HOME | DD

Description
The laboraratory was much cleaner than I had expected. There wasn’t a trace of dust anywhere in the lobby, perhaps because of the air-circulating fans I could still hear running. I passed by the old reception desk where a computer screen glowed with the stylized Materas logo. As I looked at it I remembered the day the laboratory opened. I was young, but I still remember how everybody made such a big deal out of it: the logo was on posters and signs everywhere, and everybody talked about how Doctor Materas was going to change the world… I was one of the most excited ones, I’m sure. Back then, I really needed something to look forward to, having recently been orphaned.
I shook the memories out of my head and kept exploring, heading deeper into the lab. It was much less tidy as I got further from the entrance. Laboratory equipment was scattered across the floor, lamps were broken, and error messages flashed on all the terminals. The ones that still worked, at least. Security got tighter the further I went, but many of the doors were, strangely, completely torn apart, even though they were all several inches of solid steel thick.
It surprised me, how much I could remember from when I was so little. I remembered the television cameras moving through the very hallways I was walking through, showing the world the gleaming white walls and busy researchers, broadcasting what was essentially the hope everyone had for the future into people’s homes all over the world. For my family, though, the laboratory didn’t exactly represent the shiny new future everybody else was expecting. We were a fairly wealthy family. My grandfather had invested in Dr. Materas’s research when he was just starting out, and we inherited those stocks when he died. We were entitled to certain information because of that, to keep tabs on the investment. The truth was that Materas Laboratories wasn’t working for the good of humanity. They were mostly driven by military funding. My father didn’t approve of supporting a company that helped to kill people, so he sold all of the stocks one day. We still made quite a bit of money off of it, and Dad felt guilty about what he called our “tainted wealth,” right up until the day he and Mom died.
“Hellooooo!” A blur flashed in front of me as I entered a dark room, causing me to yelp, trip, and fall flat on my back. As my eyes adjusted, I recognized a scene that had become all too common for me: looking up at Manfred, who was grinning at me almost triumphantly. Creep. Anemonae must have heard the noise, because she ran in from another room, helping me to my feet and then giving me a tight embrace.
“You made it!” she cried, her head buried in my shoulder. “Oh, Weiss, I was so worried about you!” She pushed me away, holding me by the shoulders and staring intently at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, somewhat dazed by the sudden commotion that had broken my deep thought. “I’m fine.”
“Are you absolutely sure? You haven’t noticed anything strange?”
I wasn’t going to say anything at first, but as Anemonae’s fierce green eyes drilled into mine, I thought about that morning’s events. I didn’t want to worry her, but I found it impossible to lie.
“There’s someone who looks like me. He calls himself Schwarz and he’s trying to communicate with me. Anemonae… I think he’s a Soul Collector.”
She laughed, nervously. “No, Weiss, that’s… not possible. You made it, and you’re not a Soul Collector, so there couldn’t be anybody like that.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” I found myself saying, as if against my will.
“Weiss! Don’t say things like that!” She sighed. “You were almost turned into a Soul Collector, so be a little grateful.”
“So it really was happening?”
Anemonae nodded. “I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Samaiel was keeping me from moving somehow, and I couldn’t do anything but watch as that horrible stuff nearly took you…” She smiled then, an amazed expression on her face. “After a while, though, the transformation stopped! I think you must have broken it somehow, because nobody else was around. That’s… no small achievement, Weiss. I’m proud of you.” She hugged me again.
My head filled with thoughts of May, and I didn’t return the gesture.
Manfred ran into the room, grasping a handheld computer. “Hey guys,” he shouted gleefully, “check out what I found!”
The computer had one file on it: an audio diary. We listened to it, and what we heard was… disturbing.

“It’s all gone wrong,” said a nervous man’s voice over the tiny speaker. “Oh god, it’s all gone wrong, it’s my fault, and we’re all gonna die because of it!” There was heavy breathing for a moment, and then the man calmed down and continued. “Okay, Edaniel. Follow procedure. There needs to be an emergency report.” He sighed, as if preparing himself. “We warmed up P.ENE.LO.P.E for the first time today, and everything went fine, so we went on to Stage Two, the official start of her energy output.”
P.ENE.LO.P.E. A name we all heard many times back in Materas’s heyday. It was a new type of nuclear fusion reactor, one that promised to end the world’s energy problems forever. With just a little bit of water it could power entire cities for days on end. It seemed like the perfect solution, but the day that it was supposed to go online, the infamous disaster happened…
“As the reactor powered on, it worked perfectly. That is, to about 2 percent energy input. As soon as it hit 3 percent, things began to get unstable. Now, I’m usually a careful person, but the small amount of instability seemed trivial, so I just kept the test going. Everyone was excited and happy, champagne was being uncorked everywhere, and then… God, it went so wrong.
