Serra throws the belt and holsters over her shoulder, as she leans 
over to study TJ’s drawings. Simple stuff, a child’s drawings. It looks 
like he was making portraits of everyone at the table. She frowns, 
staring at the portraits, then looks up, thinking hard. “One too many,” 
she mutters to herself, before nodding to Dr. Tamlin, gathering the 
drawings together, and leaving the room. 


Tamlin is last to leave, making sure that no one has left anything 
behind, pushing the chairs in, and so on. He pauses in front of the 
TV, and pushes play again, watching the static on the screen. He 
speaks aloud to the empty room. “This room will cease to be in the 
next thirty minutes. It was only ever temporary.” He pulls a single 
blue rose from his sleeve, and lays it on the VCR, in memory of 
someone who almost understood him, then leaves. 


Nobody is in the room now, all by herself. Her eyes stay focused on 
the screen, her thoughts whirling. She is somehow not surprised 
when the static goes away, replaced once more by the dead 
woman. 


“Hello Claire. | left you for last, because you need so little from me. 
Remember to go the the site of the Sacred Fallen on the 13th, as we 
discussed, and please, please don't forget to get the wine to the 
temple before the dark of the moon. | wrote the rest of my 
instructions down, and there's a few simple props in the bag. 
Everything is set into motion. Remember what | taught you, and 
follow my words.” She smiles, raising a hand in benediction, and is 
finally gone for good. 


“| remember Grandmother. | couldn’t possibly forget.” She sighs, 
pulling herself to her feet. She absently grabs the bag as she walks 
towards the door. She flips the lights off, letting her words echo in 
the empty room. 


“Anything for the family.” 


Coffee Date 


Kondraki was mortified. Bad enough that his one off impulsive 
decision ended in disaster (again, as usual), worse was the fact that 
everyone had to know about it. And know about it with visual aids. 
From an O5 sanctioned presentation. Kondraki wasn’t too much 
more paranoid than any other reasonable adult on site, but he could 
swear he felt people’s eyes on him leaving the meeting. The wound 
to his pride was too fresh. He decided to seclude himself to his work 
for the day and hope no smartass came by with a bottle themed get 
well basket. 


The distraction was mostly sufficient, if completely soul sucking-ly 
boring. So a pretty normal day doing paperwork. Aside from the 
occasional dull ache from his lower half, Kondraki was able to 
mostly put the incident out of his mind. No more issues, or lingering 
embarrassment, just reams of paperwork to be filled out. Not 
glamorous, but necessary. It was going great, actually; he was 
making good progress and a decent dent in some of the work he 
had been totally-not-putting-off, and it might have given him a little 
free time on his day off instead of having to take work home again. 
Then disaster struck. 


As Kondraki lifted his coffee cup to his lips once more, he realized 
that he’d sipped it dry. His stomach sank as he realized that meant 
he’d have to get up and actually go get more; absolutely no way 
around that. He just hoped that no one got between him and his 
source of endless power. Or that he didn’t hear the tell tale sound of 
crinkling plastic. After a minute or two of grumbling to himself, he 
finally got up the nerve to head down the hall to refill. 


He didn’t walk with his head down; he didn’t want to seem ashamed. 
After everything he’d already pulled, there wouldn’t be a point 
anyway. Just a chip to his pride. 


Just before rounding the corner to where the coffee pot awaited him, 
Kondraki overheard a conversation. 


“Alright, okay you remember the thing with the Pringles can?” Began 
the first voice, sounding a little exasperated. 


“Yeah,” came the reply. “I still have the scar on the back of my hand 
from where the scissors slipped trying to get me out.” 


“Okay so imagine that, but instead of it being your hand, it’s your 
dick. It'd just fuckin’ slice a big gash in-“ 


“Dear god that hurts just thinking about it, shut up.” 


Great. Fantastic. Maybe if he kept his head down, Kondraki would 
be able to get his coffee and go without the two noticing. 


“| get what you’re saying,” the second voice added, closer now. “But 
why would he do it in the first place?” 


“Sometimes people just do things man.” The first voice answered 
simply. “Like you haven’t done something stupid before. Like uh, 
remember Ryan? Grade nine, got his arm stuck in the plastic tubing 
in art class cause he just wanted to see if he could make himself a 
robot suit out of PVC pipe.” 


“Isn't that the guy who drank so much Red Bull that the company 
sent him a laptop?” 


“Yeah, that’s the one. They had to call an ambulance to get him cut 
out of the pipe because if we tried to use the pipe cutters we could 
have got his arm. Same principal.” 


“Okay but Ryan was a complete dumbass.” 


“Yeah, but everyone’s a bit of a dumbass. Like you can be a highly 
intelligent person and still be a dumbass.” 


At that point, Kondraki rounded the corner and made a beeline for 
the coffee pot. The small half-room wasn’t very big, so it wasn’t very 
far at all, but he was able to move quietly towards his warm holy 
grail. 


