

Kwak shrugged, “Just paying attention. I did have to get through medical school, eh? What use would this brain be if I couldn’t still use it?”

“I guess…” But there was still a flicker of hesitation on the man’s face.

“You’re the tie-breaker then!” Bobcat directed the words at Mantis. “Make your decision, we have what, 10 minutes left?”

“15,” Kwak corrected.

He received an odd look, likely due to the lack of a clock around. However, falling into the clock-pool immediately upon entering the Darkness had gifted him an innate sense of time. Though it was likely contamination, who gave a shit?

Perhaps if the employees, who had entered using the Rorschach Test, had paid any mind to the ink beasts chasing them… He wondered what kind of power they might be granted then?

“Hmm,” Mantis hummed as she considered. “The doctor makes a good point. I say we throw them under the bus.”

“I wouldn’t call it that, exactly,” Bobcat mumbled.

“What would you call it, then?” She snorted.

“A vested interest in our own survival,” Kwak commented. To his mild surprise, Beluga looked genuinely taken with the statement. Perhaps it was something that truly resonated with her, he noted offhandedly.

They waited the rest of the time they were given to deliberate in complete silence. The turn of the knob and subsequent footsteps further into the room feature as a death knell.

“So? What have you fine folks chosen?”

“We want to offer the others up as your new patients,” Bobcat replied cheerily, before Polar Bear had the chance to say otherwise. Kwak noticed the other man clench his fist and tense his jaw. It seemed he had indeed been planning on doing something of that sort.

“I see.” A smile, too wide for that visage, erupted on the Doctor’s face. He giggled maniacally shortly after.

“Um,” Beluga fidgeted with her sleeve, “So, what’s the verdict?”

“You’re free to go.” The Doctor stepped out of the doorway. “Congratulations.”

Beluga flinched as if she had been shot. So they had effectively doomed the other five employees to a lifetime in the hospital, escaping with contamination if they were lucky and not at all if they weren’t.

They trudged out of the room, some footsteps more enthusiastic than others. Kwak served as a sort of half-way point, if only because that was however much he could suppress his excitement.

Amazing, truly amazing— How quick humans were to sell each other out if given the slightest nudge. This was the purpose of Darknesses, their ethos.

“Wait.”

The group froze. It was quite possible the Doctor had found another way to keep them there. It would be antithetical for the Doctor to let them go so easily, after all.

“Would you like to visit your friends before we register them?”

Kwak abstained from answering, curious at what the party would say. He could already see a sort of sneer forming on Bobcat’s face.

“Yes.”

Polar Bear steamrolled any beginnings of protests, going so far as to change direction and walk near the second door.

“Splendid!” The Doctor inserted a key and opened the other door. The first thing Kwak noted was that there was no Doctor in there, based on the way it had to be locked. The other Doctor had probably gone to get ready for the patients, then.

The second thing he noticed was the blood. Everywhere. And so much of it, too. Bright starbursts of red spattered all across the room. There were four bodies littered across the room.

Kwak’s gaze travelled to the far end, where it met a man, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall.

“I killed them… All of them…” His mutters were barely comprehensible. Among the disarray, signs of a messy and hard battle could be seen.

The man’s eyes were barely visible to the maroon drenching his face.

“It was all for nothing, fucking— I killed them! I killed them! I KILLED THEM.”

Kwak was trying to put together what had happened in the room in the first place, but he didn’t have the right puzzle pieces. Suddenly, a chill went through the air. The man on the floor looked up, eyes glazing over Kwak to make contact with Polar Bear.

“You— You fucking bastard.” He scrambled to get up, slipping a few times on the blood.

“You said employees had to stick together! That we have to be loyal to each other. They wanted to offer you up, so I, I killed them! For you! So I could set you free.”

“But you…” He started sobbing, hand still ensnared in Polar Bear’s collar, “you abandoned me.”

Polar Bear’s eyes shook. “I’m sorry.”

He glanced at the Doctor, who was humming as he piled all the bodies in a corner, seemingly preoccupied.

The elite team member leaned into the sole survivor’s space. Kwak’s smile grew. This was going to be good.

