June 20th, 1983
Silvia stopped and stared at Wren.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Then the Librarian's grin widened.
"You know," she said, her voice almost gentle, "you are not my target."
Her neck twitched.
Once.
Twice.
"You are in no danger. There is no need to throw yourself away for them. Let the rule breakers die."
She took another step forward, her lower arms twitching restlessly at her sides.
Wren didn't lower the gun.
"Then let me break three rules at once."
She fired.
The shot cracked through the library and struck Silvia in the wrist. The bullet didn't punch through her hand the way it should have—her flesh looked human, but it held like something far denser. Still, the impact sent a spike of pain through her, enough to make her shriek and drop the book she had been carrying.
Wren moved immediately.
She snatched it off the floor and smiled.
"Eliza's book," she said. "Let's see…"
She held it up just enough for Silvia to see.
"That's excessive noise. Touching a book that isn't mine. And unjustified violence."
Then, with deliberate slowness, she tore a corner from the cover.
"Here. Let me add damaging library property too."
For the first time, Silvia's composure fully cracked.
Her lower skeletal arms began twitching so hard they rattled. Her smile stretched wider and wider, becoming less human with every second. In the span of a breath, Wren had broken four of the Librarian's five sacred rules.
Silvia shook with rage.
Wren took the opening and fired again.
This time the bullet struck Silvia in the head.
The impact snapped her face to the side—but still it did not tear through. Instead, a thin fracture spread across her skull with the brittle sound of glass cracking. Black goo seeped from the wound in a thick, ugly trickle.
Silvia slowly turned back toward her.
Then she began to laugh.
It was high.
Broken.
Unhinged.
Her arms lashed out in every direction as she shrieked—
"Die die die die die—!"
Both skeletal limbs shot toward Wren at once, spearing through the air with murderous speed.
Wren threw herself backward just in time, Silvia's claws missing her by inches.
Then she ran.
Silvia's lower arms lashed through the air with terrifying speed, cutting across the hallway like whips, but the rest of her body was still bound by human movement. Her legs were flesh and bone. Her range was monstrous, her durability unnatural, but she was not fast enough everywhere.
Now that she was enraged, Wren knew she had a chance.
She ducked and twisted past Silvia's strikes, each one snapping through the air close enough for Wren to feel the wind off the claws. One wrong step would have split her open.
But she kept moving.
Kept baiting her.
Kept pulling her farther down the hall.
Until she reached exactly where she wanted to be.
The red room.
Wren skidded to a stop just outside its door and raised her gun.
A shot rang out.
The bullet shattered one of the overhead sprinklers.
Water burst down in a sudden spray, drenching the hallway in seconds—Wren, Silvia, and most importantly, the books in Silvia's possession.
Silvia froze.
For the first time, something like panic flickered across her distorted face.
Water soaked her precious library property.
"That should be enough of a signal for backup," Wren muttered.
As if on cue, another gunshot cracked through the hallway.
The bullet struck Silvia in the side of the head.
Her skull split with that same horrible glass-like fracture, black goo leaking from the wound in a fresh stream.
Nicholas stepped into view.
Eliza was beside him.
And, to Wren's annoyance, Gray was there too.
"Blessed day!" Gray chirped, waving cheerfully. "Hello, Wren!"
Wren stared at him for half a second.
"Seriously," she said, exasperated even now, "this guy is the worst."
Then she held up the file.
"Eliza! I've got your book!"
Silvia's head snapped toward it.
"No, you don't."
One of her skeletal arms shot toward Wren, moving to skewer her before she could throw it.
But before the strike could land—
Dorothea burst from a nearby hiding spot.
With a furious shout, she slammed into Silvia and drove her sideways into the red door.
The impact shook the wall.
And in that split second—
Wren hurled the book.
Eliza caught the book.
For one stunned second, silence hung in the air.
Then Silvia screamed.
"No. No no no no—!"
Her voice cracked apart into something shrill and desperate, the elegant mask of the Librarian finally falling away completely.
Jasper slowly poked his head out from his hiding spot, still tense, still clutching his knife.
"So… that's it, right?" he asked. "Game over?"
Silvia turned toward him with pure hatred twisting across her distorted face.
"No," she spat. "Not yet. I will not allow any of you to leave until you have all reached the exit."
Jasper blinked.
"Hey, that was never part of the rules."
Silvia's grin split wider, uglier now, trembling with rage.
"Then fuck the rules," she shrieked. "Fuck all of this!"
Her lower arms lashed violently through the air.
"You are all ugly. Hideous. Not beautiful in the slightest!"
Black fluid dripped from the cracks in her face as her voice rose higher and higher.
"I'll turn every one of your corpses into something beautiful—something red, ruined, and glorious!"
As she raved, Joseph stepped out from his hiding place.
His hands were shaking.
His whole body was shaking.
He stared at the red door with naked terror in his one visible eye, remembering what waited on the other side.
But he moved anyway.
Slowly, he reached for the handle.
Silvia saw him.
And for the first time since any of them had met her, she looked truly afraid.
"No," she whispered.
Then louder—
"No! Don't you dare!"
Joseph pulled the red door open.
Dorothea didn't hesitate.
With a hard shove, she slammed Silvia backward into the doorway.
The moment fear overtook her, Silvia's keys slipped from her grasp and clattered across the floor.
Then everyone moved at once.
Wren.
Dorothea.
Nicholas.
Jasper.
Eliza.
Even Gray.
They rushed the door and threw their weight against it, slamming it shut with Silvia trapped inside.
For five long seconds, the hallway was filled with the sound of pounding.
Screaming.
Something slamming itself against the other side of the door with enough force to shake the frame.
"Please!" Silvia shrieked. "Let me out! I don't want to die—not like this!"
The voice that had once spoken so sweetly now sounded small.
Panicked.
Human.
"I'll tell you anything!" she cried. "Please—please—!"
Then came the sound.
Wet.
Heavy.
Final.
A crushing noise from within the room, like something immense grinding flesh and bone into ruin.
The banging stopped.
The screaming stopped.
Slowly, the red door creaked open again.
Only a head rolled out.
Silvia's.
Severed cleanly.
As black smoke poured from it, the distortion peeled away, and her features shifted back into something human once more. Tears still clung to her eyes.
Joseph turned his face away immediately.
The door slowly swung shut behind the head, sealing whatever lay inside back into darkness.
No one spoke.
Joseph was the only one among them who knew what waited in that room.
And after hearing Silvia die—
none of the others wanted to know.
June 20th, 1983
Successful termination of an Azathoth-created organism recorded.
Agents Responsible: Wren Cromwell, Nicholas Graves, Eliza Miller, Jasper Quinn, Dorothea Rose, Joseph Starling and Gray North.
Agent Fatalities: Silvia Silva
Hostile Designation: Codename — The Librarian