Chapter Text
The room was dark and tinted in a red hue, as if lit by a red lamp.
When one looked, they could see it was not a lamp at all, but a skylight above with red glass. The walls were stained in something dark and there were no other windows besides from the skylight. A living body hung from the ceiling, thrashing weakly at the sight of torture devices strewn across the floor. It was hard to make out due to the chopped off hair and starved complexion, though it looked like a woman.
Another figure, a man this time, wandered in front of the camera. The woman flailed as he entered yet was powerless to stop him from picking up a knife. The shot was angled awkwardly, yet the sound of a blade squelching against skin was all too audible. There was a shriek, a moan and then the man yanked the knife away.
Cringing at the splatter of gore thrown at the camera, Noctis quickly closed the tab and took a deep breath. No matter how many snuff films he came across, they never became less gruesome.
The latest one had been found on an obscure .crown link, left carelessly on a pastebin site. Part of him wished he’d never clicked on it but his curiosity would always get the better of him.
Noctis spent a lot of time making sure his VPN had still been active and shut down each router set up in his room. He had a total of six, something his dad always questioned him on. Well, he had stated he could spend his pocket money on whatever he wanted, so he never bothered trying to defend himself. If he wanted six routers, then he’d have six routers. Not that he realistically needed all of them, although better safe than sorry— especially on the dark web. Noctis stretched in his seat and grabbed his phone.
His eyes ached. Glancing at the clock on the screen, he realised he’d been slouched over his computer for four hours. How the hell had so much time gone by when he swore he’d only been on two websites? Then again, one had been filled to the brim with creepy videos which he had to check out. Most of it was snuff shit but sometimes he’d come across weapon reviews. He’d never known until now exactly how many guns existed in the world, illegal or not.
It had just gone five in the afternoon. Peeking outside, Noctis could see it was still light out, and his legs hurt from sitting all day. Not to mention he needed to get the image of a woman being stabbed to death out of his mind. The eerie red glow tainting his vision, he pulled up the messenger app and clicked on his most used group chat.
It had not been active since yesterday. His thumbs darted over the screen as he wrote a message.
‘you guys wanna meet up at the park?’
There was silence for several minutes. Noctis set his phone aside as he awaited an answer, perking up once he caught sight of a blue speech bubble.
Kinda late dont u think?
It was Gladio. Guy always had his phone in his pocket, even if he was the one who used theirs the least. Noctis immediately typed back.
‘yeah but i’m bored’
I'm already out, so I can meet you there.
i can come!!!
He grinned at the next two messages. Firstly Ignis, and then Prompto, identified by his obscene spam of emojis. Gladio eventually agreed via a quick confirmation and Noctis shot up. Cool, a nice way to break up the day. Grabbing his phone and house keys, he ran down the stairs—two at a time—before he almost collided headfirst with someone at the front door.
It was his dad. He was dressed in his formal work coat, tailored entirely in black and dark grey. Blinking in surprise, Regis set down his briefcase and frowned. “And where are you going?”
“To the park,” said Noctis.
Regis checked his watch. “At this hour?”
“I won’t be long, I’m meeting up with the guys. I’ll be back for dinner, swear it.”
His father reluctantly let him go after Noctis promised to return by six o’clock. It only gave him an hour, but that was enough to show his mates what fucked up shit he’d found today.
If his dad actually knew about what he was doing, Noctis would be grounded for the rest of his life after never seeing another computer screen again. As the CEO of a business company, Regis had assistants to carry out his emailing and admin work for him. The man was completely clueless when it came to technology. In this day and age, it was pretty stupid not to have such an important skillset in Noctis’ opinion, although that just gave him the advantage to do what he liked online. Regis could try all he wanted and he’d never be able to get into his computer. He probably wouldn’t be able to even cut the wifi.
The weather in his neighbourhood was pleasant, a cool breeze making the sun bearable. Noctis shrugged off his jacket and carried it under his arm as he made his way out of the electronically-controlled gates, past their pool and out of the drive. One would probably be impressed to see such a grand house, except Noctis lived in the nicer part of town. Every house in sight was just as pricey.