“We’ll get you out, you haven’t been registered as a Patient and contaminated yet, just—”

The Doctor stood up. “Excuse me, just what do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to steal? A patient?”

Polar Bear paled, sensing that something wasn’t right with the entity’s tone. “He’s unwell. We need to treat him. Why are you trying to deny him treatment? WHY?”

He seemed to double in size.

Ţ̷̗̬̮͛̽̀͛H̶̞̃̐O̷̡̱̞̬͕͈̍͐̓͛̿S̷̢͔͍̥̫͕̜͋̽̈́̽Ě̶̡̺̰͙̼̲̄̉̆̅͛͛ ̷̫̲̼̐͛͛̓W̸̱͓̗͈̽H̷̡͖͔̭̞͔͉̊͘O̶̭̙̒͗̀ ̶̹̖̣̽̈͗T̶̜̎R̵̨̛͖̅̓̌̌Y̵͖͛̐̌͝ ̶̗͋͗̀̃̍Ṯ̸̗̗́̑̉̽͝Ö̸̺͙͔̯̭̜́́͋̈́̈͠ ̴͓̜̬͇̘̫̘̄͌S̴̨͕̈́͗̽̕T̴̬̱̹̆̑̀E̴̜̎̒̿͑̄A̷͔͛̽L̵̲̘̫̓̐̈̏̓͛ ̸̡̢͍͓̘̹̆͊̉̚P̴̳͖̹͙̈́̂͌̍̽̇͋A̷̦̗͍̰͘T̴̝̮͛͒Ì̷̥̫̝̼̼͈̬͠E̷̡̙̲̟͓̮̊N̷̡̢̤̠̩̩̋́̓́͂̃ͅT̵̟̙̳̍̿̆͘S̵͍̪̝͕̃ ̶̠̺͉̅M̴͎̣̪̥̔U̶̯͇͖̓̒̈́͜S̵̯͉͍̰̱͉̈́̔͒͊̾̑̓T̸̼̰̝͚̝̤́͜͝ ̵̛̼̘̟͍̗̭̄͑͜B̶̳̱͈̖̪̙͌̓̄̕͝Ê̸̠͔̗͈̮̈́͒̆͘͠C̵͍͆̚Ŏ̴̖̿̐̈́̇M̴̨̩̩̥͎̤̕Ȇ̷̻̪̭ ̷̢̄̏̆̔͊͋͝ͅP̴̡̫̦͇̰̳̘̑̑̔̑̅̔̚A̴͚̺͋̔̉̆͝T̶̥̥͚͖̙̲͒I̶̡̨̮̙͔͕͗̊̾̓͑E̶̢̡̛̖͚̝̪̒̿̀̓̍͘N̴̡̡̞̙̪͇̗̏͌̃̍̌͊̓T̶̻̕S̷̝̳͌͊ ̶̥͇̝͖͍̀̀T̷̙̍̑͒͝Ḧ̵͕̤̹̩̺́̈́́̾̀̽̐Ë̷̪̭͖́Ṁ̷̞̯̼̝͋̇͜Ş̵̣̌́̕͜Ȩ̸̛̣̣̋͂L̸̡̡͖͉̩͖̔̈̒͑̊̃͜V̴̨̲͈̼̖̂̿̀̽̿E̴̟̳̤̭̳͈̋͑̄̈́Ṡ̸̡̥̤̥̤̑̔.̴̧̠́̋

“Screw this, good luck with that, or whatever,” Bobcat muttered before turning tail and booking it straight down the hall. Mantis followed shortly after. Kwak bit his lip. Those were two of his experimental group members that had run off and escaped his monitoring. He still had these three over here, though…

This situation seemed to be more fruitful than chasing them down, though. It was possible they would kill themselves to exit the Darkness the second they were out of sight. Meanwhile, here was an entity that had been angered and looked to be gearing up to dole out punishment. 

Beluga had backed into Kwak, inching away from the Doctor and his fury. She hadn’t run though, which was out of the expected. Round-off team members were put there for one reason or another, one of which often happened to be cowardice or the like. He had also seen a recurring theme of unwillingness to work.

The Round-off team member didn’t seem like one that belonged there, let alone with Daydream at all.

Polar Bear raised his gauntlets. “I won’t let you take him.”

