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chr0macide · 2 days ago

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Case File: The Underbosses

i have written the origin ending into break in: the novelette heheheha read it on ao3 or below the read more tab on this post

its about 4k words long and there are 4 chapters (the last one is short)

Chapter I

The lecture hall was filled with the sound of shuffling papers as the professor, whose microphone broke two and a half semesters ago, shouted the due dates of the students’ homework assignments at them. Pete gestured for his classmate to follow as she tried to shove all her books into a backpack that was a little too small.

“You know where Larry is?” Mintie asked, slinging the backpack over one shoulder. Pete nodded as she followed him into the hallway with some difficulty—as usual, people packing themselves together like sardines as they tried to squeeze through the door all at the same time. Purge Hall was not the place to loiter.

They crossed the huge lawn in front of the student union building. Pete brought her to the food court, but Mintie almost bumped into him when he abruptly stopped short. She didn’t see Larry.

“Ow. Pete!” she scolded, her brow furrowed in confusion and annoyance.

He shushed Mintie and urged her back the way they came until he could watch the food court from around a corner.

“OK, you’re being weird. What are you looking at?” she questioned. Pete didn’t say anything. Mintie peeked over his shoulder and followed his gaze. Now she did see Larry across the eatery. The swath of purple was hard to miss. His back was turned, but it looked like he had something in his hands.

Oh, God, she thought as she saw where he was headed. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Mary stood at the other side of the food court, facing away from the boy beelining towards her, not too far from where she and Pete were. Barry was with her, too, but they all knew who Larry was there to talk to.

They saw Barry smirk as Larry approached. “Larry! How’s it going, bud?” he called out.

Mary’s expression turned sour as she heard who was approaching them. She turned around reluctantly.

“Larry? What do you want?” she asked. Her question came out sounding like a demand.

Larry waved at Barry weakly. “I’m good, Barry… th-thanks for, uh, thanks for asking,” he stammered quietly.

He turned his attention to Mary, clutching an envelope in his hands too tightly, crinkling the paper. She stared at him, unmoved.

“Hey, M-Mary. I, um, I have this to give to you,” he told her.

“Fine. Give it here,” Mary replied curtly. He’d forgotten to actually hold the envelope out to her, so Mary impatiently plucked it out of his hands. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a conversation?”

She turned away and put the envelope in the pocket of her vest, clearly ready for Larry to leave. He didn’t get the message, continuing to stand near her.

“Larry, get lost,” she snapped without looking at him. His shoulders slumped as he walked away. Mintie moved to follow him, but Pete put an arm out to stop her.

Barry waited until Larry was out of earshot before he spoke. “What’s in the envelope?” he asked curiously.

Mary shrugged. “I’ll look at it later. We’re busy.”

“Come on, I wanna know what it is!” Barry japed. “Is it from… uh, you know. Mr. Purge?” he guessed, his words becoming a murmur as he mentioned the name. Mary sighed, but she took the envelope out of her pocket.

“He’d just call me into his office if he had something to say, wouldn’t he?” she said. She turned the envelope over to break the seal. It was held closed by a heart-shaped wax stamp. Mary scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, I don’t think this is from Mr. Purge.”

Barry stood next to her and leaned over to look at it. “Is that what I think it is? I didn’t think Larry had it in him,” he chuckled to himself.

Mary opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. She made it through two sentences before laughter erupted.

“It’s a love letter,” she cackled.

Barry smirked again. “Ah, the poor kid…”

Pete had seen enough. He nudged Mintie to get her attention and hurried in the direction that Larry had gone, giving Mary and Barry a wide berth as they did, but he was already out of sight as they emerged from the union building. “Where’d he go?” Mintie wondered. Pete pointed at the library.

Larry wasn’t difficult to find. Pete managed to spot him in between the shelves of the chemistry wing.

“Larry!” Mintie called out. Pete shushed her. A few other students shot her a look.

