The Company

Chapter Twenty-Nine: I Probably Should Have Listened, But I Didn't

I opened the door and looked around. It didn't look as bad as I thought it was. It looked almost like an office complex with just one floor. There was a bunch of separate rooms with dark glass windows on the walls.

I almost called out to see if anyone was in there. It was so quiet it almost hurt. When I stepped past the first room, that was when some music started playing.

It's all over but the crying...

I jumped in surprise. It was that song from Fallout 4. It'd always given me the creeps when I watched my brother play it, but now it was worse. I was a little confused as to what was happening until I looked into one of the windows.

It was a tiny bedroom. It looked like it was right out of a family-style magazine from the 50's with everything pristine and perfect. All that was missing was a white picket fence and a smiling family. There was one of Their uniforms folded up on the bed, just as neat as the rest of the room.

What the heck is this place? I asked myself.

The music just kept playing in the background. It was soft and smooth, and when it was over, it just started over. It was like I was back in the Darkness, but I was in some kind of familiar territory.

It was cold, too. Not too cold, but still cold. I didn't know what that meant, but I was busy with other things.

I walked past room after room to the slow beat of the song. They were all oddly empty, which scared me a bit. I noticed when I walked past one room, there was something shiny on one of the beds. It barely caught the corner of my eye, but I saw it. I turned and tried to focus on it, to figure out what it was from a distance.

I walked up closer to the window and looked. I still couldn't tell what it was, but I got a general shape. It was like a square, like in that game system my brother used to talk about. It was before I was born, I think. Something Nintendo. But the whole thing itself didn't shine, just the edge.

Curiosity sparked in me and I was forced to go check out what it was. I scanned the area for a door or a button to open up something.

Lucky for me, I found both. A button that opened a door. I pushed it and the door opened with a loud hissing noise, like I was opening an airlock in a space movie.

I was not happy to be in that room. All I could do was hold my breath, get in, and get out. I grabbed what I needed and shut that door faster than I could blink.

It was small. And yeah, it was a chip. Feeling it in my hands was like...never mind. It scared me to death just breathing around it. I could barely believe that I was holding the thing that was controlling almost the entire Academy and not to mention one of my lifetime best friends. I felt like I was holding the button that could open the door and drop the Little Boy.

I heard something, like a bumping noise. I turned around to see one of Them in a room bumping against the wall like a glitched video game character. He'd bump against the wall, but he kept walking forward. He still had that plastered on smile like the rest of Them, but something seemed off.

I walked up to the glass and put my hand against it. It was cold and smooth, almost as pristine as the inside of the room. I noticed something on the side of the door. It looked like a sort of shelf, and held a clean white binder.

I opened it up. It had the school picture of the kid and all kinds of information. I didn't even recognize him until I read the name.

"Johnny Montgomery?" I asked aloud.

I read on a bit more. What was happening was that he was not only blind, but his ability to react had been messed up.

This was what was left of the kid that tortured me for years on end? A failed experiment? It didn't seem fair for him. Even if he was a self-centered jerk who gave everyone the worst time, he still didn't deserve this.