POV: Tina

Whew, I'm finally done cleaning the upper floors. I wonder how Carmen is doing, maybe she needs some help. Don't want to anger the masters with a job poorly done and end up as their lunch...

Time to gather my cleaning materials and look for her.

"Oh, Tina, are you done here?", asks the butler Edward.

"Yeah, I was about to look for Carmen to see if she needs some help on her end."

"Ah, I just checked, she was almost finished with her part on this floor."

"Great, so we can continue with the meeting room next."

"Not today, they're holding a discussion right now. You can clean there early tomorrow."

"Thanks for warning me before I went in there...", I can feel my hands shaking. Don't want to imagine what would happen if I disturbed them...

"What's wrong, Tina?"

"Huh? Oh, umm... nothing. I'll help Carmen and then I'll turn in for the day, okay?"

"Are you sure it is nothing? You seem pretty nervous to me."

"Is it that obvious, Edward?"

"Yes. So what is wrong?"

"I'm just nervous, a bit afraid."

"Is that so? Hmm... it is the vampires, right?"

"Yes. What else would it be?"

"If you're that afraid of the vampires why did you choose to work here, Tina?"

"...I couldn't find any other place to work at with my Vendor class. As a High Elf, I can't earn any titles which makes it harder to become good at any regular job. But cleaning is something even I can do. I just hope to stay unnoticed enough to stay alive..."

"Do you truly think the Lost One would kill you just because of a single screw-up?"

"I don't know and I don't want to find out, Edward. He may have once been a Lost One... but now he is one of those monsters. I don't know how much of the original person is left."

"I don't know that either. But for now, all we can do is trust him."

"Aren't you afraid of them, Edward?"

"A lot actually, yes. But I don't show it as much. Now come, let's relieve Carmen so she can start helping lady Maria with dinner preparations."

"Yeah, let's do that."

We walk to the room Carmen should be working in.

Knock Knock

"Carmen are you still in here?"

She grumpily answers, "Yeah, what do you want?"

Edward says, "We are here to relieve you from cleaning duty for today. It is about time for you to help lady Maria with dinner preparations."

"What? Is it already this late?"

I nod, "Yeah, actually it is already half an hour later than usual, sorry. I'll take it from here."

"Shit, this house is simply too big for just the two of us to keep clean... Okay, I'll quickly wash my hands and face and then head to the kitchen. Thanks for the help, Tina."

Carmen hastily leaves the room.

"It looks like she just started with this room... Edward, what are you up to now? Could you help?"

"I'll have to decline. Carl is working on his studies and I have to watch over him, can't leave him alone too long. Once he's done with that, I'll have to repeat the lessons for Miss Anna."

"I see. What do you teach them?"

"Just some basics in math, bookkeeping and history for now. Once they've reached a common base I'll teach both of them at the same time."

"Could you teach me as well?"

"I don't see why not. Though you have to make sure your other duties are taken care of and you don't hinder the two children in their learning."

"Will do!"

---

POV: Sergeant O'Neilll (deva)

It is time for the yearly check of the containment sector.

Sectors A through W are operating as expected. Good.

Now sector X, that's the glitch souls containment. Gives me the creeps. I can deal with Xenomorphs, SCPs, PVCs and GGGs but these things... hell, no. I pity the people standing watch in there all day.

sealed door noises

Today it seems like Jeff and Ted are on duty. They've been doing fine work for decades here before this Ted had to replace the previously deceased Ted.

The upper brass has a strange sense of humor. Whenever a Ted died in the line of duty they make sure the replacement is also called Ted... sickos.

"Men, attention! We're having our regular inspection now!"

Wait, there are only two on duty? Shouldn't there be a minimum of three?

The two men jump up and salute, "Sir!"

"At ease. Now, where is the third one? Regulations clearly state that no less than three should guard a containment room."

Jeff answers, "Marj is... relieving himself, sir."

"Alright, understood.", I should've guessed as much.

I begin inspecting the containment capsules. Three are empty, and the other two each contain a glitch-infested soul. If you can even call that a soul.

The two miscolored wanna-be souls are wriggling around in their capsules in all of their blocky glory.

