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I dropped the wooden baseball bat to my side, I stared at the man in front of me, shaking. I had no idea what just happened, or if it was even real; if this was all just some crazy dream. I mean the guy in front of me just fucking grew wings! There was some kind of crazy monster that was here in MY apartment that ran the hell away from the wing boy! What the hell is going on!!
I gazed down at the guy, he was bleeding like crazy right in front of me, and I was stupidly standing around. I blink a bit, then sighed, reluctantly going over to my kitchen towards a cabinet; I opened it and went onto my tippy toes, swiping at a first aid kit a few times before gripping it and pulling it down. I opened it, checking to make sure the contents inside were what I needed while I walked over to him. I grumbled as I hesitantly crouched and leaned, grabbing the medical scissors to cut any loose fabric from his destroyed black T-shirt so I could apply ointment evenly on his wounds. I put down the scissors and picked up the ointment tube, squeezing out a shit ton of it (pretty much half the tube) into my hand before putting the tube down, using my other hand’s fingers to grab little bits of it to rub into his back. I then grabbed the roll of gauze and set it down beside me; I grunted while lifting him up to lean him against the couch, then grabbed the gauze with bloodied hands. I unraveled it, beginning to wrap it tightly around his chest and back, then over the shoulders. The wings he had earlier crawled back into his back a bit ago, making me question even more now if that was real.
I took a closer look at him, watching the gauze absorb his blood. He was way more pale than Damien, and a lot more broad, muscular even. He looked like he probably played football or something in high school. He had a pretty dumb hairstyle, where it was basically just Damien’s back swept back with a shit ton of hair gel, and was shaved down at the back and sides. He also wore glasses, unlike Damien who wore contacts, and dressed a lot like an 80s high schooler while Damien overdressed everywhere. Total opposites.
I leaned back, sitting down with my legs crossed near him. I had no idea what to make of this guy… he was pretty blunt, and vulgar, but seemed kinda nervous and off in another dimension all the time. I sat there pondering a bit, before being unpleasantly reminded of what just happened with him. I scratched my arms a bit, a little stressed from this whole ordeal. I looked behind me and leaned to the side to see the time on the oven, and it was late. I was tired, too. I sighed again and got up, looking at my couch for a little bit.
I had to make it comfortable for him, because I had a feeling he wasn’t gonna just wake up and drive himself home for the night, besides, I needed answers. So I went into my bathroom and opened a wooden cabinet, picked up a few dark gray towels, then closed the cabinet. I walked out of the bathroom with the towels towards the couch, placing them down as I picked up the sofa cushions with one hand, pulling out the inside bar thing to convert it into a small bed. I dropped the cushions, and they fell perfectly into place; I then picked up the towels and laid them flat on top of the couch layering them on one another. I put the pillows on the couch in a comfortable position where his head was going to be, then turned to lift him; after a couple failed attempts I finally got him all the way up the ground and gently dropped him down onto the couch. He was heavy as fuck, I mean obviously he would be since he was around six feet tall, but he had to have been 200 lbs more or less.
I walked over to the hallway closet, turning the knob to open the closet door; I yoinked one of the spare blankets I had just for guests, and closed the closet. I went over to him again and laid the blanket over him, then watched him for a little bit. He was breathing, it was a little shallow but he was breathing. Good. I sighed, then yawned, turning off the light in the living room and made my way over to my own room, lazily climbing into bed. I tossed and turned for a good while, before finally I felt myself drift to sleep.
______________________________________________________________________________
I slowly opened my eyes, blinking a little bit; I turned around and let out a huge yawn while stretching and laying down on my side. I looked around tiredly; was last night really all just a dream? I pondered to myself a while, before I sat myself up, eventually rubbing the crust out of my eyes and slipped out of bed. I showered for about 20 minutes, then got dressed; I was feeling more dysphoric than usual this morning so I wore a padded bra under one of my favorite outfits. My stomach then growled, I sighed and made my way towards the kitchen, then looked over and saw a man on my couch. I jumped, going into a defensive stance on instinct for a moment, before immediately realizing who it was. I facepalmed my forehead lightly; how did I forget Mikey was on my couch??
So then, wait, last night must’ve really happened I soon realized. I was in a little disbelief, checking under his covers to make sure that bandaging was there… and it was. Holy shit. So this guy really DID grow wings?! And defeated a goddamn monster demon thing?!