Noctis expected the park to be deserted. Instead, he caught sight of two figures, one tall and one blond sitting on the wall.
“Yo, guys,” Noctis called out as he jumped over the wall effortlessly.
Prompto grinned as he gave him a fist bump in greeting. Ignis, always the established one, nodded. He then passed him a can of diet coke from a four-pack.
“Isn’t Iggy the best?” said Prompto. He took a sip from his can. “Always prepared.”
“Thanks, Ig.” The coke was still fairly cold despite the heat. Noctis had been chugging monster energy drinks and Dr Pepper all day but the soft drink felt nice sliding down his throat. “You guys got here fast. Where’s Gladio?”
“On his way,” replied Ignis. “His parents are out, so he had to make sure Iris was alright before he left.”
It was cute how much Gladio fussed over his younger sister despite the fact she was in her teens. They’d often tease him about it, though he never stopped. Iris had to be beyond fed up but she never showed it. In the meantime, Noctis pulled out his phone and dug through the pictures he had taken earlier today.
He never got any of the snuff film, though he’d gotten some of the site he’d been on before he found it. Often he’d just send screenshots to the group chat but today he wanted to discuss it in person.
“Check out what I found,” he said to Prompto, handing his phone over.
The blond grimaced. “Oh, gods, not this shit again, Noct.”
“Where has he been lurking now?” Ignis asked as he took the phone from Prompto’s hands. He raised his glasses and instantly wrinkled his nose at the sight of a dark screen with red text, detailing snuff videos in a long list. “Noct, I thought I told you to stop. What if you get another virus? That’s going to be a bit awkward to explain to your father, isn’t it?”
Noctis scoffed and flicked his raven hair out of his eyes. “You know my dad doesn’t know the difference between Internet Explorer and Chrome.”
Ignis gave him a disapproving look but said nothing else. Noctis spent the next five minutes detailing the site and what he’d found, which again, mostly included more of the aforementioned. Prompto kept wincing dramatically, Noctis finding his reactions amusing. Prompto was never one for the darknet. Neither were Ignis and Gladio, although Ignis was a fucking amazing hacker, and Gladio had dealt with his fair share of cryptocurrency. They were his aides whenever he dove into a part of the dark web he’d never gone before. For the moment, Prompto would hang back and listen in to their online adventures whenever they hung out.
After he’d just about finished, Noctis saw the large shape of Gladio clambering over the park wall. It was quicker than walking half a mile to get to the gate entrance. His feet landed on the grass heavily. Giving him a wave, the trio waited for him to join them.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he took the last can of coke, “just checking on Iris, making sure the door was locked and all.”
“Aw, brotherly love,” Prompto cooed. Gladio gave him a light punch on the arm. The other three were only-children. The very concept of a sibling seemed bizarre to them.
Gladio was quick to catch on to the grin on Noctis’ face as he browsed his phone. “What’s this idiot been up to now? You still watching your weird murder porn?” He rolled his eyes when Noctis flashed his screen. “Ugh, get a life .”
“It’s not porn , it’s curiosity. It’s not like any of these are actual cases these days.”
Most of the videos Noctis had come across were decades old. Grainy and recorded in awful quality, he was more interested in the obscurity of such findings rather than the content. He prided himself on feeling empathy. There was no pleasure extracted from the sight of torture, more fascinated by the gore than anything else. Noctis blamed it on his love for horrors. His father had always been concerned when he’d watch 18 rated movies at the age of ten, which ended up spiralling into violent video games and now dark web surfing. Noctis didn’t really see it as a problem considering he didn’t like what he found. The human want to witness gore and violence was normal, he was just one of the ones who indulged in his curiosities.
From what he knew, none of the things he had seen were shot in today’s time. The Lucis police force were too good at their job, and Noctis was grateful.
“Can’t we go back to the days where you watched serial killer documentaries?” Prompto whinged. “Like, that was creepy enough, but this is… kinda gross, man.”
