953
I had helped Grendel kill the Unnamed Child. It was his turn to help me get the orbs I needed.
He told me that one was being held inside a secret underground government facility outside of Washington D.C. “You shouldn’t have any trouble with it. You’ve got plenty of experience getting through these places, don’t you?” were his words.
Yes, but that experience was from when I was Lisa. Back when I had to worry about inconveniences such as doors. This time, things would be much simpler for me. Or, they would have been, were it not for Grendel’s penchant for bloodbaths.
I should have realized that Grendel wasn’t going to make it clean the moment we warped in by the front entrance of the facility instead of arriving directly at the orb’s location. The entrance was a large steel vault door, guarded by several armed men in uniform. They jumped when we suddenly appeared in front of them, but didn’t raise their guns. That lack of hostility didn’t stop Grendel, and he tore them apart limb by limb. And impressive as that door may have looked, Grendel’s sword cut through it easily.
The interior was similar to the government bunkers I’d gone through before. Eerily similar, in hindsight. Same floor plan and all. If I’d had the chance to think about it, that might have tipped me off to what was coming. However, the guards rushing in response to our break in distracted me a little. They were also armed, but like the ones outside, they didn’t raise their guns. Instead, they just seemed confused.
One started to say, “Ma’a-” but Grendel bit his throat out before he could finish the word. The rest all started shooting Grendel, a response which he seemed to take great amusement in.
I, however, did not come here for fun. I had a goal to reach. If Grendel was going to waste time getting into fights, that wasn’t my problem. I ran on ahead, following the orb’s presence. Ran into a group of guards going the opposite way, and knocked them out before they could do anything. Better they be knocked unconscious by me than killed by Grendel, at least.
Kept running through the halls, fighting or warping past groups of guards and civilians I encountered. The realization of familiarity was starting to sink in. Did all government agencies use the same construction contractor or something?
Speaking of that, which government agency was this? I hadn’t asked Grendel that before coming here. They appeared influential, being able to afford secret bases and armed guards. That they had an orb meant they were one of the paranormal branches. None of the guards had opened fire on me, and in fact, one of them almost called me Ma’am before Grendel killed him. I was starting to think that this might be….
Ran through a door, and saw Grendel just finishing tying Jacob Marchetti to a chair. Yup. This was a Scoobies facility.
“I-330!” Jacob shouted when he saw me, but Grendel slapped him across the face.
“So good of you to join us, Darling!” Grendel said. “I was just-”
“What. The. FUCK. Grendel?” No point in hiding any of my anger here. “You never said we’d be fighting Scoobies.”
“No, but you never bothered to ask. You really should work on not rushing headfirst into the fray just because someone tells you to. It’s not healthy.”
Clenched my fist, and the shadows ripped apart the glove that had been hiding them. “Let him go.”
Grendel pretended to think for a moment, and then cheerfully responded, “No, I don’t think so. I think I’ll just torture him for a bit, and then burn his eyes out of his sockets.”
“Why? What did he ever do to you?”
“To me? Nothing. It’s what he’s done with you. I am a jealous man, after all. The thought of someone else lying with the woman I love is truly reprehensible. It only makes sense that I would seek revenge.”
“So you just decided to target Jacob? Come on, I’ve slept with tons of people!”
“I know. I’ve been paying all of them visits as well. Except Peter, of course. I let Lupine’s men take care of him. But for the others, each of their deaths has been a treasured moment for me.”
My brain slammed into a brick wall there. All… of them? I… I don’t even remember all the people I’d been with. It was never something I put thought into. It was something I did whenever the pain got too much. Just a distraction. And now I was being told that every time, no matter how spontaneous the impulse was, Grendel would later come and kill everyone else involved?
That was it. I didn’t care about how I remembered events transpiring for Past Me. I was going to kill Grendel right there, right then. Fuck causality.
I took a step toward Grendel. And as my foot came down, I felt order being forced upon time.
Grendel’s smile widened as he felt it too. “Ah, looks like they’ve arrived.” No question as to who the “they” were.
“I can kill you before Slender Man or the Newborn arrive.”
“You probably could. Except they’re not coming here. They’re going to destroy the orb. Can you kill me and then run to the orb before they do so?”
“Hell yeah I can,” I started to say, but stopped myself. Because I couldn’t. I have no idea how I managed to teleport the last time I was trapped in this type of time, and I didn’t think I could do it again. And without that option, there would be no time for me to fight Grendel and then grab the orb. It was either save Jacob or save Lisa.
My conscious tells me that I should have debated longer on that decision. But I didn’t have time for that. And I’d already made my choice. I made it back in Louisiana when I had Lisa taken from me, and swore to save her.
Jacob didn’t know what was going on. He couldn’t sense what was about to happen to the place. “I-330, please, help me!” I couldn’t look at him. Turned away and started to run out the door.
Grendel called to me before I left. “You’ll only need two things after getting this orb. One last orb, and a map. Neither should be hard to find. After all, your discovery of them are the second and third post of our blog. Oh, and don’t worry about Mr. Marchetti. I’ll make sure he doesn’t die here. I’ll wait until after he’s played his part in Lisa’s little adventure to order his death.”
Ran out of that room. Pretended I couldn’t hear Jacob calling for me.
The branches were already spreading across the walls of the facility. Tried running faster than them, but their growth kept accelerating. Went through the doors to the facility’s archive section running, and started looking for the orb. Thankfully, the Scoobies seem to have at least some sense of organization going on back there. The orb was in a clear container, which I smashed without any regard to the alarms that sounded as I did so. Looked back to the door I’d come through, and saw the Slender Man ominously walking down the hallway. Alright, not going to take that exit. Luckily that wasn’t the only door into the place. Ran out the other exit, aiming to get out of this facility. Since I now knew it was a Scooby place, I had a good idea of what the layout was. I’d looked over some of the original blueprints for these places, after all.
I wasn’t really paying much attention to getting out of the place. Too distracted. Just ran for the exit, ducking and jumping over the branches that lashed at me. Soon as I got out the door, I warped far, far away.
Four orbs. One left. But first, a detour.
I am going to make Grendel suffer.
I-330
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