He had made eye contact with one of the two voices. They were 
both young researchers, hadn’t been at the site long. Or at least he 


assumed, judging by their age. He didn’t really recognize anyone 
unless they did something noteworthy, and even then it was pretty 
hit or miss.The first voice, belonging to a short young man who now 
wore a barely suppressed look of fear on his face, stopped in its 
tracks when Kondraki made eye contact on his way to the pot. The 
second individual, taller but just as young, had his back to Kondraki 
when he walked in, and hadn’t seen him. 


“Like, | can get that the idea came to him.” Started the second man, 
who ignored his colleague that had begun shaking his head 
frantically in favor for eyeing up the vending machine. “I'd be lying if | 
said | hadn’t thought about something like that before. But to actually 
go through with it?” 


Kondraki poured himself a cup, and didn’t turn to look at either of the 
two. “What can | say? Seemed like a good idea at the time.” 


The silence that followed was almost unnatural. The only sound in 
the room came from coffee being poured; even the vending machine 
seemed to stop its endless quiet hum, if only for a few seconds. That 
was followed by some frantic shuffling, and the sound of two sets of 
footsteps retreating down the hall. 


Kondraki half chuckled to himself; seems they were more 
embarrassed than he was. He finished fixing his coffee and began 
his return trip back to his desk to finish both his paperwork and his 
self isolation over the incident. 


So things maybe weren’t as bad as they seemed. Just like any big 
mistake, people would probably talk about it for a few days and then 
be over it when the next fresh gossip came out. It was just how 
people were. They might work with dangerous, impossible and 
generally horrifying objects and entities every day, but thankfully, 
most of them were still pretty human. Sometimes humans did 
amazing and noble work for the good of mankind. Sometimes 
humans got their dicks stuck in water bottles. 


Kondraki mused on this quietly as he took a sip of coffee, finally 
returning to his desk on which sat an unopened water bottle, tied 
with red ribbon to a balloon reading “Get Well Soon! :)*. 


Collected Data 


Light blue 

55 mph 

Plymouth 

2 Occupants 

1 male, young adult, yellow hair, brown eyes 

1 female, young adult, brown hair, brown eyes 


Deep red 

75 mph 

Mustang 

1 Occupant 

1 male, adult, black hair, brown eyes 


Dark brown 

65 mph 

Buick 

2 Occupants 

1 male, adult, black hair, brown eyes, brown skin 
1 female, elderly, white hair, blue eyes 


Orange, mottled with oxidation 

45 mph 

Unknown 

5 Occupants 

Forward compartment - 1 male, elderly, thin gray hair, 
eyes unknown 

Forward compartment - 1 male, adult, brown hair, brown 
eyes 

1 female, child, yellow hair, brown eyes 

1 male, adult, brown hair, brown eyes 

1 male, escaped, hostile 


Black and white, patterned 
Ford 
35 mph 


2 Occupants 

1 male, adult, brown hair, brown eyes, brown skin, 
hostile 

1 male, adult, orange hair, green eyes, hostile 
confusing lights 


Black 

85 mph 

Unknown 

2 Occupants 

1 male, adult, black hair, brown eyes, hostile 
1 male, adult, black hair, brown eyes, hostile 


Tan 

90 mph 

Chevrolet 

4 Occupants 

1 male, adult, yellow hair, blue eyes, hostile 

1 male, adult, no hair, brown eyes, hostile 

1 male, adult, grey hair, blue eyes, hostile 

1 male, adult, orange hair, green eyes, hostile 


Black 

70 mph 

Unknown 

2 Occupants 

1 male, escaped, hostile 

1 female, escaped, hostile 


Black 

55 mph 

Unknown 

2 Occupants 

1 male, escaped, hostile 

1 female, escaped, hostile 


Black 

55 mph 

Unknown 

Record Interrupted 


No data 

No data 

Unable to collect data, terminate connection? Y/N 
N 

Connection failing. No data. Enter command: 
status 


Movement prevented by obstacles. Light input exceeds 
operating parameters. 


look 


4 specimens. Sex indeterminate. White suits. Light input 
exceeds operating parameters. Specimens in posture of 
examination. Enter command: 


examine subjects 
Unable to comply. 
Damage recorded to central cavity. 


Connection terminated by outside force. 


Experiment Log 819-E-1 
Test: 
Subject: 
Results: 


difficult. Continued progress 
resulted in painful swallowing, 
more labored breathing and 
strong pain in all previously 
affected areas. After end of 
consumption, subject was 
released and monitored for 5 
days. Initial examination showed 
inflamed nasal, sinus, and 
esophageal tissue. Similar 
irritation on the lungs was 
confirmed when subject's 
respiration was examined. 
Subject quickly developed 
rhinorrhea, and succumbed to 
several strains of stomach and 
rhino viruses. After recovering 
from the illnesses, subject was 
back to normal, though it is 
theorized that some of the 
production glands were damaged 
from the prolonged lack of 
phlegm. 