Horrendous laughter. “Oh, but you already did, remember? Remember when you let the others offer him up?”

“Hey.” Polar Bear stiffened as the only employee left from this grabbed his shoulder. “Let’s just let them take us, yeah? It’s not good for patients to refuse treatment…”

His face fell. “You… When did that wristband appear on you?”

Polar Bear was, of course, referring to the man’s patient ID, wrapped around his wrist. Which was funny, because he had had it the moment they had entered the room. Even the offer to see their fellow employees— it was to see if any one of them would try and go against Gonjijam and break the patients, patient in this case, out.

It was like all of the fight had drained out of Polar Bear. He didn’t resist at all as the Doctor snapped a wristband around his own wrist. Kwak squinted. Was their relationship truly so profound? It didn’t seem to make sense.

Because if it was, then why had the man let the group decide to sacrifice this one in the first place? And after that, why had he been ready to walk away? Perhaps the fatigue of constantly going into Darknesses and losing coworkers time after time had gotten to him. Or seeing a precious junior in such a sorry state, with no way to escape himself… Regardless, whatever the reason was, it made no sense to Kwak.

He tilted his head, watching in gross fascination as the Doctor dragged the two new Patients away.

“I guess it’s just you and me then,” Kwak commented blithely.

Beluga gave him an odd look.

“If the two of you had been set free by Go—” He cuts himself off, a superstitious man as always, though such a trait wasn’t uncommon in Daydream.

“If the doctor had let the two of you go, then why hadn’t you exited the Darkness then?”

“If I said that we wanted to save the other employees?” Kwak raises a brow, as if challenging the Supervisor into calling him out.

“I wouldn’t believe you,” he responds in a dry tone.

“Haha, I thought so. Well, then I’ll tell the truth. One of the other employees, whom we hadn’t noticed double back, decided to use Beluga as a tool.”

“What?”

“That’s right, one of your people issued a command, preventing her from going through with the suicide.”

“Don’t call them my people,” the head says with a disgusted expression. “If anything, you would be considered one of my people.”

He looks a little green in the face at that. If that caused the man discomfort, Kwak would imagine he wouldn’t be lasting long at Daydream at all. Though it’s to be expected; he knows that those at the top have only made their way there through their connections.

“The employee that controlled Beluga, who was it?”

Kwak yawns. “Can we wrap things up? I think we’re nearing the end of the work day.”

“Since when have you been one to leave work early? The cameras capture you staying well past Daydream’s regular hours nearly every day. If I didn’t know any better, I would have assumed that you live at this lab.”

He shrugs in response. “I feel like this is a bit redundant.”

“We’re only going through this, as I have already explained to you, because you being the only person to escape the Darkness in and of itself is extremely suspicious. Not to mention there are large holes in your report. I know you’re hiding something.” The supervisor leans further across the table, “And I’m going to figure out exactly what it is. If only those fucking Collectors had a recording function,” he curses under his breath.

Kwak perks up. He has no interest in partaking in the development of the feature itself, but thinks of all the information that could come from it. A heightened sense of understanding of Darknesses and a more comprehensive look at the data.

A tendril of pleasure snakes its way around his body, warming him up from the inside out.

The seed is already in the man’s head, Kwak only has to water it.

“Bobcat.”

“What?” The supervisor, still complaining and grumbling about how incredibly difficult his job is, looks up, confused at the interruption to his musing.

“The employee that commanded Beluga, it was Bobcat.”

The man murmurs, “Is that so?”

Even so, Kwak can tell the supervisor doesn’t quite recall who he’s talking about. Wow. The only thing that had happened since the man dashed away with Mantis was the contamination of Polar Bear and this oaf still couldn’t remember.

He sighs.

Did it happen like that? Well, sort of, with the omission of one minor detail. Even before Bobcat had taken control of the situation and started ordering Beluga around.

Upon being left alone, Beluga had timidly suggested exiting the Darkness together.

Though that Bobcat fellow had his own motivations for pointing out her perceived character flaws, there was some truth in his words. Any other employee, one from the Regular teams or Elite teams, would have under no circumstance thought to ask for his opinion, let alone value what it was.

