VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 146

It had been maybe two or three hours since she'd been here? Frisk found herself climbing the steps up to the VCPD office for the second time that day, feeling a little anxious about what Black might want from her. Upon entering, she found that nobody was inside, the interior completely devoid of people - save for Mr. Black himself standing inside, a phone up to his ear. As she approached, Frisk managed to catch the end of his call.

"Yes, sir. I will. She'll do it. I know," with that, he hung up, turning his head to look at her, face as expressionless as ever behind the dark shades he wore. "Good. You're here. Come with me, we're going to pay Obaseki a visit."

"Uh . . . okay," Frisk gulped as Black immediately strode toward the elevator pointed out by Carl earlier, the girl following behind. "What for?" She chanced to ask as Black pressed the call button.

"Consider this a learning experience," he replied, a ding sounding as the doors opened. To be honest, Frisk didn't really want to pay a visit to Obaseki, regardless of who she was accompanying. A few days ago, she'd made the decision to spare the Messiah leader's life, but that didn't mean she wished to see him at all after that. Maybe she should have expected that nothing was ever that simple, though. Without much choice, she waited as the elevator went down . . . and down . . . and down . . . This jail was definitely way below ground, taking its sweet time to descend. Frisk remembered what Chief Stanton had said about the Messiah having funded this cell, and it made her wonder just who it had originally been for. The fact that Obaseki had ended up occupying it was ironic and almost kind of amusing in a way.

It took Frisk a moment to realize it, but during the tense silence of the long descent, she realized she couldn't smell any kind of scent from Black. It was like he just smelled exactly like whatever room he walked into. Vastly different from the heavy cologne of Rian's dad. The agent was stiff as he stood at the back of the elevator, staring forward for the entire duration. Frisk didn't think he'd be up for small talk, so she made no attempt at it.

Finally, the doors dinged open, and a large room was revealed. A ceiling that extended maybe twenty feet into the air, where she noticed a window in the wall near the top. Yellow light streamed out, and she could make out a woman inside, seated at a computer, typing away. Some kind of guard? There was a chair on the right side of the room, and directly ahead were the bars separating them from Obaseki. They didn't extend the twenty feet up, as there was a wall that met halfway down to separate the room in two. Inside stood Obaseki, staring back at Frisk with a calm, relaxed expression, face registering intrigue as he recognized her.

Seeing Obaseki was just as Frisk had imagined it would be; not great. It was hard to see him as anything aside from the man responsible for all that hurt everyone had suffered through. Every time Frisk looked at him, she was reminded of just who was responsible - indirectly or not - for killing her mother. It if weren't for him, life on the surface would have been so much better, not just for her, but for everyone. But . . . this was necessary . . . at least, Frisk assumed it was. Mr. Black had never bothered to explain to her why exactly he'd brought her along. An interrogation, maybe? Whatever he was attempting to teach her, Frisk felt it might be more effective if she knew what the hell was happening.

As she and Black stepped out, the elevator doors closed behind her. There was a moment of silence as Frisk took in everything, trying not to look at Obaseki. "Lower the dampening field," Black spoke calmly. "Open the gate."

Frisk tensed up as an ambient hum she hadn't noticed until now suddenly died out, and the bars of the cell quickly rose upward, disappearing into the wall. One look at Obaseki confirmed he was surprised at this as well, his brow furrowing. "Relax, Frisk," Black told her. "He still has dampeners attached to him. He's powerless against you."