@phoenixapprentice
Chapter 32 will post tonight! Silvia makes her return, but it isn't quite the one she wanted!
I'll update you all on Arcom stuff next week. I've got a lot to sort out and process about what happened this week, so I'll let you all know about it next time!
Chapter 31 will post tonight.
And in other news, I'm dreaming about Cynthia while asleep at home, now. The dreams aren't much. They're just her in a blank, dark void, beckoning to me. Before I can decide whether or not to go with her, I wake up with my heart racing.
So, I've lost a lot of sleep because of that, and I'm feeling pretty out of sorts. I mean, I've had dreams with my coworkers in them before, even Judy, but something about the dreams with Cynthia feel different. Something about them feels more ... real. As if I'm actually there, and she's actually there. But that's absurd, because ... people can't share dreams.
Or can they?
I didn't make it back to the bed-room this week, but that provided me no comfort. I really just want to peg Cynthia down and get straight answers from her. But I probably won't. And something about this being a relatively normal week (aside from the dreams) unnerves me, too. I just can't win!
At least I have a stable paycheck ...
Chapter 30 is up and I just realized we're getting closer to the end of Part Four. The next part will go back and focus on the reality side of the story, with Daedalus, Estia, Sidney, Phoebe ... and Dove! And in the next few chapters until then, we might see sort of a resolution to poor Silvia's problems ...
But anyway. Events at the Arcom.
I'm not even sure I should be saying anything, because I feel like it might get me involuntarily committed. But I did see Cynthia again, and in that same room with the beds. She was lying on them, but she was awake this time, and she quickly got up to come see me. She told me to lie down on one of the beds and go to sleep, I said I had to run these reports to Judy and asked how it was possible that I ended up in this room by opening Judy's office door, and Cynthia didn't answer these questions and guided me toward one of the beds. Obviously even though I was now lying down I didn't go to sleep, because it wasn't like she could force me to do that--
Except. She. COULD.
She tapped my forehead, and I was out like a light. I then had a dream about THE CAT that I've been seeing around the Arcom, only now I was getting a proper look at it, and it no longer seemed like a cat. For starters, it didn't look like it had fur to be spoken of. It was black and drippy, like ink. And also it only had a single yellow eye in the center of its head. I heard a voice all around me, but I couldn't make out what it was saying, and shortly after it began speaking I shot awake. Cynthia was no longer in the room, and I had to get on with my workday, so I shuffled out and got the reports to Judy.
The rest of the week was rather uneventful. Not sure if I'm looking forward to whatever weirdness might happen this week, but you know, in this economy I really need the money! I guess I'll have to put up with weirdness! Maybe this really is a cult like I once thought!
Chapter 29 is ready to post and I'm not in the mental hospital. Yet.
So, I was vague and dodgy with my last post, about spoilers and whatnot. But we're already far enough into Dark Within to know some of the general ideas--how dreams come to life and whatnot. And I thought I was just writing about something I had made up, you know. Or, at the very least, if the concept did already exist (and I know it does) it would have come from some other work of fiction. The last thing I was expecting was that it might actually be real.
I found the room with the beds again this week. And the girl was in there, asleep. But before I left, she woke up, and she noticed me there, asking what I was doing. I said I was a little lost, and she said it's impossible for people to get lost in this place and that it must mean I was meant to be there, that only those in touch with the dreamworld could get to this place. I asked her name, she said Cynthia, and I said that I had some more work to do, so she let me go, but said she expected to see me again, and soon.
The next day, I bribed Julia to let me check the employee records with a tub of Kerrygold butter. And I didn't find anyone named Cynthia. No one. No one even in the past--and the employee records stretch farther back into the past than this place has been established. The building was built in 2005, so maybe the concept of the Arcom has existed for longer than the building itself, but it still seems ... strange. All of it.
That was my week. I'm not sure I look forward to running into Cynthia again, but she seems confident we will. Still considering the mental hospital.
I'm beginning to have quite a strange sense of déjà vu.
So, I can't promise you all any more information this week about the weird stuff going on at Arcom because ... it broaches spoilers in my own story? I don't even know how that makes sense, but that's what I'm dealing with right now. Things I thought were fiction are unfolding in front of my eyes, and I ...
I think I might be going insane. But that doesn't add up, because they always say you wouldn't know you were going insane, and I know I am. Or maybe it's not that I know I am but that I feel like I am. I can't decide.
I did mention on my third post about the Arcom that I thought the people here might be using magic, but I pretty quickly dismissed it once I got put to work in the fanfic archive. Now I'm starting to think about magic again ... and it's eerily similar to what I've written about in Dark Within ...
