Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘Are you sure you’ll be ok?’

Tyler looked up from where she was filling her gun with Ammo. The pink glow folk signed at her and She smiled sadly and quickly cocked the weapon, stroking the hair out of the other’s face.

“I’ll be fine. Level 148 is not dangerous. People go in all the time for supply runs. Only one entity, guaranteed”

She continued strapping weapons to herself, pulling on her covert harness and quickly pushing her guns into it. She looked up when Aiesha made a rather worried whisp sound. The pink woman signed at her again.

‘But you’re going to capture that entity’

“Yeah, so that no one will ever have to worry about going there again”

She started putting supplies into her bag, looking about her for her jar of almond water. The glowfolk begrudgingly lifted it up and the brunette took it, quickly squirrelling it away. She then zipped up the bag and pushed her baseball bat through its holder before turning back to her girlfriend. She had crossed her arms and averted her eyes. Tyler cupped her cheek to pull her eyeline to her.

“I’ve caught worse. Trust me it’ll be in and out. I might even be able to bring you back a present?”

The pink humanoid just dropped her gaze solemnly, lifting her hand to play with one of the blonde strands of Tyler’s lowlights.

“Trust me. In. And. Out. And then I’ll be back home and then you can do whatever you want to me”

The glowfolk looked up at this, raising her hands to sign,

‘Whatever I want?’

Tyler bit her lip in a smirk, lifting the other’s chin.

“Whatever. You. Want.”

The glowfolk made a bubbling sound with her throat which Tyler recognised as laughter. She kissed her forhead and pulled her jacket on.

~*~

Making her way through the rooms was always nerve racking. But Tyler supposed that was the point.

The whole place was meant to make you feel a sense of unease and dread, a way for it to locate and capture its prey. She’d noticed that, the entities wouldn’t attack unless you where scared. Or, well they would, but they wouldn’t eat. Once she’d figured that out, defending herself from certain doom was a breeze.

No clipping still took getting used to. That was the part she hated. She had to no clip to level 0 and then no clip again to level 9. The first was easy, she had to no clip to 0 all the time for her job, although it was much less nauseating if she did it from their house in level 234. She met with the rest of her team as they collected their traps. They where going to see if they could capture the entity known as ‘the home invader’ the only real threat on level 148. Then, as usual, they would retreat to study it and later figure out if it would respawn or not and to clear the level of any excess hounds, smilers or particularly unfriendly facelings. Since Tyler managed to no clip into level 150 early on and had since set up home there, she hadn’t known that facelings could be hostile, as the only one’s she had met where sweet and watered flowers. That was how she had gotten a nice scar across her cheek.

“You nervous?”

Tyler looked up as one of her teammates addressed her. She shrugged as she strapped the trap to her thigh.

“I’ve been in worse situations. One entity can’t be too hard. And they say it moves slowly”

“Until it sees you, then it can apparently triple its speed”

“Well how good are its eyes?”

“12 times that of a Bald Eagle”

“Oh great. Well at least it’s deaf”

~*~

The group descended into level 9 quickly. Tyler unsheathed one of her guns from her belt and they started making their gradual way through the dark suburbs. To get to level 148 they had to successfully find an unlocked house and sleep in one of the bedrooms. There where six of them so they’d need to find at least two houses. Sleeping would normally be difficult but each of them had been given a tranquilliser to self administer so that they could knock out as quickly as possible.

The first few houses where busts, not even unlocking when they pulled out the locks to the handle or broke the door window to unlock it from the inside. The sixth house was the kicker, opening without a fuss. The group flicked on their flashlights, specifically designed to have extra bright beams so that if they came in contact with any entities they would be temporarily blinded. Tyler, always being the brunt force, opted to go to sleep last, this was purely because she knew she could survive on her own.

The house had three bedrooms, thankfully, and was absent of entities. Three volunteered to sleep first, the other three monitoring them until they melted into the beds. The remaining three returned to the search.

