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The split sky brings a sort of comfort to the skywatcher.
Each sunrise, each sunset, it no longer looks the same. As if the dancing colours intertwined, blurring into blotches and disappearing into the cavern from which the creatures had Descended from.
He observes as spirals of orange rise behind the clouds, drowning the ruins of the city in a honey golden glow. A gentle breeze whistled through the empty alleyways, brushing against the locks of his hair. It almost seemed as peaceful as in the Before.
But in a way, it was different - and perhaps that’s what he likes most about this new canvas stretched out above. He remembers his early moments in the apocalypse, where he would hide for days in his basement and not come out. Only a helping hand led him out. The first thing he saw back then was the sky. Omnipotent, silent, always watching humanity’s every move and every step, even towards its possible end.
He sighs. If only the peace of the moment would last forever.
That wish only digs in deeper when he hears a door open behind him. His head snaps back to the source of the sound, agitated.
“Relax,” says the person at the doorframe, slowly walking towards him. A friend, he’s sure of that, but the way she keeps her hand close to the weapon at her waist doesn’t make it any better, “It’s just me.”
“Stupki.”
She doesn’t bother sitting beside him - her blank stare of onyx-black eyes is enough to make him stand up to meet her level.
“I have a job for you.” Stupki announces, not breaking eye contact.
He squints in suspicion, “What is it?”
“So, as you know, ‘cause you were there, we’ve taken a hostage two days ago. She’s only stopped talking nonsense this morning, so she’ll be useful for once. Maybe.” She pauses, “Anyways, I need you to go to the abandoned police station. She used to work there. I need you to find out everything you can about Faye Tilly.”
“Why me, though?” He begins to protest, “We’ve only been here for a couple of days, who knows what’s lurking around here? Can’t you or Miodowa do it?”
Stupki scoffs, “Who do you think I am, off-brand Sherlock Holmes? I don’t have time to investigate. I told you that we’d be doing the questioning, and you do whatever I tell you to if you want to stay alive.”
She rests her hand on the gun attached to her belt.
“So, Olek.” Stupki showed off her teeth in a grin, “You think you can do me this one little favour?”
Olek can argue with Stupki - they’ve lived together since the beginning of the end of the world. It almost feels like he can trust her - but what is trust if not another word for maintaining one’s own survival? He can’t argue with a gun, though.
“Yeah. For sure.”
She gives him a friendly smack on the shoulder - which would certainly be more appreciated if they weren’t standing on the roof of a building, where one knock off-balance would surely make him plummet down to his demise against the cracked pavement.
Stupki leaves soon after.
Olek watches as she disappears into the staircase, and into the floors below.
***
Olek doesn’t know, exactly, why he puts up with these people.
It could have been a calm, semi-peaceful day - however peaceful one could describe the apocalypse. It wasn’t anything like he was told an apocalypse would look like - back during the Before, he’d seen countless movies about gory battles with crowds of zombies, their jaws unhinged, dripping with the blood of eaten enemies. As a child, he’d always feared that scenario - who wouldn’t? Only a psycho would enjoy seeing red stain every corner of the world, flood every nook and cranny.
But now that he knows that the world has ended, it feels oddly still. From what he’s learned, the creatures that Descended from the sky attacked on sight - but they picked their victims in a specific way. They can’t sense people just using their optical senses. They don’t have… eyes, yet they See, they See much more than the typical predator, they see the Beyond. They see the outlines of souls. They don't run around aimlessly to try and snap their teeth around the throat of whatever unlucky creature or person walks past - they know who they choose to feast upon that day.
Or at least that’s what he presumes, and what people that were last considered ‘mildly crazy’ have told him.
He traversed the empty streets of the abandoned city - a place once so busy. Just a few years back, he wouldn’t have been able to imagine walking freely where cars used to speed past, knocking dust into the already polluted air. The concrete jungle has become entirely consumed by nature - long vines draping the grey surfaces of what used to be skyscrapers, yet they were far from lush. A morbid, dark reminder that everything in this world would soon be dead. What a wonderful thought to start the morning.
