Chapter Text
“Can you maybe just stop reading that book and come along already?”
There were only two people in the library. The librarian himself— fitted quite well behind the counter, with his books and all. But the same couldn’t be said about the person who came in after the building was technically supposed to be closed for the evening. Any other person would have been annoyed by the volume with which he (probably on purpose) spoke.
“There is no way that you actually have to work this long. You’re not even doing anything and there is literally noone here!”
At last, the librarian couldn’t stay still anymore. “Someone has to watch the books. What if someone comes in to steal something?”
“Yeah sure, buddy. I bet they would be able to, even with you here, because you’re only watching one book.”
“And that one hasn’t been stolen yet.”, the librarian remarked triumphantly and stood up, closing the book and sliding it into a drawer. Then he turned to look at the intruder again. They were only able to hold eye contact for a short moment before both started laughing.
“No, but seriously, Egg, I haven’t eaten anything but a sandwich today and if you keep me any longer from having some food someone will get hurt.”
“What happened to your keys, Wemmbu?”
“Whaaat? I just want to walk home with my bro Eggchan… And I left them on the table… But you won’t let me down after I came all the way to the library you work at, right?”
“You mean the five minutes that it took you to come here.” Egg stood up and started walking towards the exit.
“Whatever”
Wemmbu watched him turn off the lights, then proceeded to push him towards the door so he couldn’t waste any more time.
—
“I totally wrecked the evidence they brought today. They probably don’t even know what to do anymore!” Wemmbu broke the silence. “You should have seen the lawyers face when I was done pointing out how stupid their entire case was”
“Are you talking about that drama with the restaurants that hated each other and were trying to sue each other heads off-?”
“Yeah! But after today they will have more issues than just their rivalry.”
The weird thing was, nobody who knew him could have imagined Wemmbu as a lawyer. Nor could they explain how he even became one in the first place. Not to mention that he turned out to be really good at it too. Egg had actually witnessed it a few times. It was like watching some competent, collected person take over Wemmbu. If he didn’t know any better, Egg would call it uncanny sometimes. Not to say Wemmbu couldn’t be a competent lawyer, though you could say it was surprising. But Egg also knew that Wemmbu had something to prove and that he wasn’t able to let his guard down at work. In- and outside of the courtroom.
They were nearly at their shared apartment when Wemmbu suddenly went still. He had heard footsteps behind them, but when he glanced briefly over his shoulder there wasn’t anything. Despite that he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.
“What is it?” Egg asked after noticing the sudden change in mood.
“I don’t know. I just heard something behind me...” Wemmbu was still looking around the street.
“Well, we’re not exactly in a remote location. The main street is only a few blocks away..”
“You’re right”
Still. Something seemed off, because there really should be more city noises at this time of day.
Although he had brushed it off, Egg was now a little on edge as well, so he liked the idea of trying to get home faster.
A few minutes later the friends stood in front of their door. But as Eggchan fumbled with the key to find the lock in the dimly lit hall, Wemmbu paused and looked back towards the stairs, from where he got that same feeling again.
Egg looked up to see him sneaking off in said direction.
“What are you doing?”, after not getting an answer he started following Wemmbu down the hall.
If it turned out to be nothing Wemmbu would look really stupid. However, the day had been getting late as the sun began to set. Eggchan wasn't up to any more shenanigans for the day and was about to retire in his bed.
Right as Egg turned the corner to catch up with Wemmbu at the stairwell, they were met face to face with a familiar character.
The person stumbled back and apparently the two weren’t meant to notice them because they scrambled to get away again. But not before Wemmbu could cut off the person's escape.
“Wait, hold on, hold on! I am not here to-”
“Theo?”, Wemmbu hadn’t expected to know their stalker.
“...Theo?”, Egg asked while looking at his friend for an explanation. “Who is this guy?”
“Someone I see at work sometimes.”, Wemmbu narrowed his eyes, “Why are you following us?”
“I’m not… following you.” Theo made another attempt at slipping away, without success.