Serial killer documentaries were fun, however Noctis had watched so many he had run out of source material. By now, he was an expert on how they functioned, their backstories and psychology. He’d even been tempted to go into psychology for his degree.
“They’re all old videos, Prom,” he brushed off.
“Yeah, but they’re real people! Have some… I don’t know, respect!”
Once the others agreed, Noctis huffed and shoved his phone in his pocket. He’d just have to keep his findings to himself for now. He completely understood why they wouldn’t want to look at violence, yet how could they not want to know about the dark web? There was so much of the mystical and strange to find!
The rest of the hour was spent talking about school, AKA the most boring subject possible. Both Noctis and Prompto had finished their second to last year, with only one left before graduation. Ignis was taking a year-long course in computer science while Gladio was thinking of joining the police. He was taking some time off education, mostly to check on his sister regularly while he pondered his career options. Prompto had been adamant on doing something photography related, but Noctis was left in the lurch.
Everyone, especially his dad, told him he was wasting his time. All Noctis really wanted to do was play games or obsess over his internet addiction. He knew he couldn’t keep going like this—but everything else was so unappealing . He groaned thinking about it.
When the clock ticked ever closer to six, Noctis stood up and scuffed the ground with his foot.
“Alright, better head back before Dad has a go at me. I’ll see you guys tomorrow?”
Gladio scoffed, folding his arms. “Sure, but keep your internet browsing to yourself.”
He reluctantly agreed. Oh well. He’d just find a random chatroom and talk there. Noctis bid farewell to his friends and trudged home.
Regis was already sitting at the dinner table by the time he got back. The cutlery and glasses had been set, though dinner was still cooking. Noctis threw his jacket on a chair and sat opposite him.
“So, what have you been up to today?”
He asked the same question every working day. Noctis shrugged. “Just been on the computer.”
“Hopefully you’re not up to your hacking nonsense.”
“I’m not hacking , Dad,” Noctis said with a scowl. Regis merely nodded and went to get their dinner out.
It had been only the two of them for many years. Having his mother die when he was an infant, Noctis was long used to a two-person household. Regis would go off to work five days a week, nine until five, and Noctis would spend his time in his room or at school. They did not share many hobbies so the weekend was spent the same way. Since Noctis was also a fan of fishing, Regis would occasionally take him out just for a change of scenery, but he had become more and more reserved these days. As the seasons rolled into one and every day was too similar to tell apart, Noctis had found most of his excitement on the internet.
Dinner consisted of salmon. Noctis was fond of seafood, though he picked around the broccoli on the side. Regis sighed in exasperation.
“Noctis, please eat it. You’re wasting away.”
“What? I’m fine,” Noctis grunted.
“It’s not healthy for you to sit in your room all day. I’m glad you went out earlier, but if you’re going to be indoors most of the time I’d rather you eat better.”
So he forced down one floret of broccoli to shut him up. Broccoli was among his bearable list of vegetables, but he’d rather not if given the choice. He was thankful that it was drenched in sauce to disguise the bitter flavour.
Noctis volunteered to take their plates. He was awful at washing up yet since he hadn’t eaten everything, it was easier to just get on with it. Regis burned his gaze into his back, still in his seat and work shirt undone at the neck.
“Since it is summer,” he started. Noctis flinched, “have you given any thought into what course you would like to study next year?”
“Not really.”
“So when will you?”
“I don’t know!” Noctis shouted before composing himself. “Sorry. Look, I’ll start planning when school starts up. I’ll ask my tutors what they think.”
Regis spent a long time staring at him before finally agreeing. After Noctis had finished doing a bad job of washing their plates (and secretly disposing of his uneaten veg), he ran straight back up to his room.
His room was easily his most favourite place in the world. Being twice as big as a usual living room, Noctis padded across the black carpet and slouched into his gaming seat. He mostly played his games on a console but had dragged it over to his PC desk for a more comfortable browsing experience. His TV, king-sized bed, ensuite and enormous CD collections were ignored in favour of his prized possession—his computer. It had cooled down nicely since his short break, so he booted it up again with no hesitation.