In a way, he learned to be a servant of this world. Hiding when he needs to, following the orders of those that could harm him - ones he needed to keep on his side if he wanted to live any day further. Compliance was the only choice for some. His mind wanders to the hostage his companions have taken in - he’d never really spoken to her, but whatever interaction he and her dazed mind had, it always left him feeling uneasy. Not in a dangerous way, no, he doubted she could ever hurt him. He didn’t fear her like he did with the pair he was travelling with - she was just strange.
Olek looks at the sky. The peach hue of the morning has been washed over by a dull, cloudy grey, only the split in the sky still prevalent. Has it always looked like an eye? Has it always seemed to be… blinking?
Maybe. Even if he tended to watch the sky, sometimes he’d miss important details. He chuckles to himself, remembering how his brother would always say he was ‘blind as a bat’. Especially when he was a young child, protesting that he didn’t need his eyes checked. Blissful ignorance and beautiful innocence. Though his heart did begin to sting when the thought of his brother set in.
Olek pulls out the map he’d been given by Stupki, straightening the folded paper with a quick brush of his hand. He seemed to be in the right place. The old building of the police station, still standing in its place. The light inside was turned off - which was not surprising, considering it must have been left on when everything had started.
Cautiously, he walks up to the glass door awaiting for him - but after tugging on the handle, he learns it is unfortunately closed. Olek grumbles in mild annoyance and moves on to search for another entrance.
As he walks through the side of the building, he spots a hatch inside of the ground - an entrance to the garage. Without a problem, he could slip inside.
He turns on his torch and begins the search for the main office.
The inside of the building itself proves to be a bigger maze than he’d anticipated from a small, confined space. The stairs up from the garages led him up to the main area, the same one he’d seen from the glass door. Papers lie thrown messily across the ground, some singed with traces of previously being used for a fire. The smell doesn’t help it, either - he scrunches his nose as decomposing garbage mixes with old smoke and oil. Old cans and boxes hide in the shadows, having been kicked there by travellers who must have taken refuge in this place.
Behind the central counter, the room closes into a tunnel, lined with blurred glass doors. With the glow of his torch he can see the inside of some of the rooms he passes - especially ones with shattered glass.
It only makes one wonder - what happened here? Olek was never one to empathize with the police of all people, but some of them, they were still people after all. Each one with their own life, thinking about the end of the shift and getting to go back home. He remembers the wave of people dialing the emergency number, panicked when they saw the Descent happening. What did they feel when a regular afternoon was disturbed by thousands of desperate calls, begging for answers even they couldn’t give. Was it a natural disaster? A sign from whatever God or entity was up there? Nobody was certain, and nobody ever could be.
One of his neighbours, a particularly religious lady, had nearly thrown herself out of the window when she saw the sky splitting - screaming about the Final Judgement finally being there. She had to be kept restrained before she harmed herself, and he did find her rosary somewhere after he came out of his own basement.
Olek preferred not to concern himself with why the world now held this form. It wasn’t pleasant, not at all, but he didn’t want to know answers to things he couldn’t comprehend. He had different worries on his mind when it all started.
A sharp sensation in his foot snatches him out of his thought process. Olek hisses in pain, grabbing at his leg, after he puts the torch under his chin to see better. He can feel warmth trickle to his fingers as the pulsing spreads through the sole of his foot. One of the glass shards had gotten stuck in his shoe.
He needs to sit down and get it out, do something. With the weight of his body he pushes open the door to the nearby room. Hopping on his uninjured leg, he manages to get to the chair behind the desk in the middle of the dark space. He wishes he could see better - but the room has no windows. All hope for sunlight is gone, he only has his questionably working flashlight.
Olek traces his fingers alongside the open wound, trying his best to loosen the shard of glass stuck in it. The only logical maneuver after getting a sharp object stabbed into his foot was to take it out and bandage the injury, right? Or was that forbidden? He can’t remember.
