The World's End | ONC 2024

ੈ✩‧₊˚ |𝟭𝟳| 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁

Wylan

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Madame Henderson was the most enigmatic person in the entire universe. The mystery lay in the fact that we can't tell whether Madame Henderson removed Caity from Veridonia because she was jealous or because she decided that Caity and her family were safer outside.

I also couldn't tell 100% if Madame Henderson was the one who got Caity out.

My muscles were tense, probably because I was seated in the same position without any movement for a while now.

The conversation swirled around us, my mind drifted off. The horrifying nightmares came back again, in the form of daydreams. Why didn't I think much of it then?

The darkness of the abandoned laboratory, the air thick with the stench of decay. The walls seemed to close in on me, suffocating me.

Photographs. Tests. Evidence. Everything out there in the open in gruesome detail. Pictures of children, their lifeless eyes staring back at me from the depths of hell. Their blood, their horrors, everything my father had done etched into every pixel.

I tried to look away, to shield myself from it, but it was a train wreck—I couldn't tear my eyes away. Each image seared itself into my brain, leaving scars.

"Wylan, you shouldn't be here, son. Go to your mother. She's upstairs."

"Father, what are those?"

"Nothing, Wylan. Nothing. No need to worry yourself."

I pressed further. "Are those dead people, father? You said that you were working on plants."

"Yes, son. But nothing to do with us."

Then there was sound. The sound of screams echoing in the darkness, the agonized cries. Symphonic terror.

"Wylan? Wylan?" someone repeated, "Wylan, is everything okay?"

It was Keira, her voice filled with concern as she gently shook my shoulder. I blinked, the images fading as I slowly returned to the present.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I muttered, forcing a smile as I shook off the lingering sense of unease. But Keira wasn't convinced, her eyes searching mine for any sign of distress.

"You looked lost in thought there for a moment," she remarked. "Is everything alright?"

I nodded, the room coming back into focus. Everyone was staring at me, but I nodded again. "I'm fine."

"Your father was the last person to have Caity's thesis, Wylan. Do you know where he could've kept it?" Cyprus questioned, his voice feeling like it was above the recommended decibel.

"My father?" my voice rang out and he nodded. "Yes. Before Caity disappeared, she gave your father a peek at her thesis."

It was all I needed to race upstairs to Alissa's room where my father was resting. My mind was racing fast enough already, but my mind was whirring with possibilities—was everything I had known a lie?

I burst into the room without warning, my footsteps banging on the floorboards making a loud bang that startled my father. He looked up at me, smiled and sat up.

"Son, is everything alright?"

"What happened to Caity's thesis," I asked, ignoring the formalities. I wasn't going to respect him, until he told me the truth. If what Cyprus said was true, there was a dangerous possibility that my father was an evil guy.