Paraprosexia

Prologue: Without a Trace

It was so sudden.

No letter, no email, not even a villain monologue. No one expected, of course they knew Dark would leave them one day. They all had imagined that day. Each ego in that room had their very own ideal version of freedom. Dark was the worst, he was strict, he pushed for exact deadlines, and obviously favored Wilford over any of them. Yet, this was different.

The squeaks of the chairs and the smell of a recently cleaned room were the only things in the egos' presence. No one files, not even Googleipler knew what was happening. Dark was fifteen minutes late. That wasn't something Dark did, he was on time, and sometimes he would even be ten minutes early. The earliest they had known of was when Dark was there for two hours before any Ego had arrived. Late? No, that wasn't Dark. Something was wrong.

Maybe he got stuck in the void, not that common but the egos weren't sure. Wasn't too impossible of an idea. The egos waited another five minutes. Yet, no Dark. Was this really how their visions came true? No, he had to be pulling something on them.

Was this a joke? Did Wilford somehow get the better of the egos? Wait, where was Wilford? The egos converse among themselves and Wilford hasn't been spotted all week. Dark rarely interacted with the egos so they thought nothing of it. Many theories were tossed around. Wilford could've switched the dates, Google's calendar glitched out, or even Dark just didn't tell the egos the correct date.

Each ego around the table shared the same confusion. The confusion dried and became dread. An overwhelming dread that took over the whole body. No ego said anything, but no words needed to be said to explain it. Dr. Iplier was the first to speak up.

He blurted out what everyone was thinking.

"Dark is gone, what now?" Everyone stared at him. His tone wasn't shaky or anything. He carried himself the same as he always did. Did he know something? Or was he already accepting this new life?

With that question all the egos rushed out of the meeting room. Each one stumbling to fit into the elevator. No one knew if this was a test yet. Whatever it was, they needed to find Dark. As the elevator stopped the egos flowed out. They went to their own vehicles as a few carpooled with others.

It was a race to the manor. No one obeyed the speed limits but who did anyways in California. With each twist and turn on the road only furthered the panic. If this was a cruel joke, then everyone would be mad. If it was a mistake then Dark would be mad. If he was truly gone, and fully gone, no trace of him. Then the future was unpredictable.

Upon reaching the manor, every ego could already feel the shift. The aura that had loomed over the manor. As the crowd of egos stood in front of the place. There was a nervous twinge across them. There was a moment of stillness. Now that they have reached the house, they had no idea what would happen next. The cards laid out in front of them were mysterious.

The Host was first. He narrated each step he took.

"The host moved swiftly to the door,"

His trench coat dragged across the gravel. He opened the door and his head turned towards the others. Even if he didn't have eyes, everyone understood. They followed along into the house.

Dark wasn't here. All the egos could tell that his presence was missing. They searched the first floor of the mansion. Not in the living room Ed and Bim concluded. Not in the theater room, concluded Dr. Iplier and Bing. The Jims searched the kitchen and reported he wasn't in the cabinets. Google tried calling, no one picked up. Both Wilford and Dark were missing.

One by one they went up stairs. The egos muttered among themselves. They shared their theories. How could they report this? Both Wilford and Dark were these... entities? No one knew much about their past. They could tell the police but what could they do? There wasn't any evidence that they were even US citizens, no socials, no paperwork, only the owner of the mansion but he died in the 1920s.