Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a quiet evening, it was Saturday so the family was getting ready to go out and get drunk at some bar or sleep and then spend the morning listening to the parish priest in church or something like that.
The air was fresh and you couldn't feel the wind at all, perfect for sleeping
Too bad you're a cop (as the street kids used to say very rudely) who's going to wake up his favorite detective to take him to hunt down a thief he's been looking for for a long time
As you approach the door you knock several times and after a few minutes the figure of a sleepy man opens the door
It takes him a while to reconnect to the world and as soon as he looks at you he knows he'll be busy that night
George C: Sir you need to get dressed immediately, I apologize if I'm bothering you at this time but it's urgent.
Handerson was spotted in the forest trying to hide-
William M: I understand George, the others?
George C: They are in the wagon, the inspector is waiting for us.
Time after~
And here you are in the middle of the night with low quality flashlights seeing every trace of the man
You certainly hoped to spend that Saturday differently
???:The tracks seem to go in circles.
Describe one of your companions by pointing to the mud marks left on the ground
???:He won't have gone far, with that broken leg it's already long enough that he isn't thrown somewhere panting like a dog.
The other replies laughing and proudly showing his gun
You look at them perplexed and then turn to Murdoch and the inspector, hoping for some more decent ideas
George C: Don't you think he ran away?
William M: No, he's somewhere planning some way to screw us.
Don't lose sight of the group and warn if you see anything suspicious.
George C: Ok...
Don't you think they exaggerated when we shot them earlier?
You ask hoping not to seem sympathetic towards the criminal
Thomas B: Well, we certainly don't lose it like that.
William M: But you're right, let's hope we don't have to call the-
???:HEY!
You leave your conversation for later and see your companions pointing to something above you, a figure
You can see her among the foliage, you can't make out her face but before you understand what's happening something falls
An oval object that breaks instantly, it takes you a few seconds (and Murdoch's screams) to realize it was a beehive
You are attacked (and by "you" I mean the inspector) and chaos ensues within seconds
Thomas B:STOP HANDERSON, HE'S RUNNING AWAY!
Order the man prey to the bees
George C:And you?
William M: We'll be fine, run!
You decide to leave them and start chasing the man through the forest together with the other three agents
Also accompanying you is the rain which seems to have decided to start right now and is causing some to fall (rather pathetic) to the ground
Luckily (or bad luck as we will see later) you quickly manage to have a clear proximity to the criminal
George C: Mr. Josef Handerson!
Stop right now, I'm armed and I'm not afraid to shoot you!
It wouldn't be appropriate given his condition.
You try to look threatening but your little breath doesn't help (and your face, you look like a drug addict)
The man doesn't respond, ignoring you and continuing his run
George C: "What is he trying to do?"
You ask yourself as you notice the path you are taking that leads back towards the park
Suddenly Josef throws himself towards the other side and while you try to understand the reason for the move you crash into a tree
It wouldn't be a big deal, you'd just get hurt and curse some saint (If you were someone else probably)
Only in your case everything goes black, but you are still conscious...
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It takes you several minutes to recover from the evening
And other several to understand that you are no longer in the forest
George C: Damn...
Hmm?
Boys? Where... Where are you?
You ask yourself as you look at the surroundings that are too yellow for your liking
You are in a room, completely yellow with terrible dirty yellow wall paper
The floor is also covered with dirty and rather moldy dark gray carpet which gives you a feeling of disgust
Not to mention the buzzing lights that seem to scream "no one has fixed us for ages"
Yep, he wasn't in the forest anymore
George C: Is anyone there?!
Do you hear me!!
Oh my God where have I ended up? There's no way I magically teleported somewhere else!
What is this place anyway? It looks like a house that no one has lived in for years.
Panic reaches you as expected while the thought begins to appear in your mind that perhaps you are only dreaming
It must be like this, there are no other explanations, you are just dreaming!
All you need to do is find a door somewhere and you will wake up
There's no one around, the only sound you can hear is a loud buzz of fluorescent lights and your footsteps making their way through those corridors that seem to last forever
In fact, it didn't take you long to understand that you were in a sort of infinite labyrinth of rooms that were all the same, something that caused you worse anxiety than the previous one.
