#i love these peeps | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kitsunesakii · 6 days ago

Text

The Stranger

Part one!!

Printer Issues, Lunch Date, Flower Shop, ur here, Pt.2, Pt.3, pt.4,

It was supposed to be a normal day. Sasha had gotten up before her alarm, managed to remember to eat breakfast, get to the bus station on time and got into the archives without running into any worms. Which she hadn’t thought much of. She was supposed to look into the digital footprint about some Joe Bloggs that she believed could have been connected to one of the statements. She didn’t have an actual name but supposedly they lived on hilltop road and no ones gotten ahold of them in years. Sasha was quite determined to try and figure it out. Jon was currently reviewing a statement in his office, Martin was making tea and Tim was on lunch. Overall it was a normal, quiet afternoon.

That is until all hell broke loose.

Jon had started yelling and there was a crash. Martin was closer and entered the office first, Sasha quick to follow.

Worms. Everywhere. White wriggling things that were pouring in through some hole in the wall behind a few boxes. Even looking at them made her own skin crawl and heart hammer in her chest.

Martin was quick to lead them out and into what he called a ‘worm proof’ room. Sasha knew this wasn’t a viable solution. They were practically cornered and- Sasha heard a separate door open. Tim.

Shit.

Sasha swallowed the nausea in her throat and tore the door open, moving towards where she could hear him. She paused in the hallway for a moment. She had expected Tim, had expected worms, but she had not expected the husk of Jane Prentiss coming through the hole in the wall. Complete with worms pouring out of her skin and moving underneath. She didn't have time to think. Quickly moving towards Tim and grabbing him by the collar. Together they sped through the hallways before she started up the stairs.

Her brain was in flight mode. Shooting up the stairs until she busted out and into the lobby. A few students gave her a weird glance before going about their business.

Sasha paused for only a second. Tim wasn’t behind her. She didn’t have time to worry about that. She needed to get everyone out of the building. Sasha looked around, noting the reception desk, the elevator, a few civilians leaving the library and passing the fire alarm.

The fire alarm.

She sprinted over and near ripped the lever off its hinges. The sound exploded throughout the institute and cracked through her mind. But she wasn’t done yet, she needed to get to Elias, they needed to get to the fire valve in the boiler room. Jon had been the one to suggest C02 in the pipe system as a fail safe if they were attacked and Elias had the keys.

Elias had been in his office and he was full of questions when she ripped his door open, panic in her voice and her heart in her ears as she explained as fast as she could that they needed to get to the boiler room right now. Then before she knew it they were running down some different corridor she wasn’t sure of and barreling towards the back of the institute. She prayed that Martin and Jon and TIm were ok.

Please Lord let them be ok. Let there have been enough time.

She wasn’t entirely sure when she had lost Elias in the long corridor but before she knew it she was in artifact storage. Damn it.

Sasha slowed to a staggered walk and set her palms on her knees, dropping the tape recorder she had forgotten she was carrying and trying desperately to not fall over as she caught her breath. Her lungs were screaming for a break and her knees were jelly where she stood. It was quiet, considering artifact storage was a part of the original building and didn't have an electronic fire alarm. Leaving her alone with her ragged breaths as the only other sound. Beads of sweat trickled down her face and burned her eyes. She forced herself to stand, swaying slightly as she walked through the aisles of cursed objects. Sasha noted the antique table in the corner. She bit her lip, there should have been an exit somewhere nearby. She turned around and stopped dead.

Something was watching her.

The feeling wasn’t unfamiliar. The institute came with its own brand of edge that she was used to brushing off as superstition or simply the atmosphere of the archives. Tim called it ‘spooky.’ and he wasn’t wrong. But this wasn’t some off taste of static in her mouth. This was tangible.

She did a careful 360 and felt a bout of nausea when she noticed a shadow in the corner of the room. Just great. Sasha took a subtle step backwards.

“Hello?” She swallowed, anything to get the pathetic tone out of her mouth. “I can see you!” She tried to make her voice louder. Helplessly aware that she didn’t have a fire extinguisher, if it was Jane Prentiss, and it didn’t look like Jane. Which laid out a completely separate set of problems that she wasn’t prepared to handle right now. God she wished she knew the layout of the storage rooms better.

Sasha took another step backwards as the thing took a step towards her. Her vision was blurring at the edges, her body feeling tight when she moved. Her joints are stiff. She tried to take another step but miscalculated and steadied herself with a hand on the old table. She tried to ignore the fact that she couldn’t feel anything with her hand.

“H e l l o?”

Panic was lighting her on fire as she tried to move, to do anything. And she needed to, because It sounded like her.

It sounded like her.

It lunged at her, and for a moment she could actually hear herself screaming, then her vision swam and it felt like time stopped.

Sasha blinked, the movement heavy and took a painful amount of energy. She was on the floor and looking up at the back of a secondary creature, no, Micheal, now stood between her and that thing. It hurt to look at him. He was all sharp edges and fast moving patterns spreading over his skin and through his hair like a blanket of texture. He was taller than normal, his form curling in odd shapes. She realized after a moment that one of his hands was wrapped around her middle, carefully keeping her in place without hurting her. His arm was a tangled mess of loops protruding in impossible directions yet somehow meeting back with his shoulder. It was getting harder and harder to hold her focus.

“D i s t o r t i o n?” The thing's voice weakened.

Micheal’s laughter was numbingly sharm and spread spots over her vision. She closed her eyes and tried not to flinch. The fuzz that was billowing through her ears made it hard to catch his words.

“You are quite stupid with how you choose to act. The circus truly is full of clowns.”

