Chapter : The notebook doesn't lie
—Jeremy
"You ok? You keep on dozing off, maybe you should take some rest?" Evelyn said with a worried expression as she looked at Cael
"I-I-It's, we'll cover the next shift, you don't have to work hard today"
"Tsk—Kids these days, they eat so much junk food." Old Man Randy said as he handed Cael an apple before I 'forced' him to go home early.
"Evelyn? You good you look kinda distracted?"
"Haha really? I'm fine~" I'd bet you my war thunder account right now, she ain't fucking fine. Six grand of premium tanks and 5 years of grinding, not something one should wager lightly. It wasn't really anything obvious, it was the small things y'know?
The energy bar wrapper in her jacket pocket—she'd eaten half of one this morning and didn't remember doing it, I watched her notice the wrapper and frown at it for a full second before tucking it away.
The half-beat delay before she answered things. The way her eyes would catch on her own reflection in the tank glass and linger slightly too long before she shook it off. Nothing anyone else would notice.
Eve's smile doesn't change. Eve's voice doesn't change. You'd have to know exactly what baseline-Eve looks like to catch the half-millimeter gap between that and whatever this was, which was something so obvious.
There was no need to say anything. Just write it. Old Man Randy gave me a glance—the kind that says I see you noticing things, kid, and I'm noticing you noticing—I gave him nothing back. Whatever he knew, he wasn't sharing yet. Fine. Two could play this game.
—
Step Step Step
30 minute walk home. Cardio, as I usually do. It saves money and burns those calories.
I pulled the notebook out around the halfway mark, as I always do. Flipped to today's page out of habit, I was gonna add the new things I noticed today I thought to myself as I read through the page It was already half full when—
A Tall Man. Very Tall. Black Suit. Red Tie. No Face.
Fourth time I've seen this. I'd written a fifth entry two nights ago that I haven't told anyone about. I know you can hear this. I'd read that one probably thirty times since, trying to figure out what version of me had written it and why, and gotten nowhere.
Scheisse.
I kept walking. Tried to do the thing where I run the numbers, treat it like a puzzle instead of a problem, because puzzles don't make my hands sweat and problems do. What did I get after calculating you ask ? Four sightings. Zero conscious memory of any of them.
My intuition or whatever you want to call it, operates on a simple rule—I notice things, the noticing happens first, the understanding catches up later. Normally there's a gap of maybe a few seconds between I clocked something and here's what it means.
With this specific thing however, the gap was closing to zero. I was noticing nothing and writing down everything. That shouldn't be possible. Not for me.
Step Step
The street was the usual—Saturday-night quiet, a couple cars, someone's dog barking three houses down. Normal. I let myself relaxed, then I looked across the street. Bad mistake.
He was standing between two parked cars, on the sidewalk strip where nobody stands, where there's no reason to stand, no porch behind him, no door, no bus stop. Just standing. Black suit. White shirt. Red tie.
No face.
I stopped walking.
Here's the thing about my intuition—it reads people. Posture, micro-expression, the tell in someone's shoulders before they lie, the half-second hesitation that means they're calculating instead of answering.
It never once come back empty. Even with people I've just met, even with people actively trying to hide something from me, I always at least get something. A thread to pull. To start calculating start connecting the dots, yet—I looked at him and got nothing.
Not "he's unreadable." Not "he's hiding it well." Nothing. The way you'd get nothing pointing a camera at a wall. My intuition ever since I got it, never failed once in my life—It returned a blank result for the first time ever
But there was something else, something that just didn't feel right, something that didn't exactly 'feel' human.
Don't turn around.
I'd written that to myself two nights ago. Hadn't understood why at the time. yet right now I Understand it. Some ancient ancestral animal part of my brain was telling me that looking away wasn't the danger—looking too long was. The second I acknowledged it? I'd be dead.
So I didn't run. Didn't freeze longer than I already had. I did the thing you do when a wild animal that could kill you is staring, the thing that Old Man probably knew without anyone teaching him. I kept walking. Eyes forward. Pace even.
Step. Step.
I didn't look back at the gap between the cars. I told myself I didn't need to, that I already had everything there was to have I, that looking again would just be feeding it.
Three blocks later, hands shaking slightly, more from adrenaline than cold, I pulled the notebook out again. Needed to write it down before it slipped, before the gap between noticing and understanding closed all the way and took the whole night with it.
The page was already open.
I don't remember opening it, and as I read the page..
Sidewalk. Between the cars. He was already there when you crossed Fenton. You looked. You always look.
Tonight's date. My handwriting. Steadier than the fear in creeping through my body
The notebook doesn't lie. That's the whole reason I started using it. Humans are forgetful creatures, but ink doesn't, paper doesn't, if I write it down then some version of tonight survives even if tomorrow-me can't remember it
It's just that if only—Honestly, forget it. I thought to myself as I did my daily routine, eat, shower, play some war thunder and head to bed,
"Hngh." Before I knew it, it had already been 5AM in the morning, alright time to do the usual and head to work.
