Let’s make this quick.
My name is not important, but if you insist, you may call me The Keeper, my job on the other hand is, i work as a cataloger in a national library, but is there wasn’t a catch i wouldn’t be writing this, now would i, i don’t work no desk job here, I’m in the basement, behind 3 blast proof doors and a military grade security system the likes of which none of you have seen before, the likes of which i affectionally call Truesight Archives.
So i catalog… let’s say “Artifacts” i get as much information as i can from them, file it up and depending of what the “Artifact” is i get them stored in a shelf, crate or a vacuum chamber, if its a particularly particular “Artifact” the big guys come and retrieve it and store it god knows where.
So, why am I willingly standing in line for the guillotine by writing all this?
If I’m being honest… I’m not sure, maybe: peace of mind, stress relief, clout chasing, maybe even is all of those to a certain extent, what I’m sure is that it aint for a noble quest like “telling the truth to the masses’’, I’m not that good of a person, you cant be when you are in this line of work.
Alright, enough introductions, let me get for you the first file I transcribed. If I remember correctly, this tape recorder was found by a guy that’s… not around here anymore… it’s one of those old magnetic tape recorders that were really popular in the 90s… or it was 80s?… it don’t matter, here’s what’s on the file:
Object Description: G.E. Tape Recorder
Object ID #256A-G45H-6H49-A5G7
- Contents of the Tape -
The first entry contains the voices of 3 people, the first female voice that has been identified as Jasmine Hale, was 19 at the time of recording, the first male voice has been identified as David Walters, was 19 at the age of recording, the second female voice belongs to the owner of the tape recorder, the voice couldn’t be identified, based on the contents of the entry, it’s safe to assume that the owner of the tape recorder goes by the name of “Niko”, no family name is mentioned in any of the tapes and no records of this person were found during the investigation.
The rest of the contents of the first entry is irrelevant, full transcription will begin starting from the second entry.
- Second Entry:
“Hello?… looks like this is working… shit… Well, I’m in a situation here, it’s been a few days since i last saw anyone really and i feel like I’m running out of options. I was… I’ve been… I really don’t know how to explain it, okay? what i know is that i was going to camp with Joshua and Jasmine, i missed the last step of the stairs leading to our campsite and i… I fell through the floor? that’s the best way i can put it, i fell and ended up in this place, its corridors, lots of corridors and room without rhyme or reason or anything, the wallpaper is this horrible yellow that’s driving me insane, it doesn’t help that the carpet is damp and the only sound i can hear is the hum of the lights… GOD DAMN THE HUM.
I started recording because i felt like I was going insane, minutes melting into hours and hours melting into days and days melting into seconds, my internal clock is fucked and if my wrist watch is working then im not even sure what to think, it says ive been here since the 26th of september, that makes it 10 days, i felt like i have been only 2 days in here and i have eaten half a day worth of supplies. I’m losing it… i… shit…
- Third Entry:
15 days, no sleep, no food, no water since the 10th and I feel like the reality is slipping from my grasp, and the more i try to hold it together the more it hurts to think, existing is exhausting.
But the first log did help a bit, after i was done i felt a little more grounded in reality, i aint sure, but i think this place is trying to drive me insane, i can swear i see things moving on my peripheral vision, i glanced at a wall last time and saw, of god it was moving, like millions of ants on top of a deer carcass, but when i saw it again, it was just a wall, plain, yellow, like every other wall in this condemned place… but i am still alive and breathing, aren’t i?, so that means there’s oxygen here, everything has a logic, a set of rules, a way out.
Back home I only have two friends. I’m not very good at socializing, you see… I am… talking like I’m having a conversation again, well… i’m not good at people and i tend to avoid them, but i like outdoors and science, in both of those everything has a set of rules, i just need to discover those, so, the time of crying is over and i’ve done that plenty, now, it’s the time of action, ill record my findings in the next logs, i just hope i find a way out of here soon… is that’s possible in the first place.
- Fourth Entry:
Alright, so it’s been 22 days, i finally ate a full day worth of food and water so i should have enough for 4 or 5 more days… regular days… but i did discovered something, i made some markings in the wall with a handaxe like im im Pam’s labyrinth and if i walk in a straight line i go back to the start… God knows how long I have been walking in circles without making any kind of progress… if there’s such a thing as progress that is…
All this thinking and testing has kept me from going insane, i think that would have gone insane if i weren’t doing what i’m doing right now, but this also makes me think, how many people have been in this place before me, i know i’m not in kansas anymore, or rather nowhere on earth or maybe even… Well, no use to think about all that, I need to focus, I don’t want to lose it, I can’t lose it, I need to go back, I’m gonna go back.
I’ll try and keep trying everything, something must work, there must be an exit somewhere, somehow, i feel like that’s right.
- Fifth Entry:
I… it’s been 30 days, i wonder if someone besides those two still remembers me… no, i cant keep thinking like that, i need to move forwards and never… never… wait… is that wall a different color?…
I thought I was gonna… I don’t know, run towards any kind of change after a month of yellow walls and damp carpet, but I’m… I’m absolutely terrified… i feel like my legs want to run away and run towards it and just fall limp all at the same time, i need some time to think but at the same time i’m running on borrowed time, i feel like if i blink everything around me will change.
My eyes are getting dry, my legs move on their own and my decision is already taken.
- Sixth Entry:
I had no idea how I could know.
When i got in this room, i had no idea a wooden stool would feel so good, it’s a damn wooden circle in 4 legs but after a… month of non-stop walking i feel like I’m in heaven right now, as soon as i sat down all the strain i couldn’t feel but my body was enduring hit me at the same time, i was too tired to even lift a finger, dear god did i slept, after waking up my whole body felt stiff and had to fall asleep again after painfully eating some of my rations, even now i still feel like a newborn learning to stand up and walk, my whole body feels stiff and limp at the same time, like an old ragdoll.