“I can’t even begin to explain what went wrong. A stray particle tore a hole in this dimension, perhaps, or… oh, I have no idea. All I know is that the glowing orb of energy that was once giving nearly infinite power to the people turned into a dark… hole. I shut P.ENE.LO.P.E. off and scrammed the reactor core, but it did nothing. Some… thing… came out of the hole, a dark shadow of some sort, and started destroying the place, killing everyone that got in its way… Oh God, Penelope, Julie… I haven’t seen them yet, and… Who’s there?!”
The audio file ended there, and we were left in silence. Anemonae looked at me as I stared at the small machine in my hand. I finally knew what had happened in this laboratory, and as I thought about it, I couldn’t help but wonder if it all had something to do with Samaiel, Anemonae, the Scythes, or the Soul Collectors. Suddenly, we heard a loud sound, a high pitched whine that got progressively louder. A quick look around the room revealed that Manfred had disappeared. Again.
Anemonae and I ran out of the room towards the source of the noise. We had to crawl through a hole in a reinforced door to get to it. Through the door was a long steel bridge leading to a control panel. Manfred stood there, grinning stupidly as he pushed a bright red lever. “2%,” the monitors on the control panel flashed.
“Sorry, guys,” Manfred said as he gave the lever one last tug, “But I’m a born lever puller!” “3%” and “WARNING-UNSTABLE” appeared on the monitors, and the ground started to shake. Underneath the bridge on which we stood, we saw the glass cylinder of the reactor filled with yellow energy that was slowly being torn apart to reveal darkness, similar to the portals between Realms that I’d found myself becoming a bit too familiar with recently. In the darkness, a single, huge, red eye flashed at us.
“No!” Anemonae screamed. She shook her head violently. “No, that’s not possible! No…” She composed herself. “Okay, we need to get out of here. Now.” We turned tail and ran, but the way to the exit was blocked by an emergency lockdown door.
“What do we do now?” I shouted over the din of the emergency sirens.
“In here!” Anemonae pulled us into a storage room where a few bottles of cleaning fluid sat on a shelf. We caught our breath, listening to the sirens and sounds of metal being torn apart.
“What the hell was that?” I half whispered, half shouted.
“I hope for all of our sakes that I’m wrong,” Anemonae said, sounding near tears, “but I think that thing was a creature called the Evil Eye. It’s a godlike being that preys on the pain of others… I’m sorry, Weiss.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry all this had to happen to you! Do you understand just how doomed we are right now? You don’t deserve this, and it’s my fault you’re here… I’m so sorry… The only thing we can do now is to wait for it to come in here and… oh…”
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“What? What do you mean? Weiss, don’t tell me you mean to take on the Eye, do you? You don’t understand just how powerful it is-“
“No, that’s not it. I’m not going to fight the Evil Eye or whatever. I believe you, about its power. At this point, Anemonae, I’d trust you with my life. Don’t blame yourself for this, though. I’m sure there’s some reason this all happened to me, even though I have no idea what that might be. One thing’s for sure, though: I’m not going to die here.” Even though there were more pressing matters at the moment, only one thing was on my mind, only one burning desire. “Samaiel will not get away with what he did to May.”
“Weiss…”
“I’ve got an idea. There’s only one way out of here. Anemonae, Manfred, follow me if you want, but don’t try to stop me.”
I left the relative safety of the storage room and walked calmly back into the reactor room, ignoring Anemonae’s protests. Manfred followed me, quietly and happily. I stared down into the reactor: the sleek glass was filled with a swirling dark abyss, as hundreds of thousands of small hands poured out of it. There was no trace of the eye I had seen earlier, so what I had in mind seemed somewhat safe, or at least, safer than staying in the laboratory.
“Weiss!” Anemonae ran to me, grabbing me by the hand. “You’re crazy! You can’t possibly do this!” She paused, looking into my eyes again. “But… you’re going to, aren’t you?” I nodded. “Okay. Well, I’m going with you. For better or for worse, I’m with you, Weiss. I… can’t let you go off on your own, can I?”
I laughed, despite the chaos around us. “No, I guess not. It wouldn’t be the best idea, at least. I was hoping you’d come with me, anyway. Come on.” I stepped off of the bridge, and Anemonae screamed as we crashed through the glass and into the swirling darkness, falling into complete chaos.

