A Haunting At Site-17

The cold night air blew overhead, causing the leaves on the corn stalks to sway and rustle. Stacey was much shorter than the tall rows of corn surrounding her, preventing her from seeing further than a few feet ahead.

Above her was a dark purple sky with hints of yellow and red on its edges. This helped illuminate the corn field a bit, though Stacey knew it wouldn't last. She needed to get moving.

Reaching out, she parted the stalks erected in front of her, stepping between them. More stalks awaited her. So, she repeated the process, slowly but surely making her way through the corn field.

After a bit, her eyes landed on a break in the corn a few rows ahead of her. Pushing herself forward, she found herself stepping out into a small opening in the field.

In the center of the opening was a scarecrow, posted onto a wooden T. It was wearing a blue flannel shirt, and the straw poking out of the sleeves resembled a three fingered hand. That's not what caught Stacey's attention, though.

What caught her eye was the pumpkin head. It was lopsided and misshapen, as though it had been left out for weeks and rotted. This caused the eye and mouth holes to be equally as deformed and unnaturally shaped. Along with its figure, the pumpkin was also covered in scratch marks. Some were deeper and longer than others, though none seemed to pierce down to the hollow inside.

Standing on the scarecrow's shoulder was a large, black bird. Stacey wasn't able to tell if it was a crow or a raven. The bird was scratching and pecking at the pumpkin with its beak, though somehow Stacey knew the animal wasn't responsible for the marks on the gourd.

The bird stopped pecking as Stacey approached. Instead, it turned and stared down at the girl with deep, blood red eyes. Stacey stopped dead in her tracks, meeting the bird's gaze.

They stood still for several moments, staring at each other, before the bird went back to pecking at the pumpkin. Stacey watched in silence as the bird assaulted it, wondering to herself why the bird was so determined to attack the thing.

As she pondered the bird's motivation, she felt something inside her mouth fall onto her tongue. Without thinking, Stacey spat whatever it was onto the ground below. Curious, she knelt down and gazed at what she had just spit out.

It was a tooth.

Her heart stopped as she raised a hand to her mouth. Using her tongue to feel around, she found that it had been her upper right canine that fell out. Stacey gasped, both out of shock and fear. Teeth didn't grow back, after all.

As Stacey's mind began to race, she felt more of her teeth start to loosen. One by one, her mouth emptied of the bone, until only four or five teeth remained. The rest had fallen to the ground, scattering and leaving Stacey surrounded.

Then, to make matters worse, Stacey felt a clump of her hair fall to the ground. She wasn't sure how she had felt it, but she just knew it had. Clump after clump began falling around her, mixing with the scattered teeth. Reaching up, Stacey caught a wad of hair before it fell and held it in front of her.

As she gazed down at it, she noticed her arm was grayer and dryer than usual. Dropping the hair, Stacey rubbed her fingers in her palm as she observed her skin. It had sunk and aged, appearing more like the arm of an old corpse rather than of a teenage girl.

The deterioration didn't stop at her arm. Stacey felt her face sink as well. The bones in her cheeks and around her eyes seemed to morph and bend in a way Stacey couldn't see, yet somehow knew. The skin on her fingers and hands, drier and hoarier than the rest, began to peal off the bone. White skeletal fingers appeared in the places where skin used to be.

Stacey stared in horror as the division between skin and bone slowly crept up to her hands. As she watched, the bird let out a high pitched scream in a way she could never find the words to perfectly describe. It was like the combination of a crow caw and woman's shriek. Regardless, it caused Stacey to look up at where the bird had been.

But the bird was gone, without any trace as to where it went. The scarecrow had also changed, though for the more unsettling.

Its pumpkin head, which had before been staring straight forward, was now angled downward as if to gaze at Stacey directly. It had also, somehow, become more rotten and disfigured, with the lopsidedness becoming even more exaggerated. The eye and mouth holes in turn also became more misshaped, with the mouth in particular being crooked into a malevolent, unnatural smile.

But what caused Stacey's blood to go cold wasn't the deformed head or eerie smile, it was the pair of eyes that stared back at her from within the pumpkin. The eyes looked human in structure, but were inverted in color. The irises were a pale black, that seemed to consume even the darkness of the hollowed pumpkin. By contrast, the pupils were an unsettling white that seemed to pierce Stacey's very essence.

It was dark now. What little color had been present in the sky had faded into a pure blackness. The corn stalks that had previously surrounded the girl had also faded into the dark void. All that remained was the scarecrow and its inverted eyes.

Then, after a minute, even the body began to fade. The blue shirt, the yellow straw, and the dull orange pumpkin all seemed to slowly sink into the darkness behind it. The eyes, however, remained. Staring at Stacey as she laid, unable to move.

Unable to move.

Stacey couldn't move.

She tried desperately to move her body, and when that failed she tried to move her arm, and when that failed she tried to move her hand, and when that failed her tried to move her finger. Nothing. She was totally paralyzed, forced to stare at the eyes without even the moment of relief a blink would've given.

Stacey felt her unblinking eyes begin to burn when the pair in front of her began to be surrounded by shape. Even in the total darkness Stacey could see an even darker darkness materialize around the eyes. It formed into the shape of a head, then under it formed a body, and then Stacey was able to make out the silhouette of a person standing above her in the darkness.

Under the eyes formed two rows of moldy, rotten teeth, separated by an unnatural inter-tooth spacing. The teeth lined into a crooked smile, not unsimilar to the malevolent smile worn by the pumpkin earlier.

The thing stared down at Stacey as she tried desperately to move, to blink, to do anything. Stacey felt hot, musty air press against her face as the creature shifted its teeth to reflect an opened mouth.

A shrill, feminine laugh echoed from the creature, causing a shiver to run down Stacey's back.

And the next moment, it was gone. The eyes, the teeth, the outline, the laughing, the hot breath, all of it. Gone.

At the very same time, Stacey found her ability to move restored. She blinked rapidly and shot up into a sitting position. Placing a hand on her chest, she inhaled and exhaled at a stunning pace. Frantically, her eyes darted around in an attempt to find her bearings.

She was in her room, laying on her bed. A small light she kept on in her bathroom illuminated part of the cell, but for the most part she was in total darkness.

It was a dream. Stacey though, collapsing onto her pillow. Her heart and breathing were still running at a million miles a minute, but her brain had finally found its footing. It was just a dream.

Letting out a deep breath, Stacey turned her head to the digital clock resting on her night stand.

6:08 am.

Her eyes then drifted to the date implemented in the device.

10/31.

Halloween.

Stacey was never one to go to parties or special events, at least not on her own. She did occasionally go to some back when she was in high school, but that was only because her friends had gone with her. When it came to going solo, however, Stacey tended to opt out.

Which is why when Researcher Kim told her about the Halloween party the Foundation was putting on, Stacey had no intentions of attending. At least, not until breakfast when Leora asked if she was going. Knowing her friend would go on a crusade to try and convince Stacey to go, she decided to just reply with a yes. It kept Leora from nagging Stacey, but now she was committed.

Oh well. Stacey thought as she made her way towards the cafeteria. At least there will be people there I know.

Even from the hallway, Stacey could hear music bleeding out from the party area. Some song about skeletons reverberated around the walls as Stacey stepped into the cafeteria.

Right off the bat, Stacey was hit with an odd sense of nostalgia as she took in the setting. The large rectangular tables that usually sat in the middle of the room were gone, opening the room up and making it feel far larger. Replacing them were smaller, circular tables all conjugated to Stacey's right. Next to the tables was what looked like a buffet style line of food, with silver containers set up on a series of white tables. Hanging from the walls were fake cobwebs and spiders and witch cutouts and pumpkin cutouts and all sorts of decorations that boosted the Halloween spirit. It all reminded her of when her school hosted its own Halloween parties.

Scattered around the cafeteria were what seemed like activity tables. Most were just some basic classroom/table games that were Halloween themed. Like tick-tac-toe but the xs and os were drawn on pumpkins, bouncing ping-pong balls that look like eyes into plastic cups, tossing bean bags into jack-o-lanterns, a memory card game with pictures of different Halloween monsters, and other stuff Stacey was too overwhelmed to properly make out. All the booths were being manned by Foundation staff Stacey had seen around the site. Some were in costume and really getting into it, others were in their standard attire and looked bored as hell.

Stacey was surprised to see a good number of skips at the party. She had assumed most people would've stayed in their cells, but sure enough, dozens of anomalies were present. Some were even in costume. Like Marya who was wearing a basic witch costume, or Katie who was in an air force outfit (and without her hand mittens. Good for her, Stacey thought).

"Howdy miss." Someone said in the worst western accent. Stacey turned to her left to see that one doctor who tried way too hard to be friends with the anomalies. He was wearing a cowboy costume, and tipped his hat as he greeted her. "Are you ready for a night of fun and spooks?"

"Uh…" Stacey replied a bit awkwardly, trying to hide how much she was cringing. "Yeah."

"Well now that's mighty fine to hear." The doctor said, switching to a southern drawl in the middle of the sentence. "We've got food at the end there, feel free to take as much as you want. On the other side we've got games and other fun activities. You can request songs at the music booth over yonder. And at ten we're going to be having a costume contest that everyone can vote on."

"Thanks." Stacey said flatly.

"You have a fun night now." The doctor called out as Stacey turned and made her way to the food table.

Stacey found her place at the back of the small yet stagnant line. As she grabbed a clear plastic plate, she couldn't help but over hear the conversation being held in front of her.

"So what are you supposed to be?" Daniel, who was dressed in a green jacket and white T-shirt with the words 'Cactusman' printed on the front, asked.

"Well, this was supposed to be a two person costume." Mr. Fish replied, who himself was wearing what looked like the bottom half of a horse costume. "But Grabnock shifted on the way here. So now… I guess I'm just a horse bottom."

The line crawled forward slightly, allowing Stacey to actually read the paper signs in front of the steaming silver containers. Looks like her options were sirloin slabs, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and steamed vegetables. Pumpkin muffins and cookies also sat at the end of the table, acting as the desert section.

Over the course of the next five minutes, Stacey tossed some chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn on her plate. From what she understood, Ethan was the cause for slowing everything down, taking his merry little time on deciding what to eat.

Eventually, though, Stacey stepped out of the line with a plate half-full of food. As she walked over to the round tables and chairs, a thought suddenly dawned on her.

Where do I sit? She thought to herself. Normally she just glued herself to Leora and followed her around. But as she gazed around the room, she had no idea where-

"Hi Stacey!"

Stacey nearly dropped her plate as she got startled. After all this time, she'd think she'd be used to Leora's tendency to appear out of nowhere. But there was something different in the way Leora spoke, something… hyper.

"Hey." Stacey replied, looking her friend over.

Leora was wearing rather high quality Captain Marvel costume, and her eyes were wide open.

"Like my costume, I made it myself, it took me about a month, but I used to make costumes all the time, shame the Foundation wouldn't get my old one from my house, but I needed to make a new one anyways." She said in one breath, motioning to herself as she seemed to bounce on her heels.

"Yeah…" Stacey replied slowly as Leora took a sip out of a red plastic cup.

"Sorry if I'm a little hyper, it's because of the caffeine, my parents never let me drink any soda for this very reason, and I try to avoid it on my own, but it's Halloween and I thought 'what harm could a cup of Mountain Dew' do, get it, 'dew-do,' anyway I'm on my third cup and will probably stop here, or maybe I'll get another, depends on how I'm feeling, oh hey, did you hear about the costume contest, I'm going to enter and need you to vote for me, ok?"

Stacey just blinked. She had only managed to get about half of that.

"Oh oh!" Leora started, looking back towards the tables and booths. "Looks like Cain's here, I made a bet with Anne that I could beat him at apple bobbing, I don't think she realized the apples will rot as soon as he gets close to them, easiest six chocolate bars I've made in my life!"

And with that, the hypered up anomaly sprinted into the crowd out by the activity booths, making a beeline for Cain, who… was wearing a long white dress with a blue top and brown heeled boots.

The hell is he supposed to be? Stacey thought, before shaking her head and making her way over to an empty table. She passed by a pair of anomalies holding a conversation as they ate, unintentionally eaves dropping on them.

"How's the chicken?" Asked a thin doctor in glasses and well-kept blond hair.

A girl dressed as a scarecrow made a sour expression. "Too salty," she replied. Stacey couldn't help but notice the white streaks in the girl's light brown hair and across her face.

Once seated, Stacey gazed around the room. A few more skips had found their way into the cafeteria, like Napoleon who was wearing a bicorne and an 18th century military uniform, and Alexei who had modified his suit to look like a titan from that one Titanfall game. Kadesh-Nanaya was also here, dressed as…

Oh my god… Stacey thought, gaping at Kadesh's costume (or more specifically, the lack-there-of). How did they let her get away with that?

The love Goddess was dressed in a costume that could only be described as a thin line of cloth. The black silk cuffed her neck and split as it went down her body, revealing cleavage and a bare stomach, before reconnecting (and ending) around her hips.

Stacey blinked, before looking around at the several guards stationed in the room. None of them seemed to have any issue with the blatant dress code violation. In fact, a few of the guards seemed to be staring pretty intently at Kadesh… a bit too intently.

Sighing, Stacey grabbed her plasticwear and was about to cut into her chicken when Anne practically jumped into her peripheral vision.

"Hi Stacey!" The woman said as the younger one jumped with a start. Because it wasn't enough for just Leora to suddenly pop into existence.

"Hi Anne." Stacey replied once she calmed back down. She eyed Anne's costume of choice and raised an eyebrow. Anne was wearing a light night gown that was loose enough to be comfortable but not loose enough to draw attention. Spots of fake blood contrasted the white dress in the neck region. "What are you supposed to be?"

"Carmilla." Anne replied rather proudly.

Stacey just stared at her blankly.

"From the 1872 novel?" Anne added after a few moments of silence.

Stacey just shrugged.

Anne muttered something about the worthless education system before smiling at the girl widely.

"So, what's new with you?"

"Oh, not much." Stacey replied, cutting into her chicken. "I kinda just came down for the food."

"I can see." Anne said, looking Stacey up and down. Stacey quickly glanced around the room, and reddened when she suddenly became very aware that she was the only person (outside of Foundation staff) not wearing a costume.

"How did everyone even get their outfits?" Stacey asked, hoping to blame her lack of a costume on ignorance.

"I just put in a request." Anne replied, looking around at the other skips. "Can't speak for everyone else though."

Stacey nodded silently before stabbing a piece of chicken with her fork. She was about to put the meat in her mouth before Anne grabbed her own wrist and let out a pained groan.

"What's wrong?" Stacey asked, looking at the woman with a mixture of concern and confusion.

"It's my hand…" Anne said through gritted teeth. "It just, hurts all of a sudden."

"What do you mean by hurt?"

