Warden Heidi
Appearances
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
No breaches in or out. All seems solid. Over.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
Beats me. Moving on to 12. Still here, then. Wait. You're still running? Oh, shit. You're recording me. Recording me.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
pushing ever nearer scanning for a slip a shudder a crack in the facade to show that I was weak that I trembled that I was afraid they watched me every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of every eternity that was no time at all And above it all, the thing for which the cameras danced. The great and terrible eye that watched it all.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
It came for me when I was watching as well. Working security, walking the halls, watching the portraits as they watched me back. Like I was trained. Police. Not long. Couple of months. Bad culture fit, they said, but that was okay. Always another job for a watcher. The punters came and stared and gawped and I watched them in turn. Sat in the corner of a gallery or through pixelated camera eyes.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
I liked it. I felt powerful. We had all heard of the Magnus Institute. The weirdos next door. That grand old building where people took their ghosts and their stories and got nightmares in return. pasty academics and shifty looking bookworms that never looked you in the eye. Then one day it was gone. It was all gone.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
The world and the people and London and you and all that was left was the watching and the Institute towering over everything. Then the cameras turned on me, long metal legs sharp and scraping as they chased me through the streets.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
They clambered over empty buildings, crawled through broken windows and pushed their way up through rusted sewer grates, always searching for me, always staring at me, closer, closer, focused, hungry. Their lenses were cracked and shattered, but it didn't matter.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
If they caught you, cornered you, pinned you with their razor tripod legs, then those lenses would open, cracked glass blossoming like iris leech jaws. And they would cut you with their jagged edges. And as you bled, as you screamed and cried and begged, they did not drink you. They did not eat you. They watched.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
They watched and watched and watched your crimson fear as it trickled down to the floor. Bloodshot eyes behind broken lenses. Sometimes you could hide. The corner of a darkened flat. Halfway up belonged of a blind alley, in the basement of a silent shop among the plastic reminders of a time when joy existed. But you would still hear the cameras searching for you.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
Skittering, scratching, panning left to right as they sniffed you out. Hiding was no relief, just a different sort of terror. The lingering sickness of anticipation building to the sharp peak of panic as you heard the whirring of their zoom in the shadows. And then, you were running once again. I wasn't alone, but it didn't matter.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
The streets were empty and the other poor lost souls of London were only there to run, to cry, to bleed, to fear. If you found another, a fellow victim of the scrutiny, there was a moment of hope. But it was the bitter hope that you might trip them, shove them, cry out and reveal their hiding spot, feed them to the cameras so that you might have a minute, a second, an instant of peace.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
Albeit one tainted by guilt. I used to see them in my dreams, those others who fled with me. I knew their faces and we ran together in our sleep long after the nightmare ended, but I did not search for them. Did not embrace it. And eventually, the dreams faded. But the scars didn't. Not when the tower fell and the eye closed.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
Not when the pupil collapsed and the archivist died, his face still burned into my mind. Not when I picked myself up in a cracked but unbroken world. Not when people started to use words like recover, rebuild or renew. The scars carved into me by those hungry cameras still stood stark. I couldn't move on. Couldn't leave it behind. No previous words from pompous shrinks could help me.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
Their eyes were as hollow and dead as mine. Not that I could bear to look at them. So I came here. If I cannot escape, then neither can they. I would keep the lingering things of dread contained and be the watcher once more. But now, I know it was for nothing. I know this feeling. I know what it is to be watched, judged, scrutinized.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Protocol 31 - Compartmentalising
To have your terror wrung from you like water from a dirty rag, leaving you twisted and dry and empty. I cannot stop you. And I know that this is the end. But with the last of me, off my fear, you can take my hate, my loathing. This place is not for you. There is no place left for monsters. We will be your end. And I will want.