"It was about five years ago when it happened. Maybe a little bit longer..."
Geneva started without any buildup.
"There was nothing out of the ordinary. No gate or anomaly was detected. He went to bed on a school night, and the next morning, he just... didn’t come down."
Her fingers slowly turned the gum packet resting on her knee.
"I thought he was faking it to skip school. I even pulled his blanket off and counted to three."
"....."
"His eyes never opened."
"....."
"Regardless of how hard I tried, they just didn’t open, and..."
Geneva stopped, her hand coming to a stop with her as she turned to look at her little brother. For just a moment, nobody said a single word, but as the silence continued and everyone grew confused, I found myself turning to look at her little brother.
The first gasp came before I realized it, and as I looked, my heart suddenly stopped.
He was staring right at me.
His eyes were wide open, completely unblinking, while his lips had been pulled into an extremely wide smile that seemed to almost stretch out of his face.
"This is one of the side effects."
Geneva’s voice carried through the room as she raised her hand, stopping us from doing anything.
Moving closer to him, she placed her hand over his eyes and gently closed them. But despite this, his smile remained.
It seemed even wider than before
Nobody said anything.
"The hospital ran every test they had, but nothing came of it. He wasn’t sick, nor was he poisoned. There didn’t even seem to be any neurological damage. He’s perfectly healthy by every metric they could measure. Back then, I didn’t understand. If he’s healthy, then why wasn’t he waking up?"
Geneva looked at us, her voice lowering.
"I only realized what had happened when the Bureau showed up."
"The Bureau?" Nora asked.
"They have a checklist for these types of things. They’ve been looking for it quite some time, and with the hospital report coming directly to them, things became pretty clear to them."
Geneva looked at us.
Her voice lowered even further.
"VILE - 1048."
I pressed my hand against my lips and pinched
"Just like the story suggests... even after all this time, nobody has found a single clue about VILE - 1048. It’s completely different from the other anomalies. It’s completely undetectable, and even after spending the last several years looking for it, I’ve yet to get any closer."
"Never? Like, not even once?" Mia asked.
"Not once."
Geneva shook her head, her expression grim.
"There’s been no sightings, no witnesses, no photographs, not even sketches or rumors. The only thing we know is that all of its victims appear to be the same, and there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to who becomes its victim."
Pausing slightly, a bitter smile formed across Geneva’s lips.
"There are people inside the Bureau who argue that it doesn’t even exist. That 1048 isn’t an anomaly at all. Just a disease nobody has discovered yet, with a fancy number slapped on top so they can pretend it’s no longer their problem."
’An anomaly that nobody knows anything about... and which might not even be an anomaly at all, but a disease.’
Now I truly felt like smiling.
Especially as I remembered the doppelganger.
Motherfuc—
"But it exists. I’m sure of it."
My head rose as I looked at Geneva, her eyes no longer looking at us but down at the floor.
"I haven’t been able to find much, but I’m sure of it... I’m really sure of it. VILE-1048 is real. It’s not just some hidden disease, like some people suggest."
"....."
"How many are there? I mean, victims..." I suddenly asked.
"Confirmed? A hundred and ninety-three. The real number is probably higher. They appear a few at a time, every couple of years. Different islands, different towns, different ages... Rich, poor, young, old. The Bureau spent decades trying to find a common thread between the victims, but..."
"But...?"
"There isn’t one."
Geneva leaned back slightly.
"About ten years ago, four people fell asleep in the same town within a single month. The Bureau locked the entire place down. Patrols were sent everywhere, and cameras were checked in every corner of the place. This went on for an entire year."
"Did they catch anything?"
"Three more people fell asleep. Right under their noses." She let out a dry breath. "The footage recorded in that time showed nothing unusual. Their last days looked completely normal. School, work, groceries... There was nothing about their situation that seemed odd. Nothing approached them either. They had dinner, said goodnight, and went to bed. That was it."
Geneva shrugged before taking out her phone and scrolling through several images. She paused, her expression stiffening for a moment, before turning the phone around. A photo of three people appeared on the screen.
All of which stared right at us.
Smiling.
Their smiles so wide that it felt incredibly unsettling.
...Just like her little brother.
’.....’