"I don't know. It's just… my whole hand just started…"

Anne groaned again, leaving her sentence incomplete. Stacey just sat there with her fork raised, not sure what to do. Should she get help? There were guards everywhere. Problem is Stacey didn't even know what was wrong with-

Stacey's train of thought was cut short as Anne let out an agonizing yell. A thud echoed in front of Stacey, and she turned to see…

A severed hand laying on the table. In an instant, Stacey's eyes shot over to Anne, who sure enough, was missing her hand.

Stacey yelped and slid her chair back. "Oh my god!" She yelled.

While Stacey's eyes were glued to the hand, Anne's seemed to be stuck on her.

"Oh my god!" Stacey repeated, before turning to Anne. "What happened!"

"I don't know…" Anne replied, her teeth stuck together. "But we should… wait a second." The expression on Anne's face went from pained to curious in a millisecond. She leaned in closer to the hand, her brows furrowed. "Do you see that?"

Stacey, caught off guard by Anne's sudden nonchalantness of the situation, eyed the hand… and saw what Anne meant. Her eye had caught something odd about it, though whatever it had been seemed to disappear as soon as she saw it. Curiosity momentarily overtaking panic, Stacey leaned in to get a closer look at the hand.

Then, it happened again. The index finger twitched.

Stacey was about to comment on it, but just as she was about to, the hand sprung to life, all the fingers flexing into a grabbing position. Then, it seemed to bounce up at her, lunging towards her face.

Stacey screamed for real this time, falling back out of her chair and landing on her ass. When she looked up, the hand was standing by its fingers on the table. Behind it stood Anne… with tears in her eyes from laugher.

"Oh man…" She said after composing herself. "Didn't I tell you that would be the best one?"

"It sure was!" A high pitched yet masculine voice said. It sounded like it came from… the hand?

"Come on up, girly." The hand said. "We're just messing with ya."

Slowly, Stacey got to her feet and looked down at the hand.

"Oh, where are my manners?" The hand jump and landed on its wrist, extending itself as if waiting for a shake. "Name's Han. I'm new here."

Stacey stared at Han, mouth open.

"You're a… a hand?"

"Sure am!" Han said, bouncing back onto his fingers when Stacey didn't shake.

"But… what about…" Stacey looked up at Anne, but her question was answered when the woman pulled her sleeve back, revealing her own intact hand.

"We've been pulling this trick all night, but let me tell you, your reaction was the best so far."

"Uh…" Stacey looked between Anne and Han. "…thanks?"

"No. Thank you." Han said, before crawling towards Anne. "Come on Annie. Let's see if we can get that big robot guy."

"Oh yes!" Anne said, grabbing Han and sliding him into her sleeve. "If we can get Alexei, I'll consider my life complete."

And with that, the two ran off towards the activity booths. Stacey, tired and hungry, sighed and sat back down in her chair.

Tom blinked one eye at a time. He really, really did not want to be here right now. Hell, he wasn't even supposed to be here right now. He was supposed to be taking his kids trick or treating.

But… Chris had called off at the last minute. Apparently Chris had gotten some kind of stomach bug, but Tom knew he was bullshitting. Chris had bitched up a storm when this month's schedule released and he was set to work on Halloween. But outside of the sector head rolling up to Chris's door and demanding he prove his illness, there was nothing that could be done about it.

Instead, the buck stopped with Tom. He had gotten a phone call just as he was getting dressed up to come in and cover for Chris. Tom was fuming, his kids were crying, and his six month pregnant wife practically had smoke coming out of her ears realizing she would be stuck chaperoning the children alone.

But the Foundation had called. And when the Foundation calls, you answer.

So instead of running around the neighborhood with his family, Tom was spending his night staring at staticky security cameras. The man let out a sigh and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his eyes. The smell of coffee reached his nose as a mug was placed in front of him.

"Thanks." Tom said, grabbing the drink and sipping it.

"So on a scale of one to ten…" Ben began, taking a seat next to Tom. "How badly do you want to strangle Chris?"

Tom let out bitter laugh. "He's as good as dead the next time I see him."

Ben chuckled to himself. An understanding, sympathetic chuckle, but still a chuckle. "What were you gonna be?"

"We were going to all be the Incredibles."

"The Incredibles?" Ben repeated, furrowing his brow. "Even Laura? Can she even fit in a costume?"

Tom glared a his co-worker, who raised his hands defensively.

"I'm just asking." He added quickly. "She's at… what… twenty-five weeks?"

Tom shook his head and sipped his coffee. As he did, his eyes wandered around the empty command center. Usually there were at least a few more guards in the room with them, but it being Halloween meant that most of GenSec had taken off for one reason or another.

They were running on a skeleton crew tonight, which wouldn't be too bad, but some event up in Light Containment had sapped what little hands they had. There were maybe twenty guards tops spread across Heavy Containment right now. This might've made Tom anxious if he hadn't learned one thing in his fourteen years with the Foundation: nothing ever happened at Site-17.

"Anyway…" Ben said, spinning in his chair and turning to one of his monitors. "Since it's just me and you tonight, I might send a message up to Light Command, see if I can get someone to bring the pizza box down."

"They'll never agree to that." Tom responded, placing his mug down and staring at his own monitor. "I know, I've tried it bef-"

Tom trailed off as he squinted at his monitor. Something in it caught his eye, though he wasn't able to make out what. He might've been able to if the camera footage wasn't such shit. But, whether for budgetary reasons or ease of encryption, the video had the quality of a VHS put through a washing machine. It was all in black and white, the excessive amount of static added to the already poor quality of the at most 360 resolution, and to top it all off the frame rate was absolutely atrocious. Tom had counted it before; it took a whopping half second for the video to update, making the footage all choppy.

But even with the shitty camera, Tom could see something was different.

His monitor was currently set at a hall cam somewhere on the other end of the level. Almost everything about it seemed normal, but standing towards the back of the hallway was a black figure. Tom wasn't able to make out what exactly it was, but it almost looked humanoid.

"Before what?" Ben asked.

Tom ignored him, focusing fully on the monitor. The image cycled, and the figure had moved closer down the hall. For a moment Tom thought it might've been a guard or researcher, but despite the shitty quality, he still would've been able to make out certain details on the person if that were the case. Like GenSec body armor or a white lab coat. The figure currently on screen, however, was totally black. In fact, it almost looked like the static in the screen warped around the object.

The video cycled again, and again the figure was closer to the camera. Ben must've read Tom's face, as he soon leaned over to look at his monitor.

"What is that?" Ben moved his head closer to the screen.

"I'm not sure."

Whatever it was, Tom needed to know right now.

"This is in hallway 2B-H." Tom said, not looking at Ben. "Send a message to GenSec, have them check it out."

"On it." Ben replied, rolling over to his monitor. He picked up a headpiece and placed it over himself, before speaking into it. "Attention GenSec, we're detecting an unidentified entity in hallway 2B-H. Would the nearest available unit please make their way over to check it out?"

The video cycled again. The black figure was now standing right under the camera. A sense of dread began to fill Tom's inside, as though he were a child again and was on his way to the principal's office.

"That's strange." Ben said after a moment. "I'm not able to get anyone."

The video cycled again, and this time, Tom went cold. The figure was definitely humanoid. Tom could see its head raised towards the camera, along with a pair of white eyes. They were clearly visible even in the static, staring straight at the security camera. Actually, no, through the security camera. Tom just knew that thing was looking at him, he just knew it could see him.

But before Tom could react, a thin, black hand shot out of the computer monitor and grabbed his throat.

Stacey awoke with a start, her heart pounding out of her chest. She had seen them again, the unsettling inverted eyes staring right into her.

I must've dozed off. She thought, rubbing her eyes and looking around. The party was still going on, it seemed. Skips in various costumes dotted the cafeteria, though the crowd was noticeably lighter than it had been before Stacey's unintentional nap.

"Hi."

Stacey turned to see Leora sitting next to her, nibbling on a pumpkin cookie.

"Hi." Stacey replied, yawning. "How long was I asleep?"

"Only about an hour."

"An hour?!" Stacey's eyes shot up to the clock hanging on the wall. Sure enough, it read 8:48. "Why didn't someone wake me?"

"I don't think anyone cared enough to wake you." Leora responded before swallowing. "Besides, you looked pretty tired when you got here."

"I didn't get much sleep last night." Stacey rubbed her own eyes while trying not to think of the ones in her dream. "What are you doing here? I thought you were hyped up on caffeine."

"It didn't last." Leora shrugged. "Apparently my light power uses up a lot of energy."

"Really? How?"

"Hell if I know." Leora said as she shoved the rest of the cookie in her mouth.

Stacey let out another yawn before looking up at the clock again. She really was exhausted.

"Hey, Leora…" She started. "I'm probably going to go to bed here. Are you ok with that?"

"Yeah." Leora furrowed her brow. "Why are you even asking?"

"Because you wanted me to vote for you in the costume contest."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Leora replied, waving her hand. "Besides, there's a mask for this costume I forgot in my room. I'll head on up with you to grab it."

Together, the two girls stood from the table and made their way to the exit. As they did, Stacey took one last gaze at the party.

The doctor in the cowboy costume was speaking to a guard, Mr. Fish and Katie were holding a conversation back at the tables, a frustrated looking Daniel was standing at the memory game booth with Cain, and Napoleon was at the apple bobbing stand with a red fruit in his jaws and Mayra right next to him. These were all Stacey was able to catch before stepping out into the hallway.

"So…" Stacey began in a preemptive strike on awkward silence. "You see the new guy?"

"Han?" Leora asked. "Oh yeah. He's cool. He and Anne got me good though."

"Yeah." Stacey laughed a little. "They got me good too. Did they ever get Alexei?"

"Yes actually." Leora replied. "Surprising considering its, you know, Alexei. But boy, was Anne ecstatic when she did."

"Where did they get off to? I didn't see them when we left."

"No clue." Leora shrugged. "They ran off right after getting the big guy."

"Hmm." Stacey responded, looking down. The two continued walking in silence for a few more moments, before Stacey reopened her mouth. "Where was everyone else tonight? You know… the Alpha-9 group?"

"Foxx is taking his daughter trick-or-treating." Leora began. "Adams is probably at a bar some place, Jackie's still dead, and Iris is still in the infirmary, though I doubt she would've come anyways."

"What?" Stacey perked up. "Iris is in the infirmary?"

"You… didn't hear?" Leora looked down at Stacey as if she hadn't known what planet they were on. "Iris has been in the infirmary for like, a week."

"Why?"

"Who knows. Probably got hurt on a mission or something. I haven't been to that side of the site in months."

"Huh." Stacey said. "I hope she's ok."

"Yeah, me too."

As the words left Leora's mouth, the two of them turned the corner to find the elevator at the end of the hall. They stopped in front of the silver doors, with Leora reaching out and pressing upper button. The two stood in silence as the elevator made its way down to them.

Suddenly and without thinking, Stacey opened her mouth and spoke.

"You ever get super realistic dreams?"

"Huh?"

"Uh…" Stacey stuttered, realizing what she had just committed to. Leora turned and looked down at her expectantly when Stacey did not continue. Welp, she was committed now. "You every have like… ya know… a dream that feels super realistic."

"Occasionally." Leora responded. "Not too often though. Why?"

"Oh, no reason."

Silence once again overtook them, with it only being broken by the sound of the elevator reaching them. Slowly, the silver doors slid open, and the two motioned to step inside… but were stopped by a scene Stacey would never forget.

Inside the elevator was Anne, leaning against the wall. In her hands was Han, whom she had brought up to her face. Passionately, Anne was pressing her lips against Han's knuckles, before slightly pulling back and moving up to the back of the hand.

Stacey stood, jaw to the floor. Leora seemed to be awestruck as well, as neither of them made a noise. The two watched Anne and Han in silence for about a second, before Leora remember how to speak.

"What in the hell?!" She said loudly.

An expression of horror flooded Anne's face as she pulled back from Han and straightened. That horror turned to embarrassment as she angrily pointed at the two girls.

"What are you two doing here?!"

"I could ask you the same thing." Leora replied, this time with a good bit of sly in her voice.

"Well… look… you see… I… we…" Anne stuttered as her face reddened.

Stacey was shocked. Anne, overconfident Anne, had never been this off balance. At least not during her time here.

"Is there a problem with us?" Han said, using his thumb and pinkie to imitate placing his hands on his hips.

"No… no…" Leora said playfully. "I'm just wondering how things got to this point."

"Look." Anne started. "Me and Han have a lot in common, like enjoying scaring the shit out of people. And after we got Alexei of all people, we were in great moods. We began talking a bit more to one another, and eventually we decided to… hang out in a more private setting. Or at least that was the plan, until you two intruded!"

"You wanted to be alone…" Stacey piped up. "So you went to the elevator?"

Anne opened her mouth to speak, but no rebuttal came out.

"She's got us there, Annie." Han said.

"Just… get in here!" Anne motioned them in.

The two girls obeyed, stepping inside. Leora, with a wry grin on her face, pressed the button labeled "7-S." The silver doors closed, and a humming filled the room as the elevator began ascending.

It was silent for all of half a second, before Leora gave Stacey a look and turned to Anne.

"So… were you hoping Han would turn into a prince?"

Stacey let a laugh slip out. Anne looked between the two girls, her face reddening even more.

"Shut up." She sneered.

Leora giggled and turned back to the doors. Silence again filled the room.

The silence was held for several moments, but was broken by the sound of something odd. It sounded like… metal being bent and twisted and scrapping against more metal. Stacey looked around in confusion. Clearly she wasn't the only one hearing this, as the other occupants of the elevator did the same.

At the same time, Stacey felt the elevator begin to slow. Stacey had been up and down this elevator probably a hundred times, so she knew it was too early for them to be at their level.

Something was wrong.

The thought wouldn't be in Stacey's mind for long, though, as the ground suddenly gave way under her. Screeching reverberated around the enclosed space as the elevator accelerated downwards. Stacey felt her feet lift off the ground from how fast they were falling.

In a panic, Stacey screamed and tried to grab onto something. Her hand managed to wrap around the railing on the wall, but it did little to stop her from floating up.

Then, as quickly as it had started falling, the elevator crashed to a stop. Stacey didn't have time to even comprehend the crash, however, as she was knocked clean out when her head hit the floor.

Staring at the screen was starting to hurt. Removing her glasses, Agatha rubbed her eyes.

What time is it? She thought, looking down at the corner of her computer screen. 8:56.

For the past four hours, Agatha had been sitting in front of the computer writing detailed reports of that day's psychological evaluations. This was always her least favorite part of the job, mainly because of how tedious and time consuming it was. The Foundation was very strict and very precise about how they wanted their reports to be filed.

Deciding to give her eyes a break, Agatha's vision wandered around the empty computer lab. Normally she wrote up her reports in her office, but her desktop had been acting funky recently. Not saving properly, apps freezing at the most inconvenient times, and even full on bluescreening once. Tech said they'd deal with it as soon as they could, which meant whenever they felt like it. So in the mean time, Agatha had to be content with using one of the public computers.

Releasing a yawn, Agatha stretched and looked at the finished document on the computer screen, then down at the stack of papers sitting on the table. She still had three more reports to file.

