Search and Rescue

So morning came, and still no Elise, Sol, or Sylvia. My night was restless, as The Grotesque was bothering me once again…..I’d really rather not talk about my nightmare, however. I might need to get one of those Native American dreamcatchers. I guess they could ward of the Grotesque. Perhaps?

Either way, Mistress waking me up at 6am was a welcome thing, considering the nature of my dreams. “Wake up, Vassal, I need you for something.” Directly following that was me rather ungracefully falling out of bed via rolling.

I got up and got dressed, and ended up talking to Mistress while I was waiting for my toast to come out of the toaster. “So what’s the agenda today?” I asked.

“That’s the thing, there really isn’t one. But I have a mission for you.” Mistress replied. “I need you to go find the three who went for the Quiet. Sol and Sylvia took a random car we had lying around the lot, and Elise took her car. I’ll have a Doll drive you to the place in his pickup truck.”

“Alright.” I replied, taking my toast from the toaster and spreading some margarine on it. “But how do I know where to find them?”

“That’s just it.” Mistress replied. “We triangulated Elise’s last call she made to us before she disappeared off the radar. You’re going to sunny Antarctica!” She grinned.

“Oh, fuck me…” I muttered.

“Only if you didn’t want it.” Mistress replied.

So I was driven by a rather cute female Doll. She was really pretty, with deep green eyes that proved there was still some life left in her. She wasn’t much conversation, but she was something to look at. I get the feeling my staring bothered her a little, but since she made no visible reaction against it, I assumed otherwise.

We drove the garage door in the City that apparently led to Antarctica, and there is was. Fucking Icy Desert, it was. Fortunately, there was no blizzard, and there were two sets of tire tracks leading away in the faraway distance. Naturally, we followed them in Sol’s pickup truck.

 We drove for miles, and I couldn’t help wondering why Sylvia and Sol went this way. I mean, it was easy enough to tell Elise followed the tracks, but what did the other two have guiding them?

Finally, after about an hour of driving, we came upon an absolutely massive building. It had a large sign in front of it that was partially covered by Snow, but it looked like “T  ogr  hy G  er  Lo t  uil in ” and had caution tape all over the door. I saw Elise’s car but the other one was nowhere to be seen.

We went inside, and felt a powerful suction. I stopped, went back outside, took off my trilby, and put it in the truck. I went back inside, and we realized the door was coming from behind a heavy iron door. We opened it with a lot of effort, and were instantly pulled inside.

There was this scaffolding type thing, and in the center……nothing. An empty void, that was pulling everything it could in. I grabbed one hand onto the nearest beam, and grabbed the Doll with my other hand. Elise, Sol, and Sylvia were nowhere to be seen.

I felt my grip weaken, and one of my feet was swept off the scaffolding by the suction. I looked at the Doll. She shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. She obviously hated being a Doll. She grabbed my hand with her others, and made an uncurling motion with her own. I let go of her. For a moment, she just kind of hung there, smiling. “Thank you…” She whispered, and proceeded to be ripped to shreds in front of me. My time as a Doll has desensitised me to death, especially in the past month, but that one….that hurt.

On the plus side, I was able to get my grip back, and I felt someone else grab my left hand. It was Elise. She was standing behind a large metal box-like object just around the corner. She pulled me in, and I was feeling a little weird, being out of the suction. Sol and Sylvia were there as well. “Daniel?!” Elise was stunned. “Why the fuck did you come here?!”

“Mistress ordered me to.” I replied. “And frankly, my dear, I wanted to come to save you guys.” I chuckled. Elise hugged me.

“You idiot.” She laughed. “Now we’re all gonna have to die together!”

“Don’t intend of it. Not the day before my birthday.” I replied. “Also, Sol, I broke Luna out of the hospital. She’s at the Tower, healing up quite nicely.

Sol grinned. “Cool, dude. Also, I got the info, now we just gotta get outta here.”

I looked around for something we could use. There was some rope. “Anyone here good at Lassoing?” I asked, grabbing the rope and making a lasso of it.

“I lived in Texas before Vegas.” Sol replied, taking the lasso. “I came in second in the state-wide Junior Lassoing competition when I was 11.”

“Good enough for me.” I replied, letting him have it.

He started it up, spinning it, ready to throw it. “What’m I aiming at?” I asked.

“Straight shot to the door.” I responded. “Any of that metal junk over there, so long as it’s close to the door and secure.”

Sol threw the lasso, and it……immediately got sucked off course and into the Quiet.

“I really don’t know what I was expecting.” I said.

We all looked around. The metal box looked to be once some kind of storage closet.

Sylvia was kind of playing with things. She took two markers out of a drawer, attached them, like people do to make swords when they’re little kids. She stuck it out in front of the Quiet, probably wanting to see the one on the end get sucked away into the vortex of nothingness. Nothing happened.

“Hold up, Sylvia, lemme see those.” I said, taking them from her. I attached another four to them, and stuck it out in front of the vortex. It didn’t even bend.

“What the fuck are those markers made of?!” Sol yelled.

“Failed product #72129: Indestructible Markers.” Elise sighed.

“This was once a research place.” I replied. “Maybe this was something they were trying to make something else with it, and they failed?” I asked, attaching all the markers to each other.

“I notice something!” Sylvia’s fragmented English rang out. “There is button on wall! Maybe it do something!” I may hate what happened to her, but damn, her speech patterns are absolutely adorable.

Between Elise and I, we were able to aim it just right, so that it pressed against the button, once we extended it across the suction area, which was only like, 10 feet, but still. It was a lot farther moving against the suction, which was how I was able to get over to the beam while being pulled toward the void. When it pressed the button, the door out swung open, against the vortex. We left the markers braced between the edge of the metal box and the button, so it acted as a railing, the suction holding it in place.

It was a long, arduous journey, but we all made it, after about an hour. We exited that building as fast as we could, getting to the cars. I ended up traveling back with Sol in his truck, while Elise and Sylvia took her car. It felt good to have my trilby back securely on my head.

We drove back to the Tower and we made it. Thank the existing gods. I would post the Quiet analysis, but sleep. Sleep with Elise. Sleep is good. Good night everyone.

~Thompson out.