A JSE Fanfic
Part Three: The Studio
[This is part of a small ten-part series I wrote for Halloween 2019. There's a new villain in town, and Jackieboy is on his list. Jackie arrives at the location specified by the puzzles, and finds one of his friends.]
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Jackie was out of breath when he finally arrived at the studio, a stitch digging into his side. He stumbled to a stop, leaning against the nearest wall to recover. Just because he COULD run for a long time didn’t mean he felt good afterward. He should’ve taken this at a jogging pace, but time was of the essence.

After allowing himself a long break, Jackie straightened, clasping the box with the laptop to his chest and looking around. Of course, it was dark. Because the city didn’t pay to install lights in an area that was only valued for its history. So Jackie had no idea if film studios looked anything like he thought they did. But the large buildings did almost resemble warehouses, and that was something he understood. Now. Which building to search first? Jackie figured he might as well start with the nearest one.

And then when he opened the door to the nearest one and started to walk into the darkness, he ran into a plastic wrap strung across the doorway like it was a prank video. He scowled, then took a step back to read the note taped to the plastic. "Not this one!" it read in typed letters. "Next one over –>"

Welp. At least this guy had a sense of humor. Though Jackie suspected that sense of humor was more warped than it first appeared.

The next studio had its lights on, blinding Jackie to the point where he had to blink for a moment to get used to it. The studio was nothing but a wide, empty room. Vintage lights and other old-fashioned filming equipment were scattered about, probably for tours. What clearly wasn’t for tours were the bright red arrows painted on the floor, twisting around the equipment and leading down a hallway. Words were also painted on the floor, clearly written with use of a stencil. THIS WAY JACKIEBOY, the floor read. Jackie scowled, but he had to admit he appreciated the help.

He followed the arrows cautiously, almost afraid of what he’d find at the end of the trail. He’d been deliberately avoiding thinking about the aim of the game, but now it was twisting his stomach in knots. What state would the others be in when he found them? What if they were hurt? If this sick gamemaster did anything to them Jackie was going to track him down and fucking beat the shit out of him.

The arrows stopped at a discreet door down the hall, indistinguishable from all the doors around it. Jackie had no idea what these rooms were originally used for but it really didn’t matter. There was another typed note taped to the door: "I’d tell you to knock, but it’s not like he’d be able to tell you he was inside."

“Oh, you absolute bastard,” Jackie muttered furiously. “That’s not something you fucking joke—why am I talking to myself?!” He grabbed the door handle and tried twisting it open, only for it to stop suddenly. Jackie swore his heart stopped too. He jiggled it, but it wouldn’t turn further. “Jameson? JJ?” Jackie raised his voice, yelling through the door. “If you’re inside, I’m here! It’s fine!” He stopped trying to turn the handle and instead kicked the spot on the door right under it. He growled and set the box with the laptop on the ground. Then he grabbed the handle again and turned it at the exact moment he shoved his shoulder against the door, throwing all his weight against it.

The door immediately gave way, and Jackie fell flat on his face. Scrambling to his feet, Jackie turned his head on a pivot as he looked around the small room. It was stuffed with racks of costumes and accessories, a clash of colors in the yellow electric light. Hidden among the costumes was a chair, and tied to the chair was a familiar face.

“Jameson!” Jackie crossed the room in just a few bounds, skidding to a halt next to the chair. Jameson immediately tensed. There was a black cloth blindfold tied around his eyes, and though he seemed to recognize Jackie’s voice, he was also wary. “Hang on, hang on, I-I’m getting you out of here,” Jackie said as soothingly as possible, pulling at the blindfold. The knot was tight, so he pulled the cloth itself off until it hung around Jameson’s neck.

Jameson squeezed his eyes shut immediately. “Hey, it’s okay, you’re okay.” Jackie took a moment to place his hands on Jameson’s shoulders, an anchor to the rest of the world. “We’re gonna get out of here.” How long had he been here already? It had to be a few hours at least, right? Fuck.

After a few moments, Jameson opened his eyes, blinking and squinting at the sudden light. With his hands bound behind his back, he couldn’t speak, but Jackie could read questions in his eyes. What’s happening? Where are we? What about the others? “Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything,” Jackie said, a tired smile on his face. “Or, as much as I know.”

Jackie rushed out the explanation while wrestling with the ropes around Jameson’s wrists and ankles. By the time he finished untying him, Jameson was basically caught up. “And so now there’s…uh, four and a half hours left to find everyone else,” Jackie finished.

JJ was taking this surprisingly well. Or at least, if he was freaking out, he was doing so internally. 'Alright, I believe I understand,' he signed. 'But what do we do next?'

“I, uh, don’t know,” Jackie admitted. He pulled JJ to his feet, bracing himself as JJ stumbled a bit, falling against him.

There was a sudden high-pitched whining sound, followed by a crackling. “Maybe you should check your email.” It was the gamemaster’s voice, sounding tinny and small.

Jackie jumped, looking around. “Intercom,” he muttered, then raised his voice. “You’re not going to give us any sort of explanation, are you?”

“You know for what it’s worth, you’re going faster than I thought you would be. You might even have time to spare.”

“Gee, thanks.”

JJ frowned. 'I don’t suppose there’s a reward for being ahead of the curve, is there?'

For a moment, the intercom crackled. “Okay, I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve been trying to study ASL and BSL but it’s going pretty slow and I have no idea what you just said.”

