26 - Advent End (1)

The three of us drop to the floor, crawl under my desk.

"It's the man … from the car …" whispers Addy.

Valerie, in shock: "Alex is … He's dead. But I-I don't—… We use non-lethal rounds, right? This isn't right. None of this makes any sense!"

I slam the cubicle wall, knocking a panel loose and revealing the stashed 9mm pistols hidden inside.

I hand two of them to Valerie and Addy, and take one for myself.

We check the magazine, rack the slide. We pop out from behind our cubicle wall cover, fire off a few rounds.

The man with the eyepatch grins, makes no attempt to dodge our gunfire. We hit him in the neck, his shoulders, his chest. None of it fazes him in the slightest. He continues walking toward us, slowly.

He doesn't even fight back.

We empty our magazines.

Even so, he just keeps … coming … at us … slowly.

"We're going to have to make a run for it," I say, nodding toward the elevator lobby.

"But, Alex …" cries Valerie.

Addy grabs Valerie's arm. "There's nothing we can do for him right now. But we need to go, okay?"

Valerie looks to Alex, lying on the floor. Then back to us.

She nods reluctantly.

The three of us dash out from the cubicle area, down the hallway.

The man laughs behind us. He shoots at us a few times. We flinch as the walls beside us explode in clouds of plaster and drywall dust.

No way his aim is that off. He's toying with us.

In the elevator lobby, we frantically mash the button.

"Come on, come on …"

I look at the reception desk.

Moeka … I hope she's safe somewhere.

The elevator's still not here.

We aim our (empty) guns at the hallway we came from, expecting to see the man at any moment now.

… But he doesn't come.

We don't even hear his footsteps anymore.

… Where did he—

Ding!

"The elevator's here! Come on!" says Valerie.

One last look at the hallway, to make sure he's not following us.

Then, we turn around, to face the elevator doors, which slide open to reveal—

—the man with the eyepatch, standing in the elevator, smiling.

Up close, I realize just how tall he is, towering over all of us by several heads.

He tips his cap. "Going down?"

Before we even have time to react, he rushes in, disarms all three of us, disassembling our weapons, so fast he's practically a blur.

He knocks me to the ground. Addy, too.

From the floor we watch as he corners Valerie, reaches for her throat with both hands, wraps his fingers around her neck.

I scramble up, still dizzy from the fall. I think I might have a concussion.

I grab the fire extinguisher on the wall, ram it into his sides as hard as I can.

The kidney shots do absolutely nothing. It's like hitting a brick wall.

In the meantime, he's squeezing the life out of Valerie. Her face turns blue.

I hit him harder.

No use.

I'm sorry, Valerie …

I can't save you …

I just can't—

At that moment, the elevator lobby is filled with a blinding, pink light.

"MOEKA BEEEEE-EEEAM!" rings through the entire floor, Moeka's familiar high-pitched voice echoing off the walls.

I can't see anything, but I hear the man let go of Valerie, who drops to the floor, coughing.

My vision adjusts, and I see Moeka standing there, dressed up in what looks like magical girl cosplay, pointing a pink star-tipped wand at the eyepatch man, who seems to be temporarily stunned, still recovering from Moeka's attack.

"M-Moeka?" I stammer.

Moeka looks at me, and smiles.

"Sunny-nii taught Moeka the truth of this world. He reminded Moeka of where we all came from. The club room … where it all started. We can all go back! No matter what happens here … We'll all see each other again. Alex, too. So, everything will be okay!"

My head hurts—but I don't think it's from my concussion.

The club room …?

Point … Parallax?

L-Limbo …?

Why are these words in my head? What does it all mean?

But there's no time to think about that now.

The man in the eyepatch is starting to move again.

He tilts his cap, smiles.

He raises his gun, point it at Moeka.

Moeka readies her wand.

Time slows to a crawl.

The moment seems to stretch out to infinity, as Valerie, Addy and I watch, our breaths held.

His trigger finger begins to squeeze.

Her wand starts to glow pink.

And then—

WHAM!!!!

Something—a red blur—hits the man with the eyepatch, sending him flying past us, and out of the elevator lobby, into the cubicles, where he crashes into the rows and rows of desks and office equipment, and finally, out the window, falling dozens of stories to the streets below Parallax Plaza.

We turn back to see, standing next to Moeka, our night-time janitor Sunny, holding what appears to be a bazooka, with a spring-loaded, cartoonishly-oversized red boxing glove, bouncing up and down on the end of it.

He stands back to back with Moeka, and the duo strike a cool pose.

He's no longer wearing his janitor's overalls—for some reason he's dressed in what looks like one of those all-black traditional male high school uniforms. (… Have I seen him like this before? When?)

"Think about it, Odd-kun," he says, wearing the same cheerful smile as always. "I mean, really think about this job. Who have you been working with, day after day?"

"What do you mean? … Addy, Alex, Valerie …"

"Yes, but who else? This is supposed to be an office, no? So where are all the other employees? When you have all those meetings, who's in the room with you?"

That same, mind-numbing pain again. I don't—I don't want to think about it.

"And what floor are we on, Odd-kun?" asks Sunny. "What floor of Parallax Plaza do we even work on?"

"We're on the … the Project department."

"Yes, but what number floor is that on? When you ride the elevator, what number do you press?"

