Issue 1 Downtime

That evening, Ms. McManus went to lock up her office as she left. She let out a long breath from the frustrations of the day.

A sigh that seemed to echo back from the hallway.

"Bloody place is a bit lonely in the evening," she muttered to herself as she started down the hallway.

"Bloody place..."


And then the lights behind her went out with a loud clunk!

"...you have got to be kidding me," she said, glancing over her shoulder.

Something looks to be shifting in the dark for a moment before the lights flickers back to life, the hallway looking as boring as always. Though... the door to her office seems to be much further away than she'd remember walking.

She shook her head.

"Not now..." she muttered.

Was it even the door to her office? For a moment it looked like she was standing in a different hallway. Doors that seemed to be... no, just the regular old hallway with it's office-doors.

She took a deep breath and tried to center herself. After all, in her experience, it was usually her that was going crazy. Turning back around, she started down the hallway.

Somewhere nearby a door closes. Maybe in this hall, maybe around a corner somewhere.

She tensed, but tried to calm back down, uncertain as to where she heard it. She walked onward a bit.

She must be roughly where the door had closed when she feels a strange pull on her mind. Like a draft in stagnant air, fading fast.

She gritted her teeth.

"I don't... have time... to be strange..." she muttered, but her curiosity got the better of her and she cast her mind out to try to pull back on the sensation.

It was closing fast, a fading path in the astral. Hallways... rows of doors... And then something seemed to notice her and shadows blossom on the walls, crawling out of corners, enveloping the place and surging towards Sam, physically knocking her back as the rift closes.

"You can't keep me out. Not in this place..."

The flock surged around her, pushing back against the shadows.

And the shadows seemed to be only too eager to be pushed, seeping back into the cracks of reality and closing the astral connection to... wherever it had lead.

She let out a breath, pulling her mind back inside herself.

"...damn it."