“Oh. Hey, guys. Sorry I didn’t meet you at the cafeteria,” Larry whispered. “But, uh, how did you know I was here?”

Pete produced his notepad. You’re always here, he wrote.

Larry smiled awkwardly. “Oh. Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

“Pete was stalking you at the food court. It was creepy,” Mintie told him, nevermind that she was also watching. Pete elbowed her in the ribs. Larry’s cheeks went pink.

“I was just passing her a message, is all.”

Mary opened it after you left. They were both laughing their asses off, idiot. I told you she doesn’t like you, Pete scribbled.

Larry’s face fell. “Maybe she was laughing at something else,” he murmured. Mintie rolled her eyes.

Why do you like her? She’s not even worth it, Pete penned. Larry clenched his jaw.

“I’m going back to the dorms. I’ll meet up with you guys here tomorrow, or something,” he muttered, turning his back to him and Mintie.

Mintie touched his sleeve. “Wait, I thought we were gonna work on our projects-”

“I’ll bring my part tomorrow.” Larry walked away. She didn’t chase him.

Pete watched Larry walk away. He knew Mary, used to be her friend before she decided he was in her way. He’d already asked the guy what was so special about Mary plenty of times. He didn’t have anything to tell them that he and Mintie hadn’t heard. Larry would say Mary was confident and passionate. He and Mintie would say she was nauseatingly arrogant and only passionate about trampling all over people for the sake of victory that she didn’t deserve. It all fell on deaf ears.

“Nice going, idiot,” Mintie said as Larry disappeared between the shelves. “Man, I’m not in the mood to work anymore, either. Wanna hit the game room?”

Pete sighed. Larry was a wimp when it came to everything important in his life and stubbornly hardheaded when it came to things that were going to fuck his day right up. Yeah, maybe Pete stuck his nose into Larry’s business more times than was appropriate. He just wanted to help, but it felt like Larry was pulling further away every time he tried. Mintie would always tell him some things had to be learned the hard way. Maybe… but Pete had met plenty of people who picked the hard way. Some of them never came back.

Yeah. Let’s get outta here for a while, Pete wrote.

Chapter II

Mary threw her pliers down in both exasperation and relief. Finally, finally all the difficult parts were over. This would have been far less tedious if she’d had a little assistance, and Barry was supposed to show up an hour ago. She’d gotten pissed enough to scope out his usual spots at the gym. He wasn’t there. Probably hiding so he wouldn’t have to help, that asshole. The Headmaster was going to kill her if she didn’t finish his project on time. Lucky for her, there was just one more thing she had to do after these… things were complete. She leaned back in her seat and looked up at the blueprint pinned to the wall.

Not even Mary really grasped how it worked. One of Mr. Purge’s stewards had simply dropped a heavy chunk of some unspecified substance into her arms, but whatever it was, it had a melting point so great that she’d been issued specialized equipment to shape it. She lowered her welding mask over her eyes and fitted the shell of the wind-up key over its inner workings. The brazing torch turned the workshop into an oven and nearly seared the skin off her arms straight through her gloves as she sealed the key shut, as it did whenever she used it. She had to lean in close every time she wanted to read the blueprint’s tiny writing that detailed more than a hundred annoyingly small tubes and pistons and connections and junctions, if you could even call them that; upon inspection, the “circuitry” resembled none that she had ever seen before. Just looking at it gave her a headache.

Some of the relevant text had been redacted, and no, Mary didn’t quite understand how it worked, but she knew what it was supposed to do. Power in exchange for her sense of right and wrong, or so the Headmaster said. Mary had almost laughed when she had first read it. How could someone forget what good and evil were? It wasn’t all that complicated. If you won, of course you were in the right. If you lost… well, you might have won if you hadn’t wasted your time trying to make life fair when it never is. Too bad, too bad. As for what “power” entailed, she could only guess. The descriptions around it hadn’t just been censored. The Headmaster had cut those pieces of the blueprint out altogether. Whatever it meant, only he knew.