JJ sighed, then made a gesture that most definitely was not sign language.

“Wow, okay, no need for that.”

“You know I actually think there is a need for it, you kidnapping freak,” Jackie remarked. He held up a hand. JJ high-fived it.

More intercom crackling. “Well anyway, I hope you didn’t break that laptop when you dropped it, because you’re going to need it. Check your email. You’re going to love this next set. You ever play Until Dawn? It’s a good game, a little cheesy, but fun.”

Jackie blinked. “Okay…?” He had played it, but not in a while. So if this puzzle set was composed of references to that game, he wasn’t going to get it without research.

“Oh, and I’ll remind you that the timer is still counting down. It’s currently 1:38am. That gives you four hours and thirty-two minutes to solve the other three sets. Good luck.” And there was a click, and the intercom shut off.

Jackie exhaled slowly. He fought the urge to sit down in the room’s single chair. Keep going. Find the other three. He could do this.

There was a hand on his shoulder. Jackie started, then looked over at JJ, who gave him an encouraging smile, accompanied by a mustache waggle. Jackie laughed. “Alright. You and me, buddy. We got to get to the others. Now come on. I don’t want to spend any more time in this place than I have to.”

A JSE Fanfic
Part Two: The First Clues
[This is part of a small ten-part series I wrote for Halloween 2019. There's a new villain in town, and Jackieboy is on his list. Jackie starts to solve the puzzles left behind by this mysterious villain.]
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The city buses stopped running at eleven each night, which meant when Jackie arrived at a bus stop at 12:32am he wasn’t even going to entertain the idea of taking a ride back to his apartment. Besides, even if they did run this late, he doubted any bus driver would give a ride to the city vigilante, which he was easily identifiable as while wearing this suit.

He sat down on the bench, using the light from the streetlights to see while he tore open the cardboard box. The laptop inside was clunkier than the most recent models, and it didn’t have a brand label on it anywhere. When he pried it open, there was a yellow sticky note on the screen, with a message made from letters cut out from a newspaper: "The password is your birthday, year and all. 6 digits."

“Oh great. Psycho knows my birthday, got a real stalker here,” Jackie muttered to himself as he powered up the computer. A hysterical smile twisted his face. “What else does he know? My shoe size? My underwear color?” He let loose a small giggle as he typed his birthday into the slot for the password: 100790.

PASSWORD INCORRECT flashed on the screen. Jackie blinked, then reentered the series of numbers, slower. The same message popped up. Jackie leaned back against the bench. Were there more numbers? No, the note said six. Then it hit him. He typed in 071090. The lock screen disappeared, the desktop loading up. Jackie breathed a sigh of relief. Stupid backwards American dates. Stupid American creep getting him to play this twisted game.

Speaking of that guy, he said the first set of puzzles would be in the files. Jackie went to pull off his glove so he could use the mousepad on the laptop before remembering he already took it off. He shrugged, then gave the screen’s desktop a once-over. Mostly empty, except for a few shortcuts on the desktop, including one for Google Chrome. The background picture was a blank red screen that kind of hurt Jackie’s eyes to look at. The only thing pinned to the taskbar was the file explorer, so Jackie clicked on that.

After exploring the files, he found there was a single zip folder in the Documents named “Set 1.” After unzipping it, he found it contained two files: 1.txt and 1.ogg.

Wait, wasn’t .ogg an audio file? Did he dare risk playing whatever message this…gamemaster left for him while in a public place? Sure, it was midnight and the streets were empty as far as he could see, but you never knew…and then Jackie noticed the pair of white earbuds sitting in the box next to the laptop. He closed his eyes and sighed, then plugged the earbuds in and put them on.

The laptop came with an audio player installed, which he clicked on, uploading the 1.ogg file. He pressed play and—

“Jesus fuck!” Jackie yanked out the earbuds, instinctively leaning back against the wave of distorted sound that had blasted his ears. He hurried to press pause on the sound. “What the shhhhhit was that?” He hissed.

He decided to come back to that later, opening the 1.txt file with notepad. Inside was empty, except for a url: 6368616f737468656f7279.com. Jackie frowned, then opened the Internet browser, copy-pasting the url into the search bar.

The webpage that popped up was blank white except for a single line of text: "Enter Password" with a space to type something.

“Are you fucking—?!” Jackie set the laptop on the bench and stood up, walking a few circles around the bench and pulling on his fingers while he tried to calm down. “Okay. Okay, focus. Think, Jackie. Get into that zone. What could the password be? Where could I find it?”

After a few minutes of walking, something occurred to him. That distorted audio. First, what was the point of it? Why include it if it wasn’t important to the puzzle? And second, he’d heard a lot of distorted audio before. This didn’t sound like random white noise. It sounded like something that had been a normal audio file, but had been tampered with.

So, stands to reason that there would be a way to un-tamper it. And maybe…there would be a message once the puzzle was unscrambled. Jackie took a deep breath, then sat back down and grabbed the laptop again.

The computer’s audio player had settings to edit the file with. After speeding up the sound, playing with the pitch, and reversing the audio, he had it sounding almost recognizable. In fact, it sounded familiar…Jackie pressed the earbuds closer. He knew this song. “What is this?” he muttered. He racked his brains, flapping his wrist to help him think. Come on, he definitely knew it…

“Lone Digger!” He finally shouted. “Yea!” He punched the air. The song was by Caravan Palace, who were absolutely fantastic. Jackie wasn’t usually one for electro swing, but he liked them. He actually recommended them to JJ the other day—

Jackie froze. Oh. JJ.