Kwak suspected she was too scared to commit suicide alone.

“We could,” he nodded. “Or we can save your colleagues?”

“W-what?” Due to her surprise, the word came out as a stutter. “What do you mean? Bobcat and Mantis? I think they got away fine.”

“No.” Kwak shook his head. “I’m referring to the group we split off from in the beginning.”

“I’m sure they can handle themselves,” she mumbled, not quite reluctant, but not quite seeing his point of view either.

“Maybe, but I have reason to believe they are in danger.”

He waited for her eyes to widen in shock before continuing. “Recall how the Doctor mentioned an influx of new patients, which is why they had to decide who to take from us in the first place. Look around, this hospital is abandoned, there’s no way there’s space issues and yet they commented on that fact.”

She furrowed her brow. “Did they say something like that? I remember the reason for making us choose was that they couldn’t take us all, but about the influx…”

“Definitely, I’m one hundred percent sure.” Kwak looked her dead in the eyes with a solemn gaze. “They must have included that fact so we could worry about it and your colleagues.”

“Do you really think that?” Beluga questioned him once more, but she was already looking much more convinced than when Kwak had initially rejected her suggestion to leave the Darkness.

Well. Of course he didn’t. The Doctors hadn’t mentioned any new patients, in the first place. But on top of that, it made no sense to stop saving themselves in order to try and save the others. He had correctly surmised it to be a line of reasoning that would work on her, though.

As for why Kwak didn’t want to leave just yet, it was a given. When was he ever going to get a chance to study a Darkness up close and personal like this again? Perhaps never. He could have just let Beluga kill herself and backed out after she had left, but…

A Round-off team member was truly too great of a tool to pass up. He didn’t care about ordering her around, didn’t even have the authority to, but the fact that everyone else in the Darkness could was important.

So important, in fact, that Kwak got a chance to see it play out mere moments later.

“Well, well, well,” Bobcat drawled. “Would you look at what the cat brought in.”

Kwak could see Mantis cringe with her whole body, clearly put off by the man’s manner of speaking.

“Gross.” She muttered, “And wouldn’t you be the cat?”

“It’s an expression. You’re lucky I’m leaving you alive, so don’t forget it?”

Kwak’s gaze briefly flickered towards Beluga, taking in the way she was quivering. Was she familiar with Bobcat and whatever his methods may be? Or was it a general fear of cruelty that would arise around other employees from Daydream?

“What are you doing here?” He decided to speak up for them instead. “I thought the two of you ran off? Why didn’t you take the opportunity to exit?”

“There’s a weird look in your eyes, doc,” Bobcat muttered, “But anyways, we did consider it. But then I thought, why share all this reward with the other employees? I mean, no one would notice if they just went missing here, would they?’

Mantis giggled at that, “In fact, I’ve heard it’s a common thing.”

“What is…” Beluga’s words were a mere murmur.

“Speak up,” Bobcat barked out.

“I said”— there was a mild fire in Beluga’s eyes, though weak—“What’s a common thing?”

Mantis tittered even louder, now, “Silly, exterminating other employees so you can reap their rewards.”

Kwak looked at Beluga again. Sure enough, she looked utterly horrified. 

“Are you seeing this?” Bobcat snickered. “Wow. How did you even make it past orientation? No wonder you’re in the Round-off team, though. How long ago did you enter Daydream anyway?”

She looked away.

Bobcat looked furious. “Answer me.”

Now forced to do so through the command, she fought uselessly around the opening of her mouth. Beluga looked on the verge of tears, Kwak guessed.

“T-two months ago,” the words were slurred oddly, evidencing her futile attempt at resistance against the command.

“No wonder you’re still alive, then.” Bobcat strolled closer. “No worries though, I’ll put that body of yours to good use.”

Kwak raised a brow. What an interesting bunch. 

“You said you wanted to save the others? Well get to it then, let’s go and find the other employees.”

Bobcat laughed as he issued another command. “Walk at the front of the group and don’t hesitate to throw yourself in the way if another Doctor appears.”

Her arms and legs moved mechanically as she shuffled to do exactly what he said. Bobcat turned back to look at Kwak.

“You coming or not, doc?”

