Disruptions

I have nothing against Runners, I was one not long ago as anyone who reads this blog would know. My occupation as a Runner didn't last long, not as long as many others, although of course anyone who was a Runner for a shorter time is probably dead, and any who's one for a longer time probably will be.

Then of course there are the ones that are just plain annoying. The Long Game is going, and anything that disrupts it must be dealt with by the full force of The Nevermore Accord. Occasionally Runners fall into this category, and as an agent of the Sine Corda and by extension The Nevermore Accord, it falls under my job description to deal with them. Of course this isn't my true purpose, they didn't "recruit" me because I was a master assassin, but until the next phase can be located -whatever that means- this is what I do.

I hunt.

It's what I've been doing for most of the time between my de-heartening and now. My first mission should have been fairly simple. A Runner had killed one of the other Sine Corda, however and for whatever reason I don't bother myself with. I was dispatched to deal with him, but it didn't exactly go to plan.

I set out from the warehouse, one of many under Nevermore control, with a gun and a box of bullets. I wasn't invisible anymore, when I lost my heart I was spat back out by THE HUNGERING (the capitals didn't go away) and now exist as much as you do (unless of course you're being unraveled), the privilege of invisibility kept for higher members such as Master Nowhere and the Menacing Men. So I had to be discreet, keeping the gun concealed and catching the Runner somewhere private.

I found the Runner in a bar at the edge of this French town late at night. I entered, my senses immediately assaulted by the scent of alcohol and the smoke-filled air, not exactly being old enough to be used to this I found it slightly disorientated, though the nerves of walking around in full sight with a gun in my pocket and the intention to kill likely added to it. My teenaged physique earned me a few questioning glances, though my "Null Hoodie" kept my face mostly hidden and, I don't know, Sine Corda have an air about them, I suppose you could call it a Menacing. I guess that means I'm not quite as existent as I used to be. The Runner, thin, tall and suited (no, not Slenderman) was seated at the bar, so I found a dark corner where I could make use of my new found Menacing to glare angrily at the Runner while I waited for an opportunity.

This only came hours later when he finally left the bar, dispensing some coins on the counter and exited, me following at a distance. He left and rather stupidly decided to turn into a dark alleyway next to the bar, I thought he mustn't have been very used the being a Runner if he's walking through dark alleys late at night. I followed behind, the gun having a silencer so noise wouldn't be a problem, until we moved out of sight of the street. He turned around and looked at me.

I thought little of it as I drew the gun and shot him in the chest, knocking him down. Then he got back up, straight up as if he was being pulled. Pulled by invisible strings.

"Crap!" I exclaimed as I shot again, in the arm, his arm jolting back in response before sliding back into position. He rose the arm in a mechanical motion and observed it for a moment, before walking forward again, his legs being raised and dropped by the strings like some horrid puppet controlled by an even more horrid Puppeteer, his previous facade of normality dropped.

Several more shots resulting in nothing, the strings pulling the body forward beyond the boundaries of death, animating the corpse in its deadly movements. It swung an arm around, surprisingly swift and precise for a puppet, I ducked under, but its arm struck out at me again, swiping me across the head, knocking me to the ground. It reached into its jacket and pulled out a long knife. I raised my gun towards him to shoot the hand with the knife, but as quickly as I fired he skillfully juggled the knife to its other hand, then lifted a mechanical leg to strike the gun away with a finely polished shoe, the gun sliding over the wet concrete.

It raised the knife, clearly preparing to drive it down, when the strings spontaneously snapped and the corpse collapsed in a heap on top of me. I pushed it from me and although confused, counted my blessings and took this as a kill. Since then I've killed two actual Runners and am currently after something else. I still don't know what happened.

-Shady

The Beginning of the End

I did not think I would be updating this again, it seems so futile now. But I realised that some may be interested in knowing what is happening, and a part of me wants to tell you. I shall relate to you the first part for now.

The men of The Nevermore Accord dragged me away from the room the day after I (not Sleeper) last updated. I was pulled to another room of the warehouse where I was drugged and strapped to an operating table. Terrified, confused and unable to think properly my vision was hazy and my memory more so. A pair of men wearing green scrubs and surgeons' masks entered the room, their eyes sunken and dead. They were followed by a "thing" pushing a small tray-table. It was human, maybe, two arms and two legs, but its face along with any other exposed skin was covered with every disease under the sun, oozing pustules and dark red rashes, eyelids only half open at any given time, pushed shut by growths covering its face. It walked hunched over, down to just over a metre off the ground, it wore white scrubs and a surgeon's mask. It shambled off after pushing it in. A Riddled, as Master Nowhere would later refer to it.

