Syndicate of the Hallowed

You're Up Late

  Cory's brain felt splattered. Being pulled away from, wherever he was so violently and suddenly would do that to anyone. The cold air of that room had now been replaced with a warm cover, a blanket. 'Why am I in a bed? And where am I?' A stinging sensation entered his lense as he slowly blinked it open. As opposed to the dark room Cory first woke up to, the lights in this room were intense. Something about this environment was familiar, very familiar.  He laid there, thinking. 'Wait...' It didn't fully hit him until he shot upward and looked around, 'the foundation barracks'. Everyone around Cory was asleep, he peeked over at the clock '12:43'.  Was it all a dream, or a nightmare? He can't be sure, it felt so real, . 'God, I hope it wasn't real.' There was only one real way to check, but if it actually works he can't be seen on the cameras. A bathroom is really the only place where privacy even slightly exists at the Foundation. And using the excuse of needing to use the restroom in the middle of the night was believable. He quietly got up and walked to the bathroom next to the barracks.

     He walked into the single person bathroom, it would make this much more difficult if someone walked in on this. 'How should I test this? If that dream was real, I could accidentally destroy this whole site...' Cory shakely reached his hand out. His palm touched the cold smooth surface of the sink. 'This is a bad idea.' He shakely took a deep breath and shut his eye. He relaxed his hand and felt his fingers curl around the sink. His fingers began tingling like small jolts of electricity traveling through them. Without warning, the sink shattered, no, it was as if the very matter the sink was made up of tore itself apart. Cory's breath was caught in his throat. His heart began pounding. His gaze landed on the mirror, and a piercing red glow stared back at me. 'What.. no, no. I couldn't have- I'm not, I'm not some Apollyon'. His lungs began to burn, 'I can't breath.' He could hear his words echo through his head, mocking him. Cory reached for the untouched faucet and flipped it on. Filling his hand with cold water and splashing it onto his face. The freezing chill pulled Cory into my senses. He closed his eye and regained his breath. Cory wanted to cry, 'Why did it have to be real, and why did I have to wake up here'. He slumped his body Thankfully, the sink had made little noise, but the next person to enter the bathroom would notice something not normal happened. Just walking away should be fine, there isn't a camera watching who goes into the bathroom. 'I'm not gonna get anymore sleep tonight.'

     Cory struggled with navigating the site, he struggled before and now it had been years since he had tried to navigate it. He paused, trying to listen for a familiar noise, the server room's fans. He headed down the hallway and neared the noise, only knowing where 2 places were from the server room: Doc's lab or the break room.
He decides on the break room, and began walking to it.

     He walked in, quietly opening the door and a similar smell greeted his noise. A similar noise also greeted him, the clacking of a keyboard. He looked across the room and there was Lara, sitting there, alive. He stared for a bit, she was oblivious to him. He eventually decided to sit down, the sound of him sitting down on the chair clued Lara in to the fact that he was there. She swiveled her chair around and was surprised to find Cory. He was just sitting there, staring at the wall."... Hey Cory, it's pretty late." Cory turned his head and met a slightly confused and concerned look on Lara's face. He turned away towards the ground. "Yeah it is." "What are you doing up?" " I... well, woke up and can't fall back asleep." "Bad dream?" "Something like that." Lara stared at him, he wore this tired expression that unnerved her. "Well... do you like tea?" She asked. Cory gaze didn't leave the ground, but he flashed a small grateful smile. "I wouldn't say no to it." Lara got up, "It'll be ready in a few minutes."

     When she got back, Cory was still staring at the ground. She walked over to him with 2 cups of tea, "Here" Cory looked up at her and took one of the cups. "Thanks." He took a sip of the tea, and it was delicious. He could feel the warmness spread throughout his body, helping him relax despite his current circumstances. "What're you doing up so late Lara?" Cory asked "I was just finishing the report from the Everest mission today, well yesterday." Cory nodded, that helped him piece together when he woke up. If he had finished the Everest mission yesterday, then in 2 days he should be having his lesson with Doc. "You said you had a bad dream?" "I... it was about some.. family issues." It wasn't technically a lie, he just didn't mention the 'my family is a bunch of world ending anomalies, including me' part. "Yeah, growing up with a bad family is rough." Cory thought it'd probably be cathartic to talk about it.  "I didn't grow up with them, it's my biological dad and his family. I was adopted." "He must be pretty bad if it's giving you nightmares." "Yeah, I guess he is." Cory said with a blank expression, his gaze unfocused. Lara was curious what this man could've done to make Cory this shaken up without having raised him. "Well, are you okay?" He pondered the question, unsure himself.  Looking towards her he gave her a smile. "I'm okay now." "Good" They finished the rest of their tea in silence, Cory enjoying the calm moment after years of being tormented by his father.

     Lara finished her tea and continued her work. She'd occasionally hear the noise of writing and glance behind her to find Cory, in his hands were a notebook and a pencil. She eventually finished her work and got up to head to the barracks, she stopped behind Cory. She looked over his shoulder to the notebook, the page was filled with unfamiliar words. "What're you writing?" Cory jumped a bit before turning his head toward her. "I-I'm just writing down my thoughts." Cory nervously answered. "I didn't know you knew another language." "It's Latin, I can speak and write in Latin." "Why Latin?" She questioned. "I'm a... I just decided to learn Latin" Lara nodded. She waited for a moment, hesitant. She was debating on whether she should say something. "You should go back to bed." "huh?" "You need more sleep, at most you've gotten 4 hours." Cory turned back to his notebook, not seeing Lara's now concerned look. "It's fine. I'm not tired." Cory nonchalantly replied. "You'll be tired in the morning. You constantly nap even when you get 10 hours of sleep, you've gotten less then half of that." Cory turned his head back to her. "Alright. I'll go to sleep, once I'm done." He lied. Truthfully Cory no longer needed to sleep every night thanks to being a demigod. But telling Lara that would lead to a much bigger problem than her being worried about his sleep schedule.

     Cory had been brainstorming ideas of what to do next in the notebook. He had come up with a short list of ideas  'Run away to the serpent's hand with Bright, wait until Otis assigns me as an SCP, run away by myself, or tell my friends the truth.' He wasn't keen on staying with the foundation, and he doubted if he told his friends he was a world ending monster they'd want to come with him. He thought of Hooper, and how when he was originally classified he almost shot him. That was when he really was harmless, which is no longer the case. He sighed, 'this is going to be a long night'.