ODDITY

part i (bailey and valentine)

the story begins with bailey (23) and valentine's (23) relationship ending, with valentine concluding that she is a lesbian. bailey, in turn for being left by valentine, posts revenge porn (suggestive images val took for him, though none are explicit) online. valentine, in return, drops out of school where she and bailey both attended (trinity college). bailey continues to terrorise and harass valentine through the online world, sending her anonymous messages and going as far as to post her address online (though this was quickly deleted by moderators of each website he posted it to). valentine eventually gets a restraining order against bailey, stopping his offensive acts for the time being.

after this, bailey delves into the deep web looking for interesting content. after posting some content to a subreddit intended for disturbing media, an anonymous user messages bailey privately and gives him coordinates near his home along with an upcoming date. bailey takes this as a threat but decides to lead one of his current friends to the location during that time out of curiosity. when he brings this friend to the location (acadia elementary school, september 16 2017, 02:30 am) he sends said friend within the main school building. while waiting for something to happen, bailey witnesses several others enter the school, but does not see any come back out. after an hour of waiting, bailey gets a bad feeling and decides to abandon his friend at acadia elementary school.

the next week, bailey notices his local news channel releasing information on several locals going missing and their last known whereabouts being acadia elementary school. they briefly mention the possibility of an odd message going around directing people to this area, but it is then brushed off. bailey then decides to go back to the school to see what exactly is up. after several minutes of exploring, he cannot find anything notable and decides to venture out. on his way out, he is suddenly punched in the stomach and then beaten to the point of passing out.

upon waking up, bailey notices that he is on a cold, metal table, with sounds of whimpering and crying coming from nearby. he is unable to see where these sounds are coming from specifically, as he is restrained on this table. after what seems like an hour of waiting and thinking to himself, what looks to be a young man approaches him from behind. the man is wearing a flu mask and layers upon layers of brown clothing. with the expression of his eyes, it looks like he is smiling at bailey. he signals for several others to come to him, and bailey is then approached by two others, dressed in medical gear with their faces obscured by goggled and masks.

bailey, at first, is unable to take what he is experiencing seriously and begins cracking jokes to these people. he soon begins to realise the horror of the situation and panics. upon panicking, one of the two supposed doctors injects bailey with what seems to be a muscle relaxer, and soon after injects him with a tranquiliser.

upon waking up, bailey finds himself on the metal table once again. he can hear someone stand up and walk towards him, only for that person revealed to be the man from earlier. the man pulls down his mask and smiles at bailey, telling him that his transplant was successful, but that he died during the procedure for a short time. bailey, in a drugged state, accepts what he is told and thanks the man for his time and efforts. bailey then passes back out.

bailey then wakes up the next day or so where he originally was beaten to unconsciousness. he has vague memories of what happened but shrugs them off, figuring it was some sort of payback for abandoning his friend at acadia elementary school when trouble arose. he proceeds to walk home in a dazed state and tells his family he just fell asleep at a park while out with friends and was left alone and lost.

from then on, bailey notices strange changes in his body and life – he notices injuries healing much quicker than usual, his strength is more notable than ever, and that his teeth have become slightly misshapen, slightly resembling that of a shark (or some other sharp toothed animal). these changes, however, are not as noticeable to others, and due to this, bailey is the only person to notice. as the next week goes on, bailey begins to remember his encounter with the mysterious man in brown and what he was told by that man.

sometime within the next month, bailey receives a message on the reddit account that was originally sent the message that caused his friend to go missing – the message essentially congratulated bailey on his surgery. the message was written in the point of view of someone who was not quite involved with the surgery but involved with those who performed it. one part of the message stood out to bailey – a part claiming his transplanted organ was "special." he concludes that his newfound changes are due to this transplant and he must be superhuman. with this knowledge, he begins to use his new state to his advantage – and with him being a petty and spiteful person, that means harassing and terrorising valentine once more.

bailey then begins to engage in similar behaviour to before – only this time he keeps himself anonymous. he leaves notes and letters around valentine's home for her to find that cannot be traced back to him. he kills her father's pet dog. he leaves more dead animals around her home, and specifically the window to her bedroom – knowing this will lead to her experiencing further abuse from her father.

eventually, after several months of this, bailey approaches valentine in person after leaving her a letter promising to stop if she meets with him at a precise location and time. when she does so out of desperation, he takes this encounter too far and it results in valentine dying by bailey's hands – literally. the physical contact bailey has with valentine during her death corrupts her body and being, turning her into the same type of monstrosity as bailey – or, as he views it, superhuman. however, bailey isn't aware that he can change someone in this way, so he runs from the scene and leaves her for dead. valentine eventually wakes up and remembers the details of what happened. after the extreme of what bailey did, though, valentine, out of fear, does not report the incident to anyone and keeps it to herself. eventually, she notices the same changes as bailey.

the biggest change the two notice is changes in their physical forms – under periods of stress or extreme emotion, their bodies begin to change in seemingly random (but psychologically driven) ways. bailey had specifically noticed his fingers turning black and hard (think obsidian), elongated like claws. valentine would notice what seemed to be her skin melting.

bailey considers himself mostly finished with valentine and decides to shuffle through a queue of people that are willing to date him. he finds most of these people using tinder. with time, most of them witness his abusive nature and leave (or are left by him). eventually, he finds a specific person on tinder who subtly mentions that they are seeking a plug – they catch his eye due to their sickly appearance and odd vibe. knowing several plugs himself, he figures he can pass himself off as one for this person and perhaps get with them. they match.