In Memoriam - An Unus Annus Fanfiction

30.11 - 11/30 - Drawing Memes from Memory

»Look what I found!« Unus exclaimed, triumphantly waving a stack of white paper through the air. He closed the drawer and walked back to the table. There was still enough food on it for at least one or two days. Even if the meat had turned cold by now, it still tasted amazing to Annus.

His friend pushed a small tower of stacked plates aside, nearly knocking it over. Then, he handed Annus a piece of paper and a pencil.

»What are we doing?« Annus asked, laying his head to the side.
  »We're drawing,« was the short but exited response.
»We're drawing Memes.« He added when he saw that his initial response hadn't exactly lowered Annus's confusion. »It's something that connects us to Mark and Ethan. Even in their subconscious, we got a good grasp of what "Memes" are. Also, it helps against the boredom. Here, I'll start.«

Annus watched closely while Unus drew a circle on the blank sheet of paper. He then added two bumps on top of the head and two portruding eyes beneath. It already seemed familiar, and when he added broad lips, Annus knew. »It's Pepe!« He exclaimed.

»Yeah!« A bright grin crossed Unus's face. »Now you.«
Annus closed his eyes, trying to think of something. He searched his memories for anything he'd seen regularly when had been part of Marks subconscious. There were images of a dog, a joyful golden retriever, and of a pretty woman with chestnut hair. Beautiful memories, but no memes. He exhaled and tried again, and this time, he found something.

Unus raised an eyebrow when he drew a crude figure on his paper. It looked like a person, at least with a bit of creativity. Annus looked at his as if he expected a reaction, but honestly, he had no idea what it might be. His eyes followed the top of the pencil when Annus sketched a single letter to the bottom of the paper.

Unus huffed a sound of defeat. »I don't recognize it.« He admitted. »Point for you.«

»C'mon, the drawings a masterpiece,« Annus complained jokingly. »You gotta know this one.«
  »Try sounding it out for me,« Unus said while tapping the paper.
»How's that supposed to work?«
    »Wait, you mean you were not aware of that?«
Annus furrowed his brows. »Aware of what?«

»Down in the room where you brought me back you materialized the Ouija Board. The same way Dark and Blank create stuff to haunt us all the time. I already had the theory that we might be able to do the same, although I'm not sure how you did it.«

Annus scratched his neck. »I'm not quite sure either. Let me try.« He placed his hand on the paper and closed his eyes. He focused on tapping into the force, hacking into the Matrix or whatever he was supposed to be doing.

Nothing happened.

»Try again,« Unus encouraged him. »Try to remember what you did when you material the board.«

Closing his eyes again, Annus tried a second time. What did he do when he materialized the board? He wasn't sure. He didn't think of a Ouija board, nor did he try to make it appear. At that point he needed to have something to get to Unus. He didn't want it, he had been overwhelmed by the need for it to exist.

A loud noise, made up from s single vocal, echoed through the room. The “E” bounced of the walls, creating a sound that surrounded them. Annus, his eyes still closed, spat out a laugh.

He tried again, before breaking out into a full blown wheeze. Unus joined in, and nearly fell out of his chair with laughter when Annus did it a third time.

»Let me try,« he managed to say between bursts of laughter. He scribbled something on a new piece of paper. The room was silent with anticipation.

The synthesized drum line of 'Never gonna give you up' began playing.
The sound burst through the room like thunder. It was loud enough to shake the table, making the water jump out of the glass.
Both of them erupted in a belly laugh, broken only by wheezes for air.

They kept it up for quite a while, taking turns with sounding out different memes.

Unus stopped laughing as if he had been bitten by something.
   »What's wrong?«
»I have an idea!« He responded, hastily grabbing a piece of paper and walking over to one of the blank walls. Annus couldn't see what he drew, but a few moments later, a door popped into existence.

The man in the dirty white suit got up and walked over. Although his wound was almost completely healed, he still had a barely noticeable limp.

Unus looked at him and wordlessly turned the doorknob. The wooden door swung open, revealing a rectangular stone tunnel that was illuminated by torches.