The men on the other hand, were Oathbreakers.

Master Nowhere whispered to the two men, and the two walked to either side of the operating table, one taking a syringe from the tray and injecting me with a viscous blue fluid. I lost consciousness after this, mostly.

I couldn't see, feel, nor hear anything (nor taste or smell, but people tend to forget about those senses), or more specifically, I could see, feel and hear nothing. It was simply pitch black for all my sense, yet I could still think, and knew it was more than just nothingness. It was...Nothingness, with a capital N. This lasted for an imperceptible amount of time, until one of my senses was stimulated, returning me to the stream of time, I could feel. I could feel Nothingness. It struck me in the chest, puncturing through my flesh and into my heart, from which its dark, smoky tendrils spread outwards, wisps of non-existence consuming me and my entire body. I could feel in more ways than one, I could feel different emotions drained away. I was being touched by THE HUNGERING, It was releasing me from my bonds, showing me the truth of all things, everything was open to me, I could see the universe, the numerous galaxies looking as but stars in my vision, distant, I saw everything from outside everything. Nothingness exists outside all things, lurking between universes and raging within black holes. Drawing all things to it, ever hungry, ever ending, yet never ending.

I awoke back in my room an unknown time after losing consciousness, my body still intact, a long, sloppily stitched wound over my chest. Master Nowhere standing over me.

"Welcome to the Sine Corda."        

Being Played

So I ran. It went horribly.

Just not before the note was confirmed. I lurked by the door, having lifted a gun from the armoury, holding a crowbar in hand and all my stuff in a bag, I waited in my room for who ever may or may not come. I felt Sleepy was awake too. The door clicked open as I waited behind it, a figure slid through, a knife in hand. A grey haired and heavily bearded head coming into view, it was Analyst Beta, with clearly murderous intentions. I cracked him over the head with the crowbar and he crumpled to the ground. It was confirmed, I'm screwed.

I stepped over the unconscious heap and out the door. The hallway was empty as I sprinted down, my escape completely unhindered. Until a rounded a particular corner and came face to face with Analyst Beta again, well, an identical face at least. Theta moved towards me, a gun in hand, ready to kill me if I didn't kill him first, which I did. Firing my gun at him I struck him square between the eyes, there must be something supernatural about my aim, maybe Sleepy helps.

~~I do not.~~

Well in any case Theta was now dead and I ran to the nearest exit, an emergency one that opens to a staircase up into an alley way down the street of the archive (the normal one), the Archive must stretch quite a bit under ground. My escape went better than I had expected, I wish I hadn't had to kill Theta but there wasn't anything I could do. I got the best I could have hoped for: Not having to find my way out through a veritable army of Archivists. But my luck ran out instantly.

I emerged into the alley to come face to face with Master Nowhere.

"Hello again," came his voice in my head.

"Hi," I responded, nothing I could do now, I'm screwed.

Several other figures emerged from the shadows of the alley, wearing hoodies similar to Master Nowhere, except their ones had an image on the chest, a circle with a line through it. They advanced towards me with almost comic menacing.

"You should probably come with us now, you are prepared," he said.

"Prepared? For what?" I asked, "And while your answering questions why did you send information to both the Archive and the Timberwolves?"

"I can't answer the first one, not yet. The second one however, I sent the information to the Timberwolves to protect you. Apostles are important to THE FALLEN and the other Fears can't kill one without...incurring his wrath. Thus I informed them of your presence so that they could be present on the train and the Fear would not attack it, you didn't really think it was just technical difficulties did you?" Knew it! "Then I informed the Archive of your presence on the train to ensure your survival passed the Timberwolves own attack on the train, I need you alive, for now."

"But why send me to the Archive in the first place? And who left me that letter?"

I could feel his sigh in my head. "I sent you to the Archive so that you'd find out about The Sleeper and He'd grow stronger," ~~How kind of him.~~ "He's an important part of our plan. As for the letter, that was Scribe Theta, it was left to draw you out to be captured by me without alerting the rest of the Archive, that is why the rest of the employees are currently taking part in a fire drill, the sound of which I drowned out for you with my eldritch powers. Now," he said, swinging his hand and pointing at the end of the alley, "Let's go."

The Menacing Men led by Master Nowhere led me through the streets of Paris, rendered invisible by THE HUNGERING and finally bundled me into the back of a van that could only be described as "nondescript". Driving for a couple hours we ended up at an abandoned warehouse where I was led into an enclosed room with a bed, a toilet, and an excellent internet connection.

The note did say I was being played, I just didn't know I was being played by reading it. Things are getting interesting.

-Shady