Episode 20 - The Eyes Above
The celebration wound down like a slow reel.
The projector whirred to a stop. The record hissed in the run-out groove. Bernard had gently drifted into the ceiling. Charles had curled up in a chair with a faded blueprint over his face.
Miss LaDonna tucked a blanket over Olivia’s lap without a word.
It was peace.
And then the room… shifted.
Not in the walls. Not in the temperature.
In the feeling.
The sense that someone was watching.
Not from the doorway. Not from the cameras. From above.
The lights flickered once.
And on the projector screen—where nothing had been playing—an image crackled into view.
Not a film.
Not footage.
A still.
A table. Empty chairs. Thirteen of them.
A circle. Shadows in each seat. And at the center, a blank spot where someone—or something—was missing.
The image lingered only a few seconds.
Then vanished.
The lights steadied.
The jazz returned.
Olivia’s tea was still warm in her hands.
She looked to Miss LaDonna.
LaDonna didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink.
Just said, “They’re watching. As they always do.”
Charles, still half-dozing, muttered, “Bit rude, interrupting a party.”
Bernard’s voice drifted down from the ceiling like rain. “They’re curious. You’re getting close to the part they don’t control.”
Olivia stared at the now-blank screen.
“They’re real?” she asked.
LaDonna nodded.
“They’re… here?”
Another nod.
“…What are they?”
Charles sat up, eyes a little clearer now.
“The Founders,” he said, “were here when the building was bones. Before there was even broadcast. They don’t run the station.”
“But they remember it,” Bernard added softly. “And remembering is power.”
LaDonna’s voice was quieter than usual.
“They see through every screen. Every reflection. Every silence too long to be an accident.”
Olivia swallowed.
“And what do they want?”
Nobody answered.
Not right away.
Then Bernard said:
“They want the story to continue.”
On the table, the icing on the cake had subtly changed.
It no longer said You Didn’t Die! It now read:
“Keep Going.”