On the one hand, the gamemaster could’ve chosen the song at random. On the other, if this guy knew who his friends were…how many conversations could he have overheard? What if the song choice meant something?

Jackie checked the time on the laptop clock. 12:41am. He had five hours and nineteen minutes left. That sounded like such a short amount of time. He took a deep breath. The night felt a lot colder than it had even a few moments before.

He’d done his best to clear up the distortion in the song, but there were still some odd random noises. Maybe there was another program to help with that. He scanned the shortcuts on the desktop. A visualizer program? He opened it, then loaded his editted version of the 1.ogg file. There were a few filters he could turn on, and he began messing about with them. When he turned on the spectrogram, he sat up straight. Numbers had suddenly appeared in the visual representation of the sound file. 1031, it read.

Jackie switched back over to the strange website, entering 1031 in the spot for the password. After a few seconds when he waited with baited breath, the page changed from the password screen to a map, along with a sidebar with some text along the left of the screen. He recognized the area the map was showing: a spot in the west side of the city, a historic section. The map had no markers. But the sidebar with text could hold some answers. Three questions were written there.

Jackie took a deep breath, fingers drumming on the bench next to him. This area wasn’t too close, but if he ran, he should get there within thirty minutes. Okay. He was doing good on time. He could do this. He deliberately pushed away the voice in his head reminding him of the stakes of the game, reading through the questions.

1. Q: What is the shortest blade a knife can have and still be brought to a public gathering, as of current city laws?

A: _ inches

2. Q: How many letters are there in the British Sign Language Alphabet?

A: 2_

3. Q: What year was the first film with sound released?

A: 192_

Okay. If Jackie had any doubts about who he was trying to save for the first set, they had now been erased. His stomach was full of worms, but he pushed them down farther and calmly opened another tab on the browser.

He had to Google the city laws on knives, and then open up a converter for metric system to American system, but he found the answer easily enough. He didn’t need Google for the second question; it was technically a trick. If you were talking letters and not signs in general, there were the same number of letters as the spoken and written English alphabet. He did have to look up the last one, though.

(3) inches. 2(6) letters. 192(7).

Jackie examined the map on the screen again. There, an address in the area: 367 Studio Blvd, a street appropriately named as an old film studio was located there. In fact, the studio’s address was 367.

The time was 12:49am.

The clock was tick, tick, ticking.

Jackie slammed the laptop shut. He knew how to get there. He was fast, and he had the stamina to run for a while. He packed the computer and its earbuds back into the cardboard box, then stood up.

“Hang on, Jays. I’m coming,” he whispered. And then he ran.

A JSE Fanfic
Part One: The Game
[This is the first part of a small ten-part series I wrote for Halloween 2019. There's a new villain in town, and Jackieboy is on his list. Jackie finds himself in the middle of a dangerous game, and his four friends are involved as well. In a matter of life or death, Jackie scrambles to keep up with this villain, desperate to protect the ones he cares about.]
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“Wake up Jackieboy. You have a busy night ahead of you.”

Most people, upon waking up to a strange voice calling their name after passing out in their apartment, would be understandably freaked out. Jackie not so much. Of course this was weird and suspicious and definitely not good news, but it was part of his life at this point. Now he just had to wonder who it was this time.

Jackie opened his eyes and saw he was lying on a bed, on top of red blankets. He noticed two things right away: one, he had a killer headache, and two, he was wearing his super suit, which he distinctively did not remember wearing before…before he got here. How did he get here? The last thing he did remember was heating up some leftover pizza after work and chowing down on it while he watched YouTube. It tasted a bit funny, and he did get pretty sleepy pretty quickly after eating it…oh.

He sat up, looking around the strange room. No windows, only one door. It reminded him a bit of a hotel room. He wasn’t sure why, it was something in the simple furniture: couch, long table against the wall, short coffee table, and armchair. None of the sitting furniture looked too comfortable to sit in. The walls were wallpapered red, to match the red and brown furniture. There was a screen mounted on the wall with speakers next to it.

“Ah, there you are. Right on time.” The screen flickered to life, showing static briefly before clearing to a red screen. “I was starting to worry I messed up my calculations for the dosage.”

“Who are you?” Jackie stood up and addressed his demands toward the screen. “Where am I? How did you get inside my apartment?”

“Uh, lockpicking. It’s a useful skill that most people overlook. As for your other questions…” A map of the city popped up on the screen, with a red dot blipping into being in the northeast part of the city. “You are here. And I’m definitely not going to tell you who I am. At least, not right away.”

“Ooookay…” Jackie’s eyes darted towards the room’s door. It was probably locked, but couldn’t hurt to try. He turned and walked towards it.

“Oh you do not want to leave yet.”

Jackie stopped in his tracks. That was…an odd thing to say. Well, it confirmed that this guy—male voice, higher pitch than his own, American accent—had visual on him as well as audio. Jackie turned back to the screen. “Why?”

“Well, I heard you were a fan of games.”

Jackie laughed. “Okay, Jigsaw, you want to play a game?” He folded his arms. “Let’s cut to the chase, why don’t we? What if I don’t play? Are you going to kill me?”

