That’s not my Jimmy.
The man that went with Emily to get revenge, to bring back the Reaper so we could interrogate him, punish him…that man is gone now. The one that came back…I don’t know what to call him. Jimmy claims he became an Ascendant during the trip, and that certainly might be true. He is stronger now, and he has powers of some kind—when he came back, he started giving orders, and everyone close to him has obeyed without question.
They cleared the basement level except for guards and stuck Emily in one room and the young man Jimmy brought back in the other. Any ideas of a chain of command in the House or the massive Tattersall office building we’re in have been abandoned where he’s concerned. He commands, and they obey.
I have only talked to him twice since they came back. When he first arrived, he recognized me, but was indifferent and strange. He was handling Emily and the man roughly, and he gave me little more than a passing greeting before carrying them down to the basement. I waited a few minutes and then followed him down.
When Jimmy came out of the room holding the man, he was already dripping with his blood. He seemed untroubled by the gore, but he was clearly irritated by the interruption. Still, he did talk to me then. Told me this man was at least one of the people responsible for killing our little girl. That he was going to find out everything he knew. That he had been rewarded with Ascendency during the mission, and he saw everything very clearly now.
I asked him why Emily was being kept down there. He said it was necessary for now. She was in danger too, and he had to keep her close. That with his newfound power, being with him was the safest place for her. I wanted to ask more questions, but he had already gone back into the room. When I asked the guards in the hall to see her, they refused. When I asked Polly to make them, she gave me a frightened look. She said they wouldn’t listen to her either. No one around Jimmy would listen to anyone but him.
The plan, according to her, was to just wait and see. If he truly was Ascendant, he was likely working for the good of the House’s goals. If it became clear he wasn’t, we could talk about what the next step should be then. A day passed without any word from the basement. Without Jimmy or Emily coming up, or any sign of what was going on down there.
I went back to Polly then. She still asked for me to be patient, but when she saw that wasn’t going to cut it, she said the best she could offer for the moment was a security room that gave me live video feeds into both basement rooms. In one, Emily was curled up on a sleeping bag on the concrete floor. She wasn’t asleep, and it was clear from the way she jumped occasionally that she could hear some of what was happening in the other room. And in the other room, Jimmy was tearing the young man apart.
I thought I was going to be sick as I watched him torturing the man Polly said had been identified as Jason Halsey. Even at his lowest, his angriest, Jimmy wouldn’t have been capable of doing something like that. He had too tender of a heart. There had been times over the years where I worried I’d lose him, that the harsher realities of what the House does, what it has to do, would become too much for him. To see the man I love…or something that looked like him, at least…doing what he did…
It didn’t feel like the actions of something higher than us. Something that was causing pain or death for the greater good. It seemed more like some alien thing that was enjoying itself, and I didn’t think it was revenge for Madeline either. I watched for hours, horrified but unable to stop, and I only became more certain that whatever interested that thing, it had nothing to do with what I wanted or the House wanted or what my sweet Jimmy would have wanted.
I’d avoided turning on the sound for all that time, afraid that if I heard on top of seeing, I would lose whatever self-control I had left. But I had to know. I had to know what they were talking about, what this thing was after. So I found the place to turn on the audio and felt my blood run cold.
“…gonna to tell me how you did it. Even if I have to rip you apart over and over again.” The voice coming from Jimmy was deep and gravelly—the sound of some terrible stranger. What was he talking about?
Jason looked up at him out of his remaining eye. “You better work fast. Your clock is running out.”
Jimmy lunged forward, digging out the man’s other eye. The man jerked, but didn’t scream. In fact…but that was impossible. The eye that was already missing looked like it had grown back, and several of his other wounds had faded away already as well. What was he? What if he was an Ascendant too? What if Jimmy was making a mistake, or the thing inside him wasn’t good after all?
Jason’s head rocked back as Jimmy struck him hard across the face. Spitting out some blood, the younger man looked back up at him placidly. “The problem you have is that you can’t kill me. I mean, I literally don’t know if you’re capable of killing me, but aside from that, if you kill me, you can’t get any of the answers you clearly want. Now I’m telling you, I don’t know what those answers are. So either I’m lying, in which case, you should just keep attacking me, because that’s going so well for you, or I’m telling the truth, in which case, maybe you should tell me more about what the fuck you’re talking about. Maybe it’ll jog something loose. Because I admit, I do feel like I know you. The Gravekeeper you, not this dude you’re in. But I don’t know how. So why don’t you try talking to me instead of just wasting your very limited time?”
