#now i must tuck it away in a safely hidden compartment of my floor

[heartmasquerade]

I think the most relatable part for me in The Secret History is when Richard was talking about how he never thought his timidness could never be interpreted as anything but. Then, he finds that others found him to be stuck-up, a snob, and he realizes he actually has a face, a place in the world and a part to act. Not just some invisible bystander.

That page (80) of the book was honestly a bit eerie to me because?? Donna Tartt?? did you look into every crevice of my brain and base a character off me...

[gingerbreadmonsters]

ever thine, ever mine, ever ours

or: signed, sealed, delivered.

gn!reader, no content warnings, a wonderful excuse for dumb cutesy fluffy stuff. an enormous round of applause for the lovely @teaseat who sent in the most MAGNIFICENT ask about this - milo and sweetheart are forever in my heart so this was perfect! and a cheeky tag for my darling @sri-rachaa , who i hear was in the market for a bit of softness in these trying times <3 title from beethoven’s letter to his immortal beloved. milo starting rumours around the DUMP offices in 900 words or less.

“Hey, Stealth. Got a minute?”

Really? Now? For goodness’ sake, he can’t keep doing this! One of these days he’s going to give you a heart attack, right here at your desk, and he’s going to have to explain to HR why one of the investigators on floor 8 has been found curled up under the table, screeching into their own hands.

“...”

It’s always when you least expect it, as well. Slid quietly amongst your case files, tucked into the top of your bag, hidden in your coat pockets - how does he do it? Aren’t you supposed to be the sneaky one? He could give the rest of the investigative department a run for their money, what with how you never manage to find them until he wants you to.

“Stealth? Are you…?”

And really, does he have to be so fucking sweet about it? It’s alw-

“Detective Greer!”

“Wh-! Uh, yes?” You look up, startled, from where your face is currently buried in your hands - it’s that telepath from a few floors down. Shit, what was their name again?

“Do you have the incident report from this afternoon? The signed one? I need it for briefing tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s…” The stacks of paper littering your desk teeter ominously, case folders sliding inelegantly out of your lap as you dig out the form from where it’s wedged half-under your mousepad. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

They walk away, presumably heading back to the lift. All you can do is stare down at the little post-it note by your right foot, bright pink paper stuck cheerily to the front of your current case folder, and try not to look like your heart is melting into caramel.

I love you so much, sweetheart. Come home safe <3

-

The notes are nothing new. It must have started, what, maybe a few months after you started going out? You’d reached blindly into the back pocket of your bag, searching for your lanyard to swipe your ID at the door, and been met with a little green slip of paper tucked in the front of the plastic holder.

Looking good today, sweetheart :)

Stunned, you’d stared numbly at the neon green paper covering your ID picture until the poor security guard on the desk had come over to ask if you were alright - embarrassed, you’d quickly shoved the note into your pocket and jammed your ID card against the reader until it let you in, escaping upstairs before anyone could ask any more questions.

(You’d been a mess for the rest of the day, eyes glazed over and unable to take your mind off a particular shifter who’s too sweet for his own good. Thank goodness you’d only been pushing paper all day, or else the criminal scourges of Dahlia would surely have had a field day.)

(He hadn’t even had the decency to be ashamed of the effect he’d had on you, the bastard. You’d asked him about it on your next date, and all he’d done was take your hand, give you that stupidly adorable smile - you know the one - and promptly change the subject.)

Ever since then, he’s been totally shameless about it, and the worst part is that it’s the best part of your day. Halfway through the lunch break you’ve forgotten to take, a little heart-shaped sticky note announces that ‘As amazing as you are, that big investigator brain needs food, you know. Check the left compartment of your bag, under the case files :)’, and you nearly burst into tears right there at your computer. You’re forced to hastily excuse yourself to the bathroom, face getting hotter and hotter, when a folded yellow rectangle wishes you ‘Good luck for today! Love you <3’, and you swear that the only reason you got that pay rise is thanks to the orange square stuck to the front of your presentation notes that says ‘You got this, baby :)’.