Uh, anyway, with this rather vague post, Chapter 28 is set to launch tonight. And I'm going to be thinking long and hard about the situation at work and what to do. OR I might check myself into a mental hospital. Whichever comes first.
Chapter 27 is set to post!
This time I DO have a real update for all of you. So I found the weird sleeping room at the Arcom again, by chance. I wasn't trying, I just was walking around on Wednesday--and I walked right into it. And there was a girl in there, lying in one of the beds, one who I hadn't before seen. She looked like any other girl, but also not, and she appeared to be sleeping.
I moved up to the bed and looked her over. She wasn't any of my immediate coworkers, but I know the Arcom is a surprisingly large place (I swear it seems larger on the inside than the outside). Lots of people work here, and I'm still fairly new, so I haven't met everyone. I debated waking her up, but her eyes were moving like she was in a pretty deep dream, so I thought I shouldn't disturb her.
Another thing. There were inky black cat paw prints all over the floor. I didn't see the cat, but I knew it was there somewhere. I went out to check the plaque on the outside of the door and it said 'Dreaming Room'. But there was no dreaming room listed on the Arcom map.
I really didn't want to leave, because I didn't know if I would find this place again, but I hoped I would. And maybe that girl would be there, or someone else who could tell me what this place was about. So, that's what I did on Wednesday, and the rest of the week was uneventful.
Chapter 26 is up to post tonight.
Had a fun time celebrating the 4th of July with my cousins yesterday. But as for updates from Arcom, I'm afraid there still are none. It's as if everything I had discovered just decided to vanish; the cat, the strange room. I brought more cat treats with the hope of luring the cat out, even though it didn't seem to want them before, but had no success. So, I'm just back to doing my job. This week I've been working with fantasy fiction and that's been fun, since it's my favorite genre (obviously). Also been doing lots of writing, but what else is new?
Hopefully by next week I have a real update for you all. I've got a plan, and it involves sneaking into Judy's office to see if I can find any information about the room with the beds. Micah might help me distract her ...
Chapter 25 is ready to post at 7 p.m. tonight!
Something I was thinking about recently was making a new sort of story to update you all on my job at the Arcom. It's getting difficult to contain all the things I'm learning in these announcements. Though, I admit, I haven't done as much investigating this week. I've been a little distracted by things outside of work. I did ask Lany and Hector about the room with the beds in it, but they didn't seem to know anything. I asked Jared (the janitor) and he seemed to dodge the question. Finally, I asked Judy, but she said there were no beds at the Arcom because people shouldn't be sleeping on the job. She then went to her office and (I think) took a nap on her desk.
So, I'm more puzzled than ever. And now I can't even find the room. I've tried retracing my steps ... nothing. I'm pretty good when it comes to remembering directions, so I don't think it's a fault in my memory. The room just isn't there anymore.
But that's all that happened this week. No real news. I might try finding the cat again. It didn't come around this time. We'll see what happens.
Finally a normal, boring weekend. Chapter uploaded early and out of the way.
It was, however, a NOT normal and a NOT boring week. I decided to try something, and I snuck cat treats in with me to work. Normally, Judy tells us not to bring food into the archives unless we're going to put it in the break room (despite the sticks of butter she has all over her office) but I figured I could get away with it.
Judy didn't notice anything. Well, she actually did; she has the nose of a dog. But I told her it was just the smell of cat treats I'd given my cats that morning. And then I spread them throughout my workspace and tried to work as quietly as possible.
And
It
Didn't work.
The cat didn't show up for the treats. BUT! It did show up! It just didn't go for any of the treats. It skirted past the room where I was working in a blur. And this time, I wasn't going to let it get away. It left a trail of black paw prints on the ground, which made it easier to follow. I don't know why I've never thought of following the paw prints. Probably because Jared (the janitor) is always cleaning them up.
The prints led me to a section of the Arcom that I've never seen. It was huge, bigger than I thought the place could reasonably be (and it's pretty big) and it was FILLED with books. They all looked rather old. I took one off a shelf but it was filled with nonsense. Random words strung together with no reason whatsoever. All the other books I grabbed were like that as well. And there were, get this, BEDS in the room. They were all at the center. No one was in them. I followed the cat footprints, which ended abruptly at one of the shelves. Then, when I heard a noise across the way, I quickly got out. I had a feeling I wasn't supposed to be there.
So ... yeah! That was my journey at work on Friday. Not sure what I'll do when I get back. Maybe I'll ask Judy about it? Probably not. But maybe one of my coworkers knows something.
Until next week!
Working on the chapter now. Got back from the road trip pretty late. I didn't realize we'd go until 9!