Chapter Text
[Click]
[Click]
[Grian]
Is it…does it feel weird, I mean…to have…
[Gem]
…to have…what?
[Grian]
(Pauses)
…nevermind. Okay. Statement of…False Symmetry and Gemini Tay, regarding strange occurrences following Gemini’s miraculous survival of a forest fire. Statement recorded direct from subjects, October 16th, 2024. Statement begins.
[False]
Right. Gem’s been my roommate for about a year now. My first one had left out of the blue one day—something to do with bugs, she said—and I found myself in need of someone to help cover the rent. That’s when I met Gem.
She was, and still is, nice, always looking to lend a helping hand around the apartment, or trying to find some way to make someone smile. She had all these little hanging plants, and such, that she hung from our balcony, and set in the window sills. It was nice.
When you live in the middle of London, it’s not often you see something green that isn’t fake. Honestly, between that, and the stray cats she would occasionally take into our place for a time, I thought Gem belonged somewhere in the countryside, with lots of flowers and trees, not in a forest of steel.
Anyways, that summer, Gem had planned a camping trip for a few days, out to the middle of nowhere, to “reconnect with nature”, and all that. I was originally going to go, but some work stuff came up, and I had to stay behind. We kept in contact for a while, but eventually she was out of range, and went radio silent. I’ll hand it over to Gem now.
[Gem]
Thanks, False.
(Takes a deep breath)
The trip was normal, at first. I picked flowers, hiked, stargazed, went on a nature walk—all pretty standard camping stuff. It was about two days in that things went wrong.
The fire came when I was sleeping. I remember being afraid, abandoning my tent to find that I was trapped within a circle of burning pines. The flames were bright, and so hot, and it burned when I got too close to them. I remember the smoke, so thick and black that it looked like the sky was filled with storm clouds, and it was so hard to breathe that I was gasping for air. And as I choked and coughed, little bits of ash and flecks of flame got in my eyes and stung. And I remember thinking…that this was it.
This was it for me.
I remember feeling dizzy, and everything was blurry, and suddenly I was on the ground, and then… It was like when you wake up from a bad dream…and you remember little bits and pieces of it. Flashes, visions…
It’s fuzzy. I remember it was dark, and cold, and it felt like I was floating.
And I remember the eyes.
Eyes that glowed green like little fires, their depths of flame piercing into my soul. They studied me, and there was this…sadness in them. Not like a genuine sadness—this was more like the pity a predator feels for its prey before it tears into it without a shred of remorse.
And then I woke up.
I was in the middle of the forest clearing, and everything around me was dead, and blackened. Smoke still rose from some of the smoldering trees, spiraling into the air. My tent was nowhere to be found, most likely ashes in the wind by that point. It was all destroyed…except for the flowers that lay beneath me. Flowers that I knew hadn’t been there before the fire.
Their petals were blue, and they shimmered.
I barely had a chance to process everything when I heard voices, and suddenly a rescue team was there. They were…shocked, to say the least. And, if I’m being honest, I was too.
I knew I should’ve been dead.
They checked me over, finding no injuries, even though I vividly remember being burned, and took me into one of their cars. I didn’t want to get into it at first. It felt…it felt like being trapped in a cage. I wasn’t sure where my fear was coming from at the time. I mean, it’s not like I’m claustrophobic or anything.
Or at least…I wasn’t.
Eventually I managed to suppress my fear enough, and I hopped in, trying my best not to panic. They asked me a few questions—where I was from, if I lived with anyone, my name—all standard stuff. And then I asked them a question. I wanted to know why. Why weren't they trying to look for anyone else who might have been camping, hiking, rafting—whatever—instead of driving me the few hours it took to get back to our apartment. I wished the answer had surprised me.
I was the only survivor.
Eventually, we made it to the apartment. By this point, a dull throb had started in the back of my head, but I didn’t say anything. I figured it wasn’t important, and I wanted to get inside, and see False again, and sleep that whole horrible experience away. And so, after a bit more questioning, they let me go, and I thanked them.
I climbed the three flights of stairs up to our apartment, and I knocked on the door. False opened it, and her eyes widened when she saw me. And she cried. She broke down in tears, and wrapped me in a hug, telling me she had thought I was dead, and that it was a miracle I was alive.
I told her I was glad to see her too, but deep down, I knew that she was wrong. I hadn’t survived that fire.