It’s not every day, but to be honest, you’re not sure your heart could take it if it was. Don’t work too hard today, sweetheart. The box in your desk drawer, full of multicoloured paper, is testament to the sheer amount of breathing exercises, gulps of water, and screaming silently into your own hands that he’s caused over the years. Your cheeks burn as you think about the heart-shaped sticky note hiding in your back pocket. You can’t meet your own eyes in the mirror because ‘Debrief finishes at 6, right? I’ll come and pick you up out front - we can get whatever you like for dinner’. Rumours swirl across the office about what could possibly get the famously-serious, ever-practical investigator stealth at the desk by the window quite so giddy and lovesick, but none of them ever guess. Perhaps that’s for the best. You have a reputation to uphold, after all.

(Somewhere, on the other side of town, a shifter sits down at the kitchen table, and waits for his mate to come home. Bright yellow paper, black ink, Thinking about you <3. A stupidly adorable smile and a dreamy little sigh. Sweet and soft and totally in love.)

(You find it tucked into the front of your third case file the next day. The telepath from downstairs comes to ask about a document, and the whole wonderful ordeal starts all over again.)

this is an original work by @gingerbreadmonsters - please do not repost or misattribute

masterlist

[vir-tanadahl]

Subject 412

Summary: Thor Odinson, the new King of Asgard, has hidden his people behind Luna, Earth’s only moon as he, Loki and Dr. Banner return to earth in search of a place for his people. When issues arise, Dr. Banner leads the two Gods to a safe house that he knows is not in the SHIELD data base. The trio soon realize much has changed in the two years that they have been away.

Main pairing: Loki x OC

Ao3

Chapter 3

Ana had been sitting on a stump for who knows how long when Loki walked up to her. He stands there for a moment, shifting slightly before handing her something. “This belongs to you,” his voice is soft as he holds the photo of her and her mother. She hesitates to take it.

She stares at the photo in his hand. “Thank you,” She whispers as she reaches up and takes the picture, their fingers brushing together for a moment. She doesn’t look at the photo and instead tucks it into her pocket. Ana hasn’t looked at a picture of her mother since the day she was ordered to kill her. Seeing her mother before…everything brought back feelings that she had suppressed for so long, but everything is more intense than before.

Loki nods, arms pulled behind him. “You are welcome…” he pauses watching her as she stares out. “We should go…” he whispers as he gestures back to the car where Thor and Banner are standing outside watching. Ana nods, sucking her teeth as more thoughts continue to pass through her mind. “Yeah, all right,” She says after a moment of thinking.

When Loki’s hand appears next to her, palm up and waiting for her to take it, Ana raises her eyebrow and stares at his hand before looking up at him. She distrustful of him, but ultimately takes his hand to help her stand. As they walk back together, Ana tosses the car keys at Banner. “You’re up, doctor,” she tells him as she climbs into the back seat. She doesn’t feel like doing anything anymore.

She rests her knees on the seat in front of her and waits for everyone to join her in the car. The memories of her mother keep flashing before her eyes. As the vehicle starts once more, Ana gives the clearance codes, and they begin driving again.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce says after an hour of driving.

Ana groans and closes her eyes. “Don’t,” she mutters, opening her eyes to stare out at the scenery. The doctor feels terrible about pressing her and was unprepared for her outburst.

“I shouldn’t have—“

“Stop.”

“It wasn’t my business.”

Ana sits up. “You’re right, and it wasn’t. And you needed to know that I wasn’t HYDRA. Now leave it alone,” Her voice is hard. She can feel the worry and sorrow pulsing off the doctor. It’s almost suffocating. Ana closes her eyes and focuses on trying to sleep. It’s going to be a long trip to New York at this rate.

She awakes to the sound of pulling onto a dirt road and her body rocking with the movements, flashing blue and red lights and a siren. Ana jumps up dazed and disoriented. “What’s going on?” She asks her voice croaking as she sits up from her seat.

“We are being pulled over—and I don’t have any identification!” Bruce says in a panic as he begins patting his pants in search of the non-existent I.D. Ana immediately begins tapping on the screen attached the headrest. “Hold on,” she answers as she begins typing into the screen.

“Hold on to what, the officer is approaching!” Bruce hisses back. His stress levels are rising.

Ana shakes her head. “Calm down!” Ana demands as she continues to type on the screen as quickly as possible. As the officer walks up, Bruce rolls down his window as the light from the flashlight moves throughout the car. “Evening, sir,” Bruce coughs out as he grips the wheel.

The officer nods. “Evening. Do you know why I pulled you over?” He asks. Bruce chuckles and shrugs, eyes glancing up at the officer. “No, sir, I don’t,” the doctor responds.

