EXTINCTION & PERCEPTION || a magnus archives au

Hospital

The Archivist almost immediately after recording the previous statement rushed out of his office, the small tape recorder from within their bag they always carry around turning on by itself, expecting something .

As Jon walked to the main entrance of the Institute thru the hallway, there it was. One of the quite rare chances of seeing Martin Blackwood passing by to his own office he nowdays spent the majority of his time in, avoiding everyone as his life was depended on it.

Jon practically ran towards Martin. He needed to tell somebody.

" MARTIN -" John called out

Martin have jumped at the sudden noise and quickly turned around " Oh Jon hi, you alright ? " Martin didnt really want to be rude, especially towards Jon, but he was already gripping the doorhandle of his office tightly.

" No - i mean yes - but also " Jon's talking sounded somewhat frantic at the moment " i've read this anonymous thing - they know - i know - ... Tim is alive. "

" ...What , jon what are you - are you so sure about it- " Martin didnt want to believe what he was saying , can't things just stay like they were for God's sake?

" Yes , and we need to go now, before it's.... before it's to late. "
" Too late for what? "
" no idea, i just.... feel he has little time left " Jon stated " i have pulled out the hospital adress too, we need to go there now. "

"...Do i...have to go ? " Martin asked
" Do you want to? "
" Of course i do... I just.... i need to ask, you know, my schedule is pretty full - "
" Go and ask now, while I go inform the others, we will be waiting for you outside "
" Right... thank you "
" No problem "

Martin quickly after entered the office, shutting down the door behind him.
" You need to go -"
" What - "

Lukas was already there, he listened to the previous conversation .
" However, you need to bring weapons with yourself. The bastard is much more dangerous than you may think - " Peter pulled out a good couple of very sharp knives " And don't let him take any of these "

" Tim? He would never hurt any of us -"
" Nonono not Tim. The person you will be meeting works for the Extinction. "
" Didnt you say that the Extinction has no avatars - "
" Well i didnt say he was an avatar Martin. At least not for the Extinction. "
" Then what is that " he " you're talking about now.. "

A somewhat uncomfortable pause

" During his lifetime, "he " was one of the first, if not the very first Hunt avatar wayy back when the civilization was barley seeing it's golden era in the old age . Ever since that tho, he got various " upgrades " and now it is distant from it's previous patron in all forms other than his presentation, usually calling itself " humanitiy's  worst HABIT " as a form of diferencing himself from other Extinction manifestations. "

" Okay so you want to say that this is all a trap or elaborate prank and than Tim is actually dead ? " Martin questioned

" No. See, as he does not have a mortal body anymore, he is in constant search for new ones. Usually he tends to go with the physically strongest ones due to his animalistic like nature but he isn't picky when it comes to vessels that would gain him connections to something rather distant "

" So you want to say that tim - "
" in the simplest langage, possessed? Yes "

Another moment of somewhat dreadful  silence.

" What do we do about that? "
" Nothing "
" What - "
" He's on our side i think .. or as far as im aware he wants to work with Jon "
" Because of the eye ritual? "
" Not sure "

" I think I need to go now - they're already waiting for me i think " Martin picked up the weapons in a bag and got out of the office .

" Good luck "

•••

" Are you 100% sure that we would need this " Melanie questioned as she put one of the knives in her pocket
" Peter told me that something is controlling him and that there is a chance he will act very violently towards most of us, so yes "

Jon somewhat zoned out, glaring thru the car window thinking about god knows what
" Jon, come on , we arrived " Daisy waved her hand across his eyes trying to grab their attention.

" Oh yeah - that's right, sorry " he appologized as Daisy gave him one of the knives Martin have shared with everybody.

Couple moments later everyone was inside the waiting rooms of the said hospital, inside wich you could clearly sense that something was wrong.

The archivist went up to the reception table
" Excuse me? " he asked the nurse, who seemed to be chattering with somebody on her phone
" Sorry love just a sec- Yes? " she put down the phone on the side upon seeing Jon
" Just wanted to ask in wich room is the patient named Tim stoker.. I'm his distant relative - "

" Tim stoker? " She raised an eyebrow
" Yes - why ? "
" .... you don't know do you? "
" Know what? "
" He ran away like two days ago in the early morning. Not even 12 full hours after he gained his concioussness back "

" .... right, but... can you just tell me where the room was... I need to check something "
" Room 420 , third floor all the way on the left , but I wouldnt recommend trying to get in , you could unsettle the patients "

" Don't worry about that, but thank you " with that Jon went back to the others " He's already gone from here, however i do have a feeling i need to check for any clues upstairs "

"okay lets go " Basira gestured towards others to go
" Nonono, i need to go alone, there is another patient in the room where Tim was, visiting in this number would be suspicious "
" Oh, yeah you do have a point . Be careful tho "
" I will try my best "

•••

" Excuse me, is this room 420 -" John asked a random nurse that was coming out of the said room

" Yeah it is - wait are you Marks husband??Aww how sweet of you to come all the way from France, he told me so much about you you when he was conciouss, you two are such a wholesome couple . We need to go for a cup of tea once everything's over- "

" Yeah we need to surely, but uh mind if i "

" Oh sorry i totaly forgot, yeah take as much time as you want with him, it sure must be painfull to not see him for months "

" Right, thank you " Jon smiled weakly as he entered the hospital room
" Anytime" the nurse said cheerfuly as she went away to do her work.

The archivist was carefully looking thru every possible detail of the room, except for the bed's surface of course, he didn't really want to disturb the patient lying on it.

After some time of desperately trying to find anything remotely usefull , nothing. They were almost at the edge of giving up when... the mirror.

On the centre of the mirror there was a picture of a group of people. Tim supposedly taking a selfie with a group of people the archivist did not recognize not could pull out the information about in a nature, almost hiking like environment.

Tim's face was unfortunately burned in the photo and instead of it there was just a hole, but it only took jon to see the colourful stripped shirt he used to wear even in the Archives to recognize who was that in the picture .

Before jon could pull down the picture in taped to the mirror, in the corner of his eye, he noticed a hand taping something else on the opposite wall, making him immediately turn around to.... no one.

On the opposite wall however, there was only.... a piece of thick purple duck tape with a very simple message written on it in white marker.

" BEHIND YOU :) "