George C: "Who would have created such a thing?"
You think to yourself, looking fearfully at the same walls
It can't clearly be human work, maybe aliens?
At least when you meet Murdoch again you'll tell him you were right about the aliens
You continue your exploration of your surroundings, which seemed not to change an inch and gave you a sense of imprisonment in something that the human mind cannot understand.
George C: Is there anyone...?
You Repeat that phrase in a broken voice which will probably accompany you throughout the journey
Huh?
Your foot accidentally kicks something away, a... Water bottle?
You pick it up gently and examine it, it wasn't normal water though, it was-
George C: Almond water?
Does that mean there's someone here, just where will they be?
You ask yourself, your dreams really strange
You decide to take it with you as you notice something else, but this time on a wall
A writing made with red liquid, rather scribbled on the spot which almost tells you like a threat
"Beware the Beast"
George C:What do they mean by that?
You think as you notice more bloodstains leading to a remote corner of the area
You approach slowly and notice that they are not so much stains but footprints
Might as well follow them, right? Maybe you'll find the exit!
But as soon as you turn the corner you see to your horror that no, it's not an exit
A sprawling body is what you find, leaning against the wall as if it were resting from a long run
You could clearly see the flesh torn with inhuman force and the organs left on the ground, it almost makes you want to vomit from the smell of rotting flesh that emanates.
However, the thing that surprises you the most is the clothing of the poor unfortunate person:
One all yellow with a gas mask, it made him look like some kind of exterminator
You run away even more panicked than before, your heart is pounding as you think about the words on the wall
You could really become the next one :)
Without any warning you hear a sort of grunting, far away of course, but audible
He found you
You don't care to see what the creature looks like, the only thing that matters to you is the sound of fast footsteps trying to reach you and how fast YOU can go instead
You have to find a way to wake up now
Run again, with the unhealthy addition that you are now the prey, not the other way around
Karma can be a bitch sometimes
George C: "Oh god oh god oh god!"
These are the words that echo in your head as you pray to God to spare your life
Oh at least, to make your death less painful
When you are cornered you notice a small staircase leading to a hole in the wall, without thinking you look for safety there, hoping that whatever is behind you doesn't know how to use the stairs.
In the end, with the little strength you have left you enter and end up between the previous area and the new one
You look back as you go through that little tunnel and see the face of the creature that was hunting you
It's... Ok you don't understand what the hell you're looking at, a black thing with a mouth?
Some kind of mass of black threads looking at you like you just stole its dinner?
It tries to grab you with its long thin hand, and at some point it succeeds, at least until you squirm and trample the other on it, causing you to sprain and the beast to make blood-curdling screams.
George C:What the hell are you?!
GO AWAY!
It's the useless words you say to that thing as you fall to the other side
At least you won't have any problems for a while.
You gasp and look at the ceiling, realizing that maybe that dream was too real to be a dream
That annoying fluorescent light again...
You stay in that position for a while, you have to recover energy after that, and your leg wasn't in any better shape, now it was stained with blood which made you understand the probable scar it will leave
That was really karma
After a few minutes you try to get up and look around, everything was the same again
Same dirty carpet
Same horrible lights
The yellow wallpaper
The door behind you with the exit sign
the-
-
-
-
Wait what?
You observe for a few seconds in silence what you can see by turning your head, still in disbelief
You get up as if you had received the best news in the world and head painfully towards it
You can finally get out of that bad dream and return to reality where the detective's reproaches for not being able to catch Josef probably await you.
You much prefer that
You open the door and everything goes black again
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Except that in front of you there isn't the tree from before where you crashed, there's a gray corridor with pipes attached to the walls and those fucking lights with now less buzz but more brightness
Did I seriously think that was the end of it?
Ah! You should see your face, it went from this to this in a second
....
Constable?
Say something?
Come on, express an opinion on the experience, how do you rate it?
George C:....What the fuck-
Well, at least it's something....