#because it's the 8th and everyone knows that's a spider num8er

[neverendingparable]

"This is the Story of a little girl named Alice. 

Alice used to work for a big Institute dedicated to researching the esoteric and paranormal, where she was the head archivist. Alice's job was simple, most of the time she just sat at her desk and recorded statements. Since a lot of the recordings tended to mess up with the Institute's newer technology, she had to re-record them on an old tape player in her office. 

When she needed help or further research on a statement, Alice would call one of her archival assistants Bradley or Stellan in, or place the task on the new archivist-in-training Jonathan. Alice worked hard and she worked well. And she was happy in her routine. 

And then one day, something very peculiar happened. 

Something that would forever change Alice. 

Something she could never quite forget, even if she wanted to. 

One day, a door that had previously led into the hallways of the Institute, led into an Office building, one she was sure had never been connected to her place of employment before. In fact, she found it wasn’t even anywhere near London, or in any place she could register as Earth. 

The windows showed nothing but blank white and the doors only led into other hallways, never out into the open. 

Something had gone very clearly wrong. 

Shocked and terrified, Alice found herself unable to believe this turn of events for the longest time. 

But as she was forced to come back to her wits, she decided to get up and explore this new place. Perhaps one of these doors will lead her back home.

...

Alas, they never did. Even as Alice made strange new friends who knew more about the Office than she did, even as she stumbled upon her very own self, proud and vicious on her throne of delusions, she came no closer to coming home. 

A dimension here, a dimension there. Poor, confused Alice trying to reason her way through the mess. This odd fellow must be a Stranger, yet this one could only be the avatar of the Hunt. What lessons could Maelle be trying to teach her here? How will this further Alice's own powers, her powers of seeing, of Beholding.

She was doomed from the start, I'm afraid. Her assistants had no idea where she was and while Maelle was fully aware of her desperate wanderings, even she would not extend her hand out to save her little Archivist. 

After all, she had another one, another one who was far less bright and more curious than Alice. One whose strings could be pulled in any direction without even a hint of suspicion arising.

No, Alice, I'm afraid your time has come. You were a decent Archivist, dedicated to your job, but too much so that you would rather cloud your sight with work, rather than experience it first hand. What good is an Archivist that has lost its sense of curiosity?

Yet you have enough curiosity to finish your story. There, with that Mariella by your side, the strange woman who always seems to know where she is going, the one who befriends the odd entities of this place without a second thought, you wander the hallways hoping her intuition will lead you somewhere new. 

You did ask her several times if she can find her way to the Institute, but you fail to understand that Mariella can be just as easily manipulated as you have been. 

She could find the way to the Institute without struggle, yet we will make sure she won't. And anyway, it is too late for you to return now.

You wander down into the dusty Mind Control Facility - such irony doesn't come around often - and marvel at the sea of spider webs, overtaking the abandoned arena in waves of silver. Mariella stays at the doorway, a mixture of awe and disgust on her face. 

Fortunately for her, she is not an arachnophobe. She tries to keep it out of her hair. Unfortunately for you, you wander in deeper, statements running through your mind as everything clicks into place. Why you are here, how you got to be in this very Office at this very time. How the Web had played with you just as I have been playing with you from the very start.

You open your mouth to voice your revelations to Mariella, but falter as you feel a tickle on your arm. Your hand has carelessly brushed into one of the webs and caught the attention of a spider, black and plump, darting its way up your shoulder.

Screaming just gives them more places to crawl into. Mariella watches in horror, but she has just enough sense left not to run in after you. She runs off, to go get help. But the perfectly placed door leads her far, far away from you and it shuts after her, never to open again.

Just like the previous Archivist, you have disappeared without a trace. I am sure his fate was a lot less gruesome than yours, Alice. But there are worse ways to die. I think you don't need me telling you that."

*Click*

Maelle opens her eyes again and takes out the tape from its recorder. 

She studies it for a moment, an ironic smile playing at the corners of her mouth. For a moment, she considers leaving it for the spiders to take away, for when whatever remains of Alice inevitably returns to the Institute, she will be fully briefed on Maelle's betrayal. 

But she doesn’t want to risk it getting into the wrong hands at the wrong time, so she locks it away in a little safe where she keeps other such tapes and several checks sent from the Lucas', in case the Institute needs more funding.

She sits back at her desk and coms the receptionist, asking for the archival assistants in her office. They come quickly. Bradley has ink doodles all over his hands which he tries to hide sheepishly, Stellan doesn’t even bother putting down his coffee cup and Jonathan got too flustered figuring out where to put the statements he was filing down, so he took them along anyway.

They all stand before her, quiet but eyes hopeful. Any news from Alice? Has she been found yet? Does that mean news for them too?

The last few months have been difficult, Maelle made sure. Tensions were high, work had been unfairly distributed and they were all tired, tired of waiting, tired of guessing and ready to move on. Just let things get back to normal.

She eyes them wordlessly for a moment longer, taking on the facade of a tired boss who is figuring out how to deliver bad news. Then she shows them an envelope.

A resignation letter, signed in Alice's favorite pen. A copy of employment proof and a picture. Alice looks happy next to her wife, an american beauty, blonde and blue-eyed like the sky behind them.

Simple cover stories are often better than the dramatic ones. She found somewhere better to be and ditched her old life. It happens. If anyone would travel across the world leaving behind everything for a pretty face, it would be Alice after all.

There are sounds of disgust, resignation and relief, from Bradley, Stellan and Jon respectively. The tensions of the past months bubble over and Maelle lets them rage about being abandoned without so much as a goodbye. 

They have no reason to worry about Alice or even seek out any contact, as her disappearance seemed proof enough she had all but forgotten about their existence. 

When Maelle announces Jonathan as the new head archivist, followed by the generous offer to give them the rest of the day off after they finished their respective projects to reflect and celebrate, no one interjects.

Jonathan spends the rest of the day being congratulated from all sides, egged on by Bradley and Stellan to join them for a mandatory promotion drink. As they celebrate their new Archivist and the return to normalcy, no one spares a moment of pity towards the old head archivist of the Magnus Institute, now lifeless in a bed of cobwebs.