The satisfying sound of the startup was like music to his ears. Noctis took the mouse and expertly navigated through his passwords and codes that he’d set up to fend off his father. Not that he’d be able to get onto it even without the passwords. He had a group selfie Prompto had taken of them as his desktop wallpaper. His screen was littered with VPNs and weird browsers he had downloaded before clicking on Crown.
Crown was a web browser he used for his dark web surfing. Not that it was a good browser. It was slow, buggy and crashed every other hour, though it was the best anonymous browser out there. It opened up to a black page with an empty search box. He kept it small on his screen, wise enough to know to never open a browser full screen on the dark web.
Now, what Noctis would normally do was head to one of the pastebin sites and snag a few code samples to type in. Crown URLs were typed as a series of numbers rather than written words, making it irritating to search for specific things. By now, Noctis was an expert in navigating Crown’s obscure pathways, but he had another intention in mind for today.
Typing in the URL, ‘ http://78gn307av9r72.crown/’ , Noctis landed himself on a website he was particularly fond of.
Insomnia was one of the most popular forum sites. Quite like its name suggested, it kept Noctis up all night. The shit on there was weird . You couldn’t host images, yet the people who used it ranged from introverted losers like him to deranged drug users. They were undoubtedly the best—the shit they spewed was beyond hilarious. Noctis enjoyed reading whatever he could find on it. Conspiracy theories, bizarre occult sites and then random links to wherever. The mystery of where he could end up was all part of the fun.
He clicked on the top link on Insomnia’s main page. Scrolling through the recent stories, he found some new conspiracy theories about how Niflheim was going to storm the Lucis capital. He chuckled as he read the frantic comments beneath it. Next up was another theory on how the Chancellor of Niflheim was actually a shapeshifting demon. The more absurd they were, the more Noctis found them amusing. Not that he would defend Niflheim, but gods .
Upon noticing the local chatroom going haywire in the corner of the screen, Noctis took a look at it.
It was filled with people typing in all capitals. Links were being spammed, people were arguing, and it was just a big mess. Noctis had to pause the live feed so that he could actually read what was being said.
El_kilAfore: Adagium’s gonna fuckin come for us if we keep talking about it here, read one message.
Adagium?
Noctis pursed his lips as he scrolled through a few more. After digging through mindless chatter, he found another mention of ‘Adagium’.
aardwolf: don’t be a fucking moron. we all know he keeps his murder shit on his private streams
El_kilAfore: Yea but I heard he;s on lots of sites. what if hes on here??
Murder certainly got his attention. Noctis shuffled his chair closer to the screen, eyes so close to it they burned. What, some killer was on the loose on the internet? Noctis immediately dismissed it as ridiculous rumours, though something kept him reading through the chat log. His curiosity would be the death of him one day.
He ended up clicking on some of the links posted. Most lead him to more discussion pages. None of them seemed useful in providing information besides one that caught Noctis’ attention.
It was an unnamed forum site, coded horrendously. The text floated out of the boxes and it was clear it was years old. Usually, Noctis didn’t go near such sites because they annoyed him, but there were lots of comments that intrigued him.
There was a particularly long one that spoke of snuff films. Or more specifically, live murders streamed for those who paid for it. Noctis raised an eyebrow. He’d heard of these so called ‘red rooms’ before, yet he’d never actually found one. He’d dismissed them as urban legends since he’d found literally everything the dark web had to offer by now. If he hadn’t found a red room, then they clearly didn’t exist. There were no links posted, but then the comment went on to detail whoever the fuck Adagium was.
Have you actually been on one of his streams? read an old comment from about a year ago.
Yeah, dude. You have to pay 500 QP to get in and it was fuckin crazy. I deadass saw the entire thing. Stream was laggy but there was at least three hours of torture before the crazy fuck finally did the guy in. Honestly kind of felt bad for watching, tho you know how it goes. Can’t remember where I got the link from
Ugh, useless! Noctis scoffed loudly as he clicked back to the Insomnia tab. Cool, so Adagium was a lunatic who apparently streamed his kills online. 500 QP was quite a lot of money, too. QP was a cryptocurrency, and Noctis had raked up quite a lot in his years online while not knowing what QP actually stood for, but that was pushing it. He quickly went back out of Insomnia to check his bank.