“I clocked you going 80 in a 65 zone. Let’s see your license and registration,” the officer pauses. “And do me a favor and roll down this window.” He taps on the window.

Bruce nods and complies with the request.

Loki is sitting behind Bruce and gives the officer a tight smile and a brief nod. Ana quickly turns off the screen before the officer can see and she tilts her head with a smile on her face as she looks at the officer. She watches as Bruce begins patting his pockets almost helplessly before opening the glove compartment and pulls out the registration and hands it over to the officer.

“Driver’s license?”

Bruce glances up nervously. “I…uh..”

“Bruce, I think you tossed your driver’s license into the center console? Why don’t you check?” Ana urges as shifts in her seat. She sees Bruce glance up and looks at her through the review mirror. He flips open the console and begins shifting things around. “Oh, yeah…” He murmurs, “here it is,” He slowly hands the id to the officer.

The SUV is equipped for many things including forging identification on the go.

The officer nods before turning his attention to Loki. “You…” He says as he points his finger at him. “You look familiar…” He hums staring at the God, “yeah…like that guy who tried to take over New York…what’s his name….Gnocchi?”

Ana inhales sharply before smiling tightly and sliding closer to Loki with a forced laugh. She can see Bruce tense up and lower his head, his hand covering his mouth trying not to laugh. “It’s the hair,” she says casually, “but he never listens to me.” She begins playing with the ends of his hair. “Men,” she sighs dramatically, “They just never listen!”

The officer chuckles. “Don’t tell my wife that!” He pats the door of the car.

“Oh, I mean it!” Ana stresses as she rests her hands on Loki’s shoulders. “Does everything else I ask him, but ask him to cut his hair…in one ear and out the other!” Ana gestures with her hand. The officer shrugs with a grin on his face. “Gotta keep something, am I right?” He jokes with Loki.

Loki gives a forced chuckle and a brief nod before bringing his hand to rest on hers. “Yes, you are,” he says with a tight grin. Ana watches the officer laugh again before slapping the registration and ID in his hand.

“Alright,” He smiles and hands back the id to Bruce. “Slow down, yeah?”

“Of course, officer!” Bruce answers with a forced cheerfulness before rolling up the windows. Ana skooches away from Loki before collapsing over herself with a fit of laughter. Bruce braces the wheel as he drives off laughing just as hard.

Thor and Loki look at each other with confusion. “And what exactly is funny about him calling me by the wrong name?” Loki drily asks.

Ana snorts as she turns to face him before erupting in laughing again. “It’s…it’s…” she chokes out. “Gnocchi isn’t a name…it’s a food!” She snorts. “It’s a dumpling!” She glances at him with a grin before trying to rein in her laughter. “It’s just funny,” she attempts to say as calmly as possible, but she can still feel the bubble of laughter rising in her.

She leans back into the seat and looks out the window ignoring Loki’s stares at her. Ana hasn’t laughed that hard since she went into hiding. The whole mistaken name thing is just stupid, but she still finds it hilarious. And Loki is extremely annoyed with her. It rolls off of him in waves.

Ana snickers again and looks at the God of Mischief again a grin plastered on her face but he is looking ahead, seemingly unaware of her. For someone who has committed such atrocities, he is rather handsome. After a moment, Ana turns to look at Bruce. “Let me know when you want to switch. Just keep on the I-90,” she tells him.

Bruce nods in response but doesn’t say anything. Ana stares at him for a moment. He is a very nervous person. Or perhaps he just feels guilty for challenging her on the photo. Part of her wondered what Natasha found in him.

It isn’t until dawn when Bruce asks her to resume driving. Ana agrees through sleepy yawns as she shifts in her seat as he pulls into a lone gas station. She had been in and out of sleep for most of the night.

Ana and Bruce make their way into the rundown gas station with the brother’s trailing behind her. She makes eye contact with the attendant with a brief nod as she makes her way to the bathroom. It is gross, but it’ll have to do.

She quickly heads back out and begins looking for something to snack on as she waits for the men to return. Ana grabs a bag of chips and heads towards the checkout and waits for the attendant to return.

A loud crashing noise fills her ears as Ana is flung forward and over the counter as the smell of burning wood fills her nose. She lands on the floor, her back burning and filled with pain as part of roof collapses onto her. Ana grunts in pain before passing out.