I was taken aback, stepping back a little to try and grapple with this. Who is he? Damien’s weird, sure, but not nearly as weird as his freaky bird twin. Is he even human? If not, what could he possibly be?!
My mind was racing, trying to rationalize ALL of what has just happened to me in recent memory… between Damien and now his brother, I think I’m starting to lose it myself. I sighed, I came to the conclusion that I just needed to question him when he woke up, and I should do my own thing and keep an eye on him until then. So that’s exactly what I did - I basically spent the whole afternoon doing various things, like maintenance on my motorcycle, tidying up my apartment a little bit, laundry, and cooking myself lunch and dinner; but even by 5PM at night this guy wasn’t awake.
I hovered over him a little bit, I was frustrated but sympathetic. I put one arm under the other and held the other to my chin, I started to realize this man wasn’t exactly dangerous to me, I mean, if a pair of wings is all it took to knock him out for this long that either meant he rarely does this, is super unequipped to handle them, or even both.. He also saved my life from whatever that thing was. Which is honestly why I was letting him stay at my place at all; he’s never given me any impression he was a dangerous man, and he put himself into a vulnerable position to protect us both.
Despite this, though, he was hiding things from me. Sure, it made sense since we weren’t close or anything… but that still doesn’t change the fact he was. I looked over at the backpack he brought here, and walked towards it. There were lives at risk, like Damien’s, and while I knew this was stupid of me I needed to get to the bottom of all of this.. I needed to know if Mikey was trustworthy; because I simply had no idea what he was capable of now.
I carefully dumped out the contents of the bag onto the floor, and went through it. Most of this was stuff that wasn't exactly interesting, until I came across an old camera. I picked it up and stared at it for a while, then tried seeing if it even worked or was dead; I opened the side of it and it made a small noise, turning on. I started feeling guilty, because this camera had files dating back all the way to 2016, which must’ve meant he’s had this thing since he was around 13 or 14 years old. I was going to leave it be, but I noticed a recording from yesterday that was hours long; I got curious, so I took the camcorder to my laptop and connected the two. I pulled up the video in question, and realized it was just… an empty room? What? I blinked, waiting for something to happen, but nothing was. I got impatient and started to skim through the video until I saw someone had entered the room. It didn’t take too long for me to realize that it was actually Damien! Which means Mikey wasn’t lying about having something interesting… That's good at least.
I watched patiently, he was strolling over to this big mirror, which was covered by a sheet of some kind, and pulled off the sheet. Then, he grabbed a… razor? I was confused, but continued watching; he kneeled down in front of the mirror and… I soon realized what he was about to do, but it was too late before I witnessed it myself. I put my hand over my mouth in shock, watching the nasty sight in front of me wordlessly. Despite being so surprised, my eyes drifted over to the mirror which was.. Moving independently? What?? It didn’t take long for me to recognize as well the blood lit up brightly, disappearing, his wound healing right before my eyes. He then prayed to the entity in the mirror, covered the mirror, and walked out.
I sat there in complete bewilderment.
I swallowed the nervousness in my throat, unplugging the camera from my laptop, not before I downloaded the video onto my laptop, though. I turned off the camera and placed it on the bed, then put all the contents of Mikey’s backpack back into the bag. Damien absolutely is in a cult, and it’s a supernatural one at that. I never once thought I’d believe in God again, but what kind of choice do you have left when you see a man sprout wings and another regenerate in seconds in front of his spooky mirror? I grabbed the camera and put it into my own bag, getting my shoes and gloves on, then took my helmet. I needed to look deeper.
I looked over at Mikey before I left, and he was still out cold. I stared at him for a little bit before I left, then realized I nearly forgot my keys and went back to grab them, actually leaving this time. I made it out of my dorm building to my motorcycle, and got onto it, turning it on and rode off. I headed towards the library to get some answers.
It didn’t take me very long to make it there, I quietly entered looking around; I was a bit overwhelmed by all the books, I didn’t even really know where to *start* looking to find out more about this whole case. I thought about it for a little, and decided to try and start with The AAB. I tried looking for anything I could in relation to that, but all I could really find was stuff about demons and the satanic panic. I sighed, taking what I could get. I sat down at a round table where another man was on his laptop and felt vaguely familiar. I shrugged it off, reading a book primarily about Hell and demonic forces, before the man started looking at me and the book for an uncomfortable amount of time.