“W h y d o y o u c a r e? W h a t

b u i s n e s s d o y o u h a v e w i t h h e r?”

“I will not allow her to be forgotten. You do not get that satisfaction.”

"W h a t, y o u c a r e a b o u t h e r?"

“Yes.” A pause. “And she does not deserve to be changed by the likes of you.”

Sasha could feel herself starting to fade. She was sure he said something more, but it was fuzzy and swam along with her focus. She was drowning, losing herself. But it felt nice, wrapped up in limbs too long to be real and yet still comforting. Did she have a name? Maybe it didn’t matter. She let herself go to the darkness surrounding her.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Micheal moved towards the writhing thing full of limbs and teeth. It was cute, how it tried to be scary. He laughed at its audacity. He felt the girl in his grasp go limp as he attacked the ugly thing. It was easy, it was already weak since it missed its original target and Micheal was quick to sink sharp claws into it. It made an odd sound and Micheal pushed the thing into a hallway that stretched like taffy. Once it was in the maw of the spiral Micheal tore into the table. Such a conundrum. Such a mess. It made Micheal giggle.

He turned and scooped up the tired thing wrapped around his fingers. It would take her time, after being under the haze that thing seemed to exfoliate, for her to come too. Time. Another silly thing. He hummed and moved into a pastel hallway that didn’t exist. Her skin was warm against his own. Although it wasn’t really skin. Another silly thought. It was Micheal’s skin. Just drawn out like a cow to leather. He moved through the corridor until passing through a hallway into a bedroom.

He laid her out carefully in the bed and pulled the covers to her shoulders. Such a pretty thing, the cold wouldn’t take another innocent. He giggled, the sound just natural for him. It was nerves, which he was sure he shouldn’t have or feel. The discomfort pooling out of his mouth as a sound and resting around them.

He knew she would do better if she woke up without his uncomfortable distorted unreality. And even though three real days have passed it won’t feel that way for her, he still stayed an extra moment. Watching the way she shifted in her sleep. She would be ok. She was alive. Micheal finally left her alone.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last time Sasha had a genuine hangover was in college, she remembered the feeling as she jerked straight up in bed and instantly regretted it. Gripping her head and breathing through her teeth. Her eyes hurt and her vision split into fractals, swimming as she tried to look around. Too much, too fast. She shuddered and froze in place, shutting her eyes and counting to ten.

She needed to stop trying to think. Sasha couldn’t explain why every sliver of thought seemed accompanied by a dead static that made her head hurt even more than it already did, but that didn’t seem to stop it. It took a long moment before feeling seemed to break past the back of her throat and she could breathe. She managed to make it into the kitchen and fill a glass with water, chugging it before sputtering and coughing. Nonetheless it woke her all the way up and she managed a small sigh of relief.

It took her another half hour to reorient herself. She took a long scalding hot shower and tried desperately to piece together the day- it was only one day, right? Either way she forced herself to remember the blurry events at the institute. The hot water did seem to help. She rested her head against the shower wall and tried to relax her shoulders.

She was at the institute when Jon discovered the worms.

She was separated from Elias and ended up in artifact storage.

That's where the details got weird.

She remembered talking to someone. Maybe. Although every time she tried to remember past that, she was hit with a wave of nausea and static spots in her vision. She was obviously in her apartment. Had Tim dropped her off? He was the only other one that knew where she lived, but…she dropped the thought for a moment.

Sasha managed to get out of the shower and into clean clothes without actually throwing up. Even more so, she managed to coherently open her phone and notice the missed calls from Martin, Jon, Tim, even Elias had called her. Well there goes the theory that Tim dropped her off.

She chewed on her lip a moment before calling Jon back, it felt like the dial tone was mocking her.

“Hello?”

“Hi-” It shocked her how raw her voice was. “Jon? It’s Sasha, what-”

“Sasha?! Where have you been? Christ what happened, where did you go? Elias said you were in artifact storage- Were you attacked? There were some things broken, including a tape recorder-” Jon paused to breathe, Sasha rested her hand over her eyes. “Where are you?”

It was like his words cracked the dam in her mind. And she remembered the thing and Micheal and Micheal protecting her. She remembered it sounded like her. The thought made her shiver.

“Sasha?”

“I’m- I’m at home. I-”

“Christ Sasha it's been three days! What have you been doing?”

She rubbed her head in slight frustration. “Damn it Jon, I don’t need you interrogating me like I killed your bloody dog!” Her eyes shot up at her own outburst and she scowled at nothing. She continued slightly calmer. “I passed out. Someone must have dropped me off at home.” Micheal. “I’ve been in bed since then, trying to tend to a bloody headache.” She didn’t have the energy to hear Jon question her why Micheal was saving her from mysterious creatures when she could barely understand it herself.

“Tim’s been worried sick.”

Sasha let out a dry chuckle. “I’m sorry. If I hadn’t been comatose in bed for the last few days I would have called sooner.”

“I’m sorry, Sasha, we are all on edge- Martin found Gertrude’s body and- I’m just glad to hear you alive. Elias is giving everyone time off and I’m sure you’d rather hear it from me so don’t try to show up for work, maybe the hospital though?”

“No, no I’m ok. Send my regards to everyone else. I might have caught a minor cold, I just need sleep. You need sleep.”

“Fine. Just take care of yourself.”

#kitsunesakii #not dead yet #WRITING #sasha james #micheal the distortion #micheal shelly #the stranger #the circus #tma #the magnus archives #this was so fun #i love these peeps #GAAAAAA

6 notes · View notes