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[Recorder clicks]
[Yuu]
Huh. I wasn’t aware that he’d submitted any statements to the institute in the past, this’ll be quite an interesting read. Ahem.
Case #0162509, statement of Ace Trappola regarding a “spooky encounter at the abandoned mineshafts”. Original statement given 25th September 2016. Audio recording by Yuuchi Lewis, 12th March 2025. Statement begins.
Hey, so just to start this thing off? I don’t think I should be here giving a statement right now. I mean, I’m not even a hundred percent sure that what we saw wasn’t just a wild animal! …A huge… wild animal that was… dripping black goo. Anyway, whatever. It probably wasn’t real, my buddy Deuce Spade can vouch for me as well! He got as good of a glimpse as I did, maybe even better and you don’t see him coming in with a statement, right?
But anyway. Let's get this straight that I'm only writing this because my older brother found it mildly disturbing, and he only gave me two options to either tell some experts about it, or to see a shrink.
And clearly. You can tell which option I went with. I might as well get on with it, I guess.
It was around the start of the school semester, sometime in early September. You know all about the messiness of moving into dorm rooms and entrance ceremonies and the like.
Well, not too long after we had all settled in, I met Deuce Spade. Weird dark blue hair that he swore wasn’t dyed but he looked shifty enough that I knew that wasn’t true, a tendency to start speaking like a delinquent when he got mad enough. I’ll be honest? Didn’t really like him at first. But we were roommates so I guess it was inevitable that we ended up in the same social circles.
I mean don’t get me wrong, me and Deuce are pals! And sometimes pals get into fights that result in one of them throwing a punch… and then someone throwing a punch back... Point was we didn’t talk for a couple days, ignored each other in the hallways, in class which was super hard because we sit next to each other, even ignored each other when we were put in detention for said fight after someone snitched on us.
It all came to a head at one of those detentions, some of the guys in there wanted to play truth or dare. They were the really gutsy, dumb type of people, who you could see being held back a couple years. I guess they noticed that the two of us had some kind of beef because they seemed pretty determined to pit the two of us against each other even more. It was super annoying seeing them trying to rile up Deuce whenever the teacher left the room.
Dunno what it was about that day but apparently their antagonising was paying off ‘cause Deuce yelled out “BRING IT ON!”... Yeah it was really corny and at the time I laughed at him along with the other boys. …Now I just really wish he hadn’t said it.
Turns out that they dared him to go down to the mines that were behind the school, local rumours said that the old miners that worked there had left behind a ton of valuable minerals, but the place being so old and unstable left it abandoned and cordoned off to the public.
And sure. I’ll admit that at the time I wanted to out-do Deuce so much that I mighttt have stood up and announced to the rest of the room that I would go with. Just to see which one of us would back out first, it would be Deuce of course, surely no one would be that stupid.
.
He was that stupid. I don’t know why he actually went through with it! And cuz he didn’t back out I didn’t back out so there we were, 5PM in the afternoon, standing in front of the entrance to the mines. To make matters worse, the older guys came with which was so irritating ‘cause it meant I couldn’t get out of it.
We shook hands, got our flashlights out, and entered the mine.
It was pretty anticlimactic at first, just a bunch of rocks and minecart rails that stretched further into the tunnels. We walked for a good minute before either of us spoke up. Deuce said something about me not needing to go with him for the dare and I shot back something else about him being a moron for thinking I was there out of “the goodness of my heart” or some shit like that. Bickered back and forth a bit more but it wasn’t as tense anymore which was honestly a big relief.
Another 5 minutes in we heard a weird sound. It sounded like water dripping but… it was so slow, y’know what I mean? As in the droplets sounded pretty big but the timings in between each noise didn’t match how fast I’d think water droplets of that size would fall, like it was a lot more viscous. And thinking back on it now, whatever was dripping sounded. Dense. That’s the word I think fits most.