Mary switched off the torch and set it aside. She removed her protective gear, wiped the sweat from her brow, and closed her tired eyes for a while. The superheated metal lost its angry glow as it gradually cooled. It seemed like metal, at least. As soon as she could touch it without burning her fingers, Mary unfastened the black briefcase on the floor and placed the final key in it, alongside the other two. The door flew open.

Barry sauntered in. “Sorry! I lost track of time—shit, who turned this place into a sauna?” he chattered. He glanced down at the briefcase. “What the Hell are those?” he laughed.

“It’s my project,” Mary huffed as she shut the briefcase. “Which I already finished. Well, almost finished. Thanks for the help, by the way,” she said sarcastically.

“What are they for?”

Mary nodded at the blueprint.

“Not reading all that,” Barry said, but he squinted as he gave it a quick once over. “The Headmaster made this? OK, I think I’m good not knowing what it does,” he laughed nervously.

“Whatever. I have to take this to the headmaster—”

“Damn.”

“—don’t follow me.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

Mary picked up the briefcase and stepped outside. The corridors and common area were empty. Purge Hall was not the place to loiter. That seldom stopped Pete.

He heard the door click open. Mary’s steps echoed. Behind the door to the stairwell, Pete peered through the window. “Dude, we’re gonna be late to class,” Mintie whispered to him.

They watched Mary make her way over to the imperious double doors at the other end of the entresol, briefcase in hand.

Mintie grabbed Pete’s arm. “She’s heading to Purge’s office. You’re going to get us fucking killed,” she hissed. He wouldn’t move, but she kept trying to pull him away.

Pete snapped. “Then go! You don’t need to babysit me,” he hissed back, yanking his arm back. Mintie finally let go and stepped back. She put her hands in her pockets and looked at the ground.

“You’re gonna get hurt, Pete.”

He didn’t say anything. He was just watching. He’d be fine.

“I’m gonna wait for you outside, OK?” Mintie told him. He nodded. Her footsteps faded away as she descended the stairs and left him alone.

Mary had disappeared into the Headmaster’s office. Pete stuck his face close to the door’s glass panel and looked around the hall. Still deserted. He guessed it wouldn’t hurt to peek at the room she’d come from. He pushed the stairwell door open and crept over to the workshop. He looked through the window. He ducked low when he saw it was occupied, but Barry wasn’t paying attention to him. He was sitting in the chair with his feet on the table, looking at the blueprint on the wall. Pete couldn’t read many of the words from outside, even after he took his sunglasses off, but he could see the drawings. They looked like those keys that kids used to wind up their fancy toys these days.

Pete studied the rest of the room. The gear and apparatus looked way nicer than what students had to use in their classes, but he only stuck around for a minute or two before he darted back to the stairs. He didn’t know how long he had before Mary would reemerge from the office.

He watched the office doors creak open, the inside too dark for Pete to see anything, just as it always was. The cold air rushing out made Mary’s hair sway. She dropped the briefcase. Her face seemed paler than usual, and for a second, Pete thought she looked weak at the knees, but she took a deep breath and adjusted her tie.

Mary picked the briefcase up again and took it back to the workroom. Pete saw her leave with Barry, locking the door behind her. They were heading towards the staircase where he was hiding. Time to go.

Pete slid down the banister and ran outside, breathing in the fresh air. Purge Hall somehow always felt chilly and stifling at the same time. Mintie smiled, glad to see that he hadn’t become a missing person report just yet, but her grin faded as she heard a pair of voices not too far behind him.

“He said they’re ready for testing. Not on us, though. I know who we can test it on,” said Mary’s muted voice from inside the stairwell, but she and Barry fell silent as she opened the door and saw the other two students. They stared at each other.

“The fuck are you looking at?” Mintie questioned. Pete merely scowled at her.

Mary looked at Mintie as if she was roadkill that somebody had left on the sidewalk, but she didn’t dignify her with a reply. She and Barry kept moving.

