Case 11 (Slow End)

It’s been 3 weeks since I last saw anyone except Kleckser. They slowly stopped showing up at our weekly meeting one after another. I decided to check up on Iatros, as she was the last to vanish. When I got to her base, it looked abandoned. Like no one had been living there for years. But this couldn’t be. I just saw her 3 weeks ago. She seemed tired at the time, but nothing else. Now her whole base seems as if she hasn’t lived there in years. In a panic I checked on the other bases as well. All of them with the same result. Did I miss something that caused this? Did my internal clock go so haywire that I just can’t remember how long it’s actually been? No that one can’t be. My last few analyses showed that the world has a maximum of a few months left. Everything looks like it’s been abandoned for decades, maybe even years, so that can’t be possible. Did I maybe jump into a future where we won? No, that can’t be true either, as the corruption of the world still continuous. This also doesn’t seem like a dream, as no pain nor other methods to escape dreams have worked. The currently best working theory is that the corruption and time displacement phenomenon has taken over their bases, throwing them into time disarray. That would however mean that if someone was inside their base when it happened, they’d also be affected, causing them to wake up in a completely different time period. Or maybe I’ve just gone crazy... I decided to check out my time displacement theory. Taking a closer look at places I already documented to see if anything had drastically changed. Because if it did, that would mean that someone was placed in the past. I hoped that that might be the case, as the alternative to this theory would mean that they were sent to a future that might instantly kill them depending on how far the corruption has grown. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything which makes this theory either obsolete, or it means that everyone is now in the future. Both options aren’t good. It honestly feels like I’m really just going crazy... I tried to ask the people in town if they might know anything, but everyone has also gone missing. No matter where I look, everyone I knew is gone. I couldn’t even find Mr. Lucky which is concerning, as he hardly ever leaves his shop for long periods of time. Now that I think about it, I also haven’t seen Joe for some days. The feeling of being watched has also stopped, which would mean that the one known as Mr. D is also gone. It seems that I’m all alone here. But what happened. I honestly feel like giving up right now... As he was writing his last few notes, you could hear footsteps behind him. As he turned around, he saw a blue slime wearing a white suit standing in front of him. “Who are you?”. His eyes were filled with confusion, but you could also see a small glimmer of hope and relief in those eyes. “You know, you’re funny as always C. I know that you know who I am. Afterall we played a game together not that long ago.” As Prisma heard those words his mind started racing, trying to pinpoint who actually stood Infront of him. “You organized the treasure hunt. You’re Mr. C.” As the words left his mouth the smile on C’s face grew even wider. “Bingo. But It's actually Ch and not C. I made a mistake back then and accidentally wrote your name instead of mine. Afterall your Creation, and I’m just Chaos. He’s acting funny wouldn’t you say Destruction?” Before Prisma fully processed the information he just heard, the person in front of him changed. Suddenly instead of a blue slime, there now stood a red slime. D. “You know for someone who calls themselves a detective, you’re pretty slow at finding out what’s actually going on.” Before he could retort anything, the figure changed again. Now he stared at himself. “C’mon, you should have figured it out by now. Why everything feels so weird and why everyone is suddenly gone. Or do I really need to spell it out for you?” He looked at his doppelganger and realized that he was right, something had felt off the moment he woke up in this world. But he had thought that that feeling was just caused by the world falling apart, and nothing else. But now that his doppelganger brought his attention back to that feeling, he started to theorize on what this feeling actually meant. “It feels like I don’t belong here. No scrap that. It feels like this whole reality isn’t meant to be. As he uttered those words his reflection started to smile. “Good. Now concentrate on that. Why would the world feel like that?” It took a few minutes of concentrated thinking, before Prisma had an answer to that question. And even when he got his conclusion, it sounded utterly ridiculous. “The world feels off, because it isn’t real?” It was more a question for his reflection than an answer. “The answer is correct, but how do you support this conclusion?” Now what actually got him to that conclusion? Something was off that told him this isn’t real, but what was it? As he was thinking about it, the answer suddenly stood in front of him, as his reflection had changed back to D. “You’re fake. You’re not called Destruction, and you’re definitely not supposed to be red.” The smile forming on D’s face told him everything he needed to know. “But if my name isn’t D and I’m not red, who actually am I and what color do I have?” Before Prisma could truly think of an answer, D changed again. Now with a color mix of purple and magenta, it felt more natural to Prisma. “I can see your mind has already decided what color I actually should be. Now for my name?” “You’re supposed to be Thorn. But you aren’t. You’re me” As Prisma spoke, the one in front of him changed back to perfectly reflect himself. “100 points for our lucky contestant. You really figured it out. But if I’m you, how can you be yourself?” “I’m just myself. We’re just part of each other, aren’t we? You’re the embodiment of my destructive nature, and I’m the more reasonable part.” “Correct again. We’re both part of the bigger picture. I’m you and your me. But what about Chaos. How does he fit in that picture?” Another minute of thinking past, before Prisma answered: “He’s the third part to this little puzzle. He’s the mischievous side, planning ahead and causing chaos for his own benefit.” As he finished his sentence the area around them vanished. They now stood in complete darkness, but somehow, there was still enough light, so that Prisma could clearly see his reflection. “Now that you found out how we are connected, how about you find out where we actually are? Because that is still a mystery to me.” As his reflection stared at him, Prisma already knew the answer to where they were. If this isn’t real and we are all part of each other, then the answer of what this is should be obvious, even to you. It’s a dream. And considering how it’s all falling apart, we’re about to wake up.” As he finished his sentence, his reflection started laughing. “So that’s it. And here I thought we got split in some random simulated universe. But if this truly is a dream and we’re about to wake up that means that I’ll be trapped in that mind of yours again. So, if you excuse me, I’ll take my remaining time to have a little stroll.” With that the reflection turned around and started to walk away. But he quickly stopped himself to ask one last question. “How did you actually know I was part of yourself and not the real Thorn?” “Pretty simple, really. You were way too aggressive. And to top it off, Thorn would never wear a red rose.” Taking one last look at his rose, the reflection realized his little slip up, before leaving. Now Prisma was alone again, just staring into the void thinking about his discovery. “A dream, huh?” He himself started to laugh a little bit thinking about how ridiculous this whole situation was. But it was also the only explanation left, so he just accepted it as the truth. As he decided it was time to end this little dream, he laid back, closing his eyes and waiting to wake up. But just before everything went completely black, as he finally woke up you could hear the words of a little girl echoing through the void: “Good job, Mr. Detective.” With those words, his little side adventure had finally ended.