"That’s the scary part about 1048. It’s rare for an anomaly to stay hidden for this long. Even with the Bureau and several top Guilds searching for it, they’ve found nothing. With most anomalies, you have a way to stay safe. Stay away from the gates, follow the warnings, and you can live your whole life without ever meeting one. But this one...?"
Geneva pursed her lips, putting her phone away.
"There’s no place it lives. No time it comes. No sign that it’s chosen you, and the first clue that you’ve ever come in contact with it..."
Her eyes moved to the bed.
"...is a person close to you who won’t wake up."
A steady silence settled into the room as all eyes turned towards the little boy on the bed, his quiet breathing the only sound echoing across the room.
"There’s more."
Breaking the silence was Geneva, her voice noticeably quieter than before.
"The part that hasn’t really been shared in the reports. It’s more something that I found after a long time investigating."
Pinching her mouth, she turned to face her brother.
"Their neurological activity never stops even if they fall asleep. It’s like... they’re all dreaming. Deep down, they might be carrying on with their lives, not knowing that they’ve fallen into a state of coma. And that’s..." Gevena’s voice quivered slightly.
"That’s what’s scary."
She let out another laugh.
"As far as I’m aware, it’s very much possible that I could be the victim and not my brother. That all of this is just a dream. It’s crazy, but..."
Geneva looked at me, her head tilting.
"It’s not impossible."
"....."
My lips parted, but nothing came out.
Geneva pulled her gaze away from me.
"There are also times he talks."
"...What? He talks?"
"At times, but it’s not clear. It’s like hearing half of a phone call."
Her thumb pressed against the packet of gum resting in her lap.
"Like they’re talking to someone."
Joanna quietly hugged her own arms. Even she was starting to find the story creepy.
Geneva didn’t stop.
"The oldest recorded case was an old woman on Harmia. She slept for sixty-two years. In all that time, she only ever said one thing. The nurses wrote it down every time it happened. Across six decades, it never changed."
"...What did she say?"
"’Not yet. It’s not my turn yet.’"
"....."
"Three years ago, the staff found her one morning. Passed away in her sleep. Her vitals were just fine the day prior..."
Geneva’s fingers stopped moving.
"You know what the night nurse said afterwards? The part that scared her the most?"
My ears strained.
"In her death, she was still smiling."
A chill crawled up my arms.
I glanced at Theo, his lips still pulled into a smile.
’It’s not my turn yet...’
The itch in my chest scratched once more.
"And Theo?" Nora asked carefully. "There was really nothing before it happened?"
"Nothing."
Geneva shook her head.
"The Bureau asked us a hundred questions. Where he went, what he touched, what he ate. It was all normal. He went to school just like usual. He wasn’t even sick." She paused for a moment. "Well. He had a small cold that week, but it was barely even a cold. It cleared up on its own after a day or two."
"Yeah, I have those too..."
Mia spoke weakly.
"Right."
Geneva let out a small breath through her nose.
"It happens..."
She stared at her brother for a moment longer before turning back to us.
"Everything I just told you took me five years to dig up. From favors to records I wasn’t supposed to see or people I shouldn’t have talked to. And even then, the sealed file is still above my clearance. I’ve requested access four times now."
"...What? Denied? Aren’t you a Paragon?" Mia asked in surprise.
"That’s hardly worth much these days." Geneva spread her hands slightly. "So that’s it. That’s everything the world knows about VILE - 1048. A few cases... a number to associate it with, and a hundred and ninety-three people who won’t wake up. In other words... nothing. Nobody knows what it is. Nobody knows what it wants. Nobody even knows if it’s real."
"....."
"That’s the case you chose to help with."
Geneva looked at me, her eyes staring straight at me. As if I was the last hope she had.
My lips quivered.
I swear. Fucki—
"Mm..."
A small sound came from the bed.
Immediately, the room froze.
Theo shifted slightly, his head tilting against the pillow. His lips parted, and a faint murmur slipped out.
"...Okay... I’ll wait..."
Then he settled back down, the corner of his lips curving into that same wide smile.
Nobody moved.
Only Geneva reacted as she stood up and fixed his blanket.
"...He does that sometimes." She said quietly, her hand reaching down for his lips and pulling them down.
For some reason, that last part felt creepier than everything that had happened.