The Panopticon

Sorry it's been so long. Haven't felt like updating. So Keursio and I made it to Tennessee and started staking out the Panopticon building. You'd think they'd pick a better place to set up business then God damn Tennessee...
Nothing happened for a long time. After a while, Keursio decided to watch the building herself while I went down to Kentucky to look into that kid's missing mom. I got to the town, and investigated what I could. The Sam's Club and the McDonald's didn't have much to go on, but I did find the graffiti he mentioned. There was a very large symbol, shaped like a stylized A inside of a circle of ruins. I snapped a photo, and I'm gonna see if I can find anything about it. I couldn't find anything on the Camper though. I'll have to call around, see if anyone knows anything.
I drove back up to meet with Keursio, and returned to staking out the building. She's being surprisingly patient for someone who's sister went missing.
It wasn't until a week ago that something finally happened. While we were watching the building from a discreet hiding spot, we watched a van pull up. It was late, and no one else was out. The driver and passenger unloaded a young man, bound in a straight jacket and under the influence of something, out of the back of the truck and escorted him inside. I told Keursio to wait while I went in. No one was standing guard. I just went in and stuck to the shadows, following the three men. The Driver and Passenger escorted the drugged man into a small room. They left the door open a crack. I peered in. I wasn't prepared for what I saw.
They strapped the young man down to a medical table, like something you'd see in a Frankenstein movie. There was some kind of machine on a table next to him, and sitting behind him was a new man. He was at least mid-thirties, with gray/blonde hair and twinkling eyes, and very slight age lines on his cheekbones. He wore a white lab coat.
“Hello, Mr. Kent,” he said to the young man. “My name is professor Meilleur Monde. I would like to speak to you about the things you've seen.”
“You mean the monsters?” Kent asked.
“Yes,” Monde replied. “I'd like you to tell me about them.”
“There's... there's this dog!” Kent said. “It has these eyes. They're bright red. No, they're dark red! Nott bright, but dark! They see. They See!”
“Please,” Monde said. “Continue.”
“The bug,” Kent stammered. “Too many. Too in sync. Too orderly to be actual bug!”
“Go on,” Monde urged.
This went on for a while. Over that time, Kent described no less than twelve Fears. He even described one I had never heard of. Something about a forest. At the end of it, Monde sighed calmly and smiled at Kent.
“Well, Mr. Kent, after everything I've heard from you, I believe I have some good news,” he said.
“R-Really” Kent said.
“Of course,” Monde said. “You see, these monsters are nothing more that hallucinations.”
“What?” Kent asked.
“Why don't you tell me about your past,” Monde said. “Your relationship with your parents. Past lovers. Role models. Many elements of your upbringing could influence your mind, causing you do develop various forms of psychosis.”
“No,” Kent said. “They're real! I know they are.”
“But they aren't,” Monde said. “It was an event in your past that causes you to imagine these phantoms.”
“That's not true!” Kent screamed. “They're real! I saw them! I Saw them!”
Monde sighed.
“I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this,” he said. “Put the Diadem on him.”
One of the other men grabbed a high tech head circlet that was hooked up to the machine by them, and tightened it around Kent's head. Monde grabbed an identical headset and put it on himself.
“What is this” Kent demanded.
“A link,” Monde said. “Between your mind and mine. You are going to stop believing these nonsensical fairy tails. One way or another.”
Holy. Fucking. Shit. He was gonna wipe Kent's memories. Brainwash him in order to suppress the knowledge of the Fears. I had to stop him. I opened the door, tazer drawn, and charged in exactly like Daniel would. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't aware of another man standing just inside the door, who stuck his leg out and tripped me on his way in. I hit the ground pretty hard, and the man who tripped me grabbed me by the arm and forced me to my feet. Monde was completely un-phased by what had happened.
“Hold on, Mr. Helioson,” he said calmly. “I'm almost done with this appointment.”
Kent began struggling, then convulsing against the table, before fainting. Monde took his circlet thing off and turned to me.
“You're gonna do the same to me, aren't you” I asked. “You're gonna make me forget the truth.”
“What truth?” Monde said, smiling. “Surely you don't believe any of the things that have occurred.”
“Fuck off,” I growled.
“You must know that Daniel has been lying to you,” he continued. “Everything was just a game he created to fool with your mind. He looks down on you.”
“No he doesn't,” I said adamantly. “I've seen enough to know it's real. Malkator, Isaac, Estren and HELLFIRE...”
“All accomplisses of Daniel's,” Monde said. He contacted them years ago to take part in this elaborate prank of his. Those superpowers you've seen were all an act.”
“As if!” I said. “You haven't see the things Daniel is capable of!”
“Cheap theatrics,” Monde said. “Anyone with the right resources could accomplish those things.”
“I watched Benjamin Malkator eat people!” I snapped. “I've had Isaac O'Zalia inside my head! Explain that!”
“Have you honestly fallen for smoke-and-mirrors?” he asked me. “Such simple deceptions? It has all been a lie.”
“You expect me to believe that Daniel's invested this much time and money into an elaborate prank like this?” I demanded.
