The 10 Gateways: Secrets

Jack of All Trades

I lead the group down the hallway and we analyzed all the rooms adjacent to the hall. We found nothing but random tables with papers and files on them. It reminded me heavily of the space station. Dr. Roberto had to be right, this was Dr. Jack Fairwell's laboratory. 

The hallway made seemingly random twists and turns, and we followed it along. There was no sign of life in any of the rooms we were checking. We stopped for a second in one room, to think of a plan, because we were heading to nowhere in particular.

"Dr. Roberto, do you know where Dr. Jack would hide or be at?" I asked.

"I don't know this laboratory, he must've built his own in recent years. My main guess is there's a control room where he might be,"

"I guess we just got to keep looking," I said.

"Should we split up?" Henry asked.

"No. I don't think it'd be a good idea, knowing Dr. Jack," I said.

"I mean, even if we are in danger, a portal would appear right?" Jenny asked.

"I mean if prior patterns continue yes, but just like Jack, we don't know where the portals are coming from, they could just randomly stop. We're a group and we're going to watch each other's backs,"

"Alright," Jenny said.

We continued walking down the hall, going into rooms along the way. All the rooms had tables and papers all over them. Most of the papers were random research and information printed out. Sometimes papers were just filled with doodles and scribbles, illegible.

We got to a room towards the end of the hallway that had a jammed door. Dr. Roberto immediately went up to it, standing with his back to us, so we couldn't really see what he was doing, but in about a minute, the door was blasted open. We all walked in, not questioning what Dr. Roberto did. He always had a number of gadgets on him to use in situations.

As we walked in, the papers were still disorganized, but it wasn't as bad as the other rooms. Only a couple of papers littered the floor, while the others rooms' floors were covered in paper. 

As we walked around the room, I walked by one table that had papers that looked like letters. I recognized the handwriting - the same that had written the first letter that flew through the first gateway on Christmas Eve at midnight.

I glanced over some of them, seeing notes about plans and what they wanted to do. I got to one of the letters that had a more rushed handwriting. It was still from Christina, but the writing utensil had been pressed into the paper. It was a letter directly to Jack, saying he has failed more than once and the Dark Souls were ready to cut him off and to prevent him from interfering, it would lead to his execution.

This letter was on top of the pile, and because of the lack of folds or creases in the paper, it looked like it had just been put there moments prior. I realized the complete silence around me as I was focused on these letters. I heard a few footsteps right behind me and I whirled around, seeing Dr. Jack Fairwell. 

His off-white lab coat had numerous creases and it was slightly ripped on the edges. His messy brown hair was a tangled mess. The insidious look in his eye went straight through me as I looked at him in shock. His eye had a slight crimson red glimmer to it and he made a slight grin. 

Looking beyond him, there was a transparent blue field surrounding us, cutting off the rest of the room so I didn't hear the destruction. The room was in ruin, tables had been flipped and the papers were all over the floor. I spotted Joe in a corner, kneeling and looking up. Jenny and Henry were in another corner, on top of each other, unmoving. Nathan was leaning against one wall, eyes closed.