They eventually got into the 15th house, but this one only had two beds. Tyler could live with that. The house had only one entity, and insanity sat in the dining room skittishly pulling apart a stack of paper plates piece by piece. It was seemingly muttering but fortunately not making any gargling or snarling sounds. Tyler made some hand signals to the other two, telling them to pin it down. Tyler took out the almond water from her backpack as quietly as she could. The other two quickly grabbed the vague humanoid, restraining its arms and holding its head in place. Tyler quickly unscrewed the lid to the jar and started pouring it down the insanity’s throat. The entity screamed and choked as it was forced to drink. The trio continued until it stopped moving, it’s eye sockets closing, violent twitches running through its legs.

“Is it dead?”

“No. It should turn back into a human in a couple hours. In the meantime”

Tyler pulled off her trap device and set the setting to level 2 before sucking the unconscious entity into it.

“Let’s hope nothing heard that”

“It is pretty unnerving that we haven’t run into any other entity’s”

“Let’s just be thankful, it’ll make this trip quick and easy”

~*~

Tyler watched as the two melted into the double bed like the others. Just her left. She continued making her way down the road quickly but cautiously. There where sounds all around her, and only the occasional flickering streetlight to provide answers. She could make it through this easy enough, she’d traversed level 9 before.

She’d just got done trying the 23rd house when a hound sprang out of the bushes to block the road ahead. She turned on her torch to blast it with light and the beast froze. She began staring it down, her line of vision lasering into the entity’s white eyes. It started whimpering and she knew she was winning, slowly and quietly unsheathing her gun from her belt pocket. The hound captured a glimpse of her movement and made to pounce but it was too late. Tyler shot it as soon as it moved, watching as the creature recoiled and fell to the ground. She let out a low breath and resheathed her gun, taking out her trapper again. She set it to level 4 and sucked the beast into it.

The 29th house opened, four bedroom. She scanned the building relentlessly, checking every bed and bathroom, every nook and cranny. Completely clear. Until she reached the attic.

A smiler raised its features to her when she opened the door. It seemed to be solitary, viciously feeding on some unlucky wanderer on the floor. Tyler turned off her flashlight as soon as she recognised it. She reached into her pocket slowly and brought out a flare, a window in the corner of her eye her target. She continued to stare down the alien like monstrosity as she put her hand on the pin. Then in one swift moment she released the pin a threw it out the window, watching as the smiler lunged after it, following the light it so dearly desired.

After finally deeming the house as clear, Tyler walked into one of the bedrooms to sleep. She quickly pulled out the tranquilliser needle and injected it into herself, waiting impatiently for the twenty seconds to pass.

~*~

When she woke up she was in a much more modern looking house. The room was space themed with a little night light projecting stars onto the ceiling. She quickly got out of the bed sheets and turned on her walkie talkie.

“This is primrose one, I’ve made it to level 148, where are you guys?”

The line was silent for a moment before garbled speech made its way through the box.

“Primrose two and five are here”

“Primrose three and four, we lost primrose six, they woke up in a messy bedroom and a hound got them. We’ve neutralised it”

“Good. I’m in a house with four bedrooms and a kitchen”

“Are there barstools and a silver fridge?”

Tyler walked into the kitchen.

“Yes”

“Look on the counter, I sprayed it”

Tyler caught sight of the blue X spray painted on the bronze and black granite.

“Yeah I see it”

“You’re about two houses away. Come meet us”

Tyler turned off her walkie talkie and made her way through the houses.

The group managed to reunite fully when she got there and they began making their ways through the houses. They where on about the 15th house when they opened the door to the lights being completely turned off.

“Finally. We’re twelve houses away”

“Do we wait for it?”

“I’d say so, let’s set up a trap in front of the door and hide, then when it walks through the door it’ll fall in easy”

The group spread themselves out in hiding spots all across the kitchen/living room. Two of them had stitches their traps to the top of the door, another two set them on the floor and counter. The trappers would set off a net to temporarily electrify, catch and subdue the creature, then Tyler would jump out and suck it into her trapper.