"Fuck this." Agatha said, standing. "I'll pass out on the keyboard if I don't get some caffeine in me."

Turning, Agatha made her way over to a little side room. White lights flickered to life as she flipped the switch upon entering. Inside the break room was a table with aluminum folding chairs and a bare-bones kitchenette. Sitting on the counter was a coffee machine with a sticky note reading "clean up when done :)" taped to its side.

Agatha turned the machine on and opened the cabinet door to grab a mug when a thud echoed from the computer lab. It was a deep yet weightless thud, like a stack of folders or papers falling off a desk.

The doctor stopped and turned towards the large windows showing into the computer lab. It was dim in the other room, with only the every other center light being illuminated.

"Hello?" Agatha called out, back stepping into the doorway. No response. She walked out into the room itself and called again. "Hello?"

Again she was met with silence. Taking a wild guess at what had made noise, Agatha strode over to where she had been working. Sure enough, her files and papers were scattered on the floor.

"How in the hell…" She said, kneeling down and gathering the everything.

How did it fall? Agatha thought. I don't recall putting it that close to the edge.

Concluding it was just one of life's great mysteries, the doctor straightened the papers and placed them back on the desk.

But as she did, her eyes were caught on something that hadn't been there before. Sticking out of one of the tan folders was the corner of… something. It was small, white, and almost looked like just a piece of paper, but glinted as if it were laminated. Curiously, Agatha grabbed the corner and pulled whatever it was out.

The doctor furrowed her brow as she looked down at what she had pulled out. In her hand was a photograph from her childhood, specifically from sometime during the summer. Standing on the left side was a teenage Agatha, her blonde hair loose and behind her back. Next to Agatha was her sister, Riley, though her hair was tied up in a ponytail. The two of them were standing in the backyard of their parent's place, both smiling at the camera and wearing short sleeve shirts.

Agatha actually remembered when this photograph was taken. It was the first day of summer vacation following her sophomore year (Riley's freshman year) of high school.
Agatha smiled. For a moment, she allowed her mind to go back to the days she'd used to spend with her sister. The days of spending hot summer afternoons down at the beach, or hiking the gorge behind their place.

But the happy memories only twirled in Agatha's mind for a second. The reason Agatha kept that photograph specifically is because that this was the last photo Riley would ever be in. She would be killed about a month later by an anomalous entity, which is actually what caused Agatha to start studying the paranormal. Well, study the paranormal in a less-conspiracy more-scientific way.

The sudden appearance of the photo also forced Agatha to ask a single question: how did this get here? She kept this photograph in a memory book back at her place. Was she looking at it and it accidently slipped into her bag and folder? That'd be one hell of a journey it'd make.

As the hypotheses formed and crumbled in her head, she noticed something odd about the photograph.

It was… moving. No, changing.

The lighting within the photograph seemed to be darkening. Agatha had to blink to make sure she wasn't just imagining it. But after a moment, the scene changed from a sunny afternoon to sometime at night.

Then the girls began to change too.

Picture Agatha seemed to rapidly age. Her face and hands began to wrinkle and sink, and her hair faded from blonde to gray to a stark white. The bone around her cheeks and eyes morphed, leaving her face disfigured. The happy smile she had a second ago had crooked into something more… malevolent.

Her sister's change was different. First was the eyes; her white sclera and green irises voiding as a black liquid bled from her eyes. The substance ran down her face like tears, before branching and spreading across her smiling face. The patter it spread out in…

Agatha placed a hand over the mouth. The thing that had killed Riley had done so by clawing her face. The pattern the liquid had branched into mirrored it perfectly.

"W- wha-" The doctor stuttered.

Before she could properly process what was happening, something warm grazed the back of her neck. It felt like a breath, but even with her back turned, Agatha could smell the must and rot from it.

Turning, the doctor came face to face with a pair of horrific eyes.

"Stacey!" A muffled, distance voice said. "Oh my god, please don't be dead. Stacey!"

Stacey let out a groan and shifted from pain.

"Oh thank- Stacey wake up!"

Slowly, Stacey opened her eyes. Leora was kneeling down in front of her. A look of panic was in the girl's eyes, and her arms were gripping Stacey's shoulders tightly. It probably would've hurt… if her pain receptors weren't in over drive every where else.

Again Stacey groaned and winced as her mind became aware of the dull pain around her body.

"Are you ok?" Leora asked in a frantic tone.

"I…" Stacey sat up and rubbed her head. "I think so."

"Good." Leora said, standing and letting out a sigh of relief.

"What happened?" Stacey asked as she looked around.

"The elevator fell." Han said, jumping onto Stacey's knee. "Annie's trying to figure out why."

Stacey looked up. The emergency hatch was pushed open.

Anne's probably on the roof. She thought as she slowly got to her feet. Leora stepped over to help her up, but Stacey waved her off.

"Did you call for help?" Stacey asked, eyeing the red 'HELP' button on the panel.

"Tried it." Leora said, pressing it. Nothing happened. "Doesn't work."

"Huh." Stacey brushed dust off of herself. "That's odd."

"I've got odder." Anne fell through the open hatch and landed beside Stacey, who jumped at the thud and sudden appearance. "The belt's rusted through."

"What?" Leora asked.

"You know the line that pulls the elevator up and down?" Anne continued, making a pulling motion. "Well… it's snapped. I looked at the end of it, and it's nothing but rust."

"Those things can rust?" Stacey asked.

"Anything can rust when it isn't maintained."

"Are you sure?" Leora interjected. "I mean, the Foundation is hardly above cheaping out, but to say they let an entire elevator break…"

"Well, I don't know what else to tell you." Anne shrugged. "There's rust going down a good five feet from the break, and considering the emergency brakes didn't kick in, the only conclusion I can come to is that the Foundation let it all go to shit."

"That's… strange." Leora said.

"Odd." Anne added.

"Isn't there usually a ladder in the shaft?" Han asked.

"There's half a ladder." Anne looked down at the hand. "I climbed a bit to see if it was sturdy, but it seems like it broke a few feet up."

"Is there anything that isn't broken?" Leora said frustrated.

"Tell me about it." Anne replied, walking over to the silver door. "But… bitching isn't going to change anything."

Grabbing the divide, Anne heaved the door open. On the other side was a hallway leading to a security checkpoint with two dark doors. Above the doors was wording written on the wall, reading "Gate D - Heavy Containment." Stacey's heart dropped as she realized where they were.

"W- we're in Heavy Containment." She stuttered. Stacey had heard stories of Heavy Containment. It was rumored that the skips they kept down here were some of the most vile within the Foundation, being serial killers and rapists before getting contained. Or, they were incredibly dangerous, and with the minds more like monsters than actual people.

"Yeah…" Anne said. "So what?"

"D- don't they keep, like, monsters and stuff down here?"

Anne laughed. "It's Site-17. They don't keep squat down here. They just say that to scare people. Trust me, the Insurgency made site analysis a top priority for us."

Stacey gulped, still not fully satisfied.

"Don't worry, Stacey." Leora chimed in, seeing Stacey's anxiety. "GenSec is more than capable handling whatever's down here."

Exhaling, Stacey nodded more to herself than to Leora. Meanwhile, Anne knelt down placed her hand on the ground.

"Come on Han." She said. Han, in response, crawled up her arm and onto her shoulder. "Let's see who's home."

And with that, the three of them stepped out of the elevator and into the dimly lit hallway. It was strange, Stacey thought, that the whole checkpoint area was illuminated only be a single ceiling light, especially when there were several other lights that were currently off.

"Oh look." Anne said, pointing. "There's a guard."

Stacey looked to where Anne had pointed. There was an open window on the right side of the checkpoint doors with a GenSec agent sitting on the other side. His head was bowed, as though he were asleep.

"Looks like he's taking a nap." Anne commented as they approached.

Stacey gazed at the agent and furrowed her brow. She didn't know what, but something about him seemed… off.

"Hey GenSec." Anne called out, assuming the role of spokesperson. "Wakey wakey."

The guard didn't move. Anne stopped beside the opening, now within arms reach of the agent.

"Hey." She repeated. "Wake up, we need your help."

Anne reached over and lightly nudged the guard's shoulder. In response, he fell to the ground with a thud, totally limp.

Stacey's eyes widened.

Was he… is he…

"Is he dead?" Leora blurted, shock in her voice.

Anne didn't respond, instead staring down at the body. Then, slowly, she looked up into the security room and placed her hand on the opening sill.

"Han, you see that red button right there? Press it."

"On it." Han said, crawling off her shoulder and scuttering into the room. A second later, a buzzing echoed around the room as the large metal doors slid open.

The three women ran past the gate and stopped in front of the security room door. Stacey and Leora held back as Anne opened it. The guard was still laying on the floor as she did, limp and unmoving. Anne knelt down and reach out her hand to take a pulse, but stopped and turned to Stacey and Leora.

"Oh yeah, he's dead."

"Wha… how?"

Reaching down, Anne unclipped the guard's helmet and pulled it off. Leora gasped and took a step back. Stacey clasped a hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming.

The guard's skin was gray, sunken, and dry. His mouth was gaping open, though completely absent of teeth or even a tongue. His eye sockets were also empty, being nothing but black voids that seemed to have no end.

"What happened to him?" Leora said, her voice nothing more than a dry whisper.

"I'm not sure." Anne replied as she began rummaging the guard's body.

"I- I- I thought…" Stacey's voice broke. She swallowed, wet her mouth, and tried again. "I thought y- you said they didn't keep anything down here. A- And you said GenSec would be able to handle it."

Leora gave Stacey a quick glance, her face pale. Anne didn't look at Stacey, but did actually reply to her.

"Well, I stand corrected."

"This is a containment breach, right?" Leora stated more than asked. "Isn't the alarm supposed to be going off?"

"Han." Anne said, looking to her right. "That button that's behind the glass should be the containment breach alarm. Try pressing it."

The sound of something flipping up rang out from out of Stacey's view, followed by the sound of a button being pressed down.

"Huh." Han said. "Nothing."

"That's what I thought." Anne replied, going back to scrounging around the guard. "Seems like it's busted."

"Fuck you mean it's busted?!" Leora cried. "It's the breach alarm!"

"My best guess is whatever got out doesn't want people to know it's out. This site is for intelligent, sapient anomalies, remember?"

"But it's the breach alarm. How could it even disable it?"

"You're guess is as good as mine. Ah, here it is." Anne said as she lifted something up. In her hand was what seemed like a black and gray handle of some kind, though Stacey didn't recognize it. As Anne looked at the handle, her expression dropped. "Oh what the hell."

"What is it?" Stacey asked.

"Well, this was the guard's sidearm." She responded, waving the handle. Now that Stacey thought about it, it did look like the bottom half of a gun. "Problem is, it broke right in half."

"How?"

"I'm not- wait." Anne brought the handle closer to her face. "There's some kind of… black oil on it."

She ran her finger over the top of the handle as Han crawled into view.

"Any idea what it might be, Annie?"

"No clue." She said, examining a bit on her finger. Dropping the handle, she began searching the guard again. "Oh well. That's not as important as… ah ha!" Anne pulled up her hand again, this time with a gray and white card in it. "Jackpot. A GenSec key card."

"Uh, Anne…" Leora said as the woman stood. "We're not allowed to have those, remember?"

"Well, this is the only way we'll be able to move around Heavy. So unless you'd like to stay here…"

"Are you crazy?!" Stacey blurted. Both Anne and Leora turned to her. "You want to go into Heavy Containment?! With a monster on the loose?!"

"It's our best shot at survival." Anne said, placing a hand on her hip.

"By going TO the monster?!"

"Whatever's in here can already get to us." Anne calmly pointed to the dead guard. "Our only option is to look for an exit somewhere."

"You don't agree with her, do you?" Stacey turned to Leora.

"She…" Leora looked at Anne, then back to Stacey. "…makes a good point."

"Oh my god." Stacey placed a hand on her head. "We're all going to die."

"Well look, Stacey…" Anne started as she knelt down and allowed Han to crawl up to her shoulder. "We're going to go look for an exit. If you want to stay here by yourself, feel free t-"

"No!" Stacey blurted, quickly stepping closer to the two women.

"Good." Anne said, giving a forced smile a reassurance. "Now, since I don't have a weapon, Leora…"

Leora looked at Anne, but staring at each other with equal expectance.

"What?" Leora finally asked.

Anne rolled her eyes. "If there's something loose, then at least someone should have a weapon or weapons."

"Oh!" Leora cried, the anxiety on her face turning to almost excitement at the opportunity to use her powers. "I've got you."

Holding out her hands, the light around Leora began to warp, until a glowing spear and shield manifested in her hands.

"Primal." Anne commented, stepping past Leora. "But better than nothing. Ok kids…" She turned around to look at Stacey and Leora directly. "Follow me, do whatever I say, and hopefully we'll get out of here alive."

Stacey gulped. She really wished Anne would pick her words better.

It turned out the the keycard wasn't as important as Stacey had thought. Much to Anne's disappointment, none of the doors they had gone through needed it.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Leora asked after the group walked through the umpteenth door. Stacey turned to her, noticing that the light illuminating from the spear and shield had dulled slightly.

"Nope." Anne replied.

"So then how are we going to find an exit?"

"The site isn't infinite. My plan was to go in a straight line until we hit the edge, then stick to it until we find some stairs or another elevator. If there's another exit, it'll most likely be on the edge."

Leora thought for a moment. "Ok, yeah. Good point."

As the group walked across the hallway, Stacey looked around and rubbed her arm. Her plight around Heavy Containment had given her a new found appreciation for Light. Light was by no means perfect, but it at least tried to feel welcoming. Heavy, on the other hand, was nothing short of a prison. The walls were all the same concrete white and gray, the floor was hard steel that clanged with each step, and all the hallways looked almost identical. That, combined with no directional aid, gave Stacey the sense they were walking in-

"Yes!" Stacey jumped as Anne's cry broke her train of thought. With a wide grin, the woman ran over to the door directly in front of them. "I knew we'd need the keycard!"

The door itself was slightly different from the other ones they had passed. This one was a lighter gray, and seemed to be reinforced at the sides. Above the door was a sign reading "Checkpoint."

"Aren't you happy I thought of looting that guard back there?" Anne smirked, pulling the card from her side. "Han, would you do the honors?"

"Sure thing, Annie." The hand said, crawling from Anne's shoulder to her palm. Anne grabbed Han by the wrist and gave him the card.

"So what do you think about them?" Leora whispered, quiet enough so only Stacey could hear her.

The girl, with her poor nerves shot, jumped and turned to Leora.

"W- what?" She asked.

"Hanne." Leora waved to the two. "What do you think of them."

"Oh, um…" Stacey stuttered. Her mind was on anything but Anne and Han. Her mind was on the guard who looked as though he had his organs sucked out through his eye holes. "I- it's kinda funny, I- I guess."

