The Facility

Not sure where 330 intended to drive to after we left that building. Perhaps she just wanted to put a lot of distance between it and us.

About an hour of driving later: “Taking the scenic route, I see.”

Grendel was sitting in the back seat of the car. “You’ll want to take a left up here.”

330 kept driving, past the turn. “I thought you were waiting until 9.”

“I got impatient. I simply cannot see how you’re able to stand sitting by and waiting for things to happen in order. It’s maddening.”

He snapped his fingers, and I felt more pain than ever before shooting through my head, then to the rest of my body. Don’t know what happened next; when I opened my eyes, I was lying on the sidewalk, the car was parked next to me, it was nighttime, my face was covered in dried blood, and 330 was holding a laughing Grendel by the throat.

“Why,” 330 shouted at his face, “the fuck. Did you. Do that?”

Between his laughter, Grendel managed to say, “Told you…. I was impatient!” He kept laughing as 330 threw him onto the ground and ran over to me. Pulled me back to my feet, while asking if I felt okay.

“I feel like someone hit every part of my body with a sledgehammer…. What happened?”

“Grendel made it 9 at night. And moved us. You’re lucky…. Most people don’t survive being forcibly thrown through time and space…. Sorry… that I wasn’t paying more attention. Might have been able to stop him….”

“No you wouldn’t have!” Grendel cheerfully said as he got back to his feet. “Now, I believe it is time for us to accomplish the thing which we came here to do. As you can see, I have brought us to the threshold of our target.”

This target appeared to be the local police station.

“Interesting, this building’s history.” Grendel said. “The original station was burned down in a mysterious fire a few years back. But thanks to the donations of several extremely generous anonymous philanthropists, they built a new one on the site of the old. Quite a large number of construction workers were hired for the project. And the amount of ground which was displaced far exceeded what would be necessary for a simple reconstruction.”

“The facility is…. Hidden inside the police station?” I asked.

“Hidden underneath it, to be completely exact. Because the government has a hard on for putting things in top secret bunkers.”

“Grendel….” 330 growled. “What are you planning to do about the police in there?”

“Slaughter them all. It’s only what they deserve, for daring to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Then he laughed some more; whether at my shock or 330’s anger, I couldn’t tell. “Oh, don’t give me those looks. They’re all so deep in Lupine’s pockets that no one will notice they’re gone. And even if you were feeling particularly moralistic today, there’s no way you could stop me. Now my cannon fodder should be arriving at any moment, so I need take my leave.” He vanished again. A few seconds later, a semi-truck sped down the road past us, to the police station. The impact tore through the doors, and Grendel’s thugs leapt out into the chaos. Gunfire ensued.

“Should we try to stop them?” I asked. “Or…?”

The expression on 330’s face was that of a battle; you could see the conflict tearing inside her. “No.” She spat out at last. “This is our best chance. If we can, we get any civilians we run across out, but we focus on getting to our goal.” She held a pistol to me. “Take this.”

Didn’t take it. “Sorry, but I… don’t think I could actually shoot another person with that….”

“This isn’t for shooting people.” She said, putting the gun in my hand. “If we’re going inside the same building as Grendel when he’s in a killing mood, I want you to go in armed.”

Well that’s different. Took the gun, and ran after 330 to the wrecked entrance. The truck had pretty thoroughly smashed it; glass doors might not have been the best construction decision when they rebuilt the place.

I… had to stop when I got inside. I’ve seen dead people before. Mostly at family funerals, back when I was still going to them. Then there was that fun with the skeletons in the last research facility we went through. But this was the first time I’ve seen people who had just been killed. Violently killed. Everyone who had been waiting in the lobby had been shot, and the officer at the desk had been crushed by the truck, his bulletproof glass offering little protection. There was blood everywhere… and it only got worse the further we went in.

Tried to keep my eyes on the back of 330’s head. Worked for most of it. Not for all. Sometimes I couldn’t help but look. Like when we passed someone who’s chest had been torn open, ribs splayed apart and organs displayed…. Definitely not a gun that did that.

Trying not to throw up while running isn’t fun.