Luckily for him, he carries around medical supplies - or at least something that he can make do with. Once the shard is loose, with one quick motion he grabs it with his fingers and pulls it out, wincing at the wave of fiery pain and the blood making his sock stick to his skin.
Only now can he take off his shoe and wrap a bandage around his foot, only remembering to slip a piece of cotton wool under it. He ties it up, and deciding he wouldn’t be moving for a while, sits back in the chair.
Especially since the light of his torch showed off an interesting object. Occupied with not wanting to bleed out, he didn’t notice the cabinet to his right being open. And inside it, a cardboard box peeks out. From what he can make out, the name ends with -illy.
And realisation strikes him like lightning on a stormy day.
Faye Tilly.
Olek nearly falls out of his chair reaching for the box, tugging it out of its place of containment to place it on the desk. Dust instantly flies up into the air, he coughs.
There’s no way that a shard of glass stuck in his foot led him to the goal of his mission.
He can’t believe it. This was it, right? He just has to open the box and look inside. But something makes him hesitate. As if a pair of hands set their grasp on his own arms, as if something whispers ‘leave it alone’.
It’s nothing, right? Plus, he isn’t looking forward to Stupki noticing he’s late with important information. In a way, he’s curious why she even bothered with learning about this woman - he knows they had… questionable interactions in the past, and that Stupki doesn’t want to talk about it. It’s not a weak point, Stupki would never show that. But the mission being finding out where some random ‘Faye’ is makes him wonder if Stupki actually has unfinished business with her, or she’s using it as a cover up to shoot at whoever comes to disturb her without any guilt. After all, she’s busy fulfilling an important mission.
There’s no other way to learn than to look inside.
Olek rips the tape holding the box closed - it must have not been that confidential. He can only see piles upon piles of personal data - her birthday, legal name, age - Olek puts it over to the side. Something catches his eye.
Profession - forensic scientist.
He wasn’t expecting that, that’s for sure. The next folders he finds are nearly empty, only some scribbled notes with terminology he cannot understand, and pictures attached. Why would she have that in her personal items? He also finds objects more closely related to her - some gifts from coworkers, a scalpel, and other things.
At the bottom lies a small box. From what he can make out in the dim light, it’s lined with purple velvet, softly shimmering as his torch’s lighting reflects on its surface. Gently, he takes it into his hands, as if the box would fall apart at any harsh touch.
He dares to look inside - and he finds an unusual object. An old tape recorder, and a note attached to it.
The message reads:
To Faye,
Who deserves to know what truly happened.
-Ezra
Olek nearly falls out from his chair again.
How on Earth was Ezra, his brother involved with some lady he never met in his life? They shared a house for nearly twenty years, and Ezra even slept on his couch for a couple of nights when Olek had moved out! They always talked, they were always close, Ezra would never hide anything like that from him. Apart from their last moments together, but-
He needs to know.
Does he want to disrupt the state of being? Does he want to intrude on his brother’s privacy, and Faye’s, whoever she is. He has to. He’s Ezra’s older brother, it is his duty to protect him.
Even if he has no idea where he is. Even after their argument that night.
Olek clenches his fists. He lets out a sigh, letting his muscles loosen a bit. It’s his obligation to listen to Ezra’s tapes.
He presses a button, and the recording starts.
It is May 24th, 2019.
I have just been assigned to the case of multiple disappearances over the city’s region, as a helping force to the police. It’s a… bit of a shame, after all, I’ve barely gotten a taste of being an actual private detective - and before I know it, the police try to snatch me up for some investigation! [Chuckle] Well, I guess I’ve always wanted to do that. Part of why I became a detective, you know. Oh- right, gotta introduce myself.
[Clears throat] This is Ezra Sekretny speaking, from the building of.. uhm… the police station, I guess? This isn’t any kind of professional audio log, they just gave me this and I wanted to use it to store my thoughts.
Well, the disappearances don’t seem to have anything in common. They’re people from almost every age group, ethnicity, different backgrounds, from what [pages flipping] these folders say. Although, wait, no. No, that can’t be relevant. Sorry.