"Yeah." Leora nodded. "You know, Anne probably won't want Iris or anyone to know about them. We could promise to keep her secret in exchange for… privileges."

"Uh huh." Stacey squeaked, unable to keep the tremble out of her voice.

Leora didn't respond immediately, but after a few moments, she sighed and stepped into Stacey's direct view.

"Hey…" She said with a sympathetic smile. "We'll be alright."

Stacey looked at her, then to Anne, then back to Leora.

"Did you see the guard?" Her throat was dry, making the words come out as a hoarse whisper.

Leora's smile wavered as she broke eye contact. She quickly reestablished both though, failing to fully hide the fear that was inside her too.

"I'm sure we'll find an exit before we stumble across whatever did that." She said more to herself then to Stacey. "And I'll protect us if we don't."

A buzzing noise rang out, followed by a hissing sound as the door slid open.

"See." Anne started. "Easy as- woah."

Anne had started to walk through the door, but stopped dead in her tracks.

"What the hell…" Han, who had crawled back up on Anne's shoulder, added.

"What?" Leora asked, stepping forward.

Stacey stayed close to Leora, not wanting to get too far away from anyone. As she got closer to the door, she was able to make out what was on the other side of it… and understood why Anne had stopped.

The hallway which it led into was barely lit. Only a few emergency lights were illuminated on the wall, and even then they were dim. But what caught everyone's attention was the black liquid spread across almost the entirety of the floor. It looked almost like a thick oil, and even from here Stacey could smell a strong mustiness radiating from it.

"What is that?" Leora said.

"I don't know." Anne replied, covering her mouth and nose. "But it's rancid."

"D- d-" Stacey tried speaking, but her throat was still dry. Swallowing, she tried again. "D- do you think it c- could be related to…" She couldn't even bring herself to finish the sentence.

No one answered the girl.

After a moment, Anne slowly stepped into the hall.

"Anne!" Leora cried. "What are you-"

"There's only one way for us to go." She replied, turning. "Obviously there's something down here with us, which means the quicker we find an exit, the quicker we'll be out of danger."

"But the… whatever that is!" Leora pointed to the goop. "What if it's dangerous?"

"Well… then… be ready to run I guess." Anne turned to Han. "You want off this ride?"

"I'll follow you where ever."

Looking back to the liquid, Anne took a deep breath. Then, raising her foot, she took a step forward.

The gasp and unbalanced fall that followed made Stacey think that the liquid was deep and Anne had fallen in. And while Anne did indeed sink into the sludge, it only went up to her shin.

"What is this?" She said, raising her foot. Black oil with the consistency of glue or malaises dripped off her shoe. From her angle, Stacey was able to see some kind of steam rising off of it.

"What happened to the floor?" Leora asked, staring in awe.

"I'm not sure." Anne replied, looking back.

"I- is it safe?" Stacey added. "To step in?"

Anne brought her hand down to her ankle and scrapped some of the sludge onto her finger.

"I mean, it's warm and stings a little. But it looks safe." With that, Anne stepped back into the sludge and waded a few feet out. "Only one way to go."

Leora walked up to the sludge and, after a moment of hesitation, stepped in. Hot steam rolled up to her nose. "God this is disgusting." She said, gagging.

Stacey, already smelling the rot and must, was reluctant to follow Leora into the liquid. But as the girl trudged behind Anne, Stacey couldn't help but grow more anxious as the proximity between her and other people increased.

Dammit. She thought, looking down at the sludge. Covering her mouth and nose, Stacey raised her foot and took a step forward. At first it felt like stepping into mud, with her leg sinking into the goop only stopped by the compression of the near-liquid mass. Then a dull burning began stinging any bare skin it had come in contact with. As Anne had said, it was noticeable, but not painful.

The smell, on the other hand, was as painful as smell could be. Stacey had once found a half decomposed fox behind her house once. That had smelled like peaches and flowers compared to the stench billowing up from the sludge.

Stacey gagged as Leora did, but went a step further and actually started to dry heave. The two women looked back at her as tears filled her eyes.

"You good?" Anne asked.

Stacey let out a few more coughs, before wiping her eyes and looking up.

"It reeks." She said, trying her hardest to only breath through her mouth.

"You should smell an Insurgency barracks." Anne turned to Han, still clinging to her shoulder. "Hang on, I don't think you'll want to fall in."

Han's fingers tightened around Anne, before the woman continued walking forward. Leora and Stacey followed close behind.

Walking through the liquid was no easy feat. Stacey realized the mud analogy she used earlier was more accurate than she had thought. Each step was a struggle, which was odd since the consistency was lighter than that of actual mud.

Stacey looked a head of the group to the edge of the sludge. It must've been about twenty or so feet. Gritting her teeth, she did her best to ignore the warm steam tickling her nostril.

She had gotten about seven feet into the pool when a sudden sense of dread overwhelmed her. It was as if a hole had suddenly burned in her stomach, and all the water in her throat and mouth had evaporated. Stacey had been anxious and afraid before, but this was straight terror.

As Stacey began to wonder where this feeling came from, the slightest, subtlest noise reached her ear. It was the most muted sound of a single slosh she had ever heard. She probably would've written it off as it simply being apart of her imagination, but something about it made her turn around.

There, standing in the liquid behind her, was a humanoid figure. It was too dark to see any real detail about it, but three things stood out.

First was that its skin was covered in the very same black oil that made up the pool. It dripped from its fingers and chin and ran down its body like wet paint on a wall. Second was the chapped-lipped mouth, which was crooked up into an unnaturally large and malevolent smile. Third were the eyes, which had the same black liquid streaming down the at corners like tears. They were also inverted in color, with the irises being a void black and the pupils a stark white.

Identical to the eyes Stacey kept seeing in her dream.

The girl screamed and fell backwards into the sludge. It splattered across her clothes and arms as she landed in it, going all the way up past her shoulders.

The creature, meanwhile, simply laughed. It was a shrill, feminine laugh that sent chills down Stacey's back. Then, it effortlessly began strutting over to the girl, appearing to be unimpeded by the consistency of the pool. Unlike Stacey, who tried desperately to move, found her arms and legs fighting against the oil.

As the monster approached, Stacey stared aghast at the unholy entity. She had known that the anomalous world was full of horrors, but nothing could have prepared her for the paralyzing fear just looking at this thing produced. The creature extended a thin, boney, and rotten arm to Stacey in an attempt to grab her. She didn't even have the mental capacity to comprehend accepting death.

But before the monster could reach her, the room filled with a brilliant orange and yellow light. The creature responded by raising its hands to its head, covering its eyes and still preventing Stacey to get a good look at its face.

It let out a high pitched groan, stepped backwards, and quickly submerged into the pool.

"Move!"

Stacey, still petrified and staring at where the monster had retreated, couldn't tell who had yelled. But after a second, she felt a pair of hands grab her under the shoulders and heave her to her feet.

Turning, she saw that Anne had been the one who pulled her up. Leora, on the other hand, had reilluminated her spear and shield to a brightness Stacey had never seen before. The weapons burned in Leora's hands, and Stacey could've sworn they flamed and flicked identically to the sun.

Grabbing Stacey's hand, Anne began dragging her through the liquid. The three girls ran as fast as they could, though it was still hard given the pool's consistency. Stacey looked between everyone. Anne's eyes were locked on the exit door, Han was holding onto Anne's shoulder even tighter than before, and Leora seemed to be scanning the liquid as though something could jump out at any moment.

It took a few seconds, but eventually the group made it to the edge and jumped out. Without wasting any time, Anne lead them to the door and slammed the button next to it. It opened, and they all practically pushed themselves through.

The other room was just as dark as the one they just came from. Fortunately, though, there was no black liquid. Seeing this break, Anne stopped and turned around. She ordered Leora to do the same, who obeyed.

They all stood in silence and on guard for about a minute, staring at the door leading back to the black liquid. Stacey wasn't sure what they were waiting for, but was still too shaken from the experience to ask. She did noticed that, despite everyone panting from just sprinting through that mud, Leora was breathing significantly heavier than everyone else.

After a few minutes, Anne turned to the rest of the group.

"Ok." She said. "I think it's gone."

Leora let out a deep breath and fell to her knees, panting heavily. The bright light that had been illuminating from her weapons faded to almost nothing as her weapons dulled to near transparency.

"You good?" Anne asked, seeing this.

Leora didn't reply immediately, instead lifting up an index finger to ask for a moment.

"That…" She exhaled. "Was… tiring…"

"Running through that goop stuff?" Anne replied. "I think you're out of shape."

Leora shook her head. "This." She pointed to the spear and shield. "The brighter… the more energy… it takes…"

"Well don't use up all your juice at once!" Han said just as Anne opened her mouth (probably to say the exact same thing). "It seemed like that thing didn't like the light. We'll need you if we come across it again."

"Speaking of…" Anne said, turning to Stacey. "Are you ok?"

Stacey didn't respond. She just stared blanky up at Anne, her mouth slightly agape.

"Stacey?"

"…I- I…" She stuttered out. Then she made a noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a cry. A hand shot over her mouth and her knees buckled as tears began streaming down her face. Her nerves were so utterly shot that she didn't even make any noise.

"Go check on Leora."

A thud echoed out as Han jumped off Anne's shoulder and scuttered across the room. Anne then knelt down beside Stacey and placed a hand over her shoulder.

"W- w- w-"

"Take your time." Anne said softly.

Stacey let out a few more sobs before trying again.

"W- what… was that?"

"I'm not sure." Anne replied in the kindest tone Stacey had ever heard her in. "I'm not sure."

No one spoke for a long time after that. Leora had clearly exhausted herself radically, as it took several minutes for just the heavy breathing to stop. Stacey, on the other hand, was finding it impossible to do much of anything. If it wasn't for the body wide trembling, she'd think she'd had been paralyzed.

Eventually, though, Leora regained her breath, and Stacey's shaking died down enough to reliably move her limbs. Anne helped the girl to her feet, before taking a step back and looking at the group as a whole.

"Ok guys…" She started. "There is some good news to come from this. It seems like we found out what's been rampaging around down here, and it looks like it hates light. Which is perfect, because we have someone who can summon light from her finger tips. How much energy you running on?"

"If I need to brighten up, I can." Leora replied, exhaling once as she spoke.

"Good. For now, save as much as you can. If we come in contact with that thing again, you'll know what to do."

Leora nodded. Stacey let out a sniff, which caused Anne to look at her.

"Alright, here's how we're going to go forward. Leora, you lead. Keep an eye out for that monster and use your light if we you see it. Stacey, you're in the middle between me and Leora. I'll be in back and watch our behind. Han, you stay on my shoulder and be another pair of eyes for me. Got it?"

"Gotcha, Annie." Han said, crawling to the woman and climbing her leg.

"We'll stick close and we'll stick together. Hopefully, we'll find an exit or at least a way to call for help. Got it?"

Both Leora and Stacey nodded.

"Good. Leora, take it away."

"Right." Leora said, stepping forward.

Stacey followed her as they two passed Anne. Once they did, Anne took her place behind Stacey and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll be alright." She whispered.

Despite Anne's outward positivity, Stacey could tell she had spoken to herself more than anyone.

New blood. New faces.

No. Old faces. Friends.

Friends of the one who no longer matters. Friends of the woman locked away.

Memory is a powerful thing.

But light is stronger.

Light burns and singes and blinds and cuts and hurts. How can one eat when one has light?

Bury the light. Extinguish the light. Snuff the light.

But how?

Dark pits and shadow drowns light.

Sever the hands and the light shall fall.

Sever the hands within the wall.

The creature smiled wickedly to itself.

Sever the hands and feast on all.

With each hallway passed and no sign of the monster, Stacey's confidence grew. Granted, she was still trembling like a wet dog, but her eyes had long since dried and her breathing had almost returned to normal.

"Alright." Leora said, motioning to the group. Stacey, Anne, and Han made their way into the next room once Leora confirmed there was no black sludge or monster.

It was a four way intersection, something they had come across more times than Stacey could count. In fact, it was starting to frustrate her how endless Heavy Containment seemed. She could only hope that Anne was right, and that going in a straight line would eventually lead to a set of stairs or an elevator that wasn't broken at the-

"Hold on." Anne said, causing even to stop dead. "Look."

Stacey looked to where Anne was pointing. It was to the door to their right, though Stacey could see why it had piqued Anne's interest. The door was a slightly brighter color than the other black/gray doors surrounding them, and unlike the other doors, this one had a key pad next to it.

"It needs a card." Anne added.

"I- is it an exit?" Stacey asked.

"I'm not sure." Anne replied. "It doesn't look like a checkpoint, which I'd assume all the gates have."

"Then what is it?" Leora piped up.

Anne shrugged before turning to her. "Want to find out?"

Leora stood still for a moment, before slowly making her way to the door. Anne handed her the key card as she passed.

"Ok." Leora whispered. "Please be an exit."

A metallic humming echoed around the room as she slid the card through the pad. Then, a second later, the door slid open. Bright, white light poured out into the hallway, blinding Stacey who had become so accustomed to the darkness of Heavy Containment.

"Jesus!" A voice cried from the room. "Knock next time. I nearly took your head off."

That sounds like…

Stacey squinted and looked into the room. Sure enough, a GenSec guard was standing on the other side of the doorway.

"Oh thank god." Stacey exhaled.

The guard looked at the group with an expression hidden by his visor. He was standing behind a table, and in his arms was some kind of short barrel rifle pointed towards them.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked, lowering the gun.

Leora began to speak first.

"We're-"

"We're anomalies from Light Containment." Anne stepped in front of her, clearly wanting to be the one to speak.

"Light Containment?" The guard replied in disbelief. "How did you guys get down here?"

"It's a long story." Anne said in her best friendly but urgent tone. "Look, we need your help to get out of here… and up to Light." She added, pointing up.

The guard just laughed at this, placed his gun on the table, and sat in a chair. Anne blinked in mild confusion, before motioning for Stacey and Leora to follow her into the room. Once everyone was inside, the guard waved his hand at a button on the wall. Leora pressed it, and the door closed behind them.

"I'd offer you something to eat or drink, but armories only keep guns and bullets."

This is an armory? Stacey wondered, looking around. Sure enough, lockers and crates and ammo boxes surrounded the room.

"We don't have time for any of that." Leora snapped. "There's a monster running around down here and we need to get out now."

"You think I don't know that?" The guard replied, straightening. "You think I don't know there's something here with us?"

"Why haven't you recontained it? Where's the rest of GenSec?"

"We were understaffed tonight." The guard began. "We're always low on numbers during holidays, even ones like Halloween. Plus, some event up in Light Containment took a lot of the guards that were stationed down here. So the short answer to why that thing is still at large is because we didn't have the numbers to properly recontain it."

The guard then shifted uncomfortably in his seat, changing from a straightened position to having his arms folded with a slight slouch.

"The long answer is that that thing is something straight from a fucking nightmare. When we got word that a highly dangerous anomaly breached, me and my squad geared up to go contain and… it didn't go well. I'm the only one left."