“I guess you’ve been threatened so much that situations like this don’t exactly phase you, then?” The voice sounded…intrigued. And slightly amused. “That makes sense. Anyway, no, I’m not going to kill you. But it’s in your best interest to play along. Or actually, your friends’ best interest.”

Jackie felt his heart stop, then resume, pumping ice through his veins. “…what?” The word was barely audible.

“Oh yeah.” The map on the screen vanished, four pictures replacing it. Jackie turned to stone as he realized who the pictures were of. Chase, Schneep, Marvin, and Jameson. All the pictures had the look of being taken candidly, capturing them as they went about their business in the city, photos from a distance, around corners, and through leaves. “I know where you live, Jackieboy. You think I don’t know who your friends are?”

“What did you do?” It came out as a whisper, so he repeated the words, louder with rage. “What did you do?! If you’ve done anything to them—”

“You won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Jackie growled and kicked the back of the armchair.

The voice laughed. “But don’t worry! They’re perfectly fine. Or, they are right now, at least. I can’t promise they will be later tonight.”

Jackie’s heart was pounding as if he’d just ran 30 meters in a dead sprint. His eyes flicked back and forth between the photos on the screen. His friends. This psycho had his friends. “What…what are you going to do? What do you want from me?”

“Well, it’s very simple.” The pictures on the screen disappeared, replaced by a white screen with bullet points. “First of all.” The bullet points filled in as the voice talked. “I’ll give you a series of puzzles to solve. These puzzles will lead you to locations where your friends are, and tell you which one is there. Second, you have six hours to solve these puzzles and get to all your friends.” A clock popped on screen, showing the time: 12:09am. “If you fail to get to anyone in time, you lose the game and…well, you won’t be seeing them again. And finally, if you get help from anyone, if you go to the police, you forfeit the game. Which is a form of losing. And again, you can say goodbye to anyone you’ve left behind if you lose. Any questions?”

By this point, Jackie had taken off his super suit’s glove so he could chew on his nails. Okay. Seemed simple enough, even if the stakes were high. He could do puzzles. Hopefully. “If—I mean, when I get my friends back, can I ask them for help or do they count for the third rule?”

“Of course. What else are friends for?”

Jackie exhaled, releasing tension he didn’t know he was holding.

“Are you ready to play?”

“I…uh…” Jackie hesitated, then nodded. “How do I start?”

“Look on the table by the wall. Do you see a flat package there?” An arrow appeared on the screen, pointing toward the table. There was indeed a flat cardboard box. “Inside it is a laptop. The first set of puzzles is on there, in the files.”

Jackie glared at the package. He didn’t know if he should trust anything this voice gave to him. But he didn’t think the guy would send the puzzles to his own personal laptop. He walked toward the table and snatched up the package.

“There will be four sets of puzzles,” the voice explained. “Increasing in difficulty, of course. Don’t worry, you can use Google, this is an open-book quiz. Just know I’ll be watching. And hurry up! It is currently ten minutes after midnight. You have until 6:10am to solve all the puzzles.” A timer popped up on screen, reading six hours. “The game starts now. Go!” The timer started ticking down.

Jackie didn’t even reply, just ran towards the door, threw it open, and came out into a run-down hallway, lined with doors with one at the end. He dashed towards the door at the end, pushed through it, and stumbled onto the street. He looked left, right, then ran toward the city center.

Six hours.

The game was on.

Part Six of the PW Timeline
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a complete series I wrote from July 2019 to July of 2022. Dr. Newson decides to drop in on Laurens's session with Schneep, and things don't exactly go well from there.]
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Dr. Laurens sighed, rubbing her eyes. Okay, she was good to go for today. She had the case file, her notebook, and a pen, and she’d made sure to eat beforehand. She was…weirdly tired, but ready. Now, she stood from her spot on the break room couch and went to leave. She opened the door, and gasped. “O-oh, Dr. Newson, you surprised me,” she laughed. “I didn’t expect anyone to be right there.”

Dr. Newson smiled. “Sorry about that, Rya. But hey, this is perfect. I was just looking for you.”

“You were?” Laurens couldn’t help a jolt of anxiety. Was she doing something wrong? “What about?”

“Well, do you mind if I sit in on your session today?”

“Uh…can I ask why?”

“Oh, you know.” Dr. Newson shrugged. “As the head of the hospital, I can sit in on any of your sessions. You remember that? Think of it as a quality check.”

She DID remember that was a policy. But… “I-I thought—I mean, you’ve never done that before.”

“I have, actually, just not for you.” Dr. Newson gave a tight smile, pushing a length of blonde hair out of her face. “Now, shall we?”

“Um…okay.” Laurens started down the hall, Dr. Newson on her heels. As they walked in silence, Laurens couldn’t help but feel…well, she couldn’t quite place it. She just didn’t think this was a good idea. Maybe if this session had been with any other patient she would’ve felt alright about it, but she only had one patient right now, and he’d already met Dr. Newson. And he didn’t like her.

Laurens arrived at Room 1010, seeing Oliver waiting outside the door. She nodded at him. “Hi.”

“Hey, doc.” Oliver then noticed Dr. Newson, and hurriedly straightened. “Oh, Dr. Newson! Um, hello. Wha-what are—how are you doing? What are you doing here?”

“I’m doing great, thank you,” Dr. Newson said cheerfully. “Just sitting in on Rya’s session today.”

