Chapter Text
01 / 30
You were in-between worlds. Coming and going as you ever so pleased.
Not of any real significance, you were merely another Robloxian that lived day-to-day going about where you pleased. Whether it was engaging in fun tournaments with swords and minigames, to stopping at a small pizza place to pick up lunch, everything always went by your typical schedule.
Sure, there were a few odd cases here and there. Like that one time you went to grab lunch, only to see the entire pizza place covered in red and posters of a small child with the worlds ' JOIN TEAM C00lKIDD TODAY !! ' vandalized all over the place. You remembered how you stood in the parking lot, watching as one of the top employees - who you recalled his name being Elliot as per the tag on his work shirt, scolding what seemed to be the father of the troublesome child, who all but seemed completely oblivious to the destruction he'd caused.
Though moments of surprise and excitement in your day-to-day like that were few and far in-between, you wouldn't lie and say you craved for more excitement. Yet you found yourself perfectly content with a life mostly consisting of peace and routine.
Everything was ordinary - and while some may've called you boring or mundane, you were fine with what you had.
But how could you not perk up your head when certain people started going missing?
You remembered the day your suspicions arose. The first thing that set off the quiet red alarm bells in your mind was the lack of that familiar pizza worker, Elliot.
It's not like you knew the guy personally in anyway, but with how much of a frequent customer you were, you grew accustomed to this workaholic being the one who always took your order. It was nothing short of surprise when the person behind the counter was a completely different face.
"..Huh."
The employee seemed to catch your confused stare - their tone relatively bored, as if they didn't really get paid enough for perfect customer satisfaction. "Is something the matter?"
You snapped out of your daze, looking towards the employee.
"Uh.." you sweatdropped, glancing to your side for a moment. "Nothing - it's just.."
You turn your head back towards the employee. "I'm just surprised it's not.. what's his name.. Elliot?"
You didn't even have to finish your sentence before the employee filled in the gap for you - already predicting your next words.
"Yeah, that's his name." the employee hummed, pressing the buttons on the kiosk in front of them. "Hasn't shown up to work for.. a while. Company's not too sure what's going on - but most of it's classified."
"Woah.. seriously?" You felt your eyes widen. Even when the employee spoke to you, they themselves also seemed confused with the words coming out of their mouth. You silently nod, feeling it best not to further pry on anymore information. Classified company information anyway; you were about 99% sure that this employee legally couldn't tell you anything else.
Plus, again, you didn't even know Elliot personally. Probably for the best to keep to yourself.
Elliot? Not showing up to work? That seemed.. incredibly out of character for him. While you and him weren't exactly friends by any means - your only real interactions mostly consisting of employee and customer interaction, it didn't take a genius to see how much that guy just adored going to work. Nobody really knew how he managed to enjoy coming in practically every day of the week, and no matter how rude the customers could get or how busy the work could get, Elliot always just seemed.. to enjoy being there every single day.
You remember that visit ending with you getting your pizza and walking out of the restaurant, unsure of why your mind refused to forget the odd experience.
Things only progressed from there.
Call it some kind of weird intuition, but as weeks passed by, everything just felt so much more.. quiet. You could've sworn you were seeing a few more missing posters here and there for different individuals you faintly recognized at some point here and there. Chatter amongst Robloxians in the streets as you'd pass by on the sidewalk consisted of rumors and gossip about all these "mysterious disappearances", with many debating whether or not it was all just some sick joke or if anyone should really be worried.
You kept yourself away from the rumors - but the curiosity was eating at you like a leech that refused to get off your skin no matter how many times you tugged and pulled. You shouldn't get involved - its none of your business, really, but the disappearances felt like they were shoving themselves into your face. It's not like you knew any of the people that had been going missing all too well, you were just some average Robloxian that lived their day-to-day.
Sitting on the edge of your bed that night, the full moon's bright light shines down from the sky, it's elegant white glow peeking in through the blinds of your bedroom window. You typed and clicked away on your small laptop that sat carefully in your lap, the screen's soft brightness illuminating your features through the darkness of your bedroom.
Your dominant hand glided on the mouse-pad, scrolling through the short article recently posted online that went over one of the disappearances regarding Elliot. Over the past few weeks, you found yourself creating a small side-hobby of research and looking into any kind of information you could find regarding the missing Robloxians. When you weren't working or off doing who-knows-what, you were held up in your room, scrolling through article after article, video after video.
Needless to say, your curiosity had gotten the better of you. How could it not? What initially seemed like a bunch of odd coincidences and strange timing seemingly turned into something that could've been far more horrifying. These people - or, at least Elliot, the one you mostly kept tabs on in regards to the disappearances, had been gone for a while now, with not a single person having seen him since.
No matter which corner you turned, you never really learned any new information in your countless searches. Everyone always knew the exact same amount of information as you did.
But something ached inside of you. There had to be more - and you weren't sure why your mind seemed so dead set on continuing to look for more information, more clues, like this was all just some strange puzzle. It almost had felt like you were just.. compelled to do it. Nobody else seemed to be putting in that effort - at least not to your knowledge, so someone had to do something, right?
Your hand moved from the mouse-pad to the roof of your laptop, swiftly closing the device with a sigh that followed soon after. Eyes glancing over towards the small clock that sat by your bed, the red digits blinked with the late hours of 1 AM.
Another night of futile searching that ultimately lead to the same places you'd reached days ago. This was effectively hopeless - and you knew that deep down. You'd done the most you could in regards to contributing in finding out any possible leads, but with constant roadblock after roadblock, was there really a point in fighting an impossible battle any further?