I double-check my notes again, I could've sworn there should be three of these souls left, not two.

Hmm...

The documents clearly say, that initially there were five. We found them after the last system crash, they were about to enter the standard reincarnation cycle. They had no history to them, no properties, nothing. Mostly blank slates covered in a glitchy mass.

Though they were not soul-like at all. Two of them lashed out, grew for a lack of a better word tentacles made of glitches... killed several regular souls and devas before they could be contained. None of their victims had any traces of them left, they were lost forever.

One of these glitch souls collapsed when the scientists tried to research it, a second one was then delivered to R&D, and two more are here but no mention of number five.

"One is missing... what happened to the one contained in chamber four?"

Ted shrugs, "No idea, sergeant O'Neil when-"

"Sergeant O'Neilll, three L, please. The one with one L has no sense of humor."

"Right, sorry, O'Neilll, sir. When I was moved to this department there were only those two left. Do you know anything, Jeff?"

"No, I was on holiday when you started. Before that, there were three, and afterwards two. I thought my superiors had filed the proper paperwork for the difference back then. Is that not the case?"

"If that is so then it is missing from these documents. I better look into that later, have a bad feeling about this. If left unchecked they can do immeasurable damage to the universe."

I don't want to stay here any longer than I need to, they give me the creeps.

One of the two remaining specimens called Hryf starts spasming around in its capsule, flailing tentacle-like glitch mass around but stopping short of the capsule's frame.

"Ted, get away from that capsule!"

He does as ordered then turns around to watch what is happening, "What is going on, sir?"

"No idea, it just suddenly went wild."

Jeff is unphased, "The capsules are safe. See?"

He walks over and knocks on the capsule.

Knock knock

"You fool! Don't agitate it any further! Get away from there and don't make any unnecessary movements!"

"As you w-", but before he can finish his answer, the specimen's tentacle has cut through him as if the capsule didn't exist. Jeff's torso has a clean, big, gaping hole in it. Even the blood that should've flown from the wound is gone.

Hryf starts moving and wildly swinging its tentacles around.

Everywhere the glitch monstrosity moves or swings around its appendages is erased.

It begins creeping out of its capsule, you can basically feel how its movements leave a vacuum in its wake.

"RUN!", I scream as I hit the emergency alert button.

Bleep Bleep

Alarms blare forth as we leave the room, hoping that the security doors hold it off somehow.

"Ted, keep your distance. Should it breach the door and kill me, you'll be in charge, got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

I observe the creature through the security door's viewing hole, it has stopped moving towards the exit. It is just flailing around, confused as to where its prey went.

Considering how little the capsule restricted its movement in the end, I doubt it would be stopped by the security door either. The capsule was already made out of the sturdiest material we know in the universe. If that can't stop it, nothing can.

I don't want to imagine what it could do if it was intelligent. It could probably erase any obstacle in its way, walls, floors, doesn't matter.

Eventually, the armed security forces arrive and storm the room.

Shooting noises

We can only hear them fighting and screams echoing from inside. We can just wait, utterly helpless.

A while later the noises die down and the security group leader returns, then talks to me, "Sergeant O'Neilll, Jake?"

"Present. Can you tell me its status?"

I signal Ted to leave us alone. This report might include classified information.

"Sure. We managed to destroy the specimen, though several of my men died. The other specimen seems still secure in its capsule. Can you tell me how it managed to escape from its capsule? Those things should've been secure!"

"No idea, it just cut it open from the inside, the capsule didn't seem to exist for it."

"So it is exactly as I thought."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll read it in my report, but it seems like while it itself is in motion it is not affected by things that aren't in motion and vice-versa. At least none of our bullets worked while it stood still, they just phased through it. But once it started fighting back, they started having some effect at least. Well, I'll leave the details to the scientists, this is not my area of expertise. All I know is that the target has been neutralized and its remains are being erased by my men."

"I assume this is classified information?"

"Correct. Keep it as such. Well, see you around, Jake. I've got a lot of bad news to deliver."

"Right, likewise."

What a day. Lost a subordinate, a dangerous specimen almost got out, found out another is potentially missing... I need a beer.

Well, that leaves only specimen Cliff in this chamber.