Gravekeeper? What was that? And why did the guy keep talking about him having only a short amount of time? I looked back at the other screen. Emily was standing up with her ear against the wall, listening to what they were saying. She didn’t need to hear any of that. I didn’t care what that thing in Jimmy wanted, I needed to get her out of there.
Narrative Summary of streamed security footage uploaded to cloud from Tattersall Security Cameras 68359 and 68360
“Maybe you’re stalling, boy. But you have proven very…resilient to my methods so far, so I’ll try your suggestion.”
HRL19 aka “Jimmy” aka “the Gravekeeper” sat down a couple of feet away from where Jason Halsey (“Jason”) was chained to an old copier that had been left in the room for that very purpose. The past footage had demonstrated that the Gravekeeper had a degree of physical strength, knowledge of anatomy and torture techniques, and sadism that had ostensibly been absent before the recent mission to recover or neutralize the House antagonist informally designated as “the Reaper.” The next three hours, beginning with this conversation, demonstrated just how deep the recent changes apparently ran. The working theory is that this is due to an heretofore unknown form of Ascendancy, whereby the identity of the person is wholly supplanted. Going forward in this narrative, references to the Jimmy/Gravekeeper entity will be modeled to reflect this theory.
“You want to know how I know you. I know you because you are, along with your French friend, the one that trapped me…” the Gravekeeper tapped the side of Jimmy’s head, “in this fucking ‘rock’, as your grandfather calls it.” Its voice grew deeper with anger. “Trapped me in it and banished me here, to this lesser plane of being.”
Jason appeared genuine surprised at this. “How did I do that exactly? I don’t remember anything like that. Plus I have no idea how to do anything like that. Nothing you’re saying makes any sense.”
The Gravekeeper rocked in his chair, clearly on the verge of more violence. “I figure it is either because you are lying, you have amnesia, or…”
“It hasn’t happened for me yet.”
The Gravekeeper nodded. “Or that. It seems far-fetched, but it’s possible. Since we came to this building, since they learned who you really are, I’ve had these people pull all kinds of information up on you. Birth certificate, where you went to school, places you’ve lived, people you’ve known. In all of that, there are no gaps or irregularities they can find. To listen to them, you are no different than the rest of these…cattle.”
Leaning forward, he grabbed Jason’s chin. “Except…you are, aren’t you? And not just because of how strong and tough you are. Or the hunting that you and your grandfather waste your time on. No…” He turned Jason’s head one way and then the other. “I can almost see what you really are, or what you will be.” Releasing the man, he sat back with a sigh. “But you’re not the one that trapped me, at least not yet.”
Jason nodded. “That’s what I’ve been telling you. So where were you banished from?”
The Gravekeeper shook his head. “I don’t think so, boy. I know you think you’re being pert, getting me to give you information and all, but I’m only going to tell you things if they benefit me. If your role in trapping and banishing me hasn’t occurred for you yet, then maybe it could be prevented from happening, at least in some timelines, by me killing you. Or maybe not, cause some things is fixed while others not so much.” Standing up, he clenched his fists for a moment. “Then again, if I’m about to escape this place, go back and finish my work, maybe everything worked out just like it should.” He chuckled. “What do you think, boy? Should I leave you alive?”
Jason shrugged. “Hard to say. Honestly, I think your best move is to decide and then get out of here. Because you’re starting to look like shit.”
This affected the Gravekeeper to an unexpected degree. He moved toward the door even as sounds of commotion outside the room could be heard. There were no cameras in the hallway, but when the door is opened, a voice identified as belonging to HL1 aka “Haley” could be heard, as well as other voices, presumably belonging to guards.
At first she was demanding to see “Emily”, the young Ascendant being held in the adjacent room. Then she began asking the Gravekeeper if he was all right. That he looked sick. There were sounds of a brief struggle and then the Gravekeeper ordered the guards to kill anyone else that tried to come down into the basement. Based upon ancillary reports, it has been concluded that the Gravekeeper snapped Haley’s neck and threw her some distance down the hall.