Reaching over to place your laptop over on your desk, you rolled yourself further over into your bed, head hitting the soft pillow situated beneath on the edge of your bed against the wall. Your hands haphazardly grabbed at your blankets, throwing them over your form with your eyes remaining glued to the dark ceiling littered with old, glow-in-the-dark stars that had long since lost most of their light through the years they've sat there.
Sleep sounded like a good idea. Exhaustion hadn't fully hit your system yet, but it was probably for the best to get some shut-eye for the morning to come.
Not that you were too particularly thrilled about going to work tomorrow - but whatever pays the bills and keeps you living in a stable income.
Your eyes fluttered closed, and within a few short minutes, you entered a dreamless sleep.
Your fist slammed down on the snooze button as the morning alarm screeched in your ears. Sitting up from your bed, the blankets once comfortably covering you sliding down - you rubbed at your tired eyes, blinking the remaining sleep away.
Your eyes glanced towards your clock. 7:16 AM.
You had to get ready for work. Thankfully, your shift wasn't all that long for today.
The typical routine of getting ready for work went by in a blur, but as you stepped outside and locked the front door behind you at around 7:45 AM, you took a deep breath in of the fresh, spring air outside. Stepping down from your porch, your shoes clicked against the smooth concrete of the familiar sidewalk that began your walk to work as per usual.
Your gaze was mostly glued towards the ground, but as the occasional pedestrian passed your wave, you raised your head and give a short wave and smile, and a similar gesture was usually returned and sent your way. The walk to work was never really a long one nor difficult, a few street crossings here and there and a couple of turns - but the distance between your house and work was a mere 10 minute walk at most.
Arriving to work on-time as expected, your day went by in a blur of noise. Time slipped away faster than you had realized, and when you finally took a glance at the clock for the first time since this morning, the sight of seeing your shift ending within the next few minutes was like a breath of fresh air. The day at work had been mostly slow, with the occasional rise of rush hour at the typical hours where most had their breaks.
Cleaning up your area, you clocked yourself out right as your shift had reached its closure, waving goodbye to your fellow employees with a smile.
The sun's horizon coated the sky in an orangish pink hue - the arrival of the late-afternoon a welcome sight. Usually meant that the streets would be less packed and bustling, making the walk home significantly easier for you.
Crossing the street once more, you stared off into space as you walked, mind wandering into its own place.
But your daydreaming didn't last long. As you turned one of the corners as usual in the direction back to your place, you took another look around.
..Where.. was everyone?
You paused in your tracks, head looking around in all directions as you glanced around for any other Robloxians around - whether it was someone driving their car, or walking along the sidewalk just like you. The walk home was always far more quiet and less packed as it was in the morning, but it was never this .. dead.
Normally you wouldn't have probably let such a thing bother you. Perhaps it was merely a coincidence and it was just one of those days where pedestrians were elsewhere. Nothing to really worry or make a fuss about - and yet.. your stomach felt like it was twisting into knots.
Why did you feel so.. paranoid?
Perhaps it was due to the disappearances still weighing on your mind. With all those people having gone missing for weeks now, or longer - you'd lost track of the time; it was making you feel far less safe in the comfort of your own hometown.
You bit the inside of your cheek, slowly forcing yourself to continue moving back towards your house.
Stop being ridiculous, you mentally scolded yourself. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. You're being overly paranoid because of a few disappearances in regards to people that you hardly knew.
You rubbed the bridge of your forehead - shoes gliding against the pavement beneath you.
The sound of a trashcan falling over in a nearby alleyway just up ahead - followed by a scream, sent what was just paranoia swarming inside of you into overwhelming fear that froze your entire body within the mere seconds it took for you to process what you just heard.
"...what?"
There was more clashing and rummaging, stressed and frantic - as if some kind of horrible crime was being committed from just beyond your vision. Your legs felt weak like they'd been turned into jello - eyes unblinking and locked directly ahead.
Then .. as soon as it had happened, everything went silent once more. Nothing but the soft breeze followed.
You finally blinked - letting out a breath you hadn't realized you'd been holding.
Forcing courage into your veins, you dragged yourself forward, steps quickly moving ahead as you dashed up towards the alleyway where the horror had occurred. Skidding to a stop once you nearly overshot your own approach, you looked into the dark alleyway, shaded with a hue of black from the lack of sunlight unable to breach it's small corner.
Yet .. it felt unrealistically dark. Dark to the point that you could barely make out anything inside - aside from.. something. You weren't sure what you were looking at - but it's dark shadow reflected and resembled the form of.. someone.
With a deep breath, you found your voice.
"..Hello?"
There is no response. You feel even more horrified because of that.
Without thinking, you take one singular step forward -
- and you are immediately thrown forward by some strong, invisible force.
You yell, eyes tightly shutting, hands quickly rushing to shield your face from the inevitable impact on the cold concrete, preparing yourself for the unfortunate scrapes you would soon be receiving.
..Only.. that never actually ends up happening.
If anything, it just feels like you're still falling. Shouldn't you have hit the ground by now?
You slowly squint your eyes open - and all you see is darkness. The world around you, once covered in a soft afternoon haze had completely vanished, leaving behind nothing but a dark, inky void that swallowed you whole in every direction.
You immediately panic, flailing about - eyes darting in every direction. Where - where the hell were you??
Your gaze quickly lands above you, where the soft twinkle of what appeared to be distant stars gleam down from far away. Small, microscopic bits of white light that contrast the ever absorbing darkness everywhere else around you.
You're not sure why, but it feels like the stars are watching you.
And as soon you process that - horror filling your features, everything disappears; and you are gone.