The Vice Principle called me into his office today. Something about a stolen access card being used to gain clearance to classified archives. I wasn't the only one who he called in. Almost all of us were subjected to an interrogation of sorts this morning.
The poor Vice Chairman looked like he hadn't slept a wink. He was neck-deep in paperwork when I entered. I'm sure he would have wanted nothing more than to pin the blame on some poor member of staff but with the access card still "missing" it won't be that easy.
I made sure not to use my personal computer when I used it the other day and unfortunately for him, I had slipped it in with the belongings of a dead prisoner. By the time I was leaving his office, that card would have long been incinerated.
Before I disposed of the evidence, I did snoop a little more around the archives. I couldn’t help myself. Anyone else would have done the same, wouldn’t they? With such a vast amount of information at my disposal, I couldn't help but take a peek at what else the Academy likes to keep hidden. Perhaps it was the high of the thrill, but a long-forgotten memory came to mind the more tangled I became in the archives, memories of an old man by the name of Prospero.
When I was in prison, the old man in the cell next to mine used to tell us stories of an academy lost to time. Whenever we'd ask what landed him in those cells he would gladly burst into long accounts of an experiment he was involved in.
According to Mr.Prospero, he once lived in the city where this phantom academy was built. The looming building was more like a small castle than an academy. It was a glorious feat of architecture that was the result of many arduous years. At the front of the academy was a tall iron gate with the words "Frostein Academy" beautifully carved into the top.
His descriptions were so vivid that I almost believed he was the one who built the place.
As eye-catching as the building was, one day it was suddenly abandoned. It became overgrown and decrepit, seemingly overnight. Prospero supposedly worked there as his father's apprentice. He wasn't the only one either. The few Vespertine staff that were former employees of Frostein Academy never lasted long. Many only took up work at Vespertine out of desperation when their families were left destroyed due to Frostein's abandonment. But I only know as much as Prospero would tell us…at least until I found a funny little log in the archives.
The authorities remained tight-lipped about the abrupt abandonment of the Frostein, choosing instead to brush it under the rug and move along. That paired with family never returning from the academy and the state of the building, urged people to take it upon themselves to investigate the disappearances of their loved ones.
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⦾ Audio crackles in and a man wearing a mask with an oxygen filter appears on the screen.
"Hi. So umm...my name is Deitrich Fusarium. I am Professor Fusarium's son. It's uh...it's been two months since Frostein Academy was abandoned. The police say that a rapidly spreading mold issue is what caused them to leave and that a new facility would be built in an undisclosed area. They won't tell us anything about our family. People like my father have been missing since the Academy's abandonment."
⦾ The video pans to a building wrought with decay and covered in mold. It is in advanced stages of neglect but it is not possible to determine the overall structural integrity from the outside alone.
"Lots more folks have come in search for their family members but not many have returned and the few that have were swiftly whisked away by authorities stating that they had to be quarantined because of the mold. Since the authorities won't help us, I have no choice but to look for my father myself. I hope that this video will serve as proof of my findings and hopefully shed light on whatever shady cover-up is going on here."
⦾ Leaves crunch as Dietrich approaches the building. Unusually shaped growths block the door. Leafy tendrils stretch outwards like grasping hands, and he struggles to cut through them. The more he cuts away, the more strange growths come into view of the camera. Most are gathered at the front doors and windows which can be seen from outside.
"This is supposed to be a fairly new building. It hasn't even been a full year since it was built, but it looks so...aged. Even for abandoned building standards. There's no way all of this could have happened so quickly in just two months.
⦾ Dietrich enters the building and begins exploring the rooms.
"From what I know of the others who came looking for answers here, the folks who made it back after they went looking for their families, never actually went inside. They'd come running back down the path screaming for help, saying that they heard knocking from inside and that people were trapped in here. But..."
⦾ The camera shifts, showing the dense growths that are scattered throughout the building. Many look like figures clawing at the walls or reaching for the windows but other than the strangely shaped growths, there is no visible sign of human life, let alone anything recent.
⦾ He explores the various rooms, occasionally stopping to cut through the overgrown plants blocking the doorways. He pans the camera around the labs. One room contains a dissection table and 3 moldy boxes containing a liquid substance. Flies and other insects fill the room, gathering around the jars. Dietrich is heard gagging and the camera shakes frantically as he swats the flies away and moves to the next room.