Description
The laboraratory was much cleaner than I had expected. There wasn’t a trace of dust anywhere in the lobby, perhaps because of the air-circulating fans I could still hear running. I passed by the old reception desk where a computer screen glowed with the stylized Materas logo. As I looked at it I remembered the day the laboratory opened. I was young, but I still remember how everybody made such a big deal out of it: the logo was on posters and signs everywhere, and everybody talked about how Doctor Materas was going to change the world… I was one of the most excited ones, I’m sure. Back then, I really needed something to look forward to, having recently been orphaned.
I shook the memories out of my head and kept exploring, heading deeper into the lab. It was much less tidy as I got further from the entrance. Laboratory equipment was scattered across the floor, lamps were broken, and error messages flashed on all the terminals. The ones that still worked, at least. Security got tighter the further I went, but many of the doors were, strangely, completely torn apart, even though they were all several inches of solid steel thick.
It surprised me, how much I could remember from when I was so little. I remembered the television cameras moving through the very hallways I was walking through, showing the world the gleaming white walls and busy researchers, broadcasting what was essentially the hope everyone had for the future into people’s homes all over the world. For my family, though, the laboratory didn’t exactly represent the shiny new future everybody else was expecting. We were a fairly wealthy family. My grandfather had invested in Dr. Materas’s research when he was just starting out, and we inherited those stocks when he died. We were entitled to certain information because of that, to keep tabs on the investment. The truth was that Materas Laboratories wasn’t working for the good of humanity. They were mostly driven by military funding. My father didn’t approve of supporting a company that helped to kill people, so he sold all of the stocks one day. We still made quite a bit of money off of it, and Dad felt guilty about what he called our “tainted wealth,” right up until the day he and Mom died.
“Hellooooo!” A blur flashed in front of me as I entered a dark room, causing me to yelp, trip, and fall flat on my back. As my eyes adjusted, I recognized a scene that had become all too common for me: looking up at Manfred, who was grinning at me almost triumphantly. Creep. Anemonae must have heard the noise, because she ran in from another room, helping me to my feet and then giving me a tight embrace.
“You made it!” she cried, her head buried in my shoulder. “Oh, Weiss, I was so worried about you!” She pushed me away, holding me by the shoulders and staring intently at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, somewhat dazed by the sudden commotion that had broken my deep thought. “I’m fine.”
“Are you absolutely sure? You haven’t noticed anything strange?”
I wasn’t going to say anything at first, but as Anemonae’s fierce green eyes drilled into mine, I thought about that morning’s events. I didn’t want to worry her, but I found it impossible to lie.
“There’s someone who looks like me. He calls himself Schwarz and he’s trying to communicate with me. Anemonae… I think he’s a Soul Collector.”
She laughed, nervously. “No, Weiss, that’s… not possible. You made it, and you’re not a Soul Collector, so there couldn’t be anybody like that.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” I found myself saying, as if against my will.
“Weiss! Don’t say things like that!” She sighed. “You were almost turned into a Soul Collector, so be a little grateful.”
“So it really was happening?”
Anemonae nodded. “I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Samaiel was keeping me from moving somehow, and I couldn’t do anything but watch as that horrible stuff nearly took you…” She smiled then, an amazed expression on her face. “After a while, though, the transformation stopped! I think you must have broken it somehow, because nobody else was around. That’s… no small achievement, Weiss. I’m proud of you.” She hugged me again.
My head filled with thoughts of May, and I didn’t return the gesture.
Manfred ran into the room, grasping a handheld computer. “Hey guys,” he shouted gleefully, “check out what I found!”
The computer had one file on it: an audio diary. We listened to it, and what we heard was… disturbing.

“It’s all gone wrong,” said a nervous man’s voice over the tiny speaker. “Oh god, it’s all gone wrong, it’s my fault, and we’re all gonna die because of it!” There was heavy breathing for a moment, and then the man calmed down and continued. “Okay, Edaniel. Follow procedure. There needs to be an emergency report.” He sighed, as if preparing himself. “We warmed up P.ENE.LO.P.E for the first time today, and everything went fine, so we went on to Stage Two, the official start of her energy output.”
P.ENE.LO.P.E. A name we all heard many times back in Materas’s heyday. It was a new type of nuclear fusion reactor, one that promised to end the world’s energy problems forever. With just a little bit of water it could power entire cities for days on end. It seemed like the perfect solution, but the day that it was supposed to go online, the infamous disaster happened…
“As the reactor powered on, it worked perfectly. That is, to about 2 percent energy input. As soon as it hit 3 percent, things began to get unstable. Now, I’m usually a careful person, but the small amount of instability seemed trivial, so I just kept the test going. Everyone was excited and happy, champagne was being uncorked everywhere, and then… God, it went so wrong.
