Chapter 1: Cause
Your days always went normal as usual, whether it was helping Dirk and Harper with couple therapy, watching and playing games with Mac, taking care of Mateo's Inanimals with Koa, learning how to play the piano with Keyes, and listening to Hector's stories with Fantina it was always like that, they'd walk around the house interacting with everyone and genuinely have a fun time, gosh you’ll miss them you always say to yourself silently it was always like that.
You were sharpening the knifes in the kitchen to help with precision in your humble words, though the others considered it to be too sharp, you assured them they wouldn’t get hurt, they kept eyeing you not mentioning it out loud that they were referring to you.
You hear Mac call for you from the office, “Sure I’ll be there in a sec” you place the knife down on the table and walk through the hallway saying hi to Abel and Stella on the way, “You called?”
“Your friend tinfoil is asking you for something”
“Thanks Mac, I’ll take it from here”
“Is this the place?” the one beside him nods, “you better be correct, were already in deep trouble with the company CEO and I don’t want you making it worse”
While you were talking with tinfoil about the progress with everyone you hear a loud knock on your door, "I wasn't expecting any visitors...ever?" you place your phone and Dateviators inside the desk drawer, the knock kept getting louder and frantic the more you delay, "coming! jeez..." you slowly open the door, "yes, do you..."
You didn't finish your sentence when you saw two males wearing black suits standing in front of you one of them had jet black hair, while the other seemed to be more older they don't seem welcoming before one of them answer to your silence, "Hello there, are you perchance one of Valdivian's customer service employees?" You were hesitant to answer, why was their question so specific, "Yes...sir may I ask why you need to know that?"
"Well-" the one besides him groans and pushes you to the side causing you to hit Abel, your unable to apologize to him not without the Dateviators or in front of them, "what’s his problem?" he didn't answer you nor apologize he instead kept walking till they reach the kitchen, "sorry about my partner, but I need a moment alone with you" the old agent lets himself in and sits on your couch crossing his legs, "do you...want coffee or anything sir?" even after the rude first impression, you still were somewhat kind enough to offer them a drink, though you’re unsure if it’s kindness or fear making you talk "no thanks kid, I just need to know something"
you take a sit far away from him still unsure of their intention, "well to sum it up I..." he laughs to himself weakly shaking his head dropping his head to his hand, "I know you have the Dateviators I don’t have time for this" that alone sent a chill down your spine and it hits you then and there that these two were from Valdivian themselves, you ask yourself why you just realized now wasn’t it obvious when they asked if you were an employee?
Your eyes widened, before blinking a few times trying not to make your shock evident to them, "Sir, I'm a bit confused on what your talking about?" you give a nervous weak smile, the agent laughs again this time he didn't try hiding it, raising his hand to his head his shoulders going up and down with every laugh that escapes his mouth, "so that's how were going to do this...okay I'm fine with that" he slowly rises from the couch, “heck I’m used to that”
You begin to worry
the second agent seemed to be searching for something checking every corner of the room, opening what can be opened, and after finding nothing he leaves, but stops when he hears something back at the kitchen, he goes back to check, nothing moved, nothing changed, he has to pick up the pace
He heads upstairs and sees the bedroom door wide open, he darts his eye to make sure you were the only one living here to make things less complicated for them he walks up to the room, but suddenly the door close by itself, he takes a step back thinking someone was in the other side, he fixes posture and looked down the small gap under the door, there was no reflective shadows on the floorboards, he takes a deep breath walking back and with one kick he manages to force it open, the impact can be heard downstairs.
“What was that!?” you try to stand up, but the agent across from you stops you in his tracks, “look kid, you seem like a nice one want to make things easier? Tell us where it is” he grabs your hand you winced at his tight grip, “I don’t know what you’re talking about?!” His eyes narrowed before pushing you back making you hit your back at the sharp edge of the table, you wince at the pain, putting your hands behind your back, “sorry, but we know your little chat with one of David Most’s friends and yet we couldn’t confront him about it directly, so what other easy way to teach him a lesson by talking to his closest client” He turned back to see the closed office, “if you know what’s for your own good, you’ll stay here till we find it”
You couldn’t believe it…they knew you have nothing to defend yourself the evidence is clear and all they needed was the Dateviators, but you won’t allow it, you won’t let them get their hands on Skylar with all your only available strength you push him to the ground knocking him in to the door, “Sorry Dorian” you apologized entering the office and grabbing the Dateviators and making a run for it stepping on the agent on your way.