“Yeah, no, you definitely were.”
“Didn’t… Didn’t you know I-I… also live here?”
"Okay, let's cut the crap. Did Parrot put you up to this? I thought I had the luxury of more peace and time after what happened the last time. Especially after the stunt he pulled.”
Theo still looked like he was searching for a way to get out of this situation. They stood there for a moment, staring at each other with tense looks before Theo slumped his shoulders and sighed.
“Okay, okay. I followed you… But not for the reasons you might think. I’m here for something you… found a few days ago.”
“What do you mean, something we found?”
“Yo…. we were about to get mugged, by some guy. I still don’t really know who he is by the way.”, Egg joked as he glanced frantically back and forth between Wemmbu and the stranger.
Wemmbu still had Theo pinned with a glare when he answered. “You know Parrot, right? This right here, is his little henchman. And he’s about to tell us what he is doing here or he will have a problem.”
“I already told you! There is something in your apartment and I need to find it.”
“Dude, do you even know what you’re looking for yourself?”, Eggchan asked.
“Look, it’s hard to explain and I really don’t have time for this.”
“Well, you want something from us. So I suggest that you start saying what you want here otherwise you can bet I will use it against Parrot somehow.”, Wemmbu exclaimed.
Theo still seemed hesitant, looking back and forth between Egg and Wemmbu and frowning. “Fine, I’ll show you.”
They once again started walking towards their apartment. This time with Theo in tow. Wemmbu still distrusted this whole situation. Even though there were a few people who would love to see him drop his legal career, Parrot seemed to hate him the most, always looking for an opportunity to trip him up. Until now he was very subtle with it. So sending Theo to spy on them and invade their home was a rather big jump.
Either way, Wemmbu didn’t put it beneath them. It was a little weird though, and honestly creep behavior.
His thoughts were swiftly interrupted by Egg opening their door and stepping inside. Wemmbu motioned for Theo to walk in front of him so he could keep an eye on the nervous looking guy.
“What now?”, Egg said as he put away his and Wemmbu’s belongings. Somehow being okay with the fact a stranger was in their home.
Theo was expecting more if he was being honest.
Theo reached for his pockets and took out a small device. Wemmbu looked over his shoulder, not able to contain his curiosity.
“What is that?”
“This will help us find the thing.” The device Theo had pulled out was apparently used for measuring… something. It had a display that showed a random number, probably related to whatever weird shit Parrot was up to.
Theo started to walk around and point the tool at things, like you would do with a emf reader for catching ghosts..
“This is so weird.”, Egg noted after a minute of Theo scanning their living room.
“I still can’t decide if this is just a big ruse to make me look bad, but at this point it almost seems too elaborate.”
“Why did we even let him in here?” Egg snorted at how stupid Theo looked , wandering around their apartment.
“Curiosity maybe? Don’t ask me, bro. It was a long day-”
“Wow, what is that?”, Theo pointed towards the random corner of the room.
Wemmbu walked over and tried to get a look at what Theo had found. “What is what?”
Egg also tried to spot it. The device now displayed “17.5” and it was pointing towards a weird lamp.
“Oh, that thing? Cool right?”
Wemmbu gave Egg a confused look. “Since when did we have a lamp like that?”
“I saw it standing on the sidewalk a few days ago. So I took it with me.”
“Why would you just… You know what? Nevermind.”, Wemmbu inspected it a little closer, “But why haven’t I noticed it until now…”
Suddenly it felt like he couldn’t look away anymore. Everything about the lamp was wrong somehow. It looked ancient and brand new at the same time. There were exposed wires that looked extremely clean even though the rest of the lamp was covered in dirt. All in a way that seemed like it wasn’t made intentionally, but also exactly the way it was supposed to be.
The longer you observed, the brighter it seemed to become. Occasionally flickering on the spectrum of the rainbow, while remaining what was supposedly only one solid colour. It was like a black hole, dragging you in . Consuming you . It was looking back.
The lamp set its gaze upon Wemmbu and he couldn’t help but stare back.