“Uh. Cool.” Oliver folded his arms, then unfolded them, then folded them again, clearly nervous. He looked at Laurens. “So, uh, should we start?”

“Just real quick, one thing,” Laurens said. “You delivered his medicine this morning, right? Did you see him take it?”

“Yeah, yeah I did.” Oliver nodded. “Learned my lesson from two weeks ago, stayed to make sure.”

“Okay, great.” Laurens exhaled quietly. Things were starting to get a little better again, since she’d switched up Schneep’s prescription. Still a little rough, but it might even out after the transition period. At least he wasn’t banging his head against the walls.

“Um, what happened two weeks ago?” Dr. Newson asked, looking down at Laurens.

“Nothing too important, we sorted it,” Laurens hurried to say. It…wasn’t really Dr. Newson’s place to know, was it? Sure, she was her boss, but it wasn’t a policy to share details about medication with other doctors. “We should get started now. Let’s go.”

The three of them entered Room 1010. Schneep was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He looked over when the door opened, lifting his head when he saw Laurens. But then he noticed Dr. Newson, and his expression darkened to a scowl. He sat up. “What is she doing here?”

Laurens swallowed. Yep, not going to go well. She forced a smile. “Hi, Schneep. You know Dr. Newson, I know. She’s just supervising today.”

“Why?”

“I-it’s just a routine check. This happens sometimes,” Laurens explained.

Dr. Newson hadn’t taken her eyes off Schneep since walking in the room. “Hello, Henrik.”

“Do not call me that,” Schneep growled. “In fact, do not talk to me.”

“She’ll just be watching.” Laurens jumped in before Dr. Newson could say anything in reply. “It’ll be fine. Dr. Newson, if you would just stand over there.”

“Oh, of course.” Dr. Newson flashed another smile, then went to stand by Oliver, who’d taken his normal position in the corner.

Laurens tried not to look visibly relieved as she took her normal seat in the room’s chair, placing her notebook on the table in front of her. “So. How are we doing today, Schneep?” She asked.

Schneep kept glaring in Dr. Newson’s direction for a few seconds more, then turned to look at Laurens. “Fine, I suppose. I am feeling a bit…tired.”

He’d been saying that for the past week. “That could be a side effect of your new prescription,” she said. “If it stays like that for another week, then we should probably change it. Nothing else?”

“Not that I can think of,” Schneep said slowly. “I am a little bored, if I am being honest.”

“I can bring you another book?” Laurens suggested.

“That would be wonderful.”

She made a note of that to herself. “Alright. Got it. So when we last left off—”

“Excuse me.”

Laurens started, looking back over to the corner. “Yes, Dr. Newson? I—you know I can’t conduct the session if I interrupt?” She hoped that was a polite way to put it.

“Yes, yes, I know, it’s just—one thing.” Dr. Newson started twirling a length of hair around her finger. “I’ve been looking at your reports, and I’ve noticed you haven’t really talked about any of the…incidents, you know? I’m just surprised. It’s been three months, after all.”

“Well…that hasn’t really been my top priority?” It came out sounding like a question.

“It’s just a little incredible, you know?” Dr Newson drawled. “It seems like understanding those would be important to understanding everything else.” She perked up. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t you spend this session on one of those incidents? What about the Christmas one?”

Laurens was speechless for a moment. “Well, we had plans for today. Th-that seems a bit…counterproductive? And besides—”

“Dr. Laurens?” Schneep said quietly. “I-I do not mind.”

She looked back at him. “Are you sure? We don’t have to.”

Schneep pulled his legs up onto the bed, sitting cross-legged. He wasn’t looking at her. Or anyone in the room, really, his head turned to the side. “Is fine. It had to happen eventually, yes?” He sounded…resigned. “And I suppose if it will get her to stop her talking, we can talk about the Christmas one.”

“Ah…okay, um…” Laurens picked up the case file and flipped through it. She hadn’t prepared for this. She had no idea what to talk about, and…and she didn’t want to think about the Christmas incident. Because thinking about that reminded her about what she discovered last week. That Schneep’s friend Jackie had disappeared the same day. She still wasn’t sure if that correlation meant that…that Schneep had something to do with…it could just be a random turn of fate. But she definitely didn’t want anyone else putting those pieces together, in case they jumped to conclusions.

She finally found the report in the file, quickly scanning over it, refreshing her memory. “Alright. Let’s start with something simple.” She looked up at Schneep. “How much of this do you remember?”

“I…” Schneep was now facing her, but his eyes glanced to the side again. “I remember…walking around town. Late at night. There was a list of places to go, five of them. And there were times to be there. And…” He broke off.

That matched up with the police report. Five people had been taken during the previous few days, and on the 24th, the police had been sent a cryptic video message. It instructed them to puzzle out the locations where the five were being held, and if they didn’t reach the locations by a certain time, then they’d die. Of course, the police had immediately started the search, figuring out the hints in the video messages sent throughout the night. The entire department had stayed up overnight, keeping watch, but they still weren’t in time to save three. “I see…” Laurens said. “What about the messages? Can you tell me anything about them?”

“Those were made before,” Schneep muttered. “I just said what I was told to.”

“I see.” Laurens had never actually seen any of the video footage, but she knew what it contained. Among various imagery meant to freak viewers out, there were snippets of Schneep on the camera, sometimes giving clues for the next location, sometimes giving speeches that…well, quite frankly, didn’t sound like him at all. “Someone told you to say those things? Are you comfortable telling me who?”