Followed the trail of bodies to the evidence room. What was left of the evidence room. I’m assuming that the gaping hole in the wall was originally supposed to be a secret passage. Don’t know how it got torn open like that; nothing less than explosives should have been able to cause that much damage, but I hadn’t heard anything blowing up.

Beyond the opening was a concrete tunnel sloping downwards. There were also several dead guards; definitely not police officers. These were dressed in the urban camo that Lupine’s CIA wore. One of Grendel’s thugs had been shot as well; he was still alive, groaning in pain. 330 kicked him as she walked by.

“Grendel should keep most of the security busy.” She said, walking down the tunnel. “He’ll also likely lead us to wherever the artifacts are being stored. We then need to find an alternative exit from this place.”

“Alternative exit?”

“Yeah. No way this is the only way into of this place. It’s too small for one, and secondly, it would be difficult to move cargo in without causing suspicion in such a populated part of the city. There’s got to be an entrance for supplies, and that’s how we’ll get out. Unless you want to deal with going back through the police station after the local enforcement’s had time to recover.”

Once we reached the end of the tunnel, the facility looked much the same as the last we’d been in. Except newer, and with fresh bodies and bullet holes instead of skeletons and insects. There’d been a lot of fighting, with two more thugs dead. The lights had been switched to a dull red color, and I could hear a low siren sounding at regular intervals. Most of the bodies were guards, shot during the firefight. There were unarmed corpses as well, probably the people staffing the place.

“How are we going to follow Grendel?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t be too hard.”

Looked where 330 was pointing, to the far end of the hall. A pile of bodies had been stacked there, each mutilated with limbs torn apart, brains spread across the ground, bones snapped into fragments…. The blood from the bodies had been used to draw an arrow pointing down a left branch, and the words, “THIS WAY SWEETHEART” underneath.

Followed that arrow, and then the next arrow we came across at another pile of bodies. Didn’t see any other people for a while. Not living ones, at least; until one of the arrows led us through an office. Sitting at his desk, seemingly oblivious to the two other bodies in the room, was a man. He had a smile fixed on his face, and kept looking through this folder. Don’t think he was actually reading anything in it; he’d just flip through until the end, turn back to the beginning, and start again.

I almost grabbed his arm, thinking maybe I could get his attention and tell him to escape, but 330 told me to “Leave him.”

“But-“

”Leave him.”

Wasn’t the sort of order I could ignore, much as I wanted to. Didn’t really have an opportunity for questioning it anyway, as one of Grendel’s men stumbled into the office. Recognized him as the one called Rock. He looked wounded; blood was coming from his arm, though not enough to stop him. Rock glared at the two of us and shoved by, but when he saw the man with the folder, what could almost be a smile appeared on his face. He raised his gun, aiming it at the man….

“Shit,” 330 said when she saw what Rock was doing. “Run!”

Looked back once as we fled. As the man’s body fell, a shadow leapt out of his corpse, lunging for Rock. We turned a corner, couldn’t see what happened next, but I could hear Rock screaming.

Not longer later, 330 stopped us before we ran into the middle of a firefight. Grendel’s men had barricaded themselves in one room, the guards in the opposite room, and the path we needed to take was between them. That sure looked like a fun obstacle.

Then a woman came walking down the hall, straight towards the crossfire. Her expression looked frozen, same as the man in the office. Uncertainty flickered on it for a brief moment as she neared the fight, but was gone instantly. With unflinching stride, she walked right into the gunfire. The guards stopped shooting once they saw her; the thugs didn’t. She was killed in seconds. As the bullets hit her, three more humanoid shadows flew out of her body, and towards the thugs. Screams of pain started, and the gunfire stopped. 330 and I ran through the cleared hallway, towards one last door, which Grendel had helpfully marked with “RIGHT HERE DARLING”

Just as we reached the door, Meatshield was thrown out. Part of his jaw was missing, and his left arm had been cut clean off. Following him walked Grendel, who, judging by the holes in is body, had been shot several times. Shame he can heal. In his left hand, he was holding Meatshield’s arm, which he… took a bite out of. Those sharp teeth of his crunched through the bone easily. And in his right hand… was a sword. That looked like it was made of fire.
A sword. Sword made of fire.
A flaming sword.
Grendel had a flaming sword.
What the fuck.