As your run up the stairs holding the glasses to your face you stop midway as you see the second agent rummaging through your drawers the worst part he sees you too and quite frankly he doesn’t like seeing you without the other agent, he stands up speed walking towards you, grabbing something from his belt, but you don’t have the time to know whatever he’s holding, you run to the attic and try to find a good hiding place not for yourself, but for the Dateviators, maybe you could hide it with the boxes Lady Memoria won’t mind or Parker, but what if…
you turn around to see the safe, “okay…okay Sophia I need you to listen which you might be a little offended of me saying that to you directly but-“ suddenly you hear a bang behind you, you swiftly duck down shaking as you look back at the door seeing bullet holes that weren’t there before, “…shit” of course they had guns they were agents for goodness sake, “okay…it’s okay I just need you to open please” the safe slowly open, “thank you, Mistress” you didn’t hesitate to put the Dateviators there, he continued shooting like a mad man he had no intention to spare you, but you can’t afford to waste any time, “Dorian I know this might sounds stupid considering they just shot you” you pick something up standing in front of the door, “which I hope your okay, but I need you…to open the door right now”
He enters, both his hand gripping to his gun, nothing, his hands drop down still holding the gun tight ready for anything, but unexpectedly you smash a flower pot to his head
He’s instantly down you take a deep breath of relief, he tries to stand up, but you won’t allow that as you hit him in the head more than once, “are you dead?. Wait…why would I ask…tsk” you double check the pot just to make sure it’s not broken, “sorry Prissy hope you understand my intention”
You place the pot down before running to the bedroom locking it behind you, a sense of dread fills your mind, your breathing was rapid you stand there not knowing what to do they had guns, they weren’t dead they were unconscious which you thought both was a good, but if their dead you’re in trouble legally and if they are just unconscious they can wake up at any moment and kill you right in your home…right in front of everyone
But you know this house better than them, you are the homeowner, you just needed to trick them, as soon as you stood up, you hear a bang behind you one after the other one of the bullets managed to hit you on your shoulders, “Open this door right now!” the pain was unbearable, the blood was leaking everywhere, yet you needed to stand up or else he’ll do something much worse than a mere shot at one of your shoulders, “I know you’re in there!”
You run to the bathroom and into the gym, you plan to exit the other other way, but you stop and hide beside the door when you saw the second agent clutching their bleeding head.
“Hey you there, what happened to you?” The old agent asks narrowing his eyes, the second agent doesn’t answer instead he points to the door before nudging his head, the old agent immediately knew what he meant, “heh…so that’s what you want fine! Two guys, two guns versus one defenseless stay at home customer service agent…wonderful!” they both kick the door open, “hard door…which is weird considering I’ve smashed lock doors before more easily” the old agent commented, the second agent starts looking around the room, from ducking to check under the bed to opening all the closets, till he saw one door leading to the bathroom he knew that was open before another thing he knew it lead to a room he didn't check before, luckily for you he was unaware there was an opening that you can easily escape to, only problem being they'll totally notice you when you reach the stairs
“What another lock door?”
He nods, “geez my feet’s getting tired with all this kicking” you hear them through the door, they were right they’ve been kicking Dorian two times now and you haven’t stop to think about that, you can’t blame anyone, but the agents they haven’t given you a time to think at all, you have no choice you have to open that door
“Okay…one, two…!” you open the door moments before they kick, they both tumble down sliding till they reach the gym, you jump out of the bathtub running away far as possible, you needed to call the police heck anyone who could help you in this situation
“Get back here!”
you go back to the office grabbing your phone, “I need to call the police o-or Sam?!- “the second agent appeared above the stairs pointing his gun at you, but he miss his shot just an inch from your feet the shock causes you to fall losing Phoencia in the process, “No!” you scatter to find her, the agent was running down the stairs you had no choice you have to run no excuses you have to or else.
He was too fast managing to put you in a tight chokehold before slamming you head first on the table
again
and again
AND AGAIN
you start to feel disoriented your vision was fading gradually in each head bang you take, but then the fireplace lit up blinding the agent he raises his arm to cover his eyes, you take the opportunity pushing him towards the fireplace, his scream filled the room you can hear a groan as he was forced to crawl the other way rolling around to stop the fire you silently hope that he doesn’t accidentally touch Keyes.
You reach the kitchen not knowing what to do, but before you can think of a plan, the old agent tackles you towards the sink your neck comes in contact, his left hand push your head forward while his other on your neck “I warned you kid!” you struggle to escape his grasp, coughing blood from the impact your hands go limp, the old agent thinking he got the upper softens his grip, “Since you learned your lesson I’ll be merciful enough to let this be…whatever my partner did to you, your only injury, you should be thankful we’ve done worse” he hears a quiet murmur from you he didn’t quite hear, “what was that? Speak louder or did we damage your neck to much?”