She awakens to hear fighting. It must have only been a few moments between her losing consciousness and return to the waking world. Ana grunts as she struggles to pull herself off the ground. She can feel the tears fill her eyes as she gasps out in pain and fear. Panic is quickly filling her as she closes her eyes and presses her forehead into the ground.

Ana hasn’t used her powers in two years. The mechanics of it all require her to receive yearly hardware updates and adjustments to ward off the poison from leeching into her body. She focuses her energy as she begins lifting the fallen debris from her body. A shimmering, yet opaque veil manifests around the wreckage as it lifts away from Ana.

She groans as the weight is lifted off her back and begins to pull herself away before letting it crash back into the ground. Ana closes her eyes, listening to the gunfire outside before pulling herself to her feet. She manages to make her way outside. Ana looks around before realizing that someone just launched a missile at her.

She can hear her scream echoing in her head as she closes her eyes and throws a barrier in place. Her body feels cold as the impact of the implosion knocks her into something. When she opens her eyes, she stares up into the red eyes of the blue-skinned man in fear before realizing it is Loki. He looks around, both surrounded by a barrier of kinetic energy and ice. He turns to stare down at her.

“How did you do that?”

“Why are you blue?”

They stare at each other, and arms latched together momentarily forgetting about the fighting surrounding them. She watches in awe as the blue and markings on his skin fade away. “Your eyes…they were red…” She whispers watching as his eyes return to what she is used to seeing.

Loki continues to stare down at her, his head slightly tilted eyes filled with interest before she suddenly pulls away. She watches as the Hulk takes down the remaining agent by throwing him into the air with a loud grunt.

Ana watches as Hulk begins picking up random objects and throwing them around. “Back on Earth? Hulk don’t want to be on earth!” He screams. Ana finches as he storms around and further back. She questions her ability to reign in such a giant.

“Hulk, calm down, friend,” Thor quietly approach him.

Ana watches the two interact. Fear is rolling off of the Hulk in waves. Fear of so many things that Ana cannot comprehend. Fear is manifesting in anger. “He’s scared,” Ana whispers. “Of…never being accepted? No. Loss of control. No, that’s not it either…”

Hulk sends a car flying in her direction as she hits the ground as it flies over her. Loki is above her and pulling her away from the scene.

“No! Hulk want to leave! Earth no like—“ His green eyes are on her as Loki forcibly drags her across the ground in an effort to remove her from the dangerous area. Hulk’s body goes limp and falls to the ground as he continues to stare at her. He is sitting and staring at her without saying a word.

Ana begins protesting against Loki’s pull. “Stop, stop!” She demands as she fights against him. When he releases, murmuring about letting her get hurt, she pulls herself off the ground and slowly makes her way towards the green giant.

He raises his hand as she approaches him. Ana is in front of him, watching him as he holds his hand out for her to touch him. She lowers her hand to meet his as she stares into his eyes, the pain and fear floating from him into her. “The only way for them to know who you truly are is to show them…” She whispers her voice low as she feels tethered to the man before her.

Hulk nods and closes his eyes. The sound of broken bones and grunt fill her ears as she begins stepping away as the Hulk transforms back into the doctor. Ana stares at him for a moment before walking away from them. “I need a minute,” she whispers to Thor as she walks past him.

Ana is laying in grass recovering from her use of power when she hears the soft steps behind her. Loki stands next to her, his cape flowing slightly behind him in the wind.

He hums. “Your source of power…” He begins and glances down at her. “How did HYDRA establish it?” He questions.

Ana shrugs. “Not sure. Someone far smarter than me probably knows the answer,” She answers as she stares out into the sky. Loki nods. “You said your mother was on the brink of discovering a genetic change within humans, is that correct?” He asks. Ana turns to face him, eyes slightly narrowed trying to assess his questioning.

“Yes,” She answers.

“Yet, your power is more than the kinetic energy you are able to produce,” He comments as he watches her. “Perhaps that is why you know so much about the change of the human race now called…what was it, inhumans?”

Ana focuses away from the night sky and onto him. She doesn’t say anything.

“Such a rare sight, an empath…to take such fear and pain away so quickly. But without a teacher, you tire easily. People are credibly draining,” He continues as he watches her.

