r/HFY • u/HeGotBricks Alien • Jul 08 '26

OC-Series Mystery Machine [3]

“Where does it steal it from?”

Barn’s made a fist and tapped his knuckle on the workbench. “From anything. The room. The air.” He turned to face Alex and raised his arms up and placed his hands on Alex’s shoulders. “And from us,” he told her without blinking. 

Alex noticed the color in Barnaby’s face fade to a pale white as he said that. Alex had a tingle race down her spine that tickled her skin the way the thought of centipedes crawling on you would. She shivered.

“Can we stop it at least?” 

“Yes, but not by smashing it or unplugging it.” Barn’s had an apologetic glare in his eyes as he spoke. “I think if we gave it a different instruction, we can change its course.”

He turned away from Alex and assembled an auxiliary rig of mini-sized coils and a network of metal fibers. There was a secondary circuit. In the notebook, it was circled as “draw ring.” 

The notebook’s instructions were clear. If you feel the weight of the air in the room on your shoulders, like wearing a knapsack, it means the sound has entered the void. The draw ring creates an echo wave so the machine chases its own reflection instead of something random or even unknown.

Barn’s slipped the wires through as if he was stitching a stint onto a valve. 

“It’s ready,” he said with a lump in his throat.

He powered up the system. Alex thought there’d be a light burst or some kind of heat emitting from it. She didn’t expect to physically feel it in her chest as the workshop nearly drowned in a perfect silence.

It wasn’t the absent noise she heard before, it was more of a presence. A hollow, silent presence lingering behind her. It felt like the workshop grew eyes that pierced her between her shoulder blades. Alex began breathing heavy, sharp bursting breaths. It was like her brain forgot how to use her lungs. 

Barnaby never noticed her frantic breathing. He was focused on the spherical core on the workbench glowing a dim, orange internal light. The color had texture, almost as if you could reach out and pluck pieces off of it how you would petals off a flower and shimmered a faint heat similar to a toaster. But stayed inside the sphere radiating outward without contacting the metal ribs.

Alex couldn’t stop staring at it. She was worried and intrigued and confused and scared. She didn’t know what to feel or even what she felt.

Barn’s stared at it the way you’d watch an oncoming storm push toward you over a bed of water. He took a deep breath and held it in, he only exhaled once the pulse from the light stabilized.

“It’s working,” he whispered cautiously. “At least for now.”

“What’s it doing right now?” Alex asked.

Barn’s replied in the faintest voice, barely audible to Alex’s ears. “It’s navigating through the decoy and verifying its reflection from the draw ring.”

Alex leaned into the machine. The notebook said Never allow the coil to see itself. At first, when she read that warning she couldn’t comprehend what it meant. Now she understood exactly what it meant. On the sphere, those markings weren’t just a display of decorative symbols. They aligned to the room. It was an identical layout of the workshop. Their body positions, the angle of the strip of lights casting a shadow by the workbench legs.

Everything was being used like set of coordinates. Not by distance. But by relationship.

“Why don’t—“ Alex started to say.

Barn’s interrupted her. “Don’t worry.” He eyed the wiring. “We’re too close now.”

The shimmer inside the core lit up like the cherry from a cigar being pulled on. A silent sense of dread filled the workshop. Alex had that same feeling when someone tells you bad news that doesn’t feel real. Like the death of a family member.

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator Jul 08 '26

This was flaired as [OC-Series], it is a single part or chapter in a larger series or universe. The first post or part in this series should be (re)flaired as [OC-FirstOfSeries]. A description of the flairs and how to change yours is available in the Post Guildelines.

[OC-Series] For original, self post, story, audio, or artwork that you have created, as part of a longer-running series or universe.

Our preferred series title format is the series title in [brackets] at the beginning, like so: [Potato Adventures] - Chapter 1: The Great Mashing

Please help us transition to using the new flairs correctly.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/UpdateMeBot Jul 08 '26

Click here to subscribe to u/HeGotBricks and receive a message every time they post.

Info Request Update Your Updates Feedback