823 QP rested snugly inside it. Ignis had set up plenty of firewalls to keep hackers out, so Noctis often left it sitting there for months on end. Sure, he could easily afford 500, though that was a quarter of the price of his computer. What if it was a scam?
Then again, there was the matter of actually finding this streaming source. Noctis contemplated ignoring it in favour of continuing to browse, but a nagging feeling in his chest stopped him.
What if it was real? Not that he had any desire to actually see a live murder, yet he’d never considered the possibility that such streams existed. Were people really that fucked up? Dumb question, of course they were, though still. He sat there for a while, scratching at the light stubble he had neglected to shave this morning, before he finally made a choice.
Adagium was too tempting of a name to ignore.
Thus his search began.
Noctis read through the entire chat log on Insomnia from where this rumour had sprung up. He searched the name in on the site’s search bar, but didn’t find much except for the recent stuff he’d already gone over. He looked for the name on the browser search bar and found nothing again. Trying his luck, he logged in and went to type on the chat himself.
blackxprince: anyone here got more info on adagium??
There was no doubt in his mind that Gladio would make fun of him for the next five years if he knew his dark web alias. Sure, blackxprince was edgy—okay, super edgy, but Noctis was fond of it. It was a dumb username he used when he was a tween and it just kind of stuck.
For a while, nobody answered. Noctis sat there impatiently until someone finally said something.
El_kilAfore: you got a death wish bro?
He sighed as he typed his next message.
blackxprince: just curious. Wanna know if anyone has a link to his streams, if it exists, lol. cant find anything on the links
aardwolf: you tried Gralea?? it’s a pastebin site. you have to pay to get in but from what i know its all legit
It was the arguing pair from earlier. Great, more money down the drain. It wasn’t as if Noctis hadn’t wasted a fuckton of gil before online, though he would be pissed if it was all in vain. Still, he dug around for this Gralea site and found it quicker than expected.
A popup message stopped him before he got in. A request for 20 QP. Okay, nowhere near as bad as he thought it would be. That was only the equivalent of 200 gil and he spent that daily on energy drinks. Typing in his details, Noctis promptly paid and got access.
Gralea was plainer than expected. The website was all white as typical pastebin sites were, and there was a small search box at the top. Typing in the name of this mysterious killer was enough to rack up around five URL codes. Three were more forum blogs, which again held nothing good. One didn’t work, and the last one spent at least ten minutes loading before Noctis actually got onto the fucking thing. There were more links and more passwords, some costing a tiny bit more QP, and by the time Noctis found anything worth his time it was around two in the morning.
He suddenly got to his feet and changed routers. Shutting his curtains and taking his jeans off to lounge in his sweats, he sank back into his chair and continued searching.
He was on yet another pastebin. This time, however, Noctis had a good feeling about it. It had been ridiculously hard to find. Not many sites were hidden this thoroughly, so he took a little longer to study each line of code and text strewn across the flickering screen. It was glitchy and often crashed with a spam of DoS attacks, but there was finally some mention of Adagium.
Most of it Noctis couldn’t understand. There were a lot of… occult references.
Explore the wonders of dolore et cruciatu! Experience the magic of sanguine et agone!
What the fuck did any of this garbage mean? It didn’t necessarily look like an occult site. The ones Noctis had seen had bizarre symbols and languages, but other than that weird intro, it seemed normal enough. Noctis held his breath as he clicked on one of the links listed below. Some were just more information written in whatever bizarre nonsense as before, except one opened up to a new window.
An empty black window was on the left, while a chatroom was on its right. A timer ticked down at the top, stating there was less than an hour to go.
What the fuck . Had he found it?