He said the word so specifically that Kwak got the inkling that Bobcat may not believe him. Oh well, it wasn’t like knowing a speeding car was heading in your direction would stop it from you.

Kwak simply smiled. “Of course. Why would I leave Beluga alone with you? You don’t seem to have pure intentions.”

“Good job with that amazing deduction, Einstein,” Mantis mumbled as Kwak fell into step beside Beluga.

“So do you have any idea where the other employees are being held?” Bobcat called out the question from behind them.

“Mm, no, how would I?” He looked at Beluga, not surprised in the least to see her still quivering and shaking.

The next few minutes of walking around the hospital were spent in silence, somehow, not even any scuffles or bickering between the two other employees. Kwak’s gaze, of course, then turned to examining the halls they passed through with a more scrutinizing eye.

Incredible. He had heard the tales, but the hospital mirrored reality, as if it were a tangible location on Earth much more than he thought. Could human behaviour and emotions be this powerful or was his hypothesis wrong in the first place?

The lighting in this portion of the hospital had suffered from misuse, adding to the damp and dismal atmosphere. If Kwak strained his ears to hear, it was quite easy to hone in on distant screams of anguish.

As they continued on their journey, all sort of mild oddities occurred. For example, the horde of rats (perhaps even a rat king) that skittered in the corners of their peripheral vision. Or the groans, increasing in fervor, rising through the walls of the building.

“Isn’t that just lovely,” Bobcat muttered sarcastically.

“We haven’t seen anyone for a while,” Kwak noted out loud. Beluga’s eyes widened in alarm, but she didn’t say anything.

“And what about it?” Mantis muttered, but not before barking an order to the Round-off team employee to keep it moving.

He spoke lightheartedly, eyes trained on the shifting shadows. “That’s probably about to change.”

The next corner they rounded led to a hallway that was already occupied. Quickly, Kwak and Beluga backed right out of sight.

“What? What is it?”

“There’s a nurse in the hall, she seems to be going over some charts,” he responded to Bobcat’s question.

“Oh. Well, go see what that’s about,” he immediately issued out an order to Beluga.

“Wait,” Kwak hissed urgently, hand around Beluga’s wrist to physically stop her from leaving as he spoke to Bobcat.

“Don’t send her out,” he offered to the Regular-team member.

“Oh?” He looked the scientist up and down. “Someone’s a good person aren’t they?”

Hah. More like with the way she was shaking and her wandering eyes, he was more than confident she’d get herself killed and that was no fun at all. But he lets them believe what they want, walking out into the hall in lieu of an answer.

“Hello, Nurse?”

She looked up and Kwak couldn’t help but wonder why she looked more gruesome than the Doctor, though less than the patient still, of course.

Her eyes glinted. She cleared her throat before speaking, “What can I help you with, are you a new Patient here?”

“No, sorry,” Kwak chuckled a bit, “Actually, I’m looking for a Patient, I’m here to visit.”

“That can’t be…” The Nurse responded with a frown. “We’re not open for visitation, the conditions of the Patients here are too… unstable for that.”

Kwak’s shoulders drooped. “Oh. I understand.”

A predatory look entered her eyes. She looked the man up and down; he would serve nicely as staff, perhaps.

“Ah, but wait— Since you’re already here… I’m sure the Doctor wouldn’t mind if you took a quick peek and chatted.”

She grinned, too wide, and asked him who he was here for. Of course, seizing the opportunity, Kwak described the two employees he could remember, Anglerfish and Bloodhound. If they hadn’t been captured yet and the Nurse didn’t know of a patient that matched the description, he’d simply act like he was mistaken.

But the Nurse brightened, informing that a group of people that included the two he described had just arrived and were getting fitted up for gowns. Hmm… Did that mean they were already contaminated or not?

“Okay, let me get the others.”

He ignored the curious look of the Nurse to jog back to the group.

“Well?” Mantis prodded at him impatiently.

Kwak narrowed his eyes, “You couldn’t hear?”

“No, now get on with it please.”

“Oh, well, the Nurse says she can take us to where the other employees are, she confirmed them as patients.”

They responded, something about Beluga taking the lead again, as they head to the Nurse. Kwak followed suit, skipping a little.