Ana smiles and pulls herself to her feet. She stands chest to chest with Loki despite him being a head taller than her. “You’re incredibly draining, Gnocchi,” she teases unwilling to break her stare with the god.

“Deflecting,” he comments a smirk forming on his face. Ana giggles. “If that is what you want to believe,” she tells him as she pats him on the arm before walking around him.

Ana heads back to Thor and Banner. The SUV is nearly destroyed laying on its side as she climbs through the windshield to grab her bag. She begins digging through it and pulls out a satellite phone. She dials the number she memorized by heart all those years ago.

The familiar voice that has always been there for her answers, “Romanoff.”

Ana’s eyes swell with tears as she tries to hold back the sobbing. “Nat…it’s me…Ana…” she whispers. “I’ve been compromised…” her voice hicks slightly, “and I’m really scared,” she tells her. Part of Ana feels relieved to hear Natasha’s voice. She had been in hiding for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to even hear a familiar voice that knows who she is.

“Where are you?” Natasha sounds determined—she’s an agent and Ana can only guess what is running through her mind.

“At a gas station off of I-90…we left the safe house around 12pm yesterday…I’m not sure where we are at…” Ana says as she looks around the destroyed inners of the car.

“We?”

“Nat…Bruce is home…” She whispers as she looks outside of the car to see where the others where. “And Thor is here…” She can hear Natasha inhale sharply at the news. “I’m coming, don’t move from that spot,” she orders before she clicks off the phone.

Ana releases a sigh of relief as she emerges from the car. All three look at her as she walks to them and before they can ask what are the next steps she begins talking. “We are to wait here. We will have a pickup in an hour or so…” She tells them.

She pauses and looks at Bruce. “I called her…Nat…she’s coming…” She tells him before walking away from them and back to the spot on the grass to wait. ‘Loki is perceptive,’ Ana notes in her mind. She underestimated how much the God had been paying attention to her.

He isn’t wrong, however. HYDRA did manage to establish a connection between her ability to the kinetic power when she had been nine. From the reports she read, none of the scientists fully understood how she developed the power after receiving multiple injections of a serum. Any other adult human subject who had been given the compound died afterward. Each subject was a failure to the scientists. Eventually, the scientists decided to ‘recruit’ other children and began doing the same procedures on them as they did to her in an effort to replicate the results.

Ana, even after being subjected to the torture of what HYDRA did to her, has always been in-tuned to people’s reactions and emotions. But then one day, almost two years ago, she took a fish oil pill. Her skin felt like it was on fire and then began to turn into stone before it completely consumed her.

She woke up moments later with rocks surrounding her, but she felt no different than before. Then, Ana had to make a shopping trip, and she felt everything and anything, feelings about people she has never met. A few weeks later, the news began reporting of people who developed powers of some sort, and only chaos ensued.

Even now, there are times when she cannot always tell the difference between her emotions or others. The despair of sadness or the rage of anger can almost consume her if she is not careful. If her powers are to grow into anything, she still has a lot to do to learn to control them.

[riddlemethisbatboy]

hi, i love your blog! idk if you're familiar with the batman arkham games, but if you are, could you do something with the reader stumbling upon one of the riddler trophies and solving the puzzle for it, which causes the riddler to take an interest in them? also it doesn't have to be necessarily romantic. thank you!

Of course dear shy bean! Also I love the arkham games, so you got yourself a non-romantic action fic! Welcome to my tumble abode and happy reading, my friend!

******Just wanna say: Slight Gore warning, mentions of death, and tons of traps and riddles because even in the Arkham games Ed is extra as hell.******)

You were supposed to be home right now, but you snuck out. You always snuck out at night, you enjoyed sitting on the roof and doing what you and your friends call Bat Watching. You didn’t quite watch for the heroes, though. You were in it to see what villains were out that night.

The smell of the city, sweat and wet pennies mixed with a slight rancid yet sweet smell filled the still air. As you walked the alleyway, your dim phone light guiding you, you stumbled as a thin wire caught your ankle and you fell to the ground, scraping your knee and tearing yet another hole in your raggedy jeans.

“Ow, shit!” You sat up, turned your flashlight to the object that caused your trauma.

There was a loud thud as note and a question mark shaped neon green trophy sat dynamic next to a somewhat freshly dropped corpse.

‘Dearest person,

You’ve entered the game,

we play to win.

There’s only five left.

