Chapter Text
The monster smashed into Beenie's locker, rattling the whole thing as it tried to get in. It scratched at the doors with its teeth and Beenie was using every ounce of strength she had to keep them closed. She pulled the locker doors towards her harder every time they threatened to open, adrenaline and terror fueling her as tears streamed down her face.
She heard someone calling out for her, but didn't dare to pay it any mind. One mistake—one distraction—one slipup would get her killed. There was too much noise around her to be able to hear anything properly. Her arms trembled as she felt her strength begin to leave her.
"No- no! Not like this!" She sobbed, yanking the doors back towards her when they nearly flew open. It couldn't possibly keep doing this. It had to get tired eventually. She just needed to outlast it.
The creature called Pandemonium kept at it for about 15 more seconds until finally it gave in and let go of the locker doors. Something that sounded like growling was emanating from the hallway and the monster trying to get into her locker hissed back at it. It's white eyes peered at Beenie through the cracks for a moment longer before it ran away, the growling fading along with it.
Beenie was drenched in her own sweat, shaking and crying as her strength gave out and she opened the locker doors only to collapse to the floor on her knees. Her entire body burned from having to fight that thing. She hardly even registered Estella yelling her name before running to the other locker that Marie had hidden in.
Her ears were ringing. Estella was screaming at her now, trying to pull open the other locker that had seemingly jammed. Beenie raised her head, confused.
"What?" She asked, the ringing getting quiet enough for her to understand her teammate.
"It's stuck!!" Estella yelled. "Marie went into the wrong locker!!"
The realization set in.
'Oh no.'
Something else was in the locker with Marie.
Beenie pulled herself up and ran to help Estella get the locker open. Now she could hear the banging and the screams coming from inside of it. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion as she grabbed hold of the other door and pulled with Estella to get it open. She was already so weak from needing to fight Pandemonium. She had no idea if she could even free Marie in time. With one final pull, the locker came open and a slimy black tentacle with purple hooks threw something out of it before attempting to grab Beenie. Just before it could wrap around her, Estella tackled her out of the way and the tentacle retracted into the locker to avoid the light, shutting the doors behind it.
Marie's body was laying on the floor beside them, already semi-decomposed to where there wasn't even any blood coming out of her. Beenie couldn't tell whether or not the creature ate the parts of her that were missing or simply absorbed them into its goo.
Estella got up to check her pulse, but from the gaping hole in her side, the missing right leg, and her left hand missing a chunk, Beenie knew that is was too late. She was already dead.
"Goddammit..." Estella breathed, putting her hands on her head and fighting tears as she examined the body. Beenie stayed silent for a few moments, staring at Marie's corpse in horror before breaking down crying.
Estella scooted next to her as she sobbed, covering her eyes with her hands as she shook her head. "I'm sorry... I don't know why I didn't hear you yelling, I just- I couldn't move, I could barely even breathe! I don't want to be here anymore!" She whimpered, leaning her head against Estella's shoulder. "I just want to go home."
They sat there in silence apart from Beenie's cries, a few minutes going by. It was honestly shocking that HQ allowed them to have a moment to actually breathe. Beenie was just glad they could have it at all so that she could get everything out of her system. Once she did, she let Estella continue to hug her tightly as she caught her breath.
"We've made it this far," Estella finally spoke, her voice soft and comforting. "We can make it, Beenie. I'm gonna get us out of here."
Slowly, Beenie nodded. She happened to look up towards the ventilation system and noticed one of the vent gates popped out of place. It must have opened during the Pandemonium encounter, as it was now lying on the floor.
"Hey, was that like that before?" She asked, pointing. Estella turned and tilted her head.
"No, I don't think so. I feel like we would have seen it."
"Hm." Beenie hummed before slowly getting to her feet. She kept her eyes off of Marie's dead body and started back towards the next door. "We should get moving just in case there's something else in here. I don't like that the vent just popped open like that."
Estella stood and nodded. "Me neither. Let's get out of this warehouse."
The two of them entered the next room and continued along the path set for them. Neither really said anything to the other as they both stopped to collect research every so often. After a few minutes of checking through drawers, Beenie stopped and turned to Estella despite her having her back to her.
"You said that you got to read Clovis and Marie's files before we came down here," She watched as Estella paused. "Does that mean you read through mine too?"
Estella slowly turned to her as if she were dreading the question. "I... Yes, I did."
"So then why didn't you call me out like you did to them?"
"Because I know why you did what you did. I know that you had a good reason to, not just because of drugs like Marie or a fragile ego like Clovis."
Beenie's brows furrowed. While it was relieving that somebody besides her parents finally believed that she was innocent, how could Estella have gotten that from the same report that got her thrown into prison in the first place?
Beenie simply replied, "How did you figure that out? The courts sure as hell didn't."
The words left a bitter taste in her mouth. Just thinking of how the legal system betrayed her made her furious. Estella closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before she responded with, "Did you even know who Trevor was?"
That question took Beenie by surprise. What did it matter who Trevor was? He was some scumbag she went on a date with who tried to rape her after she declined going home with him.
"What do you mean?" Beenie asked. Estella's expression changed, like her heart had just sank. She was looking at Beenie with pity. Like she knew something that Beenie wasn't sure she wanted to.
"Beenie... Trevor's father was Oscar Baker, the CEO of Baker Cybersecurity. You know, the ones that handle just about everyone's electronics and keep them from getting hacked? His father has his balls in almost every government tech project on the planet."
Beenie's eyes widened. 'No.'
"Your case evidence was tampered with. By Oscar. He paid off practically every cop in the area for them to dump the evidence that would have turned the case in your favor. The files still exist of course, only they're hidden away. Urbanshade got access to them."