He began to speak, spewing out chewed pieces of Meatshield’s arm as he did. “Look at it!” He held up the sword. “It’s PERFECT!” Brought down the sword on Meatshield’s leg, slicing through it easily. “It’s even better than I imagined it would be!” More slashes, cutting apart Meatshield’s limbs as he cried in pain.

“Grendel!” 330 yelled.

He stopped. “Oh, very well dear.” The sword went straight through Meatshield’s face, ending his cries. “I just got so excited! This place! It’s wonderful! Have you seen the Nightlander Stalked? Genius! What better job for one tormented by the Nightlanders than that of a bureaucrat? And whenever an intruder interrupts them, it’s a built in defense! You must hand it to Lupine, he certainly was inspired when he came up with that.”

“This is the storage room where we’ll find the artifacts?”

“Oh, yes, this is certainly a storage room containing artifacts.”

Even I could tell that was a vague as hell answer. Didn’t slip by 330 either. “Grendel, give me a straight answer.”

“I would, but look at the time! I really must be going. Enjoy the speech! He’s been spending days working on it, and I don’t mean that figuratively!” Grendel vanished.

“What did he mean by that?” I asked.

“We’re going to find out.” 330 walked through the door, as I followed.


The room was empty. Rows of shelves, crates, racks, but with nothing on any of them.

“Hello, I-330.” A voice came from a speaker system. Lupine’s. “It would appear I have underestimated you once again. My assumption had been that increased security would be enough to prevent further disruptions from you, only for me to be called with the alarming claim that you were singlehandedly wiping out one of my research facilities.”

“Singlehandedly?” I asked, but 330 shushed me, letting Lupine continue.

“Thankfully, we had moved most of our valuable inventory before you chose to attack. Of course by now it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that you are determined to continue your interference. In which case, I suppose that it is only polite for me to let you know what it is you’re interfering with. Save us all some trouble in the end.” 330 motioned for us to leave the room. The sirens had stopped in the halls, leaving only Lupine’s voice to echo through the red lit corridors. “As you’ve no doubt gathered from your readings, this ‘suited demon,’ obviously an allusion to the Slender Man, was from a parallel universe to ours, one doomed to destruction. He escaped through a tear in that universe, leading to ours. I intend to be the one who creates that tear.”

There was a freshly made blood arrow on the wall, with the directions, “THIS WAY TO SEE THE GREAT EGRESS.” I might have found that amusing if I hadn’t seen the bodies Grendel had used to make that nearby.

Lupine was still talking. “I expect you’re wondering why I’m spending this much energy to summon a being who’s already here. The answer is simple: the Slender Man does not exist in a linear chronology. From the moment which he is summoned, he exists through all time in that universe, both prior to and after that actual point of summoning. Which is also the reason I have no fear in telling you any of this. That the Slender Man exists in our universe is proof that I will succeed. I could tell you the exact time and location of the planned ritual, and you would still be unable to do a thing to stop me! His very existence is proof already of my victory!” Then he started laughing. Kinda creepy.

No more sounds of fighting. Not even screams. We hadn’t seen any living people since Grendel.

“Of course you’re wondering why I could make it my goal to summon this being. And to people with narrow views of the world, it must seem like madness. But, to a man with vision like me… it is the only course of action this organization could take! For decades, we spent billions of dollars trying to combat these ‘Fears.’ And for all those efforts, we have accomplished nothing.”

Big door up ahead. Grendel had been polite enough to mark it as the exit. Not polite enough to clean up the mess he’d left while marking it.

“But what if we had a Fear on our side? What if we had a Fear under our control? Imagine it: The Slender Man, working for me. At last, we could make progress in this struggle! At last….”

I’m guessing he kept going for another few hours. I didn’t hear it. 330 led the way through that door, into the basement of a warehouse. Ended up not being too far from where we first found Grendel, though there was still no sign of him.

Now I just have to wait for 330 to figure out what we’re going to do next….

-Lisa