I was dead—at least partially.
Regardless, I was exhausted, and after taking the first shower I had had in days, and changing into my pajamas, I was out like a light on our couch.
And that’s when things started to get weird.
I woke up the next morning to find those same flowers from before resting in my hair, their blue, shimmering petals almost appearing to glow in the morning light. After changing, I walked into the kitchen, and asked False, who was in the middle of frying bacon, if she had put the flowers in my hair. I guess, in hindsight, I should have known that something else was going on.
Flowers don’t just appear out of thin air.
False just gave me a confused look though, and told me that no, she had not put them there, nor had she ever seen any flowers like those before in her life. Curious, I did a web search, but none of the flowers that came up quite matched the ones in my hair. I debated taking them out in case they were poisonous or something, but something stopped me.
Having them there just felt…right.
By this point, False had finished making breakfast, and brought a plate of eggs and bacon over to me, before setting her own plate on the table, and sitting down. I thanked her, and took a bite of the eggs.
Now, trust me when I tell you, although she’s right here to attest to it, False is an amazing cook. Everything she makes tastes like it comes from a five-star restaurant, and even simple things like scrambled eggs and bacon are no exception. But when I began to eat breakfast that morning, there was something…wrong about it. It’s not like it was bad—the eggs and bacon were perfectly delicious as always—but it just didn’t have the same effect as it normally did. It felt like there was something missing from the dish—it needed something to top it off. Something wilder.
Something more alive.
I wrapped some foil around the plate and placed it in the fridge, telling False that I wasn’t really all that hungry at the moment and that I would eat the rest later. Then I headed out onto the balcony, both to clear my head and to tend to my plants. I happily discovered that despite my absence they all appeared to have been watered and pruned.
I was about to head back inside when I saw the bird.
It was a sparrow, small and innocent, perched on the railing of the balcony. It was preening itself in the sunlight, chirping like it didn’t have a care in the world. As I watched it, I realized that I had subconsciously slowed down my movements, as if I knew it wouldn’t notice my presence if I treaded lightly. My stomach growled quietly, and I found myself stalking forward, my eyes locked on the bird, who at this point had turned its attention towards me, yet had not flown away.
It was almost as if my gaze had rooted it in place.
I continued my pursuit forward, before I was close enough that I could see the bird trembling ever so slightly from fear…and then…
Well, let’s just say I wasn’t hungry anymore.
[False]
I, just so you’re aware, was loading the dishwasher, and didn’t happen to see what was happening outside. I mean, I saw Gem checking on her plants, but I thankfully missed witnessing…that.
[Gem]
Honestly, I think I felt worse for not feeling guilty about it, rather than the fact that I killed the poor thing. I used the watering can to wash away the evidence, before I hurried inside to clean my hands more thoroughly. But unbeknownst to me, the bird wouldn’t be the end of it. I’ll let False take over to explain the next part, because I still don’t remember most of what happened.
[False]
So, it was like…midnight? Two in the morning, maybe? All I know is that it was early, and it was a week later, and I had woken up, but I wasn’t sure why I had woken up, if that makes sense? I tried for a few minutes to fall back asleep, but it was like my mind wouldn’t let me. There was this…dread I felt, and I just knew it had something to do with Gem. There was something about her that had seemed…off.
Ever since she returned she had seemed…spacey. I often caught her staring at nothing, and she would jump or twitch or move at every little sound or sight of movement, like she was expecting whatever it was to attack her or jump out at her. I also had caught her whispering to her plants a few times in a language I couldn’t understand, and when I blinked they seemed to be greener and larger, any and all signs of wilting or insect damage completely vanished, like it never had been there in the first place. And so, I quietly crept over to her room, and carefully pushed open the door.
I covered my mouth so I wouldn’t scream.
Gem was sitting straight up in bed, blood dripping down her face as she finished pulling a jagged antler out of head, matching the one that was already branching out from the other side. She was eerily calm about it, just wiping away some of the blood with her hand when she was done like she hadn’t just reached into her skull. Horrified, I made the mistake of taking a step back, and the floorboard creaked beneath my foot. Gem’s head snapped towards me, and she stared at me with eyes that weren’t her own.
They were green. More green than normal, like leaves, and they glowed like two stars in the darkness. They were…mesmerizing, and as Gem—or rather—the creature got down from the bed and approached me, I found that I couldn’t seem to back away. Instead, I stepped forward to meet her halfway, unable to tear my eyes away from the distant rustling forests and roaring waterfalls I saw within those pools of green.