"I-I press …"

"Which floor do you work on, Odd-kun?"

Come on, there's no way I don't know this. I've been working here every day for the past, uh … How many years?

Why don't I know any of this?

It's like that feeling when I'm trying to remember a specific word, one I know I've used all my life, but for whatever reason it keeps eluding me, and I'm left stuck in that uncomfortable state of near-recollection, of almost remembering but not quite … But oh, so close … So, so close …

As I try to force my fractured thoughts into something cohesive, Moeka and Sunny usher us into the elevator.

Inside, I look at the elevator console.

Really look at it.

Rows of buttons, each one labeled with numbers—scribblings really, I don't think you could call these numbers—that constantly shift and morph and refuse to coalesce into any semblace of structural order.

It's like a dream, when you try to look at the words in a book too closely, and you realize it's all nonsense.

Sunny's voice plays back in my head.

Which floor do you work on, Odd-kun?

Everyone's almost in now. Sunny's the last.

But as he steps in, a gloved hand grabs his shoulder.

It's the man with the eyepatch.

"Not so fast," he clucks.

The man yanks Sunny back, presses a knife to his throat.

We scream for him, try to pull him back in.

The elevator doors start to close. We try to pry them open, but it's no use.

The elevator starts to move.

But Sunny doesn't look worried at all. On his face, the same carefree smile he always wears.

"It's okay," he tells us. "… We'll all see each other again."

The last thing we see, before the elevator closes, is the light shining off the man's knife, as the blade slides across—

I look away.

*

When the elevator stops, and the doors open again, we're in the underground parking lot.

"Come on," Valerie says.

Addy, Moeka, and I follow her out.

A loud boom reverberates through the Plaza above us.

I don't know what's happening up there, but the parking lot rumbles, and all throughout the structure we hear crumbling, the sound of concrete breaking apart.

We have to get out of here.

Fast.

We run for the exit, where the light from outside shines in. We just have to make it up the ramp, and—

CRACK!!!!

The concrete above us suddenly caves in.

I can't see anything. A cloud of dust. I can't breathe.

I hack and cough, and when the dust finally settles, Moeka's lower half is pinned underneath a heap of concrete rubble and exposed rebar.

We rush to her side, all of us coated in ash-grey dust.

Valerie, Addy and I try in vain to lift the rubble off her, even just enough to free her, but it's no use.

"We'll get you out, Moeka," I say, straining with all my might, knowing that I'm lying to her. "Don't worry. You'll be okay."

Moeka smiles, weakly. "Even though it's not real … It still hurts …"

Footsteps echo somewhere down the parking lot, headed for us. The slow tread of his heavy boots on the concrete, even as the Plaza continues to fall apart above us.

He's coming for us.

Addy's crying. She doesn't know what to do. None of us do.

Valerie strokes the little girl's hair. "… I'm staying with Moeka."

"Valerie …"

Valerie looks up at me, sad smile on her face. "I think I get it now. What Sunny and Moeka both already know. And they're right. We will see each other again. We'll laugh and argue and make stupid jokes again, back in the club room. But you both have to make it out of here, okay? As long as you two make it out—we'll all be fine."

The man's closing in on us. With the tip of his gun, he adjusts his cap. A glint in his one exposed blue eye.

Valerie looks at Moeka, some strange, unspoken understanding between the two of them. They nod at each other.

They join hands, and close their eyes.

I feel a weird vibration, the air shimmering before us.

And in the blink of an eye, it appears in an instant, parked neatly next to Addy and I.

… A pink moped, decorated with cute rabbit decals.

There's something in my hand.

I open my palm. A single key, on a cartoon bunny keychain.

I don't get it.

I don't get any of it.

"If you can materialize a bike," I cry, "then teleport us out of here! Teleport Moeka away from the rubble! BRING SUNNY AND ALEX BACK!"

Valerie looks at the ground, sadly. "… I don't think it works like that, Odd-kun. I wish it did."

Moeka, asks, barely able to speak, "… Did we do it, Valerie-nee-chan?"

"Yes … Yes, it's very cute, Moeka. I like the rabbit decals."

"E-he-he …" she laughs, unable to keep her eyes open anymore. "Moeka … helped. Moeka … sleep now."

"Get out of here, now. I'll try to hold him off," says Valerie.

"W-with what!?"

Valerie stands, and mimes unsheathing a katana from its scabbard.

As she completes the motion, a real, actual katana shimmers into existence. She grins. "… With this."

Addy and I stand there, dumbfounded.

"NOW GO!"

The man is almost upon us. He stops in place, throws up both hands. "Tsk tsk," he says. "Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'Never bring a sword to a gunfight'?"

Valerie takes a stance. "Just make it to the end, Odd-kun. That's all you have to do."

Addy and I look at each other.

We get on the moped, me in front, Addy behind me. She wraps her arms around my waist. I start the engine.

As we drive off, we hear the sound of clashing behind us. A gunshot.

We reach the ramp leading outside. The outside light blinding us.

I turn around one last time.

The man stands above Valerie and Moeka, the parking lot crumbling down around them.

He waves at me, gun in hand.

Smiling, he tips his cap with the barrel of his gun.

I look away.

Then I accelerate out of Parallax Plaza, into the streets beyond, with Addy riding behind me.