Fool proof plan right?

~*~

Well, it was.

The lights flickered back on in the house.

“Two minutes” Tyler had muttered to the others. They had counted and waited, every two minutes the lights flickered, signifying that the entity was moving undisturbed. Then on the second last one, the lights only took ten seconds to flicker. Tyler looked at her team in warning.

“It’s chasing something”

The group shifted to move the traps, but it was too late. The door burst open, the traps unleashing their nets relentlessly on to their target. Tyler jumped out of her hiding spot, aiming her trapper at what they’d caught, but the excruciating screams of the helpless wanderer they’d caught instead filled her ears. She heard some quick shuffling behind the door and re-aimed her trapper, hitting the button as soon as the door opened.

The tall, dark creature wailed and screeched, scraping its inky nails across the tiling of the kitchen floor. It’s cyclopsian eye bore into her soul as the machine devoured it, the crackling flames of its anger painted her in its monstrously in its vision.

She let out an almost laboured breath of fear before she barked at her team.

“Well?! Get him out!”

The group scrambled to free the now unconscious wanderer from their captivity. Tyler strapped her trapper back to her leg and knelt in front of the unfortunate human, checking his pulse. She breathed through her nose as she felt a faint beat of blood running through veins. She motioned for the biggest of the group to carry him while they no-clipped back to level 0. Before they left they quickly marked the house with a neon green X, just for easy reference.

~*~

The group quickly passed their trap machines to the M.E.G. Check-in, giving quick reports of the mission to the staff manning the pass over. They rushed the wanderer to the hospital wing when they arrived but assured that he would be fine. The insanity they captured would be monitored closely to insure its metamorphosis back to humanity. The hound would be studied closely, the science team taking DNA samples and studying its physiology. The home invader would be contained when it was released from the trap device so as much information as possible could be gathered. Then a group would return to level 148 to see if the creature had respawned or if the health of the level had been affected.

With that, Tyler returned home.

~*~

When she opened the door to her and aiesha’s apartment in level 234, the smell of a delicious stew hitting her nostrils. She inhaled deeply and smiled, dropping her rucksack on the floor and shucking off her jacket. She walked over and wrapped her arms around the pink glowfolk’s waist. The entity made her giggling sound and leaned back into her warmth.

“Told ya I’d be fine”

The two swayed to quiet retro playing on the radio. Tyler kissed the back of her neck and pulled away, going to sit on one of the barstools. Aiesha placed a lid on the pan she was stirring and leant against the counter.

‘Good mission?’

“Yeah, successful, we lost one though”

Aiesha nodded solemnly. A small silence settled over them. The glowfolk’s white eyes took on a suggestive nature and signed slowly, her way of being seductive that drove Tyler bonkers for her.

‘Do I still get to do whatever I want to you?’

Tyler grinned.

“That was what I said, wasn’t it?”

Chapter Text

Tyler ran her hands through Aiesha’s silky hair, finally able to hold her in her arms again. The pink Glowfolk nuzzled into her neck, before pressing the skin where her mouth would be along her collar bone. She ‘kissed’ down the taller’s front.

“Oh ‘esha… right here? Shit… yes”

Tyler’s fingers tensed in the glowfolk’s hair. She felt like she was high, higher than high. The froth of cloud nine blurring her vision, focusing her mind on her body. She threw back her head, whimpering. It had never felt this good before, was Aiesha doing something different? It was as if she had a tongue or something, as if she was inside her, dripping into her bloodstream like morphine. It dulled her senses. Pulling her mind like a rag doll, she lolled her head forward, folding over the mute.

There was a word to describe what she was feeling exactly, but every time she got close to deciphering it, it was like Aiesha knew or something and was doing it to annoy her, the pink entity found a spot that sent her to heaven. She placed her hand against the other side of the hallway. Really thin hallway. She thought absentmindedly, before thrusting against her lover.

