Felix Harding's Story

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The loop on the computer started, a simple minor chord progression. Felix had recorded it only a moment ago on his Ibanez, and had just finished looping it to his satisfaction. He let it play a moment, then hit "record" on the computer. He took his pick between two fingers, clicked the button on the Big Muff pedal, and began playing on the Aria. He didn't think about the chords too much, just playing what sounded nice. He let himself play for a minute before he stopped playing, then turned off the pedal and amplifier carefully before stopping the recording. He rewound it as he put the electric guitar back on its stand, then started listening. He nodded along to it, thinking about how it sounded a bit like Pink Floyd. He had always loved the band, especially their guitarist, so the influence was inevitable and obvious.

SCHBREEENGHBVVVVM

The sudden distortion made Felix jump out of his seat cursing. "The hell?" He rewound the tape, and played the section back at lower volume. Sure enough, the screeching, explosive distortion was there exactly as before, as though he had accidentally recorded it. Was there some kind of interference with the tape? No, that was impossible; it was all digital. Maybe he had a defective model. Maybe there was some kind of EMP going out. No, that would have destroyed the machine, and possibly his amp...was that how EMP's worked?

He glanced out the window. Was something out there? He couldn't tell. He licked his lips nervously, noticing they were suddenly dry. An unexpected metallic taste hit his tongue. He spat in alarm, seeing bits of blood and saliva on the desk. He wiped his finger under his nose, saw blood on his finger. He swore, grabbing a tissue and pinching it under his nose with one hand as he wiped the bloody finger off on another tissue. He stood and walked over to the window, and looked out.

A humanoid shape, clad in black seemed distinct even in the darkness, partly helped by its immense size—it seemed to stand taller than the house—and also by the pale skin outside the black it otherwise wore. The contrast, and the effect, was unearthly, and chilling. Felix looked away hastily, lowering the blinds quickly and walking rapidly through the house, turning on lights and closing any glimpse of the world outside. Tonight would be another sleepless night. Unless he could figure out what to do...who could he call? He looked through his phone's contact list before finding someone. Perhaps this person could help. Here goes, he thought to himself as he clicked to call and put the phone to his ear, his breath quick and shallow.

It was just another one of those nights, he noted. All the other rooms in the hall were locked, and he was here alone, as usual. As one of the professors there, one might expect him to be there late looking over music - But he didn't just look over it, he truly read it, he felt it, and could see it. His office light was the only light on in the entire hall save for the lights near the elevators, kept there for safety reasons. The rest of Fraizer-Murphy hall was dark, and one would assume that not a living soul was there. Fraizer-Murphy hall, a hall made just for the fine arts (Affectionately dubbed FML Hall due to the intense, difficult classes that took place there), was also deathly quiet at the time - Rather unnatural sounding for him really, since he was so used to noise.

Looking up at the clock, he sighed to himself and stood, beginning to pack his things. It was late, and he should go home and rest for the next day of classes on campus. Of course he'd probably have to scold the tenors for speeding up, yell at the basses for flatting, rant at the sopranos for oversinging, and criticize the altos on their lack of inaudibility - Just a normal day of getting things done. As he turned off the light and made his way into the hallway, he locked his door, and made his way towards the elevators.

Suddenly, there was a sensation of being watched. It crept across his skin, eerily, and he shuddered. He stopped, looking around himself without looking behind, making sure there was nothing in plain sight before looking back. Nothing. As the looked back, he noted that there was still nothing there. However, his office door was open. He could've sworn he locked it? Perhaps he thought he did, but didn't. With his logic, he made his way back, closed the door, locked it and made sure it was locked, then made his way out of the building without further incident.

Just as he was at the font step to his small house, his cellphone began to ring. He wondered who would be called so late and checked the caller ID as he slipped inside the house and closed the door. It was Felix. Being a musician, you tended to meet other musicians, even if they weren't from your genre, but you just got to know them in various ways. Placing the phone against his ear after answering, he spoke while carrying all his things up the stairs to his home office.

"Privet, Felix. Quite an hour to call, da?" he said, tone of voice suggesting exhaustion. "What is going up?" he asked, placing his things on the desk. This speech quirk was a habit of Viktor's since english wasn't his first language, tending to mix 'What's going on' and 'What's up' into one strange phrase - 'What is going up?'.

"I know it's late," Felix snapped. He glanced at the clock. 12:22 AM. Quite an hour to call, he admitted privately, but disregarded it. That thing outside was more important. He sighed, then continued speaking, softer this time. "Look, Viktor, there's something creepy going on outside my house, and I'm not sure what it is. If it's not too much trouble...could you come over or something? Bring a weapon; I think it's that kind of something creepy." He paused a second, then licked his lips nervously before voicing his darker suspicion. "I...I think this is related to-"

SKRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEBVVVM

"Son of a bitch!" Felix jerked the phone away from his ear, nursing it as he heard the screeching continue before it stopped abruptly. He put the phone back up to his ear. "Viktor? You there?" He checked the phone: the call was lost. In fact, the phone appeared to have died. "God dammit," he muttered as he closed the old phone and tossed it onto his desk. He hoped Viktor could arrive soon. He wasn't sure how long he could remain here, depending on what that thing was.