“I can’t even begin to explain what went wrong. A stray particle tore a hole in this dimension, perhaps, or… oh, I have no idea. All I know is that the glowing orb of energy that was once giving nearly infinite power to the people turned into a dark… hole. I shut P.ENE.LO.P.E. off and scrammed the reactor core, but it did nothing. Some… thing… came out of the hole, a dark shadow of some sort, and started destroying the place, killing everyone that got in its way… Oh God, Penelope, Julie… I haven’t seen them yet, and… Who’s there?!”
The audio file ended there, and we were left in silence. Anemonae looked at me as I stared at the small machine in my hand. I finally knew what had happened in this laboratory, and as I thought about it, I couldn’t help but wonder if it all had something to do with Samaiel, Anemonae, the Scythes, or the Soul Collectors. Suddenly, we heard a loud sound, a high pitched whine that got progressively louder. A quick look around the room revealed that Manfred had disappeared. Again.
Anemonae and I ran out of the room towards the source of the noise. We had to crawl through a hole in a reinforced door to get to it. Through the door was a long steel bridge leading to a control panel. Manfred stood there, grinning stupidly as he pushed a bright red lever. “2%,” the monitors on the control panel flashed.
“Sorry, guys,” Manfred said as he gave the lever one last tug, “But I’m a born lever puller!” “3%” and “WARNING-UNSTABLE” appeared on the monitors, and the ground started to shake. Underneath the bridge on which we stood, we saw the glass cylinder of the reactor filled with yellow energy that was slowly being torn apart to reveal darkness, similar to the portals between Realms that I’d found myself becoming a bit too familiar with recently. In the darkness, a single, huge, red eye flashed at us.
“No!” Anemonae screamed. She shook her head violently. “No, that’s not possible! No…” She composed herself. “Okay, we need to get out of here. Now.” We turned tail and ran, but the way to the exit was blocked by an emergency lockdown door.
“What do we do now?” I shouted over the din of the emergency sirens.
“In here!” Anemonae pulled us into a storage room where a few bottles of cleaning fluid sat on a shelf. We caught our breath, listening to the sirens and sounds of metal being torn apart.
“What the hell was that?” I half whispered, half shouted.
“I hope for all of our sakes that I’m wrong,” Anemonae said, sounding near tears, “but I think that thing was a creature called the Evil Eye. It’s a godlike being that preys on the pain of others… I’m sorry, Weiss.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry all this had to happen to you! Do you understand just how doomed we are right now? You don’t deserve this, and it’s my fault you’re here… I’m so sorry… The only thing we can do now is to wait for it to come in here and… oh…”
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“What? What do you mean? Weiss, don’t tell me you mean to take on the Eye, do you? You don’t understand just how powerful it is-“
“No, that’s not it. I’m not going to fight the Evil Eye or whatever. I believe you, about its power. At this point, Anemonae, I’d trust you with my life. Don’t blame yourself for this, though. I’m sure there’s some reason this all happened to me, even though I have no idea what that might be. One thing’s for sure, though: I’m not going to die here.” Even though there were more pressing matters at the moment, only one thing was on my mind, only one burning desire. “Samaiel will not get away with what he did to May.”
“Weiss…”
“I’ve got an idea. There’s only one way out of here. Anemonae, Manfred, follow me if you want, but don’t try to stop me.”
I left the relative safety of the storage room and walked calmly back into the reactor room, ignoring Anemonae’s protests. Manfred followed me, quietly and happily. I stared down into the reactor: the sleek glass was filled with a swirling dark abyss, as hundreds of thousands of small hands poured out of it. There was no trace of the eye I had seen earlier, so what I had in mind seemed somewhat safe, or at least, safer than staying in the laboratory.
“Weiss!” Anemonae ran to me, grabbing me by the hand. “You’re crazy! You can’t possibly do this!” She paused, looking into my eyes again. “But… you’re going to, aren’t you?” I nodded. “Okay. Well, I’m going with you. For better or for worse, I’m with you, Weiss. I… can’t let you go off on your own, can I?”
I laughed, despite the chaos around us. “No, I guess not. It wouldn’t be the best idea, at least. I was hoping you’d come with me, anyway. Come on.” I stepped off of the bridge, and Anemonae screamed as we crashed through the glass and into the swirling darkness, falling into complete chaos.