Kwak notices the supervisor blink a millisecond slower than normal.

“Are you getting sleepy, sir?”

“How did you— No, I’m not.” His eyes narrow. “Did you do something, use an item?”

He uses the telephone situated on the wall, no doubt calling whoever’s on the other side of the glass. The man breathes a sigh of relief only after receiving confirmation that there’s no funny business going on in the room.

Well, none that can be seen , or is related to the Darknesses at least. Kwak had left it in a secure location in his private lab at home for this very reason. His skin itches, filled with an aching need to reunite with his most recent obsession.

If only they could get this interview over with.

Though they were pretty close to the end regardless.

“Alright, whatever.” Kwak’s supervisor looks largely resigned to whatever bullshit the man is getting up to now as he hangs up the phone. “Just, finish your report, hurry. And don’t leave anything out.”

It feels just a bit like the man has already given up on catching Kwak through the interrogation and is asking questions for duty’s sake. All the better for him, but it serves as just another reminder on how truly incompetent those higher up in Daydream are.

Kwak hasn’t had the chance to meet an actual Director yet, though he wouldn’t be surprised if even roles of that level are also filled by bumbling fools.

“Where was I? Hmm…” Kwak ponders with an exaggerated finger on his chin.

“You were saying something about the nurse taking you to the group that you had split off from at the beginning.”

Kwak snaps his fingers, “Ah! Right, thank you!”

He hums, “Ah… About the Nurse… Once I eventually saw the Patients, it was clear that they had already all been contaminated.”

“Could you not have taken them out, we’ve been in need of Security Guards as of late.”

“Oh?” An idea starts to form. “I’m sure the Research teams could help with that, as long as they receive approval.”

He leans in closer to the supervisor, voice a whisper now, “Or, with your help, even if we don’t.”

The man squints in suspicion, “What are you thinking— Wait, no, that’s not the point here.” He catches himself before he lets the conversation get too derailed.

“Answer the question. Why didn’t you retrieve the Field Exploration team members for repurposing with the Security Team?”

“Hm? The only way to exit is through suicide. As such, there was nothing I could have possibly done to set them free, as it would inevitably be considered murder.”

There’s an extended silence.

“Oh. I suppose that does make sense. It’s quite convenient, though.”

Kwak simply offers a grin in response. This prompts another sigh; he gets the feeling that the head of the Research department likely never wants to see him again.

“Then, right before you found out about the other team being contaminated, what happened? Bobcat, Mantis, and Beluga all did not return from the Darkness, meaning something happened to them along the way.”

His suspicious tone quite clearly indicates he feels like Kwak had something to do with it. He’s not right, but he’s not so wrong either. While the sequence of events that led to them dying wasn’t directly caused by Kwak, he had done a lot of the groundwork in getting them to that point. Like leading moths to a scalding flame.

“Those three? Well, they all killed each other.”

“Elaborate.”

The Nurse had faithfully taken them through the winding corridors of the asylum, as if specially designed for keeping people trapped within its folds forever.

She stopped in front of a door, somehow more daunting than those they had seen before. It loomed 3 meters high, made out of some wood Kwak wouldn’t know about. There was an iron knocker, in the shape of a lion perhaps, affixed to the exterior.

Kwak raised a brow. It looked more akin to a mediaeval dungeon than the inside of a psychiatric hospital.

“We’re here,” the Nurse, of course, informed them in a cheery tone.

“One moment.” She smiled. “I’ll go grab a Doctor and be back. Don’t run while I’m not watching! Hahaha!”

Her straight face immediately after, the robotic cadence of her laughter, the blinking security camera situated in a ceiling corner all pointed to the truth belying the faux-cheer.

She hummed some nursery tune, although off-key, as she made her way down a different hall.

Odd.

Would the Doctor not be in the room with the Patients? Perhaps they had gone somewhere for test results. Which could only mean one of two things…

Either the door was locked to prevent them from escaping, or more likely, they had already been contaminated and wouldn’t want to escape anyway.

“Alright, now that it’s time…”

Mantis, all of a sudden, jumped to the side and pulled out a switch-blade. Kwak had long since learned not to judge the state of items by their initial appearance. He was proven right when she flicked her wrist and it expanded into a katana, glimmering black.