When she was sure they wouldn’t her, Mintie turned to Pete. “What did you see?”

Pete rooted around inside his backpack for his notebook. I saw inside the workshop. He shushed Mintie before she could chastise him for scurrying around where someone could have seen him. There was a draft for some kind of wind-up key. Lots of tools lying around.

“OK. So, she’s making weird toys,” Mintie shrugged.

Pete wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, but he needed his hands to write. No! I don’t mean dainty little safety scissors and paintbrushes. It was heavy-duty shit. And that briefcase was way too big for toys, he scrawled. The blueprint was full of weird ass pictures. “Key makes you stronger but removes conscience” in big ass letters. It had prongs on the end of it. Sharp ones. It wasn’t for a toy.

Mintie’s face grew serious. “Mary just said they were… ready for testing.”

I’m gonna stake this place out. Pete paused. I got a feeling that something really bad is about to happen.

Chapter III

They didn’t catch Larry around Purge Hall until late at night. The moon glared down at Purge University like an eye. There were no stars. There never were in this city. Mintie and Pete stood before the building’s concrete façade, but they didn’t dare follow Larry inside. Pete got lucky while he was snooping around in there last time. A second time? Maybe not.

Pete looked up at the windows. “You sure this is the right spot? I’m not doing this more than once,” Mintie warned. He nodded. He could see that the room was lit from down here.

She knelt down on one knee and held her hands out, boosting Pete enough for him to grab the lowest ledge. Mintie ducked into the bushes lining the building and hid. If he got caught up there, that was his problem.

Pete scaled the wall until he was outside the workshop’s clerestory window. He peered inside cautiously. Three oversized wind-up keys were laid out on the worktable. Larry, Mary, and Barry were all there. The window was high enough that he wouldn’t be seen unless they happened to look up.

“So… did you read my note?” Larry asked Mary nervously.

Mary smiled. “Yes, yes, I read it. It was so sweet!” she replied, voice thick with honey. “I really need your help with something, Larry.” She moved to the worktable. “I need you to help me test these keys.”

Larry looked at the polished wind-up keys, but he didn’t move.

“Don’t worry! It won’t hurt,” Mary promised. “It’s the last step in my assignment. I would be really, really grateful,” she said, leaning towards Larry. Pete could see her knuckles turn white as she clenched her hands behind her back.

“Wow… uh. Sounds g-great, but I… I don’t know if I want to be the one to test it,” he stuttered. Larry looked at the blueprint on the wall. “It looks dangerous.”

Barry walked over and stood in between Larry and the blueprint. “Come on, Larry! You’ll be fine,” he assured him, flashing his perfect grin. Still, Larry hesitated. Mary’s sickly-sweet smile slipped.

“JUST TURN AROUND AND-”

Larry grimaced and stepped away from both her and the keys.

Mary coughed. “Yes, what Barry said. You’ll be fine,” she echoed, patting Larry on the shoulder, but her hand barely touched him. “I would never hurt you, Larry.”

Larry blushed. He looked at the keys again. “OK,” he agreed, his voice small. Mary picked up one of the wind-up keys and motioned for him to turn around.

Pete almost slipped from where he clung to the wall. His hands had grown sweaty. He adjusted his grip on the windowsill. His limbs suddenly felt so heavy. He could pound on the glass. Smash it with his flashlight, even, and Larry might escape from whatever was about to happen to him, but what would happen to Pete? The Headmaster was a part of this. His body might turn up the woods with the fingerprints burned off and all the teeth ripped out. His body might not turn up at all.

The three sharpened tines at the Key’s base caught the artificial light as Mary forced it through Larry’s back.

Larry screamed. She had lied. It did hurt. He fell to the cold vinyl floor as the key did its work. It felt like molten metal gushing into his veins and carving cauterized tunnels through his whole body, white hot razors shifting under his skin and slicing him every time he moved. He could only lay there and try not to twitch too much. His ears rang.