⦾ The next room contains a shattered glass display case with various mannequin-like toys encircling the case. It looks as though each toy was once facing the case but is now either knocked over and buried in debris or has been overtaken by mold and can no longer be distinguished from the other growths in the room. Dietrich lingers in the room for a moment, commenting on the unnerving feeling of being watched before moving on.
"It doesn't look like anyone else is here...wait!"
⦾ Dietrich stills and stops talking for several seconds.
"...that...someone is here!"
⦾ In the silence, soft crying can be heard. Dietrich follows the sound into a large, overgrown atrium. Curled under a large growth covered in mold is a child. They seem to be between the ages of █ and ██.
"H-how did a kid get in here?...Hey! Hi, there little one! Are you hurt?"
⦾ The child looks up at Dietrich, wiping their tears away with their dirty sleeves.
“I was looking for mommy, but daddy said that she can’t see me anymore?”
“Is your dad here with you? Would you like me to help you find him?”
“No. Daddy isn’t here right now. He said he was tired so he’s gone to rest. Daddy is sick like me. It hurts to move sometimes.”
⦾ Dietrich examines the child's legs. Stringy vines encircle them and climb up over the child's back, almost as if encasing them.
"Here, I'll get you out and get you some help okay? Don't you worry."
⦾ Dietrich begins to cut away at the vines holding onto the child. He carefully removes the trash entangled with the vines. Tattered lab coats, broken glasses, a ring, and some moldy papers were scattered beneath the child. Once freed, the child clung to Dietrich.
"How long have you been here? You poor thing, you feel like you haven't eaten in months! You're all bones!"
⦾ The child whimpered prompting Dietrich to cradle them closer. He rocked them gently as he began making his way back to the entrance.
⦾ Dietrich takes another look around the atrium before leaving. The camera pans to a glass display case near the entrance. Inside are various scientific awards and photos. One particular photo catches Dietrich's attention, and he zooms in closer. The tarnished brass plate beneath it has the words "Team Vesper's First Breakthrough," engraved into it. A group of several men and women stand around a table smiling.
⦾ One Doctor is holding what looks to be her son, who has tubes and various other equipment hooked up to him. The Doctor and the man next to her are wearing a matching pair of rings, Next to them is a man with dull green eyes that made him look as though he wanted to be anywhere but there in that moment and next to him was a slightly more pleasant looking man, the name tag on his chest reading “Dr. Fusarium.” Deitrich’s excitement is cut short when he pauses, angling the camera back at the first two doctors in the photo.
⦾ Dietrich briefly sets the child down and jogs back to the center of the atrium.
"It looks like...these belong to those doctors..."
⦾ He examines the growth closer. The one the ring is tangled in looks hunched over, almost like it was shielding something. Dietrich turns his attention to the scattered paper beneath him. Parts of the documents had been damaged due to repeated exposure to the elements and are thus rendered indecipherable. The parts that can be distinguished read:
"Something...wrong. Our son...sick. Dr. Vespertine says that we can use...to heal him. It's...only experimental, but we are...willing to...anything."
⦾ Dietrich peels another document off the floor. It reads:
"Treatment...working! Dr. Fusarium...against it. He says testing it.... child... unethical. But what choice...have! Nothing else...worked!"
⦾ Dietrich shuffles through the papers some more.
"It looks like these are her personal records! This could give me a clue about my father!"
⦾ Dietrich picks up another paper and scans through it. It roughly reads:
"Dr. Vespertine... Fusarium...constantly fighting. Dr. Vespertine used...as the subject for the...next testing of...how am...tell our son....father...come back? I see now that...was right."
⦾ Dietrich picks up the last of the scattered paper and holds it close so the camera can pick it up. It reads:
"...experiments...too far. Dr. Fusarium reported...to headmaster Frostein. He tried...but... Vespertine let my husband loose. Vines...too thick to cut...trapped inside. The thing that...my husband is tearing...the treatment center in search...son. The remaining doctors have barricaded...atrium. Vespertine...escaped. The mold...spreading too quickly. Dr. Fusarium sacrificed...for my son and I. I watched...mold consume..."
⦾ Dietrich looked at the growths littering the atrium. On one end was a cluster of mold and vegetation that was pressed against a door, holding it shut. Dietrich frantically searched it, pushing away the vines and leaves until he pulled a weathered wallet from the growth. His hands shook as he opened it up.