Biue 
Effect of Consumption 
D-8381 
Within 15 seconds, subject 
reported difficulty seeing. At one 
minute, subject lost all vision. 
Upon physical examination, it was 
show the aqueous humor was 
depleted, and that the mass of the 
eye was beginning to shrink. 
Further consumption caused the 
subject's eyes to shrink and then 
shrivel as vitreous humor was 
lost. After 4 minutes, eyes were 
fully devoid of humor and were 


Colors 


This world is composed of color and light, and | have 
seen every hue. 


Only a small fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum is 
visible, but that does not mean that the rest of it is 
nonexistent. 


It does not mean that those invisible wavelengths are not 
worthy of being seen, of being noticed, of being 
appreciated and respected for what they are. | have seen 
the burning, disorienting purple of ultraviolet and the 
resonating warmth of infrared, felt the pulsating, 
penetrative brilliant blue of gamma radiation, heard the 
exuberant chirping of people conversing in pale yellow- 
and-green radio waves. | have seen the colors you 
pretend don’t exist, and they’re more beautiful than you 
could ever know. 


Your mind is composed of color and light, and | have 
seen every hue. 


Only a small fraction of your desires are visible, but that 
does not mean that your spectrum cannot extend beyond 
them. 


It does not mean that the concepts dwelling in your 
thoughts are not worthy of being seen, of being noticed, 
of being appreciated and respected for what they are. | 
have seen the stunning blues and yellows of young 
people in love and the burning blood-red of lust, felt the 
filthy, creeping black-brown of those who would never 
speak their mind. | have seen the colors you pretend 
don’t exist, and they’re more beautiful than you hope 
never to know. 


This world is composed of color and light, and | know 
how to break through. 


Most of the electromagnetic spectrum is ignored unless it 
is needed, left out of paintings and film alike, 
appreciation shown only for its tiny visible percentage 
while the rest is left to rot. 


It does not mean that those colors will be overlooked; 
they are worthy of being seen, of being noticed, of being 
appreciated and respected. | have seen that burning, 
disorienting purple of ultraviolet and that resonating 
warmth of infrared and that penetrative brilliant blue of 
gamma radiation brought to life in medicine and physics, 
seen them interpreted as skewed representations of 
what they are, and then used up and tossed aside to fall 
into invisibility and neglect once again. 


Your body is composed of color and light, and | know 
how to break through. 


Most of your desires are cast away by your peers, 
shunned and ignored until they are needed, appreciation 
shown only for those aspects of yourself that conform to 
your world’s expectation of you while the rest is left to 
rot. 


| will not ignore who you are; | see your thoughts in all 
their twistedness and perversion and to me they are 
seen, they are noticed, they are appreciated and 
respected. | have seen those blues and yellows of young 
people in love and that blood-red of lust and that filthy, 
creeping black-brown brought out and exploited by this 
world, seen them interpreted as skewed representations 
of what they are, and then used up and tossed aside to 
fall into invisibility and neglect once again. 


This world is composed of color and light, and | have 
made it blossom anew. 


Everything in existence is realized at a cost, with pain 


and turmoil and confusion as payment for actualization, 
every gleaming hue and every intangible fantasy taking 
its toll on reality. 


| have seen that burning, disorienting purple of ultraviolet 
as it festered in flesh and pulled from it splattering 
patterns of malicious cells. | have felt that pulsating, 
penetrative brilliant blue of gamma radiation as it tore 
violently through the bodies of eighty thousand people 
and | have heard the exuberant chirping of people 
conversing in pale yellow-and-green radio waves on that 
same day in August of 1945. | have seen beautiful colors 
do terrible things, and sometimes there is nothing 
anyone can do. 


You are composed of color and light, and | will make you 
blossom anew. 


| have seen those stunning blues and yellows of young 
people in love and that burning blood-red of lust as they 
sickened and drove to madness those they affected. | 
have felt the filthy, creeping black-brown of those who 
would never speak their mind as it grew and grew in 
them and consumed their thoughts every night until they 
were a husk of their former selves, corrupted by a color 
they could never actualize, a color never noticed, never 
appreciated and respected for what it was. 


| have seen beautiful colors do terrible things, but there 
is only so much | can do. | will give you what this world 
could not, but if your mind is leaking brown and black 
and degradation and rot, your body will start to as well. 
After all, everything in existence is realized at a cost, and 
every gleaming hue and intangible fantasy takes its toll 
on reality. 


| will never use you for your color, | will never judge you 
or degrade you like your peers; | will never show you 
anything but what you wish to see in me and | will never 
toss you aside and leave part of you behind. | will not 
ignore who you are; | see your thoughts in all their