Before Noctis could do anything else, a message blocked his view. Ah. It was the request for 500 QP. This was the big decision. There was no doubt that he’d stumbled across a streaming page, but was this the right one? The chatlog was blank and the video feed was dead. Noctis’ gut screamed at him—begging him to close the tab and shut down his computer for the next month to be safe, but that fascination deep in his heart overpowered it.
He frantically took note of the URL code. It was another string of numbers, but he made sure he had copied it down exactly. He also took note of the many sites he had used to get here in the first place. There had to be at least 20 of the fucking things, though something told Noctis he was finally here. Whoever Adagium was, he was going to find out.
Holding his breath as he typed his bank details in, Noctis watched as the page processed his order. It was too late to go back now. Once he was in the clear, the pop up faded and left Noctis staring at the dead feed.
There was not much else to do besides wait.
Noctis spent the time on his phone, seeing if any of his friends were up, however they’d all gone to sleep. He was fairly tired himself but there was no way in hell he was going to bed now. He’d been fortunate enough to find a stream that was starting so soon and had actually let him on, so he was seeing this through to the end. After playing some games, Noctis wandered around his room to stretch his legs and then flopped lazily over his bed. He could still see the screen, so he laid there until there was only ten minutes or so left on the timer.
The chatroom roared to life before him. As there was no option to make an account, people could type whatever username they wanted right there on the spot. Noctis set his username as blackxprince and sat back. He didn’t really want to say anything.
Most of it consisted of people talking about whatever happened on the last stream.
trapezoid: i hope he’s even more brutal than last time lolol
MarqueRhinal: This the last stream for this one, so probably.
SolutAm0k: i swear 2 god if any of u cunts fucking vote before me again ill get adagium to go for ur asses nesxt
Whatever they were talking about, this seemed to be the right place. Noctis grew more and more nervous as the timer ran out, while the chatroom grew more and more excited. Was this really a red room? Would he actually get to see a live murder?
When the timer ended, nothing happened at first. Noctis sat in the darkness, body frozen as he waited for something to happen.
He almost screamed when something wet touched his hand. Noctis, flying out of his seat, went to grab the closest object to use as a weapon before he saw a familiar dark shape.
“Oh, for gods’ sake, it’s you, Umbra,” he breathed out. Umbra, his dog, had somehow nudged his door open (he must have forgotten to close it) and licked his fingers. Noctis had been too absorbed on what he was doing to even hear him come in. He gave Umbra a pat on the head with a trembling hand. “Good boy. What are you doing up?”
Umbra went to lie down at his feet. No wonder, the computer fan was pretty warm, and Noctis often found Umbra curled up near it. Why he wasn’t in his bed in the living room was beyond him but he didn’t mind him coming in to sleep here now and again.
He felt a little safer with his loyal pet nearby. Noctis swallowed the lump in his throat as he watched the video load before finally connecting to a source. It was starting.
The camera was panned into a corner. The room was made of white concrete, mud and moss coating the floor. It sat like that for several seconds before a hand underneath a black sleeve turned to move it.
There was a man. He was dressed entirely in robes from head to foot. A hood covered his hair and a white mask hid his face. The mask was formed into a sharp beak of sorts—its hooked edge curling outwards. It was akin to a plague doctor’s mask except it appeared more 2D. It was fairly ridiculous, but in this setting, it only filled Noctis’ mind with terror.
The man spoke with a silky voice. The audio quality was horrendous, probably done to distort his voice further. He spread his arms out theatrically.
“Welcome again, friends,” he said. “Here we return to the final livestream of poor little Adamus. Would you like to greet our audience?”
Adagium disappeared off screen to move the camera. Just out of sight was a young man tied to a chair. Noctis let out a strangled gasp at the sight. He was around his age, not much older, and was a sorry sight. Hs hair was matted and tangled and his face was drenched in old blood. His clothes were ripped and it looked like he was missing several fingers and toes already. What the hell had happened to him?!
Adamus said nothing, too weak to move. He whimpered as Adagium dragged a spindly finger under his chin.
“Oh, it seems he’s a bit tired. In that case, what would you all like to see today?”