"I- it killed an entire GenSec squad?" Stacey whimpered.

The guard grimaced at the word "killed," but he nodded.

"What's your name?" Anne asked.

"Davis." The guard said.

"Ok, Davis. How did you get… here?" Anne waved around the room.

"Our first encounter with that thing left only five of us standing. That's when we realized we were in way over our heads and called a retreat. We were hoping to make it to the command center, but that thing kept following us, picking us off one by one as we tried to run. At one point we got to a set of stairs going up the site, but a bunch of black mucus or something was covering the steps. One of our guys stepped into it to try and go up the stairs, and he fell completely through. It was right outside these doors that the last guy was taken. I decided to run in here and hunker down for some kind of glorious last stand, but the thing never came."

"Probably because of the light." Han said. "We found that the creature is really sensitive to it."

Davis looked at the hand clinging to Anne's shoulder.

"Did the hand just talk?"

"Why isn't the breach alarm going off?" Anne asked.

Davis shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I'm assuming that creature is messing with our comms or something. I haven't been able to so much as radio anyone, let alone get a message to the rest of the site."

"So what you're saying is no one's coming." Anne placed a hand on her chin and sat in a nearby seat.

"Unfortunately."

Everyone sat in silence for several moments, during which Stacey's eyes frantically darted between Anne and Davis.

"Have you tried leaving Heavy?" Leora asked.

"Yeah. I told you about the stairs being covered in that bottomless pit soup. As for the elevators, I haven't been able to reach them. They're too far from here anyways. I would've been caught if I tried to run towards them."

"H- how many e- elevators are there?" Stacey stuttered. "B- because ours broke."

"Oh yeah." Anne said, looking up. "Are there any elevators besides the one in that direction? Because that one's rail broke."

"How in the…" Davis rubbed his temple. "I mean, yes, there's another elevator set, but it's all the way on the other side of the site. We'd never make it."

"Shit." Stacey whispered.

"Ok, ok… how about calling for help?" Leora said. "I know you said your radio wasn't working, but there has to be a way to contact someone for help."

Davis looked down in thought.

"I mean, there's the command center. That's the best bet at getting our hands on a computer that'll be able to send a message up to Light. But like I said, it's too far away."

"Well we have to try something!" Leora blurted, no longer able to keep in her quiet frustration. "We can't just… sit here and wait for that thing to kill us! How far away is it?"

"A few hallways over." Davis replied.

"We can make it." Leora said, holding out her arms. Davis stood in surprise when bright light began to manifest around her. "I can keep it away from us."

"You can summon light?"

Leora nodded.

"Well…" Davis smiled. "This changes things then."

Anne stood with Davis's new found optimism.

"You've got a plan?"

"I think so." Davis replied. "If you can keep that monster at bay with your light, then we can probably reach the command center. There, I can send an SOS to Light. Then, all we have to do is wait."

"I like that idea." Anne said, stepping beside him. "What do you guys think?"

Leora, the frustration appearing to have completely dissipated, nodded. Stacey also nodded, though not nearly as cheery or optimistic as anyone else in the room.

"Alright, we have a plan then." Anne said, turning to Davis. "Lead the way."

"So what do you know about the monster?" Anne asked as the group made their way through the room.

"Not much." Davis replied, slinking over to the door. "Only that it was transferred from Light Containment."

"Wait wait wait." Leora said, light illuminating from her hands. "That thing used to be in Light?"

The guard shrugged as the opened the door.

Stacey, Leora, and Anne all looked at each other. Hearing that this thing used to be in Light confused them, and made them wonder how they hadn't heard of it sooner.

Davis was the first into the hallway, rifle raised as he crept in.

"Clear." He called after scanning the area. Leora, Stacey, Anne, and Han entered the next room in that order. Once they were all inside, Davis lowered his stance and placed a hand on his hip. "Here we are. The command center."

The door leading to it had a red streak on it, indicating its high level clearance. Davis walked up to the keypad next to the door and swiped his card through it.

"Dammit." He whispered as a red light appeared on the console. "It must be on lockdown."

"What does that mean?" Leora asked.

"It means this dinky little guard card ain't getting us in there."

"That doesn't make sense." Leora continued. "We were able to get through checkpoints just fine."

"Well, the Commander Center is going to need a higher level of clearance." Davis turned to them. "So unless one of you has a level 4 key on you, we aren't getting in."

"So that's it?" Leora said frustrated. "We just give up?"

"I'm open to suggestions."

"Anne…" Leora turned to the woman. "You were with the Insurgency right? Didn't they teach you some… I don't know… trick to bypassing security?"

"Cracking a Foundation door is no easy task. And with lockdown in place?" Anne replied. "I'd need a day minimum."

Leora placed a hand over her head and began pacing.

"Come on, guys. There's got to be something we can do."

Stacey's eyes began wandering around the room, partially to look for someway to help but mostly to make sure the monster wasn't sneaking up on them. As her eyes gazed, though, they landed on a small air duct hanging from the ceiling.

"What about the ventilation?" Stacey asked.

"What?" Leora said as everyone turned to her.

"The ventilation." She repeated, pointing to the duct. "I- is it possible to get inside the room from there?"

"I mean, yeah…" Davis looked up at the vent. "But it's only a few inches wide. I don't think any of us are squeezing in there."

The group stood in silence, before all slowly turning to Han.

"Well well well…" Han said in a rather proud tone. "Looks like it's up to me to save the day. Give me a boost, Annie."

Anne obeyed, walking over to right below the vent and holding her hand up as high as she could. Han jumped from her palm and clung to the grate.

"How do you plan on-" Leora was cut off as Han wiggled the grate loose, causing it to swing open. "…opening it."

A light thudding echoed around the room as Han crawled into the vent. The thudding got softer as Han went further into the vent, before fading out entirely.

After about a minute, a green light appeared on the keypad, followed by the door sliding open. Han was standing at the base of the doorway, holding himself in a way that, despite being just a hand, was proud of himself.

"Easy as that." Han said, jumping and crawling up Anne as she got close.

Stacey looked around the Command Center when she stepped inside. Like Davis had predicted, it was totally empty. There wasn't any blood or corpses, but no Foundation staff either. The room itself was octangular, with computers lining the walls and a few in the center.

"Watch the door." Davis said, hurrying over to one of the consoles. "And keep an eye for black rot."

Leora stood at the door, her light weapons dully illuminating in her hands. Anne and Han paced around the room, looking around the Command Center's interior. Stacey, meanwhile, found a chair in front of one of the computers and took a seat.

"Say…" Anne said, stopping and pointing at the screen right beside her. "What's with the shitty video quality?"

Stacey looked over. The screen Anne was talking about looked like some security camera feed. It was of a hallway, at least that's what Stacey assumed. The quality was horrible, being all staticky and low resolution.

"Lower quality is easier to process, encrypt, and store." Davis said, not looking from his computer.

Anne nodded, before getting back to pacing.

Stacey took the down time to exhale.

We'll be fine. She thought to herself. Davis is sending out a distress signal, they'll send someone down to get us out, and we'll be fine.

Her eye's wandered to the computer screen in front of her as she thought this. That's when she noticed that the computer was on. The screen was black, but that illuminated black when the actual computer is on. In the middle of the screen were gray two lines. It looked like… the paused logo? Like it was a video.

Without thinking, Stacey reached down and pressed the space bar on the computer.

A high pitched humming came from the computer as the video began. This caught the attention of everyone, as Anne, Han, and Leora turned to the screen. Davis glanced over too, but quickly got back to typing.

Stacey jerked back slightly, wondering if what she just did was wrong.

Then, white words appeared on screen, reading Level 4 Restricted. The screen itself was flickering with tiny white line and cracks, and the resolution couldn't have been higher than 360p. It was as though Stacey was watching on old VHS recording.

"This file is restricted to level 4 personnel only." A robotic voice said. "If you do not have authorization to view this file, discard it and report to your superior immediately."

Stacey, frightened by this, reached out to repress the pause button.

"Wait."

She stopped as Anne, who was now directly beside her, grabbed her hand.

"Anne, we're not allowed to-"

"Wait."

After a moment, a different set of white words appeared, this time reading Document 01: Nature of SCP-106.

"Do you know which one that is?" Stacey asked, turning to Anne. Anne shook her head.

Suddenly, the screen changed to a man sitting at a table in a dark room. Shadow covered the man's face, but the outlines of a white lab coat were visible around his torso.

"Document 106-49. Date of recording, November 6th, 2022. Recorder, doctor ██████, level 4 personnel. Leaving dead space." The man shifted in his seat. "Following Incident 239-17-10/31/2022, we were able to gather information that may give us insight into the nature of SCP-106. Thanks to █████████████████ as well as testimonies from SCP objects affected by Incident 239-17-10/31/2022, we're able to know that SCP-106 was temporarily 'freed' from its current condition. Specifically, after intervention by SCP-███."

Footsteps echoed in Stacey's right ear as Leora walked up next to her. The screen flickered as it appeared to glitch out for a second.

"SCP-███ is a know infovore, and it's ability to affect SCP-106 in such a way gives us two pieces of information unknown to us before. Firstly, it shows that SCP-███'s infovoric capabilities far exceed what was previously believed. Because of its necessity for ███ █████-█ as well as its apparent ignorance to the extent of its properties, no measures are to be taken outside of increased surveillance. The second discovery from this incident is the potential nature of SCP-106. Because it was able to be temporarily neutralized by SCP-███, a known infovore, it is currently theorized that SCP-106 is a form of infosite."

Anne made intrigued "huh" sound. Stacey glanced at her, but Anne just waved for her to keep watching.

"If this theory is correct, then it would be ground breaking to our understanding of SCP-106, as well as open potential avenues to cure the host of the parasitic infection. The infectious enitity currently possessing SCP-106 has been referred to by site staff as 'the Rot,' mainly for its corrosive nature. The commissioning of a body to study the Rot independently of SCP-106 is currently being organized by the O5 council."

The screen flickered to black. After a moment, the words Document 02: Timeline of SCP-███'s Infection blinked onto the monitor.

"The following is a list of incident reports compiled to formulate a timeline of recent events for your convenience. These reports have been summarized. For access to the full reports, see ████████." A robotic voice spoke as corresponding words appeared on screen.

A second later, the screen changed to a wall of text slowly crawling down the monitor. Stacey recognized the format as basic incident reports.

"Incident 239-17-10/31/2022." The same robot voice said. "██████████. During this, SCP-106 captured multiple SCP objects. While in the pocket dimension, SCP-███ encountered SCP-106 and temporarily 'freed' it, allowing the now conscious ████████ to free the captured anomalies. See Document 106-49 for more information. Following this event, SCP-███ complained of having nightmares relating to SCP-106 and the encounter. These dreams ceased after a month.

"Incident ███-07-10/01/2023. SCP-███ claimed to have had a dream relating to Incident 239-17-10312022. It should be noted that SCP-███ has not experienced this nightmare in nearly a year. SCP-███ claims that the dream was more vivid than before. Both SCP-███ and SCP-106 are to be monitored in the event the nightmare is anomalous in nature.

"Incident ███-08-10/08/2023. After a week of checkups and observation, SCP-███ claims it has not experienced the dream referenced in Incident ███-07-10012023 following that one night.

"Incident ███-09-10/16/2023. SCP-███ reports to the infirmary for medication. It claims it had been experiencing a mild headache for the past several days, but had attempted to 'tough it out.' After a week, however, it decided to seek medication. Ibuprofen was distributed.

"Incident ███-10-10/18/2023. SCP-███ reports to the infirmary, complaining of chronic headaches, as well as an increase in severity. It was given more medication, before being sent out.

"Incident ███-11-10/21/2023. SCP-███ is found unconscious in the training room by SCP-████. SCP-████ is able to wake SCP-███, who expresses confusion and mild disorientation. SCP-███ is then taken to the infirmary, where signs of dehydration are present. SCP-███ expresses that the lack of hydration must be the cause for the loss of consciousness, as well as its recent head aches. SCP-███ is released from the infirmary.

"Incident ███-12-10/24/2023. SCP-███ stumbles into the infirmary, expressing that it has a severe head ache, as well as severe stomach pains. SCP-███ is properly admitted to the infirmary.

"Incident ███-13-10/26/2023. Data expunged.

"Incident ███-14-10/27/2023. Data expunged.

"Incident ███-15-10/28/2023. Data expunged.

"Incident ███-16-10/29/2023. Data expunged.

"Incident ███-17-10/30/2023. SCP-███ has been transferred to Heavy Containment in a temporary containment unit. While not as potent or powerful as SCP-106, SCP-███ is still displaying many signs similar to the former object. The Overseer council, the director of Site-19, and the lead researcher for SCP-106 have been contacted. To avoid mass panic, the incidents that took place in the infirmary are not to be made known to the SCP objects in Light Containment. This includes SCP objects that are on ███ █████-█."

And with that, the video ended. The screen had gone back to the illuminated black it had been before the video played. Stacey was just barely able to see everyone's reflection in the monitor. Leora gave a confused looked, before stepping back towards the door. Anne, on the other hand, had gone pale.

"What is it?" Stacey asked, turning to her.

Anne didn't respond immediately, instead continuing to stare at the screen.

"Remember when Davis said the monster was transferred from Light Containment?" She whispered.

"What? Um… yeah."

"Do you know what an infovore is?"

"I- I think." Stacey stuttered. "They're like… psychic or something, right?"

"Close." Anne replied, now looking at the girl. "We're individuals capable of rapidly processing and manipulating information. Basically, we have really good memories, can read minds, and to some extent twist both. Infosites are mental parasites that attach themselves to infovores. It's a bit complicated, but in laymen's terms, they use the infovores own mental capabilities to manipulate the host."

"O- ok." Stacey said. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Infosites can spread and reproduce in many ways…" Anne continued. "But the most effective is direct mental contact between an infected host and an uninfected infovore."

"So?"

"Stacey… the monster that's down here is an infovore from Light Containment that's been infected by an infosite. Tell me, who from Light Containment is an infovore that was admitted to the infirmary a week ago and no one has seen sense?"

"How many infovores are there? Just you and-" Stacey stopped dead as it hit her.

No. She thought. That can't be it.

Her attention was pulled away from her thoughts as a loud static sound made her jump. Turning, she saw that the monitor had changed to static, before flicking to what looked like security camera feed. In fact, it was the same CCTV footage Anne had complained about earlier. Though something was different this time.

The quality was still terrible, but Stacey could see in the feed a dark figure standing off in the hallway. Not being able to make out what it was, she squinted and leaned in closer.

The feed cycled, and the figure was closer to the camera. Still, Stacey couldn't make out what is was, though she could take a pretty good guess.

Again the video updated, and now the figure was standing right below the camera. This time, Stacey could perceive its humanoid shape and its head looking up at the camera. Two white dots laid in the figure's void of a silhouette. Stacey felt herself grow cold as the figure slowly-

"Watch out!" Anne yelled.

