[ 'The Evil Within: The Assignment' fanfiction ]

Cast:

Joseph Oda

Sebastian Castellanos

Juli Kidman

All he could hear was only the growling voice from his own mouth, or throat. Yes. Growling. And sometimes, sobbing, too. Why would he do that? It's not from his own self, was it? He never intended it in the very first place.

But then again, he also didn't realize just how his mind only could stay conscious for ten seconds; Ten seconds of watching so many things. Ten seconds of his jumbled memories started to play within his mind. Ten seconds of the sobbing would come after he realized that he's alone now. Ten seconds of questioning some new things, that was actually just the same goddamn things; Sebastian was there with him, wasn't it?—and then he faded away, again.

Where did he go? Where were you, Seb? Why did you leave me?

The growling didn't stop. Along with the sound of his axe that he'd been dragging around since, like, eternity. He could see so much blood all around him. And unnoticeable corpses. But Joseph's wishing list was too short to be ignored by Someone Up There. Maybe.

Please don't let me see him dying. Please let him to stay alive. Just—

...was it me, the one who left?

Joseph had been wandering alone in this new hell—'new', because once again, he couldn't remember or even sensing any sign of his partners, whatsoever—since... yep. He couldn't remember everything exactly. It's a strange for him honestly, because he usually would wrote down nearly everything to his notebook, for a reminder later. Sebastian told him to do so because it wasn't just helping, but also because the man was actually just too lazy, and too able to remember some good details of their cases, to did it.

Besides, between the two of them, Joseph's the one who was good with drawing too anyways. And ridiculously, Joseph know those little details of him.

Joseph maybe was a little bit smaller than him, but he's the sturdier one. Not by the physical, but both by the aura and the brain. Well, perhaps it was because in fact that he was in a special descent from his family. Talking about his family... how's his family right now? Are they okay? Are they safe? It's been awhile he didn't took a visit to his mother, did he? Yeah, it's been really awhile, and now it's only five seconds left for him to be back with the amnesia about this, again.

Growling. Sobbing. His head was miraculously felt itchy now. There was a static. He could hear it. And, oh God, since when did his ears became so sensitive now? What's happening? Is there someone else around? Someone who's... alive?

...alive.

One... two...

"Then, just, what are you, Joseph?"

Four...

"Do you stand with Mobius?"

Five...

...Kidman.

Opening the door in front of him, Joseph slipped in half of his body and looked around the office—his and Sebastian's office.

"Seb? Are you here?" he asked to the open air. But after a silent moment, he heard nothing—no. Wait. Actually, he heard a soft snoring sound.

Drawing his brows in suspicion, Joseph decided to finally entered the office and walked towards Sebastian's desk—and, yep. There he is. Joseph approached closer to his sleeping partner.

"Sebastian," Joseph called out, let out another silent moment as a tolerance, before hesitantly shook his partner's shoulder. Looking closer to him, and noticed just how the circle under his eyes has thicken. Didn't rest well last night? Joseph wondered. "Seb, wake up. Get up, it's near... midnight. Everyone's heading home now. Don't you want to—"

Joseph jumped slightly in shock when he suddenly he heard a quiet loud frantic laugh from the outside. From the alley. What was that? Who was that? That's sound... familiar.

Still stayed on his spot, Joseph looked over his shoulder and glanced out the window. He didn't bring his gun with him, did he? Yep. Alright.

"Sebastian, I want you to wake up right now. There's—" Before Joseph could finish his sentence, or even turned his head back to see his partner, he was got shocked the second time as he felt that he's being dragged down by—Sebastian's hand. Now that he and his partner was crouching beside Sebastian's desk. Like some sort of an action to cover themselves, and Joseph couldn't understand why would they—

"I need you to focus." Sebastian ordered firmly as he looked at Joseph straight in the eyes. Joseph noticed that he was holding his gun, and from the corner of his eye, he could see something on his hand, too. It was his gun. Wait, so he did bring his gun? But since when, Joseph wasn't so sure.

And then without realizing it, in all of sudden, everything's changed. They're no longer in their office. They're outside. Out of nowhere, and Joseph wasnt' dared to judge anything first. He was speechless.

"What do we do now?" Joseph could heard Sebastian muttered as the man peeked out to see the view in front of them. A church. Since when...?

"What are we even doing here?" the smaller man couldn't help himself but to let out a frustrated groan, clearly looked confused. He searched around, "Wh—just, where are we now?"

When Joseph finally locked eyes back with Sebastian again, he was stunned. The man's eyes were now... silver. Almost all white, except the main pupil.. The colors—are fading away.

"S-Sebastian, your eyes..." Joseph didn't realize that he'd stood up after seeing that. But Sebastian's now smiling at him—grinning, even.