Olek listened as Ezra’s ramblings went past. Hearing his brother’s voice after so long brought him a sense of longing. He could feel a tear spin in his eye.
All he got from the tapes was Ezra explaining the cases he was examining - occasionally broken by him complaining about the police being impossible to work with. He talked of the people that were missing, and in a later log, he mentions they all had something in common. They all had lost something, and they heard they could be promised more.
Upon finding out more, the investigation went by as time passed. Olek remembers Ezra talking about this - and the late evenings when he came back from work, the two of them sharing tea in silence. Later, in the mornings, Ezra would tell him what he could about the cases - after all, this was still confidential information. But Olek wishes he would have listened.
One particular log caught his attention.
February 19th, 2020.
I believe we’ve just made a breakthrough. The investigation was stopped briefly because we weren’t making progress, or something, but it turns out the time has paid off.
Two bodies were found. They were left sprawled out in the woods, almost too peaceful, as if they simply fell asleep in the forest - and, well, they did have bugs crawling over them. Rotting corpses. Logical stuff.
What was unusual, however, were two things. Firstly - both of the victims had their eyes gouged out. Second, they each had a certain symbol engraved somewhere on their body. I wish I could explain it better, this is audio form, after all, but it’s sort of a… broken rectangle? Like, two of the edges are broken off. Weird, I know.
We put all our effort into finding out what it meant. And it led us to discovering a certain company. Vigil. I- I don’t know exactly what it seems to be, some kind of help centre? It’s kept very private, and don’t ask where the information is from. They have an entire website, apparently. An agent almost lost their mind looking for access to it. So much for privacy. Point being, the logo is a person’s head with the symbol on it. We believe further investigation needs to be done.
Oh! And how could I forget? At the crime scene I met an interesting new person. Her name? Faye. Faye Tilly.
There it is. Olek freezes in place, his attention focused on the tape.
She works in the forensic science department - I honestly have no idea why she was outside the lab in the first place. When I asked, she just told me she felt like she had to see this. Alright then.
She’s an incredible person - so clever, and she even knows those musicals that I like! I can finally have someone to talk to about this, Olek doesn’t listen when I do. I want to talk to her more.
That’s true. He didn’t listen. Olek bites his lip.
Was it possible that Faye told him to cut contact with his brother? Is she the reason why Ezra left that night and was never seen again?
He had to keep listening. There was nothing else he could do.
June 8th, or 9th, no idea.
I’ve slightly lost track of time in these tapes. Sorry.
It’s been a couple of months. We managed to get down to the bottom of it all. Or at least, they think so. One man has given a statement about occultic meetings close to the forest he lives in. I don’t exactly remember the name, something with an E, or a T, don’t know.
He says that he approached the weird noises he kept hearing at night. Chanting, calling, and sometimes even screams. One night, he admits to having called the police over this, but they didn’t believe him. Not until now.
He had to find out for himself. He grabbed an axe for self defense and went to check on what was happening there. The man, this is where he really goes serious. He says that he hoped it was just a bunch of teenagers wreaking havoc in the middle of the night. But he never in his life would have expected what happened.
He saw entities. Not people, they can’t have been. Freakishly tall, wearing pristine white robes. And the mask. These… things had that broken rectangle symbol on them. And he could hear the chanting, it lost all form of words the closer he stepped, it almost sounded like buzzing. It dug itself in his ears, burrowed deep inside - he ran before his eardrums exploded.
We interviewed him a couple nights ago. He kept refusing to talk to anyone other than me. I have no clue why.
He kept rocking as he sat and repeated two phrases.
They will love you.
They will See you.
Over and over again. I haven’t slept since then. I keep hearing his words in my head.
I- I think I should get this checked out.
Olek pauses the audio and leans back in his chair. He closes his eyes, just for a brief moment, taking in the deepest breaths he can despite the lingering dust. He remembers Ezra looking for a good doctor, a neurologist of some sorts. Olek knew that his brother would call him in the middle of the night, hoping for support, but he rarely ever picked up.