Schneep flinched. “You know…” The two words were almost too quiet to hear.

Laurens nodded. “Alright, you don’t have to say anything else.” She turned to a page in her notebook, writing. She could figure who Schneep was referring to. This shadowy figure, who he felt controlled him. “Do you know why he would tell you to say that?”

Schneep shook his head silently. She recognized that she wasn’t going to get much more about the shadowy ‘him’ today. Honestly, she was lucky she got as much as she had so far, given how terrified Schneep was, saying that speaking about the shadow would give it power. Maybe she could ask again another time.

There was a dry cough. Laurens looked over to the corner of the room again. “Yes?”

“I’m so sorry to keep interrupting,” Dr. Newson said, not sounding apologetic at all. “But, well, you’re kind of tiptoeing around the subject, aren’t you?”

Laurens blinked. “I-I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

“You’re talking about everything leading up to the incident, but not really the incident itself,” Dr. Newson explained. “You know?”

“I don’t know, actually.”

“The three people,” Dr. Newson explained. “The ones who were…” She stopped, uncharacteristically silent for a moment. “You know, those ones.”

Schneep had flinched again the moment Dr. Newson had mentioned ‘the three people,’ shrinking in on himself. He started shaking his head the moment she was finished. Laurens looked over at him. “We don’t have to talk about them. We can continue—”

“I mean,” Dr. Newson interrupted. “It seems pretty important. Did we ever really get a motive from him? Maybe knowing that would help you do your job.”

“Do not talk about me like I am not here,” Schneep suddenly said. His eyes locked on Laurens. “I-I can tell you anything else about that night, but not—not the—not…that part.”

“That’s fine, we can get to that another time,” Laurens reassured him. “Now—”

“So if you believe something else is in charge of you, do you think it’s the one who did it that night?” Dr. Newson butted in. She took a step forward. “Or was it something else?”

“Um, excuse me,” Laurens said, straightening in her seat. She glanced over at Oliver, who was looking at her, confused and unsure about what to do. Laurens could only shake her head in return. She’d never seen Dr. Newson act like this. So…aggressively. “Dr. Newson, this is not your session. I-it’s not really very helpful, since we have a lot to cover in an hour.”

“Well, if you’re not covering the right things, then I don’t see why I shouldn’t step in to help,” Dr Newson said. “I mean, isn’t that something we want to know about? I checked the court records, you know, there’s nothing very clear about why he killed so many people by—”

Schneep suddenly stood up, eyes alight. “I do not know your problem with me, but please tell me! Or else shut your mouth before I shut it for you! Come back another time when there is not more important things to do!”

“Are you threatening me?” Dr Newson asked in a low voice. “I’m sure you remember how well that went last time! Believe it or not, we do have more secure housing than this that we could transfer you to.”

Schneep laughed. “You think I am scared of what else you can do to me? I assure you, it is not the worst I can think of! Why don’t you? And I will scratch your throat out when you try!”

“If you keep going down this path, then I’ll have to! I mean, why not? If the court hadn’t decided to send you here, they would’ve sent you somewhere even worse. This is a lot better than you deserve, you should be—”

“Dr. Newson!” Laurens yelled. “You will leave this room right now!”

Everyone fell silent. Newson stared at Laurens, as if processing her words. “…I’m sorry?”

Laurens took a deep breath. “You will leave this room right now. You are disrupting what’s supposed to be a healing experience. We can’t continue if you’re going to keep on like this.”

The silence continued stretching. Newson didn’t look away from Laurens, who held her gaze. After what felt like ages, Newson took a step back. “Very well.” She turned on her heel, heading towards the door. But not before throwing out one last comment: “On second thought, I’m not sure I want to be in the same room as someone who killed his best friend.”

Schneep stiffened, backing up. He’d gone very pale. “Wh-what?”

Newson turned around. “Well, I don’t know if he was your BEST friend, but he was one of them, wasn’t he?”

“Who are you…?” Schneep croaked out.

Laurens wondered the same for a moment, but then her veins ran cold. No…Newson couldn’t have possibly figured out…but then again, she did have access to the case file as well…

“The investigator one. Jackie Donovan? I checked his missing person report; he disappeared on Christmas Eve, didn’t he?” Newson shook her head. “The very same day you were out wandering the streets, leaving behind videos for the police and killing innocent people.”

“You are lying,” Schneep said breathlessly. His hands were shaking. Laurens opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. “You—you are doing this on purpose! Trying to upset me!”

“You can throw any types of words at me, just don’t call me a liar. I can bring the report for you to see, if you really have to.” She sighed. “Guess you ran into each other that night. Maybe he saw what you were doing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if you decided it would be easiest to—”

Someone screamed, and Laurens suddenly found herself losing her balance and toppling to the floor as something shoved her. She caught herself with one hand, pushing herself to a kneeling position. Looking up, she realized Schneep had rushed past her, knocking her over to get to Newson. And Newson was now pressed against the wall, trying to cover her face in a futile attempt to defend herself. Schneep was on the attack, fists flying. And he kept screaming.

“Henrik, no!” Laurens shot to her feet, running over. “Oliver, help!”