'No, no.'
"There were texts to his friends about what he was planning, camera footage from a traffic cam right across from the alleyway, not to mention the pictures of your bruises that were taken when you went to the police. They tried to get rid of everything to-"
Beenie couldn't take it anymore, covering her ears and yelling, "Stop! Please... don't tell me anything else."
She killed the son of a literal billionaire with ties to the government. The realization slowly dawned on her and she pressed a hand into her mouth to keep herself from gagging.
'I never stood a chance against that man.'
It was unfair. It was cruel and wrong and she couldn't believe what she had just heard. If Urbanshade had her evidence, then why did they never help her? Who else knew the truth aside from Urbanshade and their employees? Who else was keeping their mouth shut about this? If she got out of here alive, would they really even expunge her record like they said they would? If Urbanshade really was working with the government, would they help her or lock her right back up to keep Trevor's pig father happy? So many questions were running through her mind and she couldn't take it. In a fit of rage, Beenie grabbed a light that had been sitting on top of one of the desks and threw it across the room with a furious yell. She saw Estella had flinched, but was too distracted with her thoughts to apologize. Running a hand through her hair, she tried her best to calm down but she was still shaking with anger. If it weren't for Trevor's corrupt bastard of a father, she wouldn't even need to be down here in the first place.
"This is not fair." She managed to mumble.
"I'm so sorry, Beenie... I just thought you deserved to know." Estella replied, her voice quiet with guilt.
Beenie took a moment to breathe it out before replying, "No. It's better that you told me all of this. It... explains a lot."
'It explains too much.' She wanted to say.
They moved on to the next room, Beenie trying to distract herself with something, anything, other than the conversation they just had. Then she remembered something she had seen in the office with the big screen.
"So uh, since you read the files on most of the creatures here, do you know what a Z-13 is?" She asked.
Estella gave Beenie a surprised look. "Yeah, I know of him... how do you know that?"
"It was on a screen in another room. It said that he started the lockdown."
"Oh. Uh, yeah, Z-13 is like the most dangerous thing in here. Not just from the fact that he used to be human, meaning he's smarter than creatures like the Angler or the Eyefestation-"
"He used to be human?" Beenie interrupted, surprised. She thought they only experimented on animals and unknown dangerous creatures down here. Humans being experimented on was a whole other story—one that concerned her greatly.
"Yeah. Something about him being put on death row and then Urbanshade taking him. I forgot most of the details, but apparently we need to be careful around him." Estella shrugged. "Doubt we'll even see him while we're here anyway. He's supposedly hiding from Urbanshade, so if he's spotted on the few cameras that still work around here then he's pretty much screwed."
Beenie said nothing, simply following along as the two of them made it to Door 50, which was locked with a keycard. Estella checked the only desk in the room while Beenie checked a drawer, the keycard nowhere to be found.
"Well that's strange." Beenie muttered. A vent gate beside them flew open as if someone had just kicked it, the two women snapping their heads toward the sound as an unfamiliar male voice came from the vent.
"Psst. Down here."
Beenie and Estella looked at each other quizzically, Beenie slowly creeping towards the vent.
"Be careful," Estella warned quietly. "That looks like a trap if I've ever seen one."
The voice responded with a light chuckle, hearing her despite her whispering. "Oh please, I don't bite! ... Well okay, that's a lie, I have bitten people before. Heh. It was pretty funny actually, you would've probably laughed too if you saw their faces. But anyway- what I mean to say is I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm simply a humble merchant looking to sell his wares to you friendly folk."
Beenie crouched down in front of the vent, looking between it and Estella nervously. "Heh. Okay, uh, sir? Do you happen to know where the keycard to this door is?"
The voice sighed wistfully, yet it was filled with sarcasm as if the man in the vent was getting a kick out of messing with her. "Maaaaaybe. Guess you'll have to come in and find out, huh?"
There was a moment of silence, then Beenie turned to Estella and shrugged. "He's got us there."
Estella grumbled, shaking her head. "Okay, you have a point. I just don't trust whoever this is."
"Well, what if I go first?" Beenie suggested. "You've been taking charge for most of this mission. Let me do something for a change. If I don't die, then you just follow me in okay?"
The voice groaned impatiently. "Ugh, come ooooon! I don't have all day!"
Estella sighed, giving in. "Fine. Go ahead."
Beenie got on her hands and knees, crawling into the vent. "Okay mister... whoever. I'm coming in."
She crawled through until she entered a dark room and attempted to look around for a light source. She heard something being pulled down like a lamp cord and the entire room was suddenly illuminated enough for her to actually see her surroundings. There were shelves stacked with spare items like flashlights, code breachers, and more. She reached out to grab a flashlight, but that voice stopped her.
"Ah ah ah, no freebies. This isn't exactly a charity, you know."
The voice was coming from above her. Slowly, Beenie turned around to see a giant fish man towering over her with a cheeky smile as he outstretched his arms in an exaggerated greeting.
"Welcome, welcome!" The fish man said, resting his head on one of his hands. Beenie was surprised to find that he actually had three arms instead of two. "Don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you—despite what you may have seen, heard, and/or been told."
Beenie's head was starting to spin. Why is a fish man talking to her right now? Could this trip get any more bizarre?
"My name is Sebastian, your only- whoa, hey, are you okay?" He asked. "You look like you're about to pass out."
Beenie shook her head. "No, not really. I think I might need to lie down."
"Well can you not do it in here? I'd like to keep my shop free of any unconscious bodies." Sebastian remarked, but it was already too late. Beenie felt herself go down and her head hit the floor, her vision fading to black as she passed out. The last thing she heard was Sebastian's voice as he grumbled to himself.
"Ah, shit."