Entranced he reached for the Lamp.
“Hey. Hey! Wemmbu, are you good?” Egg had grabbed Wemmbu’s shoulder.
Wemmbu was snapped out of his trance and glanced at Egg before retching and backing away from the lamp. All the while Theo was watching with a mix of alarm and fascination.
Egg helped his friend sit down on a chair nearby. “What. Was that?”
“That’s new…”, Theo took out a piece of paper and wrote something down only to pause for a moment, “Can I…Can I take it with me now?”
There were still quite a few question marks above his head and Egg didn’t want to let him go like that. But he’d rather the lamp was as far away as possible after what had happened just now, even though he wasn’t sure what exactly that was.
“Fine. But can you give us at least some kind of explanation?”, Egg turned his head in Wemmbu’s direction, who still seemed pretty out of it.
“He will get better.”, their former stalker appeared to think for a moment.
“But Parrot will probably want to have a look at him….”. He studied Wemmbu for a moment.
“Okay, come to this address tomorrow in the evening.” Theo gave Egg a note and disappeared through the door almost immediately, as if he was rushing to another destination. Leaving the two alone and confused about what just happened.
Like Theo had predicted, Wemmbu got better after about an hour.
Although there wasn't anything wrong with him physically, he wasn't completely back to normal either.
He wasn't loud or brash as usual but rather unresponsive to everything.
Occasionally his focus would drift away and Egg had to bring him back to reality. Either by snapping his fingers or doing a few harsh shakes.
He doesn't know what would happen if left too long , but he wasn't keen on finding out anytime soon .
“Bu…Parrot better know something before I pluck out his prized feather collection…”
Adding to that, was the fact that every time—Wemmbu would either stare in the direction Theo had gone, or what was presumably the general direction of the lamp.
Egg was starting to get anxious and a little annoyed . Pacing around the room as he checked in with Wemmbu every once in a while.
“And you’re sure, you’ve never seen that lamp before?”
“Yes, I’m sure! It was like it only became visible after it wanted me to… to look at…”
“Hello? Oh my god, you can’t keep doing this to me.” Egg snapped his fingers in front of his friend's face and at this point he was incredibly close to testing the effectiveness of just slapping Wemmbu across the face. But this time, no such measure was needed.
“W-wait!”, Wemmbu’s eyes snapped back to Egg, “I remember Theo giving you something when he left.”
“Yeah, he wrote information down, for some meeting… You’re not actually considering to go there, right?”
“Bro, that is our only chance to find out what is going on. And if this is something good, then I’m sure as hell not gonna let Parrot take everything for himself”
“Bro, how can this be something good when you looking at it for a few seconds caused- I don’t know what”
“How am I supposed to know? But it has to be something if Parrot chases after it so desperately that he sends Theo to commit a burglary .”
“You should go to bed, bro.”
Wemmbu wanted to protest, but he had to agree that it was late. And arguing with Egg would be easier when he wasn’t completely exhausted from the previous day and influenced by an eldritch lamp.
—
5 pm, spawnstreet 17, enter from behind.
Wemmbu hadn’t slept much. His mind has been in a constant state of unrest.
Before going to sleep, he had been able to convince Egg to let him see the piece of paper.
It was just a basic address, but it lived rentfree in his mind ever since he had laid his eyes on it.
He was going to go there, whether with Egg or alone. He must go there.
The zoning out had stopped after a while at least, but there was still a weird residue feeling. He felt cold and hot at the same time, he felt like something was looking at him.
But what had bugged him the most was Parrot.
He had something to do with the whole thing. It just didn’t make any sense.
Why Parrot of all people voodoo hypnotized him? Wemmbu couldn’t decide if it felt weird because of the lamp or due to the heated, lethal rivalry between him and his “coworkers” eating his brain.
Weird .
That’s what it was .
Everything must have been a scheme.
Although at the same time it was too weird — what would even be Parrot’s goal with it? What could Parrot possibly accomplish with the lamp?