“Esha…. Esha… mmh”

“Say my full name sweetthing”

“Ai-… what?”

The wanderer opened her eyes, the steam of her climax cooling for a moment. She looked down at the object of her desires. Something was wrong. Ginger hair withered in her hands, but the feeling of burning didn’t come. Hazel pupils gazed up at her, a mouth pulled from its task, lined with sharp teeth. Something was wrong. It made sense, the hair, the face, she recognised it. But something was wrong, it didn’t match the name. Aiesha. This was not Aiesha. This was.

“Lucy?”

The entity scowled, it reached up to pull its hair out, gripping it in its hand, watching as it hardened to straw. This creature before her was not Aiesha, something was wrong. She looked down at her hands, watched as they began to melt like candle wax. Something was wrong, like something wasn’t real, like this wasn’t real, like this was,

“A dream-“

The creature screamed as it burst into flames, a sudden loud buzz filling her ears. Her head lolled back to slam against the walls. Tyler looked up in shock, the now panic red of the hallway glowed against her pupils. She knew where she was. She had only heard of it in stories, seen it in educational footage, taken it in testimonials from shell shocked wanderers. Only death awaited in the halls of level 0. Unless you could run fast enough.

As if in slow motion she began her run, pulling out her pistol from her inner pocket. She turned as she ran, firing behind her. instinctively she reverted to her training, calculating. Two smilers, one death moth, a duller, three hounds. She fired a few more shots, taking out one of the hounds before breaking into a sprint.

Her first focus was distance. She could run faster than them, she knew she could. She had tunnel vision as she breezed past open doors and railings, pushing things down behind her, her eyes glossing up for a second to scan the rapidly moving exit signs above her.

The hallway stretched before her, a long abyssal of endless corridor. She dared to look behind her, the unforgiving gazes of her chasers greeting her, but at a much further distance. She scanned in front of her, looking for any form of opening to dive into. A door cut out of the wall on her right side. She caught it, forcing her body to stop, and careened herself in, slamming it shut.

There was fire in her breath as she assessed the room. It seemed like some sort of hotel room. Red walls and matching bedspread. There was a figure in the room.

“Lucy?”

It looked up and smirked, before sinking through a doorway. Tyler rushed to it, throwing it open, walking into a grassy field. The sound of the door shutting behind her was distant as a pebble dropped low in her stomach at the sight of the plastic looking houses.

“Your mind is interesting, wanderer”

Tyler whipped her head around to the voice addressing her. A scene played out before her. Aiesha was sat under a tree in a patch of flowers. She was weaving them into a intricate flower crown and placed it upon her head. She made her bubbling sound, her form of laughter.

“You have been here a while”

Tyler turned to the voice again. The world around her changed. She was suddenly in the back streets of Santa Cecília das Rochas on level 234. She watched as Aiesha rushed into an alleyway, discarding her groceries on the floor. She followed the entity, the alleyway becoming thinner and thinner until it began to constrict her, moulding around her body, crushing her rib cage. She let out a mighty yell as she felt her lungs squash and flood.

Suddenly she was in some form of abyss, the echo of the end of her scream flying out into the white nothingness of the room.

“Not as long as others. But you have learned much about this place”

She suddenly felt a great weight in her heart. It dragged her down to the floor, she crouched until her cheek was pressed hard against whatever white matter was beneath her.

“This Lucy character, for example”

Tyler managed to roll her eyes to the creature taking the form of Lucy, watching as she seemed to be admiring herself.

“Such an important member of your life, and yet, while being here, you have replaced her so fast”

The creature morphed into Aiesha and gave her a sly gaze.

“How selfish of you”

Tyler grit her teeth to spoke against the floor.

“Get. Out. of. her. Body.”

The creature shrugged, disappearing into mist. Lucy appeared at her feet, leaning down over her.

“So defensive of something that doesn’t even exist”

Tyler struggled against the floor, yelling out in frustration and pain when she tried to pull her heart from it.

