Demon Dads (DarkiplierXAntisepticeyeXIdkAnymore,Someone)

Paperwork

I waited out the day in front of the TV. At one point, Dark, out of nowhere, came to join me. We sat in silence for several minutes, listening to the weather, but then Anti poked his head out of a doorway and glared at Dark. Dark pretended not to notice at first, but then he sighed and went to join Anti. They argued quietly for a minute or two, then it stopped and I sat alone in front of the news.

Once it was dark outside, I got up from the couch, stretched, and walked up to the dusty study. At the door to the Border I closed my eyes and remembered how it looked from where I needed to be. But as I opened the door and stepped into the blackness, I immediately noticed I wasn't the first one there.

Anti sat calmly on the sand, right where I needed to be. Both hands were buried in the black sands. His glow was so muted if I hadn't looked right at him, I might not've seen him at all.  I stayed at the door and thought it over. I could get veerrrry close to him, mimic him, claim I just did it to see what happens (if I managed to get somewhere close to him), and ask to help what's he's doing. He might let me in on whatever he and Dark had planned, or he might get angry at me for interrupting. If he and Dark were at a delicate stage, I could get someone hurt. I had no idea what I would be interrupting.

Ooorrrr I could quietly close the door and fuck off.

I really didn't want to turn back now, but I didn't want to get in trouble, or to get Anti and Dark into trouble.

I remembered what Dark had told Anti. They were playing a long game. A few months could be well spent. I could wait another day, come back tomorrow night, and find the papers I need. One day shouldn't mean very much.

But dammit, I didn't want to turn back. I wanted to know what's going on.

With some reluctance, I closed the door. These guys played long games. If I wanted to understand, I'd need to be patient.

Defeated, I slunk down to the living room and turned the TV on, just in time to see the fire.

There was a fire in the office of the school. No one was hurt, and it was quickly contained, since the secretary called right away and the fire station was literally five minutes away. Still, it had time to consume most, if not all, small flammable whatsits in the room. I put my head in my hands. If the desk was as charred as the secretary said to the reporter, the files were as good as gone. There was a chance the cabinets protected them, but the cabinets themselves might be too messed up to get into.

The police suspected arson. I found myself wondering if someone was covering their tracks. Was Anti there to start the fire, or was he there to protect something? Which side would he be on?

Was someone working against Dark and Anti? Or was Dark tricking Anti? Were there multiple players involved? Were they working together or tripping each other up? How complex could this get?

I had nothing to work with. And now what little information I could've gotten was quite possibly gone.

I felt like I should have one of those cork boards you see in detective movies.

The fire was all over the news that day. After that late-night report, pretty much every news station was finding out whatever they could about the fire at the school. Some theorizes someone was trying to burn the whole school down and blamed a delinquent kid. Some supposed it was the secretary, who was there after hours and had claimed she'd noticed the fire but had no idea how it started. Others pointed out that the cameras in the area were shut off for maintenance and suspected a bigger story at play. Those felt the most likely, though I suppose the secretary was possible. I just had to wait.

Waiting in front of the TV for nearly twenty four hours was mind-numbingly boring, though, so I waited some of it out in the basement, where, as usual, the Host had nothing useful to say.

I was still intensely bored. But I gritted my teeth and tried not to count the hours.

At precisely eight pm, I gave up and walked to the door to the Border, trying to move slowly and stall for more time, desperately wishing I could fall asleep again. I found my spot, sat down, and sank both hands into the sand.

I was near the school. Near enough. I must've been a few inches off in the Border. I walked in, through the door, into the locked office and reached through the front of the desk drawer.

My fingers found he hard, semi-solid edge of the key, and I pulled it out of the sand.

Going back in, key in hand, I carefully inserted it into the lock on the filing cabinet. It was hard not to phase it through the lock itself. My hand was shaking trying to keep it steady. Gradually, though, I got it in and turned it, slowly, steadily. Then I used the key as a handle to pull the drawer open.

Yes, I thought, scanning the names on the tabs of the various files. This method works nicely.