For 5 minutes he waited, huddled in his room next to his recording deck, his guitars, and his computer. Several times he had thought to call again, but his phone was unresponsive, and the landline didn't work either. He snapped to attention as he heard a knocking at his door. He looked around for a weapon, before settling for a heavy flashlight. He slowly made his way through the house, afraid despite how well-lit the house was, and reached the door. He didn't have a peephole, or windows nearby to tell who it was. He cupped his hands against the door, and yelled through it, "Who's there?"

Viktor blinked as Felix snapped at him, but said nothing about it. He made his way to his kitchen as Felix spoke, absolutely starving. He tended to be a complete workaholic, so forgetting to eat wasn't uncommon for him. Just as he pulled a plate of chilled, pork dumplings from the fridge and placed them onto the counter, Felix said his name. As always, he listened, always being a good listener. Hearing Felix's panic through his voice, his grow furrowed and he frowned, ignoring the food on the counter now.

"Something outside your house?" his voice was thick with concern and he stopped to listen, leaning against the fridge. However, when Felix asked him to come over and bring a weapon, he bit his lip. He knew he had several guns hidden away upstairs for his own protection that he got while in service, not to mention he had licenses for all of them - But he didn't know if- Suddenly, there was a loud shrieking from the phone and Viktor dropped his phone, clasping his hands over his sensitive ears.

"Ohooiet'!" He swore loudly. Despite his ringing ears, he sprung into action, forgetting his food completely. He ran upstairs and popped into his study to snatch the keys off the desk in his study before rushing into his room. Once in his room, he opened the closet and shoved his clothes aside, unlocking a door to a smaller closet in the back of the closet. He pulled out a large, heavy black case before rushing back outside and jumping into the car. He set the case in the back seat before starting up the car and backing out of the driveway. As he began to drive down his street, he opened the glove box and slipped a switchblade into his pocket - After all, you never knew when you'd need to protect yourself in the car.

Driving, he flew down the streets - Thankfully it was a quiet night and not many people were out, so it wouldn't take long to get to Felix's house, maybe 10 minutes or so. Speeding, it would take him maybe two or three minutes less. To his surprise, he got every green light on the way - making the normally 10 minute drive only 5. It was rare that it happened - ever. It looked like he was just lucky tonight.

Parking outside, he grabbed his case and cautiously looked around as he made his way to the door. Felix had said something was outside, and he wanted to be careful just in case it was dangerous. Knocking on the door, he waited patiently, looking around himself in a paranoid manner. That's when it dawned on him. Shit, did he bring any spare bullets? He hoped that it was nothing so that he could simply stay the night to make sure Felix was okay before leaving the next morning - Keep things simple and bullet-less. Hearing Felix yell through the door, Viktor replied.

"It's Viktor, I got all green light on the way here." he spoke, once again with a small english flaw.

Felix sighed in relief as he heard Viktor through the door. He then unlocked the door and opened it, letting Viktor enter. "Thank God you're here, Vik," he said as he closed the door a bit too hard and locked it. "I've been worrying myself sick the past few minutes. I'll show you where I saw it, and tell you what happened." He started leading the Russian choir professor down the halls of his house to his recording room, talking as he walked.

"I was recording some noodling, trying to compose something, you know, and this weird distortion part suddenly appeared on the track, like the one when the phone cut out. I took a look outside to see if anything unusual was going on, and I saw this...thing, outside. It looked like a person, but it wasn't. It's complicated. Lemme see if it's still out there." He slowly eased a crack open in the blinds, and peeked out. Yep. "Shit, it's still there. Right out there, in the trees. See it?" He stepped away from the window. He didn't want to look at that thing again. He wiped his nose, noted blood again, and nervously went to get a tissue.

When Felix answered and allowed him in, he let himself breathe a sigh of relief. It was good to see that he was alright still, well, 'alright' in a way he supposed. After setting his case aside, he followed Felix as he led him through the halls of his home. Felix's house was homely in Viktor's opinion, and he envied the surroundings sometimes - Though at the moment, that was far from true.

Viktor nodded as Felix began to explain, glancing into every room that they passed of which the door would happen to be open. "Distortion?" he inquired, brow furrowing as he continued to follow Felix through the halls. He wondered what he had meant by a distortion, and briefly wondered if it could be an electrical problem. However, he quickly dismissed the idea for now - believing his friend. "You there, Felix?" he asked before peeking through the small crack in the blinds.

His blue eyes squinted out into the darkness, and he tried to indentify a shape in the tangles of tree branches clad in black pressed against the midnight sky. He continued to search, but simply couldn't find what Felix had been referring to. A humanoid shape in the twisting trees? I certainly didn't see- No. Viktor's eyes seemed to very suddenly focus on a form that he could have sworn was not there before. Like Felix said, it was very, very humanoid. But, at the same time, it didn't feel like a human. It reminded him of a statue, still, and watching from beyond that which they could comprehend - Through the folds of time. It sounded strange, yes, but it felt old. He felt like he was staring at an old eerie painting - The kind that you watched as you shuffled past, expecting to behold the colors change as the eyes shifted to follow your every move. Then, he blinked. Opening he eyes, he felt whatever it was may have gotten closer - perhaps not at all -, but his mind felt as if it was pressed against the window, inches away.

"Ohooiet'!" he yelped before he let the crack in the blinds snap shut and he backed away. He felt a sudden headache and reached one hand up to rub his left temple as he cringed. "What the hell is that? I've never seen one those before." he furrowed his brow and looked to Felix. "I see but, but i have no damn clue what it is." he told Felix honestly, the professor clearly confused and not having many helpful words to offer. "How long has that thing been there?"