A torrent of requests spammed the chatroom. Noctis missed quite a lot of it due to the sheer amount of people commenting, yet he wished he’d missed all of it.
CUT HIS FINGERS OFF
Slit his fucking throat now
gouge his eyes out and i’ll bid on them!
This was not fake. Noctis sat there, nervously laughing to himself at first as he digested what was happening in front of him. Adagium was real and he was hosting a livestream of the poor victim he was about to kill. For the first few seconds, he wanted to convince himself this was all a big joke, but the money, the hundreds of people watching and screaming obscene things… he knew it wasn’t a sick prank.
Adagium laughed from somewhere behind the camera, probably looking at a computer. “My, what an excited crowd we’ve gathered tonight! I do believe there are more than usual! I am quite fond of the first gentlemen’s request, so let us remove the rest of Adamus’ fingers, shall we?”
The screams were horrific . Umbra looked up to see where the noise was coming from seeing as Noctis had forgotten to plug in his headphones. Noctis, eyes glued open, watched as Adamus’ remaining six fingers were chopped off in segments. Adagium took off half at first, and then stopped at each knuckle. His hands were left as bloody stumps by the end of it. The chat went wild.
“And for our next request?” Adagium hollered, blood staining his robes.
Noctis could barely watch as demands came flying through. There were people asking for rape, or for disembowelment and dismemberement. Someone even asked for a decapitation on the spot. Adagium took his sweet time reading each one, occasionally giving his opinion. It was fucking vile.
“I do fancy the idea of removing his eyes, I must admit,” the lunatic purred. “Let’s start with the left one.”
It was now or never. Before Adagium could get up, Noctis lunged for his keyboard.
blackxprince: what the fuck
“Oh, what’s this? I don’t recognise this username. A new member?” said Adagium. Amusement was evident in his voice. “Well, black prince, do you have any special requests seeing as you are apparently our most recent neophyte?”
blackxprince: this is fucked up. i’m calling the fucking cops!
There was an uncomfortable stillness. The chat was loud, however, and began throwing an onslaught of threats his way. Noctis flinched as he read each one. Go die, get fucked, shut up fucking pussy , etc. However, it was Adagium’s silence that made him worry the most.
Then, there was a low chuckle. A chuckle that crept its way down from Noctis’ ears to the base of his spine, a sound that would haunt him for the next ten years.
“It seems a little lost lamb has stumbled into a place he wasn’t meant to be.” Adagium swam back into view. He had picked up a bigger knife than the one he had used to cut off Adamus’ fingers and twirled it in his hands. Noctis watched with wide eyes, regretting what he had just done. “How amusing. Well, I do hate to cut things short, but there has been a change of plan.”
He plunged the knife into his victim’s chest. Adamus gurgled for a few seconds, body flailing as Adagium twisted the blade. Upon yanking it out, he fell slack against the seat.
The livestream ended. The chatroom went berserk, slandering Noctis in any way possible for ruining their time. Noctis didn’t care. He hoped they would all rot for getting off on this shit. Trying not to scream, he went to shut down the tab. He closed the entire browser after a moment, paranoid out of his mind that Adagium would somehow crawl out of it and grab his neck. The man certainly looked like he was capable of such a thing.
He sat there, sweat dripping down his neck and his head in his hands. He wished he’d never gone online. Umbra was watching him, though Noctis was too busy trying to get the image of that innocent man dying out of his mind. He then moved to turn off his computer.
To say he was surprised when his messaging system booted up by itself was an understatement.
It was his email. Funny, because he never used it. Noctis went to close it but found out he was unable to. Fuck.
There was a new message sitting atop a pile of junk mail. The sender name was left blank, yet Noctis had a feeling he knew who it belonged to.
‘ Dear black prince,
You have made a grave mistake tonight. You have entered a realm which you do not understand, henceforth you will be punished. Sleep well, Noctis Lucis Caelum. ’
As soon as Noctis saw that the killer knew his fucking name , he promptly ran to the bathroom and vomited.