So don’t give in!’

You pocketed the note, put the trophy in your knapsack, and started to think about whether or not to follow the instructions. Before catching up with your best friend for the mundane evening festivities, you decided to have an adventure for once.

You pulled your phone from your pocket, then typed a message to your friends group chat.

(Y/H/N) 12:49AM 30/7/17:

‘Hey, I’m going to bail on you tonight, hope you don’t mind. Kk ILY gn!’

There were green question marks spray painted on the nearby brick and concrete walls that towered around you. Leaving the dense darkness of the alley way, your cellphone flashlight dimly lighting your path.

Heading northbound, you came upon a broken sign pointing upwards and a fire escape ladder too short for you to reach on foot. You looked up, shined your light about a bit, then decided to try to batman your way up the building.

You searched around for something to climb on. There was a nearby trash can, you walked over to it then pushed it a little, luckily it moved. You pulled it behind you until it was underneath the ladder. Climbing on top of the garbage bin, the lid made a loud noise as it dented under your weight.

You wasted no time getting up the ladder, but had no earthly idea as to what you were going to do next. Peering around carefully, your fear of heights rearing it’s ugly head, you found a crevice that led to the roof of a nearby building.

You screamed internally for a second as you reached out towards the crevice with your right hand. You pulled yourself across the siding and onto the roof with ease; adrenaline fueling most of the shimmying you did to survive.

Safely on the roof you looked for your next clue, praying that you could find an easier route than dangling twenty-some feet above the asphalt. Peering around, switching back to your handheld flashlight and putting your phone back in your pocket, you find the only way to get to the second trophy is to somehow manage to get to a building across a large gap.

You groaned, not even close to physically fit like those heroes you always see. You ponder the amount of exercise it must take to do this on a daily basis and shudder. Remembering momentarily the fact that you barely made the seven minute mile run for your last gym final.

In no way do you intend to give up, though. You’re determined to stick with your adventure. You take a deep breath and step back a few feet, readying yourself to run and jump the gap. With all else behind you, you ran with grace and leaped at the very edge of one building. It felt as if you were flying for a few moments, before you tucked and rolled across the top of the second building.

You yelled in victory and laughed, half out of fear, as loud as you could. You had a few scrapes and your hoodie was torn, but you actually made it across the million miles trench that lead to certain death. You were ecstatic.

Standing up, you dusted yourself off, pieces of loose gravel falling from your hair as you shook your head. You still couldn’t believe you had made that jump, yet your lust for adventure drove you onwards. You stepped towards the trophy, hidden in a cage, and activated a pressure plate. Your weight on the object caused arrows to fly at you from all directions, some hitting you as you tried your best to dodge them.

“Are you serious right now,” you complained to the air. “How the hell am I supposed to grab it when it’s in that cage?”

You shook your head, removed the arrows stuck in your arms, and looked around to see what you were missing. Upon inspection, you found a crevice with a button wedged into it. You smiled at the stroke of luck you had, shoved one of the arrows into the crevice, and were rewarded with the sound of the cage opening.

Triumphantly you approached the trophy, plucking it from its spot and placing it in your backpack as well. After safely stashing away your second of five trophies, you checked around for your next clue. Much to your dismay, there was no note, no sign, no anything that you could use to find the next one.

You sunk to the ground, your heart sinking in tune as your knees collided with the gravelly surface of the roof. There had to be something you were missing. Something, anything to tell you where the third was.

Your mind reeled for a few moments before you steadied yourself. There is five of them, so there must be more clues. You walked back to the edge of the building where the previous one had sat mockingly just moments ago. The platform for the cage was blank, but there was something else inside it.

The jumbled up text on the lighted surface revealed a set of coordinates when you squinted. You pulled your phone out and typed in the coordinates and continued onwards, carefully finding your way back to the ground so far below you.

Your feet back on the asphalt, your journey continued. You stopped by a nearby convenience store and bought a small travel first aid kit. After paying for them, you escaped to the bathroom and patched yourself up a bit, then put the kit in your backpack, making sure to use a separate compartment than the one your findings were in.

Stepping back into the street, you once again sent out to do the impossible. You found the place the coordinates led to was an abandoned high-rise on the southern outskirts of town. This place has been passed through town as sort of an urban legend, but your eagerness to complete the quest kept the chills at bay.