“Uhhh.. can I help you dude?” I eventually said, a little miffed, and he looked at me. I could’ve sworn I’ve seen this guy before somewhere… he was looking at me the same, too.
“Oh, sorry, just saw you were reading about demons n all.” He said, looking a little embarrassed.
“Yeah? What of it?” I replied, I took a better look at him.. He was a pretty plain looking guy, wearing a white polo shirt tucked in black slacks and a black leather belt. He had a black tie which was undone around his neck, and he was wearing aviator glasses. He was a white guy with spooky blue eyes and brown short hair that looked somehow both combed and messy. He faintly smelled like alcohol, but also reeked of bleach, he was also kind of baby faced despite probably being in his 20s.
“Just an interesting topic is all, I mean, I also noticed the satanic panic book. Are you just curious about the topic or what?” He pried a bit, looking between his laptop and myself.
“Actually I’m looking into a sort of conspiracy, I guess.” I said, telling a half-truth.
“A conspiracy…” He looked up at the ceiling a little bit, pondering to himself. “Hm, like a government one?” He eventually said, he was kinda looking at me but not really; he seemed awful with eye contact.
“Uhm, yeah actually.. Ever heard of The AAB?” I said hesitantly, it felt stupid asking about this sort of thing to a stranger, but why the hell not.
His eyes lit up.
“Yes! Holy shit yes I have actually- I came here to look into them!” He said loudly, I gestured as kindly as possible to keep it down a bit, but I was smiling as well; what the shit were the odds of running into someone who knew about this? It almost felt too good to be true!
“Wait seriously??”
“Yes seriously! I uh, well I’ve been looking into them for about a year now purely for fun, actually. I love stuff like this; it’s a great side thing to do between college.” He spoke loudly at first before quieting down realizing his volume, he was grinning.
“Wait so uh, could you help me? I’m actually trying to learn more about them for some personal reasons.” I said.
“I absolutely can, let’s just try to fit this in an hour or two though. I have to meet up with some friends at a bar, or club, I forgot which.” He said eagerly.
“Wait, you go to clubs?” I said getting a bit sidetracked, that information was honestly a little surprising.
“Yeah, I get hammered most nights.” He said bluntly.
“Really?? Uh, not to sound weird or anything but I’d never expect that given, well, your appearance. You look like you go to some fancy college.” I giggled.
“I do, actually, I just also get hammered and stuff.” He shrugged.
Wait a minute.
“Wait.. what’s your name??” I asked, starting to realize why he was so familiar to me.
“Daniel, Daniel Bates.”
Holy shit.
“Wait a minute you’re friends with Damien Rivers!” I said a bit loud.
“Huh, wasn’t expecting that to be why you recognized me, but yeah I am. We go to the same college.. I’ve never seen you before though, do you know him?” He said with curiosity.
“He’s my ex-boyfriend.” I said bluntly.
“Holy sh- fuck, I should buy a lottery ticket with how weird these odds are tonight between you and I.” He looked a little shocked before laughing, and I laughed with him.
I remember it now… I saw him very briefly at that club I found Damien in, he was drunk off his ass in the corner around a bunch of sleazeballs and Damien!
“I can’t believe this!” I exclaimed.
“Yeah neither can I, that’s so crazy..” He chuckled, before getting distracted by his laptop again, “we should probably get this over with, though.” He said.
“Right, yeah, sorry.” I said, “So what even is The AAB for starters?”
“So glad you asked actually,” he started with a certain gleam in his eye, “The Anti-Apocalypse Bureau, for starters, isn’t a conspiracy at all actually, it was a real disbanded government branch that was wiped off most records. The whole point of it was to prevent the biblical apocalypse from happening, but they got shut down due to unethical practices… a lot of their research and all involved researching cults and other suspicious shit.”
This guy knows his shit, to a scary degree.
“... You wouldn’t happen to know a Curchen, Wisconsin, would you?” I said hesitantly.
He lit up.
“Of course I know Curchen, it was the town that gave The AAB the most trouble. They even made a computer designed to investigate that town specifically.. The problem with that is that info was locked away in files.” He sighed with disappointment.
