It sounded like someone was being actively strangled directly behind him. There wasn’t much space between his back and the wall anyway, so whatever was making these noises had to be extremely close–Far too close for comfort.

  The night watcher had learned his lesson already, however. These creatures could not actually be ignored. Whenever they acted, they seemed to inflict some sort of ailment upon him. The little demon had left him feeling deeply and abnormally unsettled until she disappeared, and her departing giggle had somehow been distracting enough to completely forget about what was on the screen.

  Right now, he was in a staring contest with the possessed automaton, who was now wielding a Hog Splitter. The man knew that he would have to look away eventually. The strangling noises were getting closer and louder by the second, feeding into a paranoia he could not tell whether it was genuine or falsified.

  Nonetheless, he had to maintain eye contact with the possessed mascot for as long as possible. He needed to delay its movements, prevent it from reaching his office. He definitely did not want to test what it could do with the oversized cleaver it was currently holding…

  Eventually, though, the paranoia reached critical levels. It felt like his very heart was starting to beat unevenly under the strain… He spun around, swiping with his claws through empty air. There was no sign of anything, and all sounds ceased instantaneously.

  Of course, once he looked back at the screen, the ghost controlling the automaton was gone, instead standing at the entrance of the hallway leading to the children’s area–Thus, also on the right track toward the watcher’s office.

  Most frighteningly, it wasn’t staring at the eye any longer. Instead, it was staring ahead. Toward the guard directly.

  “How does this thing even know where I am in this restaurant?!”

  He clenched his fists, only to begin hearing loud banging against his door. It sounded like someone was actually punching it repeatedly–Alongside this, he began hearing running and scampering all over the place, something was running through the darkness.

  He even heard steps directly above his head, like something had gotten inside the ceiling…

  “Calm down…Calm down… They are just trying to distract you…”

  He calmed his breathing, but it was hard to focus. The banging switched from the door to the long window directly to his left. This time, it felt more like someone was actively slamming their open palm against the glass. He could clearly tell that this wasn’t an auditory hallucination. The window was shaking under every single strike. Something was there. He couldn’t see it, but there was no denying its genuine existence.

  “Damn it… I won’t look away”

  He only saw the anomalies from the corner of his eyes. His attention did not waver from the screen in front of him. Alas, the screen was getting clouded with more and more grey haze–He had noticed that it had been getting worse every time the possessed automaton had moved… Every time it had gotten closer.

  This spectral entity’s mere presence was interfering with the mechanism of the eyes, and the screen, too, it seemed. The beastfolk did not understand how this could be possible, or what ghosts had to do with mechanical creations, but it seemed that this corrupting presence only extended to the grey haze and nothing else. For now, at least…

  The entity was making a beeline for the office. If he couldn’t stop it, then… He would just have to attempt a run for it.

  …He glanced up at the ceiling of the office. Another idea blossomed in his mind. Perhaps this could serve as his emergency exit if needed…

  “This is bad”

  The grey haze was so great that at times, the entire screen would be covered in it. Which naturally led to the possessed automaton moving closer as it happened. It moved far shorter distances than when the man broke the line of sight himself. Regardless, the ghostly creature was getting closer and closer. His surroundings were growing noisier as well. It seemed like the other spectres he had been introduced to were growing more and more active…

  He noticed something lighting up through the window.

  It spooked him, but it was merely the parrot automaton activating and beginning to walk around the children’s area. He kept a close eye on the screen nonetheless–Or at least, he did his best, but suddenly all sounds ceased altogether, and with the faint light the entertainment automaton was emitting, he spotted several silhouettes surrounding it, melding into the costume only to disappear.

  “Oh no…”

  “H-H-HeY KIDS, REA-REA-READY tO HAVE FUUUUUUUUUUN?!”

  The parrot’s voice came out, but it was distorted, like its voice box was malfunctioning.

  The night watcher did not need to think hard or long to figure out what had just happened. The ghosts who had been harassing him had all cooperated to take over the parrot automaton…

  He wondered whether it meant that the other one was also the result of several spectres collaborating, but no… There was something about this one that felt singular, unique. In his eyes, it had to be a singular entity controlling the deactivated mascot.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  It did not matter right now, however. The now possessed parrot machine did not care about being watched. It was making its way toward the office with heavy steps.

  “Screw this shit! I am not paid enough to deal with freaking devils!”

  He spun the screen around as he rose and pushed his desk to the center of the room. He had never made it as one, but he had once attempted to become a warrior, although a buffalofolk, he had not inherited much from the animal he took after, having only horns, ears, and a tail. The strength of the creature was not a part of the particular species of buffalofolk he was a part of.

