Did You Check The Lock?
[TMA Oneshot]
This was gonna be a comic but comics hard
+1.3k words+
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"Statement of Simone Carlyle pertaining.. cycles?"
It was some day during some month in some year. They don't remember, all the time has blurred together since that night. That's why they're here, that's why they fought their way out the house to come to this place. They found an opening and fled.
Realizing they were being looked at for clarification, Simone cleared their throat, speaking. "Well, circles but yes.. you see, I tend to procrastinate even when I try my best not to, especially when I know I have something to do.
I'll tell myself I have something to do, start that, but procrastinate by doing another task and then lose motivation for that one, going back to the first one and just- running circles of trying to finish one task but now having 12 unfinished tasks. Hah, I guess it would be cycles then.. a neverending cycle of working but not finishing.
It's actually gotten so bad tha-"
They get cut off by an exasperated sigh, shrinking into their chair.
"Mr. Carlyle, the Institute and, by connection, the Archives, are for statements and documentation of the supernatural or unseen."
Jonathan Sims, the Archivist at The Magnus Institute. He was suggested to them, and the Institute as a whole, via word of mouth. Well.. more like word of ear. Someone said something about an Institute and weird happenings, those words drifted through their window, and here they were. Though it wasn't going very well. Maybe they should've stayed locked in their work.
"We can print some resources for procrastination habits but.. this is not what the archive is for." He clasps his hands together with a stoic expression, Simone grasping for words.
"I- well- it's not- it is weird! I've, I've been stuck in my flat for days, months even!! I don't.. I don't know what day it is, I stopped checking, I don't even know if I'm still enrolled in university, but the work keeps piling somehow??"
Jonathan goes to speak before Simone glances at the door, becoming wide eyed. "And- and the doors!! The doors they- they lock!! They keep me inside and I can't do anything and no matter how much I unlock them, they stay shut. This is the one time I've left my place sir, and it is not depression you can check the door right now."
There's a silence as their words permeate, nothing filling the air except heavy breathing. Eventually Jon bites, going to the door and, what do you know, it's locked. But surely Simone could have done that when they entered so he unlocks it and attempts to open the door.
It stays shut.
He locks it and unlocks it but, again, it stays shut. Jon sighs, turning to Simone. Likely if he takes their statement, the door will open so what other choice does he have? He comes back to the table and sits down, starting over.
"Statement of Simone Carlyle regarding locks, procrastination and loss of time. May 1st, 2024-"
"It's May 1st? Its 2024?? Oh my god.."
"Do you need a moment?"
Simone shakes their head, exhaling. "No no I.. let's just do this.."
"Do you recall what you were doing when you first noticed something was off?"
"Uh.. maybe? Yeah.. yeah! I had just got done finishing a lot of overdue work when I had entered a study room to start current work. It was your average.. normal study session but when I went to exit, the door wouldn't budge. I'm not,, I'm not claustrophobic or anything like that but it was odd as I didn't recall locking the door. Eventually it opened and I went to my flat to do some work and wind down.
The entire walk home I felt as if I was being pulled towards the Earth? It was an all around heavy and anxious feeling. Like I was forgetting something, I didn't do some assignment. Which didn't make any sense cause I just got done doing assignments.
But whatever. I get home, plug in my laptop, open it and.. nothing gets done. It was as if my body wasn't my own, I didn't do my work and insisted on cleaning the apartment and watering my plants. I went to bed with no work done. Maybe I was just in a funk.
Then I woke up the next day and the sinking feeling of dread continued to weigh on my chest. I checked the clock and not only had I missed my late morning class but also 2 weeks had gone by?? I remember scrambling to get my things together before just standing at the door to my flat. I wanted to step out but I wouldn't. I couldn't. So I didn't.
I told my professors I'd have to learn from home from now on, but really I should've asked for help. Work was always half finished, assignments continued to pile up, I felt like I was sinking. My plants dried up and died, my skin became coarse and rough despite lotion and showering.. a heavy shadow fell upon that little flat in Edinburgh.
I didn't know how I was still a tenant, surely I should've been kicked out by now since I wasn't paying rent and had been locked in there for who knows how long. But you wanna know what I saw when I finally got out? It was my flat. Not the building, just my lone place, halfway in the ground like some wooden block shoved in the sand."
They picked at their fingernails, tugging at their collar.
"Are you warm?" Jon inquired, gaining a quick response.
"Yah, I am.. but I can't take em off. The weight is unbearable the less I have on. I feel as if I'm walking with cinders tied to my feet when it comes to hygiene. But I manage.. somehow.. the sun is blinding and burns, I use a parasol to cover up. It's.. weird. Unnatural. But I guess I've gotten used to it? I don't know..
The work never stops, and yet it's never finished either. I keep sayin' that but I just- " Simone throws their hands up, uncertain.
Jon nods, taking a breath. "Well, that is certainly a cumbersome situation you've found yourself in, definitely not.. mere procrastination as you described it. At this very moment my best suggestion would be to find another place to stay, preferably with someone else to keep you from holing away like before.
We'll investigate your "home in the ground" situation and keep in touch with further findings."
Simone gasps and sighs exuberantly, standing up quickly. "Oh thank you, thank you you don't know how much I've been tryna yell someone but I just couldn't get out my place and no one online would believe and.. it means so much you listened."
"Of course. Now, allow me to show you out."
~ • ~
"Statement ends.
Following up on Mr. Carlyle's statement proved fruitful in some places and not in others. There was, indeed, a tenant named Simone Carlyle living in a small rented flat near the Leith School of Art, Edinburgh as well as there was an undergraduate of the same name. But that's just it, there was a tenant and student.
Simone Carlyle dropped out of Leith School of Art and retired from the tenancy in October of 2021 and their whereabouts remained unknown since then. That being said, a lone flat was found half buried in a hill around 4 kilometres down in Holyrood Park. How it got there is unknown.
Simone Carlyle has found themselves a place here in London to make communications quicker, finding a flatmate and living with them. Hopefully, they'll be less inclined to fall back on the pull of whatever Entity is trying to claim them as its Avatar.
Recording Ends."
