Key: MC, MD, FD, MF, FF, Hu, Horror
Description: A visibly weary and disheveled Lindsey tries to make it through her fifth and final night with her mind intact. But is that what she really wants?
Lindsey made her way through the door of the security office, just as she had done every other night that week. But something about tonight was different. Gone was the neatness and energy of her first day, now her shoulders were slumped and her hands hung loose at her sides. The expression on her face was one of stress and exhaustion, and her jumpsuit was worn and stretched. It looked like she had thrown it in a corner on day one and never bothered to smooth or adjust the white, skin tight security catsuit. Her hair was as frazzled as the rest of her and had been thrown up into a messy ponytail. The tie wasn’t even in the right spot, and a clump of hair was sticking out on the right side, making the rest of it look off center while several other strands stuck out in random directions. In short, she was a mess.
She fell into her chair as several strands of hair slowly fell around her face. As she looked at the desk, and the plush incubus sitting on it, an image of the previous night instantly popped into her head, of Xander smiling at her from the hallway. It had been stuck in her mind all night. She couldn’t sleep, she kept hearing him whistle and seeing that smile. She had come so close to being hypnotized. And she wasn’t sure what scared her more, that she had come so close…or that a deep, frustrated part of her…wanted to know what that felt like. ”I mean…he is really cute.” She thought to herself for a moment, shaking her head and sitting up in the chair. “No!” She shouted, frustrated at her own thoughts. “I am not letting him get to me OR my mind!”
She grabbed the incubus plush and threw it into the hallway. A moment later its tell tale squeak echoed through the halls as it bounced off of a wall and then again off the floor. In spite of her frustration, Lindsey couldn’t help but chuckle to herself and shake her head. “Fucking plushie.” She muttered.
Her brief moment of levity was cut short by the phone ringing, causing her to jolt upright in her seat and scream. “Why is the ringer so…” Her thoughts began to trail off to the night before, when she heard the voice on the other end drifting off into a trance. “Oh my god!” She exclaimed as she picked up the phone. “Hello? Hello Hello?!” She shouted into the microphone, almost in a panic.
Instead of the normally perky voice of the former security guard, she was instead greeted with a garbled, gnarled screeching sound. It had the structure of words…but just didn’t seem to be anything she understood. All she could do was stare at the phone silently as it spoke. “Yebo slrig doog, peed og slrig doog, peels ot og slrig doog” over and over again.
Lindsey stared at the phone, a mix of confusion and horror on her face, before slamming it into its cradle as she slumped back into her chair. A moment later she sat up and began slamming the phone into its cradle repeatedly, until finally she picked up the entire unit, ripped the cord from it, and heaved it into the hallway. The phone crashed to the floor and landed on the plush incubus, sending a squeaking noise echoing through the hall.
This time there was no smile or chuckle, Lindsey merely sat in her chair, breathing heavily through clenched teeth. “I can do this.” She said to herself, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to center herself and calm down. As her eyes opened a moment later, she stared at the screen in front of her with pure determination. “I can do this!”
She quickly pushed the button to bring up the main stage. Static displayed on the screen for a moment before revealing the completely empty stage. “Fuck.” Lindsey muttered, annoyance in her voice. She quickly sped through the different cameras in the building until she found Midnight in the hallway to her left, sauntering toward the office with a smile. On the next camera she found Nadia making her way down the hallway to her right. A glance at the side door showed Trisha staring into the camera with a devious smile. And through it all she could see the vampire Kelli’s image flickering in and out of each camera as she flipped through them.
Lindsey’s right eye twitched for a second as she glared emotionlessly at the screens and cracked her knuckles. “Let’s play.”
Without looking away from the screen Lindsey threw her left arm out and hit the button to send the guillotine door slamming to the floor on her left, blocking Midnight in the process. Meanwhile, she pressed another button on the panel to jump off of the screen that Kelli had just teleported to and was staring into the camera with the full power of her hypnotic gaze. As soon as the screen shifted, her right hand bolted from the panel to hit the button to her right, slamming the door to the ground and blocking Nadia as she continued moving through the cameras.
“Where IS he?” She asked, flipping rapidly through the screens in front of her. “Where is the incubus?” Out of the corner of her eye she happened to spy Midnight moving through the crowds, a hypnotic orb in front of a young woman she was dancing with. Reflexively, Lindsey’s left hand hit the button to send the left door back up.The power meter on the desk showed 87 percent. “This is gonna be close.” She said to herself as she hit the light on her right to see Nadia smiling at her through the window, a pocket watch dangling next to her head. “Go away!” She shouted angrily, the determination never leaving her face even as the power ticked down to 84 percent.
She happened to hit the camera to the hallway just in time to catch Trisha sprinting in her direction. Just as her hand reached for the button, she paused for a split second. It was a risk, but a calculated one to hopefully teach her a lesson. Just as Trisha was about to reach the door, Lindsey tapped the button. “I got y-” She was cut off as the door slammed to the ground in front of her. “Owww! That hurt you bitch!” Trisha shouted outside of the closed door. Lindsey smiled briefly, but then the determination returned to her eyes. Next to her, the power gage continued to tick down to 77 percent.