Lucy huffed and walked to a position where she could take her whole form in. Tyler’s mouth pulled into a snarl.

“Who are you. You’re definitely not Lucy”

“I am what you cannot fathom”

“If you don’t tell me, you’re going to have to fathom a new spleen”

Lucy tutted, admiring her nails.

“I don’t think that’s how Lucy would like to be spoken to”

“You’re not Lucy, whatever the fuck you are”

“Well I look like her. Would you prefer a more recognisable form?”

Tyler watched as Lucy morphed into the creature from level 148, long slim dark figure filling the space, it’s large foreseeing eye starring at her incessantly. It towered over her crouched form.

“I can be anything, wanderer. I am everything. I am the air that you breathe. I am the food that you eat. I am the bed that you sleep in. I am the creature you run from. I am the woman you fuck. I am the blood which pumps within you. I am the addled thoughts of your mind. I am all. And I am everything”

“What?… are you god or something?”

“You might say that. I rule over this world. I created it. I built you from the stars. I shaped your mind from the thread of the universe. You are held together by the light I hold and torn apart by the dark mass of my hands.”

Suddenly Tyler’s heart was released from the floor, the entity dissolved into it and she watched as the walls around her fell, revealing the never ending content of space. Her feet floated off the floor.

“If you created us, why do you make us suffer?”

She turned to what she thought was two eyes, Star like in appearance, but they moved and shifted. She watched as the spheres bled a deep red.

“I am hungry wanderer. The world I created lacks the cruelty it used to possess. I starve in your peace, I am ravenous at your performance of justice, your comfort is my bane.”

Tyler felt herself be lifted closer to the eyes, as if she was being held in a giant hand.

“I take the few weak souls my world will not miss and House them in my body. I can devour them this way, I can usurp fear on them like I never have before. Yet you… you disobey me. You defy the fear I inflict upon you. I would return you to my world if it was not so interesting.”

Suddenly she was in level 1, Lucy was looking at her almost menacingly.

“You are here to test me. You are my challenge. And I will crush you so finely that there will be nothing left of you but atoms.”

Tyler gasped a lungful of air as she bolted up in bed, a hand on the gun under her pillow. She breathed harshly as she scanned the room, unable to pick out anything in the dim pink light her girlfriend emitted. The entity shifted under the bedsheets but did not wake. Tyler took her hand off her gun and sighed in relief as she looked down at Aiesha’s sleeping form. She stroked some of her hair out of her eyes and kissed her temple, before laying back down to sleep, wrapping her arms around the other’s middle and burying herself in her hair and scent.

“Just a dream…”

She mumbled to herself as she dozed off.

{#%#}

Tyler grumbled to herself as she went over notes from her previous hunt, occasionally switching the hand that held her pen to drink from her cup of coffee. As she pieced together the descriptions of the entity she was studying there was an almost ghostly woosh sound that echoed around the kitchen. She looked up, only to be met with the dark halo of the room that couldn’t be reached by her light. She scanned, unbothered for a moment, before returning to her work.

She flipped over her notebook and started sketching out what the entity probably looked like. A sudden gust of wind lifted some of her papers off the counter for a moment. She stared at them, tracking to see if they’d move again. When they didn’t she took a longer pause before continuing her work.

She quickly finished her rough sketch, lifting it up to assume if it looked right. For a flash of a second it looked like a crudely drawn picture of… Lucy. She moved the picture out of her vision to see Lucy standing in front of her. She gasped, launching herself into the sink behind her, her hand on her gun at her side. But as soon as she blinked the girl vanished, leaving a phantom laugh in her wake. Tyler’s chest rapidly rose and fell as she gripped the sink for dear life. She let out two laboured breaths, letting her head sink between her shoulders as she tried to calm down. She looked up at the almond tablets sat on the countertop. She quickly reached for them, popping out two and swallowing them whole.

“‘Fuck out of my house”

She blurted into the empty room, as if to make sure whatever it was was properly banished.

{#%#}