If only he did. If only Olek knew this was all from this stupid job of his, maybe-
Maybe if he talked to Ezra, he wouldn’t have disappeared. Not like that. Not without a chance for a helping hand to reach out.
Tapes went past, and Olek loses track of time. It all melts into one for him as he listenes to Ezra talking - and much to his displease, he kept mentioning that ‘Faye’ person, some tapes he just endlessly talked about her.
I’m not providing a date for this one.
I spoke to Faye recently. I know I mention her a lot, but we recently became a couple. It makes me feel warm inside, something I haven’t really known for a long time. She makes me feel special. She makes me feel… heard.
We met up at night for a trip to see the stars. I’ve always liked stargazing, the vastness of the sky always makes me feel safe in a way. She was driving the car, and I couldn’t help but hear this strange buzzing in my head.
She asked me what was wrong when I didn’t stop complaining about a noise she couldn’t hear at all. I told her I wasn’t feeling well, which was true. She stopped the car.
It kept creeping under my skin, echoing inside of my head. I couldn’t make it stop. Under my breath, I repeated for it to finally stop. Faye took my hands into hers and tried to soothe me.
I began crying. I- I don’t exactly remember what I was saying, exactly, but I remember confiding in her. That there was something up with my head and I couldn’t get it checked out, that every doctor just said I should stop bothering actual medical professionals - and hey, Faye has had medical training. I asked her what was wrong with me.
She… she couldn’t find the answer. I wasn’t expecting her to, it’s not like she would ever be able to tell. She kissed my forehead and said I would be okay, that it’s the stress getting to me.
I’m still not convinced. The buzzing hasn’t stopped, and my vision tends to fade. That makes me worried. If I ever fall asleep, it’s for short periods of time, and I keep seeing the same thing.
That man from before, only now his eyes are.. purple. And he keeps repeating those phrases, that They will love me. And that They will See me.
What does it mean? I thought it was just him being crazy, perhaps from having witnessed, well, a cult meeting. He didn’t specify whether he saw one of the victims that were found in that forest. I think he may have.
I’m gonna call in sick to work tomorrow. I can’t go back there yet.
He remembers that. Their mother had been worried about Ezra, bringing up his prolonged absence from work every time they spoke. Sometimes, it ended with arguments, and one night, it escalated.
In a fit of rage, one of the glasses they were drinking from was thrown at Ezra - their mother, of course, felt guilty. Who wouldn’t feel that way after having thrown a glass at their own child? She went to hide in the bedroom, and Olek was left with his younger brother to take care of the wound.
Only then had he noticed how ill Ezra looked. His eyes no longer held the shine that used to reflect in them - instead holding two dull surfaces of a black void. He wasn’t sleeping, and his hair was uncombed. When Olek wrapped bandages over the places where glass pierced his brother’s skin, he could hear faint murmuring.
And now, he knew why.
In the next log, Ezra sounded much more distressed. His voice got quiet, close to a whisper, like how Olek remembered him being the last time he saw him. It felt like a punch to the gut. A reminder that he had part in his younger brother becoming this way.
It’s been five months since the last recording. This is the final audio log.
A goodbye of some sorts. They’re calling me. I can barely see anymore - but I can hear their voice. I finally understand it all. I can-
[Silence]
I can finally… See what They intended for me.
There’s so much to know! I can- there’s so much that I can see, I can look beyond what I ever could! Every pathway, every answer, every vein in the body of everyone stepping on this earth - it’s all in my grasp.
That’s what They promised.
[Silence, a chuckle]
I guess I need to say some… last words. Wow! I never thought I’d have to do this, and I certainly didn’t think it would be this way. I cut contact with everybody in my life. I’m sorry for that. [scoff] I’m talking like somebody will ever listen to this.
Well, it would make me feel better.
Faye, you were my only one. The days we spent together were ones I truly felt understood in. Thank you for being the person you are. I may not be able to be with you anymore, but I will Watch over you to the best of my abilities. I’m sorry for leaving. Perhaps you can join Us too one day.