"What? Why are you laughing, Joseph?" The voice that came out from his partner's mouth was, he swear, not his. Not Sebastian's voice. But Joseph couldn't recall anything about that voice. About whose voice was that. And now, his partner's already stood up too, approaching him with way much wider grin on his face. Everything around him was now pitch black, and Joseph couldn't decide just where would it be best for him to run away from this fake Sebastian?

Until then, Joseph stumbled down, too stunned to even draw his gun towards the man in front of him. He just can't. He know he won't do that. But the second after the thought left him, Sebastian was in flames. The

Growling; sobbing; and the frantic laughter. In a swap, Joseph could see the normal Sebastian again. He's on his knees; crying, begging, and praying, in front of a burning house.

His house.

Nine... ten...

"Joseph. Hey, Joseph! Wake up!" Sebastian's loud voice hit his right ear. And it had successfully jerked him awake, cold sweating, and groaned in pain as his legs hit the dashboard.

"Jesus, Seb... what's wrong with you? What happened?" asked Joseph weakly as he rubbed both one of his leg and the bridge of his nose, and then shook his head because he felt a little light-headed. No, but seriously, though. What just happened? He thought.

He looked around and found out that he was inside his own car. He needed to squint his eyes because of the ray of sunlight, indicating that it was around afternoon—he could read the digital clock above the radio. And... here they were, him and Sebastian, parking outside a kindergarten.

Sebastian didn't answer right away, and just threw a questioning expression at him, "Technically, it was what's wrong with you, Joseph. You were mumbling pretty loudly in your nap."

Joseph blinked twice, and looking at Sebastian from above to bellow, then with a confused expression he looked around once again.

It seemed... familiar. Everything in here seemed familiar, ain't it? Joseph thought as he rubbed his forehead.

"How long have I been sleeping, Seb?" he asked towards the man beside him slowly, as he tried to absorb his surrounding. He could hear Sebastian shifting his sitting position, and sighing softly.

"Not really long. Around 3 minutes. And by the way, you didn't rest well last night? You looked... exhausted." He answered monotonely, didn't notice just how a slight worried tone was out as well. But neither Joseph did, too.

Joseph was about to respond that, but he just let his mouth slightly opened without any sound as he saw a girl running pass with terrified looks on her face. "...Kidman?" And that name just went through his mouth without he could even control it. It tasted familiar, yet foreign to him. He didn't even know why. But then again, he didn't even realize that he's now got out from his car, and started to jogged to chase the brunette girl

"Kidman, wait!" He called out once again, and shift his . The sunlight was blocking mostly his view, but he could crystal clearly heard voices around him. Laughter. So many laughters of children. And Sebastian was calling his name in the background, but Joseph couldn't stop himself. He need to do something to Kidman, but he wasn't sure about the exact thing. Something behind his head just kept telling him that he needed her. She'd done something to him, but no matter how hard he'd tried to remember what was it, he just couldn't.

"Joseph! You need to get out of the way!" He heard a familiar voice tried to warn him.

Wait, was that her voice? Was that Kidman's?

"What...?"

And suddenly, everything shifted, spinning in blur like crazy. A red and blue light was all around him. He heard the static sound again, and also some angered voices, too. Telling him to stop. Telling him to raise his hand. He got arrested. But why? Who are they? Who they think they are? He's a police himself! Where's Sebastian? Where's his partner?

Sebastian? Did you leave me again? He could feel rough hands shove his back, ordering him to move forward. And Joseph just followed, until he bend down and hit something cold and hard. His hair was get pulled back by the same hand, and Joseph could feel a stinging pain from bellow. From somewhere he didn't want to imagine.

And all he could do was cried out Sebastian's name. Again, and again.

Four...

No. It was him who tried to run away from him, wasn't it?

And it was for the best, right?

Yeah. Right.

Six...

He need Kidman to explain this. He knew she know all of this. He'll search her. It's safe to be together, right? And then...

Seven...

And then, they will find Sebastian. And Leslie. And Connelly. And...

And himself. His real self.

Eight...

Growling. Sobbing. And frantic laughter. That's all he could heard. He didn't even know where all of those came from. But it's definitelly sounded... familiar.

Kidman better be alive to explain this.

Author's note:

I wrote this while playing Cards Against Humanity, and multitasking has became so much pain in the ass at the time. Plus, my sister told me that I have to finish this without beta-ing it if I lose. And guess who's the winner?

Well, surely wasn't me.

So... first of all, sorry for all the typos that existed within this fic. Along with the absurd grammar.

Btw, feeling confused?
Same.
Like, what the fuck did you just read?
Well, same with me, goes with; "What the heck did I just wrote?" too.
I didn't intended this, but The Assignment, tho... Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. This writing was meant to be... uh, how do you like to hear it... like, somewhat Joseph's experience with his dark side mind? Like, he need to handle himself, but it was all too confusing for him? Idk. [Oh God, I'm so bad with words. Sorry again.]

But critics and advices would be awesome! It's acceptable, I swear.

Thank you so much for reading!