Hall 17

9 : Misery Loves Company

Warning : There will be another torture scene this chapter, similar to the one in Chapter 4! Please be careful reading this.

Trophy followed behind the rest of the search team. A couple days ago, it was announced that the Inanimate Insanity headquarters ( which existed, apparently, ) had found, or rather, been given footage that could help with the case. It had been so sudden, so Paper couldn't turn the offer down, and now they were all here. Nobody had expected their work with Mephone4 to go this far, including Trophy himself.

Trophy never said why he joined the search team. In all honesty, he didn't know why either. Maybe it had to do with losing one of the four people who didn't annoy him to his breaking point. Maybe it was just boredom from how little there was to do around the hotel. It didn't matter why, all that mattered is that he did.

MePad led the group into a meeting room, letting the others file in before closing the door behind them. They walked up to the front of the room as the others got into their chairs. "Hello! It is nice to see you're all doing well. I'm assuming everybody here is part of the search team?" There were a few sounds of agreement, though nobody fully spoke, making the room's atmosphere a bit awkward.

"Alright. We invited you all here today to discuss the missing cases of Lightbulb, OJ, and Soap." MePad affirmed.

"We?" Marshmallow asked.

"Yes, 'we' refers to all of us at Inanimate Insanity Headquarters. Just because all of us could come to the meeting or help out with this particular situation doesn't mean you don't get credit for the thought." MePad said supportively. "Although, Mephone4 was asked to attend the meeting with us, and they haven't visited the conference room yet today. Perhaps I should call them, in case they forgot the date." MePad's screen turned to their contacts list.

"No no, it's fine, we can continue without them!" Paper said.

"If you insist." MePad said, their screen returning to their face. "With that aside, we invited you here because of footage Inanimate Insanity Headquarters has received. We believe this may help you with the investigation. Should I play the video?"

"Yes please." Paper said, being the leader of the group.

"As you wish." MePad said, their screen changing to a video. The video started off with some clicking, and OJ facing the camera. He looked panicked, and was holding the camera. There was a noticeable crack on the top of his head, a small piece of it missing. There were sounds of something being slammed against metal in the background.

OJ didn't appear to realize it was recording already, still fiddling around with what Trophy assumed was a keyboard. A couple seconds in, he dropped the camera. Although the view was now aimed at the ceiling, you could still see something had stabbed OJ in the arm. Just a moment after that, the screen began bugging out, tinting it random flashing colors. The thing that was really glitched, however, was the audio.

OJ ran, bringing the camera with him. He slammed his back against the wall. There was a loud, pixelated scream from an unidentifiable voice as soon as he did. OJ began talking to the camera, though it came out too glitchy to understand more than 5 words. The video began cutting out at some points, the quality actively becoming worse, until the video ended entirely.

Trophy looked around at the search team. Knife seemed to have taken it the lightest, still looking surprised, but disgruntled at most. Marshmallow looked confused and disturbed, and Apple ( who had followed her along despite not really being in the search team ) was concerned. Paper was probably the most concerned of all of them, still staring at MePad with a look of disbelief, clearly trying to keep himself together. MePad's screen had reverted back to their face, holding a solemn look as they let the others process what they had just seen before continuing.