As we walked forward though, the sound started increasing in volume, which would usually make sense but the jump from being like a pin drop to a regular-sized-marble drop was just way too disproportionate to be normal.
At the time I convinced myself that it was the mines’ acoustics, making everything louder than it actually was, echoing and stuff, right? And we kept walking for another minute when suddenly Deuce stopped, he made me bump into him as well and I dropped my flashlight and we were plunged into almost complete darkness.
By this point I’m thinking that we’ve done way more that was needed for the dare and it’s time to get the hell out of there. I tapped Deuce on the shoulder and gestured that it was time to dip, but UGH. Mr. Stubborn wanted to keep going if you can believe it! Said he wanted to find something to bring back as proof that we had gone in far enough. I wanted to tell him good luck with that and leave before the cave collapsed on us or something but I still couldn’t find my flashlight, and it was too dark in there to reliably find my way out without falling down a hole or something, which left me the only option of following Douche Spade further in.
We really should’ve left.
Since we were left with the one flashlight, I had pulled out my phone, only to see that the battery was now stupidly low and I remembered that I didn’t charge it the night before, which was so stupid. But what I did manage to find out was that the time was now six o’clock. A full hour after we had first gone in, and naturally there wasn’t any service either, not this deep into the mines.
I looked up from my phone, tucking it into my jacket pocket, when it occurred to me that I was now in complete darkness. Just me. And that steady sound of dripping.
I stood and listened for a bit, and I noticed that that slow dripping sound wasn’t so slow, it actually sounded like it was speeding up.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip. Drip.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
I mean, I’d been feeling uneasy for a while now but now it was getting really freaky.
I decided that I needed to get out. Now. And reached over to find a wall to follow out of the mines. It should’ve been a simple matter of sticking close to the wall until I could see light again, but I must've been walking in a straight line in that darkness for what felt like hours but could’ve just been minutes. Time seemed to stretch in the tunnels. It didn’t make sense because no matter how far we had walked before that point we should’ve still been able to spot a light from outside.
Unless it was already dark out? But that wasn’t possible, sunset would still be in another hour.
At this point I was getting a bit frantic. Maybe I’d somehow gotten turned around and I was actually heading deeper into the mines? But if that was the case, why hadn’t I run into Deuce?
I turned around to retrace my steps, planning on reaching my arms out to find the next wall. But as soon as I lifted my right arm to feel around, there it was. The wall. My left arm hadn’t even left the opposite side. I was standing in what appeared to be a dead end.
I thought it was weird that there had been no indication of the tunnel ending before then, the cart rails that I had been following had just… cut off at the wall. It kind of looked like there was a cave in of some kind.
But whatever, I wasn't gonna prioritise the mystery of mine infrastructure over not dying because of a stupid dare. So I turned around, right hand now on the opposite wall, and I hightailed it out of there.
I actually managed to find the main tunnel pretty fast, and found Deuce too. Turns out he had also gotten lost pretty soon after we got separated and had enough sense to make his way back to the main tunnel.
It was all well and good, aside from how dark it was still. Deuce tried his flashlight, but it just glowed weakly and puttered out.
Once again in the literal dark, the both of us fell silent, I’m not even sure why? Just. Standing there in that dark void felt so… strange, stifling even, like even if I tried to utter a word it would just. Disappear into space.
It felt like someone had wrapped me in a weighted blanket, but there wasn’t any warmth, just a dark, cold feeling. And then there it was again, the slow… sound… of dripping.
But there was another sound now too. Footsteps, slow and heavy, moving towards where we stood. The tunnel tremored as it moved.
It sounded huge, I could barely make out anything among the shadows but I could hear it. Lumbering closer. Closer. The dripping sound, once so insignificant and easy to ignore, amplified a thousandfold as it echoed throughout the mineshaft. Coupled with those footsteps, each step sounded like a nail being driven into the lid of a coffin.