Wemmbu had to find out. Also, he sure as hell wasn’t gonna inquire about it at work. That would only be an opportunity to hurt his already frail reputation. So the only option was taking the bait.
“So you really want to find out that badly?” Egg still wasn’t very convinced.
“Yes, I was hypnotized by a random lamp you found by the sidewalk! And Theo just took it with him to study or do I don’t know what!”
“I’m just saying, we still don’t know what that even was-”
“So we should try to find out!” Wemmbu snapped back.
“Be my guest ! You can stay here if you want. I will find out what is going on myself!”
“Fine.”
“So you’re staying?”
“No. I’m coming along because you knucklehead need me.”
“As if you being there would change anything, you might just be dead weight.”
“Well, aren't you a genius. You know that I'm the reason why we haven’t ended up homeless yet.”
“That’s definitely correlation, not causation”
Egg rolled his eyes at that.
Although the mood had lightened up a bit, the flow of conversation came to a stop when they made it to the meeting place, leaving an awkward silence. The friends, despite both being aware of the sheer absurdness of the situation, felt the eeriness of the whole situation.
That's when they arrive in front of the run down house that belonged to the address on the paper
It didn’t help with that sensation at all. It was eerie, suffocating and the air was dense.
Egg was the first to break the silence. “You sure this Parrot guy is behind everything, ‘cause from what you told me… I thought he was someone who normally stayed away from these parts of the city. He is one of those rightful, justice types right?”
“I guess, he doesn’t have an entirely clean slate”, Wemmbu shrugged even though he’d obviously thought the same thing. But it wasn’t easy to assume anything more than the worst from someone who tries to trip you up as often as Parrot did.
There might have been a time where it wasn’t like that, but things changed.
“So… do you have some kind of plan?" Egg asked awkwardly, which only earned him a puzzled look from Wemmbu.
“What would we need a plan for?”
“Oh my god, we’re actually so cooked.”
But before Wemmbu could try to say anything in return, the backdoor that was now in front of them.
It opened up into a creepy hallway that gave way to a flight of stairs leading into pure darkness.
“So are they actively trying to be ominous. Also, these stairs definitely are not sketchy at all, that's for sure.”Eggchan deadpanned as the floorboard creaked the moment he stepped on it.
“Let’s just go.”
And that they did.
Fortunately, the stairs weren’t long and the hallway that followed them had a few lights.
For a moment they just stood there and stared at the door at the end of the hall.
“What even is this place? How is there, like, some villain’s lair under here?”
“How did picking up some weird lamp lead to this? Do they want me to be afraid of scraps? And why is it working a little?”
“There’s only one way to find out…” Wemmbu walked towards the door and opened it with a quick motion as if trying to keep himself from overthinking it too much. And…
The room itself wasn’t too impressive. It just had a bit of furniture, a door (probably leading to the rest of the basement) and a Theo in it. Who seemed to be in the process of dosing off in a chair, when he realised that he had visitors.
“Oh so you actually came”
For a short while the three just stood there looking at each other.
“Are you going to let us in, bro?”
Theo gave Egg a blank look before going “Oh yeah right” and opening the door for them.
One could say the space behind the door was impressive, but in that moment it just confused them even more.
Considering the sheer difference of the basement compared to the rest of the house it's probably haunted or something.
“Parrot is actually putting way too much effort in whatever he is doing down here” Unfortunately Wemmbu couldn’t help but still be a little interested.
“No, it looks like one of those conspiracy boards, except that it’s a whole room”
And Egg wasn’t wrong in that observation. Different Books (Notebooks and ones about various sciency topics) were scattered all over a table and partly even the floor. Most walls were covered in paper, newsclippings, photos and other things. But instead of red, the strings that connected everything were green. As if that made it any better.
It did not at all look like something the normally organised lawyer would leave behind in any room.
Said lawyer was currently standing in front of an especially messy wall, probably thinking about some complicated conspiracy of his.
“Right… so what in the world is this?”
