Chapter Text
As the tape recorder clicked to life, White lily cookie felt an overwhelming sense of dread crash over her, as if the decision she was making had opened a door she would seldom be able to close- and she wasn’t quite sure whether that were for better or worse. This feeling manifested itself as a moment of silence only punctured by a light breathing and the static of the tape recorder, before she spoke at last.
“Testing, one two three..” White lily couldn’t say she knew exactly what she was testing for, really. Feedback echos, perhaps? In all honesty, she was more so struggling to find the words to begin her first recording.
“Right, well.. White lily cookie, new head archivist of the Pure Milk Institute.” her voice wobbled slightly at the words head archivist, still she spoke on, “founded by Pure Milk Cookie themselves, the aim of our institute is to keep a comprehensive archive of the paranormal and strange incidents of earthbread. It is built up of statements given in by direct witnesses to these events, and then verified by the staff of the institute. After the, um, unfortunate departure of my predecessor, I have since taken the position of head archivist. And in my new role I have decided to begin the arduous task of better organising the many records here, the way I have found to do so is to record a spoken reading of each relevant statement on this tape recorder with the physical tapes kept in the archive.”
Once she had gotten started, White lily spoke brisk and clear, as if she really were a natural speaker. She slid out a single slip of paper from a sizeable stack she’d pulled out of a filing cabinet, barely a crumb out of the seemingly endless loads of statements taken over the Pure Milk Institutes time in existence. Still, she had to start somewhere.
White lily cookie cleared her throat then began to read directly from the paper. “Statement of Cracked Peanut cookie regarding her unsettling experience in the Blueberry Magic Achademy. Original statement given August 24th, 2014. Audio recording by White Lily cookie, head archivist of the Pure Milk Institute. Statement begins;”
“I’ve never been a very sociable sort of cookie, you see, much preferring to keep to myself whenever possible. Part of me always thought that, in a world in which I were the only cookie alive, I wouldn’t be all that affected. However the acute and primal fear this experience had brought me had made me finally realise just how wrong I truely was.”
“It all began on I believe my second week of attendance in the Blueberry Yogurt academy. I hadn’t made any friends yet, and i had no plans to. I couldn’t remember the last time i’d spoke to another cookie, really. I was just in the library catching up on homework, when I noticed that I was completely alone. The many seats of the vast library were all left vacant. It was strange, looking back on it now, since that library was almost always facilitating at least a few other cookies looking to escape the bustle of the rest of the achademy, however, at the time I was just relieved I wouldn’t have to share the space anyone else.”
“Later on I decided to go on a walk and get some fresh air, yet as I walked through the empty halls and into the open air, I came to the realisation the entirety of the school was empty. At this point I was beginning to get worried that there must have been some evacuation happening that I wasn’t told about, however I was sure I would’ve been informed of something like that? I halfheartedly thought that perhaps everyone had decided to stay in the cafeteria, there were darker clouds beginning to form after all, though if i had any sense in that moment i would have realised how foolish that sounded. And yet, once i’d walked the small and echoingly quiet journey up the steps, there they all were, All cooped up in the cafeteria. Each and every seat in the room was occupied by someone, and yet the room was eerily silent, everyone unmoving and staring at nothing in particular.”
“I took another step in to get a better view and, trust that I am telling the absolute truth when I write you this, each and every face in that room was gone. A blank stretch of skin replaced where an expression was supposed to be. The stark and absolute horror I felt in that moment, at the realisation that whatever it was that sat in the cafeteria, they were not living in that way you or I am- that I was truly alone in that moment- was indescribable.”
“I can’t remember exactly what I did after that. Ran to the bathroom and sat there for hours, I think. Regardless, when I came out everyone was back to normal. Noisily loitering around halls- and none faceless, it seemed. I haden’t said anything about it to anyone before now, thought people would assume the worst, that id gone insane in isolation. I did make some friends in the following days, funnily enough, and a similar situation hasn’t happened since, to my knowledge.”
“But I know what I saw that day, and I know that I am not crazy,”
White lily had almost lost herself in reading the account aloud, and took a sigh in something close to relief once she’d finished reading, as if broken from a spell.
“well. This one hits close to home, I suppose- since I did, at one point, attend the Blueberry Yogurt Academy and likely would’ve been in a similar position to Cracked Peanut Cookie, had I not met Pure Vanilla Cookie early in my time there.. Regardless I believe this is more than likely some strange hallucination or dream brought on by her heavy isolation than anything else, assuming this is a truthful account, or course.” White lily Cookie dropped the paper into an empty box labeled, “Recorded Statements” in loopy handwriting, “still, Dark Cacao still made a point in looking through the Blueberry Yogurt Academy enrolment records to verify a Cracked Peanut cookie in past attendance, which he did, and that was really the most research we could do on the matter. Not much else to say I guess.. End recording.”