Stacey felt a hand grab her shoulder and yank her back, pulling her clean out of her chair. Just in the nick of time, too, as at the very moment Stacey fell back, a thin black arm shot out of the computer screen. The hand grasped at the spot where Stacey's head had been a moment earlier.

Anne pulled Stacey close, both of them quickly backing up as the hand, after realizing its prey had escaped, pressed against the side of the monitor. Then, a second arm extended out of the screen and grabbed the opposite side. Finally, a head pushed its way through. The red emergency lights of the room, while dim, were bright enough to allow Stacey to actually see the face of the monster that had been hunting them. And sure enough…

"Oh my god." Leora said. "Iris?"

Despite the radically different appearance, there was no mistaking that poorly cut dirty blonde hair or the large scar that ran across her face. Like before, the mouth was crooked into a wicked grin, and the eyes were an inverted color. A black oil-like substance covered Iris's face and body, but it was most prominent around her eyes and down a tear-like track on her cheeks.

"Iris…" Anne whispered. "What happened?"

Iris, or the creature pretending to be Iris, opened her mouth.

"Don't like the new look?"

The sound sent chills down Stacey's spine. It sounded like Iris, but with a demonic undertone and a demeanor that was anything but Iris.

As though suddenly remembering her purpose, Leora strengthened her light and illuminated the room. Iris, in response, leapt out of the screen and dove into the floor. An black spot appeared where Iris had landed.

"Huddle up!" Anne yelled, pulling Stacey even closer and moving to Leora. Davis, who had been paying close attention, sprinted next to the group.

"Keep an eye on any solid surface!" The guard shouted, raising his rifle. "It can pop out of any wall, floor, or ceiling!"

A feminine laughed echoed around the room, which alone was enough to make Stacey whimper in fear.

"Don't waste all your energy." Han said, shifting himself to face Leora.

Leora, who was starting to sweat, nodded.

"Did you send out the distress?" Anne asked.

"Yeah." Davis said. "I sent it out."

"What do we do?!" Stacey cried, trying her best to ignore the slushing sound coming from the walls.

"We just need to stick together." Anne replied. "Leora, keep your light on. Davis, do you know where the Foundation will come from? Maybe we can meet them there."

"They'll most likely come from the stairs."

"Ok… alright…" Anne panted. "If we stay in a group and stay in Leora's light, we should be able to make it there safely. Now, everyone move together."

As a group, they all began slowly making their way to the door. Leora, deciding it was best for her to stay in the center, stepped to the side and allowed Davis to go first. The guard crept through, rifle still raised. Then Leora herself walked through, before stopping and beckoning the last two to come.

Stacey let out a shaky breath as she walked through the door, stopping next to Leora. Anne, with Han on her shoulder, followed.

"Ok. We'll form a triangle. Leora, you stay in the middle and cover as much space with light as you can without getting tired. Davis, you lead the way. Me and Stacey will follow side by side." Anne looked down at Stacey. "Ok?"

She nodded.

"Alright." Anne finished as everyone got into their positions. "Stay close, stay in the light."

Turning, Anne motioned for everyone to start moving. And everyone did… except Stacey. As the group took their first steps forward, Stacey found she wasn't able to raise her feet from the ground. Looking down, her eyes widened as she saw herself ankle deep and sinking into a small pool of the black liquid.

"Wait!" Stacey yelled. Everyone, but most importantly Leora, stopped.

But it had been just enough. The immediate light around Stacey just been just dim enough to allow Iris to pounce. Something Stacey realized as a pair of black arms wrapped around her body.

"Gotcha!" Iris said in a malevolent playfulness.

Stacey screamed as she felt herself get dragged back. A mild burning sensation covered the lower half of her body as she began to be pulled into the wall.

"Stacey!" Anne and Leora yelled, both leaping into action.

Anne was the first to reach Stacey, grabbing her by the arms and pulling. It slowed Stacey down, but still she crept into the black mass that had formed on the wall. Leora and Davis quickly arrived, both grabbing onto the back of Anne and aiding her in pulling Stacey.

With now three people pulling, Stacey felt herself stop completely.

"Don't let go!" She cried, her vision blurring from tears that had formed in her eyes.

"We won't!" Leora replied. She was only able to pull using one hand, as the other was used to maintain a ball of light.

Stacey could feel the force at her legs, pulling her in. But she also felt the immense effort by Anne, Leora, and Davis, keeping her from being pulled in. After a few moments of struggling, Stacey felt herself actually begin to be pulled out.

"It's working!" She said, almost laughing. This was short lived as she felt Iris peek her head out of the wall just above her. Although she wasn't able to see Iris's face, she could tell the monster was pissed.

"Anne." Iris growled. "Let. Go."

Anne looked up at Iris, and for a moment a shimmer appeared in her eyes. Then, a look of absolute horror appeared on her face as she became bone white.

A moment later, Anne let go entirely.

Stacey let out a scream as she shot into the wall, but it was quickly cut off as everything went black.

A slight pain ran up Leora's body as she fell back on her ass. For a moment, a sense of relief swelled in her as she assumed they had successfully pulled Stacey back. Perhaps Iris had given up the fight after a minute.

However, as Leora sat up and looked around to find no Stacey, that relief soured into apprehension.

"Stacey?" She said, hoping the girl was simply out of her view. "Stacey?!"

"She's gone." Davis said, brushing himself off. "That thing took her."

"No…" Leora stood. "No! We had her! We-"

Slowly Leora's eyes fell onto Anne. She was sitting on the ground, staring at the black mass where Stacey had been a minute ago.

"What did you do?!" Leora demanded, hurrying over to Anne. "Why did you let go?!"

Anne didn't respond. She just continued to stare at the wall, though now Leora could see Anne's mouth was open in awe. The pale facial expression she wore implied she had just witnessed something petrifying.

"We have to save her!" Leora said, running towards the sludge trailing down the wall. "We have to get her back before it's too-"

Leora was cut off as she rammed face first into the wall. Disorientated, she wobbled backwards before regaining her footing. Staring at the mass, she placed her hand against it and pushed, but only a wall stood behind the thin layer of oil.

"No! Fuck!" She punched the wall then turned back to Anne. "Why did you let go?!"

Again Anne didn't respond. All she did was sit there and stare in horror at the spot where Stacey was taken.

"We have to find her!" Leora stated, turning to Davis.

"How?" The guard asked.

"I… I don't know! She had to have taken Stacey somewhere! We just need to find where!"

Davis shook his head. "Leora, I really hate to tell you this, but Stacey is-"

"No she isn't!" Leora yelled. "She- she can't be! We can't let her! I can't let her! We just have to find her!"

"Leora, that thing killed an entire squad of trained, fully geared GenSec agents. Even if Stacey is still alive, it's unlikely we'd be able to save her."

"We have to try! We have to!"

"Leora, all rushing in will do is get us killed." Davis folded his arms and leaned against the wall. "Now I managed to send out a message to Light Containment. MTF should be on its way. We should let them take care of this."

"How long until they get here?"

Davis didn't respond.

"Well Davis? How long until they get here?!"

"Hard to say."

"Which is code for a long time! Stacey won't last that long! We need to find her now!"

"We. Can't. Fight. That. Thing. Leora. It walked through machine gun fire like it was a squirt gun. And don't tell me your light will stop it. At best your light annoys it."

"We have to try! We have to do something!" Leora's voice began to quiver. "That thing is our friend! Something has control over her. Maybe we can talk to it and get Iris to-"

"That's not Iris."

Leora went silent as she turned to Anne, who was still pale face and staring at the wall.

"What?"

"That's not Iris." Anne looked up at her.

"What do you mean that's not Iris? We saw her!"

"I… I…" Anne exhaled and wet her mouth. "When I was holding onto Stacey that… thing reached out to me with its mind. I- I was able to feel it and…"

Anne went silent, her eyes unfocusing.

"And what?" Leora asked.

Anne shook her head. "Leora, all I felt was cold. Whatever trace of Iris there was is gone. That infosite has completely consumed her."

"What?" Leora said confused. "What does that mean."

Anne sighed and shakily got to her feet. "Every person has their own mental… let's call it scent. I'm not strong enough of an infovore to feel the difference between individuals, but I am strong enough to feel the difference between people and… not people. And that thing we saw, the thing running around in Iris's body… all I felt was something… alien. It's hard for me to describe to a non-infovore, but imagine the feeling of extreme dread, but instead of feeling it in your chest, you feel it in your head."

"I don't… I don't know what you mean!" Leora blurted, her face flaring with frustration.

"Leora, Iris is possessed. I know you're about to say you knew that, but I mean really possessed. You're not going to be able to talk her down."

Leora looked at Anne, then looked at Davis, then back to Anne.

"We have to do something!" She cried.

"Believe me, I want to save Stacey as much as you." Anne said. "But Davis is right. Running in to fight whatever possessed Iris is just going to get us killed."

"Seriously Anne?!" Leora shouted. "You're just giving up?!"

"Leora, we-"

"You of all people?! You always have some plan… or… are able to think of something!"

Anne sighed a sorrowful sigh.

"I'm sorry Leora."

"No! Fuck you! You won't even try to help! You won't even-"

Leora backed up to the wall as she spoke, her words turning into sharp exhales once hitting it. Then, placing her hands in her hair, she sunk down into a sitting position and began to cry.

"Annie…" Han said once the quiet sobbing filled the room. Anne looked at the hand sitting at her feet. "Leora is right. We can't just let Stacey go."

"Han, there's nothing we can do." Anne shook her head.

"There's gotta be something. Let's start with something simple. What do you know about these… infosite?"

"They're nasty little things." Anne said, reaching down and allowing Han to crawl up her arm. "They attach themselves to infovore minds and feed of memories and emotions. Some of the more powerful ones can even go as far as possessing the infovore, as we see with Iris."

"Is there any way to free an infected person?"

"Not with anything this side of the Library. You'd either need an extremely powerful inforvore to access the mind of the infected or a way to decrease the infovoric capabilities of the infected."

"Wait, why?" Han asked.

"Infosites are really only able to attach themselves to medium level infovores. Weak infovores, like me, aren't strong enough to attract infosites. It'd be like eating an apple that's still a little bud on the branch. Strong infovores, on the other hand, are too powerful for infosites. If an infosite attaches themselves to a strong infovore, they can literally just think the parasite away. Medium infovores are just right, as they're strong enough to snack on but too weak to kick the virus out."

"Just so I understand this correctly, the only way to cure Iris would be to either weaken her infovore powers or get a super strong infovore to kick the virus out?"

"Correct."

Davis had been listening in on Anne explain Iris's predicament. Now that she was done, he opened his mouth to speak.

"We should get going. The sooner we get by the exits the better."

"Yeah." Anne said, looking down at Leora. "Come on Leora."

Leora looked up at them with red eyes. Anger and hurt were still on her face, but she stood in compliance.

"Lead the way, Davis."

The guard turned and lead the group towards the door on the far side of the hallway. As they moved, Han spoke up.

"Would increasing Iris's infovore powers work or does it have to be a different person?"

"Yeah, making Iris's ability stronger would work, but that's the hardest of the three options. Really the only way that'd be possible is with a conflux, but those things are rarer than- woah!"

Anne skidded to a halt as she nearly ran into Davis, who had suddenly stopped moving. Slowly, he turned to look at Anne.

"Did you say conflux?"

"Uh… yeah."

"Are they these metal cylinder things with wires and buttons on them? Kinda looks like a super futuristic pipe bomb?"

Anne's eyes widened.

"Yes! Do you know where one is?"

"We have one down here in Heavy."

"What?!" Anne said, laughing. "What are you guys doing with a conflux?"

"I don't know. Some souvenir from some mission, I guess."

Anne hit herself in the head. "MY conflux! Of course! I assumed they either crushed it or sent it to 19!"

"Hold on." Leora said. "What's a conflux?"

"It's a device that helps infovores process all the information they take in, which by nature gives a boost to that infovore's capabilities!"

"Are you saying that-"

"If we activate it in close proximity to Iris, it may boost her infovoric capacity just enough to allow her to free herself? I sure am!"

The smile on Anne's face was wide, which gave Leora a spark of hope.

"So, there is a chance we can save Stacey?"

"If we hurry, then yes!"

"Well that's great and all." Davis said, not as pessimistic as he was, but clearly not as relieved as everyone else. "But how are we actually going to get to this… Iris? We have no idea where it went."

Anne tapped her temple.

"When it connected with me, it gave me an idea to what it presence feels like. Which means I can feel which direction its presence is strongest. Think of it like a mental compass."

"Ok." Davis said. "So the new plan is finding the conflux and using your mental compass to find and free Iris, all while hoping we come across Stacey on the process?"

"Yep!" Anne said happily.

Davis shrugged. "Alright. I'll join. But if we're going to the conflux, then we need to go this way. Keep up."

And with that, Davis, Anne, Han, and Leora ran towards the door opposite to the one they were originally going to.

The dank, moldy air was the first thing Stacey comprehended as she regained consciousness. She gagged and coughed as she slowly opened her eyes.

The room was too dark to make anything out. All Stacey could see was a sleek floor covered in black oil and bones scattered around. Her eyes widened as the objects reminded her of where she was.

Panicking, Stacey began struggling, but all attempts to move proved unsuccessful. Looking up, she realized her hands had been tied to a large chain that hung from the ceiling, leaving Stacey to dangle in the air.

She let out a whimper and looked around, but her eyes were still too contracted to make out any-

"Hello?"

Stacey's face whipped towards the voice.

"H- hello?!" She cried out. "I- I can't see you!"

"Your eyes just haven't adjusted yet. Give it a minute."

Stacey blinked, and after a minute, her eyes dilatated. In the darkness across from her was a woman with blonde hair and glasses and wearing a white lab coat. She too was hanging from the ceiling by her hands.

"W- who are y- you?" Stacey stuttered.

"Doctor Agatha Radcliff." The woman replied. "And who might you be?"

"Stacey. Uh… SCP-3009."

"3009?" Agatha frowned. "Aren't you supposed to be in Light Containment?"

"It's a long story." Stacey exhaled, using the conversation to calm her nerves. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure. I blacked out before being brought here."

Stacey let out a huff, then looked up at the chain her hands were bound to. Struggling, she tried to free herself by unwrapping her wrists, but it didn't take long for her to realize the futility of it. Exhaling, she let her arms drop.

"It could be worse." Agatha said as Stacey sniffled. "At least you aren't impaled."

Stacey frowned as she looked at Agatha, not sure what she meant. Then her eyes wandered up to Agatha's arms. Unlike Stacey's, hers had long hooks piercing through her palms. Blood had streamed down her hand and into the sleeve of her shirt.

"Are you ok?" Stacey blurted instinctively.

Agatha shrugged the best she could. "Not much can be done about it now."

Stacey let out a breath and looked back at Agatha's face.

"How are we going to get out?"

"You don't."

Iris's upside down head shot down into Stacey's view, inches from her face. Stacey screamed and jerked back, but wasn't able to do much given her circumstances. Iris just smiled at Stacey, breathing hot, moldy breaths onto her face.