  Nonetheless, he had trained hard. So, pushing a heavy desk was of no issue to him–All it did was remind him that he shouldn’t skip his daily training so often. He had lost a bit of his hard-earned stamina…

  His goal was simple. He removed the grate, shutting the vent opening leading into his office, and after taking another look at the screen, he lifted himself into the large tunnel of steel.

  There was no way for bulky automatons to be able to easily follow him up there, and certainly not catch up to him… He still remembered the technique to crawl quickly that he had been taught, so he progressed rapidly as he heard the sound of his office door being broken down alongside the shattering of glass…

  ___

  Through the vents, heh?

  I looked at the grate on the ground, and then up. It was the best idea for this man, but what was he hoping for? That I wouldn’t be able to just figure out where he was and block his way out? I suppose he was going to try and hold on until sunrise.

  He would surely be replaced by a day watcher once that happened, which he was probably hoping would scare me and my sisters off–Solid reasoning, he is quite the smart one.

  Anyway… What the hell is this thing?

  There was some sort of… System panel, but attached to a box?

  This is a monitor. Judging by what is written on its side, it seems to be a creation of your brother… It connects to the various eyes and other mechanical systems in the building, from what I can tell… Could you try to restrain your ghostly presence, Big Sis?

  Oh. I didn’t even realise I was doing something. I for sure thought that I was already doing my best to be stealthy.

  You were doing your best, but I believe that there is a unique interaction between you and machines of this particular type. They are affected quite strongly by sheer proximity to you…

  As I figured out how to restrain this ghostly presence of mine, the ‘monitor’ thingy, or rather, its ‘screen’ as Nara called it, stopped being completely covered in grey haze, and instead displayed the sight of one of the eyes.

  Mmh… That is indeed quite impressive… Leton did something like this with just some steel, wires, and lightning? It’s honestly a bit hard to believe… I mean, am I supposed to really assume that this thing isn’t enchanted, or had a bunch of runes carved into it somewhere? I would at least presume that the eyes and monitor were linked through energy crystals–But no. It was all a mechanical wonder.

  A wonder, apparently, only my brother was capable of making… It makes perfect sense. His name is Nebulo, after all. It’s in the blood to be better than others.

  Under the instructions of Nara, I began messing around with the machine whose name I was almost always pronouncing as minotaur instead of monitor.

  Mmh… This is rather advanced stuff, isn’t it?

  I checked the Camera System, or CS, finding out that there were eyes in the vents for some reason. I saw my good friend, the watcher, crawling around up there. At the moment, he was taking a break and probably trying to listen for any sounds that might indicate that he was being followed.

  He didn’t notice the eye activating.

  There was also the VS, and even the LS, to be found by digging around… Mmh… Why does Leton call things systems? Even if not incorrect, it is a bit odd to call things that when there is THE system around…

  Anyway… It is just as you said, Nara. The Vent System can do a whole bunch of things. This is probably why they are so big…

  …Do try to activate the regular ventilation, I believe it will yield a good resu-

  I pressed the button before Nara could even finish speaking, and the result was… Pretty much immediately, items I did not quite recognise descended from the top of the vents, and began spinning at mad speeds–The result was for blood and entrails to be spread all over the place as one of those spinning assortments of blades descended right onto the night watcher.

  He was torn apart in the blink of an eye.

  Even I was taken aback by how sudden this had been. Also, the blade that completely decimated him was completely fine. It retracted itself back up without the slightest sign of having been damaged in the ordeal.

  …That was pretty fun! Nice call, Nara.

  I guess I’ll go back to where this costume is supposed to be for now…

  My attention was turned to the parrot automaton, which was currently being used as a vessel by all six of my adorable little ghosts.

  “A–Are you girls go–going to stay in there?”

  The answer seemed to be no, as they soon returned it to its original spot and left its steel body.

  “I just… Wanted to… Try something new”

  Poppy had been controlling the head of the automaton, which made sense. She was actually the only one out of the bunch who could possess anything. The others had just been giving her a hand to operate the full body of the parrot.

  On their own, the other five couldn’t do something like this at all.

  Which made sense, Poppy was the one with the most skill in the basic ghost activities. Her sisters were more specialised in certain, specific areas.

  I recalled them back and lay back in a corner of the backroom.

  With the mess that had been left, and the vent’s grate having been removed. It did not take the day watcher long to find out what had happened to his colleague in the morning… His scream of terror was music to my ears, and so was the gross sound of him puking down in disgust at the sight of the other man’s swift, but brutal fate.

  Though… There was something else that happened as a result of what I had done.

  Progress had been made toward unlocking–Yet another–New form. Which was nice, I suppose… But when it came to forms, it felt like I was starting countless projects, and then doing nothing with them. I was just looking at names and daydreaming about what they could be about, without actually progressing toward unlocking any of them, for the most part.

  This new one, though… It seemed very interesting, lacking the usual ‘form’ suffix in its name.

  Ghost In The Machine