⊹ ｡ ﾟ⁖✦ •𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘢 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘈𝘜⁖ °✦ ･ﾟ⋆

Chapter 9

The three men all crowded around a desk in the lab/classroom. Mark had one of his notebooks with him and was writing down what remaining details Jonah had left to give him from his file. Then it was Adam's turn. He was stubborn and reluctant to give much. "Come on dude, either tell him yourself or I'll do it for you when you're not around." That was Jonah's attempt at getting Adam to spill. And it worked. Adam let out an annoyed sigh and told Mark everything he found.

Adam sighed and covered his eyes with his hands when all was said and done. He never liked sharing so much about himself. Especially the personal things. Jonah sat down next to him and put an arm around Adam in a side-hug. "I-I'm so sorry." Said Mark, genuinely apologizing.

Adam's mother was a victim of Metaphysical Awareness Disorder. Worse yet, one of the mothers who had lost her child under mysterious circumstances. He remembered hearing about the missing child cases on television. It seemed as though all of the victims were infants between the ages of mere months old to 4 years. And then he remembered something else...his own encounter with an alternate when HE himself was just 4 years old. But the entity left him alone...Mark decided not to dwell on it, since he probably wouldn't find any explanations for that here. Cesar was the group's main focus.

"It's...whatever, man. That was years ago." Adam said flatly. He was trying to hide how he truly felt. "I think we're gonna head out," Jonah said to Mark, "see you tonight, right?" Mark nodded. "Of course. Not like we have a choice, anyway." Jonah and Adam went down to Six's bar, and Mark went to his suite to put the notebook away. He was proud of how much the team had accomplished so far. There was still a lot of questions to answer and clues to connect, but this was better than nothing.

"Hi!" Jonah called when he and Adam walked into the bar. "Aye aye, it's my two favorite regulars!" Six responded back. "Regulars? We've only been here once." Adam said.
"Yeah true, that was sort of outta habit. You two are the only ones I've seen so far anyways! No one else comes to visit me. They might not even know I exist..."
Jonah and Six giggled to each other about that. They noticed Adam was sitting silently looking preoccupied. Jonah brought him here to distract him.

"Aye buddy, what's up wit'chu?" Six asked. "Oh, it's uh...sort of a long story." Jonah replied.
"Well I got time!" Six said. "I don't want to talk about it." Adam said firmly. "Alright, I hear you. Well, what can I get you fellas today?"

Jonah and Adam ended up spending the entire day with Six in the bar. It's easy to lose track of time in a place like this.Adam was drunker than Jonah, but they were both snickering and stumbling out and were on their way to the casino lobby for the 8pm ritual. "D-dude...how obvious are we?" Adam asked. "Pfft, I dunno! It's not like Cesar's gonna know anyway, he's just a kid bro." "True. He probably doesn't know what drunk people act like, heh..." "He'll notice you acting differently, though."

Adam and Jonah shot their heads up in shock. Thatcher was standing at the end of the hallway.
The two tipsy fools were too stunned to say anything. "Come on. I'll help you guys get there in time. Last thing you need is to be showing up late AND intoxicated."

Thatcher dropped them off at their destination. The game went on as normal.
When the last round was complete, Adam and Jonah helped each other out of their chairs, their drunkenness starting to become evident. "How about you two go off to bed! Now." Cesar ordered with a fake smile. The two nodded and left. Cesar gathered the cards made his way over to Mark. "Congratulations!" Cesar cheered. Mark looked around the room suspiciously.
"What?" He asked. "You've won enough times! Now you get to play with.." Cesar let his voice trail off so Mark couldn't hear who he was talking about.

"Look, don't worry about it!" Cesar patted his friend on the shoulders reassuringly. "I'll show you!" "Now?" Mark asked. He was tired and would rather wait until the next night. "Special circumstances," Cesar tried to explain, but Mark was still left in confusion.

Cesar led Mark down a hallway he had never been in before. It was damp and lit with unnaturally bright artificial lighting on the ceiling. He noticed there was a hole in the wall on one side. Nothing else. They stop in front of a dark door that could be easily missed if you were walking through.

"Whatever happens," Cesar turned to face Mark and gave him a sincere hug.
"I had fun with you." Mark stood there awkwardly, still confused. He pat Cesar's back. "Uh..y-yeah, me too?" Cesar gave Mark one last smile, opened the door, and gestured for him to walk through. He could see hidden emotions on Cesar's face. He looked sorrowful, like he was planning to go up to his suite and cry for a few hours. Mark stepped through into a warm and dark room. He turned his head, but the door appeared to have disappeared in the darkness. The only lighting was deep red and didn't illuminate much of anything.

"You." A voice boomed. Mark snapped back to face forward. There was a large table a few feet in front of him with an ominous figure sitting at it. Mark started walking forward without thinking. He couldn't stop himself if he tried. Once he was right up to the table, he looked up at the figure's face. He couldn't make out much...the eyes were obscured by shadow, but the expression seemed neutral.

"Hello, Mark Heathcliff." "Who are you?" "You're out of time." The figure pointed to a tall hourglass off to the side with the last crumbs of sand pouring down it. A digital sign above it read "888". The sign and some light behind the hourglass itself was lit up blue.

"Wh-what does that mean?" Mark looks back up at the figure, his anxiety showing clear as day.
"You're almost home free. Isn't that great?" The figure contorted its face into a disturbing

wide-eyed smile. "I d-don't know..." Mark choked out.

"Sit down, Mark. Let's play a game....."