Bobcat put his hand in front of his mouth, an exaggerated yawn.

“Really? How incredibly boring. ”

She smirked, tone condescending as she mocked him. “As if you weren’t planning on doing the same exact thing.”

“Hah. Of course I was.” Bobcat pulled his own weapon, darts , out of the breast pocket of his suit.

“I just, you know, didn’t expect you to be so stupid about it and try killing me before we went into the room with the patients. It’s not really making the best use of your resources, now is it?”

She clicked her tongue, “I’m sure you’ve already planned for that, maybe even set up some sort of trap. I have to get rid of you as fast as possible, and efficiently.”

“Wow. I almost have to applaud you. Good thinking, though it’s a shame it won’t help you after all.”

Beluga had been inching backwards all the while, ending up beside Kwak who was watching as they faced off in the middle of the hallway. Kwak glanced at her. She really should kill herself any moment now. As members in the Regular teams, it was only in their nature to take advantage of the Round-off team members.

But she seemed to be petrified, too scared to make any sort of movement. Freeze instinct, was it?

Too late. Mantis feinted a movement forward before ducking back and barking at Beluga. “Oi, kill this man.”

Her eyes widened as her body instinctively moved to follow the orders.

Bobcat sneered, “Really? That’s what you’re going to do? Real fucking funny. Beluga, go kill Mantis.”

Kwak moved out of the way, slowly. Though it wasn’t like Beluga would have noticed if he dashed towards the wall. Her focus was slowly on the male Daydream employee. In a display of skill neither had expected, she moved quick as a whip and pressed him against the wall.

“What the hell, why are you—” Bobcat’s words got cut off as Beluga’s blade ran across his neck, past even the dermis. Kwak squinted. Maybe it even hit bone. He made a wounded sort of noise before slumping.

He had forgotten to cancel Mantis’ order before issuing his own. Slightly on guard, Mantis backed up. However, she seemed to have incorrectly assumed that Bobcat dying would somehow get rid of his order. Of course it didn’t.

Mantis opened her mouth to speak, to cancel it just in case, but just as she did so— Beluga sent the blade hurtling through the air in her direction. It landed in her chest, though not in the heart. Judging by where it pierced and her wheezing, likely a lung.

Her eyes flickered to Kwak in desperation as she realized the trouble she was in.

“Doctor! You’re a doctor right? You definitely said that earlier. Help me, you have to help me.”

It was funny how she seemed to be attempting to command him just like a Round-off team employee. 

“Hm? No, I was lying about that, haha.”

At Kwak’s response, Mantis’ anger grew. Her nostrils flared out as she made eye contact with Beluga, who was assessing her next move in ending the Regular-team employee’s life.

“You! Fucking kill yourself, too.”

Beluga resisted. An incredible display of will, based on the way she didn’t budge at all as Mantis puttered out her dying breaths. Interestingly enough, neither did she beg the employee to reverse her order and fix the situation.

Kwak eyed Beluga. “Perhaps the order will still count as suicide, if it is your own hands killing yourself, you might stay alive.”

Beluga shook her head at the words, thinking they were coming from a place of empathy or perhaps pity. In reality, neither, but there was no way for her to know that.

“The Darkness senses intent, I think.” Her words came out strained, as if it were taking every iota of effort not to just bash her head into the wall.

“I can try getting a team-member from the employees in the other room to reverse the order,” he offered, interested in what she would choose to do.

“It’s okay. It would take you too long, minutes that I don’t have, to get there.”

Amongst many other problems, including the possibility that Doctors were waiting behind the door, the employees would be unwilling to cooperate, the Nurse would come back, et cetera.

“Instead”— she’s begun marching to Mantis’ corpse now—“Please stay with me in my final moments.”

Kwak nodded. 

The last act of a human being— it was often a testament to their nature. Would they beg and cry and shout, or go quietly? Would she ask him to deliver some note to her family? Or would she cuss him out too for not moving at the final moment?

“You’re a Daydream researcher, aren’t you?” Beluga asked, speaking even as she lifted the knife.

He smiled, “How could you tell?”

“A feeling. And you knew too much, but you seem unable to command me.”