Parrot had apparently been in some deep thought process because he flinched and dropped the pen he was holding when Wemmbu spoke up, which in turn made him flinch a second time.
After a short pause filled with awkward silence he turned around. “So you decided to come for answers, but do you know what you’re getting yourself into?
More silence.
“Nah, bro is not recovering that aura.” Egg said, trying to hold in laughter.
Which Wemmbu failed to do. “Bro seriously thinks he’s tough, over here, acting all ominously. Next time, try holding on to your pencil.”
The giggling duo made it even harder for Parrot to regain his composure.
“Can you two shut up for a moment?”
“Whatever you say”
“Right, Wemmbu, it’s actually incredible how you can’t behave properly even when you’re in a situation like this.”
The words were filled with venom and now it was Wemmbu’s turn to flinch unnoticeably and he went silent immediately.
“Oh so you were listening. But I have to give you at least a bit of credit, because there had to be some way you kept your job for so long. Whatever that might be..”
“What do you want, Parrot?”
“Well I wasn’t the one who gave you this address. No one would ever guess that I spend my free time in a place like this. And if Theo had done his job right you wouldn’t have found it at all. But since you’re here now, I might as well use it to my advantage.”
“Okay, buddy, we haven’t come here to listen to you yapping.” Wemmbu walked up to Parrot. “I came here to find out what the hell was going on with that lamp and what you have to do with it.”
Finally he relented and started explaining.
“Well it’s less of a question about what is going on with the lamp, than what is going on with everything.”
Explaining was maybe a bit of an exaggeration.
“He’s not even making sense.” Egg whispered.
Wemmbu also began to doubt if coming here was that good of an idea, considering the fact that Parrot seemed to have lost it.
“What you witnessed yesterday was nothing less but a breach of reality.”
“Bro, what is he even saying?”
“You know what? Let’s just go with it. I want to see where he’s heading with that.”
Wemmbu still felt uneasy. When you look at all that had happened the previous day, it seemed like a viable explanation.
“Nobody has noticed it yet, but there is a pattern of disappearances in this city. I am so close to finding out what it means..” Parrot shuffled over another piece of paper that looked like it didn't belong in this timeline.
“Up ‘til now, there used to only be a few missing people reports per year in this town. But now in the recent months the number of cases has tripled. Having more going missing than in the last 4 years combined! And the number will just keep going up. But they have a pattern, here come look.”.
At that Parrot pushed a few piles of paper aside , to reveal a map on the table beside him. On it he had marked about two dozen places that formed an approximate line.
“And if you want to know the rest, you’ll have to do a favour for me.”
“What, bro, you told us nothing!” Wemmbu, who had been listening intently, exclaimed.
“We just want to know what the lamp did to Wemmbu. Where's the connection to all of this ?” Eggchan puffs out.
“You’ll just have to go back to your sad apartment then.”
It cost Wemmbu a lot of willpower to say the next few words. “Fine. What do you want us to do?”
—
If you had told Wemmbu a few days ago that he was going to run errands for Parrot this weekend. He would have thought you’re telling a bad joke. But here he was.
“I still don’t think he is going to tell us what is going on, even after we take those stupid readings.”, Egg complained.
“What other choice do we have?”
“I don’t know, bro. Not to do what the freaky conspiracy guy says? I think we're in way over our heads.”
“What gave you that idea? Look, bro, I just want to find out what is happening right now and if we find out it’s too dangerous, we can still leave Parrot with the whole mess. And if he’s on to something, I don’t want him to have all the glory to himself. That guy already has enough of an ego.”
“You sure this isn’t also about proving that you can do it?”
“What would I have to prove?”
Egg rolled his eyes. “We both know that he’s just using us out of convenience.”
“And what if he is. I can’t pinpoint it exactly, but I know this is something big.”
Egg was still the farthest thing from convinced, but what else could he do than accompany his friend? Wemmbu going on his own was far worse of an idea than anything Parrot could ever come up with.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that we accidentally find out about this secret and he immediately lets us in on it? Well, at least kind of.”
“No?”