If he was squirming, that meant he wasn’t paralyzed, so Mary crouched down and prodded the key a few times, testing the strength of the connection. The movement sent fresh agony shooting up Larry’s spine. He cried out again and tried to drag himself away, but it only made the pain worse. His ears were ringing. Mary’s words sounded muffled and far away.

“It actually worked! My assignment was a success,” she said as she straightened. “Alright, Barry, it’s our turn. My design will make us stronger than you can imagine.” Mary picked up the second key.

Still breathing heavily, Larry struggled onto his hands and knees. The back of his suit was soaked through with sweat. The world moved in and out of focus as he looked around. It took him a few moments to remember where he was. He felt strange. Rage bubbled up in his chest like a caustic chemical. Why did he feel so angry? What was he angry about? Larry looked up, squinting his eyes against the bright fluorescent lights. He caught Pete’s eye through the narrow window.

Pete pushed himself away from the wall and leapt down, tumbling into the bushes. Mintie jolted awake as he landed next to her.

“Dude, what the Hell? Did you just jump from the second floor?” she questioned incredulously. Ignoring her, Pete scrambled to his feet and bolted away, stumbling on the uneven sidewalk in his haste. Mintie glanced up at the pale light streaming from the window. Purge Hall loomed, its pointed rooftops disappearing into the night, stretching endlessly into the black sky.

She ran.

Chapter IV

Bradley put the folder down. “Did you ever tell her what you saw?” he asked.

Lieutenant Pete inputted a reply into his SGD. “No.”

Bradley leaned over his desk and examined the police sketches again. There were drawings of the key, plus some of its components, but there were no descriptions to accompany them. He needed more before he could even think about standing against the Purge.

“Do you remember any of the fine print? Did Larry say anything about the key after all this?”

His SGD spoke in monotone, but the lines on his weathered face communicated his frustration just fine. “Larry and I never spoke again. If there was more, I would have put it in the file.”

The Detective sighed and picked the folder up again, staring at it with tired eyes. “I told you,” Pete inputted, “this is the way things are now. This whole thing was decided a long time ago. Back in that workshop. I’m not even supposed to show you this. Some asshole higher up than me ordered us to shred all of it.” He’d kept the file all this time, but he’d be in deep shit if people found out it still existed, and so would Bradley if people found out he’d read it.

Bradley looked at him for a moment. “I’m sorry. About how things happened, I mean.”

“I should have done something. It was our only chance. Maybe I wouldn’t be around today, but”—Pete paused—“I don’t know. He’s like this now because I did nothing. Maybe things could have been different.”

“It’s not your fault. You would’ve just delayed the inevitable,” Bradley told him. He put a hand on Pete’s shoulder. “And nobody can change the past. We all wish we made different choices, but it’s just not the same when you’re there in the moment. You know what I mean?”

Pete mumbled something inaudible. “I guess.” His SGD was soundless for a few seconds. “I told you reading that file was pointless.”

“Ha. I wouldn’t say that,” Bradley chuckled. “The Headmaster made Larry, but every single Purger fled as soon as he disappeared. Maybe Mr. Purge should be the one scared of his underbosses, and they don’t even know it.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that maybe the Headmaster isn’t as tough as he would have everyone believe. Seems like his men are afraid of the underbosses. The Headmaster himself? Not so much. If all three go down, so does the mob. Problem is, we have no idea how to get to the other two, or how to take them out… I have a feeling the five-kids-in-a-sewer trick won’t work a second time,” Bradley shrugged. “I’ll talk to the Captain. If we raid one their hideouts, we might find something to help us make sense of all this,” he finished. He began gathering the papers and returning them to the folder.

“Alright, I get it,” Pete agreed, “but they’ll probably just make you do it yourself.”

Bradley sighed. “I know.”

#roblox break in #break in roblox #roblox #break in: the novelette #scary larry #scary mary #scary barry #detective bradley beans #uncle pete #aunty mintie

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