Oliver was already on the move, trying to pull Schneep away. But Schneep was determined. He grabbed the collar of Newson’s coat, shaking her until her head slammed against the wall. Laurens grabbed his wrist in an attempt to break his hold, prying at his fingers. She didn’t succeed, but she distracted Schneep long enough for Oliver to grab his other arm, quickly inserting a needle and pressing down.

Schneep shrieked wordlessly, finally backing away, arms pinwheeling. It was too late, of course, the sedative was already in his system. He shook his head back and forth, covering his ears. “I did not kill him!” He screamed. “I did not kill him! No! No, I would never! It does not matter what happens to me, I would never!”

“Of course not, Henrik,” Laurens said in a soft voice. “I believe you.”

“No, you do not believe!” He laughed. “You never have, have you? You just say it so I stay under control. Like him. This is no different, is it? Nothing has changed. Nothing, nothing, nichts, nichts!” He staggered backwards, slumping against the bed. “I did not kill my friend. You could not make me, I would die before.” A shudder wracked his body. “No, I-I would know. If…if it was an accident, I-I would still know, and I would not. I would never. Please. Please…say I would never.” His voice cracked.

Laurens could see tears dripping from his eyes. She took a step forward. “You…you wouldn’t do that. Never.”

Schneep didn’t seem to hear her. He looked up at the ceiling, continuing to mutter and plead under his breath.

Behind her, Laurens heard a groan. She turned around to see Newson standing up straight, rubbing at a spot on her shoulder. “Jesus christ…” she muttered. “I…wasn’t expecting that.”

“Maybe you should’ve been,” Laurens mumbled.

“I heard that,” Newson snapped. She hissed as she moved her arm. “Wow. Hits hard for a…um. Anyway. Oliver, could you…?” She gestured vaguely at Schneep.

Oliver stared at her blankly for a moment before nodding, and crossing the room to stand next to Schneep. He leaned down, scooping him up. Schneep tried to resist, but the sedative was starting to kick in, so any struggles were reduced to small wiggles and loose gestures. His eyelids fluttered.

“Thanks,” Newson said. “I think he needs some time in the quiet room. You mind taking him there?”

“…sure,” Oliver said after a long hesitation. He glanced over at Laurens, and when she remained silent, he walked to the room’s door and left, carrying Schneep with him.

“And you. Dr. Laurens.” Newson turned her gaze on her. “You should go home.”

Oh shit. “Okay,” Laurens said quietly.

“Come in early tomorrow. I want to talk to you.”

“Okay.”

And without another word, Newson turned and left.

Laurens remained, standing in the center of the room, for a while longer. Her stomach sank as it really hit her what just happened. Well, she’d been right when she thought earlier that this wouldn’t end well. She’d never seen Newson so…god, she didn’t even know the words to describe it. Pushy. ANGRY. She’d seen Newson interact with other patients before, and she was totally different there. Actually helpful. Why did she hate Schneep so much?

And then Laurens had yelled at her to leave. She’d YELLED at her boss. It was starting to hit her that she might be fired. Which, maybe she would’ve been fine with under other circumstances, but now? She would be leaving behind a patient who needed her. Schneep trusted her, but it had taken three months to get to this point. He’d be alone, starting from square one with some other doctor. Maybe even Newson, and that would not be a pretty picture.

Laurens took a deep breath. Well, she’d have to argue her case really well tomorrow, then. She gathered her notebook and the case file, and left the room.

She picked up her things from her locker in the employees’ area, then headed towards the entrance. She was almost there when a familiar figure blocked her way. “Hi, Oliver,” she sighed. “Um…how did it go?”

“Good, I guess.” Oliver hesitated. “I-I just wanted to say that…that it was good that you stepped in when Dr. Newson was getting angry with him. That’s…that’s a decent thing. And I’m sorry I didn’t help much back there.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t even know I would be doing that,” Laurens said. “Hey, if…if anything happens to me, are you going to keep being the orderly for this case?”

Oliver looked down. “I mean, yeah, hopefully.”

“That’s good. You’re…you do a good job.” Laurens paused. If she got fired tomorrow, she’d like it if someone…she pulled out the keycard to Schneep’s room, then opened the case file and tucked it inside. She placed it on top of her notebook and held the pile out to Oliver. “Can you hold onto this?”

“Uh, sure?” Oliver looked confused, but he reached out to take it anyway, grabbing it. “Won’t you need it tomorrow, though?”

Laurens didn’t let go. She looked him in the eyes. “Could you. Hold on. To this?” She emphasized.

Oliver’s eyes widened, seeming to understand as he looked back and forth between the file and her face. He nodded vigorously. “Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

Laurens breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks.” She let go of the file, letting Oliver take it. “I’ll…see you tomorrow, maybe.”

“See ya.”

And with that, she walked out, heading to her car.
.............................................................................................

Ding.

The small sound was enough to wake Chase up. He sat up, wincing at a sudden shoot of pain in his neck. He must’ve fallen asleep on the couch…at around midday. Well, that was an unexpected nap, but it wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t like he’d had anything else planned. Rubbing his eyes, he picked up his phone from where it was sitting on the coffee table, checking the lock screen for a notification that would make that sound.

The first thing he saw was a text—from JJ. "Chase? I’m on break for an hour, do you want to meet up for lunch or anything like that?"

Chase smiled. It was nice of him to offer, but…his grin faded as he replied, "Nah, I dont really feel up 4 anything"

"If you’re sure." The first text was immediately followed by another. "Did you happen to leave your house at all this last week?"