Beluga kneeled on the floor before she drove the knife into her own gut, the manner in which she did so being reminiscent of Seppuku. Interesting.

Even as her body began to fail, trying to compensate for the wound to her abdomen, she continued speaking.

“You… I want you to have it. The item I spoke to you about earlier.”

The one she had spoken about as they were walking with the other two Regular-team employees. He had seen the greedy look in Bobcat’s eyes, certain the man would move to steal it later. Though he didn’t quite get a chance to.

Kwak’s eyebrows almost shot off his face. Why in the world would she want to give something like that to him? Then it settled… Beluga seemed to have the false impression that he was a kind, genuine person. Or perhaps, Beluga was a kind, genuine person and thought it would be in better hands with him than rotting away in this Darkness.

“It’s in… my pants pocket.”

He walked closer to her, kneeling in front of her.

“You never said your name, did you?”

“Kwak Jaekang.” He took a seat. The man supposed he could do the favour of waiting until she died to take the item.

“I’m…”

Her strength faded away before she could say her name in return. If there was one thing Kwak understood the most from this Darkness, it was that good people did not work at Daydream. And if they did somehow get employed, they would not last long at all.

The next time he encountered a virtuous Daydream employee… He’ll be sure to take full advantage of his new research subject.

Kwak leaned forward, pulling the ring from her pocket. Immediately, he started imagining what he could do with it. He clenched it tight in his grasp as he got up and made his way to the door.

When he slipped in, he was surprised to find there were no Doctors inside. Merely cots full of patients, the other group of Daydream employees. There are no tags on their wrists, but they’re knocked out. It seemed they hadn’t been registered as patients just yet.

Ah, no fun. It would have been better if he could keep contaminated subjects. Well, no matter, he would have plenty of opportunities to do so in the future. He put on the golden ring, hand wrapping around the door he entered through’s knob. 

And there it was, when he opened the door it swung open to reveal an empty room.

Really, nothing? Beluga truly had been underutilizing this item.

One by one, Kwak dragged the bound bodies of the employees into his room. His storage locker, one could say. He closed the door with the ring again, putting it very carefully on a different finger— one not bound to the activation ritual.

Just as he did so, Kwak heard thundering footsteps from behind the door.

He grinned, pulling a scalpel he had nabbed from one of the stray carts earlier out of his pocket.

Kwak slit his throat.

“Really?” The interrogator looks bemused. “All that to say that they ended up killing each other?”

“That’s what I witnessed,” Kwak shrugs. “Perhaps the lesson to learn from this is that Daydream should be better at recruiting Field Exploration employees.”

The man leans back in his chair with a sigh, hand calming to massage at his forehead as if he were nursing a particularly painful headache.

“So,” Kwak speaks again after the interrogator remains silent for an excessively long amount of time. “Could you find any faults? Any loopholes? I’m telling you— I did nothing wrong! I just happened to escape while all the Daydream employees were too busy killing each other.”

“No.” He gets up, starting that anxious walking all over again, “And that’s what pisses me off. I know you did something I just— I just can’t prove it.”

“Seems you really should look into that recording device,” Kwak comments with a slight smile. Of course this sends the head of the research department further into a spiral, muttering about how he definitely will.

Kwak fiddles with his fingers, messing with a ring that isn’t there. How he longed to get back to his experiments…

Anglerfish had grown increasingly vitriolic, hurling all sorts of insults the last time he had come to visit. Amongst a number of other interesting developments. The employees had finally become entertaining enough for him to remember individuals other than her and Bloodhound.

He had been delighted to find out the other two there, the ones with bags kept over their heads were Polar Bear and the other one that had been taken away. As the only ones contaminated, of course they had tags on them.

Kwak had briefly debated if they could be let out and sent to the Security team, but decided it would bring too much scrutiny on himself. Instead, it presented itself as an opportunity to use the report he had been conducting on the wristwatches— He was trying to make one of his own that would function similarly. No luck in succeeding so far, albeit.

The subjects, and the Darkness he had to thank for receiving them, had truly helped in his thesis on the relation between human nature and Darknesses. He wasn’t fully there but he had all the time in the world to figure it out.

And a space kept hidden from the world in which to do so.