After a moment, Iris laughed slide back upwards. Stacey watched the monster as she began crawling on the ceiling towards Agatha.

"I- I- Iris…" Stacey stuttered, trying not to throw up. "T- this isn't you. I- I know you're still-"

"Oh shut up." Iris snarled. "The host of this body is well suppressed. Any attempts to reach them is hopeless. Now…" Iris slid down the chains holding Agatha up, stopping once she was level with the doctor. "Let's start with something simple. What's your name, doctor?"

Agatha didn't respond, instead glaring silently at Iris. Iris, in response, laughed to herself.

"It's ok. I already know your name, Agatha Radcliff. Just like how I know your sister's name: Riley Radcliff. You know… the girl who had her face torn off by an anomalous predator?"

Agatha's breathing began to shake as Iris spoke, which only made Iris's grin grow wider. Then, Iris grabbed the chain and swung herself around so she was behind Agatha and facing Stacey.

"You know, your sister might have survived if she had simply…" Iris brought her hands to either side of Agatha's head. "Opened her eyes."

Suddenly, Iris grabbed Agatha's face, pressing her fingers on Agatha's eyes. A hissing sound echoed out as Agatha cried and screamed in agony. She thrashed around, struggling against Iris's grip, but the anomaly proved far stronger than her.

"Iris!" Stacey cried. "What are you doing!?"

Iris just stared at Stacey with those horrible eyes, her grin widening with each scream to leave Agatha's mouth.

After a few moments, Iris drew her hands back. Agatha's eye sockets were hollow, being voided out. Black oil surrounded her eyes and streamed down her face, along with some melted white mush mixed in around the bottom of her eye socket. Stacey's stomach did back flips when she realized the black liquid had literally melted Agatha's eyes.

"You smell that?" Iris gleefully said, sniffing the air. "That's the smell of rotten flesh. Take it in, Stacey."

"I- Iris…" Stacey began as tears rolled down her face. "Please…"

Agatha continued crying loudly. The grin on Iris's face dropped for a moment as she rolled her eyes.

"Quiet." She said calmly. As Iris spoke, she took one of her hands and shoved it into Agatha's mouth. The doctor let out more muffled screams and gags as black oil poured down her throat. Even in the dark, Stacey could see Agatha's neck blacken as the liquid slithered down her esophagus.

"There." Iris replied, pulling her hand out. "That'll shut you up."

Black liquid bubbled out of Agatha's mouth as she appear to be drowning in it. She made multiple attempts at noise, all of which failed. Spots on her neck continued to darken, before droplets of the oil began seeping out of those very spots.

Iris held up the hand she had shoved into Agatha's mouth and opened it palm up. It looked like there was something in it. It took a minute for Stacey to realize it was a human tongue.

"See?" Iris's grin returned. "Nice and quiet."

Before Stacey had a chance to react, Iris plopped the tongue in her mouth. A wet, spongy noise filled the room as Iris began chewing the piece of severed flesh.

Stacey couldn't take it anymore. Vomit began rushing out of her mouth as her stomach emptied itself of what little had been in it. The stream of bile went particularly hard when she heard Iris swallow intentionally loudly.

"And now…" Iris said once Stacey spat the last bit of fluid out of her mouth. "The main course."

Iris raised her hand and brought it over to about where Agatha's appendix was. Then, slowly, she pressed her hand against Agatha's skin, causing it to burn and steam. Agatha struggled a little bit, but it was clear she was out of fight. And then, giving Stacey one last big smile, Iris dragged her hand across Agatha's waist.

A slopping sound came from Agatha as the lower half of her body began to pull from her top half. Her stomach opened as if it were hinged. As it did, dark red organs began to slip out of her bottom, landing on the floor with splats. Stacey had seen enough anatomy pictures from the science books researcher Kim gave her to recognize the different organs. The liver, the lungs, the kidney, the digestive system, even the heart fell into a pile onto the floor.

If Stacey had anything left in her stomach, she would've thrown up again.

Instead, all Stacey could do was cry and sob as Iris dropped to the floor and began feasting on the dead doctor's organs; leaving her disemboweled body to swing back and forth.

Any hopes Anne had of quickly finding the conflux was dashed as she stepped into what could only be described as a mini warehouse. Unmarked boxes, crates, and lockers littered the room and hugged the walls.

"Please tell me you know where specifically the conflux is."

"I wish I could." Davis replied. "But all I know is it's somewhere in here."

"Let's not waste any time then." Leora said, jogging past them and crouching down to the first crate.

Anne and Davis looked at each other, before splitting up.

"I don't think I need to tell you this…" Davis began. "But don't take anything that isn't the conflux."

"Of course." Anne said before looking at Han sitting on her shoulder. "You wanna go look through some of the boxes back there?"

"Sure thing." Han replied, jumping down and disappearing further into the room.

Anne walked over to a locker and opened it. Inside sat a small box, a crowbar, and an old white smoke alarm. She pulled out the box and opened it, revealing penny facing heads up.

"You sure this isn't just a junk closet?" Anne asked, placing the box back inside the locker.

"Most of these are just anomalous junk that's so useless or unremarkable that it's kept in a minimal security storage room. Not sure why they'd keep that conflux thing here, if it's as advanced as you claim it is."

Side stepping left, Anne opened the next locker and looked inside. A pirate rubber duck, a blending machine, a pair of half-rimmed glasses, and a packet of chewing gum.

As Anne closed the door to the second locker, she heard a harsh thud echo around the room. Peeking behind her, she saw Leora toss a metal crate to the side before grabbing another one and opening it. Anne didn't need her infovore ability to sense Leora was frustrated to the point of tears.

Glancing at Davis, who was looking through his own set of boxes, Anne decided to cautiously make her way over to the girl.

"Hey…"

"What're you doing?" Leora snapped, not looking up from her crate. "We need to find this conflux now!"

"Leora…"

The girl stopped what she was doing and exhaled deeply before turning. Even in the relative darkness Anne could see her eyes glistening.

"We'll save Stacey…" Anne gave her a friendly smile. "And Iris."

Leora let out a sigh, before opening another box. "Not if we don't find this-"

"Found it." A voice called from deep within the room.

The two women looked up at where the voice had come from. Han scuttered towards them, a silver cylinder resting on his palm.

"You said it looked like a futuristic pipe bomb, right?"

"Yes!" Anne picked it up and examined the device. "This is it!"

"Good." Davis said, making his way next to them. "Then all we need to do is find them, right?"

"Yep." Anne looked at them and smiled. "And I can already feel her. Sheeeeeeee's this way."

Anne spun and pointed towards the exit.

"Lead the way then." Davis said.

Anne knelt down and let Han crawl onto her shoulder before she ran towards the door. The group practically burst through the exit as Anne made a hope filled dash in the direction of the Rot.

The sick chewing sound had finally stopped after god knows how long. Iris, smacking her lips, stood and looked up at Stacey.

"Your turn." She smiled.

"No! No! No! No!" Stacey, who had been dreading this moment, began to thrash violently against her bindings as Iris began crawling up the wall towards her. "Iris stop! Iris stop! Iris stop!"

Stacey couldn't even clearly tell where Iris was from how blurry her tears had made her vision. All she could do was listen for the sloshing sound indicating Iris's location.

Once Stacey felt Iris's hot breath on her face, she completely gave up. The knowledge that struggling was useless, that she was going to experience a very long and very painful death, all of it just caused Stacey to just lose it. Sobs and cries spilled out of Stacey like a busted dam as she tried unsuccessfully to choke out some final plea of mercy.

"Shhhhh." Iris hushed, wiping some of Stacey's tears away. Stacey's eye lids burned as she was able to get a slightly clearer view of Iris. "Shhhhh."

Despite her state of hysteria, Stacey was compelled to quiet down, reducing her mad sobs to heavy sniffling. Perhaps she had some hope that listening to Iris would spare her from what was to come.

For a few moments, the two of them stared at each other in relative silence. Then, Iris got close to Stacey and whispered in her ear.

"Are you afraid?"

"Y- y- y- yes." Stacey choked.

"I know you are. I feed on it, you know. It's why I invaded your dream last night. That scarecrow, with the rotten pumpkin head? That was me. But…" Iris pulled back and looked at Stacey in the eyes. "Fear is just an appetizer. What I really want is your flesh."

Stacey let out a whimper as Iris looked her over.

"But I'm a person eats their meals in a very specific order, and I be sure to play with my food just enough before digging in. Which means drinking as much fear as I can from them." Iris caressed Stacey's face, making her shudder. "A wise man once said that the fear of the unknown is the strongest and oldest form of fear. And there's no greater form of unknowing…" Iris raised her hands and brought them up the Stacey's eyes, smiling evilly. "Then unseeing."

"No! No! No!" Stacey screamed, finding a second wind of struggle in her. She threw herself against her binds, all to no avail. All the while, Iris began slowly closing the gap between her hands and Stacey's eyes.

Before long Stacey could feel Iris's hands on her eyelashes and eyebrows. Realizing there was nothing she could do, Stacey closed her eyes and prepared for what was to come.

But that never happened.

Iris's hands seemed to stop dead suddenly. At first Stacey thought she was giving her some false hope as a final act of cruelty, but after a few moments of nothing, Stacey got curious.

Slowly, Stacey opened her eyes.

Iris seemed to be frozen in place, her smile dropped into something more neutral as her head and eyes were focused on something out in the darkness.

Then, after a moment, Iris turned back to Stacey, smiled, and fell down to the floor; sinking into it.

"In there!" Anne yelled. "I can feel it."

Anne, who had been leading, stopped right in front of the metal door. It would need a key card to open. Davis, the one who actually had the key card, ran in front of Anne and quickly slid it into the side console.

The door opened with an eerie, rustic creaking. As soon as it was wide enough, Leora ran past Anne and Davis, squeezing her way in. Everyone quickly followed her.

As expected, the room was dark. Very dark. So dark that the only thing Anne could make out was Stacey hanging from the ceiling, and even then it was only because she was within the beam of light cast from the opened door.

Stacey, upon seeing the group, set out a sob of relief.

"O- oh thank God…" She said, tears glinting off her face.

"Stacey!" Leora began, running into the room. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here!"

"Wait! Don't! Iris is-"

Just then Iris leapt out of the wall. Leora had no time to react before Iris grabbed her by the wrists and began dragging her. It was clear Leora tried to summon light, but was cut off as Iris pulled Leora's hands into a black spot on the wall.

Fortunately, Leora didn't go in all the way, with only her forearms actually going into the wall. Unfortunately… Leora's forearms were stuck in the wall.

"My hands!" Leora cried, struggling to free herself. "I- I can't summon light!"

Clever girl. Anne thought, jogging inside the room and looking around. Sloshing echoed from within the walls as Iris laughed from somewhere beyond. Anne didn't need to feel the Rot's presence to know Iris was somewhere in the walls.

"Davis, help Leora out." Anne commanded. "Han, see if you help get Stacey loose."

"On it." The hand said, jumping from her shoulder and scuttling across the room.

Davis mimicked Han by running over to Leora. He grabbed her and tried pulling her out, though to no avail. While this was happening, Anne closed her eyes and tracked the Rot.

In the wall to my left, going up the ceiling. Staying put above us, probably to watch what we do. On the move again. Moving above me and down the wall behind me. Behind me. The hairs on Anne's back stood as she felt Iris step out of the wall. There you are.

Anne turned just in time to see Iris slink out of the black mass. A look of surprise came over her face, clearly not expecting Anne to know where she was. Anne took the opportunity to pull out the conflux and activate it.

Stagnation.

That was the only word Iris could describe her situation. She couldn't see or hear or feel or move anything. She was stuck in a void of total nothingness, her mind only barely comprehending her existence. If she had the ability to, she'd feel that she had been slowly drifting in this limbo for days. But she couldn't, as her mind was incapable of understanding such a thing.

At least, it had been. Then, out of nowhere, Iris suddenly became self aware of her existence. It wasn't much at first, with Iris only becoming aware that she was. Slowly though, more and more trickled into her mind as feeling crept into her conscious.

After a while, Iris became aware enough to know that something was wrong. This existence, floating in a feelingless void, was wrong. She didn't know how or why, all she knew was that she needed to get out.

So, summoning what strength she could, she pushed herself forward. Iris wasn't sure how, as she had no limbs or body. But somehow, she willed her essence forward.

As Iris moved through the void, she felt herself become more and more. What started as just a scattered ether of essence she knew was herself soon manifested into a more compressed area of matter. Then, she felt her body begin to reform as sensation tingled up her arms and legs, rippling across her torso and neck and head.

Iris pushed herself forward as she continually became more defined in existence. Then, she hit a barricade. For whatever reason, she suddenly found it difficult to move forward any. Not only that, but she could tell that the barricade was some from outside this realm's existence. Something… foreign.

Not allowing this to stop her, Iris built up what strength she could and proceeded to force herself through the barricade. Pushing through the void had proved difficult enough, but the barricade was something else entirely.

Eventually though, Iris felt herself begin to phase through. First Iris pushed with her newly defined arms through the barricade. Then she followed with her entire body. The barricade seemed to elasticate around her, as though it were made of a flexible yet impenetrable rubber.

And then there was a snap, and Iris fell through the barricade and landed on the ground.

Her senses and awareness slammed into her like a tidal wave the second she passed the barricade. She suddenly could feel every inch, every atom of her body with stark clarity. With her ability to feel and move regained, Iris tried to stand.

But she couldn't. Moving through that void had left her physically exhausted. She was also mentally exhausted, though she couldn't quite remember why. Regardless, all Iris could muster was a small toss of her body, allowing her to roll over and gaze up at where she had just broken out of.

In front of her was a large, black, semi-fluid mass. Iris couldn't put to words what she was looking at, though the best she could describe it was gelatinous mountains that waved inside of itself.

At first the mass was relatively still, with the only movement coming from within the body. Then, it began to tremble and shake as a deep moaning sound bellowed out of it. Somehow, Iris knew her escape was what had caused the disturbance.

The side of the gelatin began to shift and morph, turning into a massive face of an Old Man. Its piercing white eye contrasted against the empty void of its facial features. A chill ran down Iris's spine as the face opened its mouth, revealing several appendages snaking towards her.

Iris knew it would try to drag her back in, to pull her back into that void of unawareness. And yet, no matter what she tried, she couldn't move. She was simply too weak physically and mentally. She barely had the physical capacity to lift her finger, let alone fight or flight from the tentacles closing in on her.

Understanding what was about to happen, Iris laid her head down and closed her eyes, preparing to be dragged back into the state of limbo she had been in.

But as soon as she had surrendered herself to the mass, a voice spoke in her ear.

Well, now isn't this a surprise.

A high pitched screeching rang from in front of Iris. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see tentacles retreating into the mass while the face gave a pained expression.

Looks like you've got yourself into quite the pickle. Don't worry though… getting rid of these things is like swatting flies for me. Now I know you've got your fair share of trust issues, but I'm going to need you to trust me on this, ok?