⦾ A small photo fell out and landed at Dietrich's feet next to the tattered remains of a once pristine lab coat. The name tag on the lab coat is smudged with dirt but the name “Dr. Fusarium” can still be made out. Dietrich breathed heavily as he knelt to pick up the photo. It was a picture of him as a child hugging his father. The camera shifts as Dietrich processes what he has confirmed to be his father.
"Father...no..nonono..."
⦾ A bony hand pulled Dietrich from his panic.
"Are you okay mister?"
⦾ The child was now standing behind him, tugging on his shirt.
"We have to leave quickly. Daddy doesn't like when I talk to strangers. We should leave before he finds us."
⦾ Dietrich fell silent, as though something dawned on him.
"Who's your daddy? Where is he now?"
"Mommy said that Dr. V trapped him inside the academy so we have to hide in here but then he ate them. Daddy doesn't like it when I try to leave either."
"Ate...them?"
⦾ The boy pointed to the mossy growth that Dietrich now knew to be his father. Before he could process the child's words, a rattling began to grow louder and louder until the door behind Dr. Fusarium started to shake. Dietrich sprung to his feet. He scooped the child up into his arms and began scrambling towards the exit.
⦾ The camera briefly captures a large moldy creature breaking down the door and in the process, what was left of Dietrich's father. Its body is primarily covered in leafy growth but parts of its face are visible. Its skin is a sickening green and its eyes look like that of a corps'. The lens begins to fog up, indicating an increase in humidity and moisture as it steps inside.
⦾ Dietrich frantically stumbles toward the door. The camera drops onto the ground outside just as he makes it to the exit.
⦾ As soon as Dietrich steps outside his foot freezes. He screams as pain rips through him and his leg becomes covered in mold and vines. He reaches out but any part of his body that makes it beyond the threshold of the abandoned building’s entrance becomes moldy and plant-like.
⦾ The creature comes up behind him, unhinging its jaw to an inhuman extent, revealing rotting, mold-covered teeth. Dietrich shrivels, gagging as the stench from its mouth hits him. The creature clamps down on Deitrich's head. The video feed is overtaken by blood and flesh squelching as well as obnoxious chewing.
⦾ Whatever was not consumed turns into a growth similar to those inside. The child breaks off a stick from Deitrich's remains and uses it to pull the camera towards him, not once stepping outside of the building.
"Daddy, what should we do with this thing?"
⦾ The creature groans inhumanly.
"Oh...ok. I'll leave it here then."
⦾ The child puts the camera back down, just outside, right in front of Deitrich. The creature pulls the child back inside and they disappear into the dank building.
⦾ The camera continues to run for several more hours until it is finally drained of battery.
NOTE:
All footage discovered on this camera has passed ownership from Deitrich Fusarium to Assistant Prospero, who recovered the camera on ██████████ ██████. It is to be destroyed along with any remaining Frostein artifacts. Failure to deliver these transcripts to the appropriate authorities will result in immediate termination.
Assistant Prospero is to be incarcerated in the Wasteland Citadel for failure to report his findings upon the camera's discovery.
End of Transcript
I want to say that discovering that Vespertine Academy's founder is a scheming snake surprised me, but it doesn't. I tried looking up anything on the old academy but it seems that any record of Frostein was destroyed when Vespertine built this place. There was a poorly documented record of amnestics being administered to the local populace in the town where Frostein Academy once stood. They did it under the guise of administering a preventative vaccine to control any illnesses that might be contracted from inhaling the mold from the building, but that was all I could find.
Safe to say, someone wanted to erase all traces of Frostein Academy.
Prospero never confirmed it but it didn't take a big shot academy professor to see what got Prospero in that prison cell. In his own way, he was probably holding onto this footage to use against Vespertine. Revenge for his friend Dr.Fusarium perhaps? I suppose the answer to that died in that cell with him.
Something else has been bothering me though. If Headmaster Vespertine and his penchant for taking his research too far has been the cause for the disturbances in my project, then I can't possibly be the only one whose projects he's screwed up over the years.
If I can just find another victim or two...or three and convince them to help me use this evidence against him, then maybe we stand a chance at breaking the chains holding us here!
But...where do I find them?
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