Apart from this stool, there isn’t much here, which is weird to say because 3 stools and a desk table is not a lot of furniture, but after all this time, those make the atmosphere here alien and almost overwhelming…
I’m scared of myself, I had a thought, I wanted to go back to those empty hallways.
- Seventh Entry:
Fell asleep again, I need to get those thoughts out of my head.
After searching a bit on the file cabinet i found an official looking document, and papers so old that crumbled when i picked them up, i really cant tell whats on those papers but it kinda seems like this es from hundreds of years ago, from the era of the frontier, maybe even older, i can understand just a few of the handwritten words, something about hellhounds, ehh… purgatory i think, redemption and trespassing for some reason, i gotta keep those in mind.
If I’m honest here, I don’t think this is hell or purgatory, but… it does feel like it.
There’s those thoughts again, but there’s no time, the clock seems to make sense in this room and this room alone, and the clock does affect my rations so… silver linings about the hellhole out there i think.
Right, the other documents, those are the most important documents i have seen in my entire life, a mix between a guide and rulebook of this entire place, but as my luck demands the information in it is… kinda useless right now, most of it is what to first do if you arrive here and what items to bring or have in hand at all times, but im past that point already, the don’t panic and stay put rule could’ve been useful several days ago, for real, who made this thing?.
On second thought the other document was the important one, it explains the mechanics of this thing called phasing that makes you fall through solid matter, which now that i’m saying it out loud makes me sound insane and i probably am for believing this thing may work and risking a contusion attempting it, but hey, don’t it sound leagues better than starving to death?
It does state that this is no exit, it’s just a way to get to a different “Level”, you know, like in a building, does that mean I’m in some sort of construction? I mean, I know I’m inside a place but I… don’t understand…
Well, that’s for way smarter people than me to crack their heads about, right now I’m gonna go crack my head against that wall over there, so dear recorder, you’ll be hearing about me again, very soon… I still can’t believe that I’m gonna do this…
-Eight Entry:
Against all odds, it did kinda work after a few tries, i mean, i’m kinda bleeding quite a bit and bruised all over, i did manage to bandage it by sacrificing a shirt, even if all the cuts and most of the bruises are in my head the friction burns on my arms and legs from sliding down the wall are by far the most painful, and that’s not even talking about the actual phasing process.
During the actual being inside a wall thing, it felt numb, like my whole body stopped existing, i was just a consciousness floating in space, i may have thrown up, but i can’t really be sure, i had the feeling that i was doing that but the disconnection from my body was impossible to overcome, but when i tried to overcome it i could feel the entire space i was trapped in and at the same time everything was just feeling… blank.
Focusing to move my body felt wrong, maybe the contusion played a part in it, focusing on my body felt like trying to feel all the items in just by feeling the vibrations in the floor those made when they fell into place eons ago, but that never happening and yet its happened every second and forever…
No, that’s too much, my brain isn’t wired to think that way, just focus on the here and now.
I’ve been walking for a bit while trying to put all those thoughts in order and this place… hold on, i just realized something, this is the first entry in which i feel mostly sane, anchored to my body and in control of my thoughts in actions, i guess existential horror and dread does wake you up, or maybe it was the contusion, hell, maybe it was the back to back naps, i don’t know.
Right, this hellhole again, well… it can’t get worse than damp carpet, this place at least has a concrete floor, it still has a lot of puddles and the air is heavy with moisture, hell, this parking lot or warehouse or mix of both has a low hanging fog like its a swamp or something, i’m surprised that the concrete isn’t filled to the brim with mold.
It does feel weird, doesn’t it? just a few days, or at least i think those were days i was a rambling mess trying to grasp any kind sanity i had left and now i’m here, joking about my situation, don’t worry recorder, i know out-absurding the absurd is just a band aid on a broken leg, but it should buy me enough time to at least come up with a plan, or at least for me to get my bearings on whatever this place is.
But right now let’s start with the simpler problems, hunger, maybe I did vomit after all because with this meal I’m about to have that would put me half way through my foodstuff and my water is… not looking good. I can try doing the thing again, but rather than that, lets try and recover first, if i do have a contusion i would rather like for it to not to be a permanent issue.
I guess it’s that time again to do what I do best and keep walking forward. I’ll be sure to record when something happens.
-Ninth Entry:
I see crates.
-Epilogue:
“Who puts the epilogue of the whole thing right after the first chapter?”
A dead man walking does and I would rather have these words heard sooner rather than later or most likely never, I hope it’s never.
Alright, remember the “I don’t know why im doing this” debacle?
Well, during the writing of all this i did figure it out, and i don’t mean this chapter, i mean the whole thing, to put it simply, if you are reading this, i’m already dead.
A dead man’s switch for a dead man walking, pretty sweet if you ask me, so yeah, this ain’t no more than my revenge for letting me go and then hunting me, so, i rigged several computers all over the globe all linked to each other in a chain like fashion and the primer being an inconspicuous blog about cats.
of course i have many failsafes and the computers currently rigged to post are on the hundreds, if there’s a weird spot on your wooden floor or an abandoned house that mysteriously has electricity around you may wanna check that out, you may score a new laptop, or you rather not, it’s most likely junkies.
Well, this was fun, this whole writing and rigging process probably was the only recreational thing i have done for years now, so i’m happy with how it turned out. But right now, I feel that the time to face the music is getting near.
And i regret nothing.