“You mean a file like this?” I went into my bag, already feeling his eyes lock onto me, I grabbed the letter I had found a bit ago and showed him, he looked shocked.
“That’s one of their big project’s key letters!! How did you- where?? Holy fuck!” He was beyond ecstatic.
“I found it a bit ago, do you know what it means?” I asked.
“I could easily decode it.” He said eagerly.
I thought about it for a while, I didn’t exactly trust him, he was still just a stranger to me; how do I know he wasn’t sent here against me? Even if he wasn’t, I need to know if he’s trustworthy enough to drag into this at all.
“I’ll let you do that if you can somehow prove to me everything you’ve told me tonight’s true, I don’t know if I can trust you, what I’m doing is pretty huge.” I said bluntly.
“Prove it to you? That’s easy, here, let me cancel my plans with the guys.” He grinned, pulling out his phone.
“Wait, what?” I blinked. He’s that confident he can prove this to me?
“For sure, this is way more interesting than getting drunk anyway.” He chuckled.
“Uh, so how are you going to prove any of this stuff to me?” I said, concerned and curious.
“Well first of all we need to get to the cemetery,” he said as he put away his laptop in his bag, “and from there I can show you.”
“That doesn’t sound suspicious at all.” I muttered.
“Ughh, listen, the original director of The AAB’s body is buried there. I go there all the time, and I have a lot to show you but if I just tell you it you’re not gonna believe me. So cmon, do you have a ride or what?” He groaned, clearly very eager to get going.
“Hold on, we're going now??” I exclaimed.
“Obviously we’re going now! There’s no better time!” He smirked, slinging his bag over his back and shifting his weight between his feet.
I thought about it for a while, and sighed, I could take this guy in a fight if it came down to it. I've done sketchy shit before, I just need to be extremely careful.
“Alright, fine.” I groaned, he was immediately ecstatic.
“You got a ride?” He grinned.
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I turned into a parking space with reluctance, I felt a little nervous doing all of this. It was pretty late out, and there was nobody around now. I turned off my cycle and hopped off, and so did Daniel, he stretched a bit before immediately walking towards the gate; I stared at him with confusion, following far behind.
He was clearly excited, he started climbing the cemetery gate and hopped right down to my shock. I blinked a bit, fine, I guess we’re breaking into a cemetery; it’s not like I’ve never tested the law before I suppose.
I sighed, climbing up with ease and then hopping down alongside him. It was dark, I felt stupider and stupider as I followed him slowly and hesitantly, but I knew if he was telling the truth this would be deeply important to this damn investigation… I was just hoping I didn’t die for it. I looked at him, he was pretty cheerful walking throughout the cemetery and was even whistling.
“So where the fuck are you taking me?” I said sternly.
“Over there,” He pointed, “Mr. Richards’ grave is the ticket.” He looked at me with a grin, I was getting a bit weirded out now by his enthusiasm.
“Alright then..”
It didn’t take us too long to make it there, he was standing in front of the grave, and looking around, seemingly looking for something.
“Uh, you good?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah just looking for- oh there it is.” He went over to a pile of leaves and picked up a shovel, a bunch of bugs crawling from out of the leaves due to the disturbance; and about two spiders crawled on his arm, he was unphased. I cringed, before realizing.
“Wait wait wait what the fuck are you doing!” I exclaimed, realizing what this madman was about to do.
“Digging up his coffin, what’s it look like?” He said nonchalantly, he pierced the dirt with the rusted shovel and started to dig the dirt up.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?! We’re not about to grave rob!!” I yelled out angrily, this was a mistake to come here, I immediately turned around to leave and ditch him.
“Wait wait hold on!” He yelled out.
“I’m not holding on for shit you’re fucking insane!” I growled.
He groaned loudly, “alright fucking fine I was waiting until it was out to do this but I guess you’re giving me no choice!” He said, angrily.
I looked over at him nervously, this guy was deranged, what the fuck was he about to do??
Suddenly his veins lit up a bright saturated blue under his skin, which were as bright as a glow stick in the dark here, he had his hands over the disturbed grave and held that position for a few seconds.
Then I heard muffled wheezing, and a muffled knock.
And it was coming from inside the grave.
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