What felt like a hand found its way into Iris's hand. She flinched as the other hand's fingers wrapped around her own.

Oh calm down. I'm not actually touching you. This is all in your head, after all.

Iris's eyes rolled to the left. Sure enough, no one was by her side despite the sensation in her hand.

Now, I'm going to give you a bit of the old brain juice and all you have to do is think that thing away. Ok?

A second wind suddenly overcame Iris as a good chunk of the fatigue she had been feeling drained from her like a faucet had just been opened. Granted, she was still too weak to do anything physical, but mentally she had been mostly rejuvenated.

Now… look at that big mass of shit and imagine a giant boot stomping on it.

Iris did. And as she did, the mass shrieked as it was flattened in the middle.

Good, now imagine crushing it like a ball of play doh!

Iris did. And as she did, the mass cried as it was squished horizontally.

Excellent! And now, for the finishing blow, imagine it bursting into flames and melting from the heat!

Iris did. And as she did, the mass screamed as bit and pieces of it flaked off like ash.

While there were no actual flames on the body, it still writhed and slowly loss bits of itself as if it were on fire. Then, air bubbles began to form in the gelatin as though it were boiling. Loud popping echoed around Iris as these air pockets burst.

The hollowed screaming continued as the mass shrunk with each air burst and each bit of ash flaking off of it. After a while, the once mountain sized body had decayed down to barely the size of a toddler, before one last burst marked its end as it exploded into multiple pieces.

And with that, the gelatin mass was gone. Iris dropped her head onto the ground and felt herself begin to fade.

Wish we had more time to talk, but mind purges tend to leave people very exhausted. I doubt you'll stay conscious once returning to the good old real world.

The voice in Iris's head reduced to a whisper as the feeling in her hand suddenly disappeared.

Word from the wise though, stay away from those Infosites next time.

The creature parading as Iris gripped its head once Anne activated the conflux. A mixture of pain and panic covered its face as it fell to its knees. Anne, in response, took a step back from the creature.

She stared at it as it let out several uncanny screeches and moans. Unlike before, Anne couldn't hear any of Iris's voice in the sounds.

A thud echoed out from behind Anne, who turned to see Stacey straightening herself after just landed on her feet.

"Got it." Han proclaimed, planting himself on Stacey's shoulder.

Anne motioned to Stacey to stay back, who had no problem complying with the command. Near to Iris was the last place the girl wanted to be.

The creature continued to thrash and cry out. As it did, black oil began dripping out of the pores in its body, causing a pool of the liquid to formulate on the ground. Then, with a howl that caused Anne to shiver to the bone, the creature out stretched its hands and landed on its palms.

"Whoa!"

Another thud rang next to Anne, who glimpsed over to see both Leora and Davis on the ground. From the looks of it, Leora had suddenly come loose, cause both to fall.

The creature let out a hacking sound as black liquid began dripping out of its mouth. Then, as if a dam had been broken, that same black oil poured out of its mouth. It vomited and vomited and vomited some more, to the point that Anne questioned if its stomach was even big enough to store that much sludge.

And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The creature had stopped spitting up black liquid, and its breathing shifted to an uneven pace.

No… Anne thought, reaching out to the body before her. Not "the creature"…

Iris. Anne could feel her.

Sure enough, with trembling arms and a shaking body, Iris raised her head to look at Anne directly; the uncanny inverted eyes replaced with calm dark blue ones.

"Iris?" Anne asked, cautiously.

"Yeah. It's me. It's-" Iris went quiet as she looked around the room. Her eyes first landed on all the black marks on the wall, followed by over at Stacey.

As though on que, the lights above flickered on as the stomping of several pairs of boots slowly grew from the hallway. With the lights on, the scene of the room was fully visible. Scattered around were skeletons, parts of skeletons, half eaten corpses, and hollowed out bodies similar to the check point guard from earlier.

Iris's eyes darted around as a distraught yet exhausted expression covered her face.

"Oh my god…"

And with that, Iris fell face first onto the floor as MTF agents and medics began spilling into the room.

Iris sat with her hands folded in her lap, staring down at the floor beneath her. Tapping echoed around the cell as her leg bounced up and down in agitation.

They're late.

Usually someone would've been here by now with food for her. Iris would always snack on each meal over the course of a few hours, rather than eating it entirely at once. It was the best way to ensure she never felt hungry, a feeling she was paranoid might cause her to-

Iris's train of thought was cut short as the door across the room opened. She looked up to see a doctor with a clip board walk into the room. Adams followed closely by her side.

The doctor walked up to a table mounted with a microphone and sat down.

"Good morning Iris." She said, placing the clip board on the desk. "How are you feeling this morning?"

Iris gazed at Adams, who stood with her arms crossed behind the glass panel separating Iris from the rest of the room.

"Fine." Iris replied, looking back at the doctor.

"That's good to hear. Let's begin with the basics. Have you recently felt any desires similar or identical to when you were possessed by the Rot?"

"No."

"Have you experienced any memory loss in the days since recovering from the Rot?"

"No."

"Have you experienced any dreams or hallucinations relating to SCP-106 or the Rot since recovering?"

Iris grimaced. Sleep was something that Iris had always had trouble finding, for one reason or another. But recently it had become impossible without the aid of medication. And the few hours she'd get of sleep were haunted by visions her eating the organs of scientists or tearing the arms off of GenSec guards.

"My dreams haven't changed since the last time we spoke." Iris replied.

"We've been monitoring you while you've experienced these nightmare. No unusual brain activity or signs of Rot infection. We believe it's safe to say that these dreams, while the result of trauma, are non-anomalous." The doctor stood and straightened her coat. "Which is why you've been approved to return to Light Containment."

Iris's head perked up, though not out of joy.

"What?" She started. "No… no. I- I need to be here. I can't-"

"Iris…" The doctor interrupted. "We've been monitoring you for almost two weeks. There's no sign of the Rot or any form of mental or physical infection."

"What if you're wrong?" Iris blurted, slightly louder than she had intended. "What if… what if it's staying hidden somewhere in my mind? You know, lulling you into a false sense of security? And then, when I'm up in Light with everybody, it takes over again and I…" Iris bowed her head. "What if I hurt more people?"

"Agent Adams here has been assigned to keep a close eye on you." The doctor motioned to Adams, who hadn't moved from her position. "In the unlikely event something were to happen, she'll make sure recontainment occurs as quickly and as bloodlessly as possible. Though I will say again, I doubt this'll be necessary."

Iris looked over at Adams. She was wearing her usual stoic expression whenever she needed to be serious.

Exhaling, the tapping increased in frequency as Iris gazed down at her feet.

"I- I don't know. There's still-"

"Iris." It was Adams who spoke this time. "Come on."

The tapping ceased as Iris's leg froze. She continued to blankly stare at the ground.

I could hurt people.

They all stood in silence for about a minute, before Iris took a deep breath and rose to her feet. As she did, the glass panel in front of her rose up. Reluctantly, Iris took a step out of the modified heavy containment cell and into the main room.

Neither Iris nor Adams had spoken in the couple of minutes following Iris's release. It wasn't until the newly repaired elevator began to ascend that Iris decided to speak up.

"How is everyone?"

Adams shrugged. "Fine, mostly. Anne and Han moved past everything pretty quickly, though that's to be expected from an ex-Insurgent and the literal right hand of a murderer. Davis requested amnestics and a transfer to Light Containment, of which only the transfer was approved. Leora acts ok, but her containment team reported her of experiencing waking nightmares. Stacey is the one who's taking it badly, though."

Iris grimaced. "How badly?"

"She stopped talking to people. Barely eats. From what I hear barely sleeps."

"Fuck." Iris said under her breath. Adams picked up on the expression despite Iris's attempts to keep it quiet. "I never should've interacted with that… stupid old man."

Iris let out a frustrated sigh, which was followed by a moment of silence.

"For what it's worth…" Adams said, breaking the silence. "I think the doctor is right."

"Hmm?" Iris turned to Adams, not entirely sure what she meant.

"I don't think you have any more of that Rot or Infosite or 106 fragment or whatever they're calling it inside of you. I know you don't trust Foundation tech, but Anne's been pretty adamant that you're clean. And for as much as I distrust that woman, I trust her judgment on this."

"Oh." Iris looked forward again. "…thanks."

Now it was Adams's turn to look at Iris. In the corner of her eye she could see an expression of mild surprise, which lingered for about a second before Adams faced forward again.

The elevator slowed as it approached Light Containment. After stopping entirely, the silver doors opened to reveal the hallway. Iris froze as her eyes landed on a few skips wandering in the walkway.

"It's alright." Adams said, noticing Iris's tenson. "I'll make sure nothing happens."

Iris turned to Adams, who had lifted part of her jacket to reveal her Pathos Suit underneath it.

Exhaling, Iris faced forward and stepped out into the hall, with Adams following close beside her.

"Who knows about… me?" Iris asked.

"Aside from me, Anne, Han, Leora, Stacey, and appropriate 17 staff? No one. We kept it under the radar to prevent a mass panic in Light." Adams placed a hand on her chin. "Oh, wait, we did tell-"

Adams was cut off as she and Iris nearly slammed into Jackie turning the corner. The three jumped in unison, surprised by the other's appearance.

"Iris!" Jackie spoke first. "You're… you're here."

"Yeah." Iris responded, rubbing her arm. "I am."

The three stood in an awkward silence for a few moments. Iris didn't know what to say, and it was clear to her Jackie didn't either.

"Talk later?" Iris said, offering an out to the silence.

"Yeah…" Jackie responded, side stepping past Iris. "Later."

And with that, the woman made her way down the hall. Iris followed her with her gaze until she rounded another corner.

"She was really worried about you, you know." Adams commented. "Asked if she could go down to Heavy more than once. She was denied, of course, but that didn't stop her from trying."

Iris stared at where Jackie had turned, before continuing her walk down the hall.

"Another thing…" Adams started. "And this is probably obvious, but you're temporarily suspended from Alpha-9."

"I know." Iris whispered in a disappointed tone. "Can't have me turning in the field."

Adams sighed sympathetically. "I still don't think you have any Rot in you. Hell, if it was up to me you'd be back in your MTF blue. But Sophia doesn't want to take any chances, and neither does Ten."

Neither of them spoke as they made their way through the site. After a few turns, they found themselves in front of the cafeteria.

"Hungry?" Adams asked. Iris nodded her head.

The two of them were about to step into the cafeteria when Iris suddenly stopped.

"Wait!" She said. Adams stopped and turned to her. "No meat."

Adams nodded. Since the incident, Iris had avoided meat at all cost. Partly because she feared it would trigger the Rot from taking over again and partly because she just couldn't bear to even look at the stuff anymore.

Together, the two women walked into the room. It was only about a third full, with most anomalies having already finished their meals and leaving to do whatever they were allowed to do in the site. Iris caught a glimpse of Davis standing guard on the wall, his visor preventing her from seeing his face in any meaningful way.

Iris's eyes then landed on a table on the far side of the room. Anne, Leora, Stacey, and Han were all seated at it, eating their meals. Iris stopped moving.

"Adams." She began. "Could you get my food for me?"

Adams followed Iris's gaze and looked at her.

"Yeah."

Without any further acknowledgement, Iris made her way over to the group.

"It was fun while it lasted…" Iris heard Anne say as she got closer. "But… how do I say this?"

"It was really just a one night thing." Han said, picking up where Anne had left off. "I'm glad we did it, and we're still great friends, but let's just say the other half of our beds are gonna be cold for a while if you get what I'm laying down."

Leora frowned and opened her mouth, but stopped as Stacey, who was the first to see Iris, jolted into a tense expression. The others quickly followed Stacey's gaze and landed their eyes on Iris. Leora gave her a small grin while Anne smiled widely.

"Well well well…" Anne said happily. "Look who's back from Heavy! How'd your vacation down to the basement go?"

Iris didn't say anything until she stopped at the table.

"Anne, Leora, Stacey, Han… we all need to talk."

Anne's wide smile and Leora's small grin faded into something more serious. Han, who had been standing in the middle of the table, scurried over to Anne's side. Stacey just continued to stare at Iris with wide, cautious, almost frightened eyes. It was like being face to face with a baby deer. As such, Iris made sure to speak and move slowly to keep from scaring the poor girl.

"First, I just need to say how sorry I am for… everything."

"Iris, it's fine." Leora said. "We know it's-"

"No, it's not fine." Iris rebutted with a tad of harshness. "What you… what I made you all go through that night was something no one should ever experience. Especially you, Stacey." A few sets of eyes looked at the girl. "What happened that night was nothing short of a nightmare and I… I'm sorry for making you all go through that."

"It wasn't you though." Stacey whispered. The other three flinched back with surprise as Iris leaned in.

"What?" Iris asked.

Stacey clear her throat and spoke again louder. "It wasn't you though." The girl pointed to Anne. "She told us that… she used her Infovore abilities to reach out to you but… she couldn't feel you. All she could feel was that… thing. It had complete control over you, which means it was the one who did all those things, not you."

Everyone went silent, which held for a few moments and Iris looked the group over.

"That's the first time she's spoken since that night, by the way." Han said.

Iris let out a sigh.

"Still, I feel like I should apologize. I also wanted to say thank you."

Again Anne's eyebrows raised in surprised. The side of Iris that disliked Anne flinched, reluctant at what she was about to do, but Iris was in too much of a sentimental mood to care.

"Thank you guys for saving me. Seriously. Especially you, Anne. If it wasn't for your quick thinking with the conflux… I'd probably still be infected."

"Aw shucks…" Anne said, waving her hand as a hint of red appeared on her face. "It's nothing."

Iris grimaced a little, the sentimentality chipping a little at Anne's demeanor. Then, she let out a sigh.

"Ok… I'm guessing you all've been told not to tell anyone about the incident, right?"

"Yeah." Leora said. "We need to keep our mouths shut."

"Then let's agree to never mention this again, ok?"

"Agree." Anne said.

"Sure." Leora added.

Stacey nodded.

"Already forgotten." Han quipped. "Just like the night after, right Annie?"

Iris blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You didn't hear?" Leora said, a smile returning to her face. "Anne and Han are dating."

What humble and sentimental emotions Iris was harboring drained from her like a bathtub as the words hit her ears.

"What?!" She said, turning to Anne.

"Hey hey… were dating." Anne corrected. "We just made that clear like, two seconds ago."

"But weren't you also just saying that you'd stay as friends with benefits?"

"Well, yeah. I mean… they don't call him the hand crank for nothing." Anne smiled down at the hand, who himself somehow managed to puff his back hand out to resemble pride.

"Anne!" Iris yelled.

"What?" Anne replied, leaning against the table with that ever so infuriating smug smile. "What happens in the bedroom stays in the bedroom."

"Not if- you can't- you're not allowed-" Iris stuttered, before groaning and stomping off.

"So glad she's back." Iris heard Anne say.

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