“And what is even going on with him? The Parrot I remember was so different, also definitely not a conspiracy fanatic.”
The moment Egg said those words he knew he had strolled into the wrong topic. He saw Wemmbu’s face immediately losing any trace of humour that had been there only moments ago.
“People change over time”, he said in a harsh tone. “But you aren’t the one who has to deal with his shit at work all the time, so you wouldn’t know.”
Egg opened his mouth to answer, before deciding it would be best not to say anything.
So the remaining way was travelled in silence. Which didn’t prevail because the moment they spotted their destination even Wemmbu had to start doubting their mission.
“Yo, I think this is illegal.”
“What, breaking into a building? I had no idea. You’re the lawyer genius.”
Adding to that there were signs warning them to “keep out” in front of the abandoned building. It looked like the former bureau of a company that had to close it up for financial reasons. Not ominous at all.
“Maybe check if your address is right?” Wemmbu said even though he already knew the answer.
“No, that's definitely it.”
“Right.” Wemmbu let out a sigh. “Not like we haven’t done worse things.” and started towards the building.
“This is definitely haunted.” Egg followed Wemmbu uncomfortably looking around.
“Yeah, bro, we’re about to get jumped by a zombie. And what's with the latest sightings of people visiting haunted places!” Wemmbu whined as he climbed over the metal fence with ease.
“We should have brought the ghost hunting equipment.”
“Maybe the device Parrot gave us is actually meant for ghosts. I wouldn’t know since he didn’t tell us anything!”
As he said that Wemmbu was working on opening a lock on the fence of the facility as Eggchan didn't have the skills to climb like Wemmbu. Another piece of proof that knowing how to lockpick has never not been useful.
After taking another brief look at their surroundings Wemmbu opened the entrance with a small click.
Egg followed after him quickly with his measuring device already in hand.
“Ok then, let’s go.”
They tried to look inconspicuous while walking across the property, in case anyone happened to be curious about the old office building. Although the friends needed to be swift either way, the reason being that people who were supposed to look after a building normally had keys and didn’t have to break into their own workingplace.
That the door to said building hadn’t been closed and instead was wide open for them to just walk in was either a stroke of good luck or a bad omen and Egg couldn’t decide what it was (He had a tendency though).
On the contrary to Egg, Wemmbu didn’t seem to pay any mind to the door being conveniently open and immediately entered the interior without hesitation.
“This place is huge.”, he said after halting a few steps in. “Why has nobody repurposed it? Seems like a missed investment opportunity to me.”
“It’s in better condition than I thought. At least there is no broken furniture or unknown liquids dripping from the walls.” Egg added with a shrug.
After deciding what to do now, the two went into the nearest hallway, but even after searching through various desk spaces and offices for an hour there still hadn’t been anything interesting.
“Maybe the thing isn’t even turned on?” Egg wondered half seriously, inspecting the measuring device.
“There’s no way. I checked at least three times at this point.” Wemmbu let out a frustrated sigh. “How are we even supposed to find anything if we have no idea what to look for? This is like walking around to find a plant that you’ve never seen before!”
“And you don’t know if it exists” Wemmbu only groaned at Eggs remark.
But Egg spoke up again. “I don’t know if we’re gonna find anything here, bro. Maybe Parrot just needed a way to get us out of his sight.”
“And what do you want to do? Turn around and let us have wasted more than an hour, just to go back home empty handed because of some stupid prank?”
It took Egg a couple of seconds to answer. “If we turn back now maybe Parrot won’t laugh at us too much for actually following his lead.”
“You can not be serious.”
“There is nothing here. The best thing we can do right now is stop this search and hope that no one has called the…” Egg trailed off as he noticed Wemmbu’s angry look. Or was it hurt?
“We are not even finished searching the first floor and you want to just give up? Don’t you care about what happened back at our apartment?! Maybe you didn’t notice but there was something wrong and I-” he suddenly cut himself off, suddenly regretting his outburst.
Egg only stood there not knowing what to say.