And then those images faded, and I found myself caught in the deadly gaze of a predator once more.
The creature smiled with teeth that were newly sharp, and in that moment I somehow knew that despite everything, I was going to live. Yes, whatever it was that had taken refuge inside of Gem was dangerous, but it wasn’t dangerous for me. Yes, this creature may have been a predator…but it was also a protector, and I was one of its protected.
Not-Gem cupped the side of my face in her hand, before bringing my forehead to rest against her own. I remember feeling dizzy for a moment.
And then we were somewhere else.
I took in the pine trees that towered all around us, and the jagged mountains that loomed in the distance, clouds curling around their peaks in lazy circles. We were in a clearing in the forest, and covering almost every inch of it were wildflowers of every shade and every shape. They glittered like jewels in the light of sunrise, and I found myself gazing in awe at them.
Not-Gem smiled at my starstruck expression, before she looked down at something in her hand. She held up a feather, long and golden-brown in color. ‘You dropped this.’ she told me, and she stuck the feather behind my ear—I’m still not sure what she meant by that, and neither does Gem—before she took my hand in her own, and led me to the center of the flower field, where there was a circle of soft grass, devoid of any flowers.
She lay down in the patch, and gestured for me to join her. I did, gazing up at the soft clouds that drifted by, tinged orange by the light of the sun. I turned my head to look back at Not-Gem, but found something else in place of her.
It was a deer.
Well, not exactly a deer. This creature was much larger than a deer, and its fur was pitch black in color. I remember that the fur appeared…smoky, like wisps of shadow, and that when it turned towards me its movement was unnaturally smooth, almost like a ghost‘s.
Its face was a white skull, almost like a deer’s, but where a deer had flat teeth, this skull had the fangs of a hunter. From the top, tree-branch-sized antlers grew tall and proud, gleaming in the sunlight like opals. I met its gaze, and its green flame eyes stared back at me. There was a warmth to them, and I could tell that it was smiling at me. I smiled back when I noticed the flowers that grew from the vines weaved around its antlers.
They were a shimmering blue.
[Click]
[Click]
[Grian]
This case is…interesting, to say the least. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a skeptic when it comes to this job. Most things can be summed up as hallucinations, health conditions, pranks, or the occasional use of…imaginative substances. But the antlers… I didn’t get the opportunity to touch them or anything—obviously it would have been weird if I did—but what I can say for certain is that they look scarily realistic. So, either I’m losing my mind, and seeing things again…or Gem just has some sort of rare medical condition.
My money’s on the second one.
In any case, I had Impulse do a search to see if he could find any cases of strange skeletal growths occuring due to burn trauma. The closest thing he could find was “bone spurs” due to excessive texting, so it’s safe to say that something like this is unheard of. As for the flowers, the lab ran a test on one Gem brought from her garden, and the results were surprising.
The flower is a blue variant of mohavea confertiflora, better known as the “ghost flower”. They tend to grow in hot, dry places, like Mexico, or in the drier parts of the United States, like Nevada or California. How Gem is managing to grow them in London, or how they even managed to appear in the woods after a forest fire, I’m not entirely sure, but hypothetically, if this were a paranormal event, I would have to guess that it has something to do with the “whispering” False mentioned.
And then, of course…there’s False. I…I know her eyes are blue. I saw them, and they were blue. But just for a moment, when she was talking about the field, and the feather…
I could’ve sworn they were—
(Door opens)
[Gem]
Grian?
[Grian]
Yes? Everything okay?
[Gem]
Everything’s fine, but…can I talk to you for a second?
[Grian]
Sure. What do you need?
[Gem]
(Door clicks shut)
(Rustling)
Here.
[Grian]
Feathers?
[Gem]
They’re False’s. I figured you might want a few to file with the statement, along with the flowers.
[Grian]
False has—
[Gem]
Not as far as she knows, and for now I’d like to keep it that way. I may not understand everything yet, but I know it would freak her out. So just keep this between us, okay?
[Grian]
O-Okay…
[Gem]
…
What?
[Grian]
Your eyes…they’re glowing.
[Gem]
Yeah...
It likes them that way.
I guess I’ll see you around then, Archivist?
[Grian]
Yeah…
See you.
[Click]