As you approached the decrepit building, a particularly strong gust of wind pushed the door in front of you wide open, causing a less than brave reaction as you responded by shrieking and jumping back. Containing yourself, you ventured onwards into the building that would no doubt haunt your nightmares in the days to come.

The first floor was mostly barren, graffiti marking the walls that weren’t torn down or covered by pieces of the ceiling. Your only option forward was a small door, surrounded by sharpened bear traps. There was no doubt in your mind that your third goodie would be behind that door. There was, however, doubts that you’d be able to get through the door unscathed.

A piece of debris fell from the floor above your head, landing amidst the traps and causing several to go off, giving you ideas on how to get through that blasted door. You picked up a chunk of ceiling and flung it with all your might towards the remaining traps, successful at getting the ones in the very front of the old wooden barricade.

Now able to approach it, you stepped on the pieces of fallen ceiling and pushed open the door, loosing your footing and landing face first on the other side. The smell of stale air, mildew, and something rotting greeted you openly, causing you to gag and gasp as you bolted upright and ready for action.

Raising your ever useful flashlight to the walls surrounding you, you noticed green spray paint wrote out a message.

‘You’ve come too far to give up now,’

‘You’re quite too close to call it quits.’

‘Down this hallway finds you one’

‘Then up some stairs and you’ll be done!’

You smiled as you read those words, then realized how deceiving they can be. Though the clues didn’t tell about the dangers ahead, you were glad to know that both the fourth and final fifth trophies were in this dark tower of decay.

Searching around some, you felt your way through the dark room. The flashlight you carried barely lit the area around you as you stumbled and tripped to the hallway where you were sure you’d find something worthwhile, and no doubt more traps.

As you trekked down the lengthy corridor, you noticed some of the doors were nailed shut. There were only two doors, one on the left, and one on the right. The open room to the left was emitting a green light, one you knew was your prize.

The room on the right, though, was your first destination. You found a small dining table in the center of a seemingly untouched room. Upon the table sat two buttons, some connecting wires, and a light bulb above an index card with neatly written words in bold print.

‘To light the bulb, connect the wires then press the buttons.’

Following the directions on the note, you connected all the wires to the buttons and the bulb, then hit both buttons. Your eyes were momentarily blinded as the light sprung to life. In the room across the hall you heard a series of clicks followed by the chiming of a bell.

You left the bulb in place and exited towards the only other room you could enter. Much to your relief, the trophy lay in plain sight and any traps were disarmed. The room you were in housed two heavily decayed men, presumably they fell victim to something you apparently just avoided.

Making sure to thank whatever deity has been watching you, you went up a spiral staircase that was hidden behind a fallen chunk of ceiling panels, and were seemingly transported to a different dimension alltogether.

The length of the walls were lit up via black lights and neon green question marks were neatly painted beneath each of them. Sat there, on a desk, was the final trophy. You approached it cautiously, for fear of whatever insane trap may lay in the wake of you grabbing it.

Suddenly, a mechanical voice broke the butter thick tension. "Holy crap you actually made it, kid."

You nearly jumped out of your skin as the hidden speaker garbled those words. Standing still as a statue out of fear, there was a loud scream of feedback before the mystery person spoke up again.

"Go ahead, grab the trophy. There's no traps here!" It chortled as it began to converse once more, "You think I'm going to booby trap my own office? You must be out of your mind!"

You reached forward towards the spoils of your endeavor, touching it lightly first. You yelped and pulled your fingers back as they were burned.

"Oops, I lied," the voice on the other side laughed mockingly before continuing his speech. "Okay so, there should be these switches on the far right wall. One of those will cause the room to burst into flames, one should deactivate the thermal protection I've put around the trophy, and the last one shouldn't really do anything... It's just there to mess up your brain. Choose wisely!"

There was a series of clicks before the speakers shut off completely, leaving you alone with your thoughts and heartbeat to keep you going. Shining your flashlight towards the right wall, scaling it until you found the set of switches.

Your heart raced as you flicked the one in the center, a light flashed and the room was filled with flames. The voice on the speakers cackled as you scrambled, fifth trophy in hand, to escape the tomb of flames that was quickly engulfing the walls, floor, and ceiling around you.

You jumped out a nearby window, landing in a dumpster. Letting out a heavy sigh, you climbed out, dusted off once more, and headed home vowing to never do that alone again.