“I’m...” you grab the pan on your top left “not a kid!” you smack it to his face, he contorts back screaming in agony as he rolled to his side clutching his face bumping on to the table causing for the items on it to drop, you noticed a bit of hot oil on the ground.
You managed to get a glimpse of one of his bloodshot red eyes in between his crooked fingers, you did some damage, but from how furious he looked you knew it wasn’t enough you had to stop him or he’d stop you from breathing, you contemplate standing in front of his scrunched figure, him and the other must’ve traumatized or scared the others, he shot and kicked Dorian two times, they went through your belongings, did they noticed the unexplained glitched drawer?, they threw some of your objects to the ground, they deserve this you let the rage overcome you, before you knew it.
Your hands moved by themselves gripping his neck tight, he couldn’t do anything, but to try and get you off him, he couldn’t, you thought you had the upper hand even when his sharp nails where practically digging through your skin it be over soon then you knew.
He stops for a moment turning his eyes towards the hall, maybe you thought he was looking at Dorian, thinking to yourself he wanted to escape, leave, exit your home, you were so wrong, you turn your head towards what he was looking at.
It was Dateviators, you accidentally let go from the shock and disbelief on how it end it up there, he saw this as a perfect opportunity and punched you in the gut when you were distracted, he was still unable to stand up gasping for air, that didn’t stop him as he crawled towards the Dateviators, “No you don’t!” you pounced on his back, turning him over with both of your arms curdled around his, he kept jabbing your side as to try and free himself.
You kicked him off you as he trips and hit the floor face first, his nose bleeding from the impact. The both of you weakly stood up taking a breather, you take action first unplugging the microwave and hit him on the head, he bends down before tackling you, but you knew he was going to do again you managed to turn in time flipping him around from our previous side, now he was against the table.
You grabbed his neck and slammed his head on the table, he stopped moving, you turn his head around weakly to see a lodge butter knife on his neck…You gagged upon the sight, but it was over, he was dead “Finally…” you finally feel safe and relieved, the old agent opened his eyes and did his final trick.
You suddenly felt a sharp pain on your chest, you look down to see a knife lodged directly to your lungs, “You’re n-not going out alive that easily…they-they’ll find it.” He twists and kicks you on the ground, “and I’ll make sure you won’t be able to stop them.” He coughs up more blood before falling over to his side
He’s dead, you don’t know whatever happened to the second agent, but by the looks of his limp hand that peek from the other room, he was dead too.
You did it
You killed them
You stopped them
You try to reach for the Dateviators, but you were weak, hurt, and tired, you used all your energy up, the only thing your body can do for you now is gasp for air and slowly and surely go limp, you feel a sense of dread as your vision got blurry and darker.
Like you always do, you silently say to yourself, you’re going to miss them.
As you close your eyes, you can’t help, but hear multiple voices and the last thing you feel are multiple hands reaching for you, cradling you, holding you close, that didn’t matter anymore though.
You open your eyes to not see light, but a dark and familiar place.
“So it finally happened?”
“What?”
You look around and saw Nightmare standing in the far.
“Am I sleeping…did I make it?!”
“Yes…but sadly no too”
“What do you mean..?”
“In death you sleep forever, but not in the normal type of sleep… I could only do so much to talk to you one last time”
You knew what they meant, you didn’t need no further explanation as you turned away…lost
“In all my years being with you, before and after the Dateviators”
They cradled your face close
“I conjured up things I hoped you fear and you feared them all, just like how I wanted even after all that you kept coming back on purpose”
“…”
“There was one unique nightmare I conjured, though I don’t think you remember now…”
You felt uncertain and scared, they took notice of this, even if they enjoyed every last scare she did, she wanted you to leave in peace not fear.
“What happened today…was the exact same thing that I conjured that night”
You felt conflicted you may have no recollection, but the thought you could’ve done something or even survived…Nightmare was expecting for you to look hurt or furious, but you weren’t, you smiled instead, and that’s what shocked her, the surrounding became lighter.
“I never realized them…nor you if I was even able to, but they won’t stay objects forever, by now Mac or Phoenicia if they’re alright must’ve called someone…or someone heard the noise...I just know it”
Nightmare closed their eyes, “You are correct, Homeowner...” The surrounding became dark again.
They're gone, "Goodbye Homeowner..."