Chapter Text
Both Charlie and Valerie almost run back to the lobby, eager to get out.
Charlie gets to the door first, and Valerie is startled by a high-pitched, terrified scream. She very quickly figures out why.
“¡Puta madre!” she exclaims, eyes wide as she takes a step back, noticing the giant spiderweb covering the doors. “What the fuck kinda spider made that?” (She can almost hear a response - a whispered me…, but she’s sure she just imagined it.)
She doesn’t have time to think much about it, because soon Charlie is in her arms, clutching her for dear life.
“What is happening?!” she whispers. “I’m scared!”
Valerie lets Charlie hug her for a little while, before she lets go and pulls a knife out of her skirt pocket.
“...Why do you have a knife?” Charlie asks.
“I don’t like being unarmed. And it might help us right now.”
She walks towards the spiderweb, trying not to shudder when she gets close. Upon further impression, Valerie finds that it’s absolutely covered in something pink and sticky-looking, that smells oddly like sugar. As soon as the blade of the knife touches the substance, however, the metal starts dissolving. Valerie instantly drops the knife. It falls to the floor with a clang! that seems even louder in the empty lobby.
“What the fuck is going on in here?!” she exclaims, shaking her head in frustration. “We can’t go outside now!”
“...I’m really scared now,” Charlie murmurs. “But!” she continues, a little too loudly, “I’m sure we’ll find a way out of here! There’s got to be some kind of back door, right?”
“I fucking hope so,” Valerie grumbles.
“Okay! Good! Great! Now we just gotta find it!” Charlie says, every word more frantic and loud than the other.
“Shh! You’re gonna alert someone!” Valerie replies, putting her hands on Charlie’s shoulders to ground her.
They haven’t seen anyone, but it’s now very clear that they aren’t alone.
“You’re right,” Charlie whispers. “But we have to find the back doors. I don’t know where they are though, and it’s a pretty big studio…”
“Well, we don’t really have any other solution… That weird spiderweb’s blocking our way,” Valerie says, picking her knife back up - even though the tip is damaged, it’s still functional and sharp enough to be useful. “We know that the ink path leads to the conference room… We’ve already explored there, so let’s try another corridor, okay?”
Charlie nods, and her girlfriend takes her by the hand to lead her toward the closest corridor. Oddly enough, most of the lights are broken, and the ones that work keep flickering.
Valerie yelps and almost jumps away when a card whizzes through the air, planting itself in one of the walls. Carefully, Valerie takes the card and examines it.
It’s an Ace of Hearts, with a message hastily scrawled on - “You ain’t going anywhere.”
“What the fuck?!” Valerie exclaims. “Alright, someone’s watching, clearly. So whoever the fuck you are, show yourself!” she calls, grip tightening on her knife.
Another card flies through the air, so close to Valerie’s cheek that it leaves a stinging cut, blood dripping a little. (Are card edges supposed to be this sharp?) This time, the message on it just reads “ You sure?” .
When she sees two yellow, catlike eyes glowing somewhere further into the corridor, Valerie just grabs Charlie’s wrist and runs. (Why is she only now noticing that there are red feathers on the floor?)
“Where are we going?!” Charlie asks.
“I don’t know! Far away!” Valerie replies, heart beating frantically.
She’s not sure where they’re going, either. (Whatever she saw in that corridor is after them, she’s sure -) When she sees a flight of stairs, she hurries up, her girlfriend in tow.
They stumble into the nearest room, out of breath. Immediately, Valerie slams the door behind them. They’ve apparently entered some kind of projection room, given the huge, blank screen and the empty seats. It’s almost entirely dark, save for the glow of the screen and two -yet again- weak, flickering lights. Oddly enough, there’s also a small radio lying around on the floor.
“So… We’re not alone,” Charlie says awkwardly, sliding down the door and sitting on the floor.
“No. And whatever’s in there wants to pick a fight. I’d give them one if they’d just show themselves!”
“Yeah… Oh, you’ve got a cut on your cheek, though,” Charlie remarks, getting up from the floor and taking a handkerchief from her handbag. She wipes the blood from Valerie’s cheek and gives her a worried look.
“What do you think we should do?” she asks.
“Not sure,” Valerie answers, pensively tugging at a strand of her hair.
“We probably should stay here until it’s safer!” Charlie suggests.
“Maybe… Uh, are you feeling what I’m feeling?” Valerie whispers, realizing that someone is watching them.
She doesn’t know who, she doesn’t know from where, all she knows is that they’re being watched.
“Like someone’s looking at us? Yeah.”
Valerie’s grip tightens on her knife when she hears the radio start to crackle.
Well, hello there!
“What-?” Charlie murmurs, blinking in confusion. “Oh! The radio! It’s coming from the radio!”
So Morningstar’s little girl is quite bright, isn’t she? Well, that’s great. But, where are my manners! My name is Alastor. You may remember me from a certain little show…
As it turns out, Valerie does think she remembers. The name makes her think of fluffy deer ears and antlers, and…
“Charlie? Charlie, wasn’t Alastor…?”
“A character my dad originally created? Yeah.”
You’d be quite right! Alastor says, his laugh crackling through the radio. I did use to be quite popular… Until he disappeared, and then I was forgotten. We were forgotten, really. And now, his daughter shows up here, at the studio? Quite a surprise, quite a surprise indeed. But in a way, it’s a good thing. For us, that is, Alastor specifies with another of his unsettling laughs. For you though? Not so much, I’m afraid. If you have a little common sense, you’ll run. Both of you, but especially you, little Morningstar girl. Oh, this will be fun…
With one last crackle, the radio falls silent.
“Nothing about this makes sense!” Charlie says, once again loud and frantic. “Nothing! That can’t actually be him, it can’t! It’s probably someone making some… some sick joke, right?”
“Whatever it is, something’s trying to kill us! Do not get too far from me, okay?” Valerie instructs, taking Charlie’s hand to calm her down a little. “We need to stick together.”
Charlie nods shakily.
“But first, I have to do something.”
As she says this, Valerie takes the radio and violently smashes it on one of the seats. It takes a lot of effort, but after a while it’s sufficiently broken.
“I wonder where he was broadcasting from,” Charlie says. “I don’t remember the studio having a radio station…”
“That’s the least of our problems right now! I don’t hear anything out there, and we can’t stay here forever, so we have to get the hell out of there. Now. If they want to fight, I’ll fight them, but we gotta get out of here!”