“Is it really so hard to believe?” he said. “Didn't you two start off as enemies in middle school? It wasn't until you came to him and extended the hand of friendship that he accepted you, and even then, he never saw you as a friend. It was just a game to him. You're nothing to him but-”
He was interrupted when a loogie that may or may not have come from my mouth hit him directly in the eye. He stopped mid sentence and wiped it from his eye.
“Strap him up,” he ordered, without breaking that annoying calm of his. The man holding me began pushing me toward the machine, and the other two got Kent off the table. At this distance, I could see the company logo on the side of the machine.
“Stop it!” I demanded. “Let me go!”
“I'm sorry,” Monde said, as I was strapped to the table. “But you must learn that the Fears do not exist. We live in the best of all possible worlds. There is nothing supernatural about it.”
“All right then, you French dickhead,” said a familiar, distorted voice from the far side of the room, opposite the door. “If that's true, then explain me.”
A ghostly man stood there. He was at least thirty in appearance, with long hair that seemed to be devoid of color. And I don't mean black or white, I mean that color literally didn't exist in his hair. He was dressed in 13th Century garments, and his left eye was an orb of color-shifting light. His right eye was completely missing, replaced by a vertical, badly healed scar. The ghost of thew Ace Of Chaos, Marshall Smith, had joined us in the room. Everyone except for Monde was startled by his presence. He began walking forward, his feet remaining a few inches above the ground, and he spoke to Monde.
“Am I but an optical illusion?” he asked. “A product of prestidigitation? A seed of insanity? Light reflecting off of fog Tell me,  Meilleur Monde, what am I, and more importantly, why are you listening to me when you should be paying attention to the sorceress who just walked through the door?”
On cue, Keursio ran in and in a flash of movement and light, she knocked out all the men except for Monde, who for the first time that night displayed a look of genuine surprise. Keursio freed me from my bonds, and I immediately picked Kent's unconscious body off the floor and tried to support him underneath one of his shoulders. Keursio got his other side, and we lifted him up.
“Get out of here,” Marshall told us sternly. We didn't need telling twice. We bailed.
On the way out, I heard Monde yell “It's all a lie! Daniel can't be trusted!” at me. I ignored him and kept moving.
We got in the car and started driving, with Kent in the back seat. We drove in silence for a while before Keursio spoke up.
“You don't believe what he said about Daniel, do you” she asked.
“No, I don't,” I said.
“Because I spent 300 years in a literal hell!” she said. “The thought that anything that's happened could be some guy's idea of a prank is just plain bulls-”
“I know!” I snapped. “Daniel's my friend, and I trust him! I know Monde's lying.”
“I'm sorry,” Keursio asked. “It's just that you were so quiet. I thought he might have gotten to you.”
“No, he didn't,” I said, gripping the wheel a bit too tightly.
We stayed quiet for a minute before before I said anything else.
“You know what I find funny?” I asked.
“What?” she replied.
“Why would Dr. Welric, a scientist who's company focuses on the construction of unique weaponry, build a machine to link two people's minds together?” I said.
“What?” she asked.
“Sound's dad,” I said. “He built the Sonic Swords, and all kinds of other stuff. His company's logo was on the Panopticon's machine.”
“Really?” she asked.
“I've looked into them before,” I said. “Stirem Inc.”
“That company built the Panopticon's machine,” she said thoughtfully.
“Not to mention Dr. Welric was one of the Game Master's men,” I said. “Think there's a connection between him and the Panopticon?”
“I wouldn't rule it out,” she said.
“Neither would I.”
We got back to the hotel. I palmed the piece of chain in my pocket. I needed the feeling it gave me. We picked up Kent and carried him to the door, trying not to be seen. We opened the hotel door, and a breeze came in. I had been looking over the pictures from Drake's room on the desk, and the wind slid them around a bit before we shut the door. We lay Kent down on the bed. He's woken up since then, but hasn't spoken much to us, other then a polite thank you and some short sentences. I hoping he'll open up soon. Anyway, after setting him down, I went to straighten up the papers. That's when I noticed something.
As I mentioned, the papers are thin enough that you can almost see through them. So, if you stack two papers on top of each other, you can see what's on the bottom paper, provided the light's right. The way the wind had blown them, the numerous papers were arranged so that the lines and curves on them almost formed a symbol. I adjusted them a bit until they resembled a somewhat crude drawing of the graffiti A symbol I had snapped a photo of before. Now I knew it wasn't a coincidence.
Keursio looked over my shoulder, and took a deep gulp upon seeing the picture.
“Do you recognize this?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “From when I was in hell.”
“What is it” I asked, nervously.
“The symbol of Azail the Enabler,” she said weakly. “One of the ten Daemon Lords.”
The words of HELLFIRE and Myrir came back to me.
“Go to hell. Maybe they'd have an answer there.”
“Demonology. Look into it.”
It was then that I realized exactly how fucked I was. I wasn't about to jump to conclusions without more facts, but if my suspicions are right, then Drake Thorne and that kid's mother weren't kidnapped by Fears, or even servants.
They were in the hands of a motherfucking Daemon.

-Tony Helioson, signing out