The scraping of metal against uneven ground joined the cacophony and I imagined a sword swinging towards a neck, sentence clear.
I wanted to run, or scream. Or do anything but I Couldn’t Focus. Where would I even run? I didn’t know where the exit was, what about Deuce?
That’s when I finally remembered my phone resting in my jacket pocket, it was dying, but anything was better than staying in the dark.
Bracing myself, I grabbed my phone and pressed the power button.
The screen lit up instantly and as I fumbled with the flashlight button, I noticed two things. One was that Deuce was only a few metres away, meaning that I could grab him and run, and two. Our attacker.
It was a monster. That’s as straightforward as I can tell it. A straight up Monster, with a capital ‘M’. It must’ve been 10 metres tall, with this long ragged cloak hiding its form. And from where I thought its head should've been, was the origin of the dripping.
I honestly thought it was water before I shined my flashlight on it. But it wasn’t clear at all, instead pitch black and reflective, not in the same way that oil is though. Dunno why, but it reminded me of the ink in ballpoint pens.
But now that inky, blotty, mess was headed towards us, and looked like it was picking up speed.
There wasn’t any time to think- Those heavy footsteps still resounded and bounced against my skull. The only thing I could do was to start placing one foot in front of the other and start to bolt for the exit.
I ran like hell. Out of the tunnels and out of the mines, no clue if Deuce was following, or even alive… I ran until I could see the bright sky again and there was no more darkness creeping up on me in the corners of my eyes.
Deuce practically threw himself out of the mine entrance a couple seconds after I did, clutching a small shiny stone between his fingers. Somehow amidst the chaos, he found one embedded in the wall of the tunnel, the absolute dumbass that he was.
That was how they found us, sprawled out on the grass, flashlights nowhere to be seen, Deuce holding his stone tightly against his chest, and me clutching onto my now dead phone.
Apparently, we’d been gone for 2 hours, except that didn’t sound right. 2 hours? Seriously. I felt like I’d be walking for at least 6 hours. The sun was still out and we were both hungry, and tired as hell so we didn’t bother to argue.
We got off lightly with our punishment, the school choosing to direct their attention towards the older boys. Something about “reckless endangerment of peers” and what-not. Personally I think they got what was coming to them. ;)
Deuce and I didn’t tell anyone what actually happened, they’d probably think we went insane after being in there for 6 hours straight. I’d think we had gone insane too, but the black ink that still hasn't left our shoes and trousers gives me a boost of confidence that it wasn’t a shared hallucination.
I’m also still pretty certain that we weren't just in there for the 2 hours that everyone says that we were. I swear time moved differently down there, like it got stretched out.
Anyway, that’s my statement for you, believe it, don’t. I wrote it down and that means it’s your problem now, isn’t it? Maybe now my brother will stop hovering.
[Yuu]
Statement ends.
This statement certainly fits with my image of a 16-year-old Ace Trappola, the ever so annoying demeanour and sharp tongue, with a hint of thinly veiled concern for his peers.
Ace Trappola is currently in the employment of the Night Raven Institute and is working here in the archives as an assistant. Maybe not so coincidentally, one Deuce Spade is employed here as well, also as an archival assistant. I wonder if this experience had anything to do with their current career here.
Honestly, I am not surprised those two have been acquainted for a long time, they're practically joined at the hip. They really ought to just start dating.
…On second thought maybe not. Who knows what trouble they'll get into if they spend even more time together.
Ahem. Back on topic, pulling up Mr. Trappola and Mr. Spade’s school records, the timeline given in the statement does in fact match.
In their first year at boarding school, the two of them were placed in detention together several times… Frankly I’m surprised they made it here with their track records. Abrasions on hands and an unexplainable and unrecognisable black substance on clothes but otherwise fine… Similar to ink…
(Sigh)
It’s probably nothing, but that description of ink does sound reminiscent of a few of previous statements.
…It’s probably nothing.
[Click]