"I went to go see Schneep on Friday."

"And now it’s Wednesday. "

"Dont judge me." Chase immediately winced after sending that one. "Sorry that came off rude I didnt mean it like that."

The little text bubble appeared and disappeared again for a while, as if JJ was trying to figure out what to say. "So, have you had anything proper to eat or just takeout and macaroni?"

Chase didn’t bother to answer that one. He squirmed where he was sitting. He knew this was all well-meaning, but…he couldn’t help but feel like he was doing something wrong. Like he was about to get a bad grade in ‘being a person.’ "Its just been a rough couple of weeks", he finally replied. "A low slump. It happens"

"Seems like a pretty low slump," JJ remarked. "Did you see the kids last weekend?"

"Yeah." It had been…exhausting. Four-year-olds had a lot of energy that he just couldn’t seem to keep up with recently.

"And that’s good, isn’t it? That’s a positive."

"Yeah, guess so." He paused. "Yknow I really appreciate you checking in on me, but you have other things to do, right? You dont have to keep doing this"

A long pause from JJ, as well. "I suppose you’re right, on some level. I do hope you know this isn’t an obligation, or anything. I check on you because I want to. But I suppose I can’t be there all the time. Which is why I’ve been wondering something…have you considered therapy?"

Chase bit his lip, thinking how to reply. Yeah, of course he had. But…he wasn’t that bad, right? He didn’t really need it. And besides…"Isnt that kinda expensive? I dont have $400 to spare when I need groceries and stuff. Not that he was buying those either, recently."

"Lol when will you catch on that all health care here costs a lot less? "

"Idk give me another year, well go for five. Anyway I dont even know where youd get a therapist"

"That’s what Google is for. Or I can give you mine’s number!"

Chase stared down at the text for a few moments before fully taking it in. "I didnt know you went to therapy"

"I do! Why do you think I’m never available Mondays at three?"

"I just kinda assumed you had work then, I dunno. "

"Well now you know."

That…surprised him. He wasn’t sure why, he just…wasn’t expecting that to come from JJ. He didn’t want to pry, though, so he changed the topic a bit. "Im still not sure, bro. It just doesnt seem like I…idk what Im saying"

"Well, at least consider it," JJ sent. "And even if you decide against it, there are a lot of tips that can help you, I’m sure. Even something as simple as walking around the house can help lift a funk."

"Really?" Chase looked at the clock on his phone. God, last time he’d checked the time it was nine, now it was closer to two. He’d really just sat down and spaced out for five hours before falling asleep. That probably wasn’t good. "Maybe Ill try that"

He stood up, stretching, rolling his neck to work out the kink. Just walk around for a few minutes, huh? Maybe he could open the curtains a bit more, wasn’t there supposed to be some benefit to sunlight? He crossed the room to the window, pulling said curtains out more. As he did so, he looked outside.

Wait…what was that?

Chase squinted. There was someone standing out on the street, right across from his window. From this distance, it looked like a man. But he couldn’t see the face, because this person was wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled up. The man had his hand raised to the side of his face, and…was it just him, or was the man looking right at his window?

But Chase had barely registered this question when the man lowered his hand, showing he’d been holding a phone to his ear. The man turned and continued down the street. So…maybe he’d just stopped to take a phone call? That made sense, didn’t it? Still, Chase felt uneasy.

Another ding of a text notification from his phone. Chase looked down at the screen. "That’s the spirit! Tell me how it goes. :p"

Chase laughed a bit under his breath. "I will, bro," he replied. He turned away from the window. Maybe he’d go into the kitchen, make something to eat that wasn’t just a bag of chips.

But he hesitated, turning back to look out the window once more. Something felt…wrong.
.............................................................................................

Laurens pulled up the driveway of her house, parking her car and getting out. What a day. And tomorrow…well, she had to make sure she said all the right things. She’d start planning right away.

“Hello?”

She shrieked, falling back against the car and reaching inside her purse.

“Whoa, hey, didn’t mean to startle you! Uh, sorry for dropping by without notice, my phone died.”

Her breathing slowed, and she relaxed as she recognized the voice and face. “Hi, Chase,” she said. “You scared me.”

“Yeah, uh. Sorry.” Chase shrugged, shifting on his feet.

“It’s fine,” she waved away. “Um, how’d you get here?”

“I drove a bit, but I didn’t want to park in front of anyone’s house in case that was weird, so I walked from the gas station,” he explained. “And I uh, found your address in the phone book. Cause you gave me your number.”

“I see.” Laurens nodded. “So…what’s up? I mean, why did you show up at my house in person?”

“I know, it’s weird, and I probably should’ve met you at Silver Hills, but they said you already left by the time I got there,” Chase said. “Anyway, like I said, my phone died, I lost my charger, and I wanted to talk to you about Henrik.”

“Okay.” Laurens sighed internally. This day just kept getting worse. “Well, we can talk about it inside.” She was tired. If more stress-inducing things were going to happen, at least she could be sitting down while they did.

Chase flashed a sharp grin. “Sounds perfect.”

She turned around. For a moment, she thought that Chase’s right eye had looked…a little bit weird, in a way she couldn’t exactly place.

And then a set of hands reached around and grabbed her, covering her mouth.

She cried out, kicking at “Chase’s” legs, but to no avail. The hands slammed the back of her head against the side of her car, and everything went dark as she immediately blacked out.