Oh.
Olek. To Olek, my older brother, and to my mother who brought up the two of us. I’m sorry I couldn’t be like you wanted me to. I’m sorry I turned out the way I did. But this, what I’m doing is a path I myself chose to step on.
Something drove me to this. And I know it sits in the two of you, too.
Olek, I forgive you. I forgive you for yelling, and I’m sorry for being bitter myself. You protected me, you took care of me, but nothing is ever perfect.
Maybe in another world, you’d be able to see what I am seeing.
Goodbye.
Olek cannot bring himself to make any noise. The sudden cutoff of the audio makes his ears ring, and the shadows in front of him slowly spin around.
How didn’t he see this coming?
He buries his face in his hands, vision having long blurred. Guilt stabbed him clean through like a knife. He could have- if he were a better brother, Ezra wouldn’t have been caught up in the whole mess.
He was downright neglectful. Dismissive of his brother’s rapidly decreasing mental wellbeing, and it was all because of that case. Maybe if he listened more, maybe if he actually cared, Ezra would be safe. He wouldn’t be snatched up by that- whatever cult he followed, all because of the lack of care.
There was no way he would ever find Ezra.
Not after nearly six years. Not after what he’s just learned.
But maybe, just maybe, he thinks. What if he went to find Faye Tilly by himself? Perhaps she’d know something he didn’t. Ezra did cut contact, apparently, but if he would go so far to never tell Olek about her, maybe he kept in touch with Faye before his last audio log. He did seem to say goodbye- Olek doesn’t know what to think.
He tries to take a breath - his chest entangled with vines of shock and sorrow. Maybe it’s his own imagination, but he can hear some sort of buzzing in the background, like the LED lamps from the Before, always able to be heard no matter how much one tries to ignore it. His head feels light, the ground slips away from beneath his feet.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees something move in the shadow. Olek jumps up to alertness, glancing around to see if someone, or something was sneaking up on him. If it’s one of Them, he’s absolutely done for.
He reaches for a weapon - something, anything. The closest thing is the scalpel he’d found in Faye’s personal items. His grip around it is firm, with a shaking hand he clutches it.
Is there even anything in the room? Was he imagining things?
Olek’s muscles tense, fear’s claws digging into his skin. The shadows keep spinning in his peripheral, forming shapes he didn’t know were there. Was that plant always there? Why did that shelf look wrong? Lighting shouldn’t reflect off a wall like it does off plastic.
Slowly, but surely, something does materialise in the middle of the room.
Olek tries to run, scream, do anything as the buzzing gets closer to him. His peripheral vision is covered by a purple vignette, he cannot see anything apart from-
He cannot move.
The shadowy figure watches him.
It feels like they are in a staring match, but Olek cannot see any eyes on it.
Maybe it doesn’t need any to Watch him. Its piercing stare climbs below the surface of his body, straight to his heart, worming its way through his veins. In a way, it feels awfully familiar. A sense of deja vu encapsules him in a thick haze, he cannot do anything but keep looking at whatever has just appeared in front of him.
The figure reaches up to the ceiling, its long, wiry form looming over him. Even in the darkness, it stands out, sucking in the dim light of his torch.
He listens closely, and he can make out words in the buzzing. A message he never thought a noise like that would convey.
Remember where you came from.
Think again what you are.
The past will salvage you. The present will harm you.
Beware.
Over, and over, and over again. In a loop, like some broken radio, the message echoes in his head.
Olek’s body starts to feel heavy. His grip around the scalpel loosens as it falls down to the ground with a clink. The shadows keep spinning.
For a moment, he notices a certain shape. A broken rectangle, with two edges snapped away. Is this what Ezra was talking about in the tape?
His mind is filled with fog. He cannot stand anymore. Olek falls to the ground, like a puppet whose strings were cut by its master. He lies limp for a second as the shadow disappears.
Beware.
And the whispers stop.