While Trisha was screaming at the door, Lindsey flipped through the cameras again and stopped suddenly. On one of the cameras to the right, just past the security door, stood Xander. His face filled the entire camera screen and his eyes seemed to just shift and move. The camera wasn’t black and white, but it was such poor quality that most of the colors faded into a muddled brown mess. Even so, the colors in his eyes managed to filter through just enough to catch Lindsey’s attention.
“Oh…” She sighed as her body visibly relaxed while she stared at Xander on the screen. “There you are.” she said softly. Whether it was the hypnotic effects of his eyes, the stress of the week, or the fantasies she had been having about him, a part of Lindsey turned on as she stared at the incubus.
The two of them stared at each other and a small smile crept across Xander’s face as Lindsey slowly moved closer to the screen. That is, until a tiny voice in the back of Lindey’s head said “power draining.”
She shook her head to free herself from Xander’s hypnotic hold…or was it simply the pull of her own fantasies? Finally, she glanced at the power level, only to see that it was down to 55 percent. “Shit! Where did all the power go?” She exclaimed, her eyes widening as she realized she had left both doors down the entire time.
Without thinking she opened the door to her left, only to be greeted with the silhouette of Midnight. “Hello, little one.” Came the sultry, hypnotic voice of the succubus.
The door slammed closed as quickly as it had opened. “Shit.” Lindsay sighed as she checked the light on the right side to see Nadia staring at her through the door, holding back her laughter. “Fuck off!” she said angrily, giving Nadia the finger and glancing at her power level. 49 percent. “You know what? Fuck you all!” She said, giving both doors the finger this time.
She took a moment to calm down and looked back at the camera where Xander had been. His eyes were still staring deeply into the screen, smiling proudly as if he were showing them off to Lindsey. “He has to know it’s me.” She thought to herself. “He has to be doing this for me. Right?” She let herself gaze at the screen and into his eyes, into his soft relaxing eyes. And for the first time all night...she began to genuinely, truly relax.
And then suddenly the screen was empty. “What?” She asked, shaking herself from her daze. “Where did he go?” As she looked around, she remembered where she was…in the security office, with both doors down. “Shit!” She exclaimed as she checked the light to her left, surprised to see that Midnight was gone. Cautiously, she opened the door to confirm that the hallway was, in fact, empty...except, of course, for the incubus plushie under the pieces of her desk phone. She checked the right side and was just as surprised to find that Nadia was gone as well. “What do you know,” she said to herself, “they finally fucked off!”
She quickly went back to the cameras and continued to flip through them, finding Trisha in the hallway with a hypnotized young man in front of her, licking her neck. Next she found Midnight on the dance floor, waving around hypnotic orbs as if they were glow sticks at a rave, much to the enjoyment of the crowd around her. She stopped on the camera to the coat room next, only to hear the familiar sound of Nadia’s moans as a male voice calmly responded, “Yes, Mistress. I will obey.”
Lindsey glanced at the screen in confusion. “What happened?” She mused as she noticed the clock, which read 5:00 AM. “What the hell? How long was I…” One thought was interrupted by another. “Was I hypnotized?” She asked herself as a swell of confusion, fear and excitement all flooded her mind. She didn’t have time to process the thought any further as she glanced at the power level. It was down to six percent. “Holy shit!” She shouted in shock.
Her thoughts were interrupted again as a deep, almost maniacal laugh echoed through the hallway. She recognized it as Xander’s, but there was much more of a devious nature to it. Almost like a cartoon villain or a monster from a video game. She glanced at the screen and found Xander staring at her again through the camera. But this time was different. The color in his eyes seemed brighter and much more vivid.
Her police training kicked in and she quickly flipped to the next screen. “Relax…” Said a soothing voice from the hallway. She turned on the light to see Nadia standing there with an almost wicked smile on her face.
“AAHHHHHH!” Lindsey screamed and slammed the door shut with a flick of her finger. With that side secure, for now, she spun around to turn on the light to her left. Midnight greeted her with a smile, one young man asleep in her left arm and a young woman limp in her right. Lindsey hit the button to send the door down without even thinking about it. “That was way too close.” She said as she looked at the power level again. Five percent.
As she turned back to the cameras, a glitch appeared on one of the screens. “What the hell was that?” She asked in confusion.
“It’s me…” whispered Kelli’s voice behind her.
Lindsey spun around to face the young vampire, but this time the look on Lindsey’s face was not one of fear or surrender, it was defiance. She glared into the eyes of the vampire, struggling to resist her hypnotic gaze, and pulled the top of her jumpsuit open. In doing so she exposed not only her powder blue bra, but, more importantly, the silver cross necklace she was wearing.
Kelli let out an unearthly screech and vanished from the room, teleporting herself to safety. “That’s what I thought, bitch!” Lindsey shouted triumphantly before looking back at the power level. Four percent.