The Gravekeeper then enters the room where Emily is being kept. The girl is clearly terrified of him now, but she has been trained to serve, and does not resist when he tells her to come forward. He kneels before her and tells her to touch his forehead. To try and sense the thing inside his head. Can she feel it buried deep in his brain?
She says she can.
Can she picture where that thing came from?
She nods. A strange place, she says.
He chuckles at her. It is that, he agrees. But can you open a gate there?
She trembles. She says she’s not sure. She feels so bad today. So weak.
His hands flex. He tells her she must try.
Tearfully, her legs unsteady, she agrees.
And then everything flares white.
When the light dims, only the little girl is left in the room. Becoming the gateway has taken its toll, accelerating whatever illness she was already showing signs of. She collapses to the floor as loud noises are heard from nearby. A return to the room holding Jason shows the source.
He has broken free from his bonds and is swiftly battering down the door. It is uncertain due to the lack of video coverage, but it appears that he kills the four guards outside in the hallway before entering Emily’s room.
He approaches the little girl and kneels down as he takes her hand. She is trying to talk, but whatever she is saying is inaudible. He squeezes her hand and leans close, whispering to her. They speak back and forth for a short time, but all too low to be intelligible to the camera. We will attempt audio enhancement during the full forensic analysis.
Then the girl nods and Jason gives her hand a final squeeze. He says “Give me one second.” With that, he quickly stands and wipes some of the blood from his chest onto his hand, which he then uses to write a single word on the wall. Turning back to the girl, he smiles at her. “I’m ready, Emily.”
There is another flash of light.
When it subsides, Jason is gone and the girl appears to be dead. Emily’s body lay still for nearly an hour before it begins shifting. Melting down into a runny puddle of sludge that pools around the clothing her inexplicable decomposition has left behind. The only other sign of what has occurred in the room is the bloody word Jason has left on the wall.
NIGHTLANDS
Narrative Summary of events transpiring at TG Tower 1 and 2, as well as TG Office Alpha. Reporting completed by Tattersall Security Final Level Redundancy for archival and investigative purposes. No supplementals expected to this file.
Seven days after the abduction of Jason Halsey, five days after both he and the entity known as the Gravekeeper disappeared, an outside message began playing over all internal intercoms within the three largest publicly-held buildings of Tattersall Global. This message began playing at 11:02 a.m. EST in TG Tower 1. One hour later, it began playing in TG Tower 2. One hour after that, it began playing at TG Office Alpha. During this time, all landline phones and wired internet at these locations were also disabled, and some kind of sophisticated cellular jammers made cellular communications impossible within approximately one hundred yards of each building. This is troubling for several reasons on its own.
First, the knowledge of our offices and its systems needed to commandeer the intercoms and disable outside and inner office communication would be profound. Second, the coordination of these attacks, coupled with the sheer technical knowledge and manpower reasonably needed to accomplish it, makes the effectiveness of the assault all the more concerning. Third, the prevailing theory is currently that this was all done as a reaction to Jason Halsey being taken less than a week earlier. That means that this plan was finalized and put into action at three locations across the continental U.S. in an extremely short amount of time.
Finally, that all of this—including the unidentified, heavily-modulated voice of the speaker in the message itself—was all a mere preamble to what was to come…it is not hyperbolic to state the obvious. The implications are terrifying.
The message, in its entirety, was as follows:
Good morning. You have someone that does not belong to you. You know who I mean. If you give him back immediately, most of you will be unharmed. If you don’t…
By now, you have already noticed that you don’t feel very good today. That is because you have been poisoned. Not today, you understand. No, you were poisoned two days ago. You may even have some information about the poison from one of your cohorts. What I told him was true, but not wholly accurate for the strain of poison you have in two regards. First, your strain takes slightly longer to show symptoms, which is good news for you. Second, your strain can be cured up to thirty minutes before death.
Please don’t mistake this for mercy. It’s not. But it would be fairly useless for me to poison you to coerce you into releasing your prisoner if I didn’t have a viable antidote, and it would be hard to convince you that I’m not lying if you weren’t already feeling the symptoms. Fortunately, I have a great deal of experience with creating variations of the little gift that is nesting in all of your lungs. Whether that is to your benefit or your detriment…well, that is entirely up to you.