The Silentium, Cafeteria
"Just white rice please"
"Coming right uppp!!!" the chef said as he scooped a bowl of white rice before placing it as I took it.
Step Step Step
Thud
Placing it on the table while also taking out a container containing some chicken breast, HeH, high in protein and quite affordable as well, good stuff to build muscles y'know, to get buff, I gotta win next time against the Old Man.
"W-w-woah, that's a lot of chicken breast…" Amanda said as her eyes seemed to glimmer, Beating her? Yeah maybe in 1000 years I will, no ones beating that muscle monster -.-
"What is your obsession with rice and chicken breast Jeremy? You one of those Asians~?" Evelyn asked me, maybe it was a joke, maybe it wasn't but in any case—
"Scheisse, What you mean?? I am Asian, look at my face? Do I not seem Asian to you???"
"So? what type of Asian are you? Chinese? Korean? Japanese?" Cael asked in a fascinated and excited tone. Honestly Why is it that everyone assumes your one of those 3? Just me? Alright whatever…
"Well today's ain't that bad eh?" Starting a conversation with your teammates is key to bond with them.
"You know what I find funny?" Cael said as we looked at him
"We're cleaning things for characters that would make any ordinary person be filled with either fear or awe,"
"True true" Evelyn said as she nodded non stop
"Like can you imagine a citizen just goes like, WAIT IS THAT THE OMNITRIX? or Maybe going like, Holy shit?!?! is that Thor's hammer?!?!"
"Pffft—"
"Tsk. They'd be dead meat in seconds if that happens" Old Man Randy grunted as he usually does, eating that burger, dang how does he stay that strong without eating clean??? Tsk. If I asked he'd probably mocked me
"W-w-well they don't know anything about the procedures so…" Amanda chimed in, no longer as shy, but still stutters, the conversation then naturally flowed as everybody chimed in, even that Old Man would sometimes talk about his experience, and then at one point…
"I'm starting to think this 'paid' holiday's starting to get a little crazy."
—Cael Lucian
Munch Munch
"I'm starting to think this 'paid' holiday's starting to get a little crazy." Those words came out of Eve's mouth naturally, and honestly she isn't entirely 'wrong'
"Shhhhhhh—Ww-w-wwwhat if they here youu-?!?!" Amanda replied stuttering out of fear? perhaps.
"Pipe it down. Ain't worth getting ourselves in trouble" Old Man Randy muttered in a low voice, these few days… The Cafeteria has been getting rather empty, what was once bustling filled with security members, some researchers and Cleaners like us?
It was now rather empty, desolate, different than how it usually is.
"I heard some rumours that those that eat at the cafeteria would be brought to the 'paid' holiday" said Jeremy as he sipped his normal glass of water.
"Well that's so—" His sentence stopped abruptly, nobody needed to ask why, as we all looked at the same direction.
BZZZZT
One of the lights flickered, something almost impossible in a government base like this, yet that flicker was enough to get the remaining people in the cafeteria to talk even louder.
"Shit are we going to get 'paid' holiday?"
"Fuck, I don't wanna die man"
Murmurs from the other tables so loud that we could hear it, one could say a panic attack was inevitable
[Employees are to be reminded that—BZZZZTTT—]
…
Right, yeah right anyone's won't panic that way, a security guard was fiddling with her radio with a confused expression before putting it back in, a scientist was tapping what seemed to be a tablet muttering 'Work damn it'
BZZZZZZZT.
FLICKER FLICKER
"The fuck???"
"Tsk."
"W-w-w-what's going on???"
In the 1 year I've worked in The Silentium, there had never been a single time where a power outage turned to a problem, I wonder what was the problem?
BZZZT
The lights only continued to flicker, and with it panic continues to ensues, and as panic sets in—Fear continues to grows
"Why isn't the emergency backup power working?" the voice of a young man could be heard, frantically asking, many murmurs similar to his could be heard as fear began to take place in everyone's hearts.
BZZZT
"U-u-u-uhm, are you guys seeing that too?" Amanda pointed at the entrance to the cafeteria a giant metal door, the lights still flickering, the 'BZZZT' still there and amidst the chaos and the flickering light a figure could be seen.
****Tall, Black suit, and it? it was faceless, as the light flickered on and off so did it as it seemed to teleport with each flicker, █████████ had appeared. I knew what it was, there was no way in hell I didn't.
"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME"
"SCHEISSE"
"RUN"
Were words even necessary at this point? Of course we ran. Who the fuck wants to get killed by that?!?!?! Of course what I didn't notice at the time. Was the fact that the system had turned into [2] without me asking a question.