“Shit!” She pulled herself back to the desk but was interrupted by a loud banging noise coming from her left.
“You can’t hide in there forever!” She heard Trisha shout through the door. “You have to come out…who are you?”
Lindsey turned to look at the window by the door and saw an eerie glow fill the hallway. With a shaking hand she reached out to hit the light and found the familiar shadow of Trisha etched across the far wall, shoulders and arms limp as her body slumped forward, staring into the hand of a shadow that looked like Midnight’s. “Uh oh.” She thought to herself as she turned to look at the power level. Three percent.
Lindsey’s body began to shake, she knew she was cutting it close.If there was any chance of her succeeding tonight, she needed to be as careful as possible with what little power she had left. She turned to the right window and hit the light. Nadia’s image appeared, staring at her with a single raised eyebrow and a smile, her pocket watch swinging from side to side as she waited patiently for the power to run out. Two percent.
As Lindsey sat back in her chair, exhausted and on edge, she heard a muffled sound come from behind one of the doors. Behind it came the calm, soothing voice of Trisha. “Won’t you join us? It’s so nice to just…let go…and relax.”
Lindsey tilted her head up and hit the light to her left. She could see the shadow of Midnight clearly through the window, her wings had extended and she was far more of an imposing sight now. “She got her.” Lindsey thought, referring to Trisha. Just as she turned to look at the power gage, it dropped to one percent. “And now they are going to get me.” She said with a sigh of resignation as she pushed her chair back from the desk and pulled her knees up to her chest, shaking nervously.
All she could do was sit and wait as she tried to keep her breathing slow and steady. “Just because the power dies doesn’t mean I can’t fight!” She thought to herself. Even though she didn’t think she would be able to fight her way out of the office, the idea sounded good in her head. “You can do this.” she said, trying to give herself a pep talk. “You can…” Her thoughts trailed off as the power died and darkness surrounded her.
Despite the pep talk, Lindsey didn’t move a muscle. She simply sat there, waiting to be…attacked? “No, that’s not right.” she thought to herself. No one here had shown any real signs of physical aggression. “Enthralled.” she continued, “I’m waiting for them to enthrall me.” But even as she sat there, in the darkness and silence, nothing happened.
She sat for what felt like hours, until in the distance, echoing through the hallway, she heard a familiar whistle. It was soothing and soft, despite being slightly off key. It was a lullaby. She couldn’t think of the name, but she recognized it.
She lifted her head and looked around. The room was still completely dark, but her night vision had adjusted enough for her to see the room and hallways on either side of her. They both seemed empty, but the whistling was getting closer and closer. And then it stopped.
Lindsey swallowed hard and felt herself begin to hyperventilate as the outline of a man appeared in the dim, ambient light of the hallway. She couldn’t see his features, just his outline, and the soft blue glow coming from his eyes.. “Don’t be afraid.” the voice said softly. “I won’t hurt you.”
Lindsey stared at the figure as he moved into the room and made his way closer. In the back of her mind, she knew who it was. And she could already feel his words relaxing her.
“You’ve had such a long and stressful week, Lindsey.” Xander said soothingly. “And you’ve done your very best.” There was a warmth in his words, a tenderness that made it seem like he actually cared. It helped Lindsey let go and relax more as he continued to speak and leaned in closer to her. “You deserve to rest Lindsey. You deserve to relax.”
Lindsey felt a finger slide under her chin and tilt her head up softly. Her mind was filled with about a billion different voices all screaming at her to move, fight, or run. But one voice, at the very back of her mind, broke through the rest as it whispered “This is what you’ve been waiting for.” Then she felt his lips on hers and the other voices fell silent.
She felt herself smile in the kiss as she began to respond, as her tension and nervousness faded away completely. As the kiss broke she opened her eyes and stared into the soft, glowing blue eyes of the incubus. She was so lost in her own fantasies that she barely heard him speak. “So nice to simply…sleep.”
Lindsey felt her arms and legs relax as her eyes rolled into her head while her body became as limp as a rag doll. But she never felt any part of her touch the ground as she drifted away into a deep hypnotic sleep.
To be concluded…
Featuring: Lindsey, Midnight, Nadia, Trisha, Xander, Kelli
Thanks to Sleepygirl for doing the editing for me.
If you are curious for a little behind the scenes, you can find a file containing some of the conversations between Sleepygirl and I on my patreon page here: Five Nights at Spirals - Editing Banter
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! If you have any comments I would love to hear them! You can follow more adventures at Spirals Nightclub! You can also find bonus content on my Patreon page!
Prologue
Night 1
Night 1 - Alt Ending (Patreon Exclusive)
Night 2
Night 2 - Alt Ending (Patreon Exclusive)
Night 3
Night 3 - Alt Ending (Patreon Exclusive)
Night 4
Night 4 - Alt Ending (Patreon Exclusive)
Night 5
Epilogue
Banter File (Patreon Exclusive)
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