You will notice that your internet and phones are all down. But if you check, you will see that all corporate email accounts received a final email before everything went down. If you respond to that email by walking your prisoner out of one of your main buildings or bringing him to the parking lot of one of those buildings within the next hour, I will restore your communications and provide the location of enough doses of the antidote to cure at least the majority of those afflicted. Time is of the essence, as from the end of this message, you only have two hours before you will be dead—if you were at work two days ago. If you’ve been out this week and this is your first day back, then congratulations. You have two days to get your affairs in order.
Or you can give him back.
Chaos ensued. While there were no protocols for this, there were certain containment procedures in place to ensure no one left the building without permission. Security sealed the doors and began searching for ways of communicating. It took twenty minutes before it was discovered by one of the security staff that cell phone coverage resumed roughly three hundred feet away from Tower 1. It was another ten before the administration was notified at the other two sites. The decision was made to lock down those locations temporarily until the matter was resolved.
Then Tower 2 received the message. Then Office Alpha. During this time, it had already been determined that there was no viable response to give. Jason Haley was clearly the person being demanded, and he had disappeared five days earlier from the basement level of Office Alpha. There were ongoing discussions about finding someone who resembled him enough to buy time and potentially lure the poisoner out into the open, but then the call came in.
Within the last ten minutes, nearly everyone inside of Tower 1 had died. Two hundred and seventy-three people had literally fallen apart into a thick liquid while another twenty-nine people looked on in horror. Presumably these people had been absent two days earlier, so they were exposed to the poison later on than their co-workers. The only reason anyone even knew about it yet was because the closed circuit relays had been turned back on so we could access the camera feeds.
Because he wanted us to see.
An hour later, Tower 2 died. Three hundred and seven gone, forty-nine soon to follow. As with Tower 1, he gave us back our eyes so we could see the carnage that had been wrought. The remaining people were fighting security, trying to get out. Ultimately, security executed those that were resisting confinement.
Evacuation was made of top leadership from Office Alpha. It made little difference. They died in helicopters and SUVs instead of their offices. Five hundred and twenty, with sixty-one soon to follow.
Ten minutes later, all cameras were lost again. In the ensuing panic, it took six more hours before recon teams were dispatched to any of the sites. There were no survivors at any of the locations. Those who had not liquefied had been shot, including the handful of remaining security forces. There were also signs of one or more individuals searching each of the buildings thoroughly. Looking for Halsey almost certainly, but also taking the time to download files, steal sensitive material, and perhaps more. The full extent of their actions is unknown at this time.
What is known is that Tattersall Global has lost eighteen percent of its workforce in one day. The House has lost its top leadership, a number of corporate members, and encrypted files pertaining to individual cells that are among the data believed to have been stolen. The three buildings have been sealed, with a controlled reporting model being utilized to account for the death toll.
This will be one of our greatest challenges in the coming weeks and months. Most of the staff had already had their personal lives pruned to the extent that they could be easily removed if the need arose. But there are over a hundred low-level staff whose deaths have to be explained and accounted for eventually. The prevailing plan is to account for thirteen percent in random manufactured “accident” narratives at various times and locations that cannot be readily contested by any family members or loved ones. These must be dispersed sufficiently that no pattern can be easily or credibly drawn. Another twenty-six percent have been identified as good candidates for a “transfer” narrative, whereby there is documentation that they were transferred to an international office, moved there, and later met some unfortunate fate in the months that follow.
The remaining sixty-one percent of this group will “die” in a chartered plane crash headed to a tropical resort for a work retreat. A fund is already being established to provide death benefits to their families and exploit the maximum PR benefit from the fund. These will be the only deaths that will be made public, and even then, they will be pulled after two days in the news cycle.
These practical measures are necessary, as they protect our interests while projecting an image of continued strength and resilience. This is, unfortunately, a stark contrast to the reality. We have lost innumerable resources and assets. We are now in a weakened position against our known competitors, such as the Kin. And we are still being hunted by this man or group known as the Reaper, with most of our primary means of learning more or retaliating being seriously degraded or entirely lost to us.
For now, all plans and projects are on hold. All but essential communication with House cells is restricted. There is only one edict, one mandate.
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Credits
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