“I am going to keep searching. If you want to go back, you can do that, but you won’t convince me to come with you.” With that Wemmbu turned away from Egg and continued heading further into the office.
After what felt like an hour of standing in the Hallway and staring in the direction that his friend went, Eggchan started heading back to the lobby.
They were both going to be fine.
They had split up in situations like this a hundred times before.
But he couldn’t shake the feeling, something bad was about to go down. The fact that they were doing exactly what every horror movie ever taught not to do, wasn’t comforting either.
—
Splitting up was not a good idea.
If the ever repeating pattern of rooms hadn't been creepy before, now it definitely was.
He constantly turned around at any sound, emitted by the almost liminal environment.
Wemmbu tried not to think about leaving Egg behind too much. What even was that back there? He didn’t mean to yell at his best friend and he wasn’t even that invested in finding out about this mystery. It was just the heat of the moment causing him to have a small crashout, right?
He didn’t mean it and now he felt guilty. But he had to push onward… for some reason.
His arrival at the stairs kept him from thinking too much about the concerned look Egg had given him in the aforementioned moment.
He started heading up.
Only that he did not, in fact, stop at the second floor. Instead he continued his ascent until he had reached a sign spelling the words “4th Floor”.
It is here.
A thought so clear, it almost was like he had heard it from someplace that wasn’t even his own mind.
Anything else plaguing him was gone now. Except the feeling of needing to succeed. To find it.
But why would he even look for something responsible for hurting him previously. Wemmbu knew that it was dangerous, like Egg had-
But he had to find it. It was too late anyway. The room was in front of him. He felt it calling out to him.
The display beside the door said “server room”. Which wasn’t weird for an office this big, so he entered.
Rows and rows of devices sat there. Slowly, Wemmbu started to walk beside them. In the back of his mind a voice began to complain about the lack of description of what they were searching for. But it was here and it only took a few minutes to realise why there wasn’t any kind of explanation needed.
Parrot had probably meant for them to use the provided equipment to find it.
What Wemmbu saw in the Server room though, didn’t take any equipment to be noticed.
On one of the servers there seemed to be a type of corruption akin to the glitching lamp. It looked like a liquid spread over them and at the same time like there was a hole in reality that he could just slip through if he wanted to.
Wemmbu absentmindedly noted in the back of his mind how this might be the way all the people, Parrot had mentioned, managed to just disappear.
But at this point Wemmbu wasn’t able to control what his body was doing anymore, as he got closer and closer.
And he felt it staring at him again, so his hand reached out to touch it.
—
Two hours.
Egg had waited two hours for Wemmbu to come back. He didn’t dare to wonder what might have happened.
After half an hour, Eggchan had started severely regretting his decision out of boredom.
Fifteen minutes later the spiraling began.
And quite a while ago Egg had begun to feel restless.
When he decided to go back, after his friend, he had made up about a hundred and twenty-seven scenarios and left behind a faint circle where he had been pacing for an hour and a half.
Egg was in such a hurry that when he yanked a door open to run through it, he collided with the very person he was looking for. Confused, he stumbled backwards.
“Dude, what took you so long?”
“I didn’t look at the time… and you were right. There is nothing in this building.”
Any trace of anger Egg might have had towards Wemmbu, for letting him wait this long, was swept away. The times where Wemmbu had admitted to being wrong could be counted on one hand. It took Eggchan off guard.
Leading him to inspect his friend's demeanor a bit closer. Wemmbu seemed quite shaken by whatever had happened during their separation. He looked exhausted. Well, that part wasn’t really surprising since he had just spent over two hours in a futile search for answers. But there was something else beside that…
“Are you okay, bro?”
Wemmbu stared at Egg for a moment, as he seemed to be on the verge of zoning out.
“What- Yeah of course. You can stop worrying, bro… Let’s just go home.”
“Fine. But I’ll only stop if you finally give up on this”
Wemmbu hesitated for a moment. “